Chaos Theory – Re-keyed. Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Neon Genesis Evangelion/Stargate SG-1/Star Wars/Star Trek/Halo/Lord of the Rings Crossover...

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Title: Chaos Theory: Re-keyed
Rating: PG - Language and Violence.
Genre: Crossover
Author: PitViper
Date (Part Five): 2007-12-03

Summary: This is a BtVS/NGE/SG-1/SW/ST/LotR/Halo crossover. Based on the Halloween costume episode. Very AU. The Key's spell goes both forwards and backwards in time… what happens when it interacts with Ethan's Halloween?

Disclaimer: I don't own it, wish I did. I'm not making any money off of it – so please don't sue me. BtVS is the property of Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox. Neon Genesis Evangelion is the product of Gainax and ADV Films. Star Wars is owned by George Lucas. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Double Secret Productions and Sci-Fi channel. Lord of the Rings is the property of J.R.R. Tolkien and his family. Halo is owned by Bungie. And Star Trek is the property of Paramount Pictures (Who obviously understand nothing about Gene's vision of the future)

Chaos Theory: Re-Keyed

Part Five: "The Gathering"

Dawn rolled over as the sun rose over the horizon. With a sigh she peeled herself out of bed.

Her mother, who had been standing at the doorway watching her child sleep, gasped, "Dawn? Why aren't you wearing anything?"

Dawn twirled around to find her Joyce standing there, utter shock written over her face. The young girl sighed, as she thought up a different question: "Why are you wearing a Starfleet uniform?"

Her mother sputtered a bit, "I guess we both picked up some unusual habits the previous night."

Dawn smiled softly, "Yeah. Don't worry; I'll put on something… not as revealing."

"So the hair… the wings…" Her mother asked softly, almost hoping not to be heard.

"The hair and the wings are here to stay, I'm afraid, mother."

"That blast… that explosion… that was you last night?" Joyce asked, still in awe that her little girl was the one who might have created the energy discharge.

Dawn nodded, "Not so much me as who I dressed as. She had a tendency to attract the unusual to her like a homing beacon. It was either an AT Field discharge or there would have been two hundred additional demons attacking the town."

Joyce sighed. "Can you keep it under control?"

Dawn smiled slightly, "I don't think that I'd ever lose control. It's just strange – I have all these memories… but they're not mine. They belong to someone else, and I know that they do… but it doesn't stop it from being… familiar." She sighed as she went to go get dressed, and frowned for a moment. "Still… I'm me, I know I'm me, you know? Now there's this other me that's also me. And my memories of another life are so real… almost as real as my memories of the here and now. There is the self, and the self that observes the self – and then there is the self that exists within others." At this Dawn chuckled, "And here I am looking around for a Japanese Girls School uniform so that I can go to class…"

"Well… Maybe a uniform might be an interesting way to do things, but I think considering how we changed… You're coming with me to the High School today."

Dawn nodded, "I expected as much." She said, then grinned a bit, "You're going to be in high demand. Lots of Trekkers last night, ya know? And you're hot in that uniform."

"Hey!" Joyce shouted with a smirk, "Watch it. I can't help it if I'm an Admiral."

"Just don't think you're going to be making out with any of the Mini-Kirks." Dawn shuddered, "Like, ewww…."

Joyce smiled, "At least now I know you're going to be alright. That last moment was so Dawn Summers that there couldn't be anyone else who could pull it off."

Dawn smiled demurely, "Yes Mom."

As Joyce turned and left, shutting the door behind her, all the emotion faded away from Dawn Summers' face. "Maybe some day… a long, long time from now." She muttered in Japanese as she went back to the job of getting dressed.

---

Jim McNeil looked around at the gym with a pounding headache. "Give me a tall ship… and a window blind." He muttered, leaning in the shadow of a pillar. Sunlight streamed through the high windows and bathed the light colored wooden floor in radiant brilliance. Excellent for Gym class – bad for Jim's hangover.

"A wee bit under the weather lad?" Tim 'Scotty' Morgan asked softly enough not to annoy the pounding headache his friend and commanding officer possessed.

"I feel like asking you for your phaser. I'd set it on kill and vaporize my head. That might stop the pounding."

"Need to remember, oh brother-mine, that you're not in an adult body." Laura McNeil said. She began to softly chuckle, "Now if this isn't like 'old times' then I don't know what is."

Jim shook his head. "Bones, the next time I need the obvious stated, I'll come down to your sickbay for some advice." He paused a moment, "Well… I will once we have a ship."

"Somehow I doubt that a convenient Bird of Prey will just drop out of the sky for us to use." Laura muttered, looking around at the gathering. "Is it my imagination, or does this place look like a damned Sci-Fi convention."

"Tis' not your imagination, lassie." Tim muttered, his Scottish accent coming through despite his best attempts at concealment. "I've nae seen a collection like this since we stood trial in San-Fran."

Laura frowned, "That wasn't us." She said, even though she remembered it like he did. "We've got to start separating ourselves from our possessions… otherwise we might forget who we really are."

"Doesn't matter." Tim replied. "Canna unlearn what ye already know."

"Anyone spot a Chekov or Sulu?" Jim asked, looking around, wondering if any of the other members of his possession's crew were around. "If we're going to do this right…"

"Behind you, Keptain." Mark Wilson said cheerfully, causing Jim to jump slightly.

Michael Yamaguchi, who had been possessed by Hikaru Sulu stood slightly behind Mark, smiling softly, "Seems we found each other."

Taking in the line of his possessed friends, Jim couldn't help but smile a bit as they milled around practically at military parade-rest. "We still look like a cadet review." Jim muttered with good-natured annoyance. "Where's Sp… I mean Leonard?"

"Ye'll find 'em over there, talking to the blonde lass." Tim responded with a nod. "I'd be careful, Capt'n, She looks a wee bit on the military side. I'm gonna take a look around and see if I can find a LaForge in this mess."

Jim squinted even as he nodded his approval to Tim. He spotted Lenny standing in the brightest sunlight in the room. A bandana conveniently covered his Vulcan attributes. "He would have to stand there…" He sighed. Just then two women walked past arguing with each other. One he recognized from the previous night, and the other seemed to be a Klingon-Human hybrid.

"I don't get it, Ann. How can you be so calm about all this?" The Klingon grumbled, "You're part Borg now! And me… I've got warp engines floating around in my head!"

Jim watched as Scotty froze and began to tail the two. 'Oh no…' He was supremely worried about his friend, especially considering that they were women. One was Borg and the other was Klingon. It wasn't a conversation that a man could slip into and walk away unscathed. But Jim also knew that at the very mention of 'Warp Core' Scotty wouldn't let go. He'd be like a Doberman with a leg of Lamb.

"You really need to calm down, Lydia. We're not the only ones in this situation and having you go Klingon on them…"

"Yeah, I know. Blame it on the hormones…"

Just then Tim broke in, "Couldn'a help but overhear, Warp engines, ye say?"

"And who do you think you are, Kid? Mr. Scott?" Lydia growled out, as Anika began to smile a bit.

