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.

After Xander and Riley left the briefing room, General Hammond turned to Dr. Warner.

"Have Mr. Thorsonn's test results come back yet?"

"Yes, his DNA matches Col. O'Neill's. What I don't understand is why. Mr. Thorsonn is in his early thirties not sixteen and his body shows an excessive amount of wear and tear. If he had been exposed to something that rapidly aged him, I might expect to find signs of strain on his internal organs, which I didn't find, but he has a number of scars that look to have been acquired over a period of years. His MRI shows evidence of several old fractures in his ribs and his left arm."

Sam Finn was confused. "Excuse me, but why would the DNA be identical? Unless you have a sixteen-year-old colonel hiding somewhere?"

"Last year, Col. O'Neill was the subject of an unauthorized experiment. The scientist involved didn't realize that a marker had been placed in the colonel's DNA to prevent the type of experiment that was attempted. The end result was a fifteen-year-old clone instead of an adult one."

"I wasn't aware that the Air Force was involved in researching cloning technology."

"We aren't but an allied government is."

"Okay, so your teenage clone is now in his early thirties. Any chance that he did some dimensional traveling?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, from what your doctor has said, he probably wasn't aged using some sort of technology since he shows evidence of injuries more than a year old. The same goes for any sort of mystical aging. So he has all of the signs of getting there the hard way. Time in other dimensions, though, don't necessarily run at the same rate as ours. So, if he spent some time in one, he could appear to have aged quite rapidly. I don't have any direct experience with other dimensions but I'm aware of instances of dimensional travel. A group of demons in one dimension specialized in abducting street people as slaves and returning them later that day, our time, when they became too old to work."

"That sounds like the dimension that Mr. Thorsonn and Ms. Summers were in. He claimed to have spent about fifteen years there, while Ms. Summers was there for two years."

"Two years?" Now Sam Finn was really confused. "It shouldn't have taken her that long to get out. What happened?"

"Apparently they remembered her from the previous visit. Short version, she was captured and badly injured. Mr. Thorsonn rescued her. Afterwards, they had a problem locating and accessing the portal."

xxxxxxx

Xander saw the "utility van" pull up towards the guard house and motioned to Riley that they should hurry up.

"Are you sure that's Willow?"

"Same type of van that they used near Dr. Langford's. Besides, I recognize Willow's driving style." That last comment was made as the van scraped one of the gates. "Not as bad as Buffy's, but you should see her insurance rate."

The van pulled off to the side just inside the entrance and stopped. Willow got out of the driver's seat and waited by the van. She scanned the area for threats, both obvious and hidden. Her hair began to darken as she noticed several sniper positions.

"Willow, we're okay."

"Xander." She gave him a warm hug before acknowledging his companion. "Riley, we've been trying to contact you."

"These folks specialize in confiscating telephones and such. I've been out of touch for a bit."

"So, Willow, you take out the surveillance teams all by your lonesome?"

"No, I brought Faith along. She took out the first team. I took care of the backup. Faith?" Willow sighed. "I think she's having a little too much fun with her soldier boy."

The three walked around to the back of the van. Xander opened the rear door as Faith got up off a flushed young man with disheveled clothing. Faith hopped out of the vehicle while the young man scooted towards the front of the van, only to be stopped by the pile of sleeping bodies in his way. At least Xander hoped they were sleeping.

"Faith you didn't?"

"What? Come on Xan, you know how I get after a good fight." She laughed at the look on Xander's face. "Just kidding. Non-con is wrong. I'm reformed now remember? Just having a little fun. No harm."

"The poor guy is going therapy by the looks of him. What's with the other guys in the van?"

"Sleep spell. Willow says they'll wake up in a couple of hours." Faith looked around. "So, where's B and her new boy? It's not Riley again is it?"

"Buffy's in the infirmary but she's going to be okay. Riley is here with Sam."

"The Initiative?" Willow's hair turned a shade darker.

"No. But we really need to do better background checks. Dr. Jackson is involved in a different top secret project. I don't have all the details yet but I wouldn't be surprised to run into Mulder or Scully. But I think the guys running this project are actually numbered among the good guys. The general did not look happy about the Initiative was up to."

