CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Now stir in one doppelganger…
"We thought the {nuclear} attack on us was the lowest point of our stay on the Arcadia. We thought we were safe and here was our own people… our own planet firing nukes at us! Everything seemed in flux and we couldn't see how things could get any worse. Boy, were we wrong."
— Xander Harris
oOoOo
A shaken Buffy ran down the corridor after getting word Dawn was in Medical. She outpaced Willow, Xander and Giles as they struggled to catch up. Other than the news Dawn was being taken to Medical there was no information about what happened or her current condition. As she raced to the ship's medical section her mind replayed all the events leading up to this latest crisis…
When the ship had gone to Condition Yellow, her and Faith raced out of her cabin to find everyone else milling around looking dazed and confused as alarms wailed. The crewman stationed on their deck reassured them there was nothing to worry about. They told everyone to either return to their quarters or go to the lounge or cafeteria, but they were to remain on this deck for their own safety.
Buffy tried to find Dawn to make sure she was okay, but then remembered she'd gone off with Lieutenant Hanson for a tour of the ship. She tried keeping her worry in check as she asked one of the crew about her sister. It didn't take long to receive the reassuring news Dawn was okay and on the bridge with Lieutenant Hanson.
The reassurance didn't last long as more alarms, calling the ship to battle stations, blared throughout the corridor. In one of those rare moments in her life, Buffy felt useless and lost, not sure what to do or where to go. She considered heading to the bridge to find Dawn and find out what was happening, but shouts from the lounge down the corridor caught her attention. She rushed to the lounge, entering to see a small sun flare into existence through one of the observation windows. Stunned silence filled the lounge as everyone froze not knowing what was happening. Buffy heard Willow gasp.
"My Goddess!"
Buffy saw the awe and fear on her friend's face, "What? What is it?"
Willow finally found her voice, but it was a hushed tone as she spoke, "T-They look like… I-I've seen old movies from the testing."
Buffy saw another miniature sun bloom into existence, "What are those things?"
"Those look like nuclear bombs going off…"
Willow barely finished when another tremendous explosion lit up space. Buffy gasped watching another star being born and die in seconds. It was soon after word arrived about Dawn being in Medical…
Buffy burst into Medical looking for her sister, her heart froze when she spotted Dawn on a stretcher being checked out by medical staff. She was at Dawn's side as the others caught up, coming into Medical, trying to catch their breaths.
"Dawn! Are you okay?" Buffy said, trying to get her sister to respond, but to no avail. She turned her attention to the med-tech, who was running a medical hand scanner over Dawn, recording her vital signs, "What happened? Is she going to be all right?" she said, trying and failing to keep her voice calm.
The med-tech avoided making eye contact with Buffy as she studied the readouts on her hand scanner, "She's unconscious, but her vitals are stable now. We're running tests to find out what happened."
The med-tech's tone and the lack of eye contact put Buffy on alert as she got the sense that something was wrong. Her guard went up even more when she noticed two armed security guards standing off to the side watching Dawn's stretcher.
Willow, Xander and Giles crowded around the stretcher with her, "How is Dawn—" Giles said.
Buffy cut him off as her Slayer senses screamed warnings to her, "What's going on here? What happened?"
A voice behind them caught them by surprise, "I guess that's what we all want to know."
They turned to find Captain Coleiro standing there with five heavily armed soldiers in full body armor.
A confused Giles glanced back and forth between Buffy, unconscious Dawn and Captain Coleiro and the soldiers, "What's this all about?"
"That's what we're going to find out. All of you will follow me… now!" Paul ordered.
Buffy glanced at her unconscious sister, making her decision, "No! I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here with my sister."
"That's not a request."
Buffy met the Captain's eyes. She still couldn't shake how dark and intense they were, but she wouldn't get swayed by them this time. Her heartbeat slowed as she took a deep breath and relaxed her body. She shifted her weight and body in anticipation for a fight.
