— Thor's Slayers —

Chapter Four

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot

Author's Notes: Alright folks, enjoy the chapter and have a happy new year! In celebration of the new year, I'll be posting chapter five tomorrow or monday. It's going to be long and action packed. Happy new year and may 2017 be more enjoyable than 2016!

We lost so many great people in the last few weeks, but only one truly affected me.

Goodbye, Carrie Fisher. You were so many things to so many people: Rebel princess and the daughter of Darth Vader in a galaxy, far, far away, the girlfriend of Elwood Blues, the raunchy nun in Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back, a wonderful actress, and an absolutely brilliant screenwriter. You confronted the personal trials of your life with a strength and determination one might have expected of a true princess of Alderaan. Carrie Fisher, you will be missed.

#

"What the hell?" Doctor McKay asked the moment Buffy and Faith left the room. McKay struggled to speak before finally repeating himself. "What the hell?!"

"About this...Whistler," Colonel Sumner began as he directed his attention to Doctor Weir, but the former diplomat held up a hand to cut him off.

"I know he represented a breach in security, I should have said something, I know—" Elizabeth Weir said, before the Marine interrupted her.

"That not what I was going to say, Doctor. In light of everything we just heard, I understand why you didn't tell me. I even understand why General O'Neill didn't tell me. What I don't understand is how any of this is true to begin with or why this Whistler believes that Illyria is our responsibility." Col. Sumner's voice had slowly risen in volume as he spoke before he caught himself and ended his tirade with a deep exhalation. "I'm getting too old for this shit, if you'll pardon my language."

Dr. Weir waved him off.

"What the hell?" McKay repeated for the third time.

Col. Sumner said nothing, but he wholeheartedly agreed with the Canadian's overall sentiment.

After a back and forth discussion about Whistler and the Powers that Be, the three interviewers began asking about Slayers. There the answers provided by the two young women became more vague and their willingness to field those questions waned in the face of McKay's continuing skepticism that bordered on hostility. Buffy, visibly annoyed by then, asked if they had any spare steel or iron rods that had accompanied the expedition or if they'd found anything similar in their exploration of Atlantis. The question had garnered her some strange looks from her audience, but Sumner had radioed in to relay the question at her insistence.

As it turns out, one of the rooms they'd explored and secured in the short time they'd been on Atlantis had held a veritable bounty of parts and materials. Control crystals, crystal power cells, environmental suits, a stash of what were presumably maintenance robots, handheld equipment both familiar and unknown, and even a cache of drones had been found. That room had also included raw materials mostly consisting of metallic parts of varying shapes, sizes, and compositions. One such item was a cylindrical rod that had been identified as having an alloy composition approximate to steel.

A few minutes later, a soldier couriered the rod into the conference room and deposited it onto the conference table with an audible grunt. After his dismissal, the three onlookers looked to Buffy for an explanation. Faith indicated the rod with a wave of her hand. "Go on, pick it up. Get your hands on it. Feel it, feel how strong it is."

Faith rolled it over to McKay.

The Canadian looked at her skeptically, but took the rod with both hands and hefted it into the air for a few seconds before quickly setting it back down onto the table with a heavy thud. Buffy hadn't quite been able to conceal her snicker, making the physicist flush in embarrassment; a weightlifter, their physicist was most certainly not.

Weir and Sumner did as instructed before the Marine rolled the bar back towards Faith with an inquisitive look.

"What's this all abo—" Weir began to ask, but stopped when Faith, stood, grabbed the bar in one hand, lifted it, twirled it like a baton before bending it in half. She tossed it at the now standing Buffy, who caught it and bent it back into its original shape. Then the 'Slayers' had the conversation they'd evidently been preparing for but hoping to avoid.

#

"We're Slayers, Col. Sumner. We fight bad guys, we fight monsters; it's what we do and what we are. If you—we, have a bunch of monsters to fight, Colonel, then please let us help," Buffy said quietly.

"And Illyria?" Sumner asked. "What would she be doing?"

"She can help us fight or she can help McKay geek out. But she can help either way," Faith stated adamantly, ignoring McKay's startled 'Hey!'.

"You see our injuries, Col. Sumner? Faith's broken rib, my nose, the slashes? We'll be 100% by tomorrow, tomorrow night at the latest. You can trust us to fight with you!" Buffy urged him.

Dr. Weir cleared her throat. "I don't believe it's a matter of us trusting you, ladies. Not the two of you, at least. Would you agree, Colonel?"

