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
AN: This takes place a couple of days after the events of the last chapter, and leads into the events of this reality's take on "Company of Thieves"
The Ghost in the Team
"So," Mitchell asked as he casually walked into Vala's room, smiling nonchalantly at the former thief as she stared in frustration at the nearest wall- much like she'd been doing ever since regaining her memory about her past and the subsequent realisation of what she'd done before she remembered it all-, "how's things?"
"You mean, aside from the fact that there's this… thing with Spike that even I didn't know I had?" Vala asked, looking over at Mitchell with a pointed glare. "Yeah, I'm fine; thanks for asking, now just go, OK?"
Mitchell knew that he didn't need to take it personally; ever since Vala had regained her full memory- and hence regained her full awareness of her real relationship with all concerned parties at the SGC-, she'd been subject to more than the occasional teasing comment about the fact that she'd 'recognised' Spike before anyone else. For a while Mitchell had wondered why getting teased about the thing with Spike was an issue for Vala after all the flirting she'd done with Daniel, until he'd come to the conclusion that part of the problem was that it was her being teased this time.
It wasn't that Vala was particularly thin-skinned or sensitive to teasing comments; she just liked to know that she was in control of a situation (Most likely a hang-up caused by her time as a host to Qetesh; Mitchell strongly doubted that something like that would leave you feeling comfortable in any situation you didn't have complete control over), and this whole Spike situation was definitely something where Vala had apparently had no choice.
"You sure about that?" he asked, looking slightly curiously at Vala. Normally he would have left this particular issue alone, but at the moment SG-1 was essentially on stand-down as a full team until they could find something about the location of the Sangraal, each team member attending to some of their personal 'missions'. Sam, for example, was currently off on a mission investigating an anonymous tip about a second possible Supergate; the source of the information was unconfirmed, but the readings and information that had accompanied it were so similar to the data that they'd obtained when the original Supergate had been activated that they'd decided they'd be stupid not to take a look at it.
Daniel, on the other hand, was currently checking over a few books he'd ordered on Spike's recommendation- apparently Spike had a few supernatural-themed contacts he'd gone to now and again for assistance in his past who were relatively neutral on the whole 'good/evil' issue, even if he'd rarely contacted them due to his own dislike of magic due to his limited ability to control it himself- to try and look up other possible means of restoring Spike to corporeal status- the vampire naturally doing what he could to 'help' despite his difficulty in making contact with any of the books himself-, while Teal'c was currently spending some time at the Jaffa High Council on Dakara to help try and reassure any remaining concerns about the continued alliance with the Tau'ri. With Vala still tired and frustrated after what had happened during her amnesia, and Mitchell lacking anything else to really do at this point, he'd decided to see what he could find out about her Spike-related issues in a more casual scenario.
"Huh?" Vala asked, turning to look at him in confusion, drawing his train of thought back to the matter at hand.
"Well, you have to admit, you and Spike do make an interesting… duo," Mitchell said at last (It wasn't the best term, he had to admit, but the others that sprang to mind might make Vala more annoyed than she was at present; at least 'duo' could be argued that it was in a 'Dynamic Duo' sense rather than the option he was actually implying). "I mean, from what he's told us about himself since we met Agent Finn, you both started out as… not the pleasant people to know… and ended up going through some pretty major shifts because somebody else gave you a chance…"
Noting Vala's pointed glare, Mitchell raised his hands apologetically. "Hey, I'm just pointing it out; I'm not trying to imply anything here…"
"Well, don't," Vala said, returning her glare to the wall before her. "There is nothing to imply about me and Spike; we're on the team together, and that's it."
"Y'know, the fact that you keep on saying this should make it more convincing…" Mitchell said, smiling slightly at Vala even as she shifted her gaze to look at him with a stare so intense that he almost felt like he was going to be incinerated.
"There. Is. Nothing. There," Vala repeated, before she rolled over slightly on her bed to glare at the wall once more.
For a moment, Mitchell could only stare at her, a contemplative expression on his face at the implications- he was starting to get the impression that his old theory about Vala's disgust at her lack of control in this situation might be more accurate than he'd originally suspected-, until the base's announcement system suddenly activated.
"This is General Landry," the general's voice said over the radio. "SG-1 please report to the conference room."
"Huh," Mitchell said, standing up and looking curiously at Vala. "Well, we'd better get going; we can discuss this-"
"Never," Vala finished, another glare being directed at Mitchell before she got up and headed into the corridor outside her door, leaving Mitchell with no alternative but to follow her, even as he made a mental note to get back to the talk about the Spike thing with Vala later; there was just something so amusing about the whole situation...
