Standard Disclaimer Applies

AN: My Beta Lori rules! Thanks Lori, you've got the old muse working again.

Chapter 24.

Jack looks across at Sam and, with one glance, Sam is out of the room and heading down the stairs. The rest of the team stays where they are, silently watching Xander as he watches them right back.

"What the hell is going on?" Xander asks finally.

But before anyone has a chance to answer, Sam's voice calls up the metal staircase, "General! You'd better get down here, Sir."

"What now?" Jack asks himself in a mutter, as Mitchell nips down the stairs in front of him.

Jack makes it to the staircase and looks back towards Xander, who is staring at him intently from the other side of the conference room. His instinct is just to leave his son standing there. At least he'd be further away than the rest of them, from whatever emergency has cropped up. But he shakes his head and waves Xander over.

"You coming?" He asks, and feels a stir of parental pride at the beaming smile that suddenly erupts across his son's face.

Xander bounds across the floor in a few easy strides, casting a sideways glance towards Teal'c as he passes. Jack makes a mental note to get to the bottom of this instant dislike Xander still seems to feel for Teal'c and heads down the staircase, with Xander close on his heels.

"Walter, what's going on?" Jack asks as soon as he hits the bottom rung on the ladder. The Gate technician looks up and indicates the gate room with a bemused expression.

"What the hell?" An astonished voice demands, and Jack looks up briefly to see Xander leaning over the control panel, his nose pressed up against the glass staring at the stargate.

Jack frowns himself, because the look he's seeing on his son's face is not the look of awe that usually dons the faces of those seeing the stargate for the first time. Xander looks almost angry as he glares through the glass.

Jack turns away and looks at the closed iris and the visitor standing in front of it.

"You open the iris, Walter?" Jack asks flatly, and Walter looks up and shakes his head.

"No, Sir," he replies.

"Any idea how our visitor got through, then?" Jack asks the room at large, as the visitor in question looks up at the window, head cocked to one side, and blows them a kiss.

"I don't like her," Mitchell deadpans.

"Anyone recognize her?" Sam asks, and Daniel observes the curly brown hair, the slinky red dress and the killer stilettos and shakes his head.

"This is General O'Neill. What's your business here?"

"No business," the figure purrs. "Just came to see an old friend. Xander, darling, how are you?" Glory finishes, and Jack turns in surprise as Xander lets out a growl.

"Friend of yours?" Mitchell asks, and Xander gives him a cold look.

"No," he replies flatly and looks across at Jack. "How strong are those big metal doors over there?"

"Strong," Jack replies.

"What, like an inch thick? Two inches?" Xander wonders, and Jack is left just staring at him for a moment.

"This used to be a nuclear missile silo. Those doors are strong enough to withstand a sizeable nuclear blast," Mitchell answers.

"Hmmm," Xander murmurs watching as Glorificus waves at him. "Can I talk to her?" he asks, and Jack nods and indicates the microphone.

Xander leans over. "Glory. You'll have to excuse me if I seem more than a little surprised to see you."

"Oh, baby, come on! You didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of me, did you?" Glory laughs.

"I had hoped so," Xander answers truthfully, and Glory laughs again. Sounding like a normal person. Sharing a normal joke. For some reason, it makes Xander angry.

"Cut the shit, Glory. What do you want?" He demands, his tone darkening.

"What do I want? Hmm, so many things. But alas, I am not here representing myself." Glory sighs dramatically, and Xander feels the urge to break through the window and drop another wrecking ball on the hell-goddess.

"Glory . . ." he growls.

"I have, of all things, an employer," Glory admits, disgustedly, and Xander feels the first twinge of relief. If the goddess were back at full strength, the last thing she would ever have is a job.

"Really?" he asks, genuinely interested.

"They wish to meet with you," Glory continues, and Xander lets out a laugh that Glory can see through the window but can't hear, as Xander didn't bother to laugh into the intercom.

"Glory, anyone who would employ you is not someone I would be interested in meeting," Xander replies mockingly, and Glory stamps her foot.

"Xander!" She exclaims angrily, "If it were up to me, you and your pathetic little world would be groveling at my feet and begging me for mercy!"

"Well, I think we can all be glad it is not up to you," Daniel mutters, and Jack turns to look at him with a quick shake of the head.

"Xander, you want to fill us in a little here?" Jack asks with a great show of patience.

"Ah, this is Glory. . . ." Xander pauses, because he has no intention, whatsoever, of telling Jack about the supernatural, the hellmouth. Or about the Slayers, Buffy and Faith.

"Glory was involved in an incident in California . . ." Xander continues, almost leaping to hug Sam when she interrupts with a question:

"Is that the incident the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was referring to?"

"Uh-huh," Xander agrees quickly, and then he smiles, "And I'm wondering how she managed to appear inside an old Nuclear Silo, beneath a mountain?" Classic diversion technique.

"Oh, that thing behind her. The big metal circle. That's the stargate," Daniel explains, checking with Jack with a nod of his head before he continues. "The stargate creates stable wormholes that allow us to travel to other planets."