Sumner gave the head of the Atlantis expedition a long look before he slowly nodded at the girls. "I won't lie and say I'm without reservations, but you've done nothing to disappoint me or put any of my people in danger. Yet. Assuming you can do all of the other things you've mentioned, or demonstrated, I'll have to rethink a few ideas I've had about future missions. If I'm to fit you into Atlantis security and field operations in order to make effective use of your...talents. In the meantime, you're dismissed."

The girls nodded and stood back up.

"And ladies?" Sumner asked. Once they turned around, he gave them a faint smile. "Thank you for helping Sheppard and his team to rescue my men and I from the Wraith."

They'd smiled brightly at him and turned around to leave when Faith and turned to look at them. "Colonel, Doctors, what are you planning on doing about Illyria?"

When neither Weir nor the other two replied after a moment, Weir gave the brunette a curious glance. "What would you suggest?"

"Do what you've been doing, giving Fred orders, get her to run experiments or do research with all those scientists who want to get in her pants, whatever. But the moment you believe you can order Illyria to do something with that commanding tone you sometimes get, she'll go all Tasmanian Devil on you," Faith replied. The brunette paused, obviously struggling to put her thoughts into words. "You understand? Don't ever forget that even if she's being all sweet Texan sunshine, Illyria is still staring out at you from those warm, brown eyes. She knows she's to take orders or follow your directions, but Illyria is one prideful bitch; don't ever forget who you're really talking to."

Faith turned her back and walked out of the room, Buffy at her side, but before taking the final step out of the room, Faith turned once again with a grimace. "Also, Illyria likes to insult humans; she can get real poetic about it, in a gruesome kind of way. Don't take it personally because she'll get her hate and disdain on for just about any species."

#

"So to summarize: we have an ancient powerful being in this city, something older than even the dinosaurs, and its the occasional massacre that it finds entertaining." Sumner muttered, shaking his head before glancing back at the rod.

Weir looked at the object of the Marine's attention and shook her head in like-minded bewilderment.

"Whistler didn't give any specifics—" Weir began, but was interrupted as McKay began speaking with an agitated, annoyed voice..

"Hence Buffy's annoyance, yes." McKay interrupted, "She did say that he worked for the 'good guys', or whatever passes for good guys when it comes to beings living on another plane of existence, anyway."

Weir glared at him until he fell silent. "We...I at least know that some of what he told me can be confirmed. He told me we could change their problem, Illyria I'm assuming. Faith said that, as her guide, she's been teaching her about our world, about humanity. Maybe we're supposed to contribute to that, to help her see things from our vantage. Whistler said that she could help solve our problem, the Wraith presumably. Given Sheppard's claim regarding her...performance, I think I can understand his point," Weir said thoughtfully, but not without a hint of bitterness.

"So what? We just let Cthulhu run wild?" McKay asked in disbelief.

"You really fixated on that, didn't you?" Sumner asked, bemused despite the subject.

McKay sniffed disdainfully, but said nothing..

"You know what I'm curious about? What sort of 'creatures' require the sort of abilities these girls possess in order to protect us?" Elizabeth Weir wondered aloud.

"Faith talked about things that go 'bump in the night'. Combined with the fact that they call themselves 'Slayers' and there are some creepy implications," Rodney murmured. "They did seem to like the idea of the Wraith being—" the Canadian hesitated, "—vampires."

There was a long silence in the room before Weir blew out a breath. "Colonel, you meant what you said about Faith and Buffy? Keeping them available for field operations?"

Sumner nodded again, frowning as he considered the situation. "We haven't had much time here in Pegasus and I've spent a lot of it unconscious, so there are still some things I need to check on but... The way I see it, our first and foremost need is to acquire information. We need to know more about this galaxy, about the major players if there are any other than the Wraith, and we need to know more about the Wraith themselves if we want to stand up to them in a fight."

Marshall Sumner leaned back in his chair, brow still furrowed in thought. "Sheppard is going to be an asset. I'd be blind not to admit it and he is probably the best soldier under my command to handle first contact scenarios. He's adaptive, effective in combat, and most importantly, the damn man is likable."

Weir smiled at that and nodded for the Marine to continue.

