Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 and all related concepts are the property of MGM, while the character of Spike belongs to Joss Whedon and James Marsters, among other people (Also, the original idea for this story came from Jedi Buttercup's 'An Unexpected Gift', so I don't own it either, although I have put my own spin on things, and have been given his full permission to use his idea)
Feedback: I'd appreciate it, of course
The Ghost in the Team
"OK, so hold on a minute here; you're telling me you managed to hurt Adria?" Vala asked, looking incredulously at Spike a few hours later as they all stood in the briefing room of the SGC, Spike's amulet in Daniel's pocket once again. After the Odyssey had disengaged the hyperdrive, SG-1 had beamed down to the nearest planet to alert the SGC to the loss of both Dakara and Spike- they'd only realised that he hadn't been with them after they'd managed to escape the Ori ship-, and had all been shocked to learn that not only had Spike survived, but he'd actually managed to defeat Adria and save Dakara.
"Well, y'know, when the other bugger can't hit you but you can hit them when you focus enough, it's simple enough to kick some telekinetic demi-god arse," Spike replied, shrugging casually back at Vala with a smile on his face as he saw her evident approval of his actions (And when had her opinion started to matter to him). "Just needed to focus on how much I wanted to wipe that smug, 'I'm the offspring of a God and can do anything I want' smirk off her face, and bingo; I can make contact."
"Just like Sam predicted you could, eh?" Mitchell put in, smiling over at their vampiric teammate. "Bit of focus, and bam; it's like you still have a body, huh?"
Staring wistfully down at his fist for a moment, Spike shook his head.
"Not quite; bit harder to focus like than you'd think," he said, shrugging slightly as he looked back up at his new friend (And he still couldn't believe how easily he'd started thinking of these guys as friends; he was an even bigger freak here than he was among the Scoobies, and they still had no problems with him being what he was, although he freely admitted that the fact that he'd never tried to kill them probably helped him there). "Think the only reason I managed to land so many blows was the fact that I knew specifically what she'd do if I let her do what she was planning to do; got the impression that it wouldn't have been that simple if I just had a vague idea what she was capable of."
"Oh," Vala said, looking slightly disappointed as she looked at Spike. "So… you couldn't say, maintain a solid form for anything that didn't involve fighting…?"
Spike shook his head.
"Unlikely; hard enough just maintaining contact for that," he said apologetically, as he studied his fists, trying not to let his mind think too much about why that fact made him feel particularly depressed when all he was doing was looking at the dark-haired alien ex-thief. "I mean, I could probably pick stuff up, but don't ask me to carry anything for more than a few seconds; I'd probably drop it."
"Indeed," Teal'c said, before he glanced over at Sam. "Does this match your predictions of Spike's abilities to physically manipulate the world around him despite his non-corporeal status, Colonel Carter?"
"Well… essentially, yes," Sam said, nodding as she looked slightly apologetically at Spike. "You have to take into account, Spike, you're willing your body to violate pretty much everything we thought we knew about artificially-induced intangibility; normally matter in your condition shouldn't make any kind of impact on the world around it, yet you already generate body heat and brain activity without even trying. Forcing your body to even assume a corporeal status long enough to punch an opponent must be surprisingly draining; quite frankly, I'm impressed you were able to maintain your focus long enough to convince Adria to stop her attempt to attack Dakara."
"Well, her own ego might have helped him on that front as well," Daniel added, looking briefly at Valal before he looked over at Sam and Spike. "After all, from what Vala and I learned while talking to her, Adria's absolutely convinced of her own divine status; it's possible that the fact that Spike was able to hurt her at all was such a shock to her that she didn't really feel like putting up much of a resistance in the first place."
"Oh, way to make me feel better about myself, mate…" Spike groaned, before the door opened, admitting General Landry and ending any further conversation for the moment. As the members of SG-1 took their seats around the conference table- Spike naturally continuing to stand to avoid falling through the seat-, Landry took his position at the head of the table and smiled gratefully at the group around him.
