Gemini
Jack jogged into the NORAD elevator with Carter and Daniel on his heels. As soon as the doors shut, Carter dug into the neck of her BDUs and produced the now-familiar cube of blue crystal.
"Unraveler Exalt, set up," Carter commanded.
Something that looked like a textured opaque forcefield wrapped around Carter's body and then burst apart, scattering little flakes of blue light. Her BDUs were gone, replaced by her formal-blues-labcoat-hybrid Barrier Jacket. She held the strange white-shelled gun-gauntlet that the Device had become in her right hand.
Jack couldn't resist. "Don't you mean make up, Carter?"
"Jack..." Daniel sighed.
She gave him a very bland look. "I'll let you know when my rank changes to 'Sailor', sir."
Jack snorted.
The elevator arrived and Jack put his amusement aside to focus on the latest minor crisis. A pair of MPs were waiting. They saluted and made haste leading the three present members of SG-1 topside.
A whole platoon was out in force on the helipad, training assault rifles on the small group standing between a trio of Fae bubbleships. Jack pushed through a gap in the soldiers and got a look at their surprise Fae visitors. Something was off, though... ah, they were modest. The two men at the front were wearing some kind of crude toga-like thing made of incongruously fine blue cloth, but they all had all the important parts covered, unlike the Fae he was used to dealing with. In fact, those two looked kind of familiar...
The shorter one spotted him. "Colonel O'Neill, sir!"
"Walter?!" Jack blurted. He peered at taller guy and with a jolt likewise recognized him as a younger, handsomer version of a familiar face. "Siler?! Is that you?!"
"It's us, sir," Siler asserted.
"What in the blazes of hell happened to you guys?" Jack demanded.
"Well, um, apparently we died, sir," Walter said.
Jack turn to the soldiers. "Friendlies! Stand down! All of you. Before you start wasting perfectly good ammo." He turned back to Walter and Siler and the rest, who Jack was also starting to recognize as SGC personnel who'd been lost in Fifth's attack. "Y'ou've been MIA for months, airman. Venus especially nice this time of year?"
"Surprisingly so, sir," Walter agreed. "Sorry, sir. It took us all a while to locate everyone and organize the trip." He waved a hand at the bubbleships.
"Lemme guess," Jack deadpanned. "You found 'em growing on a tree."
Walter blinked. "More or less, sir."
"Nice," Jack muttered. "Carter! Let Weir know what's up. We'll bring 'em in for debriefing."
Crushing couldn't breath crushing heavy can't see can't move...
...relief, quiet, and rapturous comfort.
Tara just floated for a while in the stillness. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was submerged in some sort of body-temperature fluid, but it didn't feel like anything on her exposed eyeballs. A dim illumination filtered through the fleshy red walls of the... her first thought was womb. It felt a lot like how she might have imagined being in a womb would feel.
What happened? That woman! Her aura, her face. Tara had wished the Fae would take her away with them, and the woman... Demon? Evil fairy? Alien spy? had declared it granted.
Tara gasped, feeling the thick fluid moving in her lungs without discomfort beyond the strangeness of it. Had her idle wish been granted?
As soon as she moved, the walls of the womb began to peel apart and the fluid began to drain. Tara abruptly recognized it as one of the ubiquitous pods, as seen from the inside. The petal-like flaps opened up and Tara emerged dry... but she was still floating, still weightless.
Tara's heart began to pound with a nervous hope. It had been brutal and unexpected, but... was she really on the Fae ship? Had she been given her wish? It didn't look like the inside of a spaceship. It looked like a lush meadow under and alien sky, a gorgeous ringed gas planet that wasn't Saturn. But there wasn't any gravity, and... oh. Wow, she suddenly knew exactly where she was, and she was on the ship, in low Earth orbit. The context for her location had just appeared in her mind when she'd... reached for it in some part of her mind that hadn't been there before.
"Um, hi," said a voice behind her.
Startled, Tara whirled around, placing her feet on the meaty pod base and instinctively spreading her something-new-that-was-like-an-aura-but-physical into the pod and the ground to tether herself, her balance working itself out in the same instant. It wasn't until she'd already done it that she noticed the unexpected effortless grace she'd moved with.
Rather than that, her attention fixed on the person who'd spoken, and Tara's eyes got very wide. A lovely nude redhead that her brain, for some reason, labeled 'Willow-icos' stood on the grass with an uncertain smile, wiggling cutely with her hands behind her back.
"...h-h-hi?" Tara stuttered.
Willow's smile softened and she wiggled some more. It was very adorable. Tara ducked her head... which did less than usual to hide her face with her hair floating weightlessly, but it did bring something else to her attention, notably that Tara wasn't wearing anything either. Tara eep'd and brought her arms up to cover herself before it occurred to her that it probably didn't matter and hesitantly let her arms fall. She wasn't bodyshy after all, just the regular kind of shy.
Willow giggled and Tara blushed in embarrassment.
"So," Willow said. "Tara Maclay. Welcome to the Eliezera, I guess. Anywho, we were wondering, did you mean to magic yourself a ride up here like that?"
"Um... I... there was..." Tara's breath was short and her heart was pounding and she started trembling and she wasn't even sure why except that she was terrified of being sent away, of not being accepted.
"Oh, hey, it's okay," Willow said comfortingly with just a tiny bit of panic. "It's okay, okay? You're safe here, okay?" She offered her hand.
Tara took it, and Willow pulled her into a hug. A very warm, soft, naked hug. Tara held very still. It felt so wonderfully good, but Tara was way too shy to return the gesture when she'd only just met the alien girl and it felt so wonderful and it was the first time she'd ever been hugged by someone who wasn't her mom, let alone while naked.
"So, not on purpose, I'm guessing?" Willow said as she petted Tara's hair.
Tara managed to shake her head. Willow let go of her, and Tara tried not to whimper at the loss. Willow looked at her and smiled bright and knowing. She pulled Tara back into an embrace. Tara shuddered pleasantly, even if she kind of wanted to turn invisible.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Willow asked gently.