"The Odyssey's in trouble," General Landry said, looking grimly around at the remaining members of SG-1 as they entered the conference room, Spike walking through the wall rather than via the door- it sometimes seemed as though he'd decided to enjoy his intangible status as long as he had it despite his still-present complaints about it- and Teal'c being currently absent from the main group. "Our last communication from them informed us that they were approaching the location where the Supergate had been said to be located at, and then we received nothing until a distress call was broadcast telling us that they were under attack by three Goa'uld motherships, shields and hyperdrive disabled and about to be boarded."
"Ah, nuts..." Mitchell muttered, shaking his head grimly as he looked in frustration at Landry. "So, I take it that means we can safely assume the information about the Supergate was faked?"
"From what they said, that's pretty much a certainty," Landry replied. "We began receiving telemetry from the emergency transponder approximately thirty minutes after the distress call came in."
"Unfortunately, it doesn't tell us anything about the condition of the ship or crew?" Daniel asked; he might be finding the texts Spike had managed to help him find interesting reading- the idea that magic was real was making him re-evaluate several of his old interpretations of some of the myths he was reading-, but he sometimes got so caught up in what he was doing that he missed some updates on current events at the SGC.
"All we've got is that it's badly damaged; specifics about its current condition are unknown at this time," Landry replied.
"Anything on who might have been behind this?" Daniel asked.
"Given that the original tip was anonymous, not really," Landry replied with a brief shake of his head. "We maybe should have been more suspicious, but as you all know things have been going fairly well lately, and the information seemed good; we can't exactly anticipate everything that might happen, particularly with the Sangraal still unaccounted for and the possibility of new Ori forces finding a way into this galaxy any day."
"Still no progress finding a weakness in that ship I got you yet?" Spike asked.
"Nothing specific, anyway," Landry replied. "The shields are just too strong for anything we could use against them; we've tried devising a means of modifying the transporters to penetrate the shields' operating frequencies, but the systems are so complex that identifying the specific energy frequency they generate isn't easy..."
"Getting back to the Odyssey issue," Vala put in, raising a casual hand, "we have a signal; shouldn't we check it out?"
"Good point," Spike said, smiling slightly as he glanced over at the Stargate. "And fortunately, we do have a few people willing to grant me a couple of favours after I saved their planet..."
"Point," Landry said, nodding briefly at Spike before he looked around at the rest of the team. "You'd better get ready to go, but be sure to be careful; we still don't know who's behind this."
"Which means undercover, right?" Vala asked, her smile growing at the thought. "I always enjoy those ones..."
A few hours later, as they flew through hyperspace- quite possibly the dullest other dimension Spike had ever experienced or heard of in his unlife; even the world of nothing but shrimp at least had the slight curiosity factor of how the damn things survived in a reality consisting entirely of themselves-, Spike was already wondering if this was a good idea.
The ship itself was in relatively good shape- a rather nimble thing called an al'kesh which they'd received from the Jaffa without much complaint after learning that Spike was the one who wanted it; being a hero to the Free Jaffa Nation definitely got you some interesting perks, the vampire had to admit-, and the clothes they'd been given at least left him feeling relatively assured that he wouldn't stick out too much in his own outfit- Daniel, Mitchell and Vala were all in varying styles of brown or black leather jackets and trousers while Teal'c wore a sleeveless black leather vest and a hat to conceal his tattoo- so long as he kept his jacket buttoned up to conceal his shirt, but he couldn't help but wonder if this kind of thing was putting too much faith in him too quickly.
He'd never been that great at blending in with humans in prolonged social interaction back when he'd been evil, and most of the times when he'd done that without killing people had been back when he was dealing with people who already knew who and what he was. Add in the fact that he couldn't even touch anything now...
"So, how're we doing this?" he asked at last, looking uncertainly over at Mitchell in an attempt to take his mind off his concerns about the upcoming mission. "Find the Odyssey, beam over there and get it all moving?"
"Until we know anything else, yeah," Mitchell confirmed with a brief nod. "Actually, you'll probably be the advance party; given that we don't know what the situation might be there, add in the fact that your amulet's pretty much indestructible and you can't actually be hurt in the first place, you're pretty much our best bet if something's wrong."
Spike knew that he should have felt offended at his role in the plan just being 'decided' for him like that, but he had to admit that he actually wasn't that bothered; in a weird way, he actually liked it.
It might not have been gained in a manner that he'd particularly appreciated at the time- getting burnt to ash like that had not been pleasant-, but he had the power to make a uniquely positive contribution to the team, while simultaneously being in a position where he really didn't know as much about the current 'rules' as he might have liked; he might not exactly like being stuck at the mercy of others like this, but he was getting used to it, and there were a lot of worse places he could have been sent to...