"Firstly," he said, turning to look specifically at Spike as he spoke, "I would like to make it clear that, while the IOA are still opposed to the idea of you gaining full membership of an SG team so soon after… arriving… at the SGC, your recent actions in the defence of the Jaffa High Council and the Dakara superweapon have resulted in us winning back a great deal of trust from the Jaffa that some members were beginning to doubt we deserved, to say nothing of granting us an opportunity to take an in-depth look at Ori technology that we would not have had if you had not been present."
Spike shrugged.
"No bother, your Generalness; always happy to help," he said casually; he wasn't going to call the man before him 'Sir' or anything poncy like that, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to show some kind of respect to the guy after he'd let Spike stick around here despite his somewhat 'dodgy' background.
"Good," Landry said, nodding briefly at Spike before he turned to look over at Sam and Daniel. "Which brings me back to my second point; since we now have access to the Ori battlecruiser, you two are to report to Dakara as soon as possible to take an in-depth look at their technology. As the resident experts on both fields, the Jaffa High Council has agreed that permitting you to collaborate with them will provide our research into finding any potential weaknesses will provide us with the best chance of success-"
"Hold on; permitting them?" Spike interjected, looking incredulously over at the general. "We saved- hell, I saved; only one who could've pulled it off after that whole mess with them firing that bloody weapon at us- their sodding arses by taking out that ship, and they're actually saying that we're only permitted to send a couple of geniuses over to look at the sodding thing? I'm the only reason it's even there, for God's-"
"And this is why you weren't appointing to SG-9; you're good in a fight, but you're definitely not a very diplomatic guy," Mitchell commented, smiling slightly over at Spike, who simply stared back at him in a frustrated manner before he looked back at Landry. "What about the rest of us, sir?"
"For the moment, you're expected to do nothing but wait," Landry responded, looking briefly over at Mitchell before turning to look at Spike and Teal'c with a slight smile. "However, you two have been given an invitation to accompany Doctor Jackson and Colonel Carter to Dakara if you wish; apparently the Jaffa High Council are very interested in offering their personal congratulations to the Hero of Dakara."
Spike blinked.
"Hold on a minute; the bosses want to congratulate me personally?" he said, staring incredulously at Landry. "But… well, didn't they do that already?"
"As I understand it, they're more interested in an official congratulations this time around; after you saved them all, Bra'tac convinced Se'tak that a public recognition of our role in saving Dakara would go a long way towards re-establishing the bonds between us," Landry explained, as he looked at Spike. "Teal'c will, of course, accompany you to ensure that you don't unintentionally do anything to offend them during the meeting, and will naturally be entrusted with the amulet."
"Uh… fair enough," Spike admitted after a moment's reflection. He wasn't exactly wild about having somebody coming along just to keep an eye on him, of course- he was over a hundred and twenty years old, for crying out loud; he wasn't some stupid fledgling who barely knew his place in the pecking order-, but given that he was getting into a totally new situation right now, he supposed that it would only be sensible for him to have a 'native guide' to make sure he didn't screw anything up by accident.
"Excellent," Landry said, nodding at Spike and Teal'c before he turned to look over at Mitchell and Vala. "Well, that just leaves you two with nothing immediate to do; I hope that's not going to be an issue."
"Oh, no problem at all," Vala assured him, smiling casually at the general before she looked over at Mitchell. "So, now that we have some free time, do you have any preferences for our extra-curricular activities?"
Swallowing slightly, Mitchell glanced over at the other members of the team as though asking for assistance, but was met only with slightly sympathetic smiles as they stood up (Although he did notice Spike's gaze lingering on Vala for a moment in a manner that Mitchell found particularly interesting) and walked out of the briefing room, followed closely by General Landry.
After a moment's uncertain silence, Mitchell sighed and looked over inquiringly at Vala.
"So," he said, smiling in a somewhat uncertain manner, as though he wasn't sure how she was going to react to what he was about to say, "given that we've not got anything that needs attending to right now… care to get out of here and stretch your legs for a bit?"
