A Legacy of Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Stargate: SG-1 and EVE Online remain the property of Mutant Enemy Productions, MGM and CCP Games respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Author Note: As always, my thanks to Kieran Halcyon for his help as my beta reader.


Chapter Eight

Xander's Citadel

Through both the stations sensors, and the eyes of the clone he was controlling remotely, Xander observed as a small shuttle departed from a bay on the starboard side of the Nox mothership. Like its mothership the shuttle was oval with rippling lines of light along its edges. I wonder what purpose that light serves unless it's purely decoration, he thought before, deciding to indulge his curiosity, he lightly scanned the shuttle. The results that instantly registered on his awareness were surprising to say the least. The Nox shuttle – and presumably its mothership as well – achieved motion by generating gravitational and anti-gravitational fields which created a space-time distortion field that the ship manipulated to achieve motion.

"Interesting," he thought-spoke, "I wonder if that's how Drifter ships also achieve motion."

"It is a possibility," Aura agreed as she too looked over the scan results. "Unfortunately, there is no way to be certain, especially given how hostile the Drifters can be."

"True," Xander agreed knowing from Alexander's memories that the cybernetic humanoids referred to as Drifters by everyone in New Eden could be extremely hostile to just about everyone, giving even the increasingly rare Jove a few headaches. Few who encountered their powerful warships survived the experience and even if you did manage to destroy the Drifter vessel before it destroyed you, you'd be lucky to get anything useful from the wreckage given that it took some serious firepower to destroy even smaller Drifter vessels. Alexander had encountered them on three occasions since leaving the Federal Navy and only once been able to get anything useful from the wreckage. In that case it had been a bit of self-replicating implant technology that had seriously improved his own cybernetic implants increasing the amount of data he could manage and process at once speeding up reaction time while reducing the organic crew requirements on his ships considerably.

It was an improvement he had inherited from him, something he'd discovered when activating another clone to use as an avatar, as its self-replicating nature meant that all Alexander's – and now his – clones had it even when a clone was terminated. In fact, one aspect of the technology that he hadn't been aware of was the fact that it was what was responsible for a terminated clone self-destructing. Until he'd discovered that he'd assumed it was an ability that all capsuleer clones had had.

"Xander the Nox vessel has reached our docking perimeter and is broadcasting the code you gave them," Aura said, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Very well begin the docking sequence. Bring the shuttle into VIP docking bay four, it's where I have my avatar waiting for them. Have a lift ready to take us to the arboretum."

"As you wish. Docking sequence initiated."

As soon as he observed the station's docking tractors reach out and lock onto the vessel Xander focused on his avatar, keeping only a small part of his awareness connected to his normal body floating in the operations centre capsule. For a second it was like he was travelling down a tunnel…

…then suddenly he was in the avatar looking through the clone's eyes only. Despite having expected it, the change was still startling enough that he stumbled momentarily, especially as he could still feel his other-self and the connection to the station at the very back of his mind.

"Okay this is weird," he said aloud as he rotated his shoulders and stepped forward a second, testing his motor control to make sure everything was working correctly. "Though it is useful. Aura, do you know how far I would be able to control a clone this way?"

"You would in theory be able to control a clone in this fashion over a distance of a hundred square light years," Aura replied immediately. "Though it would not be recommended to do so over a distance greater than four light years at this present time."

"Because it could drive me mad?"

"Indeed, your infomorphic synchronising training is only to level two. If you wish to remote control clones over ranges greater than four light years, we will have to see about improving it. I can prepare a skill injector if you wish?"

"Not right now Aura, four light years is more than enough. I only wanted to know to increase my options for visiting Sunnydale. Well until I can get a secure enough facility sorted out to store a jump clone."

"I understand. I am bringing the Nox shuttle into the bay now. The docking sequence shall be completed in another minute."

