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: I jump over a couple of scenes here, but nothing that happened in those scenes was really changed from the original version by Spike's role in the story so far; hope you like what I've chosen to focus on, anyway

The Ghost in the Team

"I believe Daniel Jackson speaks the truth," Teal'c said as he walked into the briefing room after his own meeting with Daniel a short while later, the rest of SG-1 already gathered there for the upcoming announcement.

"For what it's worth, I'm with the big guy on this," Spike added, before he looked grimly over at General Landry's office. "Too bad we need to rely on that git's input before we actually take action…"

"Amen," General O'Neill said, looking grimly at his former team before Landry and Woolsey walked out, an obviously outraged expression on the general's face.

"I'm gonna let you tell them yourself," Landry said, looking scornfully at Woolsey as he walked through the door, "because I don't have the stomach for it."

"Aw, that's all right, sir, General O'Neill filled us in," Mitchell said. "The IOA has nixed the whole thing."

"No, I don't think you know everything," Landry said, an edge to his tone as he looked at Woolsey, the rest of the group turning to study the IOA representative as he cautiously approached the table.

"I… You have to understand, we've considered all the evidence at our disposal," Woolsey said, looking solemnly at the group sitting around the table. "But more than that, as difficult as this is, I feel very strongly that we have no viable option."

"You wanna get to the point?" Mitchell said, standing up and looking grimly at the man, his hands on his hips as he spoke for the rest of SG-1.

"I assure you this may be the hardest decision I'll ever make, but I take full responsibility for it," Woolsey said. "Based on my recommendation, the IOA has proposed to the President that Daniel Jackson's life be terminated…immediately."

Spike blinked.

"I'm sorry; what was that?" he said, standing up to look at Woolsey. "You just said that you were going to kill Danny?"

"In his current condition-" Woolsey began.

"We are not killing him when there is a bloody chance he'll turn back later!" Spike said, glaring at the man while resisting the urge to go 'vamp face'; it might scare the guy, but this wasn't the kind of situation where intimidation was a practical means of getting what you wanted. "That man's saved the entire sodding planet more than a few times- and last time I checked I thought you were all agreed he helped stop those Replicators and that Anubis berk-; you don't thank someone for saving your arse on that scale by killing them!"

"If this is about Khalek, the situation's not the same," Mitchell said, still glaring at Woolsey. "That guy inherited Anubis's genetic memory and was going to be psychotically dangerous whatever happened, and we had no idea what we were dealing with; we know what happened to Jackson here, so we just need some time to reverse it."

"It is still a recommendation-" Woolsey began.

"Which they're going to argue for because those sods prefer to debate everything to death rather than doing anything; I've been around the block enough, remember?" Spike said scornfully. "It's always the same; people think that they can control everything by takin' the easy way out and killing the problem rather than letting the professionals handle it their way…"

"The IOA are your official superiors-" Woolsey began.

"Not part of the regular chain of command here, Woolly; can't fault me voicing an opinion," Spike said, still glaring bitterly at the man in the suit.

"OK, as fun as it would be to see you guys debating, that isn't going to get us anywhere," Jack said, standing up and looking grimly between Woolsey and Landry. "Hank, Mr Woolsey, if you could care to join me in that old office, I think we're going to need to talk about this in… greater depth."

"Agreed," Landry said, looking firmly at his military superior before looking at Woolsey in a firm manner that made it clear that the IOA representative was in no position to argue with the proposed meeting.

After the two generals and the representative had walked into Landry's office and closed the door behind them, the remaining members of SG-1 exchanged glances for a moment before Mitchell sighed.

"OK, let's cut to the chase," he said, looking over at Teal'c. "What did Jackson have to say about… what's happened to him?"

"He informed me that Adria released him from his work in completing the Sangraal to convert more followers so that the Ori may gain the power to oppose the Ancients in a final confrontation before the Sangraal is detonated," Teal'c said.

"Told me the same thing," Spike said, "Guy wants us to take the opportunity to take control of the battlecruiser she's storing the thing on while she's off obeying Daddy's orders, but we've only got so much time left before his 'Prior-ness' wears off and he can't control it."

"Can't we pilot it ourselves?" Vala asked. "I mean, we have that battlecruiser Spike stole-"

"All we've been able to gather from that so far is how to improve our defences against the Ori weapons and some ideas about how to create our own versions," Sam said regretfully. "We'd have a better chance against them in a fight than we did when they first arrived, but even if I've managed to work out some details of how the battlecruisers operate, I can't be sure that we can fly that ship without him."

"So, we need to work out some way to be sure that Danny's telling the truth, take him along- or at least get him to fill in the gaps- and then work out how we keep him alive long enough to either cure him or let him turn back to normal, right?" Spike said, smiling grimly at his current teammates before he looked curiously at Mitchell. "By the way, what was that stuff about Khalek?"

