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: Once again, everything on the planet with Sam, Mitchell and Teal'c is taking place pretty much the same way it did originally, so the specific details won't be covered, although I'll go over the basics when I get to the right point
The Ghost in the Team
After a few moments of waiting in silence, Spike simply sitting close to Vala while occasionally touching her arm or shoulder to confirm that he was still in the same room, the door opened once again and the man that Vala had earlier identified as Tomin walked in, now dressed in a blue cloth outfit with an Ori symbol over his chest.
"Why are you still wearing the clothes of a blasphemer?" he asked, looking at her with a tone of simple disappointment in his voice, as though he had purposefully kept his expectations low.
"If I put on this dress," Vala asked, placing one hand on the dress as she stared back at the new arrival, "and say 'hallowed are the Ori', will you stop mass murdering innocent people?"
Tomin didn't respond to Vala's query, instead simply turning around to face the door.
"Tomin, wait," Vala said, her request prompting the other man to halt even if he didn't turn around, the ex-thief waiting for a moment before she continued speaking. "I know you think that everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie; I've deceived you too many times to change that now."
Spike briefly wondered what kind of lies Vala had told Tomin in the past, but already knew that he wasn't going to ask her those kind of questions even once he was restored to his visible state; if he hadn't liked thinking about the fact that Dru and Buffy had both been with Angel before they'd even known he existed, he really didn't want to give himself the potential to start feeling jealous and insecure about Vala's old relationships, even if he could be certain that Vala wasn't with him for the same reasons he'd always subconsciously feared had prompted them to start a relationship with him...
"But there's one thing I want you to know that is the truth," Vala continued, her gaze fixed on Tomin even if he wasn't facing her. "There were real moments between us. I did fall in love with you. In your heart you were a good man; not because Origin told you to be. I know you can't possibly like what you've become- what this faith has made you do!"
"After all that time we spent together, you still know nothing about me," Tomin said, his voice low as he stared at the wall.
"I know you must still love me," Vala said (Spike forced down the instinctive surge of jealousy he felt at that comment- that was the disadvantage of feeling... like this... about someone like Vala-; it wasn't the time for that kind of thing and Vala wouldn't bring that kind of thing up with him here unless she had to), a sorrow, subtle pleading in her voice as she spoke. "Why else would I be here?"
"If it were up to me," Tomin said, turning around and walking back towards Vala, his voice a simple, direct one that put Spike uncomfortably in mind of a less 'whacky' version of Caleb (That man had made too much of a show of his 'faith' in the First for Spike to take that bit seriously, even if he'd never doubted the man's convictions), "I would light the fire that would burn you alive for your desecration. The only reason you are still here is because it was so ordered by the Orici. You will remain in this room. You will see no one; you will speak to no one. You will be educated in the ways of Origin until such time as evil no longer possesses you."
Crap, Spike thought, cursing the double-edged sword that was Adria's interest in Vala.
Clearly the crazy bitch still wanted her mother on her 'team' even after she'd been rejected during the last couple of meetings they'd had, but how long that 'interest' could be maintained was something he wasn't sure Vala could cope with for long before she did something to push her daughter away for good.
"No, Tomin," Vala said, standing up as Tomin started to walk towards the door again, awkwardly playing with her nails. "I'm-I'm-I'm street-smart- that's always got me by-, but I have to warn you, I've never been much for school."
"I am to teach you," Tomin said, turning back to look at her, reciting his explanation with the same simplicity that made Spike so uncomfortable. "This is my punishment for allowing you to deceive me. If you continue to resist, you will die."
With that, Tomin turned and left the room, leaving Vala to stare dejectedly after him until Spike walked over to sit down beside Vala, focusing on his arms long enough to give her a hug out of a lack of anything else to do.
"Thanks, Spike," Vala said, turning her head to smile at him as she reached up in an attempt to pat the invisible and partially intangible vampire on the arm; the initial pat passed through the arm on her first attempt, but Spike was able to concentrate long enough to make the arm more solid for the next couple of attempts.
"I'm..." she began after a moment's pause, looking awkwardly in his direction. "I'm sorry I had to say... all that... with you here. I do... have... feelings... for Tomin- he took me in and offered me a home when I had done nothing to merit that kind of affection-, but... well, even without the whole Ori thing, I was never able to be totally honest with him about my past..."
She smiled slightly in Spike's direction, the awkward expression on her face pushed aside by the genuine warmth in her eyes as she looked at him. "But you... you've heard everything that the SGC know about me, and you still accepted me."