Xander nodded though he didn't voice that he was already aware of that. Since he was still connected to the station in his mind's eye he could see – if he wanted to – the beams bringing the Nox shuttle into the bay. Sitting down he closed his eyes and let the image feed come to the fore. He watched as the Nox shuttle was set down on a docking pedestal, prompting an umbilical to begin extending from the wall to mate with the hatch on its side. The smart docking collar on the end of the umbilical easily adapted itself to establish a solid, air-tight seal with the shuttle. A thought changed his perspective to the camera in the umbilical tube itself allowing him to see the door to the interior of the alien craft opening.

He dismissed the feed, letting it fade back to the back of his mind, before opening his eyes. He stood up and made sure the formal clothing he was wearing was properly presentable while he waited. It wasn't a long wait, barely more than a minute, before the airlock door slid open and he became face to face with the Nox for the first time. His first impression was that they were all incredibly short being not that much taller than Buffy was, the second was the fact that their simple clothing – made as it was with natural plant fibres – was completely at odds with their apparent level of technology. As the small group of Nox approached, there were just three of them, he also became aware of the slight smell each of them had a light, earthy smell that reminded him somewhat of the night time streets of Sunnydale as he'd known them before he'd learned the truth about what went bump in the night. He had to repress a smile at the memory of happier times before Jesse had been turned, before he'd known about vampires, demons and the quiet supernatural war that was being continuously fought between good and evil with the fate of humanity as the prize. It was surprising to him how nostalgic for those times he was, made all the more poignant by the fact that he could never go back to that way of living as not only did know too much now about what went 'grr' in the dark but he was… well… a capsuleer now.

Mentally he shook himself, he wasn't old enough to properly indulge in such nostalgic thoughts and stood up to greet his guests. Even as he did so he thought that a group of aliens was not his first choice for the first guests ever to come here to the Fortizar – which he made a mental note to think up a name for – he would have rather that been both the rest of the Scooby gang and the other former members of The Pack. Of course knowing Kyle and the others the moment they got here they wouldn't want to leave, he thought, plus I would have a devil of a time stopping Willow from poking and prodding at all the technology or bombarding Aura with questions about how everything works. He mentally shook his head with an inner smile as he could so see how Willow would react to the sight of all this advanced technology. While she had been showing an increasing interest in the occult recently his Willow was a scientist at heart and would be beyond desperate to know a) how everything worked and b) if he could be turned back to her definition of normal.

"Ohper welcome aboard," he said in greeting as he offered his hand, hoping he wasn't making a mistake with the gesture. Thankfully the Nox seemed to understand the gesture as he took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Thank you for permitting us to come aboard Xander Harris," Ohper replied, "allow me to introduce my colleagues Lya and Anteaus."

"A pleasure," Xander replied with a slight respectful bow.

"The pleasure is ours," Anteaus answered and there was something in his voice and appearance that instantly reminded him quite strongly of Principal Snyder. Wonder if they're related somehow, he thought, maybe Snyder's his evil twin or something. "Forgive me for asking this but why are you not speaking the same language that the other members of your race spoke when they came to our planet a few of your months ago?"

Xander raised an eyebrow. "You have met people from Earth before?" he asked. "And to answer your question it's a side effect of having a completely different set of memories inside my head. I have found that I now automatically tend to speak Gallentese though I can still speak English if you prefer."

"That won't be necessary, you can speak whatever language you are comfortable with," Ohper replied, giving Anteaus a sideways glance/partial glare for bringing up this topic. Implied in it was a warning that he would, if he kept on straying off their agreed upon script, send him back to the ship if he kept this up. Anteaus gave a slight wince at the stern, silent rebuke from the elder. "We will understand whatever language you speak. But to answer your question yes, we have encountered people from Earth twice in the last few months. Once when three of them and a Jaffa visited our homeworld Gaia through the Stargate, the second time a few weeks ago when Lya travelled the same way to Earth to pick up some refugees from the planet Tollan before they could be taken away by a Colonel Maybourne."

"What's a Stargate-?" Xander questioned, wondering if that was the name of the wormhole generating device that he'd detected beneath Cheyenne Mountain a few hours earlier. It would fit with the name as Stargates or Jump Gates – the name varying depending on who you talked to – in New Eden worked the same way by generating a wormhole, though the scales were completely different plus New Eden stargates always had an active connection between them.

