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

"We have to steal it!" Vala said as they sat around a table in the village tavern a short while later, her tone a simple straightforward one that Spike made a mental note to ask her to use later; there was something nice about being with someone that... decisive... about stuff.

"We are not stealing the map!" Sam protested, looking indignantly at Vala.

"Nightfall," Vala elaborated, as though Sam hadn't spoken. "We send in Spike, he finds the map-"

"I am not examining all those sodding parchments until I find the right one," Spike protested, looking indignantly over at Vala. "Just because I can't sleep in this state doesn't mean I can't get tired, and looking over all that stuff would be a strain even if it didn't take a lot of effort for me just to be able to read it in the first sodding place!"

"Hold on; 'effort'?" Mitchell repeated, looking at Spike in slight surprise. "If we were asking you to take everything out and read it that way, yeah, but what's so hard about just sticking your head in the shelves- ah, actually, forget I asked that; you'd never be able to read anything up that close..."

"Add in the fact that we don't even know what the map looks like or if there are other maps in the library apart from the one we're looking for, and I think it's safe to say that trying to steal it wouldn't work," Daniel said, shaking his head slightly as he continued to chew at some of the peanuts- or the local equivalent of peanuts- that had been on the table when they'd arrived. "Maybe if I can just talk to Osric and convince him that our cause is virtuous..."

"Are you certain that I cannot tempt you with a final meal?" a female barkeep suddenly asked, interrupting the group's discussion as she walked up to their table and began to set metal cups down on the table around them (Spike made a mental note to subtly switch glasses with his teammates when he got the chance; no point drawing attention to the fact that he was a 'ghost' by being the only one here who didn't drink anything, particularly when he didn't know how anyone here would react).

"What is it with this town and the no-can-do attitude?" Mitchell asked, tossing a nut he'd been toying with onto the table in frustration. "Every time we turn around, someone's trying to write us off or scare us away!"

"I apologise," the barkeep said with a slightly placating tone as she moved around Mitchell to hand a glass to Teal'c. "I should have said a final meal before you set off on your journey."

"That's more like it..." Spike said, nodding at the woman in approval.

"Although," the barkeep added, her tray held in front of her as she stood at the end of the team's table to better address them, "it need be said in the many thousands of years that adventurers have been seeking the Sangreal, not one has succeeded."

Before Spike could think more about that particular unpleasant revelation, the faint sound of a disturbance outside prompted Mitchell and Teal'c to get up and walk over to a nearby window to examine the noise. Walking over to join them, Spike leant past the colonel and the Jaffa to take a look, but the sight of men in grey armour shoving the general population around amid pleas for an explanation was all the answer he needed for what was going on even before the man they'd spoken to earlier was hit in the stomach with a staff just for asking what was happening.

"We are soldiers of the Ori," one of the soldiers proclaimed after shooting down one of the group who had just attempted to attack them, "and we have taken this village as part of their holy crusade, to rid this galaxy of evil. Cooperate and you won't be harmed."

As the soldier turned to address other members of his group, Spike had to turn away and focus on his friends; the last thing he wanted to do right now was to make things more difficult for his friends by trying to attack these bastards, no matter how much he thought they were being stupid (If he wouldn't listen to the Anointed One even when the kid was of his bloodline he definitely wasn't going to put up with whatever crap these guys had).

"Who are these men?" the barkeep asked, walking up to stand beside Mitchell as she looked out of the window (Spike moving back to avoid the chance that she'd walk through him and realise what he was).

"Well, that is a long story," Mitchell said, he and Teal'c stepping back from the window as he turned to look at the woman. "Look, I know you have no reason to trust us any more than you do those guys..."

"I have not seen you shoot anyone," the barkeep replied, looking back at Mitchell with a casual manner.

"That's an excellent point," Mitchell said, smiling briefly at the woman before he leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're gonna need your help."

"What do you need?" the woman asked.

"First priority is something we can wear outside that doesn't show anyone that we're not from around here," Mitchell said, before he turned to look at Spike. "Right now, you're our best chance at getting on-site intel; sneak around a bit, see if you can find anything in the village we can use to turn the tables on the guys, but otherwise your main priority is getting out of here."