Tara took a deep breath and settled her nerves, because this was important. "I... was talking to... this woman. About you... your ship... all of that. I said... I said that... that I wished you would t-t-take me... away... with you. Then her aura went wrong, and her face changed, and she said 'granted'." Tara paused. "Are you going to send me home?"
"Only if you want to go." Willow continued to pet her in silence for a moment. "Do you know what she was?"
Tara shook her head.
"So, some kind of mean-spirited magical wish-granter," Willow murmured to herself. "That... needs thinking about."
Tara's breath caught, because Willow's hand had wandered down over Tara's hip and thigh, and now it was feeling up her rear. It had actually taken a moment for Tara to notice, with her senses already full of cute nude girl hug. Tara didn't know what to think. It was disturbingly arousing, but Willow didn't even seem to realize she was doing it. If it was an accident, dare she call attention to it? If it wasn't, should she protest? Could she protest? Tara didn't even know if she wanted to.
"U-u-um..." Tara managed to articulate, still not knowing if she was protesting or seeking reassurance that she was allowed to enjoy it. "Your, um, your hand..."
Willow blinked, and looked in confusion at... her non-groping hand. Tara couldn't help it. She started giggling, and once she started she couldn't stop and the giggles just got worse.
"Your... other..." Tara giggled helplessly.
"Huh? Oh right." Willow let go of her and started giggling herself.
They wound up sitting on the grass by the time Tara got herself under control. Tara absently noted how comfy and not grass-like the alien grass was.
"Hehe, sorry," Willow said. "Among us, if you let someone touch you, we pretty much assume you're okay with any kind of friendly touching."
Tara considered this. "That doesn't get awkward?"
"I don't see why it would," Willow shrugged. "I think there'd be more potential for awkwardness if it wasn't like that, actually. And since we don't have the physical vulnerabilities of natural humans, there's no reason for us to have any rules about that sort of thing." Willow looked at her, suddenly worried. "Is touching okay with you? It's just you looked like you needed it so I did and I think you did but is it okay?"
Tara smiled shyly. Willow really was very adorable. And totally right about Tara needing to be held. Tara wasn't sure how to answer, though. She emphatically didn't want to say no, but the implication was that she'd otherwise be agreeing to let Willow have free reign on her body... which was an entirely too pleasant thought. And yet, Willow was a stranger. A very kind, warm, and attractive stranger in very unusual circumstances, but still a stranger. Good people weren't suppose to want to lose their virginity to strangers. It was upsettingly tempting.
"I don't know," Tara mumbled. "I don't know what I should say."
"It might be easier if you don't think in terms of should," Willow suggested. "What do you want to say?"
"...yes?" Tara whispered.
Willow smiled encouragingly. "Why do you feel like you can't? Because you totally can."
"I'm a virgin?" Tara tried. "I've never had anyone, who I might've..."
Willow's face scrunched up cutely. "If you want something, and if the only reason you feel like you can't have it is because you've never had it before, well, that's just silly. Also, like, self-defeating."
"I..." Tara felt quite derailed. "Huh?"
"The first time you do something is only important if you decide it is, Tara," Willow explained gently. "And, like, sex isn't even the point here. Sex is just what happens when attractive people get along with each other and don't have any external constraints on their behavior. It's the not having external constraints that we're all about. That's the important part, you know?"
Now that Tara was following what Willow was trying to tell her, it sounded good. It sounded so good. She'd wished to be here, and there was nothing she'd left behind that she missed. What Willow said made sense, and it would be so easy to just... throw in with this, completely, and immerse herself in adopting their ways.
Tara took a deep shuddery breath. "I can stay?"
Willow nodded. "You can do anything you want. I'm not going to send you anywhere. And you can be sure that if you somehow manage to annoy us, we will make very obvious faces at you."
Tara giggled nervously as she reached out and put a hand on Willow's knee. "Okay, then I'll try to do things your way. You'll teach me, how to be one of you?"
Willow slid forward with liquid grace until her nose was almost touching Tara's. Willow leaned her back and gently pinned her to the grass. Her body settled on top of Tara's and Willow playfully nuzzled her.
"I don't think there's a trick to it," Willow said. "All you really need to do is... be you. Everything that's you. You know, celebrate the things you feel, just because you felt them and you don't need an excuse beyond that."
"Feel what I feel?" Tara repeated uncertainly as Willow's fingers wandered idly over her breast.
"You're so curvy and snugglable!" Willow declared, wriggling happily and rubbing her nose in the top of Tara's other breast.
Tara blushed and shuddered at how nice those nuzzling squirms felt. Even her most vivid imaginings didn't come close to the real sensations. "I'm... not sure I get it..."
"Well, if you want an example... you want an example?" Willow asked.
Tara nodded. "Okay."
"Down there, you guys have this big social status thing revolving around pretending you don't have animal urges, like way beyond what's a necessary evil due to human vulnerabilities," Willow said. "The better you are at constraining yourself, the more respect you're worth, or something backwards like that. Which is absurd even on the face of it 'cause the status stuff is just as much an animal urge as the sex stuff or the violence stuff, or the making-up-stories stuff for that matter, so by any sane reasoning you lose just by entering the contest. Nobody really notices that, though. I guess its more obvious when you can live like we do."
"Oh," Tara said, seeing the sense in that. "I guess it would be."
"Yeah, in so far as we have a consistent culture, knowing better than to make that distinction between urges is probably at the heart of it," Willow explained. "The proportion of other species we happen to share an urge with is not a measure of that urge's... disposability, if that makes sense... I make sense to me and I usually make sense to other people but I'm not always sure I'm explaining right because I've mostly been reverse engineering when I try to explain things and I'm not any kind of social genius anyway so it's hard and I'm not sure I'm making sense to you."
Tara giggled quietly. "No, I... I think I get it now."
Willow kissed her, just like that, like it was a familiar and comfortable thing. Tara considered her wants. She wanted to enjoy feeling another girl's lips. She didn't want to dwell on the fabled significance of the First Kiss. And... it didn't really need to be more complicated than that.
"So," Willow said. "Do you wanna meet the rest of me and the others?"
Tara did, and nodded, but she also didn't want to move from where she was right then... wait, "...the rest of you?"
