Thanks for the reviews. After reading the story that the reviewers were talking about, I agree that the concept of how Willow meets the SGC is similar. So I contacted the author of the other story and asked her if this story was too similar to her own. The author did not mind if I continued this particular concept and provided me a website from where she received her inspiration to write her particular story. I can PM the address to the reviewers if they so wish. While my story seems to be similar to that particular challenge, I do not intend to follow the rules of that that particular challenge. *
Briefing Room, SGC, 0900 hours.
Willow slowly opened her eyes, only to find herself lying on her side, on a bed, and facing a gray wall where a framed painting of Saturn hung next to a framed painting of a space shuttle. This wasn't her room. Sighing, Willow recalled the events of the previous night: casting the stupid wishing spell, the wishes she made, endangering her friends, her attempt to dispell her spell, her friends anger and disappointment, and then her wish which brought her to a military base. Heck, she didn't even know if she was still in Sunnydale.
Willow slowly sat up, rubbed her groggy eyes, and then threw aside the blanket. She was sleeping in the same clothes as the previous day. Willow could remember being escorted by Dr. Fraiser and two guards to this VIP room. The first and only thing she did after thanking Dr. Fraiser and the guards was to close the door behind her, then climb onto the bed, and close her eyes.
'I just went to sleep,' Willow thought, 'The spell, it tired me out. I'm still feeling weak but I need to completely end the wishing spell.'
Willow closed her eyes, concentrated, and gathered what magical energy she could as she repeated the full reversal spell so that her wishes would not take shape anymore. It was a few seconds later that she felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. Opening her eyes, she now realized that everything was alright. The spell was completely discontinued.
'I must have been nervous last night,' thought Willow to herself as she turned and placed her feet on the cold floor, 'I saw the others hurt and... and I must have missed the key part of the spell.'
Willow looked up when she heard someone knocking on the door. She was suddenly nervous once again. She was on a military base after all, most likely an Air Force base. But she couldn't recall there being any Air Force bases in Sunnydale. 'There's an Army based, I think.'
Trying push away a gnawing fear in the pit of her soul, Willow gathered some confidence and said, "come in." She stood up as a dark-haired woman in fatigues walked in carrying a covered tray of food. There was another woman at the door carrying a folded set of dark grey clothes. The first woman placed the tray on the nearby table before taking the clothes from the other guard and handing them to Willow.
"Ma'am," said the Airman as she stepped back, "General Hammond would like to debrief you in forty-five minutes. Those BDU's have been provided for you to wear on base." She the motioned towards the tray and said, "There is also some breakfast from the Mess Hall. When you're ready, please just knock on the door and we'll escort you to the briefing room."
Willow nodded her head and said, "thanks." Before she could forget, Willow asked the guards, "where am I? Am I still in Sunnydale?"
She noticed the two women sharing a strange look. The first guard turned her head towards Willow and said, "General Hammond will explain everything."
Willow rubbed the back of her head and thanked her once again.
The Airman nodded her head before turning around and heading out the door. Once the door closed, Willow turned towards the tray of food. Her stomach rumbled.
'I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday,' thought Willow to herself as she took off the cover and looked at the bread, eggs, and tator-tots on the plate, 'but after what I did, I don't have any appetite.'
"Eat something, Will," Willow whispered to herself before picking up a fork, and then some tator-tots, "at least that's what Xander would say. But then again, after what I did… I don't think he'll want to talk to me without thinking - 'oh look, here's Willow. Better watch out! She'll make you a magnet for demons'."
Willow shook her head before taking a seat on the chair. She forced herself to finish her food. Once she was done, she took off her day old clothes, took a quick shower, and then put on the provided BDU's. Once she was done, she opened the door.
"I'm ready," said the redhead. The two female Airmen nodded their heads before escorting Willow down different corridors until they reached an elevator lobby. Stepping inside one of the elevators, one of her guards pressed the button for the twenty-seventh floor. It took a few moments for the elevator to move down towards the twenty-seventh floor. Willow wondered how deep they were going, and then she wondered why they were going deep down into the base. But she was afraid to ask. Upon exiting the elevator, they headed down a brightly lit corridor until they reached a large room with a red table in the middle.
'The same table I landed on,' thought Willow to herself, 'at least I think so.'
"General Hammond," said one of the Airmen as they stood either side of Willow while the General, and four others who were seated around the table stood up.
"Thank you," said the General as the female Airmen nodded their heads before turning around and walking away.
"Good morning, Miss Rosenberg," the General said, "I hope you had a good rest and something to eat?" As he spoke, the General motioned for her to take a seat. Willow nervously went to the seat that the General indicated while nervously looking around at the people around her. The only person she didn't see was Dr. Fraiser.
"Yes, thanks," said Willow as she sat on the comfortable high backed chair.
After sitting down, Willow nervously glanced at the General; he was a bald man with a fatherly look about him. Hammond then properly introduced the others who were seated around the table; Colonel Jack O'Neill, the one with a bit of graying hair was seated next to General Hammond on her side of the table and a couple of chairs away from her. On the other side of the table, she was once again introduced to Major Samantha Carter; followed by Dr. Daniel Jackson, a man wearing a pair of glasses with short brown hair who Willow thought looked kind of attractive. And seated next to him beside him was the tall muscular man from the infirmary; he was wearing a cap then so Willow hadn't seen the strange gold colored tattoo on his forehead.
"Hi," Willow sheepishly said, giving them a small wave.
"Miss Rosenberg," said the General after introductions were complete, "we have many questions to ask you, the most important being how you got here. As I told you in the infirmary, you somehow managed to appear in one of the most secure facilities on the face of the planet, and that is a really big security breach. I just need to find out if you are a security threat, do you understand?"
