Title: A Sarcophagus in Sunnydale (Chapter 3)
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. :)

Jack let Daniel drive as they headed to the high school. He called the base from his cell phone as they traveled.

"So?" Daniel asked as he hung up.

"So Hammond's got SG-3 on standby until we figure out what's going on," Jack said. "That was what I thought it was, wasn't it?"

"Yep," Daniel agreed. "Definitely a Goa'uld sarcophagus."

"What are the odds that someone's inside?" Jack asked.

"It's probably safer to assume that there is than that there isn't," Daniel suggested.

"Thank you, Daniel," O'Neill said sarcastically. "I had actually figured that out for myself. That wasn't what I was asking."

Daniel gave a put-upon sigh. "I'd say pretty good. From what I saw it was sealed all the way around. You don't seal a sarcophagus unless there's something or someone you want to keep in there."

"Great," Jack grumped.

"I think the real question is: what do they know and how do they know it?" Daniel said.

"Well, they didn't recognize us," Jack said. "Except for your name. Who is this Giles guy anyway?"

"He was a curator with the British Museum until a couple of years ago when, I guess, he moved here. I know he studied history, and the occult, at Oxford."

"You can study the occult at Oxford?" Jack asked.

"Well, the history of the occult," Daniel explained. "Religion has only come to have a minor role in history in the last hundred years or so and that only in Western cultures. The Neo-Marxist approach is to look at not-just the major religions in past societies but also the so-called minor ones. In fact, most early civilizations were held together primarily by common religious beliefs as far as we can tell. The central authority figure in a society was often considered a god or the next thing to one and the administration of affairs was by the priests-."

"Thank you, Daniel," Jack interrupted. "That's fascinating. But I think we're here."

Somehow the empty school grounds looked abandoned and ominous. There was only one car in the lot and it wasn't Dr. Giles', Jack noted as they parked in the teacher's lot. The librarian had assured them that no one would care.

"You sure this is the right place?" Jack asked, looking around.

"It says 'Sunnydale High School' in big letters on the front of the building, Jack," Daniel answered. "We probably just got here first."

"Then I guess we wait," Jack said, putting on his sunglasses and leaning against the hood of the rental car.

"Not for long, though," Daniel said, pointing down the block. "I think that's them."

Dr. Giles' car pulled into an empty space. As the four got out of the car, Jack heard Buffy speaking.

"I cannot believe they beat us here," she was saying. "You know, one of these days we have got to get you a grown up car."

Jack tried not to laugh.

"It's a perfectly good car, Buffy."

"I could outrun this car," she pointed out.

"Yeah," Willow agreed. "But you're you, you know?"

"Fine," the blond said, impatiently. "Xander could outrun this car."

The boy smirked as the librarian shook his head and led them all into the school. Jack and Daniel followed.

--

"There you are!" A voice called out as the group walked into the Library. "Finally!"

"Well, well, if it isn't the cheer queen of Sunnydale High," Xander said. "Your so-called friends ditch you for someone cooler?" he sniped.

"Oh please," the young brunette said. "Even if they had, like I would be here. I need a book, for school?" she explained.

"The Library's closed on the weekends, Cordelia," Xander explained as though to an idiot.

"I know that," the young woman said. "But you losers are always here. And I need that book. On computers. For the tutorial this week? You remember, the one that got postponed because of the dead guy?"

"I know the one she's talking about," Willow volunteered. "I'll get it." And she disappeared into the stacks.

"Where were you guys anyway?" she asked. "And who are these two?"

"At the Sunnydale Museum," Giles explained. "And Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson. Mr. O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, this is Cordelia Chase."

Xander and Buffy had split up. Buffy headed towards the table in the center of the library and turned on the computer. Xander leaned over the counter, grabbed a set of keys and headed into the book cage.

"At the Museum? On a Sunday morning?" Cordelia exclaimed. "That's pathetic even for you guys… Oh, wait. This isn't like, an end of the world thing, is it? Because I have a date with Brad Emerson on Tuesday. The world can't end until after that."

"Cordelia!" Giles yelled, motioning with his eyes towards the two visitors. All three teens ignored him.

"We'll try to make sure the world's still around for Tuesday night," Xander assured her sarcastically.

"It's not an end of the world thing," Buffy explained, glaring at Xander. "We don't think. It's just a research thing."

"Here's your book," Willow said a little too brightly as she emerged from the stacks.

"Well, finally," Cordelia said with a dramatic sigh. She snatched the book out of Willow's hands and went to check it out. Once that was done she paused as she opened the door to the library.

"Nothing's going to try to eat me or anything is it?" she asked nervously.

"It's daytime, Cordelia," Xander pointed out the obvious.

"You'll be fine," Buffy re-assured her. After she left Giles and Buffy both looked at Xander as he came out of the book cage. His arms were loaded down with books. They all looked old and heavy.