Willow's hair stopped darkening, but it didn't get any lighter either. "And Buffy?"

"There was an ambush waiting for us when we got here. Wait, she'll be okay but just let me finish before you lose it. They did a background check on Buffy after she contacted Dr. Jackson. The photos she left him raised a lot of red flags for them. Anyhow, the investigation tipped off a mutual enemy, one of the backers of the Initiative. He passed them just enough information from the old Initiative files to give them the wrong idea about Buffy. I'm not sure what they thought she was but they did use non-lethal force on us. The problems was they didn't know she was pregnant and the stun guns they used can cause a miscarriage."

"So B's fine, they just killed her baby?"

"No, the baby's going to be okay too. Its just that she has to stay in bed for a couple of days, just to be safe."

"So, how does her new boyfriend fit in?"

"JT is the clone of one of the base's officers. He was a surprised as we were by the reception and he is not having warm and fuzzy thoughts about his old CO or his old teammates, including Dr. Jackson. I don't think they knew about the ambush though, at least Dr. J didn't. He got shot too."

"And JT is where?"

"He's in the infirmary with Buffy."

Willow's hair began to return to its normal bright red. "I want to see her. Is that going to be a problem?"

"No, they sent Riley and I up to escort you into the mountain."

"Why didn't they send one of their own?"

"Your reputation precedes you. I told JT that I had telephoned Giles and that I thought that he would send you if we disappeared. JT warned the general that he had better release us before you got here. Of course, since Buffy is bedridden at the moment, we couldn't leave. Once Riley confirmed what you are capable of, the general agreed it would be better to send out a couple of friendly faces and hope you didn't level the base."

"Any guarantees they won't shoot us?"

"Well no, but I'm pretty sure that if they were going to try something they'd have done it already. But like I said, I think that these are the good guys. They were just fed bad intel. Riley?"

"The guy who fed them the information about Buffy really has it in for these guys. He's also not a fan of Buffy's. He was all for the Initiative and Prof. Walsh's research. He backed up her decision to eliminate Buffy. I guess he thought that they might take care of Buffy or she would take care of them."

"They don't know about Faith do they?"

"Nope. I didn't hint that you might bring someone along. I thought that you'd bring Kennedy though."

"We haven't been working out too well so I left her with the mini-Slayers. Besides, I figured Faith could use a break from babysitting."

"Ah, speaking of Faith..." Riley looked around nervously.

"Right behind you. Graham was trying to slip away." Faith had a tight grip on the Air Force captain. "I think he doesn't like us."

"Well you do play a bit rough. Let the poor guy go. I'm sure he won't go too far." Willow gave Simmons a stern look. "Why don't we head into the mountain and talk with your CO?"

"You trust them?"

"Not really but we do need to get Buffy out of there."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Once inside the base, they were met by Major Davis who attempted to escort them to the briefing room.

"No, Buffy first, General later."

"But she's not allowed any visitors. If you'll just meet with the general first, we can things straightened out so that you get her out of here as soon as she is ready.

Xander took pity on the major. "She's got her resolve face on. You might as well let her go the infirmary. I'll go the briefing room. Faith? Riley?"

"Briefing room."

"I'll go to the infirmary. I think Simmons should probably head there as well. I think he's going into shock. And Major Davis, you might want to have the rest of your men in the van sent to the infirmary. Faith said that they should wake up in a couple of hours but you might want to make them a bit more comfortable in the meantime."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dr. Warner was returning to the infirmary as Willow, Riley and Simmons arrived. He immediately had a nurse take Simmons away for examination.

"What happened to him?"

"A girl who likes to play a little. Some guys feel a bit overwhelmed by her."

"Willow, I think most guys who have run across Faith feel more that a bit overwhelmed by her."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Very funny. Doctor, can we see Buffy?"

"You can go in briefly but please do not disturb her. She's finally settled down. She woke up from a couple of nightmares earlier this morning."

Willow entered first with Riley and the doctor following. Her friend looked worn out. The man wrapped around her wasn't in great shape either. They were both so thin. She took note how protective he seemed even in sleep.

"Is that JT?"

"Yes. That's Mr. Thorsonn. Now, if you will both follow me, I'll bring you up to date on Miss Summers' condition."