"Oh, you mean like a date?" Vala asked, smiling at him in that manner that had always reminded Mitchell of a hungry cat studying its prey before it pounced (The same look that she used to have when looking at Daniel). "That could be fun…"
Mitchell groaned slightly as he looked up at the ceiling.
Why was it that this kind of thing was always funnier when it was happening to one of your friends rather than when it was happening to you?
As Spike stood in front of the Stargate a couple of hours later, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c standing around him- Sam and Daniel were in the traditional combat fatigues while Teal'c was wearing some kind of armour that reminded Spike of what the Jaffa had been wearing earlier-, he was unable to stop himself from feeling a certain satisfaction at going on his second trip through this thing in only a matter of days, particularly when he considered the reason why he was going through in the first place.
Who'd have thought it? he mused to himself, as the Stargate's inner ring began to spin and the 'chevrons' around it began to light up. Barely a week on this team, and I've already got myself a pretty decent rep…
As the Stargate activated- the now-familiar 'kawoosh' effect of water apparently exploding outwards taking place as the wormhole was established-, Spike swallowed slightly and turned to look at Daniel, who had agreed to take the amulet through the Stargate before handing it over to Teal'c.
"Well," the former would-be poet said, shrugging slightly as he looked at Daniel in a foolish attempt to appear nonchalant; this part of the whole gate travel thing wasn't something he particularly liked, but it was the only way to be sure that he and the amulet wouldn't accidentally suddenly have several billion miles between them. As Daniel, Sam and Teal'c walked up towards the Stargate, Spike took a deep breath, literally stepped into Daniel's body, and then, after the momentary disorientation that always seemed to happen when they went through the Stargate, found himself standing back on Dakara.
"Damn…" he muttered as he stepped out of Daniel, glancing back over at the archaeologist as he flexed his shoulders. "Y'know, the intangibility schtick may be cool, but if I ever needed a reason to get my sodding body back, it's to not have to do that every time I want to go through the gate."
"Tell me about it; do you think I like having to have somebody else in my head any longer than I have to?" Daniel retorted, before he shook his head and turned his attention back to the temple before them. Fortunately, most of the Jaffa had agreed to congregate around the temple of Dakara itself in order to properly thanks Spike for his actions in their defence, so there were only a few Jaffa currently standing in front of the gate, all of them those that were already aware of the intangible vampire's true nature. These, of course, included Se'tak and Bra'tac', the latter of which smiled gratefully upon seeing who had accompanied Spike for this task.
"Teal'c," he said, smiling warmly at his old pupil as he stepped forward to clasp the younger Jaffa's hand. "It is good to see you, my friend."
"And the same to you," Teal'c responded, inclining his head slightly at his former teacher, speaking in a lower voice to avoid attracting Se'tak's attention. "I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your willingness to defend the Tau'ri against the high council in recent times; it is always good to know that we possess at least one ally here on Dakara."
"You are welcome," Bra'tac replied, before he turned to look at the others. "Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson; it is good to see you both again."
"The same to you, Bra'tac," Daniel replied, as he and Sam nodded slightly at their second Jaffa ally before he turned to look at Se'tak. "So… where's the Ori battlecruiser?"
"At present the cruiser remains in orbit," Se'tak replied simply. "We have yet to determine the necessary steps involved in controlling it successfully enough to land it without risking damage. We have identified which system control the life support systems and managed to organise our research into the ship's technology to ignore anything relating to those circuits, but that aside our attempts to learn anything new about the technology have progressed little; any… assistance… you can provide would be appreciated."
Daniel and Sam simply nodded in response to his comment, both grateful that the Jaffa leader didn't seem to be holding on to any trace of his old 'anti-Tau'ri' attitude that had driven him to use the Dakara superweapon in the first place.
"Well," Daniel said, as he looked hopefully at Se'tak, "if you could just direct us to… however we're getting onto the battlecruiser… we'll get down to business."
