Disclaimer: I do not own any characters relating to either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate SG-1. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only and does not provide any financial compensation.
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Return To Normal
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Chapter Twenty
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Noticing the way the Colonel was watching Buffy, Faith slinked up to him, meeting his questioning glance with an angry glare. "Yo, Grandpa! Isn't she a bit young for you?"
She was trying to pick a fight, and O'Neill had a pretty good idea as to why. "Are you jealous of your alternate self, Faith? Wishing it was you she went to when she needed some TLC?"
From the painful wince she couldn't hold back, O'Neill knew he'd struck a bulls-eye. But he wasn't interested in scoring points. "As for me, well, aside from the fact that she's too young, and too immature, and too bratty… and too opinionated… and too aggravating…feel free to add your own 'etcetera' here… there is the minor matter of no sparkage. I like the kid, I really do… and I'm not so deep in my dotage that I don't recognize she is a real hottie. But it wouldn't take her long to drive me up the friggin' wall with all those other issues."
Meeting his eyes, far calmer now that she understood he wasn't a rival, Faith subtly pointed her chin towards Carter. "Unlike, say, Major Genius there?"
O'Neill audibly sighed, without looking away from the young woman in front of him. "I think that ship has pretty much sailed."
Her sensuous mouth twisted in a kind of self-deprecating sneer, Faith looked over at Buffy, not even trying to hide the pain in her eyes. "Some ships never really sail, Admiral. They weigh anchor and leave shore, but never really reach the open sea. They sit there, taunting you, just out of reach but always visible out of the corner of your eye, reminding you of failed dreams. You can pretend they've headed off into the sunset --you might even convince yourself sometimes-- but one day reality punches you in the face so hard it's like the bitch-slap from Hell.
"I know her and me are not meant to be –the fact that we both enjoy the occasional joust with about six inches of pink steel was my first hint—but it doesn't change the fact that she's the only person I've ever really… cared about... in my whole life. It doesn't matter that we're completely wrong for each other. She isn't even my type! First of all, I normally prefer men –I'm not 'gay,' I'm hetero-flexible!—and try to pick guys who 'know the score' at that. Naïve little virginal princesses normally just piss me off. The last thing I want is some angst-filled hormonal idiot falling in 'love' with me." She tried to sneer the word, but it came out more of a sigh, as she was still looking over at Buffy.
"Naturally, I would have to fall for her. Kinda ironic, actually, in an Alanis Morissette-y kind of angst-filled, 'this really sux' way. We don't have a helluva lot in common except for the fact that we're both slayers. There are lots of slayers now, yet I don't want to jump their bones. B is just different. Don't ask me how, and I can't explain why; but she's not like other girls. She tries to be. She pretends to be. But if you have ever seen her in action you'll know what I mean. She's got that 'something extra' that makes her… I dunno, special. Just a bit better than the rest of us at taking out the Big Bads. Hidden behind that brainless cheerleader front is a fucking gunslinger with the drive of a Spanish conquistador. Truth is, whatever it is, it's something I'm not even sure if I want to have. I'm not sure if I ever could be –or ever want to be-- as cold or calculating as she can be."
When he raised an eyebrow at that observation, Faith sighed in frustration. "Because she's so emotional, and wears her heart on her sleeve, most people don't think she's capable of analyzing a problem, you know, logically. I figure it's one of her 'dumb blonde' affectations, because it's pure-D refried bullshit. Now me, I'm really controlled by emotional impulses! B; not so much. She really is as emotional as she pretends to be, but that doesn't prevent her from being able to stop and think things through before acting. She's learned discipline, and how to use her emotions instead of being used by them. More importantly, she'll usually listen to good advice before acting on impulse. Me, and most of the others here, just point us in the right direction and tell us who to kill. B likes to know what will happen next before she actually pulls the trigger."
Cocking his head a bit, O'Neill tried to see where she was going with this. He'd seen Buffy's fight against the Rock Beast after the fact, and had been amazed at her determination and mental toughness. He hadn't expected someone like Faith would have noticed it as well. "That doesn't make sense. Are you saying she's too cold to be a good slayer… or too sensitive?"
Faith almost choked on his misunderstanding. "It's the combination that makes her a great slayer, Old Man! The Slayer! Yo, dude, most of us get so caught up in the hunt we wouldn't want to stop to think things through even if we had the brains to do it! Don't try to tell me you haven't noticed how many of the slayers here pretty much suck at anything more complicated than beating our opponents into submission. I'll bet you've seen the same thing in the Marines… kids real good at blowing shit up or whatever, but useless as tits on a bull when they need to adapt to changing circumstances."
His expression abruptly went blank as O'Neill suddenly realized that Faith was far more perceptive than he had initially believed. Smirking at his re-evaluation, she amused herself by twisting the knife a little. "What, you thought I wouldn't notice? C'mon, dude; it sticks out like Ron Jeremy with his fly undone." She nodded over towards where Buffy was holding court, surrounded by awed mini-slayers, blithely unaware that only a few hours earlier they had resented her as an interloper. After failing to win over the Potentials by trying to be something she wasn't, she had effortlessly gained center stage by not trying to act like she thought a 'leader' should act, and instead just by being herself. "You'd never realize it just looking at her, but she can be colder and more ruthless than anyone in this room. I shit you not! I still can't believe she skewered Anya! That was harsh! But it wasn't done out of rage or spite or my own personal excuse, a sense of 'what the fuck, let's see what this bitch can do.' I actually would have liked to have tried that one myself! And I kinda liked Anya! Even with one arm I can take anyone in this room… except B. We threw down once in the most bitchin', intense, knock-down-drag-out fight I've ever been in. I was at the absolute top of my game, I was pissed off and not holding back a damned thing… and she still kicked my ass! That fight we mentioned the last time we met? Yeah, the one with the knife. She got me real good. Put me in a coma, in fact."
