Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 and all related concepts are the property of MGM, while the character of Spike belongs to Joss Whedon and James Marsters, among other people (Also, the original idea for this story came from Jedi Buttercup's 'An Unexpected Gift', so I don't own it either, although I have put my own spin on things, and have been given his full permission to use his idea)
Feedback: I'd appreciate it, of course
AN: Some of my ideas about how magic can exist in the 'Stargate' universe were previously used in my Harry Potter/Stargate crossover 'Truth and Revelations', although I've naturally adapted those theories to accommodate the differing nature of magic in the two worlds; hope you like the results
The Ghost in the Team
It was strange, really; Spike hadn't spent much time with him at any point, but even with his limited experience of the guy, having General Jack O'Neill in the briefing room was automatically enough to make him feel more optimistic about their chances of future victory.
"He knew he was no match for her, and he couldn't let Merlin's unfinished weapon fall into her hands," Sam solemnly explained to the two generals as the rest of SG-1 sat around the table. "So, he and Merlin came up with a plan to fool Adria into thinking that he had succumbed to her power."
"So he could continue to work on the weapon," Mitchell elaborated. "Ostensibly, this time for her to use against the Ancients."
"Merlin?" Jack said, clearly confused at that point.
"He says he still has Merlin's consciousness in his mind," Vala explained, the slightly awkward smile making it clear that she knew how strange that concept was.
"Merlin even seemed to be speaking on occasion," Sam elaborated. "Daniel says that's what's protected him from Adria's influence and what's allowed him to convince her to make him a Prior."
"I can vouch for the fact that you can get two people in one head, if that helps," Spike put in, raising a hand as he looked at the generals. "Never heard of it being done like this, o'course, but still, there is a precedent."
"Why did he need her to make him a Prior?" Jack asked warily, after nodding briefly in acknowledgement of Spike's contribution.
"So he could steal the Ori ship with the weapon on board and fly it through the Supergate," Vala explained.
"He wants us to shut down the incoming wormhole, so he can dial out," Sam finished.
"Yeah," Jack said sceptically. "So he says."
"You do not believe Daniel Jackson is being truthful," Teal'c said, his usual solemn expression even grimmer than usual as he looked at Jack.
"Oh, I want to believe him…" Jack said, leaving the sentence hanging as he looked at his former team.
"But if Adria's had her claws in him this long, she could have really reprogrammed him to spin us this old story to get us to shut down that gate and let the next wave of Ori through," Spike noted grimly, slightly gratified when everyone nodded in agreement with his assessment; it was a grim scenario, but at least he knew he'd read the files correctly and thus gained a clear idea of what their current enemies could be capable of.
He might be impulsive, but he wasn't stupid, and he definitely wasn't going to take chances with the galaxy at stake.
"So…" Vala asked, leaning forward and looking at the generals, "what do we do now?"
After looking around the table for a few moments, Jack stood up.
"I'm going to talk to him," the older man said.
"You are?" Vala said, looking at Jack in surprise.
"Sure that's smart?" Spike asked, looking pointedly at the other man.
"Ask anyone," the seemingly older man said as he looked at Spike. "I'm not often accused of doing the smart thing."
Less than an hour later, Spike was walking through the corridors of the Odyssey, heading for Daniel's cell.
While Jack's meeting with Daniel had apparently revealed that Daniel's body had been programmed to 'reset' to its pre-Merlin state after a certain amount of time to protect him from the long-term consequences of holding Merlin's mind- which would also apparently return him to human form as opposed to his current status as a Prior-, the general was clearly still reluctant to actually believe anything that Daniel had to say to him, considering the archaeologist's appearance. Everything that Daniel had told General O'Neill about the need for him to be a Prior to control an Ori battlecruiser and set Merlin's weapon to activate after blowing up the Stargate they were using to keep the Supergate inaccessible sounded good, and his explanation about them only having a day or two before Daniel reverted to 'normal' made sense- it wasn't like he could have controlled when he was captured, after all-, but considering the stakes, they needed more confirmation one way or the other before they took any action regarding Daniel's plan.
With lie detectors possibly useless, it had been concluded that it would be best to try and talk to Daniel about the truth of his claims by using Teal'c and Spike as separate 'interrogators'; Sam had learned about Spike's reputation as the one who 'saw the truth' during her brief meeting with Willow in the alternate universe, and Teal'c's own skills in getting information out of people were well-known in the SGC. With Teal'c attempting the more direct route later, Spike was going to use the opportunity to talk to whatever was left of Merlin in Daniel about a topic that had been bothering him ever since Merlin expressed knowledge of vampires during their first and only meeting with him in person, bringing up Daniel's current plan only if the opportunity arose.
"Hey there," the vampire said as he walked into the secure room where the archaeologist was being held, guards still stationed outside to give at least the appearance that they were adhering to protocol despite its relative uselessness in this situation.
"You had to open the door?" Daniel said, looking at Spike in surprise as the vampire casually stood in the room. "You're solid now?"
