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
As time went by, Spike wasn't sure if he should feel grateful or apprehensive at the fact that things seemed to be going well for Daniel so far; whatever this 'Sangraal' thing was meant to look like in the end- since Spike was fairly sure nobody would design a weapon that could kill god-like beings to look like a cup, he was a bit stuck on how this thing became the basis for the Holy Grail myth-, Daniel had already created a large disk-shaped object from various projected components. As the other three watched, the object settled down onto the top of the platform, glowed, and then changed from its original state of gold transparency to a more solid-looking grey, the machine subsequently deactivating as Daniel stepped away, rubbing his eyes and stumbling a bit.
"What is that?" Mitchell asked, standing slightly straighter as he looked at the object before them.
"Stage one," Daniel replied, walking over to examine the object he had just created, his voice slightly worryingly fast. "The first step towards creating Merlin's weapon."
"It's real?" Vala asked.
"Yeah," Daniel confirmed, his breathing heavy as Vala reached out to touch it, her fingers meeting a solid object. "That's exactly what this device does. It allows you to design and configure something virtually and then materializes it."
"So... you think it into existence?" Spike asked, looking back at the object that Daniel had been using with a renewed respect. "Now that is something..."
"Can't you do the same with... magic?" Mitchell asked, looking uncertainly at the vampire, clearly uncertain if the word was accurate even if his curiosity overruled his uncertainty.
"Not me personally, I should clarify- I never really had the patience to get a good handle on the 'how-to' of magic; only time I ever tried something myself was when I was trying to save Dru with this ritual after a mob in Prague nearly killed her, and I had other people putting the stuff together then anyway-, but a few people could create a few things if they wanted to; from what a few people I know told me, it's just a bit tricky to pull that kind of thing off for anything really complicated when you don't have something to start with..."
"Huh," Mitchell said, nodding briefly as he took in the vampire's comment while thoughtfully studying the object before them. "Guess that's one thing we can do that magic can't; General O'Neill did something similar to this when he created the first anti-Replicator weapon."
"I thought the Sangraal was a tiny red jewel?" Vala asked.
"No, that's the- that's the final stage, the key to making the whole thing work," Daniel clarified.
"So," Mitchell asked, walking around the platform to take in what had just been created, "how long before you can put the whole thing together?"
Much to Spike's concern, Daniel didn't reply; he just leaned against the platform, raising a hand to his face as though he was trying to fight off a headache.
"Daniel?" Vala asked, turning to take his arm as she looked anxiously at him.
"No, I'm all right, I'm all right," Daniel replied, unzipping his vest as his eyes narrowed, as though he was having trouble focusing. "It's just... this machine takes a lot out of you. The uh, level of concentration required is pretty intense."
"Well, at least that's something this thing has in common with spellwork..." Spike muttered.
"Concentration a must when you're manipulating the world that way, huh?" Mitchell asked with a slight smile as he glanced over at the vampire.
"Let me put it this way; some guy tried to get a witch to cast a love spell once as a joke- bit of a tasteless joke, but the principle wasn't bad; girlfriend had dumped him and he wanted to reject her right back-, and the caster's inexperience meant that everyone in town except the girl he'd 'targeted' was obsessively in love with him until the spell got cancelled," Spike clarified, before he shook his head with a wistful smile at the memory. "From what I heard, there was a bunch of bloody riots as they all tried to kill the sod so that nobody else could have him before the spell was shut off..."
Noting the pointed stares coming from the other three, Spike could only shrug helplessly. "Hey, I was evil back then; can I help it if I remember finding that whole mess funny?"
"You knew some... interesting spell-casters, Spike," Daniel said, his voice sounding somehow deeper than usual before he shook his head. "Uh... what just happened?"
"Can I get you anything?" Vala asked, clearly hoping to divert Daniel's current train of thought on to a more immediate topic; clearly her mind had jumped to the same conclusion that Spike had to account for Daniel's last comment, and she didn't like it any more than he did.
"Water," Daniel replied briefly.
"Sure," Vala said, turning around to walk back to the table where she'd left a water-bottle earlier. Just as she was about to pick it up, Daniel turned around, reached out with one hand, and the canteen flew into it, leaving Spike to simply blink in surprise as Mitchell stared at the sight in shock.
"Bloody hell..." Spike muttered.
He was aware of the concept of the X-Men as much as anyone in the modern world, but reading stories about people 'evolving' to a point where they could do that kind of thing without magic and seeing it were two different things...
"OK," Daniel said, unscrewing the cap as he spoke, "that happened."