"We're going to need several different reconnaissance teams to get us that information, bare minimum four people each, but we do not have a lot of manpower to spare, Dr. Weir. If we're willing to trust even a handful of the Athosians to work with us, it will take a load off my back. I'm not at all fond of the idea of training and equipping them and letting them handle our security, but if they're willing to go out with our teams as guides, they'll not only dramatically increase our teams' effectiveness at navigating foreign lands and peoples, but free up our personnel to assist in securing Atlantis."

"And the 'Slayers'?" McKay asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd want them to run with the reconnaissance teams for awhile, get them used to us, and allow us to get used to them and their talents. Once we learn more about the Wraith, or if we have any threats or situations to deal with, we can adjust their role."

Elizabeth Weir raised her eyebrows in question. "To what?"

Sumner grunted in dark amusement. "Apparently, these young women are Slayers, Dr. Weir. I'm going to let them slay."

Faith plopped down onto the plastic chair in the mess, Buffy doing the same next to her. They sat on the brown folding chairs clustered around the white plastic tables that the expedition had brought with them. The furniture had been setup in a particularly large outdoor space and even if the chairs were cheap, the view was priceless.

Faith examined her plate and growled. "This sucks."

Buffy looked at her own plate, filled with the remains of the lunch they'd missed due to their extended meeting, and took a bite. "Schnitzel is pretty good."

Faith took a bite and shrugged.

"Okay, what's wrong?" the blonde asked, glaring at Faith.

"What isn't?" Faith asked, groaning as she moved her plate and let her head fall to the table.

"We both knew they'd find out eventually," Buffy pointed out.

"It's been two days, B. Two days!"

Buffy winced, but brightened after a moment. "But..." she said, drawing out the word and bumping the brunette with her shoulder, "we got to kill space vampires."

Faith lifted her head up, and peered sideways at her lover. "We did, didn't we?"

"And Thor gave you some pretty badass swords, right?"

Faith nodded more enthusiastically.

"So one might say, all things considered, that it's actually been pretty...wicked," Buffy teased.

"Yeah, I guess it has," Faith agreed and took a bite of the fried dish. "Not bad."

"Told ya," Buffy said cheerfully.

They ate in silence, looking out over the balcony of their gleaming silver city as the sun began its slow trek towards the horizon.

December 17th, 2005

Col. Sumner tapped his earpiece. "Major Sheppard, Sergeant Bates, and Sergeant Stackhouse, report to the conference room at 10:30."

Hearing the three men's acknowledgments, he went back to pouring over a manifest of the expedition's personnel. In addition to that, he now had a separate list on his datapad that Maj. Sheppard had compiled of their Athosian guests and those willing to work with Atlantis personnel on field missions. Marshall Sumner rubbed his forehead, tapping the device to produce a separate diagram he'd been provided by Doctor Grodin about the city's status. What had been explored, what had been secured, where had this and that been found, so many details that he truly wished he'd brought an aide. He only had so many men to divide between securing the city and to send out in recon teams.

He sighed and looked at his wrist to check the time.

He had thirty minutes before his chosen team leaders would arrive and there were still a myriad of things to get finished. He stretched his neck and shoulders, wincing at his joints popped. Sumner put the stylus to his lip in thought and then paused. Yeah...that might work, he thought to himself, selecting several of the individuals on the tablet and grouping them. That'll work just fine.

#

"So, you wanted to see us?" Maj. Sheppard asked, indicating himself and the two men at his side as he entered the conference room

Sumner gritted his teeth at Sheppard's ongoing laid-back demeanor, then inwardly rolled his eyes at himself. They'd both have to get used to each other and he just knew that Sheppard was doing it deliberately just to annoy him.

"Yes, Major. Gentlemen, sit down."

The three men standing at attention sat down, looking at him expectantly. He repeated the relevant parts of his conversation with Dr. Weir two days prior, specifically his thoughts about the teams and their purposes. When he was finished, he pointed a finger in their direction. "You gentlemen will be the leaders of Atlantis's First, Second, and Third Reconnaissance Teams. Each of your teams will share a common purpose but will vary in specialty and each of you will bring an Athosian with you to work as your guide and to liaison with any locals," Sumner announced.

When he noticed Sgt. Bates preparing to mount a protest, Sumner spoke directly to the darker-skinned man, "this is an order, Sergeant. I don't care if you don't like it; the fact is that we need the manpower and their participation will free up some sorely needed personnel here in Atlantis. There are precious few of us and keeping Atlantis secure is no small task. Furthermore, each of you will be responsible for arming and training your...cultural attaché as well as any civilian taking part in your missions.