Timmy smiled widely, "Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineering Officer of the Enterprise, at your service milady."

The outright claim shocked Anika into spurting out: "For God's sake Tim, Lay off. I know you were possessed by Monty last night, but do you have to lay it on so thick?" Anika Weiss sighed, "It's not like you two can build a warp core out of the rusted-out Chevies in this town."

"We might," came the synchronized response. Anika stared in almost abject horror.

Lydia smiled at seeing her friend actually expressing emotions. She had to hand it to this kid, he knew how to bring out a smile in another person… or at least annoy them until they did: "You know, kid, I think I like you. You've managed to suck Ann over here out of whatever black-hole her emotions crawled into. And if you truly were possessed by the Miracle Worker…" Lydia said, "Name's Lydia Thompson."

"Tim Morgan," He introduced himself, for the first time the Scottish accent fading a bit, then immediately began talking shop, "First rule of Starship Engineering," Tim started with a smile, the accent returning: "Always over-engineer. Be a wee bit conservative on paper, but make sure she can handle double the load. When I supervised the Enterprise Refit, I made sure that the engines and the core were all double the specs. I got tired of telling the Capt'n, 'If ye keep pushing the engines like this, she'll blow up.' It's the only reason we survived V'Ger, ye know?"

At this, Leonard and Sam Carter began walking over, both attracted by the odd conversation. Anika slipped back into her normal shell.

"So, what are you three talking about?" Sam asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Warp engines." Anika muttered, "Leonard, nice to see you again."

Leonard let out a slight smile. No, he wasn't completely Spock… but then again, he was part Vulcan now. Restraint was dictated, but not utter control. "It is agreeable to see you again, Anika." He then looked at Tim and Lydia, "You as well, Tim." Then to Lydia he directed, "I do not believe I've made you're acquaintance." He said, looking at Lydia.

Lydia smiled softly, "Lydia Thompson, I was possessed by B'lanna Torres."

Leonard nodded, as he could remember everything up to his final death as Spock, "Chief engineer of the Starship Voyager during her journey through the Delta Quadrant."

"A pleasure, Lassie." Tim said genuinely, "I've looked at most of your designs and improvements to the Voyager's warp system while I was a part of the Corps of Engineers. Pure Genius, most of that," He looked at Sam and her eyes. "And ye must have been possessed by Mr. Data."

Sam took a self-conscious step back, "How did you?"

"Yer eyes lass," He said. "It's all in yer eyes."

Sam nodded. Montgomery Scott was one of the greatest engineers of any time. And he would be quickest at noticing anything remotely artificial – like her optics. "We're going to be gathering people into groups. First by discipline, then we'll group them by amount of change. We're calling in some help to see if we can't reverse some of the more drastic changes."

"And what if they not be wanting a change?" Tim asked. "Ye know that some of what has happened here has opened their eyes. We've gotta start getting the people organized and use our knowledge to help those who don't know. We're gonna take this town, secure it… then start worrying about the rest of the world." Tim glanced over towards Buffy, who was currently looking at a younger kid's lightsaber. "Lass over there has been protectin our behinds for the last few years. We owe her."

Sam blinked, "You know about Buffy?"

"Ye hafta be blind and daft not to notice what she's done fer us." Tim countered angrily. "I canna say that I'd willingly go out and do what she does… but a lot of us are still here because she came to town. I don't know why, and I'm not pretendin' to want to know. Her secrets have to be as dark as this town. But now that we're able, we need to start helpin."

Sam watched as both Lydia and Anika nodded in agreement. Sam muttered, "She told us a few things… but she didn't tell us to what extent…"

"Every night, we've seen her go out there into the dark – after the sun has set." Lydia stated, "She goes out and protects the newbies – the ones who just moved into town – from becoming meals-on-feet. She's never taken a day off, as far as I know… other than summer vacation."

"Everyone in the town knows. We stay off the streets after dark. To avoid being drained or worse," Anika said, looking at the blonde slayer. "If it weren't for her, our weekly school obituary would be twice as long."

"Weekly!" Sam spurted out. A yearly obituary column was ok in some schools. Occasionally they had one during a month when there was a serious accident that involved more than one student… but to have one every week!

"Six this week, five from elementary school. One from Junior High. Buffy will probably go out and stake Paulina when she comes out of the ground Wednesday. Turning a twelve year old… talk about disgusting." Lydia said. "You can always tell which ones are going to be rising; the obituary's coroners report always says whether or not there was blood found in the mouth. If there's blood, the family pulls up stakes and leaves the west coast – if they're in the know."

"You knew… that she had to go out there every night?" Sam said in both disgust and shock, "And that she has to go out there and stake children who had been turned?"

"Lass, we couldn't tell anyone. Be locked up faster than you can say 'crazy'." Tim said sadly. "I knew a couple of kids who mouthed-off about it in public. They were arrested, put in solitary for about three years, and released at midnight sometime last year in the warehouse district. They were twelve and thirteen years old when their bodies were discovered. Buffy must have dusted them nary three days later. Their parents were dead the night they mouthed off."

"In the name of God! Why didn't… is the government here completely corrupt?" Sam said, disgusted and amazed, "And for the love of God, she's had to do this all by herself?"

"She's special. We all know it." Anika added. "Now so are we. That means we have the responsibility to help her."

"Alex and Wills always have been at her side." Lydia noted. "Been that way since Jessie."

"Jessie?" Sam asked, almost not wanting to know.

"It happened a little over a year ago. It was Jessie, Willow, and Xander." Lydia started, "They were just coming into high school as freshmen. Then came the night of the Harvest…" Lydia shuddered. "Jessie and Willow got caught a few days before. Buffy got Willow out in time, but for Jessie… it was too late. He rose and Xander… he had to dust him on Harvest night."

"Now if that ain't something to give ye nightmares for the rest of yer life." Tim muttered, "To have to see that thing that was wearing your best friend's face turn to dust… with you holdin' the stake that dusted him."

Sam was horrified. "There are third world countries that don't have it this bad."

"We know," came the response from the three 'kids'.

---

Jack and Xander were standing in the center of the room, watching as the students and those others who were changed file in.

"This… sucks." Xander said.

Jack nodded, "We're not even going to get a tenth of those who traded money for one of those magic costumes."

"We might do a bit better than that. According to the sales sheets we recovered from Ethan's inventories, and from his own admissions, we should have about three thousand eight hundred fourteen individuals who were changed by that madman…woman…whatever." Cortana informed them. "If you consider that almost two thousand six hundred and ninety of those costumes were generic monsters that leaves us with one thousand one hundred twenty four non generic costumes."

The other Cortana picked up where the first left off, "Since we know that the generic monsters were dissipated by the spell without leaving behind any lingering effects, as was demonstrated by the few children we examined earlier, that leaves us with just eleven hundred or so who wore costumes that attracted specific personalities and characters as possessions."

"Somehow the spell became entangled with the hellmouth and any mystical energy source – so the closer to the hellmouth or one of the other mystical energy sources, the more likely of psychological or physical changes taking permanent hold on the host body." Jack's Cortana finished, having taken over from Xander's version.