"Agreed," Se'tak said, nodding briefly at them before he glanced back over at Teal'c, Bra'tac, and Spike. "The three of you may travel to the temple; our people are anxious to meet the man who saved Dakara for us. I shall join you once Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter are aboard the Ori battlecruiser, and then business can begin."
"Of course," Bra'tac said, nodding briefly at his fellow council member before he turned back to Spike and Teal'c. "Come, my friends; we must not keep the council waiting."
"Teal'c?" Daniel called over to his friend just as the Jaffa had turned to leave, reaching into his pocket to pull out the amulet. "Don't forget this."
Glancing back, Teal'c smiled in a slightly amused manner as he realised that he had almost forgotten the one thing required for Spike's presence to be guaranteed at the conference, raising one hand to catch the amulet as Daniel tossed it over to him.
"Hey, watch it!" Spike yelled over at the archaeologist as Teal'c tucked the amulet into a pocket on the side of his Jaffa armour. "I happen to need that thing, you know!"
"Spike," Sam said, shaking her head slightly as she looked over at him, "we've already determined that it's practically indestructible unless you release a phenomenal amount of energy on it; do you really think it's going to break because we're throwing it about?"
"Well… it might," Spike protested weakly, before he shook his head and turned back to the two Jaffa before him. "Anyway, let's do this."
With that, he walked off in the direction of the temple, Teal'c and Bra'tac swiftly catching up and walking alongside him while Sam, Daniel and Se'tak headed off in another direction.
"If I may ask," Bra'tac asked after a moment's walking, looking inquiringly at Spike, "why do you require the amulet that Daniel Jackson threw over to us?"
For a moment Spike paused uncertainly and glanced over at Teal'c- they'd agreed before leaving not to let anybody know the full details about Spike's status unless they were confident that the people in question could be trusted-, but the Jaffa's confirming nod was all Spike needed to know that the man currently asking the question could be trusted.
"Long story short?" he said, glancing back at Bra'tac as he spoke. "I'm somehow bonded to that thing in some technical way I don't really get; I move too far away from it, and it's like I'm on some massive rubber band?"
"Some massive… what?" Bra'tac asked, looking in confusion at Spike.
"Spike means that, should he move further than a certain distance away from the amulet in any direction, he shall instantly be returned to it the moment he exceeds that distance," Teal'c explained. "We have attempted to determine the cause of this bond and the exact limits that Spike is able to travel from the amulet as a result, but so far we have no more specific idea than around a mile or so in any direction."
"I see…" Bra'tac said, nodding thoughtfully as he studied the pocket currently holding the amulet before he looked back at Spike. "Am I to assume that the amulet is connected to the reason for your currently… intangible status?"
Spike shrugged casually.
"Was wearing it when the damn thing was used to channel a nigh-on-phenomenal amount of energy to take out this ancient sucker back on Earth," he said, trying to stick to the original decision to give the Jaffa everything they asked for without giving them the full picture; it would take too long to explain everything about demons right now, and they didn't really have the time to waste on issues like that. "Thing vaporised me at the time, and when it got sent to the SGC…"
He waved a hand through Teal'c's staff weapon by way of demonstration. "Sodding thing activated and I came out of it like this."
"I… see," Bra'tac said, looking at Spike in an inquiring manner for a few moments before he smiled slightly. "Well, as strange as your tale may be, I can assure you that all at the council are grateful for your role in recent events. Had we lost Dakara, there is little doubt that many of our brothers would have perceived it as a divine punishment for attempting to defy the Ori, and we would have become divided once again. You have done us a great service, Spike of the Tau'ri."
Spike shrugged nonchalantly at the comment, trying not to look too smug at the praise the master Jaffa was giving him; he had a feeling he'd be getting a decent amount of it once they reached their destination, so he'd better get some practice in now to take it well so that he didn't end up making an ass of himself later.