Willow nodded and replied, only for a second voice to reply in stereo with her from a different direction, "I have four bodies."
Tara was a little startled as she looked over. Another nude girl, identical in every way to the one laying on her. Her brain labeled this one 'Willow-rhom' and this Willow knelt over Tara's head, incidentally giving Tara a perfect view of Willow's gorgeous pussy, and bent down to give Tara an upside-down kiss.
"Four... four bodies?" Tara squeaked.
"Yep! It's kind of a long story, but I'll tell it if you want. Come on. Let's go introduce you to the others."
The first Willow floated up to a standing position. After a moment, Tara followed. One Willow held each of her hands. Walking was simultaneously strange and not. It was like her bones were pulling on the ground with that not-aura thing, in a way that was even more complicated than moving her legs, but just as automatic.
Willow gave her what Tara could tell was a very abbreviated backstory, explaining how they'd arrived unexpectedly, severely underpopulated and with the ship's intelligence inactive. Willow didn't outright say she was the only one smart enough to run the ship manually among the Fae, but that was the inescapable implication. Willow had split herself into four copies so she wouldn't be overwhelmed.
Tara got a closer look at the trees and other features of the meadow, and marveled. It all looked perfectly natural at glance, but the grass that wasn't grass was just the start.
As they were rounding a particularly large, sprawling tree, a rustling and a yelp startled Tara and made her eep. Something girl-shaped shot down out of the branches and ricocheted off the trunk. Tara caught a glimpse of brown hair, pale skin, and a laughing face before a second figure, an equally naked and similarly-colored boy slammed into the girl hard enough to make a very unpleasant sound.
A tangle of limbs bounced into the grass and rolled, kicking, clawing and grappling so ferociously that Tara half-expected to see a cartoon dust-cloud form around them. Tara gasped and looked to the Willows for cues. The Willows seemed to be amused.
"Wha...?" Tara began.
"Jesse's my son," both Willow's chorused, and the one on her left continued, "and Dawn is Buffy's daughter."
Dawn tumbled out of the brawl, but Jesse screeched and latched onto one her her ankles with both hands. He hauled on her, swinging her through the air, but she kicked him in the face making him flub the throw. Dawn went straight up, halted in midair, and dove for him.
"Um... shouldn't we stop them?" Tara ventured.
The Willows shrugged. "They're just having fun."
Jesse dodged, got Dawn around the waist, and managed to pin her down, Dawn kicked and flailed, still laughing madly. Tara's eyes bugged out when she saw Jesse pause for a moment, his prominent erection suddenly very noticeable, before plunging himself into Dawn's sex. The laughter and the fight went out of Dawn in an instant, and she moaned ecstatically even though Jesse was just humping her like a mindless animal.
Tara blushed. "Are they..."
"Dawn and Jesse are both still very young," Willow-icos explained. "Neither of them are very complicated people, yet. They'll come say hi to find out who you are the next time they get bored, probably."
"...okay," Tara said, still a little weirded out, but figuring that she shouldn't judge.
The two Willows brought her to a little half-glade centered around a blocky patterned-grey shape adorned with geometric pillows... on which four more nude people sat, obviously waiting for her. They all waved, and Tara shyly waved back... only to freeze mid-wave as she got a better look at them.
Two more Willows, a Xander, and a Buffy. Huh, so this was what it was like to be attracted to a guy. But that novelty was a sidenote to the fourth Willow. The one with massive lactating breasts and a pale pink penis growing from the top of her vulva. This was... rather adeptly pushing Tara's buttons, actually, and she was suddenly embarrassingly aroused.
"Hi, Tara," Xander greeted warmly.
"Hey," Buffy greeted. "Let me know when you want, and I'll show you how to show me what your evil wish-granty lady looked like. It'd probably be good to find out what her deal is."
Tara nodded earnestly. "Of, of course."
The two Willows at her side both gave her a squeeze and ushered her into the imminent cuddlepile.
Jack strolled into the observation room overlooking the isolation suite. Walter and Siler were down there, back in BDUs and sitting patiently while Dr. Lam and Carter fiddled with some kind of gizmo they were pointing at Walter. Jack noted that neither the doc nor Carter were wearing protective gear any longer.
It was still downright weird to see Walter and Siler looking all rejuvenated.
Jack hit the talk button. "Hey fellas. What's goin' on?"
"Colonel," Dr Lam replied, looking a bit at loose ends. "Well, they clear, to the best of my abilities. I'm at a loss for how to get a blood sample. I can't be entirely sure they even still have blood. I had to resort to a saliva sample, which did contain an unidentified but apparently benign microparticulate, but was otherwise the cleanest bodily fluid I've ever had under my microscope."
"So what's all this?" Jack asked.
Carter looked up from her fiddling. "Hopefully, sir, we're establishing a baseline." She plugged in a cable and stood up. "Or a part of one, anyway."
"This happened to a lot of us, Colonel," Walter spoke up. "I can't speak for everyone, but I know I don't want to lose my place in the SGC, and if you'll excuse me saying so, sir, if it is safe to sanction our reinstatement, this could be a tremendous asset."
Carter jogged out of view and emerged in the observation room. "He's got a point, sir. We suspected, but based on Dr. Lam's observations there does not appear to be any reason why our fae-touched shouldn't be entirely immune to goa'uld parasitism."
"Nice," Jack said, making a get-on-with-it gesture.
"Right, well sir, right now we're trying to confirm something," Carter said, going to town at the console.
The display switched to a new video image of Walter. Carter did something, and the image started going into weird colors, and settled on a nice even yellow silhouette. Beside him, Dr. Lam looked like the normal patches and gradients of a human body, but Walter was like a yellow cut-out. Jack frowned.
"As you can see, sir," Carter said. "Chief Walter no longer has any temperature variance in his body at all. His body keeps all its heat perfectly distributed and he doesn't appear to radiate heat at a consistent rate. Chief?"
Walter nodded as Dr. Lam brought over a bunsen burner and set it up in arms reach of Walter. Walter winced slightly as he stuck a finger into the flame, then visibly relaxed when it didn't hurt. The thermal image showed his fingertip remaining the same color as the rest of him.