Glancing over at Mitchell and Vala, Spike was grateful to see that they were just as surprised as he was; at least this kind of thing was new to them as well.
"It's interesting," Daniel said, with that frustrating tone that Spike recognised from when the Watcher was about to mention something that didn't really mean anything beyond an academic application, "Jack got healing powers; I guess I got telekinesis."
"Jack also almost died!" Vala said, looking urgently at Daniel as he took a drink from the canteen. "Now you said that this device might be different!"
"I'll be fine-" Daniel began.
"That's crap!" Mitchell interjected. "She's right, you don't get fancy mind powers unless there has been major redecorating going on inside your skull!"
"Look, obviously, creating the weapon requires a higher level of brain function; now, Merlin would have foreseen that," Daniel replied. "Trust me, I can handle this."
As he watched his friend take another drink of water, Spike wondered if this was an appropriate time to bring up Red's magical addiction, or if it would just be an academic topic that didn't really apply here; if nothing else, Daniel definitely needed to use whatever powers he'd picked up in that download if they were going to complete the Sangraal now, and it wasn't like he'd done that deliberately...
He just hoped that Merlin's powers came with Merlin's wisdom included; after the stories he'd heard about what 'Darth Willow' had nearly done after Tara's death while he'd been away in Africa, the last thing he wanted was for Daniel (Somehow he just couldn't think of the archaeologist as 'Danny-boy' or something like that; maybe it was because he seemed so much more together than most of the people he'd been spending time with over the last few years) to go on a power trip...
A couple of hours later, Daniel had resumed his work on the Sangraal while the others sat around the room, unable to do much more than wait as Daniel continued his work; Spike had nipped out earlier to see how things were coming along at the Stargate, but aside from Ba'al being frustratingly arrogant unless his life was threatened there wasn't really anything he could usefully contribute there.
"Stage two," Mitchell noted grimly, as another disc-shaped device lowered itself on top of the original component, leaving it looking more like a half-oval rather than the ring-like design it had appeared to be earlier.
"Indeed," Daniel said, stepping back from the machine. "I must rest. I'm not as young as I used to be."
Spike wasn't sure how he should feel about Daniel's halting walk as he moved back to the divan; Merlin getting more control might be a good thing as far as Daniel's ability to control his powers went, but that didn't mean he wanted the guy to be essentially possessed.
"You OK there, Danny?" he asked, walking over to look uncertainly at his friend.
"I'm... I'm fine..." Daniel said, his voice low as he looked awkwardly around himself. "I had the strangest dream... everything was covered in ice..."
Oh, bugger... Spike thought to himself, exchanging anxious glances with Mitchell and Vala as Daniel's expression became slightly glazed, clearly lost in past memories that almost certainly weren't his own...
"Jackson!" Mitchell called over to the archaeologist, walking over to touch him on the shoulder when Daniel continued to simply stare outward at nothing in particular. "Daniel."
The archaeologist's initial flinch in response to the physical contact wasn't exactly encouraging, but it did seem to bring him back to himself, his eyes opening wider once again.
"What's going on?" he asked, looking around himself before Vala pulled his face back towards her.
"We're losing you, that's what's going on," she said, staring desperately at him. "Every time you come back from that machine, it gets a little worse. And don't tell me you're fine."
"No, no," Daniel said, shaking his head slightly. "I just have too many thoughts in my head... I-I can't concentrate; I get confused.
"Just hold it together, Dan-" Spike began.
"No, no, no!" Daniel said, his fingers to his temples as though he was trying to keep his head together. "That's the thing; I have to let it happen. That's the only way I can build Merlin's weapon."
Under normal circumstances, Spike wondered if he should be jealous about the obvious concern on Vala's face at the thought of something happening to Daniel, but given how his previous relationship had fallen apart because of their communication difficulties- he wouldn't think about what had really happened to make Buffy break it off with him; even his demon hated thinking about that-, he wouldn't waste time worrying about that now; Vala had been the one to suggest that they start this relationship, so he wouldn't assume that she wanted anything to do with Daniel unless he saw something really 'incriminating'.
As it was, he simply stood off to the side in silence as Daniel walked back towards the machine, Mitchell giving the archaeologist a brief pat on the back as he went past him while Vala could do nothing but stare.
"You have to tell him that he doesn't have to do this," Vala said, looking urgently over at Mitchell. "He'll listen to you."