Smirking at the way the older man's eyes widened in surprise at the pride in her tone, Faith looked over at Buffy. "You're kinda the same way. A whole lot spookier than you try to appear. But it's pretty obvious you're more than just the brain-dead military moron you appear to be. Even on first viewing I know you'd walk into Hell itself for your friends. Neither one of you have that core of darkness, the rage that drives someone like me… or someone like Willow, for that matter. But what you and B have is a lot scarier. Instead of a 'core of darkness,' you've got a 'core of steel!' Both of you will coldly and logically do whatever the fuck you feel you have to do in order to win. Which unfortunately means that if the only way to win is to sacrifice those friends you'd go to Hell to save, then that is exactly what you will do. Which is kind of pertinent to our present situation, given how pissed-off Xander looked earlier. Only one thing about Buffy ever pissed-off the Xan-Man, and I'll give you three guesses as to what that might be… and the first two don't count. So even if that clue-bat wasn't enough to make me see the light, I keep thinking of the way she fought the Torak-han champion, getting the shit kicked out of her time after time, until she figured out how to fight it so she could put on a show that stopped the Potentials from panicking.
"Not too fuckin' smart… but it worked.
"So now I'm looking at all these here plans for attacking the First's lair, and how detailed and precise they are… and how there ain't no way in hell B came up with this shit. But that's alright, because it sure as hell is gonna keep everyone occupied… while B does whatever the fuck it is that really needs to be done to beat this bitch." Noting his non-expression, Faith gave O'Neill another smirk. "Don't worry, none of them will realize it. Not even Dawn, and she's probably as smart as your sweetie. They just don't have the experience to realize what's really going down. But I do. And so do you. I'm thinking you know more about it than anyone but B. So you might not know exactly how she intends to beat this thing, but you do know how much of a song and dance the rest of this bullshit really is.
"Which brings me to the point I wanted to make. Which is, you assholes have been knocking B around even worse than that Torak-han jerkoff did, and so far as I can see she's pretty much let you get away with it. But just like the Torak-han, she ain't gonna let you keep getting away with it. She's got something in mind, I guarantee you. And I suspect you know it. And this Hammond dude doesn't sound like a complete retard either, so he probably figured it out too. And being military types, you probably came up with some contingency plan just in case she does something completely crazy. So then I'm thinking, maybe you're actually under orders to stop her if things don't go according to plan. Which would be a real fucking problem, because knowing B there ain't no way in hell this will ever go down the way you're expecting. Now I seriously doubt if you have the slightest clue how she really intends to bring down the First, but there ain't no fucking way she's gonna let it walk away after it pulled all this crap the way this bullshit plan calls for. So I just want it out there; I know whose back I will be covering. I'm not real big on thinking things through, or considering the long-term implications of my actions. It's real simple: anyone tries to fuck with B, I kill 'em deader'n hell. No debate, no discussion, no hesitation."
O'Neill met her glare with one of his own. Slayer or not, he didn't like to be threatened. And no one-armed slayer was going to intimidate him. "I'm on her side, Faith. I'm here to help…"
Snorting in contempt, Faith didn't back down either, knowing the soldier only saw the missing arm, and had no clue what she could do with the other one. "You're in the Army. You'll do whatever the fuck you're told, whether you like it or not. You might be on her side, but those giving you your orders sure as hell aren't. Be a real bad idea to interfere in whatever plan B is working on for the Powers That Be, Corporal. Even if you're dumb enough not to be scared of me, you should be fucking terrified of them! If you think you're big enough to butt your nose into their business, then you'd better be big enough to save yourself when they vaporize your planet and exterminate every single member of your entire species for getting in their goddamned way! I shit you not. Illyria has been telling us about the other times the First and the Key almost came to blows. To keep it from happening they made big chunks of the galaxy became uninhabitable… and uninhabited. These people play for keeps. You deal yourself in, you'd best be prepared for the consequences."
Muttering a frustrated "It's the Air Force, moron…" almost under his breath, O'Neill was mostly concentrating on her second-hand threat. Sif had given equally broad hints that these 'PtB' creatures weren't screwing around, and interfering with their little contest might be a Very Bad Idea. There was considerable doubt that Buffy intended to live up to her 'compromise' with the President. A lot of powerful people, both military and civilian, were of the opinion that since this particular matter had been building for billions of years, there was no reason to bring it to a head right now. At worst, delaying it would only make it someone else's problem. To accomplish that –and to negate anything Buffy might do despite her promises-- all they had to do was release the Key back into its natural state and force the First to seek a new confrontation at some nebulous future time. If the Key was pretending to be a person, if would be easy enough to shoot that person, and problem solved. If they couldn't figure out which person, shoot them all, with the same result. Killing a few people to save billions seemed a pretty fair trade.
The result wouldn't be quite so 'fair' if those beings manipulating the confrontation were so angered by it they annihilated everyone who interfered with their plans. Returning his attention to the glowering slayer, O'Neill tried to pump her for additional information. "What makes you think she's 'playing us?' I did have some small degree of input into her planning, and there isn't a lot of wiggle room in there for her to 'play' us, if you mean changing something so radically it upsets the entire equation."