"You don't know?" Anteaus asked, sounding surprised.

"Well, I know the term but the Stargates I am thinking of are giant structures in space used to create permanent artificial wormholes between star systems allowing interstellar travel at a far higher speed than a warp drive allows though not quite as quick as jumping through a cynosural field."

"No, the Stargates Anteaus referred to are small ring-shaped devices deployed on planets across this and other galaxies in the local group by the Alterans millions of years ago," Ohper explained. "They allow instantaneous travel by foot between planets in the galaxy and if you have enough power available, between galaxies', though the wormholes are not permanent and will collapse after thirty-eight minutes of operation. I am surprised you don't know of it given that people from Earth are using it."

"Somebody probably decided it should be classified and that the public is not ready to learn about the existence of other worlds," Xander replied, "I was orbiting Earth a little while ago and picked up emissions beneath Cheyenne Mountain that do match a wormhole. So, the American Air Force likely has it and they'd hoard all knowledge of it for their own ends."

"I see we will have to speak with them about that," Ohper answered, unhappy by that bit of information. The Alterans had intended their stargates to be used to spread peace, knowledge, and friendship between all the races of the galaxies. They had never intended for them to be used by one small faction on a planet to gain an advantage over any other on said planet and indeed – when such instances had occurred in the past – had taken action to put a stop to it. After we are done here, we'll travel to Earth and speak with them about it, he thought.

"But let us move on to what brought us here," he continued. "Is there somewhere more comfortable to talk than this?"

"Of course, we can go to the arboretum this way please."

Ohper nodded and the three Nox quietly followed Xander to the waiting lift, that immediately began whisking them through the interior of the station as soon as they were all aboard. While they waited for the ride to end Lya spoke up.

"Xander I am curious how is it that we can both see and sense you here but also sense your presence throughout the station," she asked.

Xander smiled. "This particular body is only an avatar," he explained. "I am controlling it remotely as my main clone is currently floating in a pod full of hydrostatic gel in the station's operations centre. This way I can both keep a firm watch on all station operations and talk to you at the same time. I could have projected a hologram to speak to you more easily but figured appearing as close to in person as possible was better."

"Is that not dangerous," Anteaus asked instantly concerned for the young human's wellbeing – well if he could be called entirely human anymore as he could sense the cybernetic implants that he had. Any form of consciousness projection was potentially extremely dangerous and could easily lead to the user going insane or worse becoming lost to wander the ether for all eternity searching for something it would never find.

"It can be if you try to control too many different avatars at once or over too great a distance without sufficient knowledge or training in infomorphic synchronising. Thankfully, there is no danger of that here."

"I see."

Before the Nox could ask him anymore questions the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened revealing another of the seemingly endless silver, white and blue corridors of the station's interior. "This way," Xander said as he led the way out of the lift. The Nox followed him down the corridor until they came to a large set of double doors.

A thought command from Xander caused the doors to open with the whirring of powerful hydraulics. Stepping through it was instantly like stepping into another world as they were suddenly in a vast parkland that was almost twice the size of New York's central park. In all directions there was perfectly manicured parkland replete with lawns of blue grass, trees some of whom had silver leaves and a meandering river. Overhead a holographic sky made it look and feel like they were on a planet not to mention there was the sound of birdsong and insects.

"Impressive," Ohper commented as he reached out with his senses. Immediately he could tell that the plants were real but that the birds and insects were not but were incredibly realistic robotic recreations designed to keep this artificial biosphere in perfect balance.

"This way," Xander said as he started leading them down a winding gravel path through the parkland. Despite himself he was surprised that a parkland like this existed on the station though its psychological advantages were obvious as even the most veteran spacers and capsuleers needed to periodically enjoy nature. Plus, the plants help with atmospheric recycling, he thought as at the back of his awareness he instantly knew all the airflows through the station and the fact that a great deal of atmosphere recycling came through here with the blue grass – native to the Minmatar homeworld – being the biggest producer of fresh oxygen.

