Author's Note: Written for Day 30 of the 2020 August Fic-A-Day.

Three days after she sparred against Captain Michelet and Teal'c, she was approved to go off-world for further testing. More specifically, she was permitted to go to the Alpha Site with SG-1, Dr. Frasier, and a few other personnel who were to help with the actual testing.

As they were waiting for the Stargate to dial, Buffy, kept staring at the Gate lost in her own thoughts. The structure was reminding her of something, but whatever it was it remained just out of reach. It had bothered her since the first time she had laid eyes on it.

The wormhole whooshed out, and while she had seen it before a couple of times, it had been from up in the Stargate Operations Room or the Briefing Room not from down in the Embarkation Room. The effect was more impressive when she was standing this close and she could hear the sounds without using her abilities through bulletproof glass, concrete, and technology. She also had to look up rather than down at the 'water' splashing out and then retracting.

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

Buffy smiled up at the taller woman, "Yes, it is."

"You look contemplative. What's up? Are you nervous about the testing at the Alpha Site?"

"No. I have this vague feeling I've seen the Stargate somewhere before, but it looked a little different. I just can't figure out where I saw it."

Up in the S.O.R., General Hammond gave them the go-ahead to leave and they began walking up the ramp. When she got close to the event horizon she couldn't control her curiosity and stopped right before it. She reached out her hand and touched the 'water', only to get it proven it wasn't wet at all. It didn't feel like much of anything other than concentrated energy. She gave a mental shrug and walked through, Sam and Teal'c at her back.

When she emerged on the other she set foot on a different planet for the first time. Alternate Earth's not counting. According to Daniel, its military designation was P3X-984 but generally referred to as the Alpha Site. The Stargate stood on a raised stone dais with steps leading down.

"Maybe you saw it in your reality, or heard someone talk about it," Sam commented as they walked down the stairs to where everyone else was waiting for them.

"No, I'm positive I've never seen a real Stargate before." She frowned, "Maybe it was a drawing..."

"Okay, kids." Jack interrupted, "Let's get this show on the road."

From what she could see of the base it looked like any other military base or row of warehouses. Nothing special or anything that screamed 'alien!'. No blue sun, no purple bushes, and no multi-colored grass. There weren't even any strange-looking animals. It could've been anywhere or nowhere.

The five men who had accompanied them had left to set up whatever it was they needed for the testing, and Dr. Frasier had gone to the medical bay. The rest of them began walking inside as well.

General Hammond had explained the tests to her before they left. They wanted to see how fast she could run, how hard she could hit something, how much weight she could lift and throw, and how far away she could sense a symbiote or a former host. The latter was the reason SG-1 had been permitted to tag along. It would've been preferable to have a Tok'ra there as well so they could've tested how her senses reacted to a symbiote who was in control rather than maturing in a Jaffa's pouch, but Jacob Carter, Sam's father, had been unavailable and the SGC didn't want any of the other Tok'ra to know where the Alpha Site was located.

Someone high up somewhere had decided they should use half a day to test each of those skills, so they were cleared to stay for two days. Which meant she spent five hours running around like a maniac. First in short distances, then longer and longer. When they were finally done, she had to curb the desire to eat quickly.

Next up was to check how hard she could hit something. It began with a fancy machine for a couple of hours, but she was afraid to break it so went easy on it. Then they went back outside where she literally began cracking rocks. It was a good thing she was a fast healer as she bloodied her hands and knuckles several times, and in a way that proved another of her skills.

Then it was another meal and an early bedtime.

After breakfast the next morning, it was back to another machine for an hour before they went outside again. This time she lifted rocks instead of breaking them. Some of the rocks she was asked to carry for varying distances, others she was told to throw. It didn't escape her notice that they were all moved to the same general area to be away from the buildings.

In the evening she was blindfolded and lead away from the camp, and she spent several hours finding her way to the various members of their group through the unfamiliar terrain. In between, she was to alert her 'team leader' when she sensed either Sam or Teal'c and then tell him where she sensed it and how far away.

At the conclusion, that night she was checked over by Dr. Frasier to make sure she was unharmed by the ordeal. Then they packed up, ate a quick meal, and returned to Stargate Command. Buffy was a little disappointed that nothing out of the ordinary happened, but at least the men who did the testing weren't scared off or offended by what she could do. It was a point in their favor.

After they were back on Earth and had gone through the mandatory medical check-up, they had to go through a debriefing. They just summarized the tasks she had been set, how she'd done, and made sure everyone agreed.

"I guess this is as good a time as any," Buffy said at the end while looking at Sam. "I finally remembered where I've seen the Stargate before."

The Major sat up straighter, "And? Where do you recognize it from?"

"Back in my dimension, I had a kind of mentor, I guess you'd call him. He was a lot like Daniel in that he loves old books and knowledge. Just more with the tweed and the English accent." Daniel perked up as well. "One of the books had three drawings of a Stargate, one where it was powered down, one where it was 'whooshing', and a third where it was active."

Buffy looked around the table and everyone was attentively paying attention to her, even Jack. "I don't remember all the text, but I do remember that it called the Stargate for the Astria Porta and something about people leaving through it because of a disease, I think."

It had been one of the Watcher's Diaries, from a long, long time ago and it kept referring to the Gate as magical or mystical. It also said the Astria Porta transferred people to other planes of existence and then returned them, sometimes, or something like that. And while the text hadn't come out and said it directly, it implied the Watcher had believed that the people who went through the Stargate had been some kind of elevated beings rather than humans. With no base of reference, it must've made them look like something god-like or an act performed by someone very talented in magic.

"Oh," Buffy added as she just remembered more details, "and the lights around the edge were a light blue/green instead of a reddish yellow. The design also seemed more sleek and modern."

"If these were drawings or paintings then there's probably some artistic license at play here. Way back when people would exaggerate or use the colors available to them rather than make their renderings accurate." Daniel postulated.

"Unlikely. The organization the author belonged to insisted on the accuracy, so probably not."

Daniel kind of stared at her, and he wasn't the only one. "How do you know that?"

"I kinda, sorta belonged to it, but not really?" They stared some more. "It's complicated and not relevant. I just thought you might want to know that the Stargate exist where I come from, too."

"Do you remember anything else from this entry?"

"No, General. I read it a long time ago and just dismissed it as something fantastical or made-up by some bored person. And irrelevant to me. I only remembered it now since I know the Stargates are real."

"Very well, dismissed."

She was cornered by the two resident geeks as soon as Hammond had left to return to his office. The two of them more or less herded her back to Daniel's office, where she was likely to spend hours trying to wrestle more out of her memory.

Jack and Teal'c left mostly unnoticed by the three of them.

It was okay. This wasn't her reality, Jack and Sara weren't her parents, but she could build a life here. The memory of the Stargate in one of Giles' books might be real or something the PTB placed there before sending her away, but it didn't matter. She was here now, soon she would be back in college and studying dead languages, and the SGC would be waiting in the wings for her to graduate.

After graduation, there was the offer her mother had hinted about. She would gain new friends in school and hopefully at the SGC as well. This was her life now, and hopefully, everyone back home was doing well.