Disclaimer: See Prologue.
Sorry about the wait! I've had an interesting week around here. Just a word of warning: this chapter is not the beginning of the Big Bad. There will be plenty of other messes after this one!
Hey! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! One hundred and ten!
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 9
Willow showed up at the SGC in a panic, trying to find Xander. She found Tac'an. "Where's Xander?" She leaned against the door frame of the gym, trying to catch her breath. "I have to find him! I need his help!"
"What is it, Willow? Is it his Aunt?" In this universe, Xander had been the only survivor of the car crash that had killed his parents. He had then been raised by a distant relation Joyce Williams, who he called Aunt Joy. Aunt Joy had never married Hank Summers and had never had any children of her own, so she had spoiled the little boy a bit, but she'd always been proud of how he turned out. Since Tac'an should have had a little Buffy look-alike that had never been born because there was already one here, she had become a bit protective of the woman. Xander had appreciated it, even if he didn't understand it.
"No, this is bigger than that!"
"Calm down, Will. Now what's wrong?"
"I've got to find Xander!"
"He's off-world right now. SG-15 should be back in two days." Tac'an forced the girl to look her in the eye. "Tell me what's wrong."
Willow looked right at her. "Do you believe in magic?"
Tac'an dragged Willow into Daniel's office. "Daniel, are you willing to believe in Rupert Giles like he believed in you?"
Daniel looked up from the text he had been reading. "What's this about?"
"Magic, both good and bad."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "And you believe in magic?" She just looked at him, reminding him without a word of the universe she had come from. "Stupid question. But I thought you said you'd never sensed anything like that in this universe."
"Demons. I've never sensed any demons in this universe. That doesn't mean anything about magic. I never could sense magic."
He groaned. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but what's going on?"
"Somewhere along the line, my old universe diverged from this one in some crucial ways. It caused eighty years to just disappear, it caused the death or isolation of the Goa'uld, and it caused the first Hellmouth to be opened in the heart of Africa. That sounds pretty catastrophic to me. And Giles just now called up his old student Willow because a set of ancient stone tablets and a couple of other items were just stolen from the British Museum, things that would create that same catastrophe here."
Fully alert, Daniel said, "What was on the tablets?"
Willow answered him. "Four different languages were described, languages that haven't ever been seen anywhere else on the planet. But along the bottom of each was an inscription that was added on in ancient Egyptian hieratic. It says, 'Here lay those most dangerous deeds which were prevented by the coming of our Lord, Amun Ra. In his enslavement lay our salvation, for these would have opened the depths of Hell itself into this world. May His curse be our blessing and let these deeds never come to pass on this Earth.'"
"But what does it mean? It obviously refers to the first coming of Ra and his enslavement of the human race, but how could that have been a blessing? What did he prevent?"
"We don't know for sure."
"But," Tac'an said, "If Ra had come to Earth in my universe, then the Hellmouth would never have been opened. This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Literally."
Daniel gaped at her. A recipe for opening the first Hellmouth? "I think we need to call a meeting."
"Will, call Giles. See if you can get him to hop the redeye on the Concord. I'll pay his ticket. I'll never spend half the money they're paying me anyway."
Daniel stood. "And I'll get the General to clear it."
Grimly, Tac'an thought, Suddenly all the Scoobies-that-aren't are being pulled into my world by the threat of an apocalypse. Why do I think Destiny just caught up to me again?
All of SG-1 and the civillan consultants, as well as Dr. Rupert Giles, Airman Harris, and General Hammond were gathered in the conference room. Giles had signed the non-disclosure agreements with no problems, and he'd brought the rubbings the museum'd had on file of the stolen tablets. Daniel, as the resident linguist was given the rubbings to see if he could make heads or tails of them, and he surprised everyone by coming up with an answer immediately. "These were dine in the four languages of the Ancient Alliance. The Ancients, who built the Stargate network, the Furlings, the Nox and..."
Jack finished. "And the Asgard."
Wordlessly, Daniel passed the rubbing that was reminiscent of Norse alphabets over to Jack. When he'd received that strange download, he hadn't retained much, but he could still read their written language, as Daniel couldn't yet. Giles was looking very confused, so Daniel just said, "They've met."
There was no time for explanations. The story could be told later. Jack started reading aloud, and Daniel was ready wit a pen and pad. "Combine these three devices; the tablets, the Nexus, and the Platform. The Nexus is the center. The Tablets are the sides. The Platform is the base. They will combine with the forces of the moon when it is hidden within the shadow of the Earth to create a great Portal into a new and marvelous place, which may be studied to tell us a great many things. None may say with any surety what lies within that world, but it may hold the key to the saving of the Asgard."
Tac'an couldn't believe the ignorance of that statement. Someone hadn't had a clue what they were messing with. "Okay, first, what's the Asgard's problem and have they solved it since this thing was made?"