"And gentlemen, you will listen to what the Athosians have to say. They know this place, we don't. I don't care how much you think you know better, you listen to them when they say you should or shouldn't do something, you got me?" Sumner questioned, looking each man in the eye.

"Yes sir," the three chorused. Bates looked unhappy, but resolute in following his commanding officer's order.

"What about you, sir?"

It was Sheppard who'd asked the question and Sumner thought he saw a measure of regard in the younger man's eyes that he hadn't previously enjoyed before he'd been rescued. He'd impressed the major, Sumner realized, likely for his handling of the Athosians. Bully for me, he mused.

Sumner gave the Air Force officer a wry smile. "I'll be taking over as the Head-of-Security of Atlantis. I've established a pretty good rapport with Dr. Weir and somebody has to take charge of not only the civilians here, but the Athosians as well. I'm not turning a blind eye to them, Sgt. Bates, as I'm sure you'll be pleased to know."

Bates had the grace to look embarrassed, but he nodded his understanding.

"The absolute priority for all reconnaissance teams is to search for and obtain a ZPM for Atlantis. Without one, we are effectively defenseless and without any means of contacting or traveling back to Earth. If there is any indication that your team might have found one, you are to contact Atlantis immediately, understand? The second mission priority for all teams is to perform reconnaissance; we need to learn what's out there. Sheppard, you'll be leading the First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team. You'll be handling first contact ops and initial reconnoitering."

Sumner turned towards the darker man who, like him, had been captured by the Wraith on Athos. "Sgt. Bates, AR-2 will be led by you. You'll primarily be conducting in-depth reconnaissance on the Wraith or suspected Wraith positions reported by AR-1, but you'll be doing escort duty for our civilian experts to conduct scientific research on the side. Stackhouse, AR-3, you'll be working backup for both teams, but I intend to turn your team into more of a special tactics unit once we know more about our new galaxy and the Wraith."

"Will you be assigning people to our teams?" Bates asked, "or do we have the freedom to pick?"

"Some personnel will be assigned to each of you, the others you can pick for yourselves," Sumner answered. "I've already taken the liberty of selecting your science geeks."

Bates snorted in amusement.

"Sheppard, you're getting McKay. Bates has Corrigan, and Stackhouse will have Burkle," Sumner said the last while staring at Sheppard, who jerked at Winifred Burkle's name. The major looked at him for several long seconds before he nodded slightly.

"Remember, all three of you need to make sure your non-military personnel can take care of themselves. I want to see your proposed team roster on my desk within 96 hours. Sheppard will provide you with information about any of our guests who willing to work with our teams. That should give you enough time to find one of the locals you'll be able to get along with. Once your teams are assembled, you'll be given some time to train together here on Atlantis, but I expect to begin field operations in no more than two weeks. Clear?"

"Yes sir," the men echoed.

"Then get out and get to work," Sumner told them sternly. As the men stood to leave, he cleared his throat. "Stackhouse, stay for a second, I need to talk to you."

"Sir?" the young brown-haired man prompted, sitting back down.

"Besides Miss Burkle, I've already assigned two others to your team. Miss Summers and Miss Lehane, both of whom I believe you've met." Sumner smiled inwardly when the young man flushed slightly.

"Yes sir. They're...impressive. I wasn't on the ship during the rescue mission, but from what Sheppard described and from what I saw of them sparring..." Stackhouse shook his head as he trailed off. "At least I won't have to worry about how well they can take or throw a punch."

"No, no, I imagine you won't," Sumner agreed with a twitch of his lips. "Sergeant, you can choose another member of the military detachment for your team, but I don't think you'll need someone else. Your biggest obstacle won't be your combat effectiveness, it will be for you and the two young women to get used to each other's...mindsets, I suppose is the best way to put it. Though they are both undeniably skilled warriors and self-disciplined, they are still civilians with civilian habits; you'll have to get used to each other. I won't coach you on training your guide, I'll leave it up to you. Like the civilians and scientists on the other teams, Burkle isn't going to be running with you on every op, only when it's clear she'll be needed. I can assure you, however, that she's tough, can shoot, and can deal with a bad situation with a level head."

Sumner folded his hands on the table and gave Stackhouse a level look. "After your group has a few missions under its belt, your team is going to be the one focused on running missions against the Wraith and teaching other populations to engage the Wraith in asymmetric operations. I mentioned you'll be performing as backup earlier; part of that will be running search and rescue ops as needed if the other teams are detected or need help bugging out."

