A Legacy of Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and concepts that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Stargate, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Charmed and EVE Online characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Mutant Enemy Productions, Spelling Productions and CCP Games respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please continue to keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Authors Note: Sorry it has taken me awhile to get this chapter off the ground but the story went and got itself stuck in the quagmire that is writers block and has only just worked its way free. Just a quick reminder that conversation in italic represents Xander thought speaking since he naturally cannot talk aloud when he's inside his capsule since his lungs and throat are full of hydrostatic fluid. Now that that's over let's crack on with the new chapter shall we.

Chapter Fifteen

Nox Mothership

Earth Orbit

General Hammond's mind was awhirl with a combination of shock and amazement as the Nox Elder finished explaining the meaning of his cryptic statement about Alexander – whoever that was – being a capsuleer being both a who and a what. He was a pilot, an interstellar pilot from a human civilization thousands of years more scientifically and technologically advanced than his own, one who through an advanced form of cybernetics literally merged with a ship or indeed anything equipped with the docking station for something called a hydrostatic capsule and controlled it through a unique form of neural interface. If that wasn't amazing enough Alexander was functionally immortal since as a capsuleer he wasn't strictly speaking human anymore but an infomorphic lifeform and that for him death was at most an inconvenience as the moment he died his mind and soul – being sentient information – would be instantly transferred and downloaded into a new clone body that could be light years away.

In the nine months that the SGC had been operating he had heard some very strange things, things that he never would have believed if he hadn't either been there at the time or knew the people involved, but this capsuleer thing had to be one of the weirdest. To say that the technologies and sciences involved were advanced would have been a monumental understatement, he wasn't uneducated – you did not get to be a major general in the United States Air Force if you were stupid – but they were so advanced that he couldn't conceive how it would be possible. He also had to wonder why anyone would be willing to go through whatever process someone went through to become a capsuleer knowing that the price was at least a part of your humanity. It was frankly mind boggling.

Yet at the same time he had to wonder just what being a capsuleer would actually be like. What would the interface between man and machine actually feel like? How it would feel to be able to control all ship functions, from ventilation to propulsion to the aiming and firing of weapons systems, with a simple thought? It was something just so far out of the realm of modern human experience – not to mention so far beyond their science and technology that it wasn't even funny – that he just couldn't imagine it.

"Fascinating," President Marcel said at last though a glance at him showed George that his commander and chief was both as intrigued and creeped out by this capsuleer/infomorph thing as he was. "You, say that this New Eden cluster is a very, very long way from here. If that's the case how the hell did this Alexander get here?"

"He doesn't know," Ohper replied, deciding to continue with one of the cover stories that they had discussed with Xander while they had been aboard his citadel. One that had a sprinkle of the truth in it, from a certain point of view that was. "All he knows is that a few days ago he woke up on Earth during something called Halloween. At some point he was attacked and the clone body he was inhabiting killed by an extradimensional parasite in a town called Sunnydale. Naturally this instantly triggered the capsuleer resurrection process and he awoke in a new body on the space station orbiting the planet you refer to as Neptune."

"How do you know this?" Marcel asked even as he inwardly grimaced as he guessed that, based on Ohper's description of an extradimensional parasite likely a vampire, magic was involved in this whole thing somehow. Like every president he had been briefed on the existence of the supernatural world when he took office. Being told that a whole other world existed in the shadows that creatures like vampires, shape shifters and demons were real and that by extension magic was also real had been beyond shocking. Frankly it had rocked his entire worldview even more than the existence of the Stargate – and finding out that a bunch of sentient, body hijacking parasitic worms with a god complex ruled most of the galaxy – had.

"I have met with him," Ohper explained, "before we came into orbit to speak with you about your misuse of the Stargate myself, Commander Baldur and a few of my colleagues had a long and most interesting conversation aboard his station."

