I'm so sorry for taking forever with this update! I got caught on a snag writing this chapter. I probably rewrote it 3 times before I was finally a happy with it.

Again, thank you to everyone who is reading this! Your reviews are muchly appreciated :-D

Chapter Seven

Trust

Buffy dropped the phone back in its cradle.

"That was Jack." she told the group. "Looks like we're going in. He said they were sending a car."

"We get to go see the Stargate?" Andrew squealed. His normal annoying self was amplified since finding out what was going on in the depths of Cheyanne Mountain.

"I hardly think we all need to go. Just a few of us. The ones that go can fill the rest in." Giles suggested.

"Alright, then, who's going to go?" Buffy asked.

"I was thinking myself, Willow, Xander and Buffy."

"What? Why does Buffy get to go and not me?"
"Uh-uh, there is no way I'm staying here."
"I wanna go!" Kennedy, Dawn, and Andrew complained, respectively, though Andrew sounded more like a whine.

"Look, we'll need back up if something goes wrong. We may know what they're doing down there, but we don't know what they're capable of. We'll need someone on the outside." Giles explained.

"Why can't Buffy be the one on the outside?" Kennedy asked.

"Because she has the clearence and the experience with the military that you don't have." Giles said shortly. Kennedy opened her mouth to say something, but thinking better of it, slumped down into the chair.

"Look, we'll keep in contact with you through Willow." Giles said, looking through the window. "The car is here. Let's go."

"I'm going too." Dawn said.

"Sorry, Dawn, but we need you as back up. Stay here with Andrew and Kennedy." Buffy said. Andrew was about to open his mouth, but Buffy covered it before he could get anything out. "You're staying here." Buffy said simply. "Let's go."

Willow gave Kennedy a good bye kiss and followed Buffy, Xander and Giles out the door, leaving behind them a very disappointed trio.

The group was quiet on the way to Cheyanne Mountain and Willow took the opportunity to weave the simple spell to connect herself with her friends telepathically.

After about fifteen minutes they were going through various checkpoints in the Mountain. They made their way, escorted, down two elevators and stopped on level 27.

An airman led them into a room with a long table and several chairs.

"Cozy." Buffy said flatly, looking around the room and taking a seat.

Soon they were joined by SG-1 and General Hammond.

"Welcome to Cheyanne Mountain." the General said after introductions. The team took their seats, Teal'c sat opposite Willow and she shrunk down into her chair under his unending stare.

"General, I gotta ask. What exactly are we doing here?" Buffy asked. General Hammond looked to Daniel.

"Well, I did a little more research regarding the Slayer. After what Sam and I witnessed the other night, I decided not to dismiss the material regarding a Vampire Slayer. Those were Vampires, right?" Daniel paused, waiting for an answer. Buffy simply looked at him. Not getting an answer, he continued. "Anyway, I found a passage that states 'Into every generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world..."

"'A chosen one. One born with the strength and skill.' Go on." Buffy said, impatiently.

"Right. Well, it only speaks of a single Slayer..." he apused.

"And you were wondering why others were mentioned." Giles finished.

"Well, yeah. The passage was pretty adament about the whole 'only one' thing." Daniel said.

'Go ahead Will. Buf don't tell him too much. Especially about the First.' Buffy telepathed to Willow. Willow nodded. The exchange didn't go unnoticed by SG-1.

"That would be my doing. Um...for centuries there was only one Slayer. She'd get called, fight for a year or two, die, and another would get called, starting it over again. But, uh, last year we were fighting an enemy that probably would have won, so we sorta...evened the odds." Willow said nervously, obviously not comfortable with all the attention she was getting.

"You created more Slayers." Sam stated.

"In a way. More like took the Potential Slayers and pushed them along."

"Potential Slayers?" Daniel asked, his question overlapped by Sam's, "Are Slayers always female?"

"So, uh, when do we get our questions answered?" Buffy asked, clearly thinking too much information was getting out, without getting anything in return.

"We had to make sure you were who we were looking for." Jack stated. "And since you were so adament that your friends be included, we had to get authorization to do so."

"And did you?" Giles asked.

"As it turns out, you three were included in Buffy's file. the rest were harder. Speaking of, where are they?" Daniel asked.

"At the hotel. Making sure we come out alive." Buffy said bluntly. Jack smirked. "Anyway, if we're all clear..." Buffy prompted.

"General?" Jack said. All eyes landed on General Hammond, who cleared his throat.

"Before we can go on, there are some confidentiality forms that need to be filled out by everyone of you." he stated as forms were passed along the group of newcomers. Buffy looked over the form.

'Should we sign this?' Xander asked, telepathically.

'Not sure, what do you think, Giles?' Buffy asked.

'We're not going to get very far if we refuse.' Giles reasoned.

'What if we need to tell someone? I mean, if it involves the Slayer, it no longer just involves us.' Xander said. All four exchanged a look.

'Guys, what's going on?' Andrew's voice invaded their minds. Buffy fought the urge to roll her eyes.

'We don't know anything yet. We'll let you know when we do.' she said.

'Did you get to see the Stargate yet?' Dawn asked.

'Guys, not now. We'll let you know more when we do.' Buffy said.

'So, are we going to sign these or not?' Willow asked.

During this whole conversation, SG-1 looked on, unaware of the talk between the group members.

"We're not signing these." Buffy finally spoke up.

"I don't think you understand, Miss Summers. If you don't sign, we can't reveal anything to you, despite your clearence level." General Hammond said.

"I'm sorry, but if it involves the Slayer, it involves more than just us." Buffy explained.

"I'm talking about a matter of National Security."

"Well, I'm talking about a matter of world security! That's why we're here, right? Because the military caused some big problem they can no longer handle,"

"We can handle it just fine!" Jack defended. Buffy promptly ignored him.

"Lemme guess, you're verging on the edge of ending the world so you call in the experts. Look, I don't know what it is you do down holed up in this Mountian, but if it falls under 'end-of-the-world' then it's in our job description, so whether you like it, or not, we're in this, confidentiality forms or not. We will find out what's going on down here and we will be involved." Buffy stated, her voice verging on anger.

"We can't have you go blabbing around about what goes on here, so unless you sign the forms we can't tell you." Jack said, as he was starting to get irritated. Who does this 20-something think she is?

"We have other ways of finding out what's really going on here." Willow said quietly.

"Look, it'll be a lot easier on both of us with your permission, but we can, and will, do what we have to without it." Giles stated calmly.

"Besides, what makes you think we'll blab about anything?" Buffy asked, giving the Colonel a pointed look. "We haven't told anyone about the Initiative, not even you guys, and you're military. Speaking of, find anything out about that?" Buffy asked, smuggly. Jack just glared at the young blonde.

"I'm sorry, but we can't sign these. We can, however, give you our word not to speak to anyone about it, without your permission." Giles said.

"And besides, what kind of assurances do we have that you won't go blabbing out little secret to the world?" Xander asked.

"You have our word." General Hammond said, reluctantly, as he knew where this was going.

"So, how can we trust you, if you don't trust us?" Willow asked. The General sighed, defeated. He nodded to the airman by the door, who then collected the unsigned confidentiality forms.