"Our long-range sensors indicate that the signal coming from the Odyssey transponder is changing location," Teal'c put in, breaking Spike's introspective chain of thought.
"It's moving?" Spike asked.
"It appears to be travelling at sublight speeds," Teal'c responded. "Altering course to intercept..."
He smiled slightly as he glanced back at the others. "We are within range of the transponder; I am taking us out of hyperspace now."
As soon as the screen before them had begun to show stars once more, Spike allowed himself to relax for a few moments before a holographic display appeared between the screen and the rest of the group, showing a planet with a highlifted red dot on one of the continents.
"The signal now appears to be originating from that planet," Teal'c explained, studying the readouts before them. "Sensors are picking up numerous lifeforms."
"If life support were compromised, they could have landed the ship for repairs," Daniel noted, prompting a reflective nod from Teal'c as he tapped a few more controls on the console in front of him.
"They are not responding to our hails," the Jaffa said, before turning his attention back to the display as it focused in on the location of the transponder signal, revealing the image of some basic-looking buildings. "There appears to be a small civilisation on the surface."
"I knew I recognised this planet..." Vala said with a brief smile.
"Friends of yours?" Mitchell asked, looking over at the former thief.
"The Goa'uld used to have a ship-building facility here," Vala replied. "It's now been taken over by the former human slaves. From what I know, they have ties with the Lucian alliance."
"The who?" Spike asked.
"Bunch of space smugglers who came together after the Goa'uld fell to try and take advantage of the resulting power vacuum; we've had issues ever since they lost a bunch of ships when the Ori first came into this galaxy," Mitchell explained, before returning his attention to Vala. "So, basically, this place is a chop-shop?"
"True, but on the bright side, I have a contact here," Vala added with a slight smile. "Of course, he might get skittish if we all show up, so it could be a good idea for me to go in alone-"
"Speaking as the one-time big bad, that plan sucks," Spike put in, glancing over at Vala. "I mean, we come all this way to find that the thing we've been tracking has been dumped on a planet controlled by a bunch of space thieves who already have issues with us? Am I the only one thinking 'trap'?"
"All the more reason why we shouldn't all go," Vala responded. "Trust me, if he knows anything, I'll be able to get it out of him, but the key is to be an inconspicuous and as non-threatening as possible."
Exchanging glances with Mitchell, Spike could only nod in confirmation of Vala's reasoning; if they had a chance to solve this quietly, it was worth a shot.
"If you like, I can take Daniel," Vala added.
"And Spike," Mitchell put in.
"Pardon?" Vala and Spike asked, looking sharply at Mitchell.
"Well, he can stay in the background pretty easily, and all we need to do to make sure he stays with you if something goes wrong is have one of you two take the amulet," Mitchell explained, ignoring the slightly scathing glare from Vala as he indicated the intangible vampire. "So long as Spike stays out of sight of anyone you meet- which should be pretty simple to do given that he can actually hide in stuff rather than just behind it-, it's perfect."
"Y'know, I'm not just some party trick you can pull out every time you need me-" Spike began with a mockingly indignant tone, only to hold up his hands in a conciliatory manner as the other members of SG-1 (Spike was almost surprised at his use of 'other'; did he really count himself as one of them after so little time?) turned to glare at him. "Hey, I'll do it; that's just what I do, OK?"
Standing in frustration inside one of the walls of the warehouse that had been identified as the location of Vala's contact- there weren't any decently-sized piles of junk inside the warehouse that he could hide in, and the walls were think enough for him to stand in without anyone seeing his face if he positioned himself properly-, Spike couldn't quite restrain the urge to punch something- he might not actually feel anything when he was like this, but that didn't stop him from thinking that he should be uncomfortable when he was like this- as Vala and Daniel approached the man Vala had identified as her contact Borzin; a slightly overweight man with scraggy light brown hair in a dark top that might have once been green with light brown leather around his shoulders and wrists.
"Vala Mal Doran," Borzin said, walking up to Vala while Daniel casually studied his surroundings- they'd decided to play him off as slightly handicapped to encourage Borzin to underestimate him-, "I never thought you'd show your face in these parts again."
"Borzin, you slimy, two-faced grease peddler," Vala countered, prompting Borzin to place one hand over his heart with a mockingly pained expression on his face.
"Come on," Vala said suddenly, "give us a hug."
Spike tried to restrain the slight spike of jealousy as Vala ran up to Borzin and jumped into his arms- something that she couldn't do with him as long as he was in this state (Not that he minded, of course; he was in love with Buffy, after all)-, Borzin picking up her up with a slight wince as she gave him a quick thump on the back.