"And then what?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at Vala, speaking up before Mitchell could contribute anything to the conversation himself. "I get that I'm new here, but I think that I've got the basics of the current mess down pat; we need to stop the Ori, and this thing Daniel's making's the only way to do that."
"What makes you think we'll even be allowed to use it?" Vala countered. "The Ancients didn't let Merlin get away with it last time-!"
"Vala," Mitchell said, raising a finger as he looked between the two, "shut up. For once. We have to take the risk."
"Sometimes," Spike noted, looking grimly over at Daniel, "what really sucks in this kind of situation isn't knowing that you're going to die if something goes wrong; what sucks is that knowing that, if things don't go the way you want them to go, other people are going to die..."
For a moment, the three stood in silent contemplation, until Vala turned to look at Spike.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Long story short, there was this loony a couple of years back who tried to do some ritual that could've destroyed the world if it'd worked," Spike explained. "If we weren't able to stop the ritual before it was finished, one of us would've had to die to stop everything collapsing..."
He didn't bother to finish the sentence- talking about Buffy's death and resurrection would just open up the possibility of a whole mess of questions that he was sure nobody would have the time for and that he didn't exactly feel comfortable answering anyway-, but the relevance of what he was saying was obvious to both of his new teammates.
"That's what sucks about being on a team," Mitchell said, looking at Vala after the other two had taken a moment to process what Spike had just told them. "It's not risking your own life; it's watching others risk- hell, sometimes even sacrifice- theirs."
Spike had to admit that he got where Mitchell was coming from; even when he thought that he was going to die after he put that amulet on in the final battle against the First, it had been a hell of a lot easier knowing that Buffy was going to make it out than it had been to see her dead body after she'd jumped through that portal to save Dawn from Glory's mess...
"Congratulations," Mitchell said, nodding grimly at Vala. "Now you really are one of us."
He glanced over at Spike. "And looks like you already got that before you even got here, so I'd say that just makes you eminently suited for a job here."
"First time anyone ever said I was qualified for anything..." Spike muttered, glancing over at Daniel with a grimly thoughtful expression.
He had to admit, this was definitely one occasion when he was not that keen on being the right person in the right place, and he couldn't even really do anything to help Vala feel better; she wasn't in the mood for talking right now, and he wasn't comfortable with his ability to concentrate enough to give her something to hug...
If the situation hadn't been so grim, Spike would have smiled.
When he started wishing he could just hug Vala, he knew he'd gone a bit soft...
They'd only spent a few moments waiting before Daniel ceased his work on the machine, with no sign of a new component to attach to the rest and a clearly worried expression on Daniel's face as he looked over at the others.
"What is it?" Mitchell asked uncertainly.
"Get to the gate, now," Daniel said.
"Why?" Mitchell asked, before the near-terrified expression on Daniel's face as he turned away from the machine to look at them answered any questions that they might have had.
"They're coming," he said.
There was nothing else to say to that; with that statement, Spike turned and hurried down the caverns towards the Stargate, Vala and Mitchell close behind him. As he emerged from the caves, Spike only had a few moments to take in the sight before him- Ba'al lying on the ground, hopefully dead, while a bunch of people Spike would be willing to bet were Ori soldiers were gathered around and coming out of the Stargate, Sam behind the obelisk while Teal'c was at the front with his weapon raised- before he sprang into action, charging towards the nearest soldier as he tried to focus his attention on knocking down his latest opponent.
The resulting attack wasn't perfect, of course- even with whatever meditation advice Daniel and Teal'c had provided for him, Spike still found it hard to remain solid for long, and the stress of the current situation definitely wasn't helping his focus-, but it was enough to knock the soldier to the ground as his head connected with a rock behind him with a fairly solid crack, the wound an obviously fatal one even before Spike saw the blood that resulted from the wound.
He wouldn't like to keep on trying to pull off that trick in a long-term fight, of course- these guys might be fanatics devoted to a fake religion, but they didn't get this far by being stupid; they weren't going to keep letting him get close enough to charge them like that-, but if he just focused on the brief contact that he could make, he might have a chance...
As Vala and Mitchell emerged from the cavern to open fire on their new enemies, Spike tried to stay on the move while also staying away from his teammates- he could probably distract the Ori forces if he kept on the go, but he didn't want to accidentally position himself so that they tried to shoot him and ended up shooting someone behind him-, but it quickly became obvious that numbers were against him; quite a few people had come through the Stargate by now, and there were only so many places that he could go in the immediate area without getting in the way of the people who were meant to be on his side...