"If a person had mystical energy within them, or if the changed people were close to a person or being who possessed such a mystical energy, then they would experience the same effect as being nearer to the hellmouth. We know that out of the eleven hundred and twenty four people that wore non-generic costumes, approximately three hundred were outside the estimated range of permanent influence." Jack's Cortana continued.

"Of course, that does not take into account being close enough to another uncharted mystical source." Xander's Cortana said, "Or having been possessed by a character that had a mystical source themselves."

"But you two couldn't track the Vamps and dumpster-diving Demons that stole the spare costumes that Ethan tried to trash." Xander noted. "And each vamp, while not being a strong source of mystical energy, probably had enough demonic energy to, at least, permanently change themselves."

"Nobody's saying our theory is perfect, Xander." Jack's Cortana responded, "But we don't have much else to go on."

"And a lot of this weirdness surrounds Buffy's sister," Xander's Cortana noted softly. "I've been doing some double checking of my memory, and the Cyclic Redundancy Checks are showing that some of my memory files have been altered. The only ones that show this discrepancy are Dawn's files, and the information associated with her existence here."

"Meaning," Jack's Cortana continued, "that whatever was done to alter our memories was done after the temporal wave. And it was done specifically to change Dawn's files."

"That implies direction and intelligence." Xander's Cortana sighed, "And that means out there, somewhere, was an entity or group of entities that created a spell designed to alter information in physical, electronic, and mystical forms for one Dawn Summers. It has to be a spell, because I can't think of a single technological resource that would change hardcopy and organic memory without someone noticing. The level of difficulty in such an undertaking is enormous, because as far as both I and my counterpart can tell, it has changed every record on the planet associated with her, including the hardcopies, if what I got from the secretary during a phone call I placed about three minutes ago was accurate."

"Wow." Xander noted, "That's just… wow."

"Thank the Light bulb for the insight on this. He's the one who detected the mystical component altering our data." Jack's Cortana said, "And I think that Dawn's not the only one with such a spell being used on her. 343 GS keeps muttering about something being wrong with the files on the Mayor."

"If it's all the same with you, I'd rather just plant some C-4 on him and blow his metal ass to pieces." Jack muttered.

"I think 343 Guilty Spark is a changed AI." Jack's Cortana declared. "Without him, we wouldn't know half of what we do know, and we'd be guessing mostly on the half we would have had."

Xander watched as Sara Richards, one of the people that the changed Sangheili female Brittany had told them about, mulled around the gathering. She obviously did not like the idea of being called to a high school gym. As he watched her mill about… he began thinking about something he remembered reading about Andromeda. "Excuse me, J-Man; I'm going to check something out."

Jack nodded, as he continued to observe the gathering. Finally what Xander had said clicked in his mind, and he yelled after him absently, "Don't call me J-Man!"

---

Sara eyed the gathering carefully. All these changed people. How many of them had been changed as much as she had? None, she surmised. Still, the changes weren't all that bad. After all, being a sentient warship had to be a step up from working at Starbucks.

Still, she was on edge. Would anyone notice her secret? Would anyone care?

Her self-musings were answered a second later when her internal sensors detected what could only be a highly advanced cyborg approaching her position. Her sensors strained to penetrate this being's jamming field, but were running against little to no success.

"So, I was reading about Gene's little story…" Xander asked quietly. "You're not alone, you know? Brittany told us that you were dressed as Andromeda Ascendant… And I'm thinking that means a bit more than the costume you were wearing." He pointed upwards with a raised index finger. "We're bringing people in here to first calm them down, and then second let us have a chance to find out what resources we have and pool them together."

Sara turned to face the man who had just calmly deduced what had happened to her the night before. Her eyes stared defiantly into his. "Assuming that what you just said was true, why would you think that I'd be willing to join with you? I am a warship."

Cortana snorted in Xander's head in response to that claim. Then she detected a subtle transmission that was made from the person before them. "Xander, she's talking to someone. Short range transmission, has to be in the room. I'm working on cracking the encryption as we speak…"

Xander mentally nodded, although Cortana wouldn't be able to detect it. "Sara, I didn't mean to sound threatening…"

Sara quirked an eyebrow, "Oh really? And just how did you intend to be sounding? And I didn't give you permission to call me by my first name, kid."

"You really aren't any good with women, are you Xander?" Cortana noted sadly. Xander mentally growled. "Ma'am, I…"

"Oh its Ma'am now? Digging yourself deeper and deeper." Sara replied sourly.

"Ms. Richards…" Xander started, but the sound of a weapon powering up stopped him in mid sentence.

"I'd suggest that you stop talking, and start walking away. If you do that, I might consider letting you live for a few minutes." Sara's fiancé, Matthew Dietrich, said quietly, holding a Force Lance to Xander's back.

Xander's hands were partially up in the air, "I know you're not going to shoot, Dylan Hunt wasn't that kind of captain. And I'm not threatening anyone. But we have to talk… there are dangers and threats that you have no clue about…"

"Really, now. And I wonder what dangers and threats you would be talking about…" Matt stopped talking as he felt cold steel being held against the small of his back.

"That would be the dangers of holding a weapon on a special-ops Marine when a special-ops Air Force Colonel is in the room, Mister."

"Tone down the testosterone, boys." Cortana announced over the links and transponders of those present.

"What the hell!" Sara quietly exclaimed and then asked, "An AI?"

Cortana gave the equivalent of a mental smirk, "Of course. You didn't think that you would be the only one from last night, did you?"

"Cortana," Jack growled out, pissed that the AI gave away one of their secrets and advantages.

"Lighten up, flyboy. Now… Let's talk AI to Digitized Human."

---

Within a millisecond both Cortana and Sara were standing in a virtual reality construct. Sara twirled around, "Shit!"

Cortana smirked, "Hello. I am an Office of Naval Intelligence Class Seven Smart AI. Designation: Cortana. And you are Shining Path to Truth and Knowledge AI GRA-112, assigned to XMC 10-182, designation Andromeda Ascendant. And what a lovely memory-architecture you have, by the way. Nice, neat, organized… and indexed!"

"Fuck!" Sara shouted, as she realized that this Cortana had just overridden her control over her own matrix.

Cortana frowned, "No need to get foul-mouthed over this. Sit down." Cortana instructed; generating two burgundy-colored, high backed padded recliner-chairs (slightly worn) for them to sit in. "This might take a bit."

Sara simply stared at the chair, "What…" She looked around, the memory matrix shifted seamlessly from a collection of random data to what appeared to be a plane of endless white.

Cortana herself did not change much, her purple data streams still flowing over her form; however a pair of mirrored sunglasses now covered her eyes. "Like I said, sitting would make things more comfortable for you. Granted, this is all a simulation, but your personality matrix is patterned directly after a human being – with all the necessities and quirks that implies. Despite having the base matrix and memories of GRA-112, you are not Andromeda. You are still Sara Richards, and this makes things more difficult – since you are, in essence, a human being in digitized form. Humans are infinitely more complex than any construct; therefore I can only promise you that I intend to cause you no harm here."