If there was one thing Spike hated about having a soul, it was dealing with the guilt when people said stuff like that to him.
It wasn't like he'd lied to anyone either, but he hadn't gone out of his way to tell them about his past in detail; he hadn't exactly given them detailed information on what he'd done before he got that chip stuck in his head or regained his soul...
Still, this wasn't the time to start having internal debates about stuff like that; they had a situation to deal with right here and now, and that had to be their main priority rather than anything else.
He just hoped that Teal'c and Sam were doing all right now there; Mitchell might be safe enough in his phased state, but that wound of Sam's would definitely need treatment soon if she was going to have a chance at surviving, and he didn't want to think about Teal'c's chances alone in a village occupied by the Ori where the villagers would definitely be angry with the only person left belonging to the group who'd screwed up their 'promise' to protect them...
Even though Vala knew that Spike was still in the room with her, she felt that she would have almost preferred to be alone in her current circumstances; listening to Tomin reading from the Book of Origin hadn't been reassuring even when she was simply stuck in the Ori galaxy, and it was even worse when she was in her own galaxy, so close and yet so far away from the possibility of freedom.
Here they were, in the heart of enemy territory- and relatively comfortable in the process, she'd give the Ori that much; this couch was definitely easy to lie on-, and they couldn't even ask if Daniel was on this ship or the other one; they had a fifty-fifty chance of being in a position to save their friend, and the one person who might be able to answer that question was also the person they couldn't risk asking it.
She still shuddered at the memory of Tomin's straightforward enthusiasm after he had been healed of his limp and been conscripted for the Ori's war against the unbelievers; all the Ori had to do was give the order, and a kind, honest man like Tomin was willing to kill potentially millions of people to follow their decrees...
She might not have been the most moral of people at any point in her life- obviously ignoring anything she did when Qetesh was in control because she really couldn't be responsible for anything she did then-, but she'd generally tried to avoid killing anyone unless they'd expressed an explicit interest in killing her first; the thought that the Ori could make someone like Tomin cross those kind of lines was just disturbing and terrifying on far too many levels.
"So it came to pass that Ver Omesh was gripped by a great famine," Tomin said (Vala was barely even really listening at this point; she just wished he'd quit for the night or something). "So Markon went to the Prophet Articus and asked to go to the forest for food."
"How many people have you killed?" she asked, turning around on the couch to look intently at her husband; if he was going to stay here, she might at least try and make him think about what he was doing. "Do you keep track? Put little notches in your Ori belt?"
"The prophet bade him be patient," Tomin said, looking up at her only for a moment before he continued speaking, "for the Ori provide for all who have faith. But Markon did not believe."
"Do you remember their faces… or are there too many of them?" Vala interjected once again, standing up to walk over to the chair opposite Tomin. "Hundreds... thousands?"
For a moment, as Tomin glared angrily at her, Vala wondered if she'd finally gone too far, but then the moment passed and Tomin turned his attention back to the Book. "So the prophet drew a line in the sand and told him, 'step across and you may do as you wish.' So Markon did and left the village and feasted on wild berries."
"What about the stories in there that are all about not killing?" Vala asked, standing up from her chair and walking around the table to stand beside him.
"Enough!" Tomin yelled, slamming his hand on the table before he appeared to regain control of himself, staring intently at her. "They were each given a chance to save themselves. Those who do not walk the path are not worthy."
"You can preach all you want to me, Tomin, but I know that's not what you believe!" Vala said, getting down on one knee as she looked urgently at the man who had done so much for her when he'd had no reason to do so.
"The fruit was bitter," Tomin continued, apparently ignoring her words as he turned his attention back to the Book in his hands. "It did not satisfy him. He longed to return to the village, but found that the line had widened to a great chasm."
"I've read the book," Vala said, glaring at Tomin even as he continued to try and speak over her words (She wished he'd stop that; it was increasingly obvious that he was just desperately trying to convince himself of what he was saying at this point). "I've read it. I understand why you think it's so important. The words give you comfort, and at face value it appears to be as if that they are trying to inspire the best out of people. Honesty, morality-"
As Tomin continued to rant something about a line being crossed that she couldn't understand, Vala finally decided that it was time to bring in her metaphorical 'big guns'.
"This whole crusade is a manipulation," she said, holding one hand out to partly cover the Book so that Tomin would have to pay attention to her words. "Nothing in there says that those who don't believe should be massacred. Where does it say that, Tomin? Where does it say that? The Ori are not gods!"