In no time at all they reached a small sitting area on the shore of an ornamental lake. Standing nearby was a structure somewhat reminiscent of old Chinese and Japanese architecture – one of the few bits of architectural styling left in New Eden from the long-vanished Yan Jung – but with some subtle differences in construction. Xander led the way over to it and a set of comfortable looking chairs which he gestured for everyone to sit down in.

Once everyone was comfortable, he spoke up again. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. "You said it had something to do with the Halloween spell?"

"Yes, but before we get to that I will have to explain quite a bit more about the history of your world," Ohper confirmed. "You indicated in our earlier communication that you are somewhat aware that your world was once dominated by powerful extra-dimensional demons."

"The Old Ones. Yes, Giles told me and my friend when we learned that our new friend Buffy Summers was the Slayer."

"Slayer?" Ohper questioned not familiar with that term.

"You don't know about the Slayer?" The three Nox shook their heads. "Okay there is a whole spiel about it. Essentially it goes that once into every generation she is born, a chosen one, she alone will have the strength and the skill to battle the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness to stop the spread of their evil and the growth of their numbers. She is the Slayer. When one Slayer dies another is called."

"Interesting, some type of magical empowerment, such spells are complex and advanced. Do you know how long there these Slayers have been around?"

"I have no idea. I know it has been a very long time, thousands of years at least, as part of the back story is that when the last of the Old Ones was banished it fed upon and passed its blood to a human. The human died and reanimated, possessed by the demon's spirit. Creating the first vampire. From what Giles said the Slayers were created soon after to fight back against the vampires."

"The first vampire as you refer to them were not demonically possessed and resurrected humans as you believe, instead they were some of the Alterans who were killed and reanimated by the demon lord in question. They were called the Turok'Han," Ohper answered. "They were all supposedly imprisoned or destroyed by the Alterans millions of years ago. Do your vampires look like monsters?"

"Not until they're about to feed. Most of the time they look like regular people if a little pale. It's only when they are about to feed that they reveal their true demonic face." With a thought Xander made a holographic screen blink into existence showing an image from his own memory of a vampire in game face, in this case Jesse's face before he had driven that stake into his unbeating heart to save Cordelia, causing Jesse to turn to dust.

Ohper leaned forward and frowned. "That is not a Turok'Han though there are some similarities in the yellow eyes and oversized incisors," he said. "It is definitely a vampire species and I have an idea where they probably come from. We are getting off track though, but I will say I would like to know more about these new vampires and this Slayer."

"I will have to introduce you to Giles then. As Buffy's Watcher he should be able to provide you with some or the answers that you want. He has a portable quantum comms device I left him. We can call him later or possibly even go and see him." Assuming Aura has fixed whatever problems there are with the covert ops cloak on that bomber, he thought a moment before he became aware that she had solved the problem, tracking it down to a slight molecular error in the seals on the primary thermal regulator array. An error that had allowed some coolant to escape so the regulator hadn't been able to cool the cloak sufficiently under the stress of maintaining the field inside the atmosphere. She'd already replaced the offending seals and was currently running checks for any other molecular errors left over from the nano-assembly process.

"I do plan to travel to Earth after we are finished here to discuss the matter that you brought to my attention with the SGC. I would welcome the chance to speak with your Mr Giles so if you can arrange it I would be most grateful," Ohper replied, even as part of his mind already began working out just what he was going to say to Colonel O'Neill and the rest of his people about keeping the Stargate quiet and hidden and how doing so potentially greatly dishonoured the memory of the Ancients and the spirit of peace and cooperation that had led them to create the Stargate Network in the first place. "But let us get back to what I originally wanted to talk with you about."

"Alright," Xander agreed. "You were talking about the Old Ones."

"Indeed, though for you to fully understand I am going to have to give you something of a history lesson first that I fear will change the world as you know it."