Seeing the young man's somewhat dubious expression, Sumner chuckled. "Relax, Sergeant. Faith Lehane has spent the better part of the last two years unofficially training with SG-10 and was cleared to officially join the Stargate program and one of their SG teams. Summers is, by your own report, in superb physical condition and is as capable as any fighter we have here in Atlantis. All she lacks is book knowledge, something which Lehane has been tutoring her to an unknown extent and proficiency. Both Summers and Lehane are friends with Burkle, which should also help curb the tendency of many scientists to ignore our advice or orders in the pursuit of 'knowledge'."

Stackhouse blew out a breath. "You're making this seem awfully simple, Colonel.

"It won't be, Sergeant," Sumner said with a grim smile. "You still have to get Summers up to speed and get everyone on your team used to working together and working under your orders. I suspect you'll have your hands full on that last one, by the way," Sumner added with a brief chuckle. "Take the time you have to get your people ready, Louis, because I want your team ready to kick ass if they have to."

Stackhouse nodded slowly. "Aright sir, I won't let you down, but if I might ask, why not Sgt. Bates and his team? If you want to assemble a special operations force, why would you include two green civilians, even ones as capable as they are?"

Sumner gave the man an enigmatic smile. "When you figure it out, why don't you come back to me and we'll talk about it."

Stackhouse still looked confused but saluted and left the room. However, when the door slid open to admit the Sergeant out, Sheppard was there waiting. The major stepped back inside the conference room the moment Stackhouse had cleared the doorway.

"Sheppard," Sumner acknowledged.

"Burkle?" Sheppard asked without preamble.

Marshall Sumner sighed. "She's complicated and she's on our side."

"And dead," Sheppard supplied.

"And dead," Sumner agreed.

Sheppard studied the colonel for several moments. "Did you get answers?"

"More than I ever wanted," Sumner answered, as truthfully as he'd ever been in his whole life.

Sheppard blinked. "Alright..." Sheppard said slowly and waved a hand in a rolling 'get on with it' motion.

"If you want to know, ask her yourself," Sumner said, a little more harshly than he'd intended. The colonel took a deep breath. "I apologize Major, that was uncalled for. I did get answers, but the ones that I have are not ones I'm willing to share at this time," the Marine said, unclenching the fists he hadn't even felt himself make.

The major watched him for a moment before he nodded and turned to leave. "I'll get my team together and let you know. And thanks for giving me McKay, kinda like the guy."

Sumner snorted as he watched the Air Force major leave the room. "At least someone does," he muttered.

"Sergeant..." Elizabeth trailed off, unable to see the man's name with his back turned.

The sergeant, who had been walking up the steps leading to the DHD room, revealed himself to be a young brown-haired man with the Canadian flag emblazoned onto his jacket sleeve. "Chuck, ma'am."

Weir nodded. "Chuck, then. I know I ordered the plants removed from the Gate room but I hadn't expected new ones to have been planted or sprouted so quickly. Do you know who's been working on them?"

The man looked surprised. "It was the late addition, ma'am, Miss Burkle. I think Doctor Zelenka gave her permission and one of the botanists gave her some of our extra seeds to work with. She's been in the Gate room tending the plants every morning at sunrise since the day after we rescued her and the others from the Wraith. She's not really all that talkative when she's working with the plants, but I can't argue with the results."

Elizabeth furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Doctor, Miss Burkle planted all of these as seeds and it's only been a couple of days; like I said, she's got quite the green thumb. If you don't mind, Dr. Weir, I really should get back to the DHD room to help Drs. Grodin and Lindstrom out. We're mapping some of the subsystems of the DHD device and the other equipment, see what there is to learn. Apparently it's really exciting stuff, but I'm mostly there just to lift things and nod in agreement at whatever they say."

"Of course," Weir murmured and crouched to examine the pot on the floor of the Gate room.

Emerging from the dark, damp soil were several stalks of bamboo at least two feet high, ringed by flowers of some sort that had already begun to sprout leaves, but hadn't yet blossomed. In a loose circle around the bamboo was a dark vine, just starting to sprout tiny leaves but with no other discernible traits yet. Curious, Weir reached out a hand to inspect the vine.

"You shouldn't touch that barberry, Dr. Weir."

