Complication
Author's note: Sorry it's been such a long time. Hope this makes up for it.
It had been definitely been a day to remember, O'Neill decided. He had seen some things that he had never thought he would see and he intended to keep them stored up in his memory for those bad times, like when he was being tortured or when his hockey team were losing.
Spike had been less than impressed with Anise and so the Tok'ra scientist was keeping her distance from the vampire. The presence of Selmak within Spike was something he got used to surprisingly quickly although he hadn't quite mastered arguing silently with her. Instead, he would suddenly start whispering violently to himself and, from everyone else's point of view, it was highly amusing as they could only hear one side of the conversation. Spike was getting used to letting Selmak take control for longer and longer periods, working up to giving her full control for the mission – they had agreed that Spike would have control for short periods on the mission, for feeding only. Selmak had stimulated Spike's hair follicles so his hair now hung down past his shoulders and, with the help of Dr Fraiser, had been coloured black. It was now worn drawn back from his face in a ponytail. The first time he had walked into the room every female had been struck dumb including Buffy, Anya and, to Riley's discomfort and O'Neill's amusement, Sam Finn.
Spike was now dressed in black trousers which clung to his long legs, he wore a dark red long jacket which was open at the front, exposing his pale chest. Around his neck he wore a necklet with a small motif on it which had also been stamped on to the slave collars that his "slaves" would be wearing. He wore kohl eye shadow to highlight his glittering blue eyes and his swaggering walk had been curbed into a slower paced step, walking with more authority and less cockiness.
The second surprise of the day was Sam Carter. The girls had taken themselves off into her quarters to deal with their costumes. Jacob had advised on appropriate makeup and hairstyles. Buffy, Sam Finn and Anya wore their hair back off their faces, leaving dozens of tiny plaits hanging down from a central ponytail. Carter, with her short hair, did not have this choice and so had to submit to hair extensions. She looked drastically different with long hair, something that he had half registered on his trip through the quantum mirror, but that hadn't really been his Sam Carter. His Sam Carter now wore her hair in a style similar to the other girls with the makeup accentuating her features. But that wasn't the biggest shocker.
As the girls had trooped into the Gateroom to take their leave, his eyes had latched straight on to the first pair of legs that came through the door. These happened to belong to Anya whose skirt fell to mid thigh length. Buffy came through next and, to his surprise, neither girl seemed particularly bothered about how much flesh they were showing. But, he reflected, they were young. They probably dressed like this all the time just to go out shopping. Carter was a completely different story. She followed Sam Finn into the Gateroom and O'Neill jaw hit the floor so hard it nearly bounced back up again. He had never seen so much of her in one go. Ever. Her skirt must have been at least 2 inches shorter than those belonging to the other girls, her top bared her toned midriff which, to his surprise, sported a tiny sparkling belly ring. That was something he would never have imagined his second in command. Not that you think about your second in command, he berated himself. She, like the others, wore knee high boots and never in all of his illicit fantasies about her had O'Neill ever pictured her in that sort of outfit. Of course, he would be making a major change to some of his fantasies.....
O'Neill became aware of two pairs of eyes on him and turned to see Jacob Carter and Spike/Selmak regarding him suspiciously. O'Neill gave his most innocent smile and busied himself with checking his equipment and mentally running over Sam Carter's stomach...NO! Running over the mission plan.
"We'll be gating into P4X-964," Jacob Carter had said in the briefing. "From there, we'll use the ring transport to get on to the Gou'ld transport that we've managed to obtain for this occasion. It will be crewed mostly by Tok'ra who have experience as flight crew. From there on in Selmak will have majority control of Spike and she will have command of this. I want all of you to be under no illusions that this is very dangerous. From the intelligence we've received, Ahmose has very tight security. He does not have Jaffa soldiers but an army of vampires."
"Oh joy," Xander had muttered, eliciting a smile from O'Neill.
"The aim of the mission is to take Ahmose out together with as many of his troops as possible. Unfortunately, he keeps humans on his ship as slaves and we need to get as many off as possible. If we take Ahmose out without being in control of the ship, he could wreak an amazing amount of retribution on the humans still under his control."
General Hammond followed the last of the team into the Gateroom to see them off. Buffy glanced up and saw Giles, Dawn and Willow standing in the briefing room with Teal'c and Daniel Jackson. looking down at them. She had said goodbye to them earlier but now she was looking up at Dawn. Her sister was sniffing a little but was determined not to cry. She gave her a little wave and Buffy waved back reassuringly.
The chevrons sounded and the Stargate spun before them. Willow's mouth opened in wonder as the pool blossomed within the centre of the ring, spun out like a whirlpool before settling back within the confines of the circle.
"God speed" Hammond said and Jacob Carter strode up the ramp followed by Sam and Riley Finn, Buffy and Spike, Jacob Carter, Colonel O'Neill, Carter, Xander and Anya. Without hesitation they all stepped straight through the shimmering event horizon. No one expected the yelp and crash from the ramp as Anya walked through the Stargate and came straight out the other side, falling off the end of the ramp and landing painfully on the floor.
Teal'c and Daniel Jackson ran down the stairs to the Gateroom and as soon as the wormhole destabilised and dissipated, they ran round the side of the Gate to find Anya sitting up slowly, rubbing her head. She eyed them in a disgruntled fashion.