"Coooool," Walter said, failing to hold in a grin.
"I expect that full immersion in extreme heat would have more of an effect," Carter said, "but it would appear that localized heat-damage is simply impossible. Now..."
"Just think of how well I'd stand up to staff blast, Colonel!" Walter said.
Carter poked a few keys and the image shifted again, returning to normal video and then going greyscale. Walter faded out until he was an utterly black silhouette. Jack looked at Carter questioningly.
"This is what he looks like in ultraviolet," Carter explained, shifting the image again through several modes. "X-ray. Far infrared. Radar imaging." More utterly dark silhouettes. Carter turned to look at Jack. "He looks perfectly normal in the visible spectrum, and he's warm, but he completely absorbs the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is incredible, sir. His skin is a maximally efficient photovoltaic, like a solar panel, only orders of magnitude more..." Jack facepalmed. "...sir?"
"So, what you're saying is, there's actually a practical reason for all the nudity?" Jack sighed.
Carter bit her lip as she smiled in amusement. "Well, if comfort and, er... ease of access, in the face of a non-existent nudity taboo don't count as practical reasons, sir."
Jack gave her a flat look. "Don't tell me. Our returnees..."
"It shouldn't be necessary, sir," Carter said. "Most clothing only blocks a tiny portion of the electromagnetic waves, outside the visible range, I mean. I suppose there would be a small but measurable effect, though."
Jack changed the subject. "So how long, do you think, before I can start bugging Weir about getting our people reinstated?"
Faith was bored out of her skull and she couldn't take it anymore. "Fucking hell, dude! Ocean this. Ocean that. Yay fucking ocean. Fuck. What are you, some kind of freaky fish guy?"
"Guh?" Cameron Walker protested, startled at the vehement interruption. "I am not a freaky fish guy! How can anyone not be swept away by the beauty - "
"No! No more fucking ocean talk," Faith cut him off. "Gods, I am going to kick Cordy's ass. This is why I don't fucking date."
Cam was pouting. He was probably going for angry, but ocean dude wasn't very intimidating.
Faith ran a hand through her dark hair and looked at him. "Check it, Fishhead, if you're not gonna shut up and drop your pants, I'm outta here."
He just gawped at her. Faith got out of the car and didn't look back.
"Unscheduled offworld activation!"
The stargate lit up behind the closed iris as Jack made his way into the control room. Weir had beaten him there. Carter arrived shortly after Jack.
"What've we got, Lieutenant?" Weir asked.
"IDC received," Hailey reported. "It doesn't clear."
"Why not?" Carter asked.
"It looks like an expired code, ma'am."
Carter exchanged a look with Jack and Weir. "Are we still missing anyone?"
"Ma'am," Hailey said, pointing to the screen. "It was one of yours. It's been invalid since the Fae outing." Something blinked on the screen. "Receiving text."
A text box opened, displaying, Send MALP.
Carter turned to give her superiors a questioning look.
Weir nodded. "Prep a MALP. I want to see what this is about."
The stargate shut down. In due course, a MALP was set up, the gate was redialed, and the MALP was sent through. Daniel had joined them in the control room, and they all waited for the video signal to resolve. It was dark, on the other side. Carter fiddled with the MALP's settings and activated the headlights.
"There's someone..." Carter trailed off as the image resolved. Blonde hair, dark clothing, and a face they all knew. "That's me!"
Jack leaned in. "Alright, you've got our attention. Who are you?"
"My name is Samantha Carter," the look-a-like replied.
"Ah," Jack said. "See, we've got a little conflict with that statement. We've already got one here."
The look-a-like nodded. "There are two of us."
"If only," Jack muttered.
Carter gave him a quelling look and turned back to the video feed. "Where are you from? How did you know how to contact us?"
"It's strange, I recognize my voice..." the other Carter paused. "I was made in Samantha Carter's image, out of the memories and thought-patterns extracted by the one you call Fifth."
"Oh gods, she's a Replicator," Carter breathed.
"No doubt you are surprised," the Replicator Carter said. "Believe me, I understand. I had not intended to contact you."
"What changed?" Weir asked.
"A great threat to us all has emerged from beyond this galaxy," the Replicator explained. "A power greater than any of us, implacable and vast. They are called Ori, and their beachheads into our galaxy are being fortified as we speak."
Jack gave Carter a meaningful look.
"We already knew about the Ori," Carter revealed, "but if you have tactical intel on their forces, that would be very useful."
The Replicator Carter... Replicarter? Replicarter paused in surprise. "You've met one of their Priors?"
"Not directly," Carter said, "but I've seen what they're capable of."
Replicarter frowned slightly, then shut her eyes for a moment and didn't pry. "I am willing to share what intel I have on the Ori beachheads."
"And what do the other Replicators think of this?" Jack asked suspiciously.
"Fifth is dead," Replicarter said bluntly. "I am the Replicators, Jack. We are no longer a threat to you."
Jack rocked back on his heels, raising both eyebrows. "Well. That's... anticlimactic. But convenient!"
The corner of her mouth twitched in a small half-smile. "For you, very."
"In that case, is there a name we may use for you, other than the one you share with Major Carter?" Weir asked.
"You may refer to me as 'Replicarter' as I am sure Colonel O'Neill will call me that regardless."
Jack opened his mouth to make a petulant denial of this very true statement, but Weir cut him off. Replicarter knew him, maybe as well as his Carter did. That was just... disturbing.
"Very well," Weir agreed with a perfectly straight face. "What is it you propose?"
"I realize you may be reluctant to trust me, due to what I am," Replicarter said. "I propose a meeting on a world of your choice, where I will provide you with the coordinates of the Ori supergates and what details I've gleaned on how they operate and how they're defended. In return, I merely ask that the Fae deactivate the automated systems that attack Replicators on sight."
Carter bit her lip and looked up at Jack. Jack scowled. Weir didn't have an immediate reply either.
"We're... not entirely on speaking terms with the Fae at the moment," Carter explained.
Replicarter reacted with visible surprise. "Why not?"
If not for the clarity of her mind and senses, Tara might've had a hard time convincing herself any of this was real, and not a cruel hopeful dream. She would never have dared hope that the Fae would welcome her so readily, but here she was, nearly in tears from having gone so long without any kind of real affection.