Daniel answered. "They've been cloning for so long that they're starting to loose genetic integrity. It's like Xeroxing a Xerox; you loose definition over time until you can't even tell what the original was."
The Slayer frowned. But Willow spoke first. "And they thought Hell was a good place to look for answers?"
Jack snorted. "Not they." He pointed to a certain sigil. "Is that mark not on every one of these things?"
Daniel looked. He was right! "Yes it is. It's Loki's isn't it."
Giles spoke next. "Loki? The Norse God of Mischief?"
"Yeah. He's one of the race of the Asgard, people with an even greater technological base than the Goa'uld. Several of them took a liking to humanity and because of their technology, they were assumed to be the gods. Loki has a habit of breaking the rules, which is why Odin shut him down. But he's been known to sneak around the restrictions."
Tac'an growled. "Sounds like someone needs a severe talking-to and a time-out."
Giles agreed. "Yes, he does seem rather childish, doesn't he?"
Jack grinned. "You know, I think it's hilarious that you actually understood that."
He smirked. "Comes from having Willow as a student. I had to learn Southern Californian out of self-defense." Then he frowned. "Still, why would Loki leave things like that lying around, and why were they never used?"
Sam said, "Well, I bet they weren't used because Ra came to Earth. Then whoever would have opened this thing would have had other problems."
"Right. But..."
Suddenly there was a flash of light and they weren't in the SGC anymore. They stood on the silvery decks of an Asgard O'Niell class warship.
Jack smiled when Thor approached them. Thor was the only individual Asgard that he could recognize. He was also the best friend Earth had among the Asgard, and he was Jack's personal friend. "It's good to see you, Thor. Great timing, by the way."
The small alien nodded. "Yes. we were listening to your conversation. This is your commander, correct?" Thor indicated General Hammond.
Jack turned. "Yes he is. Thor, General Hammond, Commander of the SGC. And this is Thor, Commander of the warship O'Niell."
General Hammond shook Thor's long, spindly hand. "It's an honor to finally meet you. Allow me to introduce everyone else you haven't met. Dr. Rupert Giles, Daniel Ozborne, Willow Ozborne, Airman Alexander Harris, and Tac'an, wife of Teal'c."
Thor nodded to each of them in turn. He then turned back to O'Niell. "I heard you say that Loki has left a device on your world, something dangerous?"
Jack nodded. "Yep. Just how dangerous, though, I'm not the one to tell you." He pointed at Tac'an. "She's as close to an expert on what will happen as we've got."
Thor took a closer look at the small woman, who was none-the-less far taller than he. "You are human, and yet there is something very different about you."
Tac'an nodded. "Yes. I am from a parallel universe, one where someone got to play with that little toy of his. It creates a portal into a Hell dimension that will allow demons to walk the earth. Demons who will breed and make this little rock into something not even the Goa'uld would want to mess with."
Another Asgard walked into the room. He took one look at Tac'an and said, "You are the Weapon."
Her eyes narrowed. "Why do you call me that?"
Thor turned to him. "Loki? Explain."
Loki blinked. "Something I toyed with once. But I never activated it, nor did I leave it where it could be found. I do not understand how this is possible."
Tac'an sighed. "It didn't happen in this universe. But in the one I came from originally, the Hellmouth was opened before Ra could show his wormy mug on Earth, so the Slayer had to be created. And every few years, another girl receives a death sentence because she has to fight until the demons and the vampires kill her. And then the next is called." She fought to keep her temper in check, knowing that this was not a being to piss off. "And you may not have left the Weapon where it could be activated, but you did leave the thing it's meant to fight. And now it's been stolen."
Loki's eyes narrowed. "Without a second power source, there is no way to close the Portal. The Nexus is not enough. You must also have the Key. And it's the Key I took with me. The Weapon was a contingency plan. If the Key is present at the opening, then there is no need for the Weapon."
Giles lit up. "The Key! It is on Earth. A group of Franciscan monks summoned it in the sixteenth century when they discovered that the Tablets had been unearthed in Egypt. They feared that it might be needed. But it's impossible to get to. That's why I called Willow. I was afraid that we would need to find and use that Key, and it's going to take a lot of power to get that thing out of the hole they've buried it in."
Loki looked affronted. "How could humans have gotten the Key?"
Willow snorted. She took the pencil she had from behind her ear. She focused on it and it easily levitated out of the palm of her hand. "Magic. You've been messing around with it, or you couldn't have touched a Hell dimension, let alone the one that is an integral part of the fabric of our world, but you obviously don't understand it. Magic and spiritual energies are much more powerful than nuclear or plasma energy. I'd be willing to bet that it's even stronger than the total annihilation achieved in a matter/antimatter reaction. Ergo, it takes a lot less effort to use. And if someone wants to do damage and has an open mind, it's magic they're going to use." In demonstration, she looked directly into the gray alien's big black eyes and shattered the pencil to graphite dust and splinters with the power of her mind alone.
Review please! And remember this is AU to both series!