Title: A Sarcophagus in Sunnydale (Chapter 6)
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. :)

When they reached the house Giles herded Jack and Daniel into the living room.

Buffy went to get ice from the kitchen and wandered into the living room to throw herself down on a couch and put it on her knee.

Xander disappeared for awhile, from what Jack could see the boy was checking the doors and windows on the house.

Willow had headed to the kitchen and came into the living room carrying a first aid kit. A very well stocked first aid kit. The young redhead started pulling out supplies and then began doctoring wounds.

It was mostly cuts and scrapes on Buffy and Giles. Jack waved her away and so did Daniel, neither of them having more than some bruising and minor scrapes.

When Xander finally came into the room, a nod passed between him and Giles, then another nod between him and Buffy. All secure, Jack read that as.

Willow took one look at her friend's face and headed back into the kitchen.

"It looks that bad?" the young man asked, putting a hand up to his face.

"Well, I doubt if anyone will mess with you for a few days," Buffy said, amused.

"Are you implying they would otherwise?" Xander asked, mock-hurt.

"She's not implying anything," Willow said from the kitchen doorway. "She's saying it."

The girls laughed. Xander acted injured but he was smiling. Willow tossed him the ice she'd gone to get.

"The bitch that did it is dead," Buffy offered apologetically.

"Gotta look at the bright side," he said cheerfully, then his face fell. "Not that I can tell anyone."

Willow brought the first aid kit over to where Xander had sat down and began expertly applying butterfly bandages to hold the long cut on his arm closed. He iced the bruise that had already begun to appear on his cheek.

For people who'd just been attacked by creatures Jack hadn't even known existed they were in a pretty damn good mood. His control snapped.

"What in the Hell is going in this town?" he yelled. The four locals looked at each other.

"The things that attacked us just now were vampires," Buffy said in a bored tone, as though she didn't expect him to believe her.

Jack's mouth opened and closed. Daniel just let out a long breath.

"Vampires?" Jack asked.

"Vampires," she confirmed. "You can believe it or not, I don't much care."

"I believe it," Daniel said quietly.

"Daniel?" Jack asked softly.

"Think about it Jack," the archaeologist said. "Think about some of the things we've seen and then think about what happened today. I got a good look at their faces, Jack. They were inhuman and they had fangs. And they turned to dust when you put a pointy piece of wood through their hearts."

Jack thought about it. He hated the thought that maybe vampires really existed, but it fit what had happened.

"Alright," he said warily. "That makes more sense than it doesn't."

"My only question," Daniel said. "Is why was he calling you Slayer?"

"Because that's what I am," the girl said.

"Buffy," Giles objected faintly.

"Oh, come on, Giles," she said tiredly. The older man sighed.

"Before you ask," Giles said. "For as long as there have been vampires there has been the Slayer. A Chosen One, one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight the vampires. To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. Buffy is the Slayer. Don't tell anyone."

"And you all help her," Jack said.

"We do what we can," Xander said.

"Mostly it's just with the research," Willow added.

"They're just kids!" Jack objected to Giles. Giles grimaced at him.

"I did try to keep them out of it. They're teenagers," the Brit pointed out. "Do you really think that telling them not to do something is actually going to prevent them from doing it?"

"And what kind of an example would that set?" Willow demanded. "Trying to get us to close our eyes and pretend like nothing's going on?"

"These things killed my best friend," Xander said intently. "Do you really I'm just going to turn my back after that?"

That silenced Jack.

The look in the eyes of all three teenagers was one he'd only seen in the eyes of soldiers before. They held shadows that had no place in the eyes of children, as far as he was concerned.

But these kids had involved themselves in this and Jack couldn't find it in his heart to blame them.

"What's your interest in the sarcophagus?" Daniel asked.

"Part of the job," Buffy said. "This is the Hellmouth, weird things pop up and we investigate. If they're dangerous, we deal with them. If they're not, we don't have to."

"Either way, you shouldn't have to," Jack said.

"Hey, no one would be happier than me if I got to have a normal life," Buffy said. "But that's not the way it works. The least I can do is make sure as many people as possible in this town get to have that."

"I'm assuming you aren't just here randomly," Giles said to their visitors. "You know something about that sarcophagus."

"I'm an Egyptologist," Daniel defended himself.

"And he is an Air Force Colonel," Willow said pointing at Jack. "And you both work at the same place."

There was silence at that little accusation.

"How could you possibly know that?" Jack demanded.

Willow blushed and Buffy stepped between her and the Air Force Colonel.

"Did you really think it took her that long just to put a 3-D picture program thing together? Wills is a genius!"

"I asked her to look into, well, you," Giles said. "I take full responsibility."