"Willow," said Daniel as he leaned forward, "we just need you to answer our questions honestly."
"Willow, yesterday you said you cast a wishing spell, is that right?" asked Major Carter, her voice relaying scepticism.
"Yes, that's right. I don't know how it exactly works since I'm still a beginner in all this magic stuff," Willow replied.
"I'm sorry, Willow," Carter said leaning forward, "the scientist in me finds that kind of hard to believe. Everything has an explanation. Just because we don't have an explanation, doesn't mean it is magic." Major Carter turned towards Daniel, "What do you think Daniel?"
"Well, it is unexplainable but then again, ancient cultures also believed that certain events; events that we have scientific explanations for today, were happening because of magic. In a way you're right, Sam, just because there isn't an explanation, doesn't mean that there is magic involved," said Daniel.
"Well, all of us were here when she just fell out of thin air and onto this table. It's definitely unexplainable. Maybe it is magic, who knows," said the Colonel.
"Willow Rosenberg, can you give us some addition proof of what you claim to be magic?" Murray asked in a stoic voice.
"I can try something simple; the spell yesterday took a lot out of me. But there's something that I can try... I mean it's something I've been reading before I cast the wishing spell," said Willow as she held out her hand over the briefing room table with her palm facing upwards.
Willow concentrated on the space over her palm. She kept calm, taking deep breaths in and slowly exhaling while reaching for the little magical power she held in reserve following the various wishes made yesterday. She had been practising this spell for sometime before her life was upturned. It was the few seconds of waiting, of nothing happening, that had Major Carter and the others looking at each other with frowns.
Suddenly, a ball of yellow light started to appear out of thin air over Willow's palm. Everyone in the room was stunned. Major Carter and Daniel were just staring with their mouths wide open in surprise as the ball of light continued to coalesce and grow until it was the size of a grapefruit.
The ball of light flickered as Willow's eyes narrowed, highlighting her increased concentration. Almost immediately, the ball of light stabilized and remained floating over her palm. Teal'c stared at the ball of light with his head tilted to the left and an eyebrow raised, while Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond just looked at each other and then at the light. Finally Teal'c, or Murray, which was the name Willow knew him by, stood up and used his hands to sweep over and under the space between the palm of Willow's hand and the light. He noticed that the light would slightly float up and then down. Finding no trickery he sat down, looked at Willow, and bowed his head respectfully. Then it was the General's turn to try looking for any tricks. He too had no success in finding an explanation, and even gasped when he put his hand through the light itself... feeling just air.
It was then Major Carter's turn as she rushed over to Willow before placing her hand close to the light with her eyes opened wide in surprise. Carter said she could not feel any heat being emitted, so it wasn't some form of telekinesis that could vibrate the molecules of air over the redhead's palm and create light. Carter reiterated the ball was just made of light before asking Willow how she was doing it.
"Magic," said Willow, sweat gathering on her forehead while a confused Major Carter walked back to her seat. Her eyes still staring at the light.
"Are you alright, Willow?" asked Daniel with a look of worry.
"I used a lot of magic last night, so keeping this light on with whatever magic I have left is a bit... tiring," Willow replied with a smile.
"Alright, Miss Rosenberg, You can dissipate the light," the General said before watching the ball of light vanish before his eyes. Willow put her palm down as the General added, "I believe you."
"Sir, I still can't believe what I saw. It's incredible" said Major Carter looking at the General, and then at Colonel O'Neill.
Just then, Walter Harriman, one of the technicians at Stargate Command, rushed in to have a quiet word with the General.
"General, SG5 is due back in 30 minutes from that archeological survey. They are bringing in some materials for Dr. Jackson to examine," he whispered into the General's ear.
"Very well. Thank you, Walter. Alright, everyone, I have to contact the President about what we learned here." Looking at Willow, General Hammond then said, "And then, based on his advice, we'll see where we go from there."
"Wait, you have a direct line to the president?" asked Willow in surprise.
"Yes we do," he replied.
Willow was surprised, "I just have one more question. What do you all do here? And where am I?"
"Well, we're in Colorado Springs. As for our work, it involves Deep Space Radar Telemetry. We keep an eye out for asteroids, work with satellites, rovers that go to Mars, and other stuff like that. Mostly telescopes, they're sweet," said Colonel O'Neill before pointing towards Daniel, "Daniel, here also heads up the archeological division for the local museums. We warehouse some of the artifacts collected in another section of this facility," he lied.
"Sounds exciting," Willow replied.
"Anyway, Daniel, don't you have that thing you have to do with that artifact thingy?" asked the Colonel.
"Yea, I do actually. Ah... Murray, I think I might need your help in translating some of that... stuff."
"Very well," replied Teal'c as he stood up.
"Maybe I can help? I used to help Giles with a lot of his research and that involved translating some weird old languages. Did I say I am good at research and computers and electronic stuff?" babbled Willow excitedly with her eyes wide open. She looked like a kid who just entered a candy store and was amazed by everything she saw.
"Tell you what, kid? How about we leave these guys to their work until we can get your background check completed and security status cleared? I'm not doing anything now, so let's go get some pie, the blueberry ones in the Mess Hall are really good." said the colonel before looking at Carter who stood up, "Hey Carter, I know you don't have anything to do, let's go. I'm sure you're dying to ask her some more questions".
"I am, actually," the Major replied before Willow and Colonel O'Neill followed her through the hallways while the General went back into his office and picked up the red phone on his table.
"This is Hammond," said the General, "get me the President."
To Be Continued