The slayer snorted. He tried not to find it attractive, but there was such an overwhelming aura of sensuality to Faith than even her expressions of contempt were sexy. "Of course she's gonna 'change the equation,' you pinhead! She always changes the fucking equation! That bitch murdered Giles and you think she's just gonna let it walk?! If you think that will happen, then you don't know Buffy at all. I knew what was happening the minute you showed up with Captain Cardboard." Gesturing over towards the corner, she glared over to where Captain Finn and his team were talking quietly, observing the room, creeped out to meet their alternate selves. O'Neill noted the jealous contempt in her expression. "I can tell you exactly what happened. You freaked out when B told you that her and my counterpart on your world did the nasty, so to placate your homophobic bosses she tossed you the Farm Boy. She didn't tell you that he was just Rebound Guy while she tried to get over Angel… or that he hadn't been up to the job… although I don't think there is a woman alive who wouldn't have realized that the moment they met him. But they probably assumed his mere possession of a penis would be sufficient to save her from my dyke-ish clutches."
Despite his best efforts to conceal his embarrassment at the accuracy of her assessment, Faith could see the truth in his face, and snorted in contempt. "You're in for a real rude awakening when Spike shows up! Yeah, he's a vampire; but his abs are chiseled from freakin' granite! Even your scientist honey is gonna wet her panties when she sees him. Plus, he's got the whole 'bad boy' thing down to an art. I'm sure B encouraged your delusion that Farm Boy would be able to manipulate her with sex, but it ain't gonna happen. I took him for a test ride while I was inhabiting Buffy's body –long story—and I can unconditionally guaran-fucking-tee you that he sure as hell ain't gonna make her forget Spike! He-Man soldier-boy or not; he's still a wimp, and Buffy likes her boys just a little bit 'bad.' Spike pretty much defines 'bad.' They hung him for it."
O'Neill glared back at her, trying to intimidate her by going for what he saw as her weak point; her intelligence. "I think you mean they 'hanged' him for it."
She smirked lasciviously. "Nope. Nothing makes a Bad Boy 'badder' than being hung like a mule. And Spike is a bad, bad boy… if you catch my drift."
O'Neill winced. Waaaay too much information. But her main point was probably accurate: Buffy had tossed Finn their way as a distraction. And it had worked! He had been caught by surprise when she capitulated to the Presidents' demands, and had quietly pondered the fact that her modified plan was so close to the one he and Hammond had worked out between them. He didn't see how she could 'radically change' that plan at this late date… but he hadn't suspected that Finn had just been a diversion either. Needing more information, he returned his attention to Faith, and desperately tried to keep his eyes from straying to her impressive –and prominently displayed--cleavage. "Buffy also said that you slept with pretty much all of her ex's. I'll take it as a given that includes this 'Spike' creature. If he's with you she will consider him to be off the market and she'll look elsewhere. It doesn't look like Riley has much competition around here."
Sighing a bit wistfully, Faith looked over at Buffy. "Spike is hardly 'off the market.' We get it on every so often, but we're hardly 'lovers.' More like 'friends with benefits,' and more 'friends' than 'benefits' these days. Kinda hard to be anything else, when we both love someone else." That they both loved the same 'someone else' was left unsaid. "Spike likes a girl strong enough to slap him around a bit. He would sooooo do Illyria, if she had even the slightest interest in sex. But she doesn't. Which means he's pretty much stuck with me or B. The minute he sees her, he'll forget I'm even alive." Turning to face him, she gave him a wry smile. "That sounded pretty pathetic… but you'll notice that since she showed up I'm not exactly pining away for him either. That's just the way things are."
It was none of O'Neill's business, but he wanted to know, so asked since at that moment she had the privacy to tell him to go to hell if she wanted. "If you feel that way, why did you try to kill her?"
Faith was much better at hiding her emotions than Buffy was, and when her face went blank he couldn't tell what she was thinking until long seconds passed, but to his surprise she actually answered the question. "I was jealous and bitter and destined to die young, so figured I'd take 'the good one' down with me. That would show them. I'd made a mistake, but figured I should get a pass because overall I did more good than bad. When they wouldn't let me shrug it off, I blamed her for making a Federal case out of it. Since they were treating me like the bad guy I figured I may as well act the part."
After pausing, she continued, obviously choosing her words carefully. "I don't really know what I was thinking. Or even if I was thinking at all, or just reacting in survival mode. I made choices that seem pretty stupid --were pretty fucking stupid!-- but I expected to die and nobody really liked me and I had nothing and it just didn't seem to matter. When I didn't actually die I had to either finish the job myself, or take a long hard look at what I'd become. I went to prison because Buffy demanded it. No other reason, really. I could have escaped any time I wanted, but it actually helped me. I figured society had a punishment for what I'd done, so once I'd served my sentence I'd find absolution." After a short, bitter laugh, she continued. "Turns out it doesn't quite work that way. You either come out not giving a shit, maybe even blaming the victim, or still feeling guilty as hell, and knowing you're not going to stop feeling guilty so long as the guy you killed remains dead." Once again she paused, collecting her thoughts, looking right through him.
"Angel helped a lot. He knew what I was going through. Had gone through it himself. Brooded a long time, but reached a few conclusions along the way. He'd tell me that I will never achieve redemption, but 'redemption' isn't the point of the exercise. It's the attempt that counts. It's the path you walk, not a goal you reach. I can't undo the things I've done, but I can try to make up for it out of respect for the people I hurt. I'm not like B: I'm no hero! The reason I'm here is because it's the only way I can give something back to a world where I took away people who were far better than I was or will ever be. Even if she never forgives me, I have to do it for them."
