Title: Rebuilding

Disclaimer: I still don't own Buffy or Stargate. All characters will be returned the their proper owners when I finish playing with them.

She was back in the cage. The pain. She had really screwed up this time. No Scooby Gang backup. No vampire lover to bail her out. No Giles. She was alone and helpless. How long had she been there? She was losing track of time but it seemed like she had been there forever. The beatings were started off as daily events. Now they seemed to be random, sometimes daily, sometimes not. She had been drifting and out of consciousness lately so she couldn't be sure anymore. No more punning, all she could do was endure and she wasn't sure she could keep even that up. Oh God, she could see them coming for her again. She tried to scuttle toward the back of the cage as she heard the tumblers in the lock turn and the door swing open.

In the infirmary JT had dozed off in the chair next to Buffy's bed. In the next room monitors began to signal a sudden change in her heart rate. He woke up to the sound of her thrashing in the midst of a nightmare as a nurse came into to check on Buffy.

Buffy awoke with a start. She looked around the room in fear breathing heavily.

"Buffy, it's okay. You're safe."

"I was back there."

"That was a long time ago. Go back to sleep."

Half an hour later the monitors went off again as she woke up from another nightmare. This time Dr. Warner accompanied the nurse.

"Miss Summers, I can give you a light sedative. It will help you sleep."

"No. No drugs." She sent a look to JT. "It will be okay. Just trying to used to sleeping in bed again."

Warner didn't believe her but left with the nurse, not wishing to agitate her further.

"Buffy, you have got to rest."

"I know. It's just that I keep finding myself back in that damn cage and you're not there." She rolled onto her side and reached out her hand. "I need you here, not in that chair."

xxxxxx

General Hammond was still speaking with Dr. Langford when Major Davis arrived.

"General Hammond, Agents Riley and Samantha Finn are here."

"Have them come in. And send for SG-1, Dr. Warner, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Thorsonn. It's time that we all get on the same page. Dr. Langford, I'd like you to stay as well. I'd appreciate your input on this."

xxxxxxxx

Faith strolled back to the car where Willow was waiting.

"No one home?"

"Nope. But you were right about the surveillance. Anything from Giles?"

"He hasn't heard from Xander or Buffy. He's been trying to contact Riley but hasn't gotten a response yet."

"So, do we go in kickin' ass?"

"I'm leaning towards more towards a more subtle approach, something like a trojan horse."

"A cond...oh, wait, that thing from the Brad Pitt movie."

"Do you do that on purpose?"

Faith grinned. "Well yeah, it used to drive Giles and Robin up the wall. Messed with Xander's head too. So, we're going to swipe their van and sneak in?"

"No, we introduce ourselves and hitch a ride to the base. And we keep it nice and friendly as long as they play nice."

"And if they don't?"

"Then we kick ass."

In the end, the other side didn't play nice. Willow let Faith work off some of her excess energy on the four guys in the "utility truck." She was pleased to see that the dark slayer hadn't fallen back on old habits. Faith was pulling her punches. When help arrived from a second vehicle, Willow just put the additional players to sleep. The final score, Council 7, Flyboys zip.

Faith placed the four men that were lying on the ground into the truck with the other three.

"They look so peaceful lying there. It seems a shame to wake them up."

"Well we need one awake. Pick one."

Faith looked them over. "Kinda like the looks of this one." She straddled the unconscious man and patted him down a little too thoroughly.

"Faith..."

"Hey, just checking for any extra weapons that he might have on him." She grabbed his dog tags on the third pass. "Okay, we have one Captain Graham Simmons, Air Force."

Willow reversed the spell. Simmons regained consciousness to find a goth chick sitting on his hips, her hands pinning his shoulders to the floor of the van. Faith grinned as he paled. "Wanna phone home?"

xxxxxxxx

"Dr. Warner, you didn't bring Mr. Thorsonn?"

"I thought it best that he remain with Miss Summers. His presence seems to be the only thing allowing her to sleep."

"I'll defer to your judgment for now. Major Davis, please play the video clip for the benefit of our guests."

After the video finished, Xander was the first to comment. "Someone went back in to pull the security tapes?"

"Part of the clean up crew. Couldn't leave that stuff where it could be found, although the tapes and everything else were supposed to have been destroyed when the project was shut down."

"Agent Finn, what was the project hoping to achieve?"