"What?" he asked, all injured innocence.

"Must you bait her?" Giles asked.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's an addiction. I just can't seem to help myself."

"Try," the librarian said.

Xander shrugged after he dropped the books down on the table. Buffy and Willow looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Willow attached the camera to the computer and began typing commands into it. Xander sorted the books into two piles and Buffy sat down opposite the table from him and grabbed one from the top of the pile closest to her.

Xander sat down, pulled a book from the top of his pile and began reading. Jack leaned against a wall and watched. Daniel began to drift towards the table to get a better look at the books.

Whatever else they were lying about, these four were definitely used to doing this kind of research, Jack thought. Dr. Giles had disappeared into what was apparently his office and seemed to be looking for something.

The teens seemed to have the run of the Library and for all their chatter and complaints had quickly settled down to work. Not one of them had bothered to ask permission to access anything, and the librarian didn't even bother to caution them to be careful of the books.

From what Jack saw, he didn't need to, both Xander and Buffy were turning pages very carefully in the old books.

After about two minutes the blond girl looked up.

"Where's the pizza?" she asked. Her friends both shrugged.

"It'll get here," Xander said.

"Unless the delivery guy gets eaten or dead," Jack put in. He could tell by the way they all avoided looking at each other that he'd hit a nerve.

"Cordelia's crazy," Xander said after a moment.

"We find it best just to humour her," Willow added, nodding.

Jack decided to accept that explanation for now, but he was more determined than ever to find out what was really going on here.

"Where is the pizza?" Willow asked impatiently. "I'm so hungry I could eat a pig."

Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands to her mouth after she said it.

"Hey!" Xander protested. "No fair!"

"Go Wills," Buffy said. Crumpled balls of paper were batted out of the air by the young women as they both giggled.

"And you call yourself Jewish, woman," Xander said, mock-severely. This too was apparently an in-joke.

"Pizza's here," a woman's voice announced as the library door swung open.

A woman in her mid to late 20's walked through the door. Jack blinked. She was gorgeous, if not his usual type. If he were twenty years younger he might have…He stopped the thought as he watched her look around. She was obviously looking for Dr. Giles.

Cries of "Ms. Calendar!" greeted her.

"You only like me for my pizza," she said as she dropped three pizza boxes on a free space on the table.

"There's no ham, is there?" Xander asked, worriedly.

"I thought Willow was the Jewish one," the woman, obviously a teacher, commented.

"I am," Willow agreed.

"One word," Xander said. "Hyena."

Ms. Calendar thought about that and smiled involuntarily.

"I forgot about that," she said. "There's only ham on the Hawaiian pizza."

She turned around and looked curiously at Jack and Daniel.

"Giles! Pizza!" Buffy called. "We picked them up the Museum," she explained after noticing where Ms. Calendar was looking.

"You make us sound like a disease," Jack complained, pushing himself off the wall and holding his hand out.

"Jack O'Neill," he introduced himself. "And this is Daniel Jackson."

Her eyes lit up when he introduced Daniel. "Dr. Jackson! It's an honor to finally meet you," she said as she shook his hand. "I'm Jenny Calendar. I've read a lot of your work and I want to tell you that I think it's such a shame that the academic world is so narrow-minded."

"Well," Daniel said with an uncomfortable shrug. "You can't really blame them. It's not like I had any solid proof or anything. Still don't. I work for the Air Force now. At least my linguistics degree has been good for something."

Her look said she didn't believe him, but was willing to let it go.

"Did you ever find that Seth cult you were looking for?" she asked. "It was the one in Seattle, right?"

"You're the one that sent me that information?" Daniel asked. She nodded.

"I thought you found it on the Feds internal website?" Jack asked.

"I got the details from the CIA, Jack. It was an email from Ms. Calendar here that sent me in the right direction."

"And how did you find out?" Jack asked her curiously.

"I'm a techno-pagan," she said without apology. "I keep tabs on weird things. People know that and often send me information that isn't always public knowledge. When I can, I try to pass it on to the right people. Looks like it worked this time."

"What cult?" Buffy asked from behind them. "Tell me there's no cult."

"There's no cult," Ms. Calendar reassured her. "And they were in Seattle anyway."

"Phew," she said. "I actually came over here to tell you that you're missing out on the pizza."

The adults followed her back to the table and each grabbed a piece of pizza. A moment later, Dr. Giles followed Xander out of his office and got a piece as well.

"So what's a Seth cult?" Buffy asked. Neither Dr. Giles nor Ms. Calendar seemed surprised at the question.

"What cult?" Xander asked. "No cult. Cults are bad."

"Even if there was," Giles said. "It would be a matter for the police to deal with."

The teenagers looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Because the police are so effective," Buffy murmured sarcastically.