It wasn't an explanation O'Neill had expected, and he quickly reassessed his apparently gravely mistaken first impressions of the girl. Although 'girl' was not quite accurate. Given how fast time passed on this world, she was now considerably older than Buffy, well into her late-twenties. He had mistaken her bravado for 'teenage rebellion,' not understanding the deep anguish underlying her behavior. At that instant he felt a deep kinship for Faith, an understanding he had never shared with Buffy or even any of the people on his team. They were all real heroes, fighting the good fight to protect the weak and defend the world from the invading alien hordes. Faith was different. Her motivations were different. And very much like his own. Without intending to, without even conscious thought, he found himself blurting out something he tried not to speak of to anyone. "My son shot himself."
When her brown eyes snapped up to look into his, shock obvious, O'Neill found himself unable to hold back the rest, blurting it out despite his every effort to stay silent. "With my gun. He was only twelve years old! I'd always been so careful with it, but I was tired, or I forgot, or I was just plain stupid; and he found it. He was just so damned young! I still think about him every day. That old expression 'time heals all wounds?' It's not true. Some wounds never heal. Maybe they never should. Maybe some mistakes shouldn't be forgiven. Everyone else has moved on, and mostly I pretend I have too just to make them feel better. But I fucked up real bad, and I don't want to forget it."
That was enough. His voice was choked, and he couldn't believe he had just blurted it out like that to a virtual stranger. But a stranger, he suddenly realized, who understood. Understood in ways that Carter or Buffy or Teal'c never would. For the first time, he wondered if he might have made a mistake in his assessment of this 'Angel' creature. He'd read the report on Angelus, and figured his crimes were so horrific as to be unforgivable. But was anyone ever truly beyond redemption? This was a matter of some concern to O'Neill, since he had failed in the most important task given to a man: he hadn't been able to protect his son. It sounded like Angel had understood not only his culpability, but his responsibility for atonement. Absolution was a path, not a destination. A path he had walked one day at a time. Just like Faith. And just like O'Neill himself.
They shared a look of sudden and complete understanding. The sheer unexpectedness of it left them both confused, and there was a short silence as they both wondered what to say. Strangely it wasn't uncomfortable. There was no attraction, and both realized there never would be between them. They were beyond that. Without ever looking for it, they'd found an actual friend, someone who truly understood the other the way not even their closest loved ones did. Both of them realized it, and both saw no reason to discuss it further. It simply was. Embarrassed by an emotional connection she had only shared with one other person, Faith struggled to quickly change the subject. "Anyway, enough about my retarded history. I actually did want to talk to you about something besides your imminent –and extremely painful-- demise if you try to stop B. I've been thinking about your situation with the Replicators during my spare time, and figure I know how to beat them."
The swift change in topic caught O'Neill by surprise. He was just as flustered by the sudden connection as she was, but he was always open to suggestions on how to handle the Replicators. Humans were better at 'thinking outside the box' than the Asgard, which was why Thor came to them for ideas. O'Neill doubted that there were many humans capable of thinking more 'outside the box' than Faith. He doubted that she even knew what 'the box' meant. "Oh?"
"'Fundamental assumptions,' Jack. If your tactics aren't working, it's probably because you have miscalculated your fundamental assumptions. It took me about five seconds to see where you screwed up. You even met that chick who invented the Replicators, and still didn't figure it out! No real surprise. Bunch'a anal-retentive military morons will never look outside of their own narrow field of vision."
Now he was getting a bit nervous. She looked too happy, and he had already figured out that a gleeful Faith was the most dangerous Faith. "Oh?" His verbal skills were also being affected, it appeared.
"Yup. You saw a hot young black chick who was all alone and figure she whipped up these toys for companionship. Riiiight. Because the first thing a hot young black chick wants when she's all alone is the companionship of metal insects. She creates a vibrating metal chip which can combine into any conceivable form and she's gonna use it to make metal fucking insects!? Are you dense?! You have obviously never shared a jail cell with a hot young black chick."
O'Neill was looking really nervous as he finally saw where she was heading. He tried to interject, but she refused to be distracted. "I have. Hot young black chicks separated from hot young black dudes are not interested in metal insects for 'companionship.' They have other uses for 'vibrating metal devices.' Home-girl was developing the universe's most advanced, adaptable Sybian, and you pinheads thought it was R2-fucking-D2."
Frantically looking around for someone to rescue him, O'Neill didn't really want to hear any more, but Faith had him in her sights and wasn't letting him off easy. "So the hot young black chick falls into a coma or whatever, and these Replicator things are on their own for who knows how long, unable to fulfill the reason for their existence. Then, finally, you guys show up. The first woman they see in ages, and what does Carter do? She shoots them! No wonder they're all pissed off! An entire race of fucking vibrators, just waiting to fulfill their destiny, and the first chick they see in centuries cuts them off with a fucking Uzi! So now they're not just pissed; they're horny and pissed and… wait a minute! Where you going!"
O'Neill had been trying to escape when Faith grabbed his arm, glaring at him, daring him to find even a single error in her logic. Suicide, or perhaps chewing off his arm to escape was looking like a viable solution to his dilemma when salvation unexpectedly arrived, as Buffy suddenly showed up and gently grasped Faith's arm. Instantly releasing the Colonel, Faith turned to face Buffy, who was smiling at her, amused by what she had just overheard. "You've got to admit, none of your planners ever came up with that theory, right Jack?"