Spike's attempt to come up with a plan were cut short when clouds began to gather above them in a sky that had been clear only a few moments ago, energy crackling above them before lighting came down from the sky, striking the soldiers gathered around the now-deactivated Stargate until all of them were lying on the ground.
"Bloody hell..." Spike muttered, his eyes widening in apprehension as he took in what had just happened.
"Was that... Daniel?" Sam asked, looking over at the vampire, who was now standing close to the Stargate where a couple of the soldiers had taken up a position earlier; it might not be entirely the same thing as the magic he encountered, but right now Spike was the closest thing they had to a source who could tell them what Daniel might be capable of.
"Unless you've got another sod with a great magical rep hanging around here that I don't know about, probably," Spike replied, the tension in his stance making it clear that he was trying not to show just how much what had happened had disturbed him. "I mean, I've heard about a couple of witches and the like who could control the weather to a degree, but being able to summon and control the lightning like that, without even being here to see the targets that he's attacking with it..."
"It is indeed impressive," Teal'c commented, nodding in understanding at Spike. "Merlin clearly lives up to his reputation, whichever body he is in."
"Look, whatever that was, we probably shouldn't worry about looking gift horses in their mouths," Mitchell said, looking urgently between his teammates. "Right now, we need to dial out of here before anyone else can-"
The rest of Mitchell's statement was cut short when Daniel suddenly came flying out of the cavern, landing on the ground just beside the DHD in a heap.
"Daniel?" Sam asked, turning to look apprehensively at her friend just as she hit the last chevron on the DHD, only for a sudden sensation to prompt her to look up just as Adria emerged from the cavern; she must have managed to hi-jack the teleportation system used by the obelisks while the rest of the team was distracted with her soldiers. Even as Sam joined Vala's attempt to check on Daniel, Mitchell raised his gun and fired a few quick rounds at the Orici, only for her personal shield to halt the bullets before they could reach her.
"Why do I bother?" Mitchell muttered to himself.
"Adria, I want you to stop this right now!" Vala yelled, standing up to glare at her daughter.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, Mother," Adria said, in a tone that gave no indication that she actually felt sorry for anything as she raised one hand in front of her, red/orange energy generating in her palm for a moment before she launched it towards them...
Only for Daniel to get to his feet just in time to block the blast with a burst of white energy from his own hands, the two blasts meeting each other a short distance away from Daniel.
"Get through the gate, now!" Daniel shouted; his voice sounded like he was making a significant effort just to remain standing even as he continued to focus on his current situation.
"We're not leaving you here!" Sam yelled; Daniel might be holding Adria at bay, but if it took this much concentration just to stop her doing anything else, there was no way that he could hope to beat her...
"I'll... be right behind you!" Daniel retorted, his gaze still fixed on Adria as he focused all of his energy on holding her back.
"Spike!" Sam yelled, turning to look urgently at the vampire who'd been their secret weapon in their last two encounters with Adria, only for her eyes to widen in shock and confusion at the sight of Spike visibly straining against something that none of them could see.
"Can't... get... closer!" Spike yelled over at his teammates; Sam was shocked to see his outstretched fingers flicker like he was a malfunctioning hologram as he stretched out a hand towards Daniel. "Something... goddamn... hurts..."
"OK, that plan's scratched; let's move!" Mitchell yelled, grabbing Vala and practically hauling her through the Stargate, Spike blinking out of view as the amulet in Vala's pocket vanished through the event horizon (Sam just hoped that Adria's line of sight meant that Daniel was blocking her view of the Stargate; if she just assumed that Spike had walked through it after Mitchell and Vala, his true nature might still be a secret).
For a moment, as she looked at Daniel, Sam prayed that he'd turn around and start to run for the 'gate right now, rather than continue to waste time trying to hold Adria back... she'd already been responsible for his death when she hadn't accompanied him during Kelowna and when her Replicator double had killed him; she couldn't leave him behind again...
But, as his efforts to hold Adria back continued to show no sign of abating, Sam was left with no other choice but to follow Teal'c through the Stargate...
After she arrived back at Stargate Command, along with her remaining four teammates, it took her a few seconds to realise that the Stargate had shut down with no sign that Daniel was going to pass through the wormhole himself.
Even with the knowledge that they had almost certainly just lost their last, best hope of defeating the Ori, the knowledge that she had just abandoned the man who would probably always be one of her closest friends hurt Sam more than she could have ever imagined...
AN: Before anyone gets on at me, there is a reason Spike couldn't get close to Adria this time around aside from the fact that I wanted Daniel to get captured by her again; I'll explain what it was in the next chapter