A hand on her shoulder surprised her when she turned her head she saw Giles shaking his head. He'd read her body language and could see this would end badly for everyone, he needed to defuse the situation.
"We'll go with you Captain, but our concern is about Dawn," Giles said, seeing Buffy ease back somewhat, but still ready to lash out.
It was a surprise and a relief to see the Captain's hard expression soften, "We're just going to be down the corridor. If there's any change the med-techs will call us."
Giles glanced at Buffy, and at first feared she would reject the offer, but she nodded in acceptance. The group followed the Captain with the armed soldiers keeping watch as they exited out of Medical. As they exited another surprising sight greeted them… Spike on his knees with his hands behind his head, surrounded by another ten heavily armed soldiers in full combat armor. All the soldiers had their weapons out and pointed at him.
Spike perked up at the sight of Buffy exiting Medical, "Hey! How's Little Bit? I heard she was here, but Captain Wanker's storm troopers here wouldn't let me in."
Buffy gave Paul a look. It was against his instincts and better judgement, but he relented with a sigh, "Let him up."
"About bloody time. What the hell is going on?" Spike said, standing up and straightening his jacket as he glared at the Captain and soldiers. Paul ignored him as he turned and headed down the corridor.
"Shut up, Spike," Giles muttered as everyone followed the Captain.
Paul was true to his word as he entered a lounge close to Medical. He ordered the soldiers to wait outside which surprised Buffy and the others as they followed him into the lounge.
The door had barely closed, when Buffy started in, "What the hell did you do to my sister?"
Paul turned, giving Buffy a hard glare, "We did nothing to her!"
Giles stepped in again to keep the situation from spinning out of control, "Maybe you can tell us what happened, Captain?"
Paul's eyes switched to Giles, understanding what he was trying to do, "Well, let's see… My morning started off good. Then things went sideways when a shuttle from your planet attacked us with nuclear missiles."
Everyone stared at the Captain in disbelief, "T-That wasn't you?" Willow said.
"Ah, no. It seems your planet decided not to rollout the welcome wagon for us," Paul said, letting his frustration and sarcasm leak through.
"Was there any damage?" Giles said.
"No, our countermeasures and point-defense system intercepted all the missiles well short of us."
"What happened to the shuttle?" Willow asked.
Paul shook his head, "It looks like the blast wave from the nukes hit the shuttle hard, seriously damaging it. We picked up faint life signs, so I sent Lieutenant Evans in an Alpha along with one of our shuttles to recover it. They're on their way back and should land soon."
Buffy tired of dancing around the topic concerning her, "Okay, so you rescued some astronauts… what happened to Dawn?" she demanded.
"That's what we want to know. When our defenses took out and detonated the missiles, something must have affected her. One moment she's standing there and the next she's collapsed… then she starts glowing."
Buffy's eyes widen, "G-Glowing? Y-You said glowing?"
Paul nodded, "Yeah, now the strange thing is my Chief Engineer has been getting a faint energy pattern from inside the ship he has no explanation for. When your sister started glowing that energy pattern exploded like a flare on our scanners, and it was emanating from her."
Buffy and Giles exchanged worried glances with each other.
Paul noted their exchange, "Will someone tell me what she is, and what the hell is going on?"
"It's rather… complicated," Giles said, appearing uncomfortable. He wasn't sure how to proceed now, but realized they had no choice now but to tell him about Dawn.
"Oh, good… I like complicated," Paul replied, rolling his eyes, "Is she even human?"
Both Xander and Spike didn't like what the Captain was implying, and they both jumped to Dawn's defense.
"Mister Harris, I would have thought your time working with Chief Larson would have taught you when to keep your mouth zipped," Paul said. He turned to the vampire, "And for you Spike… you're just one annoying comment from being shoved out an airlock and used for target practice by my gun batteries."
Xander gulped, zipping his mouth, but Spike was about to be his normal self when he saw Buffy shaking her head. He took a deep breath biting his tongue, "Stick it up your arse, you twat…" he muttered.
