Thanks to Shawn Pickett, Matt, Gen, Bunny-Butler and S.M for your reviews, I really appreciate the feedback. Anyways, on with the story!

Chapter 13

Buffy brushed the stray strands of hair away from her face and checked her reflection.

"You look fine, just like the last five times you looked in the mirror." Dawn said sarcastically, momentarily looking up from the magazine she was reading, entitled, "Import Tuner." It was 6:55; Buffy was dressed semi casually in a blue halter-top and black pants. She was awaiting Daniel's arrival, and Dawn was lounging on her bed, having decided to stay in for the evening. "When I start going to school, am I still going to be living here?" Dawn asked.

"I guess so." Buffy replied distractedly, looking at her bedside clock.

"Then maybe I should get a car." Dawn said discretely.

"Yeah that sounds, wait a second, no!" Buffy said, looking at the magazine in Dawn's hands. "What do you need a car for?"

Dawn scoffed. "To get around. I don't have a budding boyfriend with a sports car to give me rides everywhere. Besides, you'll be working out of the mountain, I need to go to school everyday."

"Daniel has a sports car?" Buffy asked happily.

Dawn nodded, "Yep, brand new RX-8. Now, back to my problem. I want a car!"

"Dawn, you're holding a copy of 'Import Tuner.' At least put the magazine down before you ask that." Buffy replied.

"I just think the cars in this look cool." Dawn replied. "It's not like I'm going to go street race. Come on, please? I helped you save the world, isn't that worth a measly little reward, like a car?"

Before Buffy could answer there was a knock at the door. "We'll talk later." Buffy promised her sister, then got up and opened the door. Standing there was Daniel dressed in khakis and a golf shirt, holding a bouquet of flowers in front of him. "Hi." He said nervously. "You look, wow, you look great."

Buffy gave Daniel her most heart melting smile. "Thanks, you look great too. These for me?" She asked, gesturing to the flowers in his arms.

"Yeah." Daniel replied, holding out the flowers. Buffy took them and put them on the bed. "I'll have to get a vase for those." She said, looking around the relatively bare room. "So, ready to go?"

Daniel nodded and held the door for Buffy. She walked into the hall and before Daniel closed the door, Dawn said jokingly, "Have her home by midnight, and convince her to get me car."

Daniel closed the door and the pair walked down the hall to the elevator in a somewhat uneasy silence.

"So," Buffy said, breaking the quiet, "where are we going? I heard good things about a place called O'Malleys from some people on base."

Daniel grimaced. "Yeah about that, I'm kind of banned from that place."

Buffy laughed. "What, did you start a bar fight or something?"

"Well yes," Daniel replied, but it really wasn't my fault." By this time the two of them had gotten to the elevator and got in for the long ride to the surface. "See, Sam, Jack and I were wearing these things. They kind of made us a little rowdy."

"What?" Buffy asked, close to giggling.

"Well they were these wristbands, and they were making us super strong and fast, but also pretty impulsive, and hungry. We had orders to stay on base, then someone mentioned O'Malleys. So we just got up and left."

"So what happened?" Buffy asked.

"Well, we each ordered about five pounds of steak, then while we were waiting we started playing pool. Someone hit on Sam and she just plain hit him back. Then umm, things got rowdy." Daniel finished.

"Oh come on, tell me." Buffy pleaded.

"Well, between the three of us we beat up about fifteen guys and wrecked the entire non-smoking section in the process. The bartender actually started crying. Now, well, none of us are allowed to come back." Daniel admitted.

The elevator doors opened and Buffy walked out laughing. "So when you guys aren't saving the world you're wrecking the bars?"

"Hey, we were under the influence of an alien device." Daniel replied. "That's a perfectly good excuse, although we do use it an awful lot."

"So do you have any other work related funny stories?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah but I want to hear some of yours." Daniel replied. The two of them walked into the large parking lot that took up a lot of the surface level. Daniel pushed the unlock button on his keys and a shiny blue RX-8 flashed it's lights.

"Wow, nice car." Buffy said appraisingly. Then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Hey, how can a guy on a military salary afford a sports car?"

Daniel shrugged. "When I died last year all my non-classified artifacts were sold. Apparently they were worth a lot. When I came back there was a pretty big bank account with my name on it. But don't change the subject. You must have a funny story or two."

"Well, okay." Buffy said, getting into the car. "This one time Xander summoned a demon to town. Turns out this demon had a strange effect on people."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked, starting the car and leaving the parking lot.