"I see and you believe that he will somehow be able to assist us with revealing the existence of the Stargate to our world without causing the very situation that you want to prevent?" Marcel asked, inwardly still somewhat miffed by being more or less forced into this by the Nox. Given that they were apparently a very old civilization – probably the oldest in the galaxy – and had a level of technology far in excess of the Goa'uld he didn't doubt that the Nox could do exactly what they said; that they could stop them using their Stargate any time they choose and that they wouldn't be able to do a single damned thing to stop them. Indeed, he recalled a report from a few months ago how one of them, a female called Lya, had been able to manipulate and open the gate with a simple gesture and without creating an unstable vortex first. This really isn't going to go down well in Washington, he thought knowing that there would be many who would say that they couldn't allow the Nox or anyone to intimidate America in this manner. Not that they would be able to do anything about it given the massive difference in abilities between them and Ohper's people. Something that he knew didn't sit well with those in the military and intelligence hierarchies as it was.

"I believe so yes. We would just have to ask and convince him to cooperate which shouldn't be that difficult. Based on my previous interaction with him Alexander is a level headed and practical individual."

"Assuming he agrees to help what do you have in mind," George asked.

Ohper smiled slightly and began carefully outlining what he was thinking about. The Nox Elder was suggesting that they indicate that it was Alexander himself who told them about the existence of the Stargate – having detected it a few days earlier when he was in orbit aboard a cloaked ship, a revelation that had both the president and the general sharing an uncomfortable grimace as it drove home yet again how easy it was for technologically advanced races to defeat their space radars and how they'd only detected Apophis because the System Lord had allowed them to – and revealed it to them. They could then fake a public first contact – with the Nox being willing to temporarily allow them to set foot on Gaia via the gate to allow it to take place. From there it wouldn't be that difficult to say they were briefed on the threats and dangers that lurked out here amidst the stars either by the Nox or by Alexander himself.

"That could work," Marcel admitted after the willowy alien had finished speaking. In Ohper's words he could see the beginnings of quite a decent plan, one that could potentially solve many of the problems facing them when it came to both revealing the existence of the gate and defending their planet from interstellar threats such as the Goa'uld – especially if they could get this Alexander to fully cooperate and maybe even teach then about his technology as from what Ohper indicated the capsuleer would certainly have the technology needed to protect Earth from the Goa'uld. Of course he knew that there would be some in the military and his administration who would oppose it, fearing a loss of power.

"Do you believe that this Alexander would cooperate Elder Ohper," Hammond asked.

"I believe he will," Ohper answered, in fact he was positive that the teenager-turned-capsuleer would be broadly supportive of his suggestion well unless he had read him completely wrong, which he very much doubted.

"There will be a lot of details to be worked out," Marcel pointed out knowing that he was going to have quite a fight on his hands to sell this to those in his administration, and in the Pentagon, who had been arguing for months that they should use their control of the Stargate to advance their position in the game of nations. Though if he was honest a lot of those who had been arguing for that were now dead, like so many others keeling over for various reasons after the sudden, violent collapse of the international law firm Wolfram & Hart. Likewise many of those who said the gate should be closed and buried, and that the Goa'uld would go away once they stopped poking at that particular anthill, had also had their numbers decimated by the collapse and its deadly aftermath.

"This is true," Ohper agreed. "However, if you are willing to embark on this course of action both my people and the Asgard will be more than willing to assist you."

"Then let's work out the basics of just how we're going to do this."

Xander's Frigate

Neptune

That Same Time

Xander gave a slight mental sigh of relief the moment he felt the Fortizar's tractor beams release him leaving the Astero-class frigate he was flying floating free beyond the ring of marker buoys that marked the outer docking perimeter. With a thought he used the navigational thrusters to bring the bomber around onto a course that would allow him to warp to Earth orbit in the shortest possible time, while another thought engaged the cloaking device that Astero-class frigates could be, and in this one's, case was, equipped with. Once properly aligned he gave the command to engage the warp drive.

"Warp drive activated," Aura reported as the depleted vacuum bubble formed around the ship, then he was shooting across the system at faster than light speeds. A few checks of other systems showed him that everything was working exactly as it was supposed to, meaning he had little to do but wait while the ship flew towards Earth.

