Chapter Three: Power and Fame

(AN: ok I'm screwing with the timeline some more.  Dawn was only 10 when she was created – it just fits better for what I want. Don't forget to sign up and find out when I update! www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/MF_FF )

He sat in the locker room his head held in his calloused hands.  He'd gone through the gate today, for the first time and as wickedly cool as it was it still scared the beggebies out of him.  His new CO, a former special forces officer, had pushed him through the shimmering liquid – laughing the whole time.  He knew it was a hazing of sort from the looks on the other two.  The feel of it brought back something that Harris thought he had left behind in Sunny Dale.  A pure rush of power, the molten silver as it slid slickly across his skin and didn't burn him.  He came through better than most on their first trip, yet that was only because he had been through worse.  Those things that he had gone through years ago, the stuff he left behind.

~~~~

He finished the test and quickly set his pencil aside.  The Master Sergeant who monitored the ASVAB testing walked over to him and looked over the test briefly wondering why the young man had finished so quickly.  What little she saw made her realize that most of the answers were correct, she smirked briefly giving the young man a nod then walked off.  She'd put in her recommendation, and let the others mark his progress through boot camp.  However she knew in less than a years time, if everything went good, she would be saluting him.

It came down to the wire.  He couldn't handle it here anymore.  The Scooby gang was officially dead.  The members weren't but what had kept them together through the years was gone.  He didn't blame Dawn, though that was when the circumstances really began to change, no he blamed Glory and the monks for that.  Then Buffy died, they brought her back.  Ripped her soul from the utopia of the beyond. Giles left them all.  He felt like it was his father that walked out the door.

 He met himself from the future, although he still wasn't sure it was him.  He left Anya at the alter and she became a vengeance demon once more.  That was when he signed the first of the papers.  Willow got addicted to magic and almost killed Dawn.  He was taking his ASVAB that night.  His mind was wracked with the 'if onlys' and 'what ifs'.  He still hadn't told anyone his plans, and then it happened two nights before he would leave on the airplane to some unknown base where he would be just another recruit, another number, at a place to start over.

Dawn called him – extremely upset.  She had just gotten home from the movies and the house looked like a tornado had ripped through it.   Upon investigation she found something no one her age should have seen, one of her friends – a part of her family lying dead.  He tried to calm her, but in the end he was the one to call 911.  Buffy was gone, Willow was missing, and Spike was no where to be found.  As he sat holding Dawn they felt it.  Powers so dark and massive, and obviously Willow.

They waited as the police had taken their statements, he told Dawn to grab her stuff explaining that she had family he was going to take her too.  And he did, putting her on the first plane to England – to Giles.  They left a note for whoever might find it.  All he knew was that she wasn't safe in Sunny Dale anymore.  He sent her off with a kiss to her forehead and a promise that when he got settled she could come stay with him any time she liked.  He stood there with his tears flowing as she left running his calloused fingers through his dark hair.  He found a phone, called Giles to explain, then went to see if anything could be salvaged from the entire situation.

He found Buffy and they found Willow.  Between the two of them they were able to pull her back from the edge…at a price.  He felt as if his own soul was being ripped from him as he walked through the bubble of power his best friend had created around herself.  The gate felt like that to a point.  He wasn't sure how they had survived – some days he wasn't sure if they did.

 ~~~~~

Like today. He wasn't sure if he could ever do it again.  He heard someone enter the locker room, but he didn't look up.  Quiet footsteps approached him and the person sat down beside him on the bench.  He felt that persons presence as they just sat their for a while, he wished that who ever it was would just go away.  After a while they were still there and he glanced up.

Lt. Hailey gave him a sympathetic smile. "You're teams been looking for you, Captain."

"Well I've been here the whole time." He stated a bit more sourly than he really wanted to. "Sorry, its just been a bad day."

"I understand."

How could she? He wondered but she answered that with her next statement. "I have a cousin who lived in Sunny Dale.  I remembered you from a picture she sent me.  You had a rather big underground following."  She was blushing a bit and looking away.

It took a moment for the thought to register and when it did he found himself blushing as well. "I…had a fan club?"

She nodded. "My cousin was a sophomore when the school was destroyed.  Her older brother would have graduated with that class so she was there with a few of his friends and since she was part of the newspaper class she got some pictures."

Harris began to smile.  He had a following, a fan club, lackeys, young women who knew some of the things he'd done.  Subconsciously his chest puffed out a bit.  For the first time in a while he felt like he shouldn't be ashamed of what happened back in his home town.  "So," he ventured, "how much did you know about me?"

She bit the insides of her cheeks lightly and looked away mumbling. Then she turned back to him, "Um, our teams are meeting in the cafeteria.  Since both have 72's, Colonel O'Neill mentioned something about a bar-b-que at his place.  That is something I don't intend to miss."  She stood up an began to walk out of the locker room.  "You coming, Captain?"

For the first time in a long while, he knew everything right now, here in this place, would be fine.  He allowed his gaze to drop a bit, quickly glancing at something else fine… Hey he was a man, and she used to be one of his groupies.  Things definitely were looking up.

{Life Law #5: Life rewards action.  Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn't care less about thoughts without actions.