"The official purpose was to contain the 'Hostile Subterestrial Threat' but the project head and some of the project's backers were actually trying to harness the abilities of the demons to produce a demon/human hybrid soldier. That tape shows just how bad an idea that was. The prototype staged the massacre to provide the body parts necessary to create his own hybrid soldiers. The resulting mess was enough to shut the project down. The surviving military members were reassigned to a new program that stuck to the original mission of the Initiative, locate and neutralize HSTs. We mostly work outside the borders of the US and we try to avoid southern California whenever possible."

"And don't think that we didn't appreciate that."

"Mr. Harris?"

"The project director, Prof. Walsh, tried to kill Buffy. She sent her into an ambush with a defective weapon. Then the Initiative's scientists used Willow's boyfriend as a lab rat and not in 'a how fast can he run the maze' way. They were more into what happens when you use a cattle prod on the guy strapped to the table. Really not sorry to see them leave town. Riley was an exception since he tried to rescue the friend."

The sick feeling in the General's stomach was coming back. "I can see why the evidence was supposed to be destroyed. Does anyone know why it wasn't?"

"One of the backers apparently kept copies of some of the materials. He wasn't happy that the project was shut down and wanted to try again. He was also in favor of Prof. Walsh's attempt to eliminate the Slayer. Most of the others behind the scenes realized that we had been in way over our heads. They were content to let the Slayer and her friends handle the HSTs. The new program is just a shadow of the Initiative. No grand plans, we just try to keep the numbers of the HSTs down to a manageable level."

"Are to we assume that Vice-President Kinsey was one of the backers who disagreed with the decision to shut down the Initiative?"

"Yes, and he was apparently the source of the leak although it was actually an intern who passed the information to Major Davis. From what Agent Barrett implied, Kinsey thought that giving you the tapes would somehow do damage here."

"Kinsey has tried on numerous occasions to take over or subvert this program. He has come very close on two occasions. Unfortunately for his career, he overstepped some very important boundaries on the last attempt. His resignation is imminent."

"So when the investigation into Miss Summers began, he must have seen it as a way to strike back at her or us."

"Indeed, MajorCarter. And he nearly succeeded. Given the information that AgentFinn and XanderHarris have provided about WillowRosenburg, it is most fortunate that Miss Summers has coming to no lasting harm while here."

An airman entered the briefing room and passed a note to General Hammond.

"Kinsey may yet succeed. Willow Rosenburg and another young woman have taken out both teams watching Dr. Jackson's home. They are heading this way."

"General Hammond, now might be a good time to let me go topside and let her know that there is no reason to get unduly upset."

"Xander's right. We still have time to diffuse this situation."

"I agree. Agent Finn, I'd like either you or your wife to accompany Mr. Harris."

xxxxxxx

As they left Davis at the security check point, Riley turned to Xander. "So what actually happened to Sunnydale? We got word a few months ago that something big went down. You guys seemed to drop off the map after that although we heard that Spike had turned up in LA."

"Just another apocalypse averted. The First Evil used the imbalance that Willow and the rest of us had created when we brought Buffy back to get a foothold in our reality. It tried to wipe out the Slayer line and pretty much succeeded in wiping out the Council as well. Buffy took the fight to it and found a way for Willow to activate the remaining Potentials. Closing the hellmouth took out Sunnydale. After that, we split up. The idea was to find the new Slayers and rebuild the Council. Giles returned to England to salvage what he could from the old headquarters and to see if he could get control of the Council assets. Buffy and Dawn went to Italy. Willow and Kennedy headed down to South America. Faith and Robin took some of the mini-Slayers to the Cleveland hellmouth. I headed off to Africa."

"What about Anya?"

"Anya fell at Sunnydale."

"I'm sorry Xander." Riley slowed down as they neared the guard house at the perimeter. "So, how's the rebuilding working out?"

"Not as well as I'd like. It's hard to find good researchers. That's how Buffy and I ended up here. We tried to recruit Dr. Jackson and Dr. Langford. Turns out we should have researched Dr. Jackson better. And now Buffy has added a new boyfriend to the mix which is how we really ended up here. He gave us the heads up about the good doctor but the shit still hit the fan."

"So the new boyfriend, that would be the mysterious Mr. Thorsonn?"

"Yep, I fill you in on that one as soon as Willow and Faith get here. Oh, and just as a heads up, Buffy's changed a bit since the last time you saw her."