As a result, he found his thoughts, somewhat inevitably, turning back towards what was taking him back to Earth at this time. He still couldn't believe that someone, some apparent higher beings who oversaw the Slayer line, had enchanted Buffy in the way that they had, though her being enchanted would explain a few things he'd noticed about how she'd been behaving towards Angel ever since she'd returned from visiting her father Hank in LA the previous summer. She had gone from being friendly, if somewhat standoffish due to his nature as a vampire albeit one cursed with a human soul, towards wanting to really jump his bones going so far as to use him as a human stripper pole to make the ensouled vampire jealous.

Without teenage hormone fuelled jealousy to colour his thoughts he realized that her infatuation with Angel was a very unhealthy one, one that would no doubt cause them no end of trouble should the ensoulment curse placed on Angel by the Romani for killing one of their most beloved daughters ever somehow be broken and he reverted back to being one of the worst vampires in history. Was that actually one of the goals of the enchantment that these Powers That Be had placed upon Buffy? Though if that was the reason then it begged the question of why on Earth, they would want to do that? It didn't make any sense at all, well unless the PTB much like the Watchers Council didn't see Buffy as a human being but as a weapon/tool in the wider war against the darkness a pawn to be moved around and sacrificed at their leisure. After all there would always be another Slayer.

Mentally he sighed. He had the horrible feeling that that was precisely the reason that they had done it. Thankfully though Mrs Summers had, after getting caught up in Ethan Rayne's spell herself, spotted the problem while talking to Buffy about her unhealthy relationship with Angel. Spotted and informed Giles and started the sequence of events that had led to the Charmed Ones themselves – he had read about the prophecies around them in Giles books over the summer, his interest in the books having pleased the Watcher greatly – being called in to remove the cruel enchantment. Something that they had done though Buffy would now sleep for a few days while her mind and soul healed from the damage it had apparently done to her.

Which was why he was returning to Earth to come and get her, after all what better place to rest and recover from the ordeal than his citadel. The fact that he would also be bringing Giles and the others back with him, which would let him have a much needed conversation with them about this whole capsuleer thing – which if he was honest he was really starting to enjoy being – the Stargate and the Goa'uld, was very much the icing on the cake as Giles would say.

An alert through the system caught his attention and he noted, with some surprise, that he was coming up on the end of the warp tunnel. In a few moments he would be dropping to sublight in Earth orbit. Guess I have been thinking longer than I thought, he thought even as he made the appropriate preparations for normal space reversion. He felt the warp drive power down...

... and the shimmering water-like walls of the warp tunnel gave way to the breath-taking view of Earth orbit. He immediately noticed the presence of the Nox and Asgard ships in orbit on his sensors. Both were in a different orbit to him and either didn't know, or knew and didn't care, about his arrival as it would depend if they could see through his cloak. For a few minutes he waited to see if they would react, but they didn't, before hailing Giles on the QEC device he'd left with him. Immediately an image of the Watcher appeared in his mind's eye, and he knew Giles would be seeing a projection of him.

"Giles I am in orbit," he thought spoke, not that he could do anything else while in the capsule given that the throat and lungs of his physical body were full of fluid, knowing that the system would translate his thought speech into actual words. "Have you reached the park?"

"We have Xander," Giles replied as he did so he faintly heard what sounded a bit like Willow's voice saying something about how he's here already. "We have been looking around, but I don't believe that there is anywhere here that you can land without leaving some kind of mark behind."

"That's alright I anticipated that might be the case. I'm beginning my descent now; I'll be there shortly. While I make my way down you should make your way to the most open area you can find, it will make it much easier for me to bring you aboard. Also, when you get there stand as close together as you can as to do this, I am going to have to drop my cloak and I don't want that down for too long."

"Will do. Will we need to contact you when we get there?"

"No I will remotely activate a beacon signal on the QEC device. Just make sure you have it with you."

"Will do we will see you in a couple of minutes then."

"See you in a few minutes G-Man."

A thought closed down the communications link while also giving the command to the QEC device to begin broadcasting a homing signal. Then he began the somewhat tricky process of entering the Earth's atmosphere. It wasn't an easy thing to do especially as like almost all New Eden spacecraft the Astero had the atmospheric manoeuvring characteristics of a brick relying entirely on a combination of advanced anti-gravitational technology and sheer brute force than aerodynamics. Still, he would manage it…

…for his friends he would manage anything.