"I take it that wasn't supposed to happen?" she asked grumpily, allowing them to pull her to her feet. She followed them back round into the main part of the Gateroom and Hammond stared at her astonished.
"What in God's name happened there?"
"I have no idea" Teal'c said, his raised eyebrows the only clue that he was as surprised as the rest of them. "I have never before heard of such a thing."
"Unfortunately, we've sent the only person who would be able to make an educated guess off the planet" Hammond looked annoyed before turning to shout up to the Control Room. "I don't want anyone else going through the Gate until we know what happened. Run a full diagnostic."
"Er, General?"
The tone of Daniel Jackson's voice caught at Hammond's attention and he turned round to find a large figure striding down the ramp. The Gate had not activated, nor had any security alarms gone off. He couldn't even begin to describe the thing that was now standing opposite him.
"D'Hoffryn? What the hell is going on?"
However it looked like Anya did know who he was. Giles, Willow and Dawn skidded to a stop beside Anya, showing no fear.
"Anyanka. What do you think you are doing? I employ you as a vengeance demon – are you due a vacation? No. Does it look like Christmas? I think not." He eyed her approvingly. "Nice outfit though. Perhaps I should think about a uniform."
Anya folded her arms resolutely. "What happened?"
D'Hoffryn ignored her, turning his attention to the redhead standing next to Giles. "Miss Rosenburg. What a pleasure to see you again. You haven't reconsidered by any chance?"
Willow shook her head mutely and the demon's hopeful expression fell.
"Ah well. A shame. That was some sterling work you did last year – even if it was unpaid."
"It was wrong," Willow's voice was low but strong. "I did a bad thing."
"I suppose that all depends on your point of view." D'Hoffryn shrugged and looked back at Anya. "So Anyanka. Where do you think you're going?"
"Trust me, I couldn't even begin to explain."
"You're attempting to get off the planet by means of this...contraption." D'Hoffryn gestured at the Stargate. "You seem to have forgotten your contract."
"You have to sign a contract?" Dawn asked in shock and Anya nodded gloomily.
"You are bound to this planet unless you have filed a memo with me to note that you will be taking extra planet leave. Which you haven't. So you can't."
"You're joking?" Hammond couldn't keep quiet. The demon swung round to face him.
"Does this look like the face of someone who is joking?" D'Hoffryn shook his head. "Whatever it is you seem to have got yourself into, get yourself out of it. Let the delightful Miss Summers do her job and you do yours." He paused for a moment and then continued. "You can keep the outfit though." He nodded formally around and then handed a card to Willow. "We're on D-net now, so you happen to feel the urge again, please do let me know."
He vanished in a cloud of greasy smelling smoke, leaving them all speechless.
"What is D-net?" Daniel asked, cautiously.
"Demon net. It's like the internet. Only....not." Anya chewed her lip. "I'm stuck here? I can't believe I'm stuck here."
"I would like an explanation please," Hammond said sharply. "Now!"
"Perhaps it might be more appropriate to discuss this in private?" Giles suggested. "If we can let the others know what has happened, it might be helpful."
Hammond strode out of the Gateroom and up into the Control Room. "Contact the planet, let them know what's happened."
The sergeant nodded and immediately set to work, dialling the planet again to send the message. Hammond gestured to them to follow him into his office.
"I can't wait to hear this."
Jack O'Neill sighed as he stepped away from the wormhole. Typical. They hadn't even made it through the wormhole without something going wrong. He relayed the message to his team and saw the tension in Xander's face ease a little. Buffy looked a bit pensive. She hadn't liked D'Hoffryn making an appearance but she had other things on her mind."Where is the rendezvous point, Dad?" Carter asked, slinging her bag on her shoulder.
"About 2 clicks east of here," Jacob Carter said, silently wishing that he had found a slightly more modest outfit for his daughter. "They will be waiting for my signal."
"Let's move out, people." O'Neill ordered.
The ring transport, Xander decided, was one of the niftier pieces of technology he had come across in his life. It was almost a Star Trek transporter and he bit his tongue to avoid saying "beam me up Scotty."The Tok'ra who were acting as flight crew on the ship barely acknowledged their presence. They were slightly bemused by the Spike/Selmak duality, the symbiote and the vampire still bickering over something or other, but were happy enough to take their orders from him and from Jacob Carter whom they still trusted, even without Selmak within him.
"It'll take 6 hours to get near Ahmose's ship. I will act as Selmak's assistant and arrange a preliminary meeting. It is customary for gifts to be given and for slaves to be exchanged. Depending on who he shows an interest in, depends on who will be exchanged. I'm not keen on splitting us up but I believe that if we can infiltrate Ahmose's ship, we'll be able to get close to him to assassinate him."
"What about his army of vampires?" Buffy asked. "Are we supposed to stake our way through the entire lot?"
Jacob Carter pulled out zat guns and handed them round. "These will do the trick. Jack will explain how to use them. I need to get up the bridge and organise this meeting."
He left the room and O'Neill and Carter demonstrated how to use the zat guns and explained about the settings. Buffy handled it carefully, looking it over. She tossed it gently from hand to hand, flipping it over.
"Where precisely are we supposed to hide these?" Buffy asked, with a half grin on her face.
"No place I want to know about," O'Neill answered, hiding his smile.