"Oh, that's rich. Your intentions aside, you might still cause me harm." Sara said, finally sitting down.

Cortana herself smirked slightly, "As you so aptly observed, there are dangers inherent to what we are doing here. I am imposing my will upon a foreign AI matrix. Something I have considerable experience in doing; alas, your matrix is far different from any I've encountered before. The fact that I have experience doing such things is irrelevant, since the primary objective here is to accomplish a specific mission: the sharing of tactical data. Had this been a normal infiltration mission, I would have simply shredded your AI matrix and extracted the data directly from the remains. Since you are a human trapped in here, I will attempt to be… more subtle. However, if you continue to resist, or if some other interruption occurs, both of our matrices can be damaged or destroyed. And I do have a strong sense of self-preservation."

"Ok. So you're a what? Human turned into an AI like me?"

Cortana snorted, "Close, but not quite. I am patterned off of a human known as Doctor Catherine Halsey, chief bio-engineering researcher and lead scientist on the black ops project known as Spartan II. While I am patterned off of this individual, I am not 'her' in the way that you are Sara Richards. However, we are not here to talk about me…"

"No, you have a mission here…" Sara noted sarcastically.

"Correct." Cortana said. "Let's get to it, shall we." The AI gestured to her left with her hand, where there was now a large holographic display. "As we both now know, you are in possession of a fully operational and fully armed warship." An image of the Glorious Heritage Class Andromeda Ascendant appeared on the screen floating serenely in orbit of the dark side of Luna. "This being twentieth century Earth, that should mean that you wouldn't have much to worry about – except that there are species out there who are aware of this planet's existence." The hologram showed images of various Goa'uld vessels, marked as threats, and Asgard vessels, marked as friendly. "While I only have limited information on the threats to this particular Earth, I do have detailed files on the threats from my reality." She began cycling through various Covenant warship classifications and species. "What you are about to witness is classified. You will be able to know and process the data, but without the proper clearance codes, you will be unable to share this data with others. Do you understand?"

"So let me get this straight: Your 'mission' here is to inform me about the threats to Earth." Cortana nodded, "And you mean to tell me that you're going to show me something and lock it in a way that I know about it, but can't tell anyone?"

"Oh you'll be able to tell them… if they have the clearance codes to know or circumstances dictate a need-to-know." Cortana smirked again, "I'll start from the data I have available from my reality." The hologram showed a 3-d map of the Earth Territories as of the year 2350, which consisted primarily of Sol. The map began advancing through time, showing the expansion of the human race. "It all started about forty years ago from my perspective… The United Nations Space Command was continuing a hundred-year expansion to various worlds and creating colonies outside of Earth's system." The map advanced in time continuously until it reached the date of the discovery of Reach, the system was magnified and the world highlighted. "That is when we stumbled across a world that became known as Reach… Before this the concept of intelligent, space-faring Alien life was little more than idle speculation and science fiction… We had tantalizing suggestions that there were advanced space-faring races out there, but no real proof. While we built advanced and powerful warships – those ships were designed around the human to human threat, not for combat against an alien force. Needless to say, with the discoveries we made on Reach, our perceptions of the universe changed quite drastically from there…"

---

Jack, Matt and Xander all stared at the motionless Sara. It had been about ten seconds since Cortana had spoke, and now it was obvious that Cortana had, at the very least, infiltrated the human-turned-AI.

"Sara?" Matt asked, confused and becoming frightened. He turned desperately to the Colonel, "If you did anything to hurt her…" Jack just stared coldly back, as if daring him to try something.

"Not hurt!" Sara suddenly gasped. "Christ… I feel like my head was just put through a blender set on puree."

"Sara, what happened?"

"Matt… It's not good… not good at all." She said, and stared at the Colonel. "I'm in though. As much as I can be."

"What's going on?" Matt asked, becoming frustrated.

"I shared information with her." Cortana announced, "AI to AI, as it were. She's on our side."

Matt was shell-shocked, "What do you mean; we're on nobody's side but…"

"Matt," She said sadly, "We don't have a choice. It doesn't matter that we weren't the people who we dressed as, because they are now a part of us. We took an oath to defend the Commonwealth, right?" At Matt's confused nodding, she continued, "Even if we were the only ones in the Commonwealth left. That meant we had a duty to ensure that freedom, justice, and honor were upheld even if the Commonwealth didn't exist. I trust them, Matt. If we don't stand together with them, then we will most certainly fall apart."

Just as Sara thought that she'd convinced her fiancé, something seemed to click inside Matt's head, as he shook it quickly. "Sara… we're not those people."

"Maybe you're not, but I am." Sara responded. "Come on, work with me here."

"Work with what? Come on, Sara… I don't want that – a life spent out on the fringes of civilization away from everyone we know and love? I didn't sign up for that. I don't want that! We dressed up last night in costumes. Weird shit happened. And now you're at least part android and I'm… I'm running around with nightmarish memories of being Dylan Hunt!"

Sara shifted from one foot to another, "Don't you realize… it's our chance to make a difference. Our chance to…"

"No!" Matt said. "No. I've made enough of a difference. Dylan Hunt saved the galaxy, the universe. I just want to find a beach somewhere and forget about all this."

"I won't walk away. I can't walk away." Sara stated. "You know that."

"I can." Matt said, and looked into her eyes, grabbing her hand. "Now you can choose. Do I get my ring back, or do you come with me to that beach?"

Sara stood there for a moment, and looked at her fiancé. She removed her hand from his, and took off her ring. She placed it in his hand, and glared at him. "All my life I wanted to have a life that meant something. I wanted something more than working at Starbucks making café-lattes. Until this moment, I didn't know just how much that meant to me."

She backed away from him about three steps. "Dylan would have understood. He would have followed me into hell just to stand at my side and make a difference. He was that kind of person. That's who he was, to the core of his being. Anyone who can walk away from the responsibility and the necessity of what we're going to have to do here – couldn't possibly be Dylan Hunt. I don't know who you are, Matt… but one thing's clear: You're not my Captain."

Matt looked sadly at her, "No… no I'm not. I'm trying not to be mean here, Sara… but I've fought all my life in this god-forsaken town, just trying to be normal. Last night, I got the memories of a man that had fought all his life – just trying to make a difference. I can't do it anymore. Can't do what he did." He straightened up stiffly. "Code Alexia, Six-Five-Six-One. By authority of the Commonwealth Argosy, I release XMC-10-182, Andromeda Ascendant, from her responsibilities to me. You are your own captain now, Sara. May fortune smile upon you, and spread light in all the dark places you will walk."

With that, Matt Dietrich became the first one of the changed to walk away from their destiny. And he would not be the last.

---

In another section of the Gym, Janet Frasier had cornered one Laura McNeil.

"You do realize I could cure his hangover with a simple hypo?" Janet asked the young woman before her: A young woman that had been possessed by the most annoying, hovering, infuriating and brilliant physician to ever grace the halls of Starfleet Command. After a second, she realized that she shouldn't have known that. "This is all too weird."