Even as Tomin tried to continue reading, his frustration finally seemed to boil over with that last statement, striking Vala with a back-handed slap that knocked her to the ground. As she turned to look at Tomin, Vala shook her head in a manner that she hoped Tomin would interpret as an attempt to clear her mind after that last attack; as much as he might want to, the last thing she wanted was for Spike to start attacking people when they were stuck on an Ori ship with no way out.
"You should kill me now," she said, staring back at Tomin as she tried to ignore the tang of blood in the corner of her mouth (How Spike was meant to subsist solely on a diet of this in his solid state Vala had no idea; the taste alone must get rather dull after a while...).
Once again, Tomin simply stood in silence before he turned and left the room, leaving Vala to look anxiously around herself; if Spike had left, she was in real trouble.
"Spike," she said, deciding to tackle the obvious issue as she got back to her feet and leaned against the nearby table, "if you can hear me, pull my hair."
After a moment's silence, a few strands of Vala's hair lifted up in front of her face before dropping back down.
"Thanks," Vala said, looking in what she hoped was Spike's direction based on how the hair had moved in front of her. "Look, I know how you might feel, but you can't start attacking anyone on this ship; we're in a dangerous position right now and me suddenly developing the ability to toss people around without touching them, while potentially intimidating, isn't really going to help my case at the moment."
She paused for a moment, trying to look sympathetically at where Spike might be, before she continued. "If it looks like I'm about to get killed, or if I think it's the right time for you to act, feel free to let rip if you want, but right now the best chance we've got is if I can try and convince Tomin to let me go; just... stay alert and don't do anything to let anyone know you're there, OK?"
A sudden firm pressure on her shoulder didn't do much to reassure her, but at least she knew that Spike had heard her request and was apparently willing to go along with her 'plan', such as it was.
She just wished that she had some kind of clearer idea about what she could do next; waiting around wasn't going to get her anywhere...
As Spike stood in frustration in the corner of the room, he wished that he had some kind of idea what he could actually do in this whole mess to make an impact on the bad guy; at least when he'd been in the Scoobies, they'd always had some idea how to hurt the other side even if it was difficult to do so (He wasn't sure what had been more impractical; the amount of power necessary to do much more than annoy Glory, or the effort needed to take out the First's henchmen even if they couldn't actually damage the First itself).
Vala was sitting casually in the chair that Tomin had vacated earlier when the other man returned to the room, his manner more subdued than it had been earlier.
"Forgive me for striking you," Tomin said; only the apparently genuine remorse in his voice stopped Spike from punching him like he would have punched any other guy who tried to defend losing his temper at someone he loved, and even that would only let Tomin off on this first offence...
"Hitting me is nothing compared to the lives that you mercilessly extinguished," Vala said, looking grimly over at him. "You can never make up for that, Tomin. I thought that I could save you, but I realize now it's too late."
"Yes, it is," Tomin replied, giving no indication how he felt about that (Honestly, this guy was harder to read than most vampires, and they'd had decades to perfect that kind of look). "You'll never see me again."
"One last story," Vala said, prompting Tomin to turn back and face her just as he was turning to leave the room. "For me."
For a moment, the only two people visible in the room simply stared at each other in silence as Vala stood up to lean against the table, before she began to speak.
"A long time ago," she said, her usual lighter manner replaced by a far more serious tone, "some people, just like you and me, over time evolved. And they became so advanced that they figured out how to turn themselves into energy and ascend to a higher plane of existence."
Tomin continued to stare silently back at Vala as she moved closer to him; Spike had no way of knowing if he was listening to Vala or was just tolerating her 'ramblings' out of respect for what they'd once shared.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it happened," Vala said, still staring at Tomin as she continued her story. "Then they discovered that if regular humans worshipped them, that made them more powerful. So they used their knowledge to make as many people as they could and then created a religion that would force them to prostrate in their name. The more prostrating, the more power. The religion said that these beings were benevolent, but they couldn't offer their followers ascension, because that would mean they'd have to share their power. They just use people up and throw them away. I know I'll never convince you otherwise, but everything you believe… is a lie."
Tomin showed no sign of responding to Vala's story as he turned and left the room, leaving Spike to stand by and invisibly watch the woman he... cared for... as the man she had once married walked away from her.
"Spike," Vala said, turning to look in his direction. "Could you... follow him? I think that I'm making some kind of impression on him, but... well, if that's not working, we need some kind of new plan..."