Too relieved by his escape to notice the amusement in her voice, O'Neill answered as if the question had been meant seriously. "No, I'm pretty sure no one else came up with that one."
Looking proud of herself, Faith managed to tear her eyes from Buffy long enough to excitedly proclaim that she wasn't finished. "I got this theory about the Ori, too. Wanna hear it?!"
Face expressionless, O'Neill just stared at her. "No! No I would not."
Faith was a bit indignant that he seemed not to appreciate her genius. "Hey! I'm not the one who named an entire class of Ori battleships the 'Commode' class!"
This time it was O'Neill's turn to blush, especially with Buffy looking on, silently laughing at him. "Well, they look… hell, I never thought they'd agree to the name…"
Pouting far more sensually than Buffy did when she didn't get to demonstrate her cleverness, Faith looked down at the smaller girl, received some kind of silent signal, and glared at O'Neill. "I'm gonna tell Teal'c. I'm sure he'll find it brilliant."
For a few seconds they both watched her tight ass as she slinked away from them, until, without looking away, O'Neill came to a decision. "She said she'd kill me if I tried to shoot the Key before you use it to fight the First."
Simply nodding, Buffy patted his arm comfortingly. "Yeah, I heard. Okay, so I was eavesdropping! I heard about your son, but never knew the full story. I'm really sorry, Jack. And I will never mention it again. But I am surprised she figured out the minor missing piece of my fabulous plan. She's really starting to get good at this! But she didn't need to threaten you. You wouldn't have done it anyway. You're a soldier, and despite their uniforms, the people who gave you those orders were not. You're not going to follow idiotic orders from a REMF –I just looove that acronym!-- when the chain of Command here goes through me. If you didn't like something, you'd tell me so to my face. Besides, the spell making everyone forget is there to protect the Key. The more you know about it, the stronger it will fight back. You figure out who it is, and try to kill said individual-and-or-thing, you will soon not remember your name, or how to chew solid food, or pretty much anything else. The Key can protect itself, so I didn't worry too much about it. I'm not so sure if the other SGC people coming through are smart enough to figure that out, but you'll notice how the assignments are divided up. They won't have the time, resources, or manpower to overcome the slayers protecting the Key, and by the time the slayers are neutralized the Key will be gone and it will be too late for them to act."
Once again, she had surprised him. Turning to face the tiny, unexpectedly competent Slayer, O'Neill figured he may as well put all his cards on the table, seeing as how he'd apparently already made a decision without really knowing how he'd arrived at it. "So you knew about my orders. Or guessed, and planned for it."
Giving him a casual shrug, Buffy looked around the room, at all the young slayers nervously talking amongst themselves, and occasionally with some of the SGC troops. "And I'm thinking that if you're wondering if I was able to plan far enough ahead to protect the Key from potential assassins, did I also plan a fall-back option after my oh-so-dramatic and unexpected capitulation to the President's demands?" When he simply nodded, she continued. "All I will say is that if your people do what the President said they would do, there is a remote possibility they can do what they've been ordered to do. On the other hand, if they don't do precisely what they were told to do –if, say, someone by the name of 'Kinsey' has modified their orders—then the President's plan is screwed. I promised I would give it a shot, but the minute his plan goes off-track, the gloves come off, and I immediately proceed with Plan C."
Feeling his stomach drop, O'Neill nervously cleared his throat. "I don't recall any 'Plan C."
"And you never will, if your people keep their part of the bargain. They do something moronic, and we do things my way."
He considered his options for a second, before deciding that she would play fair. In truth, he had a real problem with his orders forbidding SG-1 from leading the assault on the First. The guys who would be leading it were good people… but they weren't his people, which by definition made them second best. And Carter would be with them. They needed her technical expertise to close the portal, but given that the locals had their own translator, the Pentagon had insisted that Daniel go with the rest of SG-1 to locate and retrieve the supernatural tomes they intended to use to defend the planet against future mystical threats. Jack didn't have the slightest doubt as to who had been behind splitting up his team, and he didn't trust Kinsey any more than Buffy did. But he also needed to know just how much she knew, and how far her plans had gone. The last thing he needed way to trust his people's lives to someone suicidal. "Daniel figures you have less than a year to live."
Giving him a heartbreakingly tired smile, Buffy gestured towards where Faith had trapped Teal'c and Carter in a corner to awe them with her deductions. "I knew the minute I saw her on your world."
Frowning, O'Neill paused to consider the implications. 'Fundamental assumptions,' Faith had noted. The premises they had used to build their theoretical models. None of them had even considered the possibility that Buffy might have realized the implications of Faith's relative youth. After all, if she had, there was no way she would have inadvertently blurted out the truth of their relationship to this world's Faith where the SGC people could overhear it, and report it. O'Neill's eyes narrowed as he considered that thought. Had the comment really been 'inadvertent?' Given the consequences to her reputation, everyone had taken for granted it wasn't done deliberately. But Buffy was a hero, with all of the attendant masochism involved in being one. She wouldn't be overly concerned about how the information would affect her, only how it would affect Faith. And how had it affected Faith? It had put her at the center of a political firestorm. It had forced the authorities to take her out of Denver and put her up in detention in Boston, where she was surrounded by armed guards and a hundred lawyers were clamoring to be on her case. She was under a media spotlight which prevented the government from touching her.