It was overwhelming, suddenly finding herself in a pile of cute cuddly Willows without a stitch of clothing in sight. Tara didn't really know what to do with herself, but other than sending Buffy an image of the wish-granting woman, she was simply held and petted while Buffy and Willow-icos communicated with whoever or whatever.
Two of the Willows spooned her between them, making a snug sandwich of smooth skin and soft warmth. Willow-rhom pressed against Tara's back, lazily kissing her shoulders, and caressing thigh with thigh. Willow-para was curled up with her back to Tara's front, carelessly wiggling her butt against Tara's thighs while Tara shyly avoided letting her hands wander.
Willow-kink sat crosswise, with Tara's head in her lap. Her fingers gently combed though Tara's hair, soothing and tender. The futanari's firm member brushed the back of Tara's neck, making her start and blush the first few times it reminded her of its presence, but she eventually relaxed and let it rest against her. Willow-kink's huge lactating breasts swayed tantalizingly in front of Tara's face.
Tara had settled into an odd, almost contradictory state of utterly soothed and overwhelmingly turned on, so it only startled her a little when Willow-para's hand slipped down between Tara's legs without warning and started rubbing her pussy in slow, firm circles where no hand but Tara's own had ever been before. Her breath caught and she held very still as her wide eyes searched out Willow-kink's.
The expression on Willow's face was so very gentle. Tara let out a shuddery sigh. It just wasn't a thing of consequence to them, was it. Just because Willow started fingering her without asking first didn't mean she wouldn't stop if Tara asked. It, it wasn't a forgiveness vs. permission thing; that wasn't how they thought. And anyway, Tara's lack of protest was readily apparent, and Willow had as good as told her that it was all the same to them anyway. It maybe seemed to Tara like what Willow was getting at was that Tara didn't need a reason to not regret something she enjoyed in the moment.
Tara was enjoying this moment. It wasn't even particularly insistent or teasing. Willow's hand was slowly massaging her, producing constant gentle waves of pleasure that just made Tara feel extra snuggly.
"Tara?" Willow-kink murmured. "Do you think you'll miss anything you left behind?"
Tara shivered, and then she shivered again because shivering in the middle of a Willow sandwich was blissfully pleasant. "My family... is better off without me. My... my mom died a while ago, before, before you came. She... she was the only one who..." Tara trailed off and closed her eyes against the sting of tears as Willow-kink continued to pet her hair and Willow-para continued to rub her soothingly between her legs. "No one else cared about me."
"Sad," Willow-kink commented sadly. "It was bad enough that you really did want to be spirited away from everything you knew?"
Tara felt tears leaking from her eyes and beading out in every direction, occasionally scattering in the air when she blinked. "By... by you, I did. And... and you're..." Tara merely tightened her arms around Willow-para in a desperate squeeze and started kissing whatever bits of skin her lips could reach.
A fourth Willow flopped down on top of the three-spoon sandwich, and Tara felt her wet sex squish against Tara's bare hip. A gentle hand turned Tara's head, and Willow-icos leaned in and kissed her. Tara shuddered, releasing a soft whimpery moan into that Willow's mouth. The hand between her legs sped up until Tara was writhing in her Willow-y confinement.
The pleasure and tension built up and burst, Tara's first orgasm that she didn't give herself. She jerked and twitched in the embrace of Willows, cumming silently as was always her habit.
Tara shuddered with aftershocks for a while. Willow-para went back to a slow massage, but she didn't stop rubbing Tara's pussy all the way through.
Willow-icos broke their kiss, and Tara made a small noise of distress. The Willows in her field of vision smiled at her, and Willow-kink scooped a bead of milk onto her finger. She offered the finger to Tara.
Tara could do nothing but close her lips around Willow-kink's finger and suckle. She kissed the tip of the finger and just looked at them with an edge of desperation. "Please keep me."
"For as long as you want," Willow-icos agreed. "You're adorable and I want to be sweet to you."
Tara smiled with shy hope, mostly looking at Willow-kink's wet puffy nipples.
"You really like this body of mine, huh?" Willow-kink asked.
Tara blushed and nodded into her belly.
"Is it the double-duty parts or the milk?" Willow wondered curiously.
"Both," Tara squeaked.
Willows smiled. "Yeah, I like it too! It was just a thing I did because reasons and I wasn't sure I'd wanna stay this way but I'm not tired of it yet and with the others of me being more usually Willow-shaped it's fun. I like your cuddly curves. I hope you keep them."
Tara offered a small smile of agreement. Willow-kink hmm'd as she petted Tara's hair.
Moving unhurriedly, the Willows pulled out of the spoon stack and Tara waited uncertainly to see what they were doing. They gently rearranged her. Willows para and rhom served as a warm pillowy backrest. Each of them took one of Tara's legs and pulled it up and back, leaving her spread wide and open.
A quiver of arousal wriggled through Tara's body just from being so lewdly exposed. Her blush had to be spectacular. This was not a position for cuddling. This was a pose for fucking. Looking down at the lovely futanari redhead kneeling before her, Tara suddenly felt profoundly at peace.
One of Tara's most guarded sexual fantasies was becoming real, and Willow-kink merely looked at her like she was simply eager to share a nifty thing with a new friend. This was not a dirty thing in their mind... or at all, really. It needed no excusing.
Even though it was, well, a penis, it somehow managed not to be particularly male. It was velvety pink and wet with a light suggestion of veins all the way down to the base where it merged with Willow-kink's feminine folds. It wasn't separate or out of place on her body at all. It was obviously still a single set of sex organs, just with both a phallus and a canal.
It was big enough to be intimidating, but there was no doubt in Tara's mind that Willow would be very attentive if she ever said 'ow'. (Tara had not yet been informed that pain of that nature was now physically impossible. It would feel good right up until she tore, at which point her ability to feel pleasure or pain would turn off until her body repaired itself. Not to mention that it would take ludicrously extreme force on the order of several industrial presses and an object bigger than would fit in her pelvis to tear her in the first place.)