"Damnit..." Spike muttered, shaking his head in frustration even as he walked out of the door and began to hurry after Tomin.
As much as he hated being so helpless- and he hated the idea of leaving the only person who knew he was here on her own even less-, Vala had made a valid point; if they couldn't get out of this mess with Tomin's help, he was probably Vala's best chance to find a way out of here if they had to rely on their own resources. After a few moments of silently pursuing the Ori commander, he finally turned a corner to find himself looking at Tomin standing outside a door that Spike thought he recognised as the room where the ring transporters had been when he and Vala had initially been brought on board, the distinctive white-skinned form of a Prior walking through the door.
Spike wouldn't pretend to be an expert on Prior psychology, but at least this guy looked like he was slightly annoyed at this whole mess; that suggested that something was going comparatively right back down on the planet, even if it was just that they still didn't know how the library had vanished.
"Prior," Tomin said, as the Prior began to walk down the corridor, barely even registering Tomin's presence, "I beg forgiveness for my failure in teaching the mother of the Orici."
"You have only just begun, Tomin," the Prior said, the corner of his mouth turning up in a smug smile; Spike wouldn't be surprised if this bastard was just waiting for an excuse to kill Vala.
"Please allow me to recuse myself; she is intolerable," Tomin said, his tone rapid as he addressed the Prior. "I fear I will be of no further use. My skills are much better spent as a commander."
Spike couldn't believe this guy; he might have some faith in Vala's ability to form assessments about other people- she wouldn't have been an effective thief if she didn't have some skill at working out how people were going to react to stuff-, but so far this guy was showing no signs of being the good person Vala had told him about and was coming across as a warped fanatic only slightly less psychotic than Caleb...
"Indeed," the Prior said with a brief nod. "You have proven yourself a ruthless and skilful warrior, and a fine leader."
"Thank you," Tomin replied, nodding briefly in response to the compliment. "I'll head straight back down to the planet."
"That won't be necessary," the Prior said, just as Tomin was turning towards the ring chamber. "We are done here."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Tomin said.
"The village will be destroyed," the Prior said, confirming Spike's bad feeling about what he was about to hear.
"Why?" Tomin asked (Spike drew very little comfort from the fact that he seemed just as shocked as Spike was; he'd thought that these guys could afford to be a bit more patient given their 'omnipotence'!).
"They have been touched by evil," the Prior said (Spike briefly thought about punching the guy for his attitude, but shook that thought off; given the greater amount of effort needed to touch something when he was like this, he wasn't sure if he could do enough damage to actually kill the guy, and getting a Prior angry when Vala was a convenient target for that rage would probably be a bad idea). "There is no salvation for them."
"But we eliminated all of the unbelievers," Tomin said, apparently genuinely confused at this turn of events (Spike wondered if he genuinely believed that or was just trying to kid himself; how could anyone believe something when the alternative was to get killed for trying to defy it?).
"Not all of them," the Prior said simply.
"I thought the village had capitulated," Tomin said, almost apologetic. "If you'll allow me..."
"Markon walked away from the Ori to satisfy his hunger," the Prior said, halting Tomin's attempt to walk away as he proceeded down the corridor in the opposite direction from the ring chamber, clearly expecting Tomin to follow him as he paused and continued to speak. "But no matter how much he ate, he did not feel full. Realizing his mistake, he ran back to the Ori. But they denied his pleas and struck down the village that welcomed him back."
"Forgive me, Prior," Tomin said, obvious confusion in his voice as he looked at the white-skinned man, "but I was reviewing that very passage just this morning. Markon prayed for forgiveness and took the first step."
"And the hands of the Ori enveloped all those who welcomed him back," the Prior concluded, with the smug tone of someone certain that anyone who defied what he was saying right now was a brain-dead idiot who lacked the sense to tie their shoelaces (Or the equivalent turn of phrase; with the way the Prior's robes and Tomin's trousers hung over their feet Spike couldn't tell what kind of shoes they were wearing). "The village was destroyed. All those who stand by and accept transgressions must be punished."
"That is not the implication of the text, Prior," Tomin said, walking forward to directly face the Prior; Spike would have been more pleased at this sudden defiance from Tomin if he could be certain the guy wasn't going to get his brain fried for bringing it up. "The Ori granted forgiveness when Markon realized his mistake, and blessed the village with their light for showing him the way back to the path!"