"Well, he kind of made the whole town burst into song."

~~~~~~~

Jack's fighter punched through the cumulus cloud, leaving behind wisps of cloud swirling in the tip vortexes. Jack fought the urge to smile. No matter how many times he got behind the stick of a fighter, the simple urge to just play in the clouds never lessened. It was something he had missed terribly sometimes while working at the SGC. Checking his GPS, Jack descended over the city of Sydney that lay sprawled beneath him. He flew into a part of the city where the buildings were a little lower, then switched the VTOL mode and looked for his landing spot. He spotted it fairly quickly, it was an empty parking lot that had been roped off. Police cars sat at both entrances to the concrete square, and Jack could see a couple of policemen who were obviously anticipating his arrival.

Jack slowed the fighter to a standstill, then began a quick descent so as not to flush everyone out of the parking lot with heat. Seconds before what would have been a damagingly rough landing, Jack pushed the throttle, and the fighter slowed and settled gently onto the pavement. Jack quickly cut the engines and popped the canopy. As he descended, a policeman in a t-shirt made his way over. "G'day Colonel, welcome to Sydney." He greeted with an Australian accent. "We were told to escort you to the crime scene."

Jack nodded. "Thanks. What's the public exposure on this?"

"Oh it's open news. Woman gets murdered in the alley behind a club, can't exactly keep it quite right?" The policeman replied. "Trouble is, can't seem to figure out who she was. No ID, no one knows who she was. Couple o'people saw her dancing with another girl, but that's about it. Everyone just thinks it's a plain old murder."

"So why exactly am I here?" Jack asked.

"Well there was something odd about the body, mate. Firstly her neck wasn't just broken, it was shattered. Except there's no impact trauma, so someone mighty strong must have done it. Also, her blood work shows some odd protein marker, no one knows quite what to make of it." The officer explained.

"That sounds so unpleasantly familiar." Jack groaned.

The tow of them rounded a street corner and then walked past the club and into the alley in the back, stepping over the yellow police tape. Jack looked at the body with a growing sense of dread. Though she was lying face down, Jack recognized the curly blonde air and the flowing white dress. He moved close to the body, and, putting on gloves that the officer had handed him, pushed her onto her side. Sara's cold dead stare met Jack, and he shuddered. "Oh, this can't be good."

Jack quickly spun around and put some distance between himself and the policemen, then pulled out his phone and dialed Hammond.

The phone rang twice before a voice on the other end picked up. "Hammond."

"General, I think we have a problem." Jack said quickly. "Sir the body was Sara's."

"You mean Osiris."

"No sir, I don't think she was still a host." Jack replied. "The police would have mentioned if they had found a snake in her. I think Osiris jumped hosts."

"But why?" Hammond asked. "The Goa'uld have incredible regenerative abilities, and a sarcophagus. Why would she jump hosts?"

"You got me sir." Jack replied. "Anyway, that's all I can get here, can I go back now?"

"Yes of course." Hammond replied. "Tell the police I'll have men there inside an hour to retrieve the body."

"Will do." Jack turned off his phone and made his way back to the body of Sara and his police escort. "I've done what I need to. Just hang on, some personnel from Stargate Command will come to retrieve the body in the next hour."

"That's it?" The policeman asked. "You flew all this way to look at the body and make a bleeding phone call?"

Jack shrugged. "Guess so."

The officer rolled his eyes. "You Yanks sure are odd. Right then, you should get back to your plane."

Jack shook the man's hand then headed back down the street to his jet, pondering what would make Osiris switch from one perfectly good host to another.

~~~~~~~

"So of all the bad guys you've faced, which one did you hate the most?" Buffy asked, taking a bite of her lobster.

"Ooh, tough question." Daniel replied. "All the Goa'uld or all of them period?"

"All of them." Buffy replied.

"I think I might have to go with the Replicators." Daniel replied. "I think they were the worst."

"What's a replicator?" Buffy asked.

"Well, they're actually just circuits. The problem is they can sort of stick together to form anything, from ships to engines, to foot long bugs that spit acid." Daniel explained.

"Ah. Acid spitting bugs, is there any worse enemy?" Buffy asked, rolling her eyes. "Come on, that doesn't sound as bad as this Anubis guy."

"Well one of them wouldn't be. Except that you don't face one, you face hundreds." Daniel explained. "Their name comes from what they do, they turn anything metal into more of themselves. All my memories of fighting them are running backwards down corridors blasting away with a P90, hoping not to trip or they'll catch you, they really suck."

"Sounds like something out of a bad sci-fi movie." Buffy said. "Evil space bugs, made of metal!"

"Yeah, that description fits a lot of my job." Daniel replied. "But then again yours is like something from a cheesy B-movie."

"Good point." Buffy replied, taking a sip of her wine. Daniel had taken her to a fancy seafood restaurant in Colorado Springs, and so far they had spent most of the evening comparing their career highlights.

"So what do you want to do when this is over?" Daniel asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

"Well, once this is over, what are you going to do? Stay with the SGC? Train Slayers? Retire?"