"Basically, Khalek's the guy who helped us work out how to stop the Priors," Mitchell explained. "He was an old experiment of Anubis's to create a race of beings like himself- had Anubis's genetic memory and the genetic potential to Ascend but otherwise basically human-, and when we found him developing psychic abilities similar to the Priors after we found him in one of Anubis's old bases, Woolsey argued in favour of keeping Khalek alive rather than killing him so that we could study his abilities and work out how to stop Priors in the field."

"But… it worked, right?" Vala pointed out. "I mean, you've used that anti-Prior device-"

"Which was developed after two people died and Khalek nearly ascended to a higher state if we hadn't managed to take him by surprise and shoot him before he could stop us," Mitchell said grimly. "Think it's clear Woolsey's going to be trying not to repeat what happened, even if it means killing Jackson…"

"So, a day or two to go before Danny's killed or we run out of time to stop the Ori using his plan, and the guy whose approval we need to do anything is too cautious after the last time he was in a similar mess to take a chance," Spike said, shrugging slightly even as he noted the pained expression on Sam's face at that thought; he might not have had the time to tell her what Daniel had asked him to tell her, but she was obviously not entirely unconcerned about the archaeologist's fate… "Well, I've had better odds, but I've had worse as well; where do we start?"

Right now, he'd take any plan anyone had to offer if it meant getting out of this conference room; the argument in the general's office was starting to reach a volume where he wouldn't need vampire senses to hear it through the wall, and that would not help his mood in this situation…


One thing Spike liked about his new teammates was how quickly they were able to convince their superiors to go along with their proposed plans; evidently, saving the world when working for the military gave you more than a little leeway in proposing strategies than you got working for the Council (God, those bastards were just all about the control, weren't they?).

While Woolsey was still uncertain about Daniel's loyalty, he had been 'talked down' to keeping Daniel prisoner until the indicated time frame for his return to human form had passed, while the two generals had been convinced to allow the team to attempt to capture the Ori ship that Daniel had identified as the location of the unfinished Sangraal, using his knowledge of the ship's systems to get around the gaps in Sam's current experience with those ships to bypass the systems that required a Prior to activate so that they could fly the ship without him. According to Jack, Daniel had expressed some dissatisfaction about this turn of events, noting that the plan they were relying on still required them to shut down the Supergate, but that didn't mean that he wasn't willing to go along with it; he'd even provided them with instructions on how to assemble the last few pieces of the Sangraal that he hadn't put together himself. With Daedalus apparently prepared to destroy the Stargate in Pegasus- Spike didn't exactly get what all that was about, but he'd worry about that later- and Odyssey moving into position to go on standby by the Supergate to rescue them, they were ready to go into action.

Of course, Spike and the rest of the team still weren't exactly happy about leaving Daniel at the SGC, considering that Woolsey had proposed the idea of actually killing him because of a possible threat, but the two generals had assured them that they would keep an eye on the archaeologist to ensure that the IOA didn't kill him.

Besides… on a selfish note, Spike was enjoying the opportunity to try out some more modern weapons than swords and crossbows for the first time in his life; apparently, as a physical member of an SG-team, he was required to go into action with weapons, and had spent some time practising with his chosen guns before going into action this time around. The possibility of dual P-90s appealed to him, but considering the stakes of what they were dealing with right now, he'd decided to take a Minimi, adding on as much additional ammunition as he could carry without it making him too noisy when walking around; considering that they were dealing with Priors and fanatics, something that fired over a thousand rounds a minute sounded good to him (He also had a couple of zats, but those were a 'just in case' more than anything else). Since they were dealing with the Ori, he'd requested and received permission to go into action in his usual coat rather than the BDUs of the others- he'd made an impression on the Ori as he usually dressed, and he'd use that edge as long as he could-, although he'd concealed a vest under the coat to let him carry extra ammo without it being too obvious.

Actually, once they got to the planet where the Ori battlecruiser with the Sangraal on board was currently located, the mission had been relatively straightforward. It hadn't taken long for them to find the location where the Ori ring transporter had been established and eliminate the Ori guards, allowing SG-1 to transport up to the battlecruiser- with nobody present in the room they arrived in- and then proceed to the bridge, the four quickly eliminating the off-guard Ori soldiers. Although Spike had wanted to take point, he'd accepted Mitchell and Sam's arguments to remain in the back, where he could serve as both a rear guard and potential secret weapon in case they encountered Adria; they didn't want her to learn that Spike was solid now unless they had to, in case her believing that Spike was still intangible would prove an asset.

After spending some time hurrying through the corridors, they had reached the bridge with a relative minimum of enemy encounters and no injuries sustained at their end, leaving Sam to get to work on taking control of the bridge while Teal'c and Mitchell searched the rest of the ship, leaving Spike and Vala to track down the Sangraal and follow Daniel's instructions. After a few moments of walking, they reached the room that Daniel had told them about, with what looked like Merlin's Repository on the wall and a device that resembled the disc-like object Spike had seen when Daniel was putting the Sangraal together in Merlin's cave, the only difference being that this one was far thicker around the edges and had four crystal arch-like things positioned around it.