Weir jerked at the sound of the southern voice. Winifred Burkle, no, Illyria, stood perhaps three feet away wearing a smile that went nicely with her tan Atlantis uniform and blue accented jacket.

"It's a pretty vine, has all kinds of uses; my dad taught me how to prepare the berries for eating and even for making dye." Illyria smiled, and a passing Marine tipped his hat at her, smiling in turn. "One of the botanists was kind enough to give me a few seeds when I mentioned my experience with the plant." The Old One walked forward to crouch at Weir's side and reached out to lift part of the small vine for Weir's inspection. "You see, Dr. Weir, the thorns on these vines are pretty sharp, so make sure you don't get hurt trying to poke it."

The look in the Old One's eyes made clear her meaning even if her pointed description of the plant hadn't. "I understand, Illyria, just as I hope you understand that your actions will reflect on your guide and her companion," the doctor said quietly.

Illyria nodded and smiled a Fred smile, caressing the vine heedless of the thorns she'd warned of before straightening and walking away. Weir remained behind, watching as the vine seemed to shiver before growing several inches longer.

December 29th, 2005

"I really...really...want to get this thing off of me," Faith said in a strained voice.

"You sure? Kinda cute in a bloodsucking way," Buffy said lightly, though her eyes were fixed on the disgusting insect thing that had attached itself to Faith's neck. Those green eyes held promise of something far worse than a big can of Raid.

"Memories of Angel, right?"

"Bitch." Buffy punched Faith in the shoulder.

The bug hissed at her as Faith's body rocked at the blow.

Buffy hissed back.

"Okay, so how do we get this thing off?" Buffy asked the other occupants of the Puddle Jumper.

Louis Stackhouse, who had joined Buffy in her crouch around Faith, shook his head. "Well, the bug is doing something, but damn if I know what."

"I'd say it's consuming her life like one of them Wraith. Seems appropriate given that we were on their world," Fred said with a shrug.

"I have heard of such creatures," Halling murmured, "but only in stories meant to scare the young ones."

"So what do we do?" Buffy asked, voice steady but eyes filled with worry.

"If the bug is feeding on her life, then it's quite simple," Fred said, smiling. "We have to kill Faith."

Faith stared at her. "Fine, I take back all the nice things I ever—" she stopped, groaning as the insect's legs fastened tighter. "—I ever said about you."

"Well not permanently, dummy. Just long enough for it to look for somewhere else to feed." Fred frowned at the looks she received.

"Is there no way to kill the creature without it harming Faith further?" Halling asked.

"I shot it and it nearly choked Faith out as it regenerated its wound. I tried to physically remove it and same thing. Little fucker is strong and if I ripped it out, Faith's carotid would've gone with it," Stackhouse said grimly. "Markham, are we nearly there?"

"Yes, Sergeant. Chevrons already encoded, we'll be in Atlantis in another 45 seconds," the pilot called back.

"B."

Buffy bent down at Faith's whisper. "What?"

"When we get to Atlantis, get the kris and pigstick this fucker," Faith ordered quietly.

"I thought we just established that it was a bad idea to do that," Buffy said, crossing her arms and glaring at the brunette.

"Yeah, but see I've been thinking about the kris ever since I got the thing. Lorne gives me this super cool mystical kris and tells me it'll bring me luck and shit. We get here and we learn we have our own race of big bads to deal with. You and I, we've seen all sorts of mystical weapons and they never come with a goddamn instruction manual."

Faith paused. "Well the Scythe and the Troll Hammer are pretty clear cut, but you know what I mean."

Buffy nodded.

"So I've been thinking: what good is a mystical weapon in a galaxy that doesn't have any mystical bad guys? What good is a mystical dagger against space alien-vampires with space guns? Then I think, well even if they have space guns they still have to get up close and personal to eat, right?"

"And...?" Buffy asked, confused.

"That kris, I'm betting it has to do with the Wraith, given that Lorne gave it to me. If it does, then it's gotta do something either to the Wraith, the victim, or both. So stab it and see what happens and if it behaves the same way it did last time then all it'll do is get a little grab happy."

"Stab it and see what happens," Buffy repeated blandly.

"Has that strategy ever failed us?" Faith countered.

Buffy opened her mouth, closed it, and grimaced.

#

"Bates isn't going to be happy we had to come and bail his ass out," Stackhouse muttered.

"Would he not be grateful to be rescued?" Halling asked, confused. "It was his quick thinking that allowed Atlantis to receive the message about his situation, wouldn't he be gratified that it saved his life and the lives of his men from being fed upon by the Wraith remaining on that planet?"

