Title: A Sarcophagus in Sunnydale (Chapter 2)
Author: thecrystalkey
Summary: A newspaper article has sent Jack and Daniel to Sunnydale. What will they find? Primarily from the POV of Jack O'Neill but focuses on the Buffy characters.
Spoilers: Season 2 Buffy up to 'What's my line?', no real spoilers for SG-1 (early seasons).

Disclaimer: All characters copyright MGM or Joss Whedon/Twentieth Century Fox/Mutant Enemy. Only the plot is mine. This is a non-profit fan story not intended to infringe the rights of MGM, Showtime, Gekko or Double Secret productions. Nor those of Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, or Mutant Enemy. Besides I have no money, sueing me would be a waste of time. :)

"Interesting students you have there," Jack commented. "They don't really look like the types that would join a study group."

"Especially not…In archaeology," Daniel added.

"Well, Buffy's main area of interest in the group, as you've no doubt realized, is ancient weapons."

"Mythology isn't really her thing," Willow said, looking up from her camera. "She usually wants to know about the monsters. What they looked like, what their purpose was and how they were killed."

"Are you in charge of making sure she does her other homework as well?" Daniel asked.

Giles took off his glasses, polished them and put them back on.

"Yes, well. Buffy gets…distracted, sometimes and doesn't get her homework done in a timely fashion. Since it's usually something we're… working on in the group that distracts her, it's in my own best interests to help her…try to keep her priorities straight."

"And Xander?" Jack asked.

"Oh, he likes Buffy," Willow answered. Then blushed and busied herself with the camera.

"Willow," Giles reproved gently. "They are good, um, students," he said to Jack and Daniel. "T-that is…they are both quite intelligent. But, um, Buffy gets, well, distracted and Xander, well…doesn't like to do homework."

That explained why they needed to be forced to do their homework but not why the school librarian was the one doing so. Jack decided it wasn't really any of his business anyway.

"So, what is it you're doing exactly?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, we're taking a series of pictures in close, so that we get as much detail as possible in each frame and because we're taking them in a specific order and each one is numbered so when I download them into the computer I can reassemble them into a 3-D digital image of the sarcophagus and because we have the pictures in such close zoom we can pick any detail and zoom in as close as we want on it to get a better look at any part of it that we have a picture of," Willow said enthusiastically.

She looked disappointed when they all looked blank, looked up at the librarian and shrugged then went back to work.

"Huh?" Jack said.

"I don't…understand it completely either," Giles admitted. "But Willow knows what she's doing and she assures me that it will be just like having an exact copy of the artefact at my fingertips."

"Well, yeah" she agreed. "That's what I said. Only you won't need to do any bending at awkward angles or drawing things or anything to get a better look at any area on it because all the detail will already be there and you can rotate it and zoom in and I'm gonna shut up now."

All three men smiled involuntarily as the girl went back to her picture-taking.

"I couldn't get a copy of that 3-D thing, could I?" Daniel asked.

"Um, I don't see why not. I'm Rupert Giles, by the way," he said, holding out his hand.

"Jack O'Neill," Jack said shaking the man's hand.

"Daniel Jackson," Daniel introduced himself in turn.

When he took the other man's hand to shake it, he stopped abruptly.

"Wait a minute, Dr. Rupert Giles? From the British Museum?" Daniel asked.

"Why, yes. Do we know each…Dr. Daniel Jackson, you were the one who asked all those questions about the pyramids. And you sent out that query on the Seth cult last year."

"Uh, yeah. I-I did," Daniel said.

"I didn't think you had email," Willow said to Giles in an amazed tone of voice.

"I-I don't," Giles admitted. Because more explanation seemed to be required he continued. "Ms. Calendar asked me about it. Wanted to know if she should be concerned, if I'd heard anything about such a cult in Sunnydale."

"Why don't I remember that?" she asked.

"I don't think I ever told you," he answered. "It was a horrifying possibility for about an hour then we discovered it was a false alarm. There is historically never more than one Seth cult at a time and there was already one in Seattle."