Buffy sighed. "Retire, wish I could. Being a Slayer isn't a job, it's a destiny."

"But after we finish off Anubis, how much more evil can there be?" Daniel countered. "He's already taken care of most of the system lords for us."

"Daniel, one thing I thought you'd have figured out by now is that there's always another battle, there's always another big bad." Buffy replied seriously. "There's plenty of it right here on Earth to go around. Besides that there's always just plain vampires and demons that I have to fight."

"But you don't anymore." Daniel countered. "If there are Slayers all over the world, why not, I don't know, take shifts or something? You've been at this for more than seven years, that's long enough Buffy."

"No, no it's not unfortunately." Buffy said sadly. "To be honest there were a lot of times I didn't think I'd make it through high school alive, I've never really looked more than a little bit ahead. I might not live on the front lines all the time, but being the Slayer will always be a part of me."

Daniel nodded. "I understand that."

"So what about you?" Buffy asked, leaning forward and putting her elbows on the table. "What are you going to do when this is all over?"

Daniel adjusted his glasses and sighed. "I don't know. Probably keep working at the SGC, if it isn't shut down."

"What?!" Buffy asked, alarmed.

"Politics have always played a large part in our operation." Daniel explained. "Until now we've been able to keep control of the program despite pressure from other countries to give it up, and so far we've also survived Kinsey."

"Kinsey?" Buffy asked. "The senator?"

Daniel nodded. "He's been trying to take over the Stargate program for years now to further his own agenda but we've managed to hold him off because of some connections we have. Anyways he's a running mate in the next election, if he becomes vice president we're done almost for sure."

"But even if he takes over you'll still have a job right?"

Daniel, who was taking a sip of his wine, came very close to spraying Buffy. "I'm not sure you understand. Kinsey hates us, most of all Jack. He'll flush us out of the program so fast it will make your head spin."

"I see." Buffy said, and another uneasy silence settled over the table.

"Wow." Daniel finally commented. "That got pretty depressing."

"Yes it did." Buffy agreed. "Got any more funny stories?"

"Well, one I guess." Daniel said slowly. "But I'm not sure how much of it is true."

"What do you mean?"

"Well this one time we went to a planet that had a device that caused time to loop in a twelve hour cycle. Actually, this went on for three months. Apparently the Tok'ra tried to contact us, but couldn't get a hold of us for that time."

"How come no one noticed this?" Buffy asked, racking her brain for three months that had been repeated over and over.

"Only Jack and Teal'c do." Daniel assured her. "They were touching the machine at the time it was activated, so they kept their memories. Anyways, all I know for sure is that Jack and Teal'c learned Latin in that time, but there are some rumours floating around."

"What kind of rumours?" Buffy asked, her mood lightening.

"Well three months of the same thing over and over could get a bit tedious, from what I hear Jack and Teal'c almost lost it, then they realized in one loop that they could do anything they wanted and no one would remember because of the loop."

"Ah, no consequences." Buffy said nodding. "I like the sound of that. So what did they do?"

"Well like I said, no one knows for sure, but there are rumours of a few dozen Callaway golf balls on a nearby planet." Daniel said with a grin.

~~~~~~~

Daniel pared the car and turned off the engine, then opened his door and moved to the other side to open it for Buffy. She got out and took a few steps, then stumbled and barely caught herself. "I think I might have had a couple too many drinks." She commented.

Daniel hurried to her side and she leaned on him for support. The two of them walked past the guard, who gave Daniel a thumbs up, and headed for the elevator.

Buffy looked at Daniel and smiled a full, genuine smile. "I had fun tonight."

"Is that just the wine talking?" Daniel asked, smiling back.

"Nah," Buffy answered. "I like having someone to swap war stories with, plus you have a nice bod-car. You have a nice car." Buffy finished, blushing.

Daniel gave her his patented shy smile, one which he had used for years by accident on the nurses before Sam pointed it out to him. "Does that mean you want to do this again?" he asked, walking into the elevator with her and pressing the button for level 25, Buffy's quarters.

Buffy nodded. "Yes, more normal type dates should definitely follow."

"Normal type?"

"You know, no killing anything, no casing spells or fighting evil. Just dinners and movies and a severe lack of slaying." Buffy explained.

The doors opened, and Dawn was standing in front of the elevator with her arms crossed. "You two are back late."

"How long have you been standing there?" Buffy demanded.

Dawn shrugged. "Told the guard to call me when you got back." She turned her attention to Daniel. "The General wants to know, let me see if I can remember, why in god's name aren't you answering your phone?"

Daniel shrugged. "It died, why?"

"He wants to see you. You should go talk to him, he looked like he was angry." Dawn suggested.

Daniel adjusted his glasses and sighed. "Great." He turned to Buffy. "I'll see you tomorrow." Buffy nodded and leaned gave Daniel a kiss on the cheek, which made him go significantly redder. "Bye."

Daniel turned to leave, but felt someone grab his arm. He turned around to see Dawn holding his wrist. "Any progress on the car front?"

Daniel shook his head. "Afraid not. I have to go, Dawn."

"Fine." Dawn huffed.

Daniel moved back to the elevator and headed for the General's office.