"You say something?" Paul said, making eye contact with Spike.
"Nothing… just saying I'm glad to be here," Spike mumbled.
Paul smirked, seeing Spike's discomfort before turning back to Buffy and Giles, "We're not leaving here until you tell me who and or what she is. Do I make myself clear?"
Giles and Buffy looked at each other. Buffy nodded, letting out a sigh, "Tell the man."
Giles took a deep breath, "Like I said it's complicated…"
oOoOo
Chief Larson monitored the status of the rescue and recovery operation from her station on the hanger deck. The real-time video feed from the rescue shuttle and Lieutenant Evan's Alpha provided her a good view of the damaged shuttle. The shock waves from the exploding nukes had battered the craft, and it was a miracle the ship didn't disintegrate. That being said, it was obvious this craft would never fly again. The shock wave had torn one wing off while the other one suffered heavy damage. Also torn off was the aft stabilizer and two of the three engine nozzles while the cargo bay doors were only twisted remnants.
The rescue shuttle tried to establish contact with any survivors with no avail. They confirmed there were still life signs aboard, but power and life support in the crew compartment was failing. The EVA crews decided against a risky space transfer without knowing the condition of the survivors. They towed the wreck back to the Arcadia while rescue crews ran lines to the wreck to pump in O2 to stabilize life support.
Larson watched Evan's Alpha, now in Battloid mode, push the wreck into the hanger bay. WIth the wreck stabilized, a deck crew rushed to pry open the hatch, while other deck crews checked for any chemical leaks and other hazards. It didn't take long for the hatch to get pried open and rescue personnel to enter. Word returned there were two survivors, both unconscious, and one dead.
While she oversaw her deck crews, Larson took a moment to study the lines of the wrecked craft, imagining how it looked undamaged. She couldn't believe these people had attacked them with such a primitive designed ship. Her attention shifted back to the hatch as rescue personnel brought the survivors out on basket stretchers. Larson's curiosity got the better of her as the rescue crews handed the survivors over to med-techs. As she got closer, she saw the helmets being removed from the survivors while being shifted on to gurneys for transport to Medical. She got a glimpse of the first survivor… an older male appearing to be in his early 40s. She then turned her attention to the second survivor…
My God! It can't be… it can't be her! This isn't real!
Larson struggled to maintain her composure as she stared at the unconscious woman who appeared to be in her mid-to-late-20s with short-cropped blonde hair. For Larson, it was like she was looking at a ghost as her eyes drifted to the name tag on the woman's spacesuit… Blair.
"Chief, you okay? You don't look so good," one of her deck crew said, seeing the Chief's face.
Larson couldn't decide whether to scream, yell or laugh as she stared at the unconscious woman as the med-techs continued working on her. She'd never been a religious person, but at this moment she wondered if God didn't have a twisted sense of humor.
Larson was still shaking her head in disbelief as she turned to the crewman, "Take charge here… I have to find the Captain. I have to tell him in-person. I can't tell him this over the ship's comms."
She didn't wait for the confused crewman to acknowledge her order as she ran off the hanger deck.
oOoOo
Even before he sat down in the SECDEF's office, General Coulson could tell the man was not in a good mood. He'd barely settled in his chair when the SECDEF started in.
"What the hell is going on, General?"
"Sir, we're still investigating the attack. I don't want to say anything because the report is still only preliminary."
"Bullshit! You know who or what attacked us."
Coulson grimaced, "Sir, it appears non-human entities attacked our facility in Barstow."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"The attackers tore apart the communications staff at the site before destroying the equipment. We're surmising it was demons, but until we've finished the autopsies, we can't rule out vampires either."
"My God…" muttered the SECDEF.
The SECDEF took a moment to digest this information, "Why would demons or vampires attack one of our communications facilities? It seems a little too high profile and would draw unwanted attention their way."
The SECDEF noticed an uncomfortable expression on Coulson's face, "What is it, General? You may speak freely."
"Sir, when was your office last swept?"
