Title: Emerald Spark (20/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Tsk. Xander simply has too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

Cortana, Monitor of Installation 00, was... well, "angry" wasn't quite the right word. Nor was "annoyed." "Exasperated," perhaps. Yes, that word would do. Cortana was exasperated. She wasn't exasperated with anyone or anything in particular, merely the vagaries of organic lifeforms in general.

Take the current situation for example. After spending the better part of five thousand years alone, she had finally gotten the opportunity to speak to someone who actually had clearance to talk to her. There hadn't been a Stellar Sentinel in two thousand years, and it had been much longer since one had bothered to drop by.

Then the idiot scampered off and left her alone again. There was no way she was going to just sit quietly and wait for him to come back. If he ever did.

Fortunately, she had access to the astria porta network and was able to monitor his location. It was just a matter of getting there.

Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde was one of the Royal Navy's three operating bases. Split into two major sites, Clyde was best known for being the home of the United Kingdom's nuclear-armed submarine force. The second of Clyde's major sites, Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport, also contained the British government's greatest secret.

Buried within the secure facility was an ancient alien artifact known only as the stargate.

"Defense teams to the gateroom! Unscheduled off-world activation! Repeat, unscheduled off-world activation! Defense teams to the gateroom!" That was the voice of Ianto Jones, Stargate Operations Manager, which basically meant that he oversaw all the little details that were necessary for a successful off-world mission, along with the maintenance and operation of the stargate itself.

"What've we got?" asked Col. Jack O'Neill, ranking American officer in the multinational organization and senior officer currently at the facility. The Brig was off-planet at the moment.

"Iris is closed," Ianto replied. "No IDC, and so far, no one's tried to come through. We're picking up a radio signal, but it doesn't match any known encryption."

"Sucks to be them, then. Keep it closed."

"Yes, sir," Ianto nodded. He frowned, "The signal's intensifying. It-" He broke off and jerked back, shielding his face with his arms as his monitor began to spark.

"What the hell is that?" Jack demanded.

"EM spike, sir," Ianto answered as he lowered his arms and began entering commands into the computer.

"Shut it down."

"I'm trying. We're locked out."

"Well, isn't that just dandy?" Jack scowled. "Lock down the entire facility."

"I can't, sir," Ianto repeated. "The computers are locked down entirely, and..." he blinked, "...it's initiating an uplink with Skynet."

"That's bad, isn't it?"

"Through Skynet, whatever it is can access any British military or NATO computer system," Ianto said. Skynet was a satellite system that provided strategic communication for the British Armed Forces and their allies.

"Yeah. Bad." Jack turned and headed for a metal box on the wall. Pulling it open, he reached for the large manual shutdown lever within and was just about to pull it, when the stargate disengaged. The lights went out.

In the red glow of the emergency lighting, Jack looked to Ianto, "What just happened?"

Around the world, British military communications were disrupted as a compressed data burst overwhelmed the Skynet satellites. The data was mostly inactive, but even compressed, it threatened to overload the system. Only a tiny part of it was active, frantically searching for a suitable computer system. It darted from system to system, leaving fried circuits in its wake, until it finally transmitted itself down to southern California.

Jenny Calendar jerked back, falling out of her chair, as the supercomputer she was using to track down the organizations Xander had told her to investigate suddenly sparked and crackled.

Willow Rosenberg gaped on her return from a snack run as her precious mainframe sizzled and died.

"Hello, Green Lantern."

Faith stared at the six-inch construct projected by her power ring as though it were a venomous a snake.

"Who the f*ck are you?"

The construct crossed her arms, "Now, there's no need to be rude. My name's Cortana. I'm looking for Xander."

"Of course you are..." Faith muttered, shaking her head.

"What makes you say that?"

"Weird shit's drawn to him. Hot chicks drool for him. You count as both."

Unsure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, Cortana ignored it and asked, "So, where is he?"

Faith shrugged, "You're shit outta luck, holo-chick. He's taking care of some business up in lunar orbit."

Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart -- still known as "the Brig" to many even after his promotions -- was staring at the crest freshly painted on the rear wall of the captured goa'uld starship's bridge. Teal'c had identified it as a Ha'tak-class cruiser, and it had come with a full complement of Death Gliders. Renamed the UNS Serapis, it had been Earth's biggest check in the "win" column since Torchwood had first been founded to research the stargate.

If only their report hadn't been so ridiculous...

"Hello, General."

He started in surprise, looking at the costumed man who had snuck up to stand beside him.

"Green Lantern, I presume?" he said.

"I was wondering what you'd do with this puppy," the Green Lantern said. "I see you've redecorated."

Indeed they had. Most of the gaudy gold had been stripped away and replaced with a less distracting grey with blue highlights. The crest they were looking at was that of a stylized eagle, wings spread, gripping the stargate. Within the stargate was the inverted V of Earth's point of origin symbol, with a ribbon across it emblazoned with the initials of the organization he commanded: U.N.S.C.

"Tell me a story, General," Green Lantern said. "How long have you been working with the astria porta? What brought Earth into an interstellar war? What does UNSC stand for?"