Wilkins Memorial Park

Sunnydale, California

A Short Time Later

Willow Rosenberg shivered at the cold wind blowing in off the ocean tonight. It was now markedly colder than it had been just an hour and a half ago when patrolling with Buffy had ended for the night, a sure sign that the storm that the National Weather Service had been tracking for the last few days was almost here and would soon dump a good few centimetre of rain on this part of California. She really wasn't happy about being out here again tonight – she would have rather been at home going through the handful of books on magic that she had searching for away to return Xander to normal. She was convinced, despite what Kowalski said, that there had to be away to do it. Unfortunately, so far, she had found nothing, well nothing that didn't support the notion that such a fundamental change to a person's very nature could not be undone by even the most powerful of magics. Still, she would keep looking as there had to be away, there had to be. She would get her Xander-shaped friend back, back where she could control him as left to his own devices, he would be far too irresponsible.

It was only because of that, and the fact that she wanted to let him know in person that she would search and search until she found away to get him back to normal, that she had come out here when Giles had called her and filled her in on everything. While she had acted surprised that Buffy had been enchanted, she really wasn't she'd already sensed the enchantment was there as it had made manipulating the Slayer into chasing after Angel – and thus keeping Buffy's hands away from her Xander – far easier as all she had had to do was do the good supportive friend bit. Of course the fact that the enchantment had now been removed was troublesome, still she was certain that given time she would be able to get Buffy back together with Angel as he was a handsome figure and Buffy had far too much of the valley girl mindset – which would be oh so easy to manipulate – about her to look past Angels good looks.

Glancing around she grimaced at the sight of the big downside to being out here tonight, well beyond the fact that it was bloody cold. The other former members of The Pack and Cordelia were all present as well, she would have rather sent them all packing. The mean kids and the rich bitch who had made her scholastic life hell since Junior High had, in her mind, absolutely no right being here. They were not true friends of Xander, not like her, and thus should leave and leave now – they definitely shouldn't be taken across the solar system to a giant space station by him. Unfortunately, she knew Giles and Jenny would never allow her to send them away as they should, and she needed access to their libraries of magic tomes to risk alienating them.

A bleep from the QEC device that Xander had apparently given Giles brought her out of her thoughts. She watched as Giles took out the device – which she really would love to look at so she could figure out how it worked, Dawn looked like she wanted to do the same – and pressed a button on it. Causing a hologram of Xander as he currently was to appear above it.

"Is everybody ready," Xander asked. "I can see your all together are you ready?"

"Ready for what and what do you mean you can see us," Willow demanded.

Xander rolled his eyes at her, much to her annoyance as that was not something he normally did with her. "Look up Wills," he said.

Willow frowned but did as she was told. For a moment all she saw was the star studded night sky then there was a shimmer and a ripple of silver-white light and a large metal object – looking like an oblong block with two curved wings at the rear – appeared. She felt her mouth drop open at the sight of a real starship, a real life interstellar vessel that Xander was controlling due to being merged with the ship. Something that while it sounded cool was fundamentally unnatural to her mind, even more unnatural than the existence of vampires, and thus should cease to exist and it would when she figured out how to turn Xander back to normal.

"We're ready for whatever you're going to do Xander," she heard Giles say as a pair of doors on the spaceship underside opened, revealing a bay on the underside and she could faintly see something in the bay.

"Okay brace yourselves everyone as this can be disconcerting," Xander replied a moment before a diffuse blue fan of light shot out from the device in the bay and enveloped them all. Willow felt a strange tingling sensation across her whole body, it was almost like static electricity but wasn't painful at all. What in the world is this, she thought before shrieking in alarm as she felt her feet leave the floor.

She took comfort in the fact that she wasn't the only one startled as she heard startled yelps from Heidi, Cordelia and Dawn. Surrounded by the blue light they rose higher and higher into the air, to the point that she could practically see all of Sunnydale around them. Then they were inside the ship and stopped ascending, instead they floated there in the air for several seconds as the bay doors below them closed and sealed with a whirring click. With unbelievable gentleness the beam lowered them all to the bay floor before shutting down.