"What?" Xander asks, as his jaw drops. "Other planets? As in, not from earth and aliens and . . ." Xander trails off, and slowly his gaze turns to Teal'c. Staring in astonishment. His mouth still open. The former hell-goddess behind him completely forgotten for the moment.

"You're an alien!" Xander exclaims with an outstretched finger, and Teal'c tilts his head to one side quizzically.

"How could you possibly know that?" Mitchell asks, but Xander ignores him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Xander demands, a sick feeling slipping into his stomach as he remembers just how close he came to shooting Teal'c at first sight.

"Why didn't we tell you that Teal'c was an alien?" Jack repeats dryly.

"Uh, Excuse me!" a tinny voice demands, outraged, and Xander turns to look over his shoulder at Glory.

"One second," he indicates by holding up one finger.

"So, you can use this stargate to travel to other planets?" Xander seeks confirmation, and Jack nods.

"And the Trust know about this?" Xander wonders, and everyone in the control room nods.

"Xander!" Glory yells, stamping her foot, and Xander holds up one finger again.

"How long has this been going on?" Xander asks, and Sam looks between Daniel and Jack.

"Xander!" Glory whines.

"About fourteen years," Jack admits, and Xander does some quick mental math.

"It started the same year that I 'died'?" He clarifies, and Jack nods.

"Xander!" Glory screeches, and Xander grabs the microphone.

"What!" He yells, the volume of his demand echoing around the gate room.

The team in the control room jumps and Glory stamps her foot again.

"Stop ignoring me!" she shouts back.

"If you would just go away, then I wouldn't have to ignore you!" Xander shouts back.

"Ooh, Xander Harris, if you think that you can talk to me like that! I am a . . .!" Glory is cut off as Xander accidentally leans on a button, shutting down the intercom.

From inside the gate room, Glory rants while Xander makes a pretense of being sorry and searching for the right button to press to reactivate the intercom.

". . . And if you think that you can just pretend the key . . . !" Xander made an 'oops' noise as he accidentally hit the wrong button again.

"Could you make this thing more complicated?" he muses to himself, as he finally fixes the 'problem'.

"Are you finished?" Xander demands of the former goddess, who lets out a scream of frustration.

"Easy now, Glory, you're going all splotchy," Xander cautions, and Mitchell lets out an involuntary snicker.

"Are you coming, or not? Glory demands, and Xander shakes his head.

"No. No way. No way in hell." Xander confirms.

"You're going to piss them off," Glory warns.

"Well, that would seem to be a specialty of mine."

"All they want to do is talk," Glory promises sweetly, and Xander nods.

"Fine. Then you tell them to come and talk here. But I'm not going anywhere with you."

There was another un-lady-like bellow of frustration, and the ring behind Glory started to spin.

"Walter?" Jack asks, as the tech starts to tap the panel in front of him.

"It's not me, Sir."

"Can you cut it off?" Jack demands, and Carter pushes forward to the control panel and starts beating out a frantic rhythm on the keyboard.

"I can't override it, Sir!" She calls out in alarm, as the metal sheeting across the stargate slides back.

"Outgoing or Ingoing, Sam?" Mitchell wonders, and Xander can hear the note of relief in Sam's voice as she answers.

"Outgoing. Looks like Glory is taking herself home. She must have a remote DHD," Sam explains, as a horizontal waterfall bursts from the gate.

"This is not the end," Glory states emphatically, before stepping through the wall of shimmering water and disappearing.

After a few seconds the water disappeared and the gate shut off, leaving everyone in the control room staring at Xander.

"This is so not good," Xander mutters, and Jack moves over to his son.

"So, who is she?" Jack asks, and Xander turns to stare at him with big, wide eyes.

"She doesn't matter. It's the people that can get her here that I'm concerned about," Xander admits honestly. "Very concerned."

"I know it's classified," Mitchell starts behind the pair, "But I'm going to make a wild guess that whatever happened in California was bad, in a big way. And it involved Glory?" Mitchell wonders, and Xander nods.

"So, how hard was she to stop by herself?" Sam asks, and Xander starts shaking his head, which was filling with unwanted memories. Memories of a dragon breaking through a rip in the sky. Of Dawn screaming. Of Buffy falling.

"Hard," he answers baldly, making Jack nervous with the haunted look on his son's face.

"So, if she's working for someone else now," Daniel asks, "How powerful would that person have to be, to attract her?"

"They'd have to be pretty bloody powerful," Xander admits.

There is a worried silence in the room for a moment, that stretches on and on, until it is broken by Sam.

"Okay, so how do we go about finding who she's working for? And what the hell they're up to?"

Xander shakes his head. He honestly has no idea. And he simply listens as the team bounces ideas off each other.

Finally, Jack turns to Xander with a wry smile. "It's cool, Xander. We'll figure this whole mess out," Jack says comfortingly, and Xander can only nod and smile in return, despite feeling anything but comforted.

To Be Continued

Read and Review