"One what in Seattle?" came a question from directly behind them.

The three men jumped and Willow smiled. Xander, standing just behind Buffy, snickered.

"Something wrong?" she asked innocently.

"Now I know you do that on purpose," Giles accused.

"Well, duh. It may be a gift but how am I supposed to stay in practice creeping up on..." she eyed Jack and Daniel, "people with really good hearing, if I don't sneak up on my friends? Besides aren't you the one always insisting that I need to practice my skills?"

"Well...yes but, that isn't quite what I meant. Did you visit the exhibits?"

"Yeah," she said.

"You found them disappointing?" he asked.

"Well, none of it's real! What's the fun in looking at a bunch of replicas?"

"Would you put a bunch of real occult objects on display in the Sunnydale Museum?" Giles asked wryly.

"Good point," the blond girl conceded.

"Well, I'd rather they didn't," Xander said.

Both girls snickered and Giles smiled.

Daniel and Jack looked at each other and shrugged. Obviously this was some kind of obscure in-joke.

Daniel thought of something. "How can you tell they're all fake?" he asked.

The blond and the librarian exchanged glances.

"Well, this is an archaeology club," Xander began.

"That's right," Buffy agreed quickly. "And…we did a study on fakes, and how to tell them apart from the real thing."

It was good cover story, the librarian had been right, they were both intelligent. Quick thinking, however, didn't make it any less obvious to Jack and Daniel that they were lying.

Most people might not have picked up on it, but the members of SG-1 had played off each other like that often enough to recognize when other people were doing it. Jack was willing enough to let it go, but the look in Daniel's eyes said he was dying to get to the truth.

Before he could confront them, the redhead stood up. "I'm done," she announced as she began packing up.

"Excellent," Giles said, sounding relieved.

The other two teens also made sounds of joy and moved to help their friend put her things away.

"So we can go now, right?" Buffy asked.

"Certainly," Giles agreed. "Back to the Library."

"But…Giles…Lunch?" she asked, a slight whine in her voice.

The older man looked equal parts amused and exasperated.

"I took the liberty of asking Ms. Calender to call ahead for pizza," he said, sounding slightly smug. "As she's agreed to help Willow with this project, she agreed. It is due to arrive at 11:30."

Both girls reached simultaneously to grab Xander's left wrist and look at his watch.

"Almost time," the redhead commented.

"We wouldn't want it to get cold," the blond said. And they headed for the door.

Xander and Giles looked at each other and both men shook their heads, smiling.

"How long do you think putting this, um, 3-D thing, together is going to take?" Daniel asked.

Giles took off his glasses and polished them while he thought. He shrugged as he put them back on.

"I don't know," he said. "Not too long, I expect. The idea was that it would be faster than drawing or making rubbings of the symbols."

Both Jack and Daniel looked at him questioningly.

"We're going to attempt to translate them," Giles explained. "The idea is to do so before they open the sarcophagus."

After trading looks with Daniel the USAF Colonel asked casually, "You think something's going to happen when they open it?"

"Of course not," Giles said.
"Don't be silly," Xander said at the same time.

Neither of them sounded especially convinced. Or convincing.

They know something, Jack thought. He could see in Daniel's eyes that the archaeologist thought the same thing. Jack made a decision.

"If it's not going to take long," Jack said. "You mind if we tag along?"

From the reaction to his question they didn't want the two men to tag along. But neither of them seemed able to think of a plausible excuse. Giles had just agreed when the two teenaged girls appeared in the doorway.

"Are you guys coming?" the redhead asked.

"Or are you just going to stand there while we waste away from hunger?" the blond demanded.

Xander and Giles both laughed and started walking. Jack and Daniel followed with one last glance at the Sarcophagus.

"You know," the young man said as they reached the door. He slung his arms comfortably around the girls' shoulders. "This was fun. We should do this again sometime."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "Only…not on a Sunday morning."

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