Continuity: Takes place in season 4 of Buffy. Everything remains the same, with the following exceptions; after the death of Maggie Walsh, Riley is made head of the Initiative and given the task of hunting down and eliminating Adam. For a back story reason I have yet to decide, the Scoobys' are aware of Tara as a witch and friend of Willow, but not of their growing relationship.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the vampire slayer, any associated characters, places, events and any other materials related to it. They are the creation of Joss Whedon. I thank him for creating this marvellous universe, which we can all enjoy. I also do not own StarTrek The Next Generation, including characters, places, objects, institutions and other materials related to it. It is the property of Paramount Pictures. I thank Gene Roddenberry for creating such a fantastic playground for the mind. I suppose I own Lt. Jimmy Matzo, but that's it so far.

Spoilers: Anything up to the end of "The I in Team" of season four of Buffy.

Authors note: I appreciate that feelings regarding air disasters are running high following the terrible events of last September and anyone caught up in this terrible event have my greatest sympathies. However, given the source of the evil featured here, the first and second crafts it came into contact with seemed obvious. Anyone offended by this, please accept my apologies.



Chapter 4: A New Arrival

Enterprise orbited the blue orb of Earth, the North American continent below it. A green speck appeared amidst the myriad of stars, growing ever brighter and larger until it streaked up to the huge form of the starship and stopped. It hung in space for a moment, and then streaked towards the ship. On the bridge, Data spotted the incoming ball of energy and his hands moved faster than the eye could see. The ball of energy carried on hurtling towards the ship and then slammed into the shields that had manifested themselves, creating a protective bubble around the ship. The light hung in space for a moment, as if contemplating this strange object that had defeated it before streaking into Earth's atmosphere, disappearing amidst the storm clouds gathering over the Californian coast.

"Flight seven eighteen out of LA to Sunnydale. We're encountering heavy cloud cover here. Everything okay for a landing?" "Sunnydale tower, roger seven eighteen, everything's clear here. Recommend you descend to 8,000 feet for final approach - the cloud base is quite low." "Roger Sunnydale, beginning descent now" The 737 jetliner began to descend, disappearing amidst the rapidly darkening clouds. "Sunnydale, we're loosing visibility here. This is unlike any storm I've ever seen." Silence. "Sunnydale? Hello, Sunnydale tower, do you copy?" Silence. "Sunnydale, if you can hear me, I'm beginning ascent. We'll divert to....." "Skip! Look! What's that? Off our starboard quarter..." the aircrafts co- pilot interrupted. The pilot looked out and stared. The clouds had cleared a small degree and matching their course about 300 metres ahead of them was a glowing green light. "I don't know Scott, but I'm going up. I don't like this one bit." The aircrafts nose began to lift, the clouds parting again as it gained altitude. The radio crackled and came back to life. "...hteen. Do you read? Repeat, this is Sunnyda..." "We read you Sunnydale! Boy, am I glad to hear you! We're encountering som..." "SKIP!!!" The green light was streaking towards them, growing brighter. It sheared through the planes right wing, igniting the fuel in the tanks there. The wing fell away and exploded a moment later. The plane dropped from the sky, spiralling downwards, flames spewing from the sheared wing. It cleared the thick cloud in a matter of moments, the ground growing ever closer, the green glow only metres behind and gaining. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Flight Seven Eighteen. We've lost our starboard wing! We are going down! I repeat..." The green light accelerated and tore through the aircrafts fuselage, destroying it in a massive fireball, raining debris upon the town below.

**********

With a loud crash, the door to the foreman's office smashed open and Buffy stepped into the small room. She glanced about and spotted the demon crouched in the far corner. Cautiously she approached the cowering form; Willow entering the room behind her. As she got near, the creature bolted and tried to escape past her, but her foot shot out and sent the creature sprawling. Immediately she was on top of it, rolling it over so that she could look it in the eyes. The demon looked up at her and spat in her face, "I will tell you nothing slayer." It hissed "You should save your effort and kill me now, offering me my life will not tempt me to talk." "What made you think I was going to spare your life?" Buffy asked, lowering her knife and tracing it up the creatures neck and around it's chin, "I was going to offer you two choices - tell me everything and I'll kill you quick, don't tell me and I guess we'll see just how long you can take to die, won't we?" At this, she dug the tip of her knife into the soft flesh of his cheek and twisted, causing the creature to scream in agony. Over Buffy's shoulder, Willow winced slightly, but Buffy's face remained blank, emotionless. "I'm going to wait outside, okay Buffy?" Willow said as she headed towards the door. "Sure Will, see you soon." An hour later, after the screams coming from the office had stopped, Buffy emerged with a grim look on her face. She turned to Willow, "We have to speak with the others, right now."