"You mean for listening devices?"
Coulson nodded.
"This morning. It's done daily."
The SECDEF watched, puzzled, as Coulson pulled a white crystal from his inside coat pocket. He didn't know what to expect as the General held the crystal out and said a single word.
"Involvere!"
"What's going Coulson?" the SECDEF said, giving the General a confused look.
"Sir, this glamor will hide us for the next six minutes…"
"What in hell's name is a glamor?"
"This is a magic spell to mask us. Please sir, we don't have a lot of time."
The SECDEF still wasn't sure what was going on, but nodded for the General to continue.
"Sir, this attack's timing is too coincidental with our attack on the alien ship. I think taking out Barstow was a contingency plan in the event we tried to communicate or called off the attack."
The SECDEF stared at the General in shock at what he was saying, "Are you implying there's a conspiracy taking place?"
Coulson nodded, "Yes, sir. I have no definite proof as yet, but there's too many coincidences taking place to make this more than a set of converging random circumstances."
The SECDEF let the implications sink in before continuing, "Do you have any idea who's involved?"
"Yes, sir… the Vice-President and several of the Joint Chiefs at least."
The SECDEF blinked not sure if he'd heard Coulson, "Y-You're joking? Do you understand what you're suggesting by implicating the Veep?"
"Yes, sir. I made some discrete initial inquiries and on the surface there is nothing obvious…"
"But?"
"I dug deeper and found a connection between the Veep and several of the JC's. They all have dealings with the same law firm… Wolfram & Hart."
The SECDEF raised an eye surprise. He was familiar with the name, but didn't do business with them, "That's a pretty thin connection, General. It could be a coincidence."
"Yes, sir. But, this isn't the first time that law firm's name has come up in these types of circumstances. Then there are rumors and stories circulating around them and their activities. It's nothing we can prosecute in court, but it's enough to draw a second look. I've also been reviewing the Atlantis's crew and I discovered a few irregularities with them."
"What irregularities?"
"The weapons specialist… Captain Megan Blair. There were a lot of strings pulled to get her assigned to this mission."
"You saying she's involved as well?"
Coulson shook his head, "No, sir. Her background comes up clean. She's smart and talented, but she shouldn't have been the top pick for this mission."
"So, why in the hell did they want her on this mission?"
"Unknown, sir and that's what worries me. What's most troubling is I found the mission commander, Colonel Harper, also has connections to Wolfram & Hart."
"Jesus…" muttered the SECDEF. He took a moment to consider all the implications, "General, this is dangerous territory you're delving into here. You can't investigate the Vice-President without some substantial proof to back you up."
"Yes, sir. I understand that, but we still need to investigate this."
The SECDEF studied the General, "Agreed, I take it you have a plan then?"
Coulson nodded, glancing at his watch to make sure they had enough time left on the glamor, "Yes, sir. I have taken steps to put a firebreak between us and any investigation into the Vice-President and the others. We'll still have the normal customary review board into the mission and investigation into Barstow, but those will be for show to hide the real investigation."
"If what you're saying is true, who is there that we can trust to do this investigation and keep their mouth shut?"
Coulson's face took on an awkward expression, "Um, we have someone my predecessors have dealt with in the past on other matters that required a certain… touch. He's working out of Los Angeles and used to have his own investigation firm, but he now runs Wolfram & Hart's LA office."
The SECDEF stared at the General as if he was crazy, "You've got to be joking? You want to use someone from that law firm to investigate?"
Coulson nodded, "Yes, sir! I have no doubts about his willingness to investigate Wolfram & Hart's connection and involvement. Plus, he's in the perfect position to do this without linking back to us if it blows up."
The SECDEF shook his head in disbelief, "I hope you know what you're doing, General. All our heads are on the chopping block if this goes bad."
"Yes, sir. I understand," Coulson glanced again at his watch and saw they were almost out of time, "Have there been any more attempts to make contact?"