"Hold on; getting out of here?" Spike repeated, his eyes narrowing suddenly as he glared at Mitchell. "If you're ordering me to leave you-!"

"I'm ordering you to stay out of sight so that there's a chance that one of us can report back to Stargate Command if things get ugly," Mitchell said, looking grimly at the intangible vampire. "We set up the usual emergency contact set-up near the gate, so as long as you're careful you should be able to send the message back to base if we can't do anything here."

Remembering the arrangement in question- with his intangibility making it impractical to give him equipment to carry himself, it had been decided to leave a radio hidden near the Stargate whenever they travelled anywhere that would be recovered when they returned to Earth, thus allowing Spike to contact the SGC for backup if for some reason the rest of the team were unable to do so himself-, Spike could only nod grimly as he looked at his friend.

He had to give Mitchell this; the man might be the new guy on SG-1, but he really knew how to give orders...

"So... the rest of you?" he asked.

"We shall be well in this village, Spike; do not worry about us," Teal'c said, nodding reassuringly at his friend. "If your assistance is required in a non-combatant capacity, we shall launch the emergency flare to summon you to us; otherwise, remain on the outskirts of the city until we are able to join you."

"Check," Spike said, nodding in grim frustration at his teammates.

A part of him might not be sure why he was letting these guys order him around after so long doing his own thing among the Scoobies- unless Buffy had been the one to ask him to do something, anyway-, but the rest of him knew what it was all about; he just wanted to be available to do what he could for his friends.

It might not be what he'd joined the team to do, but if he could help them by staying out of the way, he'd do that.

Ignoring the questioning gaze of the barkeep, he hurried over towards a nearby open side-door and slipped through it,

A short while later, as he stood in a dark alley a short distance away from the main square, Spike couldn't help but curse his intangibility. It might come in handy for stealth investigations some of the time, but when the situation called for a disguise, unless the situation was important enough for them to cope with the discomfort of him 'hiding' in someone else, he was left with no other option but to retreat and wait, no matter what he might want to do to help his friends...

He'd witnessed the Ori soldiers burning the contents of the library while the rest of his team took a quick survey of the surrounding area, but apart from establishing that the Stargate was currently inaccessible due to the Ori guards stationed around the gate and the village there wasn't much any of them could do at this point; the element of surprise could only help them stop a few of the attacking soldiers before sheer weight of numbers put them out of action...

Damn, he hated these Prior sods...

It was at times like this that he kind of understood what Darla had always found so sadistically amusing about religion; it didn't matter if it had been created by demons, humans or aliens, sooner or later everything always ended up with at least one sod talking about how their 'god' demanded that innocent people end up dead in order to support their own interpretation of events (And these bastards didn't even have the decency to be worshipping a completely fake religion; the Ori might not be actual gods, but they were still pretty sodding powerful).

If the rest of his team couldn't figure out a way to get that map and get out of the village- sneaking out of there wasn't too difficult for him so long as he stuck to the shadows and took a short-cut through a few houses, but it was a lot harder when you had to worry about things like doors and side-routes-, they were definitely in trouble. Mitchell had ordered him to retreat to the town's outskirts with instructions to come back and help them if he saw the signals, but that didn't make him feel any more comfortable about this whole mess; it had been way too long since he'd heard from them...

Just as he was starting to wonder if he should go back into the city- judging by the sun, the day had moved on far more than he was comfortable with-, he felt that sudden sharp jerk in his chest that indicated that the amulet was about to exert its influence over him...

"Oh, thank God!" Vala said, smiling in relief as Spike emerged from behind a nearby tree- whatever was responsible for Spike's 'link' to the amulet always brought him back into existence a short distance away from the gem in question-, looking slightly dazed as he looked at the rest of SG-1.

"What the bloody hell was that all about...?" Spike asked, looking slightly blearily at his teammates before his eyes settled on the unexpected sixth member of the group. "And what the hell are you doing here?"

"I have come to lead you and your friends to the Sangraal," Osric replied, looking at Spike with a slight smile. "The soldiers have burned my library and the map, but I retain the memory of the route you need to follow; if you and your friends can protect me from the soldiers who seek my information, I shall guide you to your destination."