"And what poor loser have you conned into your company this time?" Borzin asked as he put Vala down to look briefly at Daniel before walking Vala over to a bench behind a larger pile of junk (Spike could just about see and hear the conversation through a couple of gaps in the pile thanks to his enhanced senses; no point in running over there unless he had to).
"Oh, this is my apprentice, Shamus," Vala said with a slight smile as the two turned back to look at Daniel.
"You must be learning a great deal," Borzin said with a slight smile.
"More than I'd like to," Daniel replied with a nod and an exaggeratedly stupid-looking grin on his face.
"Actually..." Vala added, whispering something that Spike couldn't quite make out over the sounds of the workshop- he vaguely caught a reference to a bet, but even an obvious 'stage whisper' was too loud for him to hear right now-, before Borzin turned back to look at Daniel.
"Don't trust her," the other man said as he looked at Daniel with a casual grin. "She will sell you out for a bad lunch the first chance she gets."
"I know," Daniel replied with the same stupid-looking grin.
"He likes me," Vala said, pointing at Daniel and chuckling slightly as Daniel shrugged again. "Isn't that cute?"
"What do you want, Vala, if you haven't already stolen it from me?" Borzin said in a more serious tone; evidently the time for casual banter in this conversation had come and gone.
"We're looking for some information," Vala replied.
"About a Tau'ri ship that was attacked not far from here," Daniel added. "Any information you can give us..."
"Oh..." Vala said as though something had just occurred to her, placing a hand on Borzin's back and walking past Daniel to talk to Borzin more directly, her voice now so low that all Spike could really make out was Borzin saying "No," to something Vala said before the dealer shook his head sceptically.
"You know," he said, looking upwards in reflection, "I've heard that before-"
"All right, try this," Vala said, her hands on her hips as she glared at Borzin. "We traced the signal from the ship's emergency transponder here. I know..."
After that, Vala's voice lowered again, her back to Spike as she continued to address Borzin making it hard for him to hear what she was saying as she continued to stare at the man in front of her.
"Wow... offers that can't be refused," Borzin said as Vala finished, before he began to walk towards what looked like a bench (Although Spike admitted that it could be something else; he could make out some small bits of junk- for lack of a better term- through the components of what was probably some kind of spaceship engine in front of him, but this angle made it hard to tell), returning to where Daniel had joined Vala with a black rectangular box with a glowing blue line around its middle in his hands.
"Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, holding up the object for them to look at.
"That's Odyssey's data recorder," Daniel said, taking the box from Borzin and studying it intently. "The transponder's still broadcasting."
"Where did you get this?" Vala asked, looking pointedly at her contact.
"A man brought it a few hours ago," Borzin replied as he took the box back. "He said it could fetch me a very nice price."
Holding the box up, he seemed to smile slightly at Daniel and Vala- with his back to the wall Spike couldn't be certain- as he pressed a button on the object in his hands.
"Anateo is my name," a voice said from the box with what sounded to Spike like a slightly Spanish accent, "and believe me, I am part of no alliance of any kind."
Whatever else 'Anateo' had to say was never heard as Borzin pressed a button on the device that apparently caused it to fast forward, the box resuming speech with the more familiar voice of Colonel Carter coming out of it.
"It's not designed to be shut off," the missing SG-1 member said. "It activates automatically and stays on."
"Then remove it," Anateo's voice said.
"Don't do it, Colonel," another voice said that Spike vaguely recognised as the voice of the Odyssey's commander (It had been a while since he'd met the guy and they hadn't spoken that much at the time anyway). "That's an order."
That statement was followed by a gunshot, only for Borzin to turn the recorder off before anything else could be said.
"You want more, show me the naquadah," Borzin said, holding up his left hand and rubbing his fingers together in what seemed to be the universal sign for a request for cash.
"You know," Daniel said, clearly trying to take back control of the situation, "that thing's useless to me unless I know who gave it to you."
"Oh, timing's everything," Borzin said, before he pointed behind the two SG-1 members. "Him."
Spike only just had time to take in the sight of a guy in some kind of black leather outfit holding a gun that looked a bit like a rearing cobra standing beside another pile of junk- he must have come in a side door while Spike was focused on his new teammates' conversation- before the weapon he was holding fired two bursts of what looked like electricity at Daniel and Vala, sending them falling to the ground as Borzin smiled at the other man.
Damnit... Spike groaned, as the new arrival walked over to shake Borzin's hand in a manner that made it clear that they'd planned for this latest twist. So much for a simple pick-up...
He just hoped that Daniel's theory about how he could stay in someone's body was accurate; staying in Mitchell's body on a bike wasn't the same as this...