Spike thought briefly about denying it, but quickly decided against it; no matter what kind of state Daniel was in, whether brainwashed or on their side, he wasn't going to have the chance to share that information with Adria, so he wasn't going to worry about it.
"Yep," he said simply.
"That's new," Daniel said; a curious expression on his face suggested that Daniel wanted to know more, but he was still keeping silent, evidently recognising that Spike wasn't willing to provide more information right now.
"So's that look," Spike said, indicating Daniel's current appearance with a brief wave of his hand.
"Good point…" Daniel said, glancing down at himself with a slightly grim smile.
"Which, by the way, really doesn't suit you, mate," Spike added, his own smile faltering as he looked at Daniel in a pointed manner.
"You think so?" Daniel replied nonchalantly.
"You actually need to ask?" Spike said, snorting slightly as he looked at Daniel. "Just look in a sodding mirror! Bloody hell, and I thought Nest looked ridiculous… You better hope the whelp never sees you like that; he still had that phobia of clowns when I last saw him…"
"Can we move on?" Daniel asked, looking in resignation at Spike. "I don't think you came here just to insult me."
"You're right," Spike said, nodding as he looked at Daniel. "Firstly, what's the deal with demons?"
"The 'deal' with demons?" Daniel repeated, looking curiously at Spike.
"Been around you guys long enough to be fairly sure that these 'Ancient' sods know about demons if they didn't let 'em into this dimension in the first place, and I'm not just talkin' about the fact that Merlin knew what I was," Spike said, looking firmly at Daniel. "So, if Merlin's knockin' about in there, what does he know about 'em?"
"Right…" Daniel said, looking silently at Spike for a moment before he spoke again. "Has Sam told you much about the Zero Point Modules?"
"Those crystal things you use to power Atlantis, right?" Spike asked, allowing Daniel to nod before he shrugged. "That's pretty much it regarding what I know about 'em."
"OK," Daniel said, closing his eyes and evidently thinking for a moment before he looked at Spike again. "Basically, the Zero Point Modules work by tapping into a pocket dimension of subspace and drawing on the energy of that dimension to provide power; they only run out of power because the module exhausts its ability to tap into that pocket dimension over time as it reaches maximum entropy."
"OK," Spike said, nodding briefly at Daniel; he only understood part of that, but what he understood was enough for him to know that he wouldn't understand it if he tried to ask for more, so he'd let Daniel keep talking and hope the reason he was sharing this would become clearer soon.
"Anyway," Daniel continued, "at one point during our trips through the Stargate- I wasn't on the team at the time, but I heard about it afterwards-, SG-1 encountered a device that allowed those exposed to it to see creatures that existed in another dimension, connected to but separate from our own. From Merlin's knowledge, I've learned that the visibility device we encountered was actually an early prototype of the Ancients' attempts to devise a means of accessing other dimensions- this device allowed the Ancients to establish that such dimensions existed, and later they'd devise a means of accessing them directly-, as part of their attempts to access the pocket universes that they would use to power the ZPMs."
"Oh," Spike said, starting to nod again before a thought occurred to him. "Hold on; would these experiments-?"
"Have resulted in the Ancients opening a portal to the realms where demons come from?" Daniel finished for Spike, smiling in approval at the vampire's deduction. "Precisely; some of the earlier rifts they created while trying to tap the power source they would use for the ZPMs released the creatures that you would consider the pure demons, or 'Old Ones', into this world, along with the lesser spirits that would create the early versions of creatures like vampires or werewolves."
"Ah," Spike said, smiling in understanding before he looked curiously at Daniel. "And how does magic fit into this?"
"Well, based on what Merlin observed of early magic users before he re-took human form and what he's gathered from my memories of what you told me about the magic-wielders you know," Daniel explained, "magic is partially the result of descendants of the Ancients tapping into the powers offered by their genetic heritage, partially the result of exposure to some of the remaining rifts, and partially the result of exposure to the energies released by the dispersal of Earth's naquadah resources."
"Uh… remaining rifts?" Spike said, trying to focus on what sounded like the simplest part of that last statement to understand.
"The remaining rifts to the demon dimensions that the Ancients were unable to seal after their experiments had been completed," Daniel explained. "Merlin's fairly sure that they're what you now know of as 'Hellmouths'."
"Oh," Spike said, once again stuck for anything to say for a moment- after all the hardships caused by Hellmouths, they were simply an accident of some ancient alien experiment?- before he focused on the central issue. "And… what was all that about how magic was created?"
"As I said- and from what Merlin's witnessed before he descended combined with what he learned from me thanks to you-, magic is partly the result of those humans with the right evolutionary potential- not the gene sequence that we've come to know of as the Ancient Technology Activation gene, but a related sequence allowing for access to similar powers- drawing on the residual energy of the rifts or drawing on their own natural potential," Daniel explained. "Merlin thinks that the witch you know as Willow may be one of these due to the scale of the power she can access, but most magic practitioners possess more comparatively limited power due to them simply drawing on the naquadah energies in Earth's atmosphere."
