Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in any of the shows. If I did, boy
would I have some fun?
Distribution:
The Mystic Muse http://mysticmuse.net
Spoilers: BtVS/Angel and Stargate.
Author's Notes: This is a little AU, besides the crossover with the two
shows. 'Cause I love Tara' she never died, (she was just wounded, but Willow
still did a number on Warren and tried ending the world.) (The same goes for
Amanda she didn't die in the Hellmouth.) and Cordelia came out of her coma after
Jasmine died. I'm making Dawn and Cassandra (Dr Janet Frasier's stepdaughter,)
the same age. I'm not sure if this would work out as Stargate seasons stand at
the moment, but assume it corresponds with the present season after Daniel has
returned set in 2005 so everything that has happened on SGC has to have 1 years
added. ALSO very importantly, Willow's 'slayer' spell only activated those
potentials that were present in the school, but if and when any of those die
another will be activated. Oh almost forgot Colonel Maybourne didn't go
'rogue'??? Ok so it's more than a little AU.
Set a couple of years after 'Chosen'. The whole gang moved to Cleveland after
closing the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Giles and Robin Woods, with the help of the
Coven and those few surviving watchers (6), rebuilt the council, which is now
based in Cleveland, and the two spend their time traveling the world to find any
potential slayers, which they send to Buffy and the gang to train.
After graduating from High school Dawn was accepted to PennState, where she
meets her new roommate Cassandra.
Thanks to the following people who helped me with this story: irishwavefan,
Electronis Zappa. I have been trying to contact my beta Hilary for six months
now (I hope she is okay!) so I am posting this story un-betad.
Pairing: Willow/Tara Buffy/Faith
Summary: The Cleveland Gang meets some new allies.
Sunday morning
PennState campus
"I don't see why Daniel and I have to carry all the bags!" groaned Jack O'Neill as he struggled down the hall with two large heavy suitcases.
"'Cause you both love me and I'm just a weak young woman," Cassandra smiled sweetly at the Colonel as she walked with her mother just ahead of the two men.
"Yeah right a weak pain in the ass..." Jack began before he saw the disapproving look aimed at him by Janet Frasier. "I meant that in a good way," he explained to her. "So do you know who you'll be sharing with?" he asked changing the subject.
"Ah yeah, her name is Dawn, Dawn Summers, I haven't met her yet, just e- mailed each other," Cassandra said as she stopped at a door, "Here it is," she said unlocking it and entering.
Cassandra had been lucky with the room, it turned out that Major Samantha Carter knew several of the faculty and had got them to pull a few strings, that was why she was now looking at a quite spacious room, it had two single beds along with two desks, a couple of easy chairs and two large closets as well as its own bathroom. 'Oh I must do something nice for Sam,' she thought looking around.
"Just put the cases by the desk," Cassandra pointed to the desk on the left, "I'll unpack the books later."
"Books! I was carrying books!" growled Jack.
"Oh come on Jack you're not seriously telling me you thought my clothes were that heavy?" laughed Cassandra.
"Dawn is it much further?" groaned Xander following the young woman down the corridor, carrying two large suitcases.
"Quit moaning Xander at least you're not carrying her books," pointed out Buffy looking over the top of a large box filled almost to over flowing with some of Giles spare books he had been willing to loan her for her studies on ancient languages and myths.
Dawn smiled at Xander, "No just a little further," she said before turning to her sister, "So did Willow finish her checks into any unexplained deaths in the area?"
"What checks?" edged Buffy.
Dawn stopped suddenly almost causing Xander to collide with her, "Oh please Buffy, I'm not stupid! I know you've had Willow and Tara checking the University and the town out for almost a month now. I'm only surprised you haven't assigned a slayer here just in case..." Buffy blushed, "You have haven't you?" Dawn said in outrage.
Buffy did a quick check to make sure no one was close enough to overhear, "Kennedy is renting a small apartment nearby... Dawn we all talked about it, Giles is worried that if anyone found out that you're the Key it could cause problems for everyone... Dawn don't ever think any of us will stop worrying about you. Kennedy is only there just in case, she'll just do standard slayer things, you will not even know she's there, but if anything happens you can call her for help and she'll come right over."