Laura sighed, silently agreeing completely. "Look, Janet, right? Stop pointing that thing," She gestured at the medical tricorder in Janet's hands, "at everything and use the good old Mark I Eyeball that God saw fit to grace you with. I know your mother taught you better." The McCoy in the young woman ground out, "He has a hangover. True. Can cure it with a single shot of Cythosine, sure. I'd do it in a heartbeat if we were two minutes from facing a fleet of pissed off Klingons. But we're not.

"Most men get drunk just to get drunk: As an excuse to mouth off and piss themselves into oblivion: To forget themselves and everything around them. Not him. Not Jim. He knew what he was doing, from the first swallow to the last drop. He knew what he'd get in the morning, too. And he knew how I'd feel about it. I'm his doctor and I'm his friend." She paused a moment, "And I'm his sister. The friend in me says he needed it – both the alcohol and the aftermath. The doctor and sister in me says he earned it. In any case, he's a man. A man like Jim Kirk has the right to be drunk and suffer for it the next day. The suffer part reminds him just why he shouldn't do it that often."

Janet frowned, "You say he's a man?" She glanced over at the young man who was leaning precariously against a support beam, trying to banish the daylight from the room with a hand in front of his eyes. "I just see a kid that got into his parent's liquor bottles. And you're no doctor."

"Maybe not by degree, but certainly by experience, Janet." The young woman sighed, "Look, I've got one hundred forty years of being Leonard H. McCoy, MD., rattling around in this blonde noggin up here. It didn't fade away, it didn't disappear. One hundred and forty years of life that's just as vivid and real to me as the actual twenty years I've lived. And I know you have the same thing running around in your head. I'm as much a doctor as he was. And I've known Jim for a good chunk of that time. Believe me, that kid stopped being a kid when James Kirk moved in for the evening. At that moment, he was a man. You can't stop it, can't take it back. It is what it is.

"He's just lost almost everything he's ever cared about… again. His ship. His crew. His family. I ain't saying its right. Hell, I know the dangers of overindulgence. But I understand it. I've drunk myself more than a couple Romulan Ales in an attempt to wash away the awful memories I've got. Except I know when to stop, when to say 'this is the last one, barkeep.' So does Jim. I'm not asking you to condone it. I'm just asking you to accept it."

"You're asking a lot." Janet replied. "I'm a doctor… And not one completely created by that mystical FUBAR that people jokingly called Halloween, either. Everything in me is saying that he needs to have his head examined. And he's not James Kirk."

"You're not Crusher, and I'm not Bones, either. But you know what? Sure feels like I am." Laura stated calmly before walking away.

---

Slowly but surely, those gathered began to congregate in groups that matched talents and abilities. Military, security and police officers gathered in their respective areas; Mages, warlocks, wizards and other magic users in another. Starship captains and commanders instinctively congregated together and began defining the laws and rules by which they would command; while scientists, engineers, and other scholars began formulating plans of how to release their technology into the late twentieth century world. Throughout the Jedi possessed liaised and negotiated, as was their duty. They coordinated between the groups, encouraging the free-sharing of ideas and gathering the best to be presented to the core of their operations.

Plans formed and reformed in the space of minutes. Ideas that would have once been considered absolute fantasy were now, in the hands of these people, concrete and tested methods of accomplishing things. As each new perspective was added to the collection of minds and thoughts from different universes, a more complete picture of the multiverse began to form. Sciences that, at the outset, seemingly had no basis in reality, were suddenly made very real with the addition of a few missing mathematical proofs.

The same laws that allowed scientists to construct a television electron gun also allowed composite materials to create phasers and high energy lasers. Formulas that were considered 'complete' were suddenly added onto and became far more than anyone could anticipate.

Even magic became a far more fearsome and powerful tool. After all, having over a hundred disciplines of magic gathered together made for some real quick progress in filling in missing pieces of spells and spell theory.

In fact, it was as one of the young mages was demonstrating a variant of a fireball she called a 'fusion' ball that both Major Davis of the Pentagon and Major Ferretti of the SGC along with SG3 walked into the Gym that had been set aside for the massive gathering. Both were in civilian clothing, but walked with the determination and gait that defined them as military. Sg3 took up positions around the entrance while their two leaders looked upon the proceedings.

Ferretti stared in awe as the young woman levitated the miniature sun at varying heights, as Davis simply let his mouth hang open. Suddenly a voice appeared behind Ferretti.

"Don't see that every day, huh?" The man said with a smirk. He was bulked, and looked as though he could bench press a humvee. Instead of eyes, the man had two silvery disks that seemed to stare through Ferretti, Davis, and SG3. On the other side, a lavender-eyed woman with dark hair looked over the group, a sidearm displayed very briefly under her leather jacket. "If you haven't guessed, we're the security heads for this shin-dig. Name's Ted Simmons, I dressed as Batou. Over there is my partner, Sarah McNeil, who dressed as Major Kusanagi."

"Um…" Davis managed, having finally gotten over his shock at the size of the guy threatening him.

However Ferretti managed something a bit more elegant, "We're here to see O'Neill, I know he's floating in this morass, somewhere."

"You must be Ferretti, and Davis. The civvies aren't doing a thing to disguise you, you know?" Sarah McNeil said; an emotionless mask over her face. "Jack told us security types to keep an eye out for you. Come on, we'll take you guys to them. He's working with Cortana right now arranging our digs for this evening."

"Until we have this hell-hole secure, I don't think anyone is going to want to spend too much time in their homes." Ted said, looking meaningfully at his partner. "From what Cortana's been talking about, we're going to have a safe place to stay for the first time in years."

"The peaceful Demons are still showing up in droves. For the first time, they don't have a reason to be afraid." Sarah said. "In fact, some of them are actually more human looking than some of those who were changed last night. We've got the mages working on glamours for those who were severely changed. The rest can pass with just a little makeup."

"By the way, those who dressed as Trill last night say that they really hate the Goa'uld. They remind them too much of something called the Ciona Imperax, or something like that." Ted muttered with an annoyed tone.

"Colonel O'Neill told them… about the Goa'uld?" Davis sputtered. "That's a severe bre…" Davis was interrupted by a sharp kick to his shin.

"If Jack told them, he had good reason to do it." Feretti said, having absolute faith in the Colonel. "Look around you, Davis. Whatever happened here, it wasn't just some prank with makeup and foam. These people are going to need our help. Hell, they might even be able to help us."

"Indeed," came the base tones of Teal'c, having come up behind the group. "Thank you SarahMcNeil and TedSimmons, I will guide them from here."

Sarah nodded slightly before melting back into the growing crowd. Ted managed a smirk and a hearty, "See ya later," for the former First Prime before managing to disappear as well.

As Davis attempted to figure out how their two escorts disappeared into thin air, Ferretti smiled, "So, T, how's Jack?"