"Eh, it was nothing," he said, trying to sound like he saved civilisations every day of the week (It wasn't like stopping alien ships was that different from stopping people from opening hellmouths, right?) "Just did what anybody would have done-"
He quickly stopped himself from completing the sentence; tact may not have been his strong point, but even he knew that mentioning the weapon again wouldn't have been a particularly smart move on his part. "Never mind."
"Quite," Bra'tac said, before he turned his attention back to the temple before them; Spike had been so busy talking to the others he'd missed the fact that they'd made it all the way up the steps to what looked like a corridor into the main part of the building. "At the end of this corridor are the current members of the Council for the Free Jaffa Nation, all of whom are most anxious to meet you."
"Well then," Spike said, smiling slightly at Bra'tac before his attention returned to study the door before him, "let's get in and meet 'em, shall we?"
Nodding in agreement with his new teammate, Teal'c led the way down the corridor, Spike and Bra'tac directly behind him until they finally reached a door that led into a decently-sized room with a large table inside it. Apart from a slight gap in one side of the table that seemed to be intended to allow somebody to stand in the centre of the seats around the table, the table was almost a complete circle, with various seats around it, all but three of them currently occupied by a Jaffa dressed in similar robes to those worn by Teal'c and Bra'tac. Spike guessed- correctly, as it turned out- that two of the currently-unoccupied seats were intended for his two new associates- it was still too early to think of SG-1 as 'friends', particularly after all the time he'd spent with the 'Scoobies'-, and the third seat was intended for that Se'tak guy.
"We going to wait for the other guy?" he asked, indicating one of the empty seats as he glanced over at Teal'c.
"Se'tak is a prominent individual within the Jaffa High Council; it is only fitting that we wait for him to return from showing Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson to the Ori ship," Bra'tac said simply as he glanced over at the vampire (With, Spike was pleased to note, a slightly distasteful expression on his face; evidently he didn't like waiting for the guy who'd nearly killed Spike's new team any more than Spike did). "Teal'c and I shall take our seats; you, however, must wait outside the centre of the table until Se'tak arrives, at which point you may enter the centre of the conference so that we may discuss what you did."
"Discuss?" Spike repeated, looking in confusion at Bra'tac. "What's there to discuss?"
"Your motives for your actions," Bra'tac said briefly, before he and Teal'c headed for their seats, leaving Spike to stare at where they'd been standing.
After all that he'd done in taking out that ship- saving the planet, giving them access to the bad guys' tech, showing their foes that they weren't the top of the pecking order any more-, these buggers still wanted to question his motives for doing it? Why did people have to obsess over that kind of crap so much; did it really matter why he didn't want worlds to end?
God… if it wasn't Buffy wondering why he didn't want Angelus to wake Alcathla up, it was this…
Spike blinked.
He'd just realised that was almost the first time he'd really thought about Buffy since he'd sat in on that meeting about that dumb 'Wormhole X-Treme' movie thing. He hadn't forgotten her or the others, of course; it was just that, ever since he'd learned the scale of the threat his new associates had to deal with, coupled with the fact that he wasn't going to go anywhere unless they mailed the amulet to wherever Buffy was (And that would probably just be way too complicated; how would he manage to stay close enough to the thing not to get painfully yanked around without anybody noticing him?), he'd pretty much pushed her aside to focus on his new life.
His new life…
Is this what my life's going to be now? Spike mused to himself as he looked around the room that he was now standing in, several billion miles away from everything he knew back on Earth, on a planet whose existence he hadn't even known about a few days before now. Fighting omnipotent aliens as a sodding ghost-vampire thing?
Unless they figured out a way to make him solid again, it probably was.
And the weirdest thing was… Spike was actually kind of looking forward to it. After all, he really wasn't entirely sure about returning to the Scoobies after going out in that kind of blaze of glory; it wasn't like he'd known he'd come back, of course, but he wouldn't it past the one-eyed man to claim that he had known about it to try and make him look bad.
Besides…
Spike sighed.