Willow-kink slid in, and Tara both watched and felt herself being split open in the most wonderful way possible. Willow-kink hilted herself and leaned in with a smile, enjoying Tara's reaction.
"Oh goddess, this is real," Tara panted. Her imagination didn't even compared to this wonderful fullness.
Willow-kink bent, arching her back as she started thrusting with her hips, plunging her slippery girth into Tara's welcoming sheath. Her milk-laden breasts swayed right in front of Tara's face, and it didn't take long for Tara to be drawn in. Her hands sank into Willow-kink's softness and her lips latched onto a nipple.
Willows on all sides, holding her secure. Her pussy filled as Willow thrust against her exposed bottom, a jiggle traveling upwards through her flesh with each collision. Nursing from Willow's breast, her nipple and her milk in Tara's mouth and her cock in Tara's depths. Oh goddess.
"Mmmh!" Tara gasped with her mouth full as her body convulsed into climax.
Willow-kink didn't stop even as Tara's orgasm subsided, but that was okay, because there wasn't anything that made Tara want her to stop. Nothing felt sore or over-sensitive, she wasn't tired, and the position wasn't becoming a strain.
And they had all the time in the world. They'd stop when they wanted to stop, and no sooner.
The gang was all there when Faith strolled into the school library. Well, except for Joyce. She did still have a job. Kendra and Oz were seated on one side of the table, while Cordelia perched on other side of the table itself. Giles was talking to a woman... Faith stopped in her tracks.
"Faith," Diana Dormer greeted with a smile.
Faith forgot herself completely and threw herself across the distance between them. She didn't bother to hold back her strength and hugged her Watcher as hard as she could. Faith knew where she'd left her Watcher. It didn't matter how hard she squeezed. And if it was some impostor, then they totally deserved to get their ribs crushed.
Faith pulled away and coughed awkwardly before putting on a casual grin and flicking Diana's arm. "Heya, DD. How're the new digs?"
"Quite remarkable, actually," Diana said. "I can't say much for the timing, however. I was rather put out that I had to walk three blocks in broad daylight without a stitch of clothing."
Faith snorted. "Pfft, I bet you were a hit."
"I'll have you know I was nearly arrested," Diana countered. "I was forced to hide on rooftops and charm a lonely old man out of his coat."
"Was he at least a good lay?" Faith asked.
Diana didn't miss a beat. "Yes, quite. He was as long as my forearm and twice as dexterous."
Faith tsked. "You've been havin' adventures without me, DD. Not very watcherly of ya."
Diana broke, bursting out laughing, and Faith spontaneously hugged her again as she laughed her ass off along with her. Tears? What tears. Fuck you, tears. Faith kicked crying's ass.
"So," Faith said once that was over with. "What's the what?"
"Evil fairy godmother," Cordelia said brightly, waving a book.
"Cordelia, do be careful with that," Giles sighed. "And the term is Vengeance Demon, if anyone cares."
Faith opened her mouth at Cordelia, then just shrugged. "Nope, not even mad anymore, but your swimmer pal was a total bust. Dude is freaky ocean-obsessed, like way fish for brains. Half expected him to wanna listen for ocean sounds in my snatch..." Oz and Kendra were staring at her. "What?"
"Cordy and Giles were doing the bad wish demon," Oz explained. "We're on this fish monster that's been eating people and leaving behind their skin."
Faith made a face. "You thinkin' maybe Canned Cam is more than just obsessed?"
"Ew," Cordelia put in.
"It's a lead," Diana said.
"Cool," Faith said, strolling over to the table. "So, who got vengeanced or whatever?"
The Delta Site was brand new, having only been completely furnished and staffed on normal duty rotations the previous week. Like the other SGC bases, the stargate was in an underground bunker surrounded by weapon emplacements and heavy steel doors. Even better, the base had full self-destruct capability.
Daniel hoped they wouldn't need it, but they did have something of a poor track record when it came to duplicates. He tried not to fidget and settled for making a couple of pens orbit his hand behind his back. Producing awareness feedback from a telekinetically affected object took enough concentration to occupy him. It was tricky and recursive and unintuitive. He lost track of one of the pens and it clattered to the floor.
Sam was very obviously not pacing. Her fatigues and tac vest looked suspiciously clean and well-fitted, but if Daniel hadn't known it was a Barrier Jacket, he didn't think he could have guessed. And he knew about Unraveler Exalt. Replicarter didn't.
"Yup," Jack said, from where he only didn't have his feet up on the console by the barest of margins. "This is exciting. Teal'c will be so disappointed he missed it."
"He is an important figure in the jaffa rebellion," Daniel said. "I get why he didn't want to wait for Elizabeth to clear the Venusians when the other rebel leaders were already agreed."
Jack made a face. "I did not need the mental image of Bra'tac as a nude twenty-something. That's all I'm saying."
Sam shot Jack look that was half amused, half exasperated. "I doubt that will be an issue, sir."
"Relax, Carter," Jack said. "We're as ready as we can be for your double's sudden but inevitable betrayal."
"That's what I'm worried about," Sam sighed. "If she's really based on me, she has to know that we'd never meet her in person like this without some kind of trump card held in reserve."
"Well, we're not setting a trap, per se," Daniel ventured. "If these Ori are really as big a threat as Replicarter implied, she could be dealing in good faith, even if her larger intentions aren't peaceful."
Jack grunted. "Carter - "
The panels on the stargate lit up, and Jack fell silent. The 'gate opened with the usual kawoosh, and Jack swung to his feet. Daniel began to summon up the necessary emotional state for incanting, just in case.
No blockbugs appeared. The puddle rippled, and out stepped... Sam, dressed in subdued black and grey. Daniel couldn't help glancing at the real Sam. The stargate shut down and the Replicator stepped down from the gate platform.
"I'm surprised," Replicarter commented as she looked around the apparently otherwise empty base. "I didn't expect you to trust me with a meeting this easily. I imagined I'd step out of the gate to find an empty base and ten seconds left on the self-destruct."
"Oh, don't worry, that can still be arranged," Jack said, rocking back on his heels.
Replicarter's lips quirked and she addressed Sam, "I assume you have an isolated network prepared to receive data?"