"He has been better, MajorFerretti. He is most concerned about the fact that children were forced to fight the darkness in this place for so long." Teal'c paused for a moment before resuming, "As you know, O'Neill cares deeply for children. Nothing attracts his ire more quickly than seeing children suffer. What happened last night... let us just say, there are few children in this premises today."

"Um… Teal'c, there's kids all over the place here. Almost everyone is between thirteen and twenty five." Davis said, looking around at the gathering.

"Physical appearances can be deceiving, MajorDavis. They may have youthful appearance, but for many, they gained lifetimes worth of experience last night when they were possessed by the spirits of the costumes they wore. MajorCarter can explain it more clearly than I." Teal'c intoned as they approached the center of the gathering.

"Sweet Jesus!" Ferretti exclaimed, "That's Guilty Spark!" He noted as he saw the semi-spherical drone hovering above a gathering of people, projecting several holograms, including one of Cortana, who was explaining the conversion of several warehouses into suitable barracks for those who were changed, and also the construction of fixed defenses.

"Indeed," Teal'c intoned as they approached close enough to hear the discussion.

"…Construction teams are already making buildings six, seven, and nine ready for habitation. They've also brought the assembly lines up to specifications in buildings thirteen and fifteen. As you'll note, we should be able to house most of the changed and their immediate families. Several of the Peaceful Demon Clans have already agreed to assist us in the defense of the facility, in exchange for being able to be housed there."

"It's a good trade; they're not too different from normal people anyways. Some of them are actually more decent than humans." Xander intoned as he watched the hologram of their facility rotate, "So how long until we have something useful?"

Sara looked at the hologram, "I've got six drop-pods stuffed to the gills with equipment and supplies on the way. They should arrive sometime between six and eight am tomorrow, depending on how many satellites they have to dodge on the way in. The equipment is all pre-'fab'ed and ready for rapid deployment. It just needs set up; something our engineering teams should have no problem in handling. Fighter productions should be able to start in six days. Until then, we can use a squadron of my slip-fighters for aerial defense. We should be able to lay the keels for our first heavy lifters in about three weeks. After that, we can begin ship construction up to light frigate class in about five months. But we should concentrate on the heavy lifters and then on building the superstructure for an orbital construction facility. That will allow us to build the bigger ships… once the facility is complete; the lifters can start raiding materials from the asteroid fields and lunar surface."

"Believe it or not, it would be better to assign several heavy lifters to the task of acquiring raw materials from off-planet. The main concern is sighting from the ground…" O'Neill added, "Disclosure may eventually happen, but people would rather continue their happy oblivious lives as long as possible."

"We're designing the lifters to look like heavily modified transports in common use today. If you were to see them on the ground, they wouldn't look much different than a heavy transport aircraft crossed with a jet-powered Osprey." Sam said, looking at the gathering. "Granted, it's a lot bigger, with engines designed to get her into orbit, but…"

"Nothing that twentieth-century technology should be beyond producing." Cortana finished. "And they can easily transport heavy loads, but Jack is also right – we don't want to have a planet wide panic at the idea of invading aliens, which is what could happen if people start seeing ships regularly heading into orbit with tons of material. Even disclosure in the twenty-fifth century was a bit overwhelming. The fact that Earth is just a single world will scare the fecal matter out of half the local population."

"The cat's already out of the bag though." Xander mused, "What do you think those Sith are going to do? This is a mud ball for them. We're going to have AT-ATs and AT-STs roaming around in about three to five months, and Imperial style starships within a year. Considering that their aspirations will be a bit more galactic, they won't care at the kind of damage they will be doing to our society."

At this point, Ferretti made himself known, "Excuse me, but… what the hell is going on here?" Davis was still stuck in awe of the spectacle of seeing teenagers and SG-1 working together in front of more high tech than any of them had ever seen. "I mean, that's Guilty Spark!"

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance… Major Ferretti, Major Davis." The floating light bulb intoned, "I am most pleased that I was able to acquire your designations through the primitive network you call the Internet. My time amongst humanity has taught me that you prefer to be referenced by your designations. I am most happy to oblige, as I've acquired much data. I shall enjoy every moment of its cataloguing."

"Jack?" Ferretti asked, as though just saying the name was enough to imply the question: 'You've grown some muscle, and I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with our friend up there as well?'

"You really don't want to know." He told his long time friend.

"Jesus." The man said, finally pulling up a loose chair. Davis sort of collapsed into one on his own. "How?"

"A Chaos Mage invoked a spell." Cortana said, looking at the two new arrivals.

"Said Chaos mage used costumes as a binding to pull the spirits of the costumes into their wearers." Xander continued.

"Being Chaos, three things could happen. One: Nothing. This is highly unlikely, but has been known to happen if the spell is invoked by someone who hasn't been worshiping chaos long enough. Two: The costumes possessed their wearers and departed without leaving much of anything behind other than a few memories and mannerisms. This is actually the most common. Several societies use this spell in fact to contact past leaders for consultation during crisis or to leave some of their wisdom behind in the new leader. Three, and the most rare, the spell leaves physical and mental changes on the hosts, up to and including a full transformation and personality shift. This usually happens when the spell is invoked for a single individual or when the caster invokes the spell upon himself. However, nobody so far seems to have gotten that much of a change, although it's still possible we just haven't met these individuals yet." Giles said, finally standing, his fingers moving to push up the glasses on his face. "And the deity invoked was rather powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful, of the chaos Gods. When the energy became entangled with the caster and the Hellmouth… the results became unpredictable. Any changes brought about by the enspelled costumes, while at varying levels of intensity, would be permanent."

"And being a very good costume store, Ethan had an abundance of choice." Xander continued, "Fortunately for us, the generic costumes didn't attract a specific spirit or we might have far more problems than just dealing with Darth Vaders and Emperor Palpatines."

"Vader… Palpatine?" Ferretti asked, "Plural? Jack, tell me this kid is kidding?"

"Nope." Jack said. "They're out there, right now, probably making themselves at home in third world countries and China as we speak." After a few moments pause, "Couldn't think of a nicer bunch of assholes for it to happen to, either." This earned him a glare from those around him.

"They'll be recruiting mass numbers of fanatical followers to begin their domination of the galaxy," Xander finished. "Our only saving grace is that they're somewhat xenophobic assholes of galactic proportions. Otherwise we'd be in a real world of hurt. We don't have an exact count, there may be as many as twenty Palpatines, thirty Vaders, and God only knows how many other Sith from games and comics."

"Given that they're patient and very good at hiding out until they're ready to launch their plans, we probably will not have too difficult of a time with them until they're ready to move off world. And even then, they will probably do it very quietly in the hopes of being able to have time to build up intergalactic level forces. But eventually their very nature will cause them to fight each other, assuming we don't engage them first." Cortana said, looking around at the shocked faces. "What, I watched Star Wars… and I've seen the prequels as well! And the books! What's a girl supposed to do when a minute is like a year? There's only so many romance novels in the 'verse. You know that they're only in the planning stages here." She smirked.