"I am kind of used to that so don't worry," Xander replied with a slight smile as it was true that he was kind of used to his worldview getting upended, what with his introduction to the supernatural world last year and now the aftermath of Ethan Rayne's spell and his transformation into a capsuleer.

"Very well then we shall continue."

Ohper began first by explaining how fifty million years ago a race of highly advanced humans called the Alterans came to this galaxy – Avalon as they called it – fleeing a war that had torn their even then very old race apart into two camps of thought on how to understand and interact with the world around them. With one group favouring understanding the natural world through science, observation and experimentation and only resorting to the use of the reality manipulating energies known as magic when necessary. The other camp had preferred to take a more mystical approach to understanding the world and had ultimately triumphed in the war between the two diametrically opposite camps forcing the Alterans to flee their home galaxy and journey across the great void of intergalactic space in search of a new home.

He continued explaining how after centuries of wandering the great void the Alterans found their way to this galaxy and began settling it. First landing on a semi-arid world known today as Dakara before eventually stumbling across Earth, only at that time it had been ruled by the Old Ones. Beings whose very nature reeked of malice and the darkest, most corrupt of magics. Ohper explained how – with the aid of his own peoples mastery of magic and the Alterans own still very formidable talents in that area – they had fought the Old Ones in a battle that had lasted many millennia until in one final cataclysmic battle the Old Ones had been forced from this plane of existence being banished back to the hellish dimensions from which they had originated. Then he explained how in the aftermath his own people swore off ever using magic for violent purposes again, embracing what had become their current philosophy of absolute pacifism and the Alterans had constructed the deeper well and a network of technological structures – that appeared in the form of rings of stone – with their hub based on an island to keep the dimensional tears that the demons had used to come to this reality closed.

"If they closed the hellmouths, how is the one underneath Sunnydale open again?" Xander asked.

"Unfortunately over time the network the Alterans built has become damaged," Ohper admitted, "I am informed that the worst of the damage took place seventy-four thousand years ago when a supervolcano suddenly erupted on your planet destroying the primary control hub. With it destroyed the network went to regional control only and over time parts of it have either broken down from lack of maintenance or been lost to various natural calamities such as glacial periods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It allowed the demons to begin slowly returning until that was ten thousand years ago when the last of the Alterans returned to this galaxy after some time away…

"They discovered that the dark rifts you refer to as hellmouths were starting to open again, naturally they attempted to do something to stop it but sadly – due to the atrophying of their magical abilities over the millions of years of their reign – they were not able to completely close them only make it that at most four could be only partially open at any given time. They were however able to emplace guardians on the hellmouths to stop them being opened fully from either side. The few Old Ones who had managed to find some purchase back in this reality were once again banished and sealed behind the deeper well. Though it is likely from what you told me that one of them was able to create the vampire race you know before being defeated and banished once again.

"Until very recently, as a minor trio of the Old Ones known as the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart figured out a method of influencing the world while using the letter of the law to hide their activities and slowly spreading corruption. The Alterans, now a race of ascended beings, learned of their activities a few days ago and resolved to stop them, however they ran into a few issues."

"What kind of issues and what's an ascended being?"

"Ascended beings are mortal creatures who have evolved to the point where they no longer need a physical body; instead, they become beings of pure energy and thought that exist on a higher plane of existence to the one we know. It is as close to a true deity as it is possible for a mortal lifeform to become. As to the issue in question I am not sure what it was – they did not say when they came to see myself and my fellow Nox elders about it – but it would prevent them directly interfering.

"They did however find a way when the true deity known as Janus was called upon to empower the spell cast by Ethan Rayne. With the blessing and likely open assistance of Janus they were able to use the conduit created by the spell to intervene and take steps to force the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart to once again withdraw from this dimension. Unfortunately doing so had an unintended consequence."

"You mean me being turned into a capsuleer."