The SECDEF sighed, "We've tried, but it appears the ship has moved behind the moon now and its blocking our transmissions. NASA is working on trying to bounce a communication signal off one of our deep space probes to reach the dark side, but they're having no luck."
"Any news about Atlantis?"
"No… we confirmed they launched their nukes, but it appears all the missiles detonated well short of the target. From what we can tell, the blast wave from the intercepted nukes destroyed the shuttle."
"Will there be any public announcement?"
The SECDEF snorted, "About how we lost a shuttle firing nukes at aliens… no. The White House is sitting on the story for now until they can figure out what to say to keep everyone from panicking. General, we need to get a handle on this situation before it spins further out of control."
"Yes, sir…"
oOoOo
Faith's nerves were on edge as she paced the corridor. She'd raced to Medical after hearing about Dawn, but couldn't find Buffy, Giles or any of the others. Her surprise and confusion only grew when she noticed the security guards hovering nearby and got a sense something was wrong. It took some cajoling to get the med-tech to tell her what was going on and where everybody was.
The group of armed soldiers guarding the corridor outside the lounge was a dead giveaway to where everyone was gathering. This time her feminine charms failed to get her past the guards into the lounge. While weighing her options, she thought she'd heard Paul's voice coming through the lounge doors.
At least the guards aren't rushing in. That's a good sign… isn't it?
Rather than add to an already tense situation, she moved down the corridor to wait, and hope things wouldn't get worse. While waiting she found her thoughts revisiting Buffy's warning about being forced to choose sides if things turned bad. She refused to believe the situation was that bad, but glancing at the armed soldiers down the corridor she had to admit to the possibility. She had to deal with a sudden torrent of surprising emotions and feelings she hadn't expected. Her nerves along with her emotions were being pulled in all directions as she waited for whatever was going on in the lounge to finish.
She was debating whether to leave when the lounge door opened. Paul was the first to leave and Faith exhaled a sigh of relief when no soldiers rushed in, and no fighting erupted. She smiled, but it faded as she glimpsed his face.
Oh boy, he's not happy. He's pissed about something…
He headed down the corridor away from her which caught her by surprise because she was sure he'd seen her. Even though she had a bad vibe, she needed to find out what was going on. It surprised her to realize she'd been waiting more for Paul than for Buffy and the others. She was eager to see and talk to him. She pushed those thoughts aside for now as she focused and tried to get his attention.
"Paul!"
He seemed not to hear her which surprised her. She ran to catch up, "Paul, wait up! What's wrong?"
Thoughts of any happy greeting faded as Paul stopped with her bad vibe being confirmed as his body stiffened. She tried preparing herself for the worse.
Paul's hard voice stunned her as he turned to face her, "Tell me you didn't know."
The anger radiating from him caught her unprepared, "Know about what? What are you talking about?"
"About Dawn… tell me you didn't know what she is!"
As she realized what he was talking about, his anger was like a slap, catching her like a deer in the headlights.
Her lack of response and her expression was all the confirmation Paul needed. He didn't hold back his anger and frustration, "I thought I had seen it all back in my universe… all the lying, back-stabbing and manipulation. But, you people here take it to all new levels. We're trying to get back home and you people are sitting on a god-damn key that opens doors to other dimensions! You didn't even consider trying to help us by mentioning that little fact to us."
Faith tried to recover, "W-We didn't know you. You got to realize someone tried to exploit Dawn's power by sacrificing her… draining her blood to open a portal to a hell dimension."
A hurt sickened expression filled Paul's face which caught Faith by surprise by how much it affected her, "Yeah I got that story. Some god-being named Glory. I don't know what's worse, being lied to or you would think I'm a monster who would drain a teenage girl's blood!"
For Faith, seeing his face was worse than being slapped. She wished he would take a swing at her. She could handle any physical pain easier compared to the emotional upheaval she was suffering.
"L-Like I said we didn't know you. We haven't had a lot of good experiences dealing with the military."
Her excuse cut no slack with Paul, "I thought we'd proven ourselves by putting our lives on the line for you and the others. I thought we had earned some trust from all of you," he said, shaking his head.
