Chapter 25 - Dawning Realizations
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.
Ba'al smirked as his lieutenant left after delivering reports of their partial victory on the former Tok'ra homeworld. They had missed the greater portion of the Tok'ra, but had managed to capture their Chappa'ai. Using stolen Ancient technology, Ba'al had actually been able to find the last address it had dialed... but unfortunately for him, this was not the location of the new Tok'ra base, but an address well known to be a thorn in his side already: Earth, the home of the Tau'ri.
Mixed blessing. At least, without their Chappa'ai, the Tok'ra would be in disarray for some time and be unable to effectively rely on their allies the Tau'ri, who had few ships, though they were strong due to the meddling of the Asgard.
But now, he had dealt a blow to the Tok'ra which would affect the Tau'ri as well, he might have an opportunity to move up his timetable against the System Lords before they could recoil.
"What do you think, lover boy, care to go on a rampage of destruction?" Buffy/the First asked.
"I know just who will make the best target... It's time to finish crushing Anubis. If we can capture his advanced technology and add that to the advantage that my Turok'fa warriors give us, we can complete our goal of destroying the Tau'ri and ruling the galaxy."
"That's your goal. My goal is... my goal." Buffy/the First reminded him. "But you're right. Anubis is the next logical step. Make it fast, though. The Slayer and her lackies are getting close to figuring things out and we can't afford that until it's too late for them to affect the outcomes."
Ba'al nodded, almost a bow, to the First, and turned to his chambers to think up a nasty plan for Anubis.
"... and that's how a hyper drive works." Andrew said. "If you wanted, you could even increase..."
"Andrew?" Isabel asked sweetly.
"Yes, your Highness?" Andrew replied, charmed as always by the beautiful girl and imagining himself to be some kind of gallant knight protector.
"Would you mind horribly shutting up?" Isabel asked, with a lot more edge in her tone. Xander shivered, glad she wasn't mad at him that way. It was bad enough being shut up in a van in which you were annoying a dozen teenage girls; it was worse to have Isabel mad at you. Way worse.
"Um... OK," Andrew mumbled, stunned at the sheer malevolence in the pretty girl's voice, and that she'd turned it toward him.
"Thank you so much!" The leader of the ragtag bunch of girls said. "I'm Melody. How did you do that thingy? Was that magic?"
"Um..." Isabel wasn't sure how to explain how she'd stunned the Bringers properly. She didn't know if these girls were quite ready for the alien revelation. She wasn't even entirely sure she understood how she'd done it, or rather, what it was that she'd done. Unlike Turok-Hans, Bringers relied heavily on the normal regions of the human brain. She'd just sort of reached out and... what? Cross-connected synapses? Generated extra electric charge giving them all epileptic seizures? She just remembered the feeling of supreme confidence she'd had with Xander there holding her hand, like she knew nothing could touch her. "... yeah. It was magic. I only know a few 'spells', but they're all really useful."
Melody smiled. "Cool."
Dawn sat in her meditation position. Willow sat across from her, across a single candle infused with horehound and bay leaves to aid concentration, focus, and understanding. Their hands were joined, and their minds were calm. Willow was just along for the ride, intrigued by what Dawn had told her of her past jaunts.
Dawn decided to begin at the magical core of the earth. Together, they followed the thick rope of magic which tied Willow to the center of the earth and through it to all living things. They sunk deep within the earth to the core of fire, reveling in the beauty of its light. Willow gave her the mental equivalent of a smile, and Dawn began to look for the blue strand of energy that would lead them to the sun, and from the sun, off to the other stars.
Dawn had just located the thread she wanted when she felt something that was simultaneously completely alien, like it was... wrong... against the laws of the universe, and comfortingly familiar. It was the peculiar sensation of millions of tiny blue threads being pulled from nearly everything local, weaving together to connect to a point on the earth. She didn't understand what it was, and moved them to investigate. She saw that the blue braid formed a circle... like the cloth covering on an electrical cable almost... curious, she moved closer and Willow followed. As soon as their mental selves touched the terminus of the unnaturally thick blue braid, they were pulled along uncontrollably through the vortex..
Michael and Maria were making out when the call came from the SGC to send up Anise. Michael gave an annoyed sigh: he'd just gotten to second base, and it had better be good. Maria had been really into it this time, and he might have gotten laid. Alien sex was not to be missed... hour-long orgasms were a powerful draw card. But now, he had to answer the call, because Loki and Heimdall were busy with an experiment and couldn't be disturbed.