Dawn didn't say anything for several moments staring at her sister assessing her statement; she nodded, "Okay as long as she doesn't start popping up in the places where I'll be hanging out," she said as she started moving towards her new dorm room again.
Dawn had been lucky; a former collage friend of Robin Woods worked in the administration department and arranged for her to be assigned a room with its own bathroom. After her experience in Sunnydale sharing one bathroom with over two dozen other girls she had swore she would avoid similar situations in the future. She would still have to share with her roommate but at least she would not have to get up at six in the morning to stand a chance of a hot shower.
Dawn could see the door was open and hear voices coming from inside, "Here it is," she announced as she entered the room occupied by a young brunette about her age, an older woman of about forty, a man with glasses about the same age, 'Must be Cassandra's parents!' thought Dawn, and an older looking man with greying hair.
Cassandra walked over to Dawn holding out her hand, "Hi you must be Dawn? I'm Cassandra but my friends call me Cassie," she said shaking Dawn's hand.
"Hi nice to meet you," smiled Dawn before pointing to Buffy and Xander as they entered, Xander put down the cases and Buffy looked around for somewhere to put the box of books. "This is my sister Buffy and our friend Xander Harris," she introduced them.
"Hi pleased to meet you," said Cassie returning the smile then turning and indicating the others in the room with her, "This is my mum Doctor Janet Frasier, Colonel Jack O'Neill he's in the Air Force and Daniel Jackson who works with them back home," she explained.
"Here let me help you with that," said Daniel moving towards Buffy and the obviously heavy box of books.
"Its fine, I got it," said Buffy placing it on the right hand desk.
Daniel glanced at the top book intrigued, he picked it up, 'Myths and their relationship to modern living by Nicholas Jackson,' he smiled as he held it with some reverence, opening the cover he let out a gasp, "Oh my god it's a first addition! I thought I had the only one left?" He turned to Dawn, "Where did you find it?"
Dawn walked over smiling at him, "It and most of the others belong to a friend of ours called Rupert Giles, he lent them to me for my studies," she explained before frowning when she noticed the author's name, "Jackson! Any relation?" she asked him.
"Yes he's my grandfather; he wrote it shortly after leaving university. When I was small, I use to fall asleep as he read from it at my bedtime..." Daniel stopped as he heard Jack and Dawn's friend Xander say under their breaths, "I can relate to that," before smirking at each other. Daniel gave Jack a slightly hurt look before finishing, "That more than anything got me into archaeology."
Buffy frowned as she looked intensely at Daniel, "What's an archaeologist doing working for the Air Force?"
Very worried looks appeared on the faces of the four people from Colorado . "I ah... advise on the hmm... impact on ah historical sites that are ah... earmarked for mmm... military bases etc, I also give my input on situations involving primitive cultures," Daniel explained quickly.
"Oh I see that explains it then I guess!" said Buffy with a forced smile on her face. She turned to her sister, "Do you need any help only I just remembered I need to get back to the office, something important has come up."
Dawn drew her sister into a hug, "No I'm good, just call me when you get home okay?"
"Love you," sighed Buffy as she pulled away, she handed Dawn a card, "Kennedy's numbers," she explained as she saw her sister frown at the card, "Just in case."
Dawn nodded, "Thanks Buffy."
Buffy turned to the others in the room, "It was nice to meet you, but I need to get back to work, maybe we'll meet again when I have more time," she said giving them an apologetic smile before turning for the door.
Dawn followed her sister and Xander to the door, where Xander grabbed her into a bear hug, "Bye quirt, I gotta be down this way next month to start on a new office block so I'll come and visit ok," he said as Dawn squeaked in surprise at the sudden hug.
"Okay Xander," smiled Dawn, "Bye Buffy, bye Xand, love you," she said closing the door.
As the two friends walked along the corridor from Dawn's room the slayer flipped open her phone, she waited until the other end was answered, "Kennedy, it's me; you'll need to be careful, Dawn knows you're here, for my sake and yours don't let her catch you watching her."
"How did she find out? No don't tell me you let it slip out. Buffy I can see now how everyone found out you were the slayer!" Kennedy said teasing her fellow slayer.