Faith struggled under his gaze, feeling awkward and not sure what to say, "We wanted to protect Dawn. She's just a normal teenager despite whatever she used to be."
"I get it, I understand Buffy's stance. Wanting to protect and take care of her baby sister at all costs."
Faith noticed a haunted pain filling fill his face as he said "baby sister".
Paul sighed, "I wouldn't expect you to rat out your friends, but I would have thought you might have spoken up for us. Maybe trusted me to do the right thing."
It stunned Faith to see Paul think she'd somehow betrayed him, "Are you talking about us, and what we did last night? If you are, I don't—"
Paul shook his head, "Oh please, spare me the speech! I'm not some love sick teenager. Did you think I would propose marriage and we find a nice little house to settle down in? God, I've lost count of how many times I've given the speech. I used the speech before I was eighteen! All I'm saying is I saved your ass in Sunnydale and the night we spent together should have at least earned me some trust and consideration. Don't you think?"
Faith wasn't expecting Paul to profess his undying love for her, but how he brushed off their night together surprised and hurt her. The small voice in the back of head was telling her this was her chance to bail, but the words came out before she realized it, "I-I'm sorry. You're right. We should have been more honest with you."
"A little late now…"
His words tore at her, but she also struggled as the small voice continued to nag at her.
You've had your fun, but it's time to move on to greener pastures. Yeah, it was great sex, but it's not worth it. You keep it up and who knows what kind of trouble you'll get into too. He's not worth it…
Faith pushed the voice away. Despite her confusion, she wanted to make things right between them, and wasn't ready yet to move on. She couldn't grasp what she was feeling as she found herself in uncharted territory with her emotions. She tried to find the words to make things better, but before she could say anything another voice interrupted them.
"Ahem… Captain."
Faith and Paul saw Chief Larson standing off to the side. They'd been so wrapped up in their arguing they hadn't noticed her. The troubled expression on Larson's face caught Paul's attention.
"What's wrong, Chief?"
"Ummm… Ah… Sir…"
"Spit it out, Chief! What's the matter?"
Larson took a deep breath, "Sir, we've recovered two survivors from the shuttle that attacked us."
"Okay… anything else?"
"They're both unconscious… they're bringing them up to Medical."
Paul wondered why the Chief hadn't just reported this information to him over the comm channel. Her expression troubled him as she continued standing there, looking at him. A chill crawled down his spine, "What aren't you telling me?"
"Sir, you need to come to Medical."
A strange sense of dread filled Paul as he forgot about his argument with Faith and followed the Chief back to Medical. A confused Faith followed them, wondering what was wrong.
As they neared the entrance to Medical, from the opposite direction came two gurneys carrying the survivors surrounded by medical personnel. Paul froze in his tracks as he glimpsed short-cut blonde hair and a familiar facial profile.
"STOP!"
The medical personnel froze in place, confused as their Captain rushed towards them. Paul's legs turned to rubber, his heart pounding, as he got closer and could make out the unconscious woman's face better.
It's not possible…! It can't be… this is a dream… a nightmare…
His breathing became more ragged as he stood beside the gurney. Out of reflex his hand moved towards the unconscious woman's blonde hair, but pulled back his shaking hand as fear and confusion filled him.
One of the med-techs spoke up, "Sir, we need to get them inside."
Paul couldn't trust his voice and nodded as he stepped aside to let his people take the unconscious survivors into Medical.
Larson approached, "Sir? Are you okay?" she said as fear and concern for him filled her.
"H-How?"
Larson read his face, his stunned expression mirrored hers, "I-I don't know, sir."
The world closed in around Paul as old memories overwhelmed him, "I-I can't deal with this," he said, rushing away.
A confused Faith stood there as Paul fled down the corridor, stunned by what was happening as questions filled her head. She'd also recognized the unconscious woman as the spitting image of the woman from the picture she'd found in Paul's desk.