I don't have any of the rights to Buffy or Stargate, don't suppose they'd be willing to give them to me.

Chapter Twenty Five

"So, Matthew, is it a camera?" they heard Giles ask. All they could see was a vastly distorted eye peering down at the camera through a large magnifying glass. Well it was large from their viewpoint.

"Yes, I'm certain of it, I've just never seen one like it before."

"Do you think it's military?" an unknown female voice asked.

"I don't know, Becca, if it is it's one that must be very new, and very top of the line. I've never seen a camera this small. How did you find it, Patty?"

"I just felt something was off when I went into the library." The new slayer, Patty, said. "I just tracked it down by using the old hot or cold principle."

"Giles, I thought we had a agreement with the military, Riley is our liaison, if they needed our assistance they'd ask for it, but otherwise they'd leave us alone."

"We do, the camera doesn't have to be military, it could be any number of groups. Some would love to find out what the slayer was up to, Wolfram and Hart for one." Giles said.

"Angel wouldn't let them do that to us." the voice the Slayers recognised as Becca said.

"He wouldn't have any say in it I'm afraid." Giles replied. "Cleveland is not in his territory. It would be one of the other branches. But it needn't be them at all, it could be the group back in the United Kingdom that is trying to re-establish the Watchers Council. They are still looking for leverage to get the slayer back under their control."

"No way that's happening." Patty said. "After what you told us about the way they used to treat slayers there's no way they're going to control me. If they tried I'd stick a stake in them so deep it'd take a week to get it out before they could sit down again."

Faith turned to the other smiling Slayers, "You know, I'm really beginning to like this girl."

The camera was picked up in a pair of tweezers, and was being turned around so it could be examined more carefully. Seeing this, Xander stood up, saying "Showtime." he left.

Confused, as he regretfully found himself all too often lately, O'Neill turned to Buffy. Taking pity on him she said, "We were ready in case something like this happened, we tried to plan for all contingencies, and with almost two thousand years of planning we probably over prepared. But it did fill in the time. Xanders gone to get ready, if they spot the clue."

Still a bit confused, O'Neill just did what he did when he didn't really understand what Carter or Daniel were talking about. He just nodded.

Xander arrived in the transporter room, Andrew had a lot to answer for, naming it that, he activated the screen, imputing his code, he accessed the camera feed, and waited. Since it was his idea he hoped it would work.

The camera was carefully rotated so that it could be examined fully, then the camera stopped moving, and there was a pause. "Giles, there's a strange marking on the side."

"At last, what is it?" Giles asked.

A bit uncertainly Matthew said, "Well, it looks like some sort of dogs head."

"A dogs head? Let me see." Giles said with great excitement, at least Xander could sense it was great excitement, anyone who didn't know him would probably think he was mildly interested. It was good to see nothing had changed.

"Well, Giles, what is it?" Patty asked.

In a stunned voice Giles replied, "It's Scoobie, it's Scoobie."

Realising what he meant Patty asked the obvious question, "Do you think it's from them?"

"I don't know, if it is, why go to all this fuss, why not just turn up? And the camera, where would they have gotten it? I don't know, I just wi…, sorry almost slipped there."

That was obviously his cue, Xander couldn't resist. He activated the transmission mode on the camera. "That's ok G man, you didn't quite say the 'w' word."

"Thank you Xander, and how many times must I tell you not to call me by that… Xander, is it you? Is it really you?"

"One hundred percent real Xander here." he replied.

"No, you're not here, you're there, why if you are Xander aren't you here?"

"I am Xander, it's just that certain things happened, and I, we, didn't want to trigger the automatic, strange, must be evil, kill, reflex of your new slayer."

"Hey, I'm not that bad." Patty objected.

Xander could just imagine the expression on Giles face when he heard a "Hmmm." coming over the link.

"Well, I admit, there was that time that I almost killed Clem, but that was before I knew who he was…I'm so not helping myself am I?" she admitted.

"I can see your point, Xander. However, you said things happened, that would seem to indicate that visible changes have occurred to you. So how can I know it's really you?" Giles asked. "You know there's only one way."

"You could take my word for it." Xander replied hopefully.

"Sorry, I think we have to use our set plan for identification. You remember, the one we set up after Buffy and Faith swapped bodies."

"Do we really have to?" Xander moaned.

"Stop whining Xander, you know we do. Now what is your favourite song?" Giles asked.

"I'll never live this down." Xander said, and with his unlimited life span he really meant it. But he couldn't avoid it without ruining any chance of an easy contact.

"Before I tell you the song I must first say that this is actually not my favourite song, Willow knows what that is, this is the song Giles chose, one that no one else could possibly guess." Xander said, more for his wives and the other Slayers than those with Giles. I mean he didn't know them, though it would be nice for them not to think of him as a loser from the beginning.

"Okay, my favourite song is 'On the good ship Lollypop'. Xander cringed as he heard the laughter over the camera link, and sniggering from the transporter operator standing behind him. Turning after muting the feed he said, "It's not really my favourite."

"Of course not Councillor." The operator said, and with an admirably straight face.

Xander sighed, he could only imagine what was happening in the conference room, it wouldn't be good, and he was sure he'd get to see the video of it, often.

At least, once the laughter died down, it proved to be worth it. "It is you Xander, I'm so pleased you are back, and the others?"

"Everyone's okay Giles. They're all here with me."

"Well, why don't you come here and join us, we have a lot of catching up to do."

"More than you know Giles, more than you know. No, it's best if you join me."

"Very well, if you believe it is necessary. Where are you and how do we get there?" Giles answered without hesitation.

"There's only the four of you, right?" Xander wanted everything clarified.

"Yes, just the four. Why do you want to know?"

"Just wanted to make sure no one was left behind. Before you see me I'd better tell you why exactly we haven't just come to see you. What happened to us during and after the fall of Sunnydale caused some changes. The obvious one is our eyes are now green, solid green, with no white at all."

"I see, yes I understand why you were reluctant to appear without some preparation. So now what."

"Just stand close together." When the operator nodded that they had followed his instructions Xander said. "Just don't overreact." And nodded to the operator.

"Why would we over rea…" Giles started to say, "ct." he finished as he appeared on board the 'Slayer' "Oh my God."

A/N I do not own the rights to any Star Trek technology, it's all Andrews fault.