"Oh, so all we needed to do to get you on our side was show you what we're up against?" Spike asked, rolling his eyes slightly as he looked at the older man. "You know, you'd have saved us all a lot of bother if you'd just listened to us earlier..."

"Yeah, yeah, we're all feeling the frustration right now, Spike; let's just forget that and move on, huh?" Mitchell said, indicating the path ahead of them with a shrug after a confirming nod from Osric.

"So... you all got out OK?" Spike asked, falling into step alongside the rest of his team as they continued to walk after Osric.

"Had a slight problem with a few soldiers who found us at the last minute, but nothing we couldn't handle," Mitchell clarified. "The Ori soldiers apparently destroyed the original map, but Osric here said that he could lead us along the right route; so long as we're careful, we should be all right."

"Well, that's something, anyway..." Spike said, nodding briefly at the old man before he looked back at Vala as another thought occurred to him. "So... did you see-?"

"No," Vala said, the firm tone of her voice making it clear that even Spike shouldn't continue that line of inquiry.

Nodding in understanding, Spike fell into silence, the group progressing along in silence, unwilling for the moment to discuss the full scale of what they were facing.

"What the Hell?" Spike muttered, their long walk through a field filled with high grass having brought them to the outskirts of a forest with a strange sight around its borders.

Spread out in front of them, all facing the direction that the team were currently travelling in, were a scattered group of people dressed in clothing similar to the villagers- one woman with her hand over her mouth was almost certainly the missing mother Osric had mentioned-, all of them facing the direction that the map indicated would lead the group to the Sangraal. At first glance all of the people before them simply appeared to be standing completely still, but the sight of a bird frozen in position in the air above the field made it clear that they weren't dealing with a group who'd decided to play a game for some reason.

"What's the matter with them?" Spike asked, looking in confusion at the group before them.

"I don't know..." Sam muttered, studying her hand-held scanner as she walked parallel to the group of frozen people. "I'm picking up varying anomalous readings; stronger here... weaker here... than rising again..."

She paused in her walk as she looked back at the rest of the group. "This is weird; they're temporal fluctuations."

"Meaning?" Mitchell asked.

"Meaning these people are trapped in a time distortion field," Sam clarified.

"A what?" Spike asked (Moments like this definitely left him wondering whether he should try and put a bit effort into finding out what the others had done before he'd arrived on the team; the inconvenience of maintaining focus reading over the files might have been worth it to stop himself sounding like an idiot at times like this...).

"An energy field that alters the rate at which time flows inside it compared to how time flows outside it," Sam answered. "A common use of the field is to slow down time so that a person can be immobilised for a long period while they themselves only experience a few seconds, although we've encountered a few that have been used to accelerate time within them; in this case, Morgan apparently set up a time field that virtually freezes anyone trying to enter the woods in position."

"Ah," Spike said, looking at one of the frozen people and shuddering slightly at the thought of what he'd just heard; being stuck in time like that could not be pleasant. "Bloody hell..."

"Are you sure?" Vala asked uncertainly, indicating the surrounding area. "If it's a time distortion field, why are the leaves moving in the trees?"

"It's probably capable of generating an illusion to supplant the standing weather pattern," Sam suggested. "These readings indicate the time within the field is extremely decelerated. I mean, these people may look like they're standing perfectly still, but in fact they're moving imperceptibly slowly."

"Are they aware of what is happening to them?" Teal'c asked.

"Doubtful," Sam replied with a brief shake of her head. "Several years may pass for us in the few seconds it takes them to take a single step; many of them may not even be aware anything's happened to them yet."

"No chance we could just find a way around it, huh?" Spike asked with a hopeful smile.

"Well, the outer edge of the field extends as far as I can tell in either direction," the astrophysicist explained (It was moments like this that made Spike compare her to a straight, purely science-based Red; how often had she or the Watcher been the ones to explain how certain rituals worked back in the day?) "And it has a slight curve to it. I mean, for all I know, it could form a complete circle; we could walk for miles and never find a way through."