He put his hand on the control by the wall to activate the voice comm.
"Michael here."
"Hello Michael, this is General Hammond. Anise has finished her business here and is ready to come up for her 'tour' as arranged."
Michael glanced at the clock. It had been two hours already! Maybe next time he should skip all Maria's foreplay crap and just get to the good stuff. "Alright, give me a few minutes to get set up here, and I'll beam her up."
"Thank you, Michael."
"Anybody you want to send, including her, should be in your conference room in ten, er.. make it twenty minutes."
"Excellent. Will do. Thanks, son."
"You're welcome, General," he replied. He looked at Maria. She seemed almost as annoyed as he was at missing out on the sex, and Michael had been getting her good and into it.
He raised an eyebrow. She responded, "We can do it..." to which both of their responses was to rearrange themselves hurriedly under the covers and go to it.
Twenty minutes later, Anise and Major Paul Davis disappeared in a flash of light from the main conference room of the SGC. George Hammond was very happy to have them out of his hair. Well, not out of his hair since he'd devoted a significant portion of his life since he turned thirty to going bald, but... God dammit! These thoughts meant only one thing: he'd been spending too much time hanging around Jack.
Jack was pushed out of his mind though as the base klaxon sounded. He trotted into the control room and immediately inquired of the gate technician what was going on. "Unscheduled offworld activation?"
"No sir. Gate reads normal."
George was confused for a moment, until the phone rang. He picked it up. "Hammond here."
Listening to the voice on the other end was not good news.
"They stole WHAT!?" George listened patiently. "Well, scramble all available F-302's!"
Barnes and Franco sat at the controls of the Tel'tak they had just stolen from the Tau'ri. They pointed it straight away from the atmosphere, trying to get out of the atmosphere to a reasonable hyperspace entry point before the Tau'ri's fighters could be scrambled to follow them.
"I am not sure we will escape." Barnes said.
"I am reading Tau'ri fighters coming up behind us now." Franco warned.
"What is the time to intercept?"
"They will be in firing range of their weapons in twenty-seven seconds at current relative speeds," Franco replied.
"They are much faster than we are."
"Yes. How long till we've cleared the atmosphere to a safe jump point?"
"Approximately twenty-five seconds."
"They will get a shot at us before we can escape."
"Yes." They both thought pensively, flying in a straight line away from Earth's atmosphere and gravity well. Approximately one second before they'd be within firing range of the earth fighters, they turned sharply at an angle forcing the earth fighters to attain a new lock before firing. Only one fighter ended up getting a clear shot, and the impact was absorbed more-or-less harmlessly by the Tel'tak's shields before they shot to hyperspace and disappeared.
Buffy knocked on the door. She didn't want to disturb the two of them, but it was dinnertime, and with so many young potentials in the house, if they weren't there promptly, it would all be eaten before they got there.
"Hey guys? Dinner?"
Nothing answered her but silence. "They must be in a trance or something," she murmured to herself. Opening the door, she saw the two girls laying on the floor, passed out. "You overexerted yourselves? What if the big bad comes calling, Will? You're my big guns, I need you!"
Buffy moved over to grab pillows from Dawn's bed, and moved to her friend and sister to put a pillow under each of their heads. It was then that she noticed something.
They were cold. Not as in freezing, throw a blanket over her cold, but as in, precious little lingering body heat, cold.
She looked at them more closely, and noticed they weren't breathing. Her eyes flared in surprise and worry as she flew to Dawn and desperately checked her pulse.
The worst moment of her life came then, for, after a moment of denial, she finally allowed herself to realize that this wasn't her friend, and her sister lying on the floor. It was their cold, dead bodies.
Author's Note: I know I'm evil. Feel free to tell me so in review form! Sorry about the short chapter, but after that, I couldn't bring myself to write any more for this update. There will be another update within the next couple of days, though, so stay tuned!
I could use a little feedback about where you guys think the plotline is heading. I've been doing my best to foreshadow the story without giving it away, and although this was originally planned for 30 chapters, I can easily see it going another 20 if I let it. I've given us so many loose ends to tie, and that's not including the main plot arc! So if there's anything you think I'm not doing enough of (besides the FBI Special Unit subplot, which as you can see, I haven't forgotten) let me know!