"Yeah, yeah very funny," sighed Buffy, "Ah you got a spare bed in your apartment?"
"Hmmm about that Buffy, when my dad found out I was coming here he insisted that I use our town house at style='mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"'>Teaberry Ridge, so yeah I got spare beds, why are you going to stay in town?"
"No Dawn would spot me in a minute, no I was thinking of sending the slayer Manda that Giles found in Mexico, the one that appeared when Chao- Ahn was killed in Hong Kong last month, Dawn won't know her."
"Okay, call me when you get back to the office with the details. Anything else?"
"Yes keep an eye on Dawn's roommate, she has family in the military and something that they said in passing didn't seem right, I'll get Willow to send any information she digs up," Buffy told the younger slayer.
"Okay see you soon, and don't worry I won't let anything happen to Dawn. Bye Buffy," said Kennedy before disconnecting.
The slayer looked over to Xander as they got in the rental car, "Let's get back to base as quickly as we can I want Will to check out Dawn's new roommate and her friends, and why an archaeologist is working with the military?"
"With you there Buff, I didn't buy their explanation either!" said Xander as he buckled up. As Buffy pulled away he dialled a number on his phone, "Its Xander, we're coming back now, we'll be there in about half an hour have the jet ready," he told their pilot.
"Strange girl," commented Jack as Dawn closed the door.
"She's okay; she's had to give up a lot including college to look after me after mum died. She's CEO of a Security, come Bodyguard Company she and some of her friends started when we moved to Cleveland a couple of years ago," Dawn said trying to explain her sister's sudden exit.
"She's in security? But she's so small," Cassandra observed, who like Dawn stood at 5'9", to Buffy's 5'1½", the half inch was very important to her, before she could censor herself, she blushed as Dawn looked at her, "Sorry that came out wrong," she apologised.
Dawn gave a little laugh, "No its okay, her height or lack of, has always annoyed her but don't let that fool you she could take everyone in this room out without breaking a sweat," she said with more than a little pride.
"I don't think so," put in Jack.
Dawn smiled at him, "Whatever," she said shrugging her shoulders. "I think I'm gonna start unpacking," she looked at Daniel, "Wanna help."
"Sure I'd be happy too," nodded Daniel beginning to take the books from the box and place them on the shelves above the desk as Dawn unpacked her laptop.
With Janet and Jack helping Cassandra, the five finished the unpacking in no time. Jack looked around from the desk where he had finish putting Cassandra's books away, "Okay campers what do you say I treat everyone to a burger?"
They all piled into Jack's rental car with Janet sharing the back with Cassandra and Dawn. Daniel turned to look into the back, Dawn had been very quiet since her sister had left, she sat staring out of the window, "Anything wrong Dawn?"
She looked over at him, smiling weakly, "Just missing Buffy and my friends back in Cleveland, it just struck me that this is the first time since mum died that I've been away from Buffy for more than a couple of days. Plus all the anxiety of classes et cetera, I want to make sure I don't let Giles down, he arranged for me to get a full scholarship."
Cassandra took Dawn's hand squeezing it slightly, "This will be my first time away from home as well we'll help each other," she said smiling at her new friend.
"So from your accent you are not from the Cleveland area but originally from southern California ?" deduced Daniel trying to draw the young girl out.
"Ah yeah, I was born in LA, then when I was twelve my mum and dad got divorced and I moved to a town called Sunnydale just up the coast with mum and Buffy. Buffy and I were with the last group to get out before the town fell into a big hole. We only move to Cleveland two years ago," Dawn explained her life in brief.
"Wow I remember seeing that on the news, said it was the big one. Were you scared?" asked Cassandra.
Dawn smirked, "No I was to frightened to be scared," she laughed.
"Was that how you lost your mother?" asked Janet, her maternal instinct coming to the fore.
Dawn shook her head, "No she had a brain tumour, there were complications after the operation... B-Buffy fo-ound her body, s-she had to com-me to tell-tell me at schoool," she explained tears standing in her eyes; she wiped them on her sleeve. "Sorry," she said quietly.
"That's alright dear, I'm sorry that I've opened old wounds when we were just trying to cheer you up," apologised Janet.