**********

In an abandoned mansion a few miles from Sunnydale, the skylight shattered, raining glass upon the crowd gathered below. A ball of green energy descended and as it reached the ground the glow began to diminish and slowly a being took form. As the glow completely vanished, a young man stood in the centre of the crowd. Immediately, all but one of the gathered acolytes dropped to their knees. The standing man stepped forward into the light coming from the destroyed skylight and dropped to one knee. "Welcome, Lord." He spoke in a British accent. The new arrival gazed down at him and then offered a hand. "Come Father Agarta, we have much to discuss." Together they walked from the room and entered a study, where they could talk in private. "I must admit I am disappointed father. You did not finish the ritual and it has taken me time I did not have to get here." "I am sorry, great one, but the slayer int...." "The slayer is dead! I set in motion the events that would lead to the Master killing her!" "So she did, lord. B-but her friend resuscitated her." The man stammered. "What!" the young man shouted. "How could you let this happen?" "Lord, we arranged for her to be killed, but our plans were interrupted by the vampire with a soul. He prevented us from getting to her friends." The young man sighed and waved a hand "Very well, what's done is done, I'll just have to kill the slayer. What worries me more is Enterprise, how did they get here?" "We do not know sir." The young man sighed yet again "You do not know a great deal, do you father?" Agarta bowed his head, the shame playing across his face, plain for anyone to see. "I am sorry my lord. I can only plead for your mercy." "You have my pity Agarta, only my pity. How can one so blessed in the magical arts be incompetent enough to not kill a slayer?" Agarta raised his head slightly "My lord, she is unlike any slayer in the history of the world. My divinations show she will one day defeat a god, if left to her own devices." he young man looked startled for a moment "A mortal? Kill a god? How?" "I do not now the details Lord, just that she would pay a great price." "Very well, it is of no importance. Now that I am here, all that would be will change. Tell me, how go your studies?" Agarta turned to the desk and unrolled a number of parchments, "Very well Lord, as you can see in the text here....." And so it continued, for countless hours, past dawn, past dusk, hour after hour...

**********

The away team stood staring at the empty crater where the shuttle should have been. Then something caught Geordies' attention. "There," he said aloud, pointing towards the ground. "Tracks. Human and some kind of wheeled veichle, leading over..." The darkness from the growing storm was suddenly washed out by a bright flare in the sky. They looked up in time to see an expanding ball of flame a few thousand feet up, then a fountain of mud was sprayed high into the air as debree started to rain down. "Everyone! Into cover! NOW!" Riker bellowed over the sound of impact after impact. Quickly they dashed back into the relative safety of the woods. More chunks of metal crashed to the ground. After a minute or two the deadly deluge had stopped and the mud caked starfleet officers stepped back into the open air, a gentle rain starting to fall. "What was that?" Matzo asked, looking around at the devastion that now surrounded them. A tricorder appeared in La Forge's hand, scanning the debris. "According to this, it was an aircraft of some kind and a large one at that." Riker tapped his badge, "Away team two to Enterprise." Silence. He tryed again. More silence. He sighed. "Now what?" he asked no one in particular, "Right, lets head back to the shuttle, see if we can find out some details from it's sensors." The team turned and trudged back through the woods in the steadily growing rainfall.

**********

"...and so they want to merge the two realities, giving their master power greater than that possed by Q?" Picard asked, a deep frown furrowing his brow. "Yep." Buffy answered flatly, "I have to say, as far as evil plans go, it seems pretty flawed. We just kill this Father Agarta character and 'poof', this guys chance of supreme power is gone." "Are you sure?" The captain asked, "It may be a ploy." "Of course it's a ploy." Giles interrupted, "Apparently, the death of Agarta is something they wish, for whatever reason. Therefore he must be protected at all costs." "But if that's the case, why don't they just kill him themselves?" Xander asked, voicing the question on everyones mind. "It must have something to do with the ceremony." Willow answered. Giles nodded, removing his glasses and polishing the lenses with a cloth from his pocket. "I concur Willow. Doubless, given the information they have so kindly 'provided' us with, Buffy, or at least an instrument of good, appears to be critical to this ceremony they are attempting." Now Buffy spoke again "Provided? Giles, it took me an age to convince that thing to tell me what it knew." Giles looked at her. "Buffy, in something like this, the people and creatures involved are normally so fanatical that they would rather die than divulge any information. The fact that you succeded in extracting such a huge amount of information in such a relatively short space of time makes me very suspicious indeed." Picard got to his feet and laid his hands on the table "Very well, I have a plan. we will extract this individual, using our weapons to subdue him, then you can protect him." He looked at Riley, who nodded in agreement. "Then, once we have that little problem solved, maybe we'll be able to get back to trying to find a way home." he said, looking to his fellow officers.

TBC...