Stackhouse nodded. "He will be, but he'll complain." The Sergeant glanced at the rear hold where Bates and his men were resting. Stackhouse chuckled, "I'm afraid to say Halling, that my people are very good at complaining."

"Perhaps, but they are resourceful and strong," Halling said, nodding towards Buffy.

Remembering the blonde snapping the neck of the Wraith soldier who had stood over Faith with an audible 'crack', Stackhouse nodded. "Yes, yes we are," he murmured.

#

"Sergeant, what's the situation?"

Stackhouse looked up to see the colonel entering the infirmary, Dr. Weir at his side, and walk towards him. Louis met them halfway and gave his commanding officer a salute and the doctor a respectful tilt of the head.

"Colonel, after departing Atlantis and arriving at the Wraith homeworld, we discovered that the Wraith ship which had been stationed there had disappeared. Halling is convinced that it means the Wraith are now culling humans again," Stackhouse reported.

"Since we didn't see any Wraith ships on or leaving the planet, I operated on the assumption that there was still a Wraith presence on the planet itself. Halling told us the most likely places for the Wraith to keep any humans they didn't immediately feed on and we split up to check it out. Fred went with Sergeant Markham to repair AR-2's damaged Puddle Jumper that we found not too far from the Wraith's ship previous location. I'm assuming AR-2 made it back here after they fixed the engine pod."

"Yes Sergeant, he did, and I can't say I'm displeased that you were able to salvage it," Sumner said with a smile, indicating for the Marine to continue.

There was a sudden shout and they both looked as Faith arched her back as the insect made a loud trilling noise. After half a minute or so, Faith let her body fall back onto the bed, gasping. Dr. Beckett put down a bottle containing some sort of liquid and ran his fingers through his hair in agitation.

Weir put a hand on his sleeve to get his attention. "Sergeant, we can't do anything in there but get in the way, please continue."

Louis swallowed and turned back to the colonel and Dr. Weir. "Faith and I checked out the most likely site, Halling and Buffy the other. Sgt. Bates, Dr. Corrigan, Yamato, and Parker were at the A site. They were chained up in a cave, but mostly unhurt. Bates and Corrigan were stunned, Yamato and Parker had been slapped around, but they hadn't been fed upon in the manner Fred had described. Faith and I were able to neutralize the six Wraith soldiers who had been watching over them, although we never saw who they were watching them for."

The Marine sergeant glanced over at Faith, who was giving the middle finger to an indignant Doctor Kavanagh. He snorted in amusement, but lost his smile quickly as he turned back to Weir and Sumner.

"Faith radioed Buffy to relay that friendlies had been recovered and it was to bug out. Faith watched our ass while I carried Bates and Yamato and Parker took care of Corrigan. We were maybe 100 meters away from the Jumper when six more Wraith soldiers ambushed us. Faith got hit by three or four of those stun blasts while I had to drop Bates and dive behind a fallen tree for cover before returning fire. I kept the Wraith's head down while Parker and Yamato took Corrigan towards their Puddle Jumper."

Louis glanced once again at the brunette. "It's the damnedest thing though, I know Faith got hit by those stunners, but she wasn't down for more than 15 seconds. They walked past her trying to get at me and I managed to watch her fish out her M9 and shoot the bastards. Popped them each in the back of their skulls, nice and neat. Damnedest thing.

"She was on her feet after another 15 seconds and running within a minute. We were 20 meters from the Puddle Jumper when I heard Faith cry out; when I looked behind me, I saw that bug attached to her neck along with one of the unmasked Wraith standing behind her. That's when Buffy and Halling come running out of the brush toward the Puddle Jumper. Buffy sees us all, yells at Halling to get Parker to the other Jumper and starts firing at the Wraith.

"The unmasked ones aren't stupid though, sir, they won't stand there and take bullets like the soldiers do. Buffy signaled for me to cover Halling while she attempted to sneak around him, so I laid down some fire to keep the Wraith's head down. The next thing I see is Buffy jumping over that boulder he'd been using for cover, flipping him over her shoulder like a sack of corn and then running a damn tree branch she'd picked up somewhere right through the Wrath's chest. Damn woman knows how to improvise, that's for sure."

Weir glanced around. "I'd have expected Buffy to want to be here, Sergeant, do you know where she is?"