"It just hurts and what makes it harder is that there isn't a grave we can visit and put flowers... ya know," Dawn tried to explain how she felt but unable to put it into words. On the couple of occasions she had a major fight with Buffy since they moved east, she had laid the blame and guilt she felt on her sister, it had been her idea to attack the First in the Hellmouth, which in turn had swallowed the town. She had apologised afterwards but could still see the hurt in Buffy's eyes and knew she blamed herself for the pain Dawn felt as well as her own.
Jack pulled over and parked the car, "Well I always say there is nothing that takes away your troubles like fast food," he said beginning to climb out of the car.
Dawn smiled at him as they all piled out of the car, "You sound like Xander, he thinks fast food is the cure for everything."
"He sounds like a very wise man, you should listen to him," replied Jack with a perfectly straight face.
"If I did that I'd be about 300 lbs of fat," giggled Dawn.
"Not to mention suffering from some serious health problems," pointed out Janet as she followed the others, she looked at Dawn, "Although on this occasion I would proscribe ice cream and a video."
"We should listen to her, she is a doctor after all," put in Cassandra smiling, "We can pick up everything before we go back."
They grabbed a table while Jack went to order their food. Daniel looked over at Dawn, "So from the selection of books I helped you unpack I would guess you are studying Mythology and Ancient languages! What made you choose those subjects?"
"Giles. We met him when we moved to Sunnydale, he was the high school librarian, Buffy and her friends use to hang out there all the time and occasionally he would come to dinner, Buffy and I think he may have dated our mum a couple of times... Anyway when he moved to Sunnydale he brought all these old books with him, at first he wouldn't let me touch them thinking I'd damage them but as I got older that changed one time just after mum died Buffy had to go somewhere so she dropped me off at Giles. He doesn't have a TV so I started looking through his books, no one was more surprised than me to find that I seem to have a natural talent for ancient languages and I've always been interested in mythology," explained Dawn.
"This Giles, where did he get all those books he lent you, some are quite rare?" asked Daniel.
"He brought most of them from England I think! He was a curator at some museum there. Luckily, he took most of his books with him before Sunnydale got sucked into the ground."
"Really, what museum? I may know him," asked Daniel curiously.
"It never came up, I can ask him next time I talk to him, as I said his full name is Rupert Giles," explained Dawn.
"Hmmm that name sounds familiar," mused Daniel.
Dawn turned to Cassandra who sat next to her, "So what are you studying?" she asked.
"I'm interested in Astrophysics, PennState has some of the best Professors in the country," Cassandra said with more than a little enthusiasm.
"Eww too much like maths for me, you should meet my friend Willow she's great at maths and computers. I'll introduce you to her, she's promised to visit soon," said Dawn.
"That would be great. It would be nice to talk to someone other than Sam about my favourite subject."
"Sam?" frowned Dawn.
"Yeah Major Samantha Carter she's an astrophysicist back home, she helped me a lot," explained Cassandra, she smirked over at her mother, "Although I think mum would have preferred me to become a doctor!"
"Cassie dear, yes it would have been nice to see you become a doctor but as I've told you many times, it's your life and as long as you're happy I'll be happy," Janet told her daughter taking her hand as Jack place the tray of food on the table.
Cassandra looked around at the smiling faces, "Mum you're grossing me out," everyone laughed.
Dawn leaned over and stage whispered in Cassandra's ear, "That's part of mother training 101, 'How to gross out your daughter'." Cassandra giggled.
Janet gave the two young women her 'mum' look, "I can see you two are going to be a bad influence on each other!" she said shaking her head. Both girls just giggled as they picked up their burgers.
After their meal, they stopped at the nearest Uni Mart store to pick up items to fill their mini fridge as well as a couple of videos for their ice cream and video night.
After putting the food away, Cassandra rose to look at the only mother she could remember. She had found that as the years passed that she could no longer picture her birth mother's face, at first she had cried herself to sleep but as the years had gone by the pain had eased, she was still sad but no longer cried. She had tears in her eyes, this was the part she had feared most, her mother leaving, she flew into her mum's arms hugging her tightly.
Janet held her daughter gently stroking her hair, "Don't cry dear, Sam and I are only a phone call away and you have Dawn here with you."
Cassandra gently pulled out