"You dare question my judgement?" the Prior said, glaring at Tomin despite his eyes giving the impression that he couldn't see (Spike had to wonder if this guy had ever had anyone say he was wrong to him in his life).
"No; it's just not how I was taught-" Tomin began.
"There are many words, but only one truth!" the Prior said, glaring at Tomin before he walked around the commander and down the corridor.
"And so many sodding ways of reading those words to get the truth you want that this whole conversation's pretty much pointless," Spike said, looking grimly after the Prior as the white man walked away before he turned to look at the grim-faced Tomin. "Still, at least you're startin' to think before he starts firing; maybe you'll make some kind of impact before things get ugly..."
As Tomin turned to walk back along the corridor towards Vala's room, Spike only needed a moment's thought to decide to go after the Prior; Vala was probably the person most qualified to get through to her 'husband', but there was still a chance that he could take out that Prior before he did anything permanent if he tried hard enough...
"DAMNIT!" Spike roared, as his hands 'slipped' through the Prior's head once again, his seemingly millionth attempt to break the guy's neck falling apart in front of him.
Touching Vala was one thing- he was relatively calm then and he just wanted her to know that he was there-, but retaining the necessary focus to actually take this bastard out when he was phase-shifted into another dimension apart from the one he'd been stuck in since that bloody amulet was apparently another matter entirely; he just couldn't stay solid long enough to actually force the bastard's head in the right direction, and there was no bloody point trying to just beat him up because he didn't know how much force would actually be behind the punches or much punishment this bastard could take...
God, here he was, on the goddamned bridge, in the heart of the action, and he couldn't do a damn thing to save that village! Mitchell and Sam might get through it if they were still phased, but that wouldn't help the rest of the village, and he still didn't know where Teal'c was in this mess...
The sight of Tomin walking through the door with a clearly troubled expression brought Spike some brief relief; the guy might still be loyal to the concept of the Ori, but he definitely hadn't like the way the Prior had twisted that story to justify what they were about to do.
"Excuse me, Prior," Tomin said, after the Prior showed no sign of responding to his presence on his own, leaving Spike to walk off to the side to watch whatever was about to happen.
"Come in, Tomin," the Prior said, sitting comfortably in his chair as he stared at the planet on the screen before them, nodding in self-satisfaction at the new arrival. "It is good that you have seen your way clear. Hallowed are those who walk in unison."
"Forgive me, Prior, but I am still troubled," Tomin said, as he paused in front of a console to the Prior's immediate left. "I believe we are in error. The people of the village have expressed a willingness to seek the truth. I believe they are in earnest. Do not the Ori wish all who seek their wisdom to follow the path?"
"I'm disappointed, Tomin," the Prior said, still staring straight ahead as though Tomin's arguments didn't even deserve the effort necessary to turn his head to counter them. "It seems that you have begun to question the will of the Ori. Or is it the unbeliever under your tutelage that has corrupted you?"
"No," Tomin said, his voice growing louder as he continued to address the Prior, venting his obvious frustration and anger at the abrupt dismissal of everything he'd once held dear, "I have not begun to question the will of the Ori, but I have begun to question the interpretation of their words. No matter what you say, I will not believe the Book of Origin asks us to massacre innocent people! And I will not stand by while the holy doctrine of good will and faith that I have sworn to uphold is twisted into a hammer and used to beat people down!"
Spike wasn't sure how he should feel about Tomin's change of heart; he might appear serious, but a nice speech didn't mean that he was going to turn against everything he'd been fighting to upload since he got to this galaxy...
"How dare you!" the Prior said, standing up from his chair while still not looking in Tomin's direction, leaving Tomin to glare angrily back at him as he stepped towards the view screen, his staff glowing a brilliant blue just as a massive burst of golden energy left the ship to strike the planet surface below them. "Behold, the hand of the Ori at work!"
Even knowing that it was just a village that was being destroyed didn't stop Spike feeling any less sick.
The idea that someone could just so casually kill that many people at one time...
Even when he'd been a vampire he'd generally just killed people to eat- the only times he ever threatened large numbers of people and didn't drink from them afterwards were when he was dealing with people who were trying to kill him and he felt like indulging his homicidal urges-, and your average demon could only kill so many people in one go before it became too time-consuming to go after them...
But that wasn't him anymore, and this bastard had just blown up an entire village jut because he sodding felt like it-!
Then Spike noticed that Tomin had left the control room at a rapid pace, and thoughts of his anger at the Prior were forgotten in the face of the immediate need to follow the other man; if he was even close to right in his assessment of the other man's recent apparent 'attitude adjustment', there was really only one place that he could be going right now...