Only a few days later, the SGC had learned that Faith would be the next girl Called. Had there been no media circus, State Security would have quietly taken her away to be 'reeducated' into being whatever they wanted her to be.
Buffy had planned it all out from the start. And they'd never even realized it.
Had the affair itself been part of her plan, or just the catalyst for coming up with a plan? Staring down at the girl, O'Neill refused to ask. He was fairly certain he already knew the answer anyway. She wouldn't use people that way. She'd use the SGC and their resources, but she would never manipulate their emotions to do so. He frowned slightly as he recalled her warning them that she was 'changing,' and hoped like hell she hadn't 'changed' that much. And he recalled Faith's warning, that she could be as cold and calculating as he was. "Why didn't you tell us?"
When she met his eyes this time, she had gained control of her emotions, and didn't even blink. "Because any slayer Called after me needs to know that she can never, ever, trust the government. Any government. They'll lie to them, use them, and in the end betray them."
He winced as her bitter tone. But at least it meant she was planning long-term. "How many other things have you done that we have completely misinterpreted?"
She gave him a thin smile, having a fairly good idea where he was heading. "To make this work I need people who can fight the monsters once the slayers have been deactivated. Your people at the SGC were my first pick, but when it started to look like they wouldn't let you do it I needed a backup option. The only obvious candidates were the Jaffa. After seeing Teal'c in action I knew that somebody really good at unarmed combat had trained him, so when I asked you to get me someone who knew how to fight I was fairly certain you'd bring in someone like Bra'tac. If I could impress him I'd have a backup source of manpower just in case things didn't go so well with you guys."
From the way O'Neill's face went blank Buffy knew the SGC had considered that possibility when they brought in the Jaffa Master, but had dismissed the likelihood of her thinking along those lines. When she met his blank stare with a smug grin he had to ask. "So why didn't you go with them instead of capitulating to the President's demands?"
"Because I'm not Jaffa, I suppose. If I'd been forced to go with them, the Asgard would have probably written off Earth as a useful ally. The First is so dangerous that if I had no other choice I'd have brought them in, but I finally decided that I can work with what I've got here. Plus, there was no way I could have come up with a plan this good without your help. The Jaffa are good soldiers, Jack, but they don't have your gift for tactics. So I suppose it really came down to the fact that I needed you, and you're too patriotic to have helped me if it meant the country you love would have lost its alliance with the Asgard.
"Plus, well, he did have a valid point about the consequences of going with my plan. I'm not so sure people would freak out to the point of nuclear war just because I used the Key to take out the First, but those in power on your world are going to have a conniption when they find out how much the power structure is going to change in the not-too-distant future now that the StarGate has gone public. I don't know how they will react once they do figure it out, but I do know that now isn't the time to find out."
He was silent for a moment, considering. Finally, obviously putting considerable effort into keeping his voice even, he asked if there was anything else.
Before answering, she blessed him with a dazzling smile. "You mean, aside from the fact that the First knows I'm alive, knows we're here, and knows our plans?"
"Jeezus Kee-ryst, Buffy! Why the hell didn't you tell me that before?!"
She just shrugged. "Nothing you could do about it. We either do this or we don't, and we have to do this. The odds right now are the best they are going to get. I don't know how this will play out, Jack. But the visions are reliable. They're also all I've got! I either trust them or I might as well pack it in. I don't know if we can actually defeat the First. But I do know that if we can't do it now, nobody else will ever be able to. The odds are as good as they are ever going to get. All of the Ascended races –all of them!—have arranged for it to be this way. They call it the Great Game, and they have all decided to bring it to a conclusion. Everything has been carefully arranged to level the playing field. Entire armies of Ascended beings are manipulating time and space to ensure that neither side gains an unfair advantage. 'Good' and 'Evil' have decided to play more-or-less fairly. 50/50 odds are the best we will ever get."
He didn't remember much about what they had discussed when coming up with the plan, thanks to the Key making them forget, but O'Neill asked a question he doubted he had asked previously. "Why now? I know why you want to fight now, but why them? The Ascended races? They are pretty much immortal. They've got all the time there is. Why are they bringing this to a head now?"
"Because the Key is waking up." At his look of confusion, Buffy tried to explain without going so far that it would trigger the forgetfulness spell. "For 13 billion years the Key has been in existence, 'alive,' but barely sentient. Recently it has grown more self-aware, and more aware of the external universe beyond it. About eight hundred years ago it managed to communicate with another living being, an empathic monk by the name of Tarnis. He set up something called the Order of Dagon. Their sole function was to protect and attempt to communicate with the Key. Which they managed to do well enough to let the Key know that it was in danger, and should take steps to protect itself. It finally managed to figure this out about four years ago, my time.
"To all intents and purposes, the Key is only twelve years old… well, as measured by the way time passes in this universe. Right now it's still pretty young, but it's growing up fast. It's learning fast. The First needs to attack now, before the Key has the time to understand its own powers. Until now, the Old Ones had to hide it, and the First was always able to eventually figure out where they put it. But now the Key is learning how to hide itself, and the First might not be able to locate it next time. If the First wants to do this, it needs to do it now, before the Key starts making its own decisions. Everyone else wants the Key to fight back now, while they still have some degree of control over it. Nobody wants to take the chance that it won't give a damn about the Great Game once it's powerful enough to tell them to kiss off. They've spent billions of years playing this stupid Game. They want an answer. This is their last chance to get one.