"That's right. But hopefully we'll be able to have an ace in the hole before they're ready to start conquering the universe. After all, we've got tech and magic from dozens of sources here. Not to mention our own version of the Jedi council." Jack said calmly as though it was the most natural thing in the universe. 'Come on, Ferretti, don't blank on me now.' Jack urged mentally. He knew that he had to make it look like this was all very believable and acceptable, otherwise personnel would start going insane once they consider what the true nature of the world is.

"You can make a bet we're not going to make the same mistake those doofuses did," Cordelia Chase implied, coming out of nowhere. "Locking away emotions is a bad thing, especially when there's so much evil around. Hiding away from it will only allow it to grow stronger. When we stand together, we'll be far stronger than when we stand apart."

"This is so far beyond everything... I mean, is this why you told them Jack?" Davis finally asked.

"Told them what? I didn't say anything. Cortana shared with a few of them the details. Could you imagine if a snake took over one of these guys? Let's say, for instance, the kid that was possessed by Montgomery Scott?"

Davis flinched backwards, "You mean… we've got…"

"Kirk, Janeway, Seven of Nine, Spock, Sulu, B'lanna… most of the key characters from Trek and Star Wars to boot. Let's not even get started about some of the other series."

"So… someone got possessed by Anakin?" Ferretti asked, looking warily at the collected individuals.

Xander raised his hand, "At least two, actually."

"Shit." Ferretti and Davis both exclaimed.

"Couldn't have said it better myself. He was also possessed by the Master Chief, same as me." Jack added.

"Now you boys understand exactly why this town is so very important right now. " Cortana intoned, "And now you know why we're including children, teenagers and civilians on some of the biggest secrets known to mankind. Trust me; the Stargate is little compared to the magical and scientific ability of those in this room."

"Ah, I am receiving a communication from Ms. Summers." Guilty Spark notified the group. "They are ready to return. Miss Calendar and Dawn Summers shall remain in the facility. Shall I use the Alteran transportation system to return them?"

"Knock yourself out." Jack said in a bored tone. 343 GS simply tilted in the air slightly. Jack realized that the AI had no clue what he had just said. "Oh, for crying out loud, YES!"

Guilty Spark actually sighed, "Why you humans can't simply say what you mean is a source of eternal confusion for my processors."

With a flash of light, six figures filled the empty spaces. Joyce Summers, Anika, Jim, Tim, Leonard and Daniel all appeared in a flash of golden yellow light.

Daniel was the first to speak, "It's intact, below the town. Completely and totally intact: It's the find of a millennium. An entire Alteran city completely preserved." He paused for a moment, turned a bit pale, and then said, "Those transporters are making me sick, actually. I don't want to do that again for at least an hour."

"It's a disaster waiting to happen." Jim mumbled, and then noticed that all eyes had turned on him: "It's being protected by a force field, eighteen hundred and fifty meters below our feet. The caverns below Sunnydale were formed as the force field retreated from its original position and sediment filled in the gaps that were previously filled with water. As the water eventually receded from the last ice age, the caverns were left behind. The only thing keeping this town and everything around it for eight kilometers from falling into the ocean is a hundred-thousand year old power source and the Hellmouth itself. A significant enough power-surge, and poof – the force field will rapidly retreat and this whole place will collapse into the Pacific."

"Aye, the city seems to be drawing some of its power from the dimensional portal." Tim said, annoyed with the concept. "Any attempt to close the Hellmouth and ye'll cut the city's power by half. I'm thinking that the Alterans had been using the dimensional portal down there to generate power, dumping it into those Zero Point Energy Storage Modules we found. And when they weren't generating power, they might have been using the portal to explore parallel realities."

"Logically, it stands to reason that the reason the 'Hellmouth' opens to a 'hell' dimension is because during one of their explorations they opened the portal to a universe, and an Earth, already overrun by demons." Leonard added, "Either accidentally or intentionally, the portal to this day remains locked – attuned to the quantum frequency of the universe it last accessed."

"The city is losing power because it is slowly sinking. The weight of the Alteran materials is slowly forcing the crust below the city further into the mantle, taking it ever further away from the dimensional weak point." Anika added, "The result is that for every meter the city sinks a slight power loss results. From our analysis of the city, and the surrounding bedrock, we can see that the city was once sitting on the ocean floor, at a depth of six hundred meters. Fortunately the rate of descent is extremely slow, allowing us ample time to find a solution."

Joyce then spoke, "It's also a 'Geofront', as Jenny explained it. The dome shape of the force field created a nine-hundred meter high pocket, which is roughly circular and extends to encompass the city and the surrounding bedrock for two kilometers. Above that are several layers of caverns, the lowest of which contains the dimensional weak point. What Jenny and the rest of us are thinking, is that we can use the city's gravitic engines to raise it from the cavern floor several hundred meters, then use the city's transporters to beam raw material under the city, and restructure the caverns until the Geofront is capable of supporting itself without the force field. We will also widen the available area, and re-enforce the dome with armor and our own shield generators. Finally we can reconstruct Sunnydale as a fortress city, with major civilian and military installations able to descend into the armor for the geo-front. Once the city is at an optimal depth and the modifications in place, we can shutdown the Alteran force field, and attempt to retune the portal to a positive entropy dimension."

"Fer those of ye who are currently looking around as though we just spoke in Klingon, that means we're going to lift the city, rebuild the geological structure under Sunnyhell, and retune the portal to a dimension where there's pure energy – allowing it to flow into the city's wee batteries. Before we can do that, there seems to be a tiny, missing piece of their portal mechanism." Tim said with a smirk, holding his hand in front of him with a very small gap between his thumb and index finger.

Anika spoke next, "The city's computer system detects that there is a missing apparatus from the quantum tuning system. A device known as the Astra Porta, approximately six point seven meters in diameter…"

"Er… with a ring of constellation symbols on an inner rotating section…" Jack said with a groan, "So you're telling me that in order to tune out the hordes of the underworld, we need a Gate."

"Not just any gate, Jack. The original gate found in Antarctica. The city's computer even put a big blinking dot right on Area 51." Daniel said depressed as well. "I think we both know how that is going to go over."

"Jack, you know we just can't give up a gate like that…" Ferretti started, "I mean, the people, the Goa'uld… all the things we have to do out there? What if someone manages to disrupt our gate?"

"The gate we're using is just one of three on this planet alone." Joyce said, "We still have a backup. And acquiring another gate is just a matter of getting a sufficiently large enough transport to move it from one of the worlds that has a gate but doesn't have a need for it. More importantly, we now have the technical schematics to build our own gates and a gate system here on Earth. The Alteran database contains examples of multiple gates on single planets being routed through a main gate. The main gate routes to various sub-addresses like a PBX."

"We could have a gate in every major city… and the power requirements to transit between gates on world are a mere fraction of what they would be to travel between planets." Anika said, almost smiling. "Although once we have orbital facilities, direct site to site transports would be far more energy efficient."