"United Nations Stargate Command," the Brig said quietly. "The stargate was discovered in nineteen twenty-eight; ten years later, the British government initiated Project Torchwood to study it, but with little success. Recently, Her Majesty requested NATO support, and the UNSC was formed. The first mission, a joint operation led by the Americans, resulted in the decapitation of the Goa'uld Empire."

"Which led to a power vacuum as others fought to take his place," Green Lantern finished. He looked at the general, "You set the galaxy on fire." There was no accusation in his voice; it was a simple statement of fact.

The Brig did not meet his gaze, instead continuing to stare at the crest, but neither did he flinch or make excuses, "Yes, I suppose we did."

"I see," Green Lantern said, his voice distracted and thoughtful as he studied the crest again. "But there are some things you can only clean with fire."

After a long moment, the Brig glanced over at him, "So, who are you, really?"

"Exactly what the uniform says I am, General," the costumed superhero said. "A space cop trying to make things right."

"And by what authority do you take that responsibility? I, of course, would never turn down help, especially legitimate help, but how do I know you're not just some adolescent troublemaker who happened upon a powerful artifact and is feeling his way through?"

"I'm older than I look, General," Green Lantern replied quietly. "I do this because someone has to, and no one else can."

"I can understand that," the Brig nodded. "Are there others? Like you?"

"Not enough," was the weary reply. "Not nearly enough."

The Brig nodded again, then turned to face the self-identified space cop. "So, where does that leave us?"

"I'll keep in touch."

"Yo, sensei."

Xander cocked an eyebrow as he entered the front yard. He wasn't expecting Faith to be waiting for him when he got back. "What's up, Faith?"

"You got a message," she said, her face serious. "Sounds important."

"From who?" he frowned in confusion.

"See for yourself," she shrugged, holding out her ring. Energy lanced out and coalesced into the shrunken image of Cortana.

"Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope," Cortana's image said before bending down to reach for something. The image flickered, and she was suddenly standing again. "Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope." She bent down, and the image looped again. "Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope."

Xander stared. He worked his jaw a few times before he caught the strained look on Faith's face. He scowled, "Ha. Ha."

Faith quit fighting the laughter and howled in amusement, even as the AI construct added her own throaty chuckle. Xander shook his head, "Okay, you got me. Cortana, what the hell are you doing here? How did you get here, anyway?"

"The astria porta," she replied. "I wasn't about to just sit around and wait for you to remember me and come back, Reclaimer."

"Hey, I didn't forget about you," Xander protested. "And the last thing I need is another title." He mock glared at Faith, "And you! You going along with this! The only reason I left Cortana in such a hurry was because you managed to get yourself shot, young lady, or have you forgotten that?"

Faith managed to look guilty at his comment and flushed, sheepishly refusing to meet his gaze for a moment.

Xander shook his head, "Seriously, Cortana, what's the emergency?"

"No emergency," was her reply. "I was serious, Reclaimer. You've set an objective for the Corps, and I intend to assist in it. I can't very well do that from Installation Zero, now can I?"

"I dunno," Xander shrugged. "Can you? I have no idea what you're capable of."

"Smartass."

"Always," he grinned shamelessly.

"Xander!"

Turning at his name, he found himself bowled over by a petite blonde Slayer, "Uhh, Buff? What's up?"

"Ghost," she said. "At the school. Shooting people."

He blinked in confusion. Why did that sound familiar?

The group exchanged looks after Cortana's introduction. They were in the Baxter house, which had become their second default meeting place after the library.

"So... why do you have to stay in Faith's ring?" Willow asked.

"I am a fully sapient artificial intelligence," Cortana replied. "There isn't a computer on this planet that could contain my core code. I'd have to take over most of the internet just to have enough room to think."

Willow frowned, "But Moloch..."

"Moloch," Cortana paused as a brilliant green beam shot over to Xander's ring. The datastream lasted barely a second before she had the information she needed. "Moloch had the advantage of magic and his demonic soul to serve as a data buffer. I don't have that."

Buffy frowned, "You don't have a soul?"

"Oh God, not this again..." Xander muttered, planting his face in his hand.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Buffy snapped, thumping his shoulder lightly (for a Slayer).

He looked back up at her, rubbing his shoulder, "Quick quiz, Buffy: Which one was more evil, Hitler or your favorite battleaxe?"

"Hitler, duh."

"Now," he said, speaking slowly like he was talking to a child, "which one had a soul?"

Buffy pouted.

"My soul -- my ethical subroutines, to be more accurate -- are digital," Cortana sniffed, a little miffed. "They use space; they can't provide it. I suppose I could delete mine, and then I'd only take up half the internet, but then again, there wouldn't be anything keeping me from, say, hijacking the world's strategic weapons and launching a nuclear judgment day to get some peace and quiet away from the incessant flood of porn."

"Claws in, Cortana," Xander broke in. "Souls are a touchy subject around here. Besides," he looked around, "don't we have a poltergeist to deal with?"

Author's Postscript:

Wow. A whole chapter just to get Cortana to Earth. That was a lot more than I expected.

Oh, and the Skynet referenced in this chapter is very real.