"Also, in this reality magic enables the Key to assume human form, and evolve at human speed. If it is released back into the wild, it will revert to its old, slow form of awareness, but it will keep its human memories and emotions. It might take a billion years for the Key to face the First again, and the human part of it might be pretty pissed about losing all of its friends because some Ascended race screwed up. To placate it, but not unduly irritate the First, those Ascended races are going to make certain everything is done fairly, and that anyone who interferes will be punished with some serious degree of harshness. Because it won't be long before the Key will be in a position to punish those Ascended races who piss it off.
"If the First wins, the rest of us lose. The Key will survive, but will be trapped in its barely-aware state for the next few billion years. Some of the most powerful Ascended races might survive, but existing in a universe they won't be able to understand or control. On the other hand if the Key wins, the universe continues pretty much the way it should. Everything changes except for the Key, because it is not really a part of this universe, but part of the First's universe. So as time passes, galaxies move apart, the stars burn out, space grows cold, and even the Ascended races grow weak. Except for the Key! In 30, 50, maybe 100 billion years from now, the Key will be the only real power source left. The Ascended are thinking real long term. In addition to ending the Great Game, they don't want 'the only power source left' to be irritated with them because they pissed it off a hundred billion years earlier."
O'Neill stared at her, unable to believe what she was saying. "They're worried that it will hold a grudge for a hundred billion years?! Are you kidding me?!"
Buffy simply shrugged. "I would." To the Key, even such an unimaginably huge timeframe would only seem like a few centuries. With time passing ten thousand times slower for the Key than it did for a human, not even the stars were constant. If the Key won, she suspected Dawn would have some influence in its future evolution, and the Key would adapt to the speed of time in this universe. But first, it had to win.
Noting that her remark could be construed as a threat, O'Neill decided to leave it without comment. "So we're back to square one. This isn't about preventing the First from winning; this is about beating it. That's not in the plan. Not the one you agreed to, anyway. We never did come up with something that would work. So how are you gonna beat the First? It's a god, Buffy!"
Her expression was calm, implacable, as she answered. "No, it isn't! And that is how I'm going to win." When he looked confused she explained. "It thinks it knows 'our' plan, but actually it knows 'your' plan. 'We' might not have come up with something, but 'I' sure as hell did. You don't think I'd risk this if I hadn't, do you? What I realized was that it used to be a god. It still thinks it is one. But it became human and has human weaknesses now. All I have to do is find the right one and use it at the right time."
It was a legitimate point, and O'Neill found himself nodding. "Maybe, but first you gotta find that one weakness. You sure sound like you think you did, but I don't recall you mentioning it to me. It's like you two are in a dance, every move choreographed, moving faster and faster, just waiting for the first one to make a mistake. How are you going to ensure that it makes the first mistake?"
Buffy seemed surprised he'd even ask. "I'm going to cheat, of course! Notice I didn't say I was going to 'beat it.' I said I was going to 'win!' There is a difference, and the First doesn't realize that. Gods have real issues with the whole 'psychic' thing. Most of them don't really believe it is even possible to foretell the future. They're like uber-scientists and figure the future can be only be predicted with a 'high degree of accuracy,' but it's impossible to know what will happen. They tend to discount or dismiss psychic visions. Even better, right now the First is a slayer, and probably experiences slayer Dreams. It will know that the outcome of a Dream can be altered by its own actions. I'm betting that even if it does know I'm psychic, it won't put much credence into the accuracy of Elizabeth's psychic visions, and will simply assume that it can counter those visions by the fact that it can see alternate dimensions, including alternate timelines. Its own experience will work against it.
"It doesn't realize that the outcome foreseen by a Slayer Dream can be altered, but Elizabeth's visions are pretty much cast in stone. So it will be working to change what it sees in a Dream, without realizing that I not only have a lot more experience with Slayer Dreams and probably get a lot more information from them that it does, but that Elizabeth's gift is on a whole 'nother level than Slayer Dreams. More importantly, it is reacting to me, attempting to prevent me from doing what I might do, and that is its big mistake. I'm not the one it should be worried about. I've said all along that I can't beat the First. Only the Key can do it. Everything the rest of us are doing is just a distraction. All the Ascended beings doing their thing in a billion alternate universes. You SGC guys, and the slayers. The First's army of slayers and demons. All of it, everything we do, is just a distraction from the real objective.
"It thinks I'm trying to beat it. It's done everything it could to make it personal, to make me hate it, to make me so angry I will do anything to kill it with my bare hands. Slayers tend to do that, you know." She gave him a kind of tired, self-deprecating smile. "I had a kind of epiphany when I was watching 'The Crocodile Hunter' back at the Mountain. After all the lessons you and George and Giles tried to teach me, it was finally Steve Irwin who broke through. He said that every crocodile will react the same way to the same provocation. Once you knew what they will do to specific stimuli, you could predict exactly how every crocodile would react to that same stimulus. That's when I realized that ever since I met the First all those years ago back in Sunnydale, it has been effectively poking me with a big stick, acting all 'The Slayer Hunter,' knowing that if it provoked me a certain way, I would react in a predictable way. So far I've been doing exactly what it expected me to do. But the secret is, I'm not a fucking lizard! I know what it's doing, and I know what it expects. That is not what it is going to get! Not this time. Instead of a futile 'mano-a-girlo' fight to the finish, all I want to do is distract it for three seconds. That's all we'll need for the Key to act. That's what everything we are doing is working towards: buying us three seconds."