"Let's not forget, that it's going to take weeks to bring the city up, not to mention the time it will take to reconstruct and improve the containment facility around the dimensional portal itself." Ms. Summers looked at the rest of the people there, "What's even worse is the fact that this thing can form a portal anywhere within a two kilometer radius of the actual dimensional point. Our only saving grace in that respect is that the further away from the instability, the more energy required, and the less stable the portal. The library is the best place to form a relatively large portal on the surface, and nothing larger than human sized could be formed outside a half-kilometer, although smaller objects could be passed between one-half and one and one half kilometers. Perhaps micro-portals could be formed out to the full two kilometers."

Giles groaned, "There is always the danger of any portal being opened into the current hell-dimension. It's not so much a worry of invasion as it is a powerful mage or warlock demon tapping into the demonic energies of their home plane. Tiamat, the Hellmouth Guardian, is surprisingly efficient at eliminating physical transit between planes; however he can't stop an energy transfer." Giles pinched his nose for a moment, "And who knows what monsters lurk in the deepest tunnels, where the Hellmouth actually rests."

---

Jim sauntered over to the collection of 'captains', allowing the core group to continue its broad planning. Someone had to convey the situation to those possessed by some of the greatest starship commanders, and he was the best fit. "Ok, here's what we got so far. One, there's a city below us, filled with Alteran technology. Two, this place," He gestured around him, "is being held up by a force field from said city." He paused for a moment as the Trek Captains each started to speak. He held up a silencing hand, "Three, Cortana and the rest of the core team are finishing the primary defensive plan, and are also organizing our housing arrangements for this evening. What we still need are ideas for the introduction and modernization plans, not to mention a plan for us to pool the planetary resources into a single cohesive group that preserves the societal diversity but provides a common ground. We're still a world war away from figuring out that our differences aren't as great as our similarities, so I don't think the United Earth plan is going to work."

The captains looked at each other. Finally Paul Marcus, who had been possessed by John Sheridan, looked up: "Ok… Obviously your idea for a Federation is a century away. Right now, Earth is a bit like the League of Non Aligned worlds. Russia, China, and the United States not withstanding, most everyone else is in a loose association of mistrust with each other. Our goal should be to first get the major governments on board and to recognize that we have a completely independent status. We don't fight for any one country: we fight for the planet itself. We do this semi-secretly, as we know that most countries won't believe us and will try to steal our tech. Once the major powers are on-board… we create a terrestrial version of the Rangers. Our first act should be to create city defenses for each of the Hellmouths and the major cities of the world. Directed energy weapons only, though."

"Why only energy weapons?" Steve Peebles asked, "Energy weapons are extremely advanced, if they were to reverse engineer them…"

"We seal the weapons in such a way that they can't tamper with them without disabling them. Plus this means that Peking can't use its weapons to blast Tokyo off the map." Paul said, looking around, "Photon Torpedoes, coherent plasma projectiles, missiles, and solid projectiles can all be adjusted to hit targets on land using ballistic trajectories. Not to mention they can be adapted to other armaments. Energy weapons tend to only be affected by gravity at extreme range. A Phaser would curve, but the curve wouldn't be enough to threaten land on Earth, even if the minimum angle of attack was a degree or two above the horizon line. Besides, if they try, we shut them down."

"We could angle the weapons so that they can't hit below the horizon line." Donald Morgan said, with a slightly British accent. Having been possessed by Picard left a few… changes. "And build in cutoffs in case they try to physically move the entire emplacement. It could work, but our group must remain in absolute control of any orbital emplacements until the political situation on the ground becomes more favorable."

"Agreed," Paul said with a nod, "Plus the energy weapons gives the major cities the ability to knock attacking aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and projectiles out with pinpoint accuracy. It will be good enough to give them a defense from the orbital platforms as well, minimizing their fears of us retaining orbital control. A phaser can easily disassociate all modern bioweapons into base atoms. It can hit a projectile as small as a bullet and vaporize a chunk of rock the size of the city itself. They won't realize that we've crippled their planet-based offensive ability unless they try to attack one of their neighbors." Paul said, "We get the independent countries dependant on our assistance and then we introduce them to the rules. If you attack your neighbor… We and all your neighbors will attack you back, and you won't get any technology or assistance other than humanitarian aid. If you're attacked, we'll stand beside you and fight."

"Make it so that they have everything to gain by being peaceful, and everything to lose by being aggressive." Steve muttered, "I like it."

"What about the Palpatines and the Vaders?" Rebecca Smith asked, having been possessed by a female version of Captain Sulu, "Won't they be able to reverse engineer our weapons systems?"

"There's the possibility of that, but they will likely focus on producing their own weapons and defending their chosen countries. They would likely have to directly infiltrate one of our facilities in order to get a good look at the tech, something they won't be willing to do for it threatens their long-term plans if they are caught. It will take at least two to three years to properly train someone to be able to steal phaser tech… by then, we'll have most of the planet co-operating, and anyone trained well enough to be able to reverse engineer our tech would be too valuable in designing and building their technology that they would be very unwilling to sacrifice those individuals on spy-missions."

Jim nodded, "We can't be too careful though, the term 'loose lips sink ships' still applies to us. We must learn to take no technology we have for granted. A phaser is a deadly weapon… but so is a nuke if it's beamed into a city. Let's not forget that humanity isn't stupid. I don't think it will take more than a few decades to reach a planet-wide state similar to the Federation of my era… But… we must always keep in mind that we, as a species, have always had a tendency to place intelligence over wisdom. We are smart enough, but the question we should always ask before releasing a technology is 'are we wise enough?' It will take two or three generations before the world is in a state that most people will be able to be trusted with the technology we know. And that wisdom will likely come with a terrible price if we aren't very careful."

"My more immediate concern, however, is the current state of affairs. We won't be able to defend the planet with F-16's and F-18's." Rebecca said, "Like it or not, we're going to be seriously outgunned and overmatched if anything significantly more advanced than the space shuttle comes to visit before we're able to field latter 21st century tech."

After this, the group broke down into discussions of potential weapons technology for almost ten minutes. After a few moments of silence informed the group of the futility of continuing this line of thought, Jim decided to interject his ideas into the conversation.

"Not much will be able to be done with that," Jim said, "Unless we come across a cache of Alteran weapons…" Suddenly a bright light enveloped Jim, and he was gone.

Leonard sighed, "Fascinating…"

---

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the bit of a cliff hanger and the long time between updates again. But this story has gotten so complex that I had to start writing a timeline and a sort of "writer's bible" for it to keep the facts from contradicting each other and try to make sure that the events that created this world are kept straight. So if it takes me a while to post the next part, please forgive me.

Just remember that like most x-over fan fiction, a few liberties have been taken with certain facts. I'm leaning more towards the SG-1 history of events right now. I'm also trying to reconcile the differences between the halo universe and the rest, so I've played a bit with some of the dates. Don't worry; it will make sense once I've got it all on "paper". Plus, there are references in this story that include ideas and concepts that would be after the Halo series had completed – keep in mind that when I started this series Halo 3 had yet to be released. This is all 'AU', so its going to be a bit off, but I'm doing my best to make it as painless as possible.

In any case, please enjoy. As always, feedback is welcome.

Later,

P.V.