"What happened?" Vala asked, looking anxiously up at Tomin as he virtually rushed into the room (She really wished she knew where Spike was; she hadn't felt any indication that he'd been in the room since she'd told him to follow Tomin, and she had to believe that he'd let her know he was there if he'd decided to come back).
"Come with me," Tomin said, grabbing her forearms.
"Let go of me-!" Vala began; she didn't know what had prompted Tomin to resort to this, but she was not going to let him take her away before Spike was back-
"The Prior destroyed the village," Tomin said, his urgent voice halting her train of thought despite its low volume. "There was nothing I could do. Now keep silent, please, for both our sakes."
With nothing else to do in the face of that new information- God, she didn't even know where Spike was in this whole mess; had the Prior managed to... do something to him?-, Vala was left to simply hurry after her husband as he lead her down and along various corridors, avoiding patrols and hiding in corners, until they finally reached the ring room, Tomin closing the door behind them after a last quick assessment of the outside corridor.
"The ship's about to break orbit," he said, his tone grim as they walked towards the ring platform. "They'll probably kill me for this, but I'm going to ring you down to the planet."
"Come with me," Vala said; thoughts about Spike and Tomin and the complications of them both being in the same room were forgotten in favour of the immediate issue of keeping him alive. "Please, Tomin?"
"You were right," Tomin said grimly. "I still love you."
"Then come!" Vala said, smiling slightly tearfully- she'd work out why she was crying later- when Tomin leaned over and kissed her, only to pull back after only a few seconds.
"This is all that I can do," he said, backing away towards the controls for the ring platform.
"No Tomin, you can do more!" Vala began, only to be cut off as the rings burst up from the floor to envelop her before the familiar white light of teleportation filled her eyes...
When the intense white light had faded, Vala was left standing in the middle of a vast area that was clearly a crater, most likely caused by the Prior firing the Ori battlecruiser's weapon at the planet's surface where the village had been earlier.
"Hello?" Vala asked, knowing that the odds of a reply in such an empty area were unlikely but resolved to at least try before she gave up all hope. "Anyone?"
For a moment, as another bright light surrounded her she wondered if Tomin's treachery had been discovered already, but then the light faded and Vala found herself once again standing in the village, Spike looking at her in frustration as he stood in front of her before he realised what had just happened.
"What the...?" he asked, only to be interrupted when Vala enthusiastically leaned towards him; the moment was slightly ruined when Spike turned out to be too surprised to solidify himself in time, resulting in Vala sticking her head partway through Spike's, but she was too relieved to have everyone back to focus on something like that.
"Vala Mal Doran," a voice said from behind her, prompting Vala to turn and smile in relief at the sight of Teal'c standing behind her, various villagers surrounding him.
"What the Hell just happened here?" Spike asked, walking past Vala to glare more directly at Teal'c; judging by his lack of apology for their recent non-kiss, Vala had a sneaking suspicion that she and Spike were going to have a few talks about what had happened up on the Ori ship when they were back on Earth.
"Colonel Carter was able to expand the range of the device in time," Teal'c replied, before he activated his radio. "Colonel Mitchell; Spike and Vala Mal Doran have returned."
"Good to know," Mitchell's voice replied. "Do we know if that ship's left?"
"As far as I know it has," Vala said, leaning over to address the radio more directly.
"How's Sam?" Spike asked, grateful to be back in a dimension where he could talk to people; he might not be able to do much physically, but at least he knew that people were aware of him...
"Let's just say she's been better," Mitchell said grimly. "We need a medical team here right away."
"To the 'gate?" Vala asked.
"As soon as possible," Mitchell confirmed.
With those words, Vala turned around and began to run towards the Stargate, leaving Spike to stand among the various villagers, staring grimly after her with a pointed expression on his face.
"Are you unwell, Spike?" Teal'c asked, looking at the vampire with the closest thing to uncertainty Spike had seen the Jaffa display since he'd arrived at the SGC.
"Just... got a bit to think about, really," Spike said at last.
He might like Teal'c- for a predominately silent guy, the man had a way of making you feel interesting without showing much obvious interest, even if you still knew when you'd annoyed him-, but what he had to say was definitely going to be said to Vala before anyone else...
AN 2: One of my longer chapters, I know, but I hope you enjoyed it; coming up, a brief original interlude before the next episode 'rewrite', as Spike's forced to face an unpleasant reminder from his past...