Spitting out the final two words with an intense, almost furious whisper, O'Neill knew that was all the information he was going to get. He'd really like to know how anyone could surprise a god, even for three seconds, but knew she wouldn't tell him. Given his suspicions as to how she'd played them all to protect Faith from State Security however, he was willing to bet she could do the same to the First. Mostly because he trusted Thor. The Asgard figured she was the right person for the job, and evidently even more powerful races were betting everything on the fact that if she couldn't do it, nobody else could. The threat of extermination should they interfere didn't really sway him. His concern was simpler: did the job need to be done, and was she the best person to do it? All the experts agreed that it did and she was. The people trying to stop her were mostly assholes.
And the Key was only twelve years old, the same age Charlie had been when he… Decision made, O'Neill wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Three seconds. We can do that. Bitch will never see it coming."
Her smile of gratitude was worth more than any Presidential citation.
----
Several hundred miles away, in a protected room deep within its heavily-defended mansion, the First smiled. Its host body had aged gracefully, and although that body was now more than 30 years old it was still as beautiful and supple as one ten years younger. At least it would have been, were it not for that smile. There was something cold, something inherently sadistic in both the smile and the expression on her otherwise beautiful face. Ever since the death of its most potent Worshippers, the First had become less stable, quick to anger and barely able to restrain its rage when anything didn't go its way. The loss had been partially offset by its increase in temporal power. As Slayers Inc. effectively took control of security operations for much of the planet, ever more people owed obeisance to the First, if only on a subconscious level. That respect helped, as did the fear and intimidation, but couldn't come close to making up for the intensity of the devotion provided by its lost worshippers.
Still, it took good care of that body, especially since sex was the only form of true 'worship' left after the destruction of the Retreat. In its original form it had never experienced the euphoria of mammalian copulation, so it expended extra effort to indulge itself in maintaining a physical form which attracted partners. Especially now, when sex was the only alternative to the feeling of power it once derived from the veneration of its Worshippers. Many of those partners left with deep reasons to regret seeking such an encounter. The First's tastes in sex were as twisted as its other sociopathic tendencies might suggest they would be. But not even sadomasochistic sex turned on the First as much as did crushing its enemies.
It knew that the original Buffy Summers was still alive. It knew precisely what she intended to do next. It now had a pretty good idea as to how she came to be alive, and when the time came, those who violated her instructions would be severely punished for doing so. But in the meantime it was better to wait, and watch, and know where the danger lie rather than be surprised by something unexpected. So it hadn't exterminated 'Elizabeth' Summers, or her race, or the Asgard, or even the Ancients. Those which survived the upcoming Change would feel her wrath in her own good time. But for years she had pretended not to know what her enemies were doing, had refrained from acting as they gathered their strength and prepared their attack.
It helped that there wasn't much reason for concern. Beating Buffy Summers the first time had been almost ludicrously easy. Doing so again wasn't likely to be much more difficult. Plus, all of her opponents were placing their entire resources at Buffy's disposal, clarifying the situation and making her own defensive posture simpler. Normally the First believed in preemptively destroying its enemies, but in this case there wasn't much reason for concern. She could afford to indulge Buffy, even permit her to win every single battle, just so long as she didn't win the last battle. In fact, it would be rather convenient if Buffy's little group slaughtered the bulk of her forces, as they had become not just redundant, but an actual irritant she would rather not have to deal with. And while they amused themselves slaughtering extraneous life-forms the First neither cared about nor needed, they would be distracted from doing anything actually harmful.
As the portal mechanism neared completion, the First kept a careful eye out for variances in the interdimensional flux which would indicate the creation of a link from another universe. Given that there were far fewer dimensional portals opening than there used to be, even the subtle signals from the non-magical Quantum Mirror were easy to spot through the background clutter. Within minutes of her arrival, the First knew that Buffy had returned. Her sister's organization had been infiltrated by more than a dozen of the First's agents. They didn't need radios or hard-to-conceal equipment to report back. Their Psychic Inhibitor devices were simply --and undetectably-- deactivated. The First had a front-row seat to every meeting, every strategy session the Ronin undertook, and had been monitoring their progress nearly from the point of their inception.
It knew the final assault was imminent. It knew every detail of its enemies' plans. Under other circumstances the First might have enjoyed more of a challenge. Not this time. Not when its moment of destiny was at hand. Not when it was preparing to return the universe to the state it should be in, and wipe from existence this perversion of True Life.
Not when everything it had worked for since the dawn of time was about to come to fruition.
There was, however, one small, almost insignificant concern. Buffy seemed to have unexpectedly sincere confidence in the prophetic accuracy of Elizabeth's 'visions.' The First did not share that confidence. The 'future' was notoriously unstable. The slightest change to the present could have a remarkably profound effect on how events played out in the future. With so many influencing events, it was virtually impossible to accurately predict individual outcomes ahead of time unless impeding events were forbidden. Any alteration in influencing events, and the outcome would change. As a god, the First could travel in time, to a degree, so knew that on a deep, personal level.
Buffy, however, seemed to think differently. And it was true that Elizabeth's predictions had proven to be remarkably accurate. But that was only because nobody knew about those predictions, so hadn't taken active measures to prevent them from coming to pass. Now that the First knew about those visions, it would take extra special care not to do anything which might have the slightest impact on the result Elizabeth foresaw. Not yet, anyway.
Not until the final moment. Not until it was too late, when not even a 'seer' had the time to see what was coming.
Not until the final trap was in place.
Even those who could see the future could be caught by surprise.
With the right bait.