"That it?" Spike asked, as Vala studied the object before moving over to another nearby table with a set of crystals lying on it, laid out in a linear manner, along with a small black box.

"That seems to be it," Vala confirmed, nodding thoughtfully as she studied the crystals. "OK, this shouldn't be too hard."

"Here's hoping it is that simple," Spike muttered, looking grimly at the object on the other table. "We've got a lot riding on this, and I'm never good at working on gadgets; there always seems to be a bit missing at the end…"

"Well, it all seems to be here," Vala said, nodding encouragingly at Spike as she removed a red jewel-like object from the box. "We'll just have to see what we can do…"

"You do that; I'll… keep an eye on things," Spike said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his radio as he moved to the room's door. "Sam, we're here and we're working on the weapon; how's things up there?"

"I've locked out the rings and secured this level; we shouldn't have any more company," Sam said, sounding like she was satisfied at how her task was going. "Just hang on, guys; if it works, we're about to jump into hyperspace."

As Spike felt the slight shift as the ship moved into hyperspace, Vala continued to plant the scattered crystals in their position based on Daniel's instructions, a selection of thicker crystals in the middle of the device and the smaller ones scattered around it; Spike had no real idea if Vala could tell the difference between each crystal component or if it didn't really matter which one went where, but if she'd taken down the instructions correctly (Daniel wouldn't have given them fakes; he had to believe in the guy when the stakes were this high), he just had to have faith that whatever she was doing would put that thing together properly…

After waiting for a few more minutes as Vala studied the crystals and put them in place, she finally stepped back after putting one last part in the completed machine.

"OK," she said, the last of the smaller crystals in place around the larger ones in the middle of the Sangraal. "I think that's about it."

"Hold on," Spike said, reaching over to pick up a blue-tipped crystal from the table. "What's this?"

"Oh, I'm not sure about that," Vala said.

"You aren't?" Spike said, looking at her in surprise. "I thought Danny gave us instructions-?"

"He did; I was just lightening the mood," Vala said, smiling as she indicated the crystal in Spike's hand. "Actually, I'm pretty sure that's the timing crystal that sets the detonation of the weapon five minutes after it's inserted."

"Ah," Spike said, looking thoughtfully at the object before he shrugged; as Vala had noted, that wasn't something that they could put in right now without putting the Ascended beings they potentially liked in danger (The Ascended they had here might be gits who stayed out of business, but at least they didn't try and make the corporeal races worship them for the power boost), and at least everything else seemed to make sense.

"Hold on to that," he said, as he handed the crystal to Vala before pulling out his radio once more. "Sam, we've pretty much got it all together down here; how's things with you?"

"We're moments from exiting hyperspace," Sam replied.

"Gotcha," Spike said (He just couldn't bring himself to say 'Roger'; he might be working for the military, but he wasn't there yet himself), as Vala removed the familiar red orb from the box and contemplated it as she held it in her hands. "We'll get back to you when we're ready; good luck."

As he terminated the radio connection and stepped back, Vala placed the red jewel in between the four extended crystal arches around the device, just above the tallest of the thick crystals in its centre. As the two of them watched, the red orb began to glow a brilliant red as it floated in between the arches, generating a faint hum.

"And that means…?" Spike asked, uncertainly indicating the device; maybe it was the vampire in him being paranoid about a bright light-source, but that look just didn't leave him feeling totally comfortable…

"That means the weapon's ready to be activated," Vala said, before looking anxiously around and above herself.

"What?" Spike asked, looking at her in confusion. "Something missing, or are we bugged?"

"Oh," Vala said, nonchalantly twirling one finger, "I was just wondering if an Ascended Being was going to swoop down and…take it away."

"Probably don't mind that we're about to take the Ori out of the equation for 'em," Spike noted with a slight shrug.

"Or… there's no point because I've assembled it wrongly, and it's not going to work," Vala said, smiling uncertainly at him as Spike glared back at her.

"I vote we hope for the best until we know otherwise," he said firmly, before looking around the room once more and coming to a decision. "OK, you stay here and keep that crystal safe; I'm going to go and check on the bridge."

"The bridge?" Vala said, looking at Spike in confusion.

"Easy to defend this place- just lock the room again and nobody gets in- but the bridge might need some back-up," Spike said, shrugging slightly before he leaned over to give Vala a brief kiss before he turned and ran from the room along the corridor, heading towards the bridge.

Leaving Vala behind might not be something he liked to do, but the fact was that the Sangraal room was fairly unknown to the rest of the Ori forces from what Daniel had told them, while they'd definitely notice if someone was trying to take over their bridge…