"Whoa what the hell was that," Kyle said as he tried to get his breath back as he had so not been expecting to be picked up and swept into the ship by an energy beam of all things. A shiver ran through the deck and he faintly – with the enhanced hearing all the pack had had since the incident – heard an increased rumbling whirring sound. "What's that rumbling?"

"It's just the engines powering up to take us back into orbit," a hologram of Xander said as it appeared nearby, "I could engage the warp drive here but I don't anybody in Sunnydale would like it as it would certainly blow out every window in town. As for the energy beam Kyle that was just a simple tractor beam."

"What's with the hologram Harris," Tor asked.

"Much as I would like to be with you in person now I can't," Xander replied, "since I'm in the capsule in a room just behind on what a non-capsuleer vessel would be the bridge flying the ship. We're cloaked again now and will be back in orbit in another minute or two."

"How come we're not feeling any acceleration," Dawn asked.

"Inertial dampeners Dawn. Without them you would already be pinned to the wall by the gee forces, to saying nothing of what would happen to you when we go to warp. Now if you'll follow this hologram upstairs I will show you all to a crew lounge where you can wait until we dock with the Fortizar."

"Fortizar is that the station's name," Giles asked as they all began following the hologram, he kept an eye on Joyce who was carrying the currently unconscious form of Buffy. Thankfully she seemed to indeed have the full strength of a Slayer and showed no sign of dropping her.

"No, it's just its class I haven't gotten around to naming it yet."

"Understandable," Giles admitted, "It has been quite a hectic few days."

"That's an understatement," the Xander hologram replied as they ascended a flight of steps and passed through a bulkhead door that looked like it could be sealed in the event of an emergency. He then began leading them down a corridor. "Hard to believe it's only been three days since Halloween. Certainly, feels longer."

"It does," Giles agreed thinking of everything that had happened over the last few days. He almost didn't notice when they came to the end of the corridor and a set of double doors opened revealing a small but comfortable looking lounge beyond with the entire far wall being made up of windows. Through which they could see the stars getting brighter as the ship finished passing through the atmosphere.

"You'll be comfortable here," Xander said, "if you need anything jus…. Ugh oh."

"What is it," Joyce asked not liking the way the hologram had said ugh oh.

"Sensors are picking up a spatial disturbance similar to a cynosural field forming nearby," Xander replied looking concerned. "I'll be back in a moment." No sooner than he finished speaking Xander's hologram shimmered out of existence.

"What's a cynosural field," Tor asked.

"I have no idea."

Xander dismissed his holographic projection to give the phenomenon forming nearby his full attention. The readings were almost identical to the energy portals that the Nox and Asgard ships had created when they'd jumped into their form of FTL propulsion. Almost but in some ways less powerful and not quite as close to those emitted by an activated cynosural field. Visually it also looked different as while the portals generated by the Nox and Asgard ships had looked like white-green whirlpools in space this one was purple and looked for all the world like a giant bruise in space.

His readings spiked at the same time the phenomenon pulsed. And four large ships – that looked like giant flying pyramids of all things – came charging back into normal space, the phenomenon disappearing behind them. It was immediately obvious that the ships were warships and according to the sensors they were composed of the same elements that had made up the debris field he'd spotted in orbit of Earth a few days earlier. Mentally he groaned in annoyance and wondered just who it was who had taunted that divine bastard Murphy this time as while he wasn't quite sure who these warships belonged to there presence here and now could not be a good thing. Something that was obvious when all four ships raised energy shields – albeit somewhat primitive ones by New Eden standards – and began powering up their weapons systems.

This was definitely not good.

Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it, and my little cliff-hanger there at the end with the appearance of the Goa'uld. Needless to say in the next chapter Jack is really, really going to regret that he taunted Murphy in the way that he did a few chapters back. How they get out of this, this time well you'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out. Hopefully it won't be nearly as long in coming as this one was though as always it does depend on the cooperation of my muse. Until next time.