The fact of the matter was that, back in Sunnydale, he'd always kind of felt like he was living in Captain Forehead's shadow, even if it wasn't intentional. He almost hated to admit it, but Angel had made a kind of decent point back during that thing with the Coalition for sodding Purity; everything Spike had ever really done in his unlife, either Angelus or Angel had done it first and done it better.
Here on SG-1, however?
Wasn't a problem; none of these guys had even heard of Angel before Spike showed up. He could finally be his own person for once, without anyone either trying to make him fit an old role, or making him feel like he was just taking somebody else's place, and this time he didn't even need to worry about his old weaknesses causing a bit of a handicap when things got ugly.
OK, so he had an entirely new set of weaknesses to worry about now that he wasn't really solid and bonded to that sodding amulet; what silver lining didn't have its cloud? The lack of the sunlight weakness definitely helped, and at least he almost certainly wouldn't have to deal with crucifixes or stakes in this line of work…
A polite yet clearly impatient cough from off to the side attracted Spike's attention back to the table, and he realised- much to his frustration- that Se'tak had arrived while he'd been lost in thought; getting sloppy wouldn't win him many points with a warrior group like these guys seemed to be.
"Sorry; thinking about things," he said briefly, before he strode forward to stand in the middle of the circular table before him, subsequently folding his arms as he turned to stare directly at Se'tak. "Now then, got anything specific you want to ask, or is this just a general questioning?"
"We simply wish to know your reasons for acting to save Dakara," Se'tak responded, his own current stance making it clear that he was attempting to establish the chain of command in their current situation. "Did you wish to attempt to win us back to the servitude of the Tau'ri?"
"OK, firstly, I only joined the sodding Stargate program a few days before; do you really think I'd have had time to take in the fine details about who we were kicking alien arse with and whether or not they might think my group has ulterior motives beyond just wanting to take out the big bads?" Spike asked, trying to avoid explicitly insulting anybody while still making it clear that he thought they were being idiots for thinking that his allies just wanted to replace the Goa'uld. "Secondly, I think somebody destroying a planet is something anybody should want to stop; it's just bloody stupid to keep blowing up perfectly good worlds when things on them are normally fine the way they are."
"'Fine the way they are'?" Se'tak repeated inquiringly.
"Argument I used the first time I did this whole 'save the world' thing; I've changed so much since then that it doesn't matter what I meant at the time," Spike said hastily (He didn't want to have to explain the full details about how he'd changed over the years since he'd first arrived in Sunnydale; that would just make this whole thing too bloody complicated). "What hasn't changed is the fact that, when you get down to it, I don't want the world- any world- to get blown up; I happen to generally like things staying intact."
He shrugged slightly. "Guess that's one reason I got on SG-1 in the end; we all want the Ori taken out without too many worlds getting taken out in the crossfire."
"For what purpose?" Se'tak asked bluntly, standing up in his chair to look at Spike.
Turning his attention towards the Jaffa before him, Spike answered the question in a manner that he would have answered it whether he was good or evil.
"Mass murder's pointless," he said simply.
(OK, so admittedly back when he'd been evil mass murder would have been fun, but the point still remained that he'd only done that kind of thing when he'd had the numbers to make sure that everyone they attacked would be drunk from in the end; technically, those deaths hadn't been pointless as they'd kept the vampires fed.)
Fortunately, his slight bending of the truth appeared to not have been enough to make the man before him doubt his words. After staring silently back at Spike for a few moments, Se'tak sat back down, a slightly satisfied smile on his face as he looked at Spike.
"Very well," he said, nodding briefly at the spectral vampire before him. "You have given us… a great deal to consider, Spike of the Tau'ri."
Even as the Jaffa continued talking, Spike allowed himself a brief inward sigh of relief as he listened to the rest of their speech.
He wasn't sure how things would go from here, but if their reaction to what he'd said now and what he and Landry had said earlier was any indication, the relationship between Earth and these guys was definitely going to improve in the next few hours…