"I still wanna know what they're doing here," Willow stated firmly. She was shaking a little but not about to stand down.

Jack sighed. "If I told you that we thought there might be something, evil, in that sarcophagus, would you be willing to help us deal with it?" he asked.

"Jack!" Daniel sounded scandalized.

"Carter's been told to back off the investigation Daniel," he admitted. "The President ordered Hammond to stand down. As of about 6 o'clock this evening we've been on our own."

"The General wouldn't do that, would he?" Daniel asked.

"I got the impression there was some kind of outside pressure at work," Jack said. "It seems nobody wants anything that's going on here to become the military's concern."

"Damn straight," Buffy said. "They could get hurt."

Jack couldn't believe his ears. Apparently it showed on his face.

"What?" she asked. "In case you didn't get my little comment from before, guns don't work on most of the things we deal with. At best, they won't even feel it. At worst, it will make them mad."

"That's besides the point, since the military's been told to back off," Xander pointed out. "Whether you like it or not, you need our help now."

"I don't like it," Jack grumbled. "Besides, in this case, if it gets out guns will work on this thing. And I'd feel better if I had one."

"From the sounds of it, this sarcophagus has been tightly sealed for generations," Giles pointed out. "Unless we're planning to open it and kill whatever's inside, whether or not guns work on it is irrelevant."

"The Museum director's planning on opening it," Willow pointed out.

"Not until Friday," Buffy said. "Can't we just…steal it, or something?"

"It's kind of…big, isn't it?" Willow asked.

"All we need is a lifter and something to transport it in," Xander said. "I can get those. And set up a distraction for the guards. I can even pick the locks. With Buffy to help lift, that's not the problem. It's the security systems that worry me."

"What? Where?" Buffy asked incoherently.

"And when did you learn to pick locks?" Willow asked, sounding amazed.

"Halloween. SoldierBoy remember? It's all still up here," Xander said, tapping his head. "I know the base layout better than the school and I still have the access codes. I'll just… borrow the equipment for the night."

"How likely are you to get caught?" Giles asked.

"Not very," Xander said confidently. "Base security is laughable. I can ghost in and out and they'll never know better."

"Go Xander," Buffy said. She sounded impressed. He shrugged.

"Well, if you can get the equipment, I can deal with the security systems," Willow said thoughtfully. "Can't be any harder than hacking the coroner's office."

"I didn't hear that," Giles said faintly. "I'm not hearing any of this."

The three teenagers smiled at him.

"You didn't hear that either," Buffy ordered Jack and Daniel. The archaeologist held up his hands. Jack nodded silently, still stunned at what they were thinking of planning. And at the level of professionalism and maturity these kids were showing.

"Even if you do manage to…to acquire it," Giles said. "Where would we keep it?"

"They're here," she said, gesturing at Jack and Daniel, "Because they usually deal with this kind of thing. Am I right?" she asked them. Jack nodded again.

"Once we have it," she said. "We hand it over to them," she pointed at Jack and Daniel. "And they drive off into the sunset and do whatever needs to be done to it. Or with it. Or whatever. That work for you?" she asked them.

"I'd like to help with…acquiring it," Jack said. A silent conference between the youths and she shook her head.

"It's better if we do it," she said. "If we do get caught we can claim we were just pulling a prank or something. Get adults involved and it'll just get messy."

"The police would accept that?" Jack had to ask.

"They accepted that our last principal was eaten by a pack of wild dogs," Buffy said dryly. "At lunchtime. On a school day. When no one else saw them or was attacked. And they closed the door when they left."

Xander winced. "Must we keep bringing that up?" he asked plaintively.

"Just to torture you, Xander," Willow said with a smile.

He groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"What actually happened?" Daniel asked with morbid curiosity.

"A group of students got accidentally possessed by hyena spirits during last year's zoo trip," Buffy explained. "Before we got them back to normal they ate our mascot, a pig, and then four of the five attacked and ate Principal Flutie when he called them to his office."

"What about the fifth?" Jack answered.

Harris flinched visibly.

"He was locked up in the library's book cage at the time," Buffy said.

"Thanks be to God and Buffy's great right hook," the boy said. He actually managed to sound grateful. "He was me. And can we please get off the subject, because, ew."

"It wasn't actually my right hook," the blond corrected. "I had to hit you with a chair."

"The point being that the police are clueless when it comes to the types of things we deal with," Giles said, coming to Xander's rescue.

"What did you mean by distracting the guards?" Jack asked.

"I thought I'd blow up a garbage can or two in the opposite wing from the exhibit," the kid said. "If it looks like they need something to do besides check out the sarcophagus."

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