"I do," Sam agreed. "This way."
"Fucking knew it, I fucking did," Faith panted as she struggled to maintain her chokehold on the fish monster formerly known as Cam Walker. "Fucking freaky fish guy."
"Faith! Over here!" Joyce called as Faith crashed through the maintenance door. "This one's empty!"
"Ow! Fuck!" Faith cursed as the struggling lagoon creature managed to claw her leg.
This was pointless. The pod was right there, and even Faith had been paying enough attention to pick up on the brain being the only part that mattered. With a snarl, she broke Cam's neck. Freaky fish guy went limp in her arms and Faith pulled her knife, jammed it in to sever his spine, and ripped his head clean off.
Faith dropped the body and flipped her hair out of her face. "Much better."
As jauntily as she could with a limp, Faith strolled over to Joyce, swinging the finned head by the protruding bit of severed spine. Joyce looked a little disgusted as Faith went up and poked the Fae pod with the head. The pod opened up, and Faith tossed the head in.
"Last fish monster unfishified," Faith said, bouncing on her good leg. "Let's go see if Giles and DD got the evil swim coach to piss himself yet."
Joyce sighed. "Should I even mention the horrible leg wound?"
"Hey, whatever floats your boat, Mrs. S," Faith said cheerfully, hopping into a stroll.
Joyce shook her head. "I'd feel better if you took the upgrade."
"I'm all for it," Faith shrugged. "It'd just suck to miss out on all the fun that'd go down while I'm out of it. I'll totally do it if things ever get boring for a while."
"Well, I hope that works out for you," Joyce offered, sounding resigned.
"Fifth thought he'd molded me into an adoring queen," Replicarter explained. "He tried to condition me, to break the ties that came with the memories he fed me by stitching the pieces together how he wanted."
Sam looked up from attaching electrical leads to the correct ports. "You have memories of my past that go back before I met Fifth?"
"Of course. Bits of the life that made you who you are," Replicarter said. "Little things, too. I know I've never set foot on Earth, but I have this image of lying under the tree in our back yard. It's a sunny day, but when I close my eyes, the wind in the leaves sounds..."
"...exactly like rain," Sam finished.
"Fifth failed to understand that who he wanted and what he wanted couldn't coexist," Replicarter said. "Every time he gave me a piece of you, he made me that much less his."
Sam attached the final lead and moved over to the laptop she'd set up. "And you turned on him."
"Fifth did good work," Replicarter agreed sardonically. "He wanted to obtain Samantha Carter as a Replicator. He succeeded."
Over where he was keeping out of the way, Jack snorted despite himself.
Sam went over to the main display. A map of the galaxy filled the screen, arrayed with annotated icons. There were three primary clusters in different regions, each representing a supergate surrounded by ships.
"Each beachhead is in orbit around an artificially created black hole," Replicarter said, pointing at the display. "Mothership pairs have already secured nearby gateworlds here, here, and here. These worlds here by the second beachhead are the only ones my forces have successfully denied them." She pointed at a far more numerous scattering of dots. "These are the worlds where Priors have cowed the natives into worship."
"How current is this?" Sam asked.
"It will update in real time until the datablock leaves my presence," Replicarter told her. "Obviously some of it is estimated based on last known position. I don't have sensor drones everywhere."
"Thank god for that," Jack muttered under his breath.
"What're these?" Sam asked, pointing at another band of dots.
"Scorched worlds," Replicarter replied bluntly. "Worlds visited by the Fae, that tried to fight back. There may very well be converted-Fae survivors, but I can assure you nothing else was left alive on those worlds after a solitary Prior decided they could not be swayed."
Sam scrolled the map, zoomed in on the closest beachhead, then went digging into the other data. "How much do you have on Ori ship specifications? Wait... have there been any battles between Ori ships and Fae ships?"
"Not to my knowledge," Replicarter said. "However, Ori forces around the third beachhead have suffered unaccounted losses. That could have been Fae, but it is just as likely not. The Fae appear to be systematically spreading in a radius around Earth, and don't appear to have ventured that far, yet."
Sam kept quiet, because she had a good guess about those losses and it wasn't the Fae. That was Childan territory. If Replicarter wasn't bluffing, she still had no idea that the TSAB existed.
"Unfortunately, the Fae don't exactly keep us up to date anymore," Sam sighed. "Or take our calls."
Replicarter began to reply, but the sounds of the stargate activating from around the corner made her pause and glance over curiously. "Expecting a checkin?"
Jack gave Sam a meaningful look, like he didn't want to leave Sam alone with her double. Sam glanced down at where she had Unraveler Exalt concealed and leaned towards the computer setup. Jack pouted. Sam quirked a reassuring smile. Jack glanced pointedly at Sam's rear end, then looked her in the eyes. Sam nodded.
Jack strolled out of the lab at the sound of the stargate kawoosh, calling, "Daniel..."
"Well," Sam said, returning to the map of the galaxy. "I think this beachhead is the most - "
Replicarter moved like lightning. Her hand shot out, fingers extending as thin silver tendrils that whipped towards Sam's head... and bounced off, with a flare of blue light. Sam recoiled, registering the genuinely stunned look on her double's face as she crossed half the room in a single leap.
Sam gathered herself in a defensive stance as her fake fatigues and tac vest began to glow and her Device intoned, BARRIER JACKET: EXALT MODE.
"I don't know, Jack," Daniel sighed. "I'm getting audio, but its so garbled I can't even tell if it's language, let alone what language."
"So, what, its a wrong number?" Jack wondered.
Suddenly, a distortion rippled through the air, and Jack flinched as Daniel went transparent for a moment before snapping back to normal. The stargate shut down.
Jack stared at Daniel for half a second before cursing and bolting back into the lab. It was empty. No sign of Carter or her duplicate. Daniel rushed in on Jack's heels.
"...crap," Daniel summed up.
"The plan," Jack said, shooing Daniel back the other way. "Dial the gate and set the self-destruct, let's go!"
PHASE SHIFT MAPPED. EXCLUSION BARRIER DEPLOYED, Unraveler Exalt reported.