"Unfortunately yes, as your own unique nature as a natural avatar of chaos meant that when we interfered with the spell its effects upon you were unforeseen," a new voice said before a stately looking woman in a white suit appeared by them, a nimbus of silver-white light giving her the appearance of an angel. "By the time we realized what was happening it was too late to stop it and impossible to undo it without risking completely destroying you. So, we did all we could to make things a little easier for you."

"How so?" Xander demanded, "and what do you mean by my nature as an avatar of chaos? I didn't know I was. And who the hell are you anyway?"

"Perhaps, avatar of chaos is too strong a description. What I actually meant is that you are a natural instrument of change Xander Harris, you are not or rather were not bound to a specific destiny or fate as most who become aware of the supernatural world are," the woman-thing explained, "that is how you were able to save your Slayer friend when she was drowned by the vampire Heinrich Nest, but with all natural implements of change comes a degree of uncertainty and even chaos. It is a natural law of the universe. As for who I am you can call me Ganos Lal."

"So that's what actually happened. Your colleague was not clear on this when he along with Janus came to see us," Ohper pointed out to the ascended being.

"You are aware of what a ritual of mask spell entails, are you not Ohper?"

"Of course it allows a temporary overlay of one personality and even sometimes a biology with another, though as the name says, it is only a temporary mask that dissipates completely when the spell either runs its full course or its matrix is shattered by the destruction of the magical vessel being used to sustain it."

"Indeed, and that is what happened with almost all affected by the spell cast by Ethan Rayne."

"But not me," Xander added. "So, what happened?"

"Something that nobody, except possibly Janus himself, could have foreseen. You see due to the overpowering of the spell not only were cybernetic implants created in your body that should not have been there, but the extra power transformed your original body into a capsuleer clone. Something that should not have existed in this reality.

"As I said by the time, we realized what had happened, it was too late to stop it without destroying you completely so we did what we could to help you. We created this station for you, in addition to upgrading and augmenting the capabilities of the artificial intelligence you know as Aura. As her matrix adjusts to the changes, her full upgraded capabilities will unlock. Though I cannot tell you what they are, you will have to find that out for yourself. I will be going now but before I do, I will tell you that you're about to get some more guests, some more old friends of ours… please don't shoot them."

As soon as she finished speaking the woman glowed with a brighter light before vanishing as if she had never been present at all. Xander frowned as he gazed upon where she had once been. "What did she mean by that?"

"I do not know, ascended beings generally have to be very cryptic when they interact with our plane of existence, as they hold themselves to a strict set of rules for practical and ethical reasons," Anteaus replied a second before Xander's eyes seemed to go momentarily vacant as an alert from the stations sensors drew his attention momentarily away from controlling his avatar. A microsecond later he was back. "What is it?"

"Another ship just appeared from the same kind of spatial disturbance your ship appeared from. However, unlike your own its mechanical and appears to be very heavily armed," Xander said as a new holographic screen blinked into existence showing the image of the newly arrived ship, it was in away an even stranger design than the Nox ship having a distinct hammerhead almost Nordic aesthetic to it along with a breakdown of its armament which consisted of a mixture of laser and particle cannons. Ohper blinked in surprise as he saw it as though it had been a long time since they'd openly interacted with them, he recognised who the vessel belonged to.

"Who are they?" Xander asked seeing the recognition on Ohper's face.

"Friends we haven't seen in a long time. I was a child the last time a Nox spoke to one of them. We lost contact with them after that."

"But who are they?" Xander repeated.

"The Asgard."


Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the dust, I hope you all enjoyed this meeting between Xander and the Nox and that it answered some of the questions I know that you have had about the story and now the Asgard are coming into play as well – the ascended pushing things a little to help their old allies out with one of their problems – though I will say now that the Asgard commanding the cruiser is unfortunately not Thor. Thor is currently preoccupied dealing with a fresh offensive by the Lego blocks from hell i.e. the Replicators so another Asgard has been tapped to appear in his place. Who that Asgard is will be revealed in the next chapter, I am also hoping next chapter to return to Sunnydale and the SGC but I cannot promise anything on that front right now as it depends on how the muse cooperates. Until next time stay safe everyone.