"Any chance I could get through it?" Spike asked, raising a hand as he looked at Sam with a slightly amused smirk. "I get that it's not a definite answer, but maybe I could find the 'off' switch-"

"I can't be sure how your condition would affect how the field affects you, Spike," Sam interrupted, shaking her head apologetically at him. "You might not have a solid body for the field to freeze, but you still think and act in real time, and you're definitely some form of matter or energy in your current state even if we can't identify it; your condition might make you immune to the time field if it just affects a person's physical presence, but there's an equal chance that it won't."

"OK, so Spike's probably not an option; any other ideas that you can think of?" Mitchell asked.

"Well, I'm definitely picking up some varied readings," Sam said, turning her attention back to her equipment. "It's almost as if..."

She paused for a moment, taking the time to run through the possible implications of her theory, before she turned to look at her new family and friends with a brief smile. "I think I've found a way in; there's a circuitous path of real-time winding through the temporal fold."

"It's a maze?" Mitchell asked.

"Exactly," Sam confirmed, smiling in confirmation. "With the readings on my scanner, I can use them to guide us through, but you'll all need to follow my lead; if you stray off the path, you could end up trapped in the distortion field."

With that instruction, the group formed up into a line of single file behind Sam as she began to walk through the field of frozen bodies, her gaze constantly fixed on the scanner in her hands. For the first few steps it was relatively straightforward- a few metres in prompting a turn to the left as the only even minor 'course correction' needed at first-, but after another turn to the right, Sam's eyes widened as she studied the scanner.

"Uh oh," she said simply.

"What do you mean, 'uh oh'?" Vala asked urgently.

"Uh oh, you left your stove on, right?" Mitchell asked, prompting Spike to role his eyes slightly in frustration; that comment sounded more like something he'd have expected from the one-eyed carpenter than his new friend.

"The temporal distortions are affecting these readings," Sam explained, looking uncomfortably back at the rest of the group as far as she dared without risking contact with the field around her; she had no real idea how wide the safe path was and wasn't inclined to test it. "We're effectively blind."

"OK, here's a stupid question," Mitchell said, looking slightly uncertainly at Sam. "You did check the batteries in that thing before we left Stargate Command, right?"

"It's not the batteries," Sam replied.

"We could retrace our steps and try our luck with the Ori soldiers," Vala suggested, slightly half-heartedly.

"Do you know the way back?" Sam countered.

"Uh... that way," Vala replied, waving her hand vaguely in the direction they'd just walked.

"Something tells me that's not going to be enough," Spike muttered (It was one of those rare moments when he wished Angel was there; for all his issues with his grandsire, he couldn't deny that the poof had had a very good memory for this kind of thing...).

"If Morgan Le Fay left clues as to the whereabouts of the Sangraal, then it is safe to assume that she believed that someone would eventually reach it," Teal'c pointed out. "It also stands to reason that our task, though challenging, is far from impossible."

"Teal'c's right," Daniel put in. "She set this trap to weed out those she deemed unworthy. There is a way out. We just have to be resourceful and carefully think it through."

"Well, Arthur and his knights wouldn't have had access to this advanced technology to guide them through," Vala pointed out. "So, presumably, the answer could be deceptively simple."

For a few moments, the group of seven simply silently contemplated their options, until Sam bent down to pick up a rock from the ground, tossing the rock ahead of her and watching as it came to a halt mid-air.

"Follow me," she said, walking towards the now-frozen rock and picking up another, tossing it to the left and watching as it repeated the other rock's mid-air halt, before a toss to the right resulted in it falling to the ground normally several yards away from them.

"That is simple..." Spike commented.

"First rule of Stargate exploration, Spike," Daniel put in, smiling briefly at his friend as they continued walking. "Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one."

"Like the time you realised that the constellations changed position without knowing a thing about stellar drift?" Sam asked, smiling back at Daniel as she tossed the same rock to the left, revealing a still-clear path. Following the rock to the point where it fell, Sam threw it once again, the rock briefly impacting against a force field before it continued to fall to the ground, clearly indicating that it had left the temporal displacement field.

"All right, we're through," Sam said, looking around at her teammates to make sure that they were all there. "We'd better pick up the pace if we want to cut into Ba'al's lead."