"Naquadah in Earth's atmosphere?" Spike repeated in confusion. "How does that work?"
"Basically, an early attempt by the Ancients to increase their power supplies before they came up with the idea of ZPMs," Daniel explained. "From what Merlin remembers, they had been working on plans to enhance naquadah to increase its use as a power source- similar to some later Goa'uld experiments that created a compound we call naquadria-, but the experiment altered the very nature of Earth's raw naquadah supply. The treated naquadah that had been used to construct the Stargate was unaffected, but all raw naquadah was transformed into a non-tangible energy source that permeated Earth's biosphere. Combined with the rifts the Ancients had already created, some entities released on to Earth by the rifts underwent significant mutations, and caused mutative effects in areas where naquadah had been particularly concentrated in its natural form."
"So… the rifts let demons into this world, and then the naquadah blowing up gave them the chance to adapt into something that could cope here?" Spike asked.
"In a nutshell, yes," Daniel confirmed. "Once the Ancients established they couldn't undo what had happened, they spent some time learning about the magic they'd created to teach those who were able to use it how to use it safely- contain it rather than let it run wild, you know-, but this power was only limited to Earth; attempts to duplicate the accident that created magic on other worlds were generally discouraged due to the danger, and any attempts that were carried out failed as they couldn't duplicate certain minor details."
"Ah," Spike said. "Complicated, huh?"
"To say the least," Daniel said.
"So… does that mean Earth's the only planet that can have magic?" Spike asked; he wanted to make sure he fully understood what Daniel was saying.
"It's more like Earth's the only place where magic can develop on its own, really," Daniel clarified. "If a witch, such as your friend Willow, went through the Stargate, she could still use some magic based on what she had accumulated during her time on Earth, but that power would eventually run down, and that would only become more serious the more complex the spells she used; she might be able to recharge by drawing on the energy of any naquadah on the planet, but that's really a theory more than anything definite."
"Ah," Spike said, sighing slightly. "So… no chance we could have her banish the Ori for us, eh?"
"Which isn't going to be needed if you'd just all trust me and let me go along with my plan," Daniel said, his tone now becoming more frustrated as he looked at the vampire.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me 'bout that; why would Adria want you to do all this… 'converting the masses' crap rather than focus on the weapon?" Spike said, looking pointedly at her. "She's got a bunch of Priors on the go out there, and the guy she needs to build the weapon that can win this war for good she sends out to the back end of nowhere?"
"She asked me to," Daniel said. "The Sangraal can be a decisive weapon against the Ancients or the Ori, but Adria wanted to ensure that the Ancients would be vulnerable to attack long enough for them to use it; I was sent out to recruit further followers so that the Ori would have enough power to engage the Ancients and distract them while the weapon is completed."
"Makes sense," Spike said after a moment's contemplation, before looking more pointedly at the other man. "So why hasn't anyone up there tried to stop you yet?"
"Maybe they think that there's still a chance the plan to stop the Ori could work?" Daniel replied, before he sighed and lowered his head. "Look, Spike, I know I'm asking a lot of everyone, but I need you to believe me."
"I… look, I want to…" Spike said, looking awkwardly at Daniel, increasingly stuck for what to say- being bitter to the Scoobies was easy when all they really did was be bitter towards him, but Daniel had always treated him fairly- even as he felt obliged to say something. "But… I mean, all this… how can I-?"
"Tell Sam I'm sorry."
As he processed that statement, the vampire's eyes widened as he looked at the archaeologist.
He knew that he didn't have much experience of these Prior guys to go on- and the one he'd seen during that mess with Merlin's device and Vala's 'chat' with her not-exactly-ex-husband could have just been a particularly twisted example of what the Ori wanted from their Priors-, but Spike just couldn't believe that someone willing to sell out his entire home galaxy could look that upset at the thought of not getting the chance to tell the person they loved how they felt…
He wasn't sure he'd fully realised how much Sam meant to Daniel until now, but now that he'd realised it, he knew that Daniel was telling the truth.
"Why me?" he asked, hoping that the archaeologist would understand.
"It's… it's easier to say it to you," Daniel replied. "Teal'c and Mitchell have to focus on the mission, asking Jack would be awkward, and asking Vala would be…"
"Weird?" Spike finished for Daniel, smiling in understanding.
"Weird," Daniel confirmed, returning the vampire's smile with one of his own.
"When did it happen?" Spike asked.
"When I returned from my Ascension and saw her for the first time," Daniel said. "I didn't know who she was or what we were to each other, but what I felt…"
"Hit you full-force, huh?" Spike said, briefly remembering the moment he'd realised that he was in love with Buffy; it might have been more of a horrific shock for him, but considering everything he'd heard about these guys he had a feeling Daniel developing feelings for Sam would have been awkward no matter when it happened.
"I'll tell her if things go south," he said, nodding briefly at Daniel before his eyes narrowed. "Just so long as you tell her once you get out of this."
It was a small gesture, but judging by the grateful smile that briefly crossed Daniel's face, he appreciated it as much as anyone could appreciate something in a situation like this.