Stackhouse shrugged. "I heard that she was going to get Chris? Not sure I know whom she's referring to—maybe someone she's dating?"

The former diplomat's lips twitched. "Ah, I don't think so. I wonder—"

There was a sudden commotion as Buffy came running into the room holding...something. Col. Sumner, Dr. Weir, and Sgt. Stackhouse all had to step back from being run over by the blonde whirlwind.

"Hey, you can't be here, this place is for doctors and medical staff only," Dr. Kavanagh's condescending voice boomed out.

"You're not even a medical doctor! Now get out of my way or I'll make you even less of a man than you are now," the blonde said with a dangerous tone, waving a...knife?

Dr. Kavanagh fainted.

"Seriously? Wow," Buffy commented disdainfully, and stepped forward to meet Dr. Beckett.

"Now, lass, I don't know what you think you're doing, but I can't let you back here when you're waving that...what the bloody hell is that anyway?"

"It's a kris, and Faith asked me to bring it here," Buffy answered, holding it up for his inspection.

At the naming of the item, Weir, Sumner, and Stackhouse exchanged surprised looks.

"Even though I was wrong about her dating someone named Chris, I wouldn't be surprised if she's involved with that kris. Faith seems inordinately attracted to edged weapons," Louis commented dryly.

"You're not wrong. One of the days you were working with Halling, I caught her petting her sword while she was observing you," Sumner said, a wry twist to his lips.

They both turned from their banter to see Beckett questioning Buffy about her intentions.

"Look, even if she asked you to bring that, what exactly do you think you'll be accomplishing?" Beckett asked patiently.

"I don't know, but we can find out!" Buffy said with a dazzling smile.

Beckett didn't buy it. "Look lass, your friend is in danger and we're working on getting her out. I'll allow you to stay in the room as thanks for making that wallaper Kavanagh be quiet for once, but you need to give us space."

"Wallpaper?" the blonde asked, nose wrinkled in confusion.

"Bloody Americans, just sit down over there, Miss Summers," Beckett said.

Buffy rolled her eyes, looked around, spotted Weir and smiled mischievously. "Oh my god, Beckett, there's a naked woman in here!" she cried out loudly, tapping his arm and pointing in Weir's general direction.

"What? Where?" Beckett said, looking frantically in the direction of Buffy's finger.

Buffy darted past him, leaned over the grinning Faith, and thrust the knife into the bug.

Twice.

"Die you weird vampirey insect piece of crap!" the blonde growled.

Three times.

Four times.

"B, I, uh, think you got it."

Five times.

"Yeah, you can stop now, there ain't much left to stab and this is givin' me some not so fun flashbacks," Faith murmured, looking slightly pale.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Buffy muttered, looking at the splatter of insect goo that littered Faith's chest and the immediate area. "Well, guess it worked."

Faith snorted.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

Buffy winced, looked at the raised kris she held and cringed. As if things weren't uncomfortable enough, the kris had decided that it was a good time for the bone of the blade to suddenly become an iridescent silver. The inlaid silver that had once adorned the blade was now golden and had changed into some form of writing.

Beckett was staring at her, at the kris, then at Faith, and back to her.

"Look, naked woman?" Buffy tried weakly.

Author's Notes: This was mostly a filler chapter designed to set the stage for the kris as well as the highlight the fact that it wasn't just Sheppard who did crap. Both Bates's (even if they got caught) and Stackhouse's recon team actually did shit. This also helps to date the story based on the canon timeline (the bug thing happened in the episode Thirty-Eight Minutes, the forth episode of the show). The maintenance drones and environmental suits I mentioned as being found in the room containing random crap were actually used in Stargate: Universe, but I figured it was pretty likely Atlantis would have the same or similar items, yes? God forbid the Ancients go into construction and repair their own shit.

The steel rod I used as an example would have weighed close to 70ish lbs. In terms of accuracy: Buffy has been able to bend steel on the show at least twice. Once were the barrels of hunter's rifles, and twice being the bars of a jail cell.

The naked woman bit with Beckett seems immature but if you watch the first few episodes of SG:A, Beckett talked about getting a girlfriend or a date a lot. So...that's where I'm coming from, not just a lame juvenile attempt (on the Writer's side) to distract.

Side note: There's a movie called Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot with Tina Fey that was really quite good.

Again, I got a HUGE chapter coming along that is in the editing phase. I hope to release it tomorrow to celebrate 2017