"It would be their problem, regardless," Giles said.

"So, Dr. Giles," Jack tried to change the subject. "Daniel said your PhD was in occult history…or neo-marxism or something. Why did you decide to become a high school librarian?"

The silence was deafening. Everyone looked uncomfortable and Daniel elbowed Jack. Jack gave Daniel his patented clueless stare.

He knew what he'd asked, of course, but it was a question that needed an answer as far as he was concerned.

"It was a career change…at the request of my family," Giles said.

He isn't lying, Jack thought. But he isn't exactly telling the truth either. He allowed the uncomfortable silence to stretch, hoping for something more. It was one of the kids that broke the silence.

"So. Dr. Giles, huh?" Buffy asked brightly. Giles smiled at her gratefully.

"Yeah, Dr. G-man," Xander said.

"I have asked you not to…"he trailed off as Xander just grinned. "Oh, what's the point?" Giles muttered, polishing his glasses. "Just don't tell Snyder."

"Don't tell me what?" a sneering voice came from the door.

Giles and Buffy both automatically moved to block the view of the table from the door. When Jack looked past them he noticed the pizza boxes had magically disappeared.

"Why, how much we…all…admire and…respect you as our principal," Buffy said in her most sincere voice. The little man standing in the door glared at her.

"I wasn't talking to you, Summers. You may have been able to get away with that smart-mouth in LA, but I'm in charge here, missy."

"What are you doing here, Principal Snyder?" Xander asked, drawing the hostile stare onto himself.

"This is my school Harris. I don't need a reason to be here," the man said snidely. "I came to see what you were doing here. I believe I've mentioned that I don't approve of students being in the school after hours."

"You don't approve of students at all," Jack heard Xander mutter.

"What did you say?" the man asked.

"Um, just that we know we shouldn't be here at all today, but, um," he stammered to a halt.

"We're working on a project," Willow jumped in. "Extra credit. For Ms. Calendar's class."

"Because Xander and Buffy are so behind in marks," Ms. Calendar continued the explanation. "I just came by to make sure they were working."

He glared at them suspiciously but couldn't seem to find any holes in their explanation.

"I want you out of here as soon as you're done," he said after a moment. "And you had better be done soon. I'll have the police keeping an eye out, so don't go thinking you can burn down any buildings."

That particular comment seemed directed at Buffy.

"The fire marshal…" she protested weakly. His glare stopped her and she sighed and looked at the floor. "I'll try," she said sullenly.

"Good. Do I smell pizza?" the principal asked suspiciously.

"I don't smell anything," Giles said mildly. The principal glared at them suspiciously but began heading to the door.

"I want to see a copy of that assignment when they hand it in," he said to Ms. Calendar.

"Of course," she agreed.

"Good," he glared darkly at all those in the room before heading out.

He hadn't apparently noticed Jack and Daniel. That was when Jack realized that the group had not just been screening the food but himself and Daniel from sight as well.

"Troll," Giles muttered as he took his glasses of and polished them again.

"Trolls are prettier," Ms. Calendar observed. "And have better personalities."

"Doesn't that guy have anything better to do than make my life miserable?" Buffy asked plaintively.

"I think he's made it his mission in life to make all of us as miserable as possible," Giles said dryly. "Remember the talent show."

All three teens shuddered. So did Giles.

Ms. Calendar sighed. "And now I have to think of an extra-credit assignment for you two to do," she said.

Xander and Buffy protested while Willow giggled and promised to help. The pizza boxes made a re-appearance.

When the pizza was mostly gone and she'd helped Willow out with her program Ms. Calendar took herself off, promising to dispose of the evidence on her way out.

With lunch over, the teens settled back down to work and Giles disappeared into his office again.

Daniel, feeling more comfortable around this group, moved forward and began reading over Xander's shoulder. As he read, his eyes widened.

"This is Goldblum," Daniel said, sounding amazed. "Right?" he asked the teen.

The boy checked the front of the book using a finger to hold his place.

"Yep," he agreed. "1891. What is it with books before 1900? I mean, did they really have to use all those big words?"

Jack chuckled from where he was sitting on the stairs.

Daniel seemed to be speechless and Jack wished he had a camera, because nobody at the base would believe a speechless Dr. Jackson.

"It's…Goldblum. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy for the last eight years. And it's in a high school library?" Daniel sounded outraged and incredulous.

"Actually, this is from Giles' private collection," Xander explained. "On obscure dialects of Ancient Egypt and their written form," he quoted. "One day, I'm gonna write a book and title it 'On why 19th century authors all felt they had to be so long-winded' by Alexander Harris."

The girls giggled. Daniel gave him an amused smile and began reverently sorting through the rest of the stack. Eventually he picked a book and sat down to read it.

Jack settled down to watch the door and his friend.

Review. It does a body good.