~~~~~~~

A knock at the door alerted Hammond that Daniel was waiting. "Come in." He said. Daniel opened the door and walked in to see Willow sitting in one of the chairs in front of Hammond's desk. "Dr. Jackson, I have some disturbing news."

"What's going on?" Daniel asked.

"Before I tell you, I think we should get Colonel O'Neill in on this conversation." Hammond stated, bringing an Asguard communications device out of his desk and pressing it to his shirt.

Jack shimmered into view between Willow and Daniel. Willow almost jumped out of her seat, then looked at Jack more closely. "Wow, is that a hologram?" Daniel nodded in response.

"Morning campers." Jack said with a yawn.

"Jack it's still night here." Daniel pointed out.

"Whatever Spacemonkey." Jack replied, then his expression turned serious. "Look, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Sara is dead."

Daniel's face fell. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Hammond added. "She was found dead outside a club in Sydney. It seems she jumped hosts. Any thoughts on why she might do that? Dr. Jackson? Ms. Rosenberg?"

"Well I suppose she might if for some reason Sara was hurt beyond repair." Daniel considered, but Jack shook his head.

"Nah I already thought of that." Jack replied. "She was fine, except for her neck being shattered, I think that might have happened afterwards though."

"What if," Willow considered, "she found a better host. One that's stronger and faster in every possible way."

"You mean a Slayer." Daniel finished, and Willow nodded.

"I'm sorry, a what?" Jack asked.

"I'm sorry Colonel you've been a bit out of the loop. We've recruited new allies in the war against Anubis." Hammond explained. "Skaara led Daniel to a group of girls known as Vampire Slayers."

"Oh by the way Skaara says hi." Daniel added. "These girls are incredibly strong and fast, and there are hundreds of them across the planet. We have close to thirty of them here training with us. Miss Rosenberg is helping us to recruit more of them."

Jack was silent, just staring in surprise for a few seconds. Finally, he said, "Shouldn't there have been a memo about this?"

Hammond chuckled. "I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to fill you in Colonel, but to be fair you've been pretty busy."

"Don't worry about it." Jack said waving his hand. "I've already had it dumped on me that there's a world of magic and now I have to guard a school."

"There are magic schools?" Willow asked, seeming somewhat disappointed.

"Yeah. But back to the topic here." Jack said. "So we think Osiris has a Slayer as a host. IS there any way to know for sure?"

Willow shook her head. "There are so many now, I can try a spell but I might find it pretty tough to notice if one is gone."

Hammond nodded. "Do it."

"Sir I'd like to point out that we could always bring Sara back to life." Jack said. "We have that regeneration machine now.

"Jack bringing people back from the dead is extremely risky, and we have no idea how severe the side effects of that would be. We've already had an incident involving that machine." Hammond replied. "There's no telling what might happen."

"Yeah I'd just like to point out the terrorist that turned into a gun toting zombie around the fountain of youth." Daniel added. "Remember the one that is took blowing up to kill."

"Yeah I guess." Jack conceded. "Well, I'll let you get to sleep then. See you later." Jack vanished.

"Well I suppose I should let you go." Hammond said to Daniel. "You have a go for 1100 hours tomorrow."

Daniel nodded. "Thanks General." He turned and left, leaving Willow and the General to speak.

"Miss Rosenberg there's another reason I asked you here." Hammond said. "From the Goa'uld we captured we've learned that Anubis is looking to regain his powers of ascension. To do this he needs a human powerful enough to send something that shouldn't exist to a higher plain of existence, giving him god like powers. Is there anyone that powerful on the planet?"

Willow shook her head. "I don't think there's anyone that powerful enough to do that."

"Are you sure?" Hammond asked.

Willow nodded. "I think I'm the most powerful which in the western hemisphere, and I can't do that. There may be magical artifacts powerful enough though, Giles and I will start looking."

Hammond nodded. "Thank you. I'll let you get some sleep Ms. Rosenberg."

Willow nodded and left, thinking of what possible artifacts could make someone, scratch that, something a god.

End chap 13

I hope you liked this chapter, it was the longest one I've written so far. So, what is this artifact? Well I'll give you a hint, it's not the scythe! That would be too easy. Anyways thanks for reading and please leave reviews, I always love to get feedback.