Sam parried a slash, sending Replicarter's blade arm gouging into concrete. The sky blue counter-rotating MidChildan Magic Circle faded from under her feet as Sam slid around a kick towards the lab door.
Replicarter didn't pursue her. She hissed. "The link's gone! Do you have any idea what you've done?! Without my guidance, the rest of the swarm..."
"Save it," Sam cut in. "What were you trying to do?"
"I knew you had to have something," Replicarter said, now more wondering than angry. "I wasn't prepared for this. You... you did it, didn't you. You cracked magic."
"I wouldn't say that," Sam replied. "What was your plan?"
"To replace you," Replicarter told her. "I needed your recent memories if I was to have any hope of deceiving Jack and Daniel."
"You had to know it never would have worked," Sam said. "You would have been found out within seconds of stepping through the 'gate."
"Probably, yes," Replicarter agreed, but she didn't elaborate.
Silver tentacles tipped with sickle blades sprouted from her shoulders, elbows, and hips. She casually upended a table full of lab equipment and hurled it at Sam. Sam whipped her Device up as a Circle snapped into place under her.
A blue containment ring drew itself at the end of Unraveler Exalt. GRAVITY SPEAR.
Several hundred pounds of glass, steel, and formica crumpled around the beam of blue light that was Sam's spell, folding back on itself as it halted halfway through its arc. Before the crushed mass could even begin to fall, Replicarter slid under it and twisted back to her feet, slamming one of her sickle blades into Sam's gut with enough force to punch a hole in solid steel.
Sam doubled over as the air rushed out of her lungs, but the blade didn't penetrate her Barrier Jacket. Sam lurched up, headbutting Replicarter's chin. It felt like smashing her head into metal, but Replicarter staggered back. Dizzily lamenting how poorly her affinity lent itself to the standard Barrier Jacket algorithms, Sam aimed her Device.
Three hollow blue orbs enclosing a crackling haze surrounding a black pinprick formed at Unraveler Exalt's end. PIERCING POINT.
Replicarter swept Sam's arm aside, and the shooting spells went wide, drilling holes straight through the walls and surrounding mountain. Sam caught a sickle jab and pulled down hard, smashing Replicarter's face into her knee and then rolling back to back over Replicarter's bent form to regain some distance.
A ripple of silver restored Replicarter to a pristine state.
A sky blue Circle snapped into being under Sam's feet.
MOBIUS BIND, Unraveler Exalt announced.
Space distorted around Replicarter as ribbons of blue light bound her limbs. She... oozed through the restraints like liquid metal and another ripple of silver shed the distortions as it restored her.
Okay, that was dumb. Blows to the head, not good for tactical competence. Sam opened a telepathic link with Daniel. Daniel! How much time?
Oh thank gods, Sam, I couldn't get through! I don't know how to telepath at someone in one of your Barriers, Daniel exclaimed. The gate's open to the Alpha Site. We've only got twenty seconds!
Replicarter stalked forward, sickle bladed tentacles writhing. Sam summoned up all of her desperation and determination, threw herself backwards, and slammed a vertical Circle into the doorframe. Lines of light cut into the concrete and Replicarter bounced off.
Sam dashed into the gateroom, wincing with every blow Replicarter landed on her shield.
"Barrier break!" Sam commanded.
REALIGNING DIMENSIONAL PHASE, Unraveler Exalt reported. BARRIER BREAK.
A wave of color shift and...
"...ten seconds!" Daniel exclaimed.
Sam leaped, tackling Jack and Daniel into the wormhole as Replicarter sprinted towards them. At the last second before Sam passed through the event horizon, she threw up another vertical Circle as close to the puddle as she could get it. Replicarter slammed into the shield as Sam passed into the stargate.
Sam had never been more grateful for the apparently magical feature of stargates that allowed her to remain conscious while her body was in the matter stream, because that meant her effort wasn't interrupted and she could force that Circle to keep existing.
The three of them tumbled out of the Alpha Site stargate in a heap. The stargate shut off and Jack groaned in the ensuing silence. Sam wasn't feeling much better. Her fight with Replicarter had been short, but brutal, and she was feeling mentally exhausted in a way she didn't usually associate with combat.
"Okay, ow," Daniel contributed.
Jack picked himself up, waving off the airman who offered help. "Everybody in one piece?"
"More or less, sir," Sam managed, releasing her Barrier Jacket.
"Did you get the thing?" Jack asked.
"No," Sam said, "but Unraveler Exalt has a clean copy of the data."
Jack grinned at her. "Nice."
And then Daniel vanished in a transporter flash.
Jack facepalmed.
Daniel stumbled, suddenly finding himself surrounded by suspicious grey walls.
"It was a good try," said Sam's voice, making Daniel spin around and back up sharply. "Unfortunately for you, I'm very hard to kill."
"...how?"
"For a little while I was worried," Replicarter said. "Your Samantha pulled me out of phase and disrupted my connection to the rest of the swarm, but she had to free me to free herself."
"Not what I meant..."
Replicarter smirked. "I planted a beacon on you early on, and it should be obvious how I knew where to find the Alpha Site."
"Oh...kay," Daniel said, backing up until he hit the wall. "What do you want?"
"You have knowledge, buried deep in your subconscious, or perhaps a lingering connection since you've regained some magical ability," Replicarter explained. "There's a secret, known only to the Ascended, and you're going to help me find it."
Daniel winced. "This is gonna be a, a hand-in-the-head thing, isn't it."
"My first intention was infiltration and stealth, but since that has failed, it seems I will be using a more direct approach," Replicarter replied.
Silver tendrils slithered into Daniel's skull.
"The Fae are an abomination of godless anarchy. Their mere existence is the worst kind of blasphemy."
"Agreed."
"Worlds touched by their taint must be purged, for the glory of the gods."
"Hallowed are the Ori."
"Hallowed are the Ori!"
"Um, guys?" Willow-icos spoke up. "We've got a problem. A big problem."
(Yaaaay. Tara! Oh nooooooes. Cliffhanger. We're in the home stretch, my arbitrarily-loyal readers! There will be exactly two more chapters, and likely an epilogue and/or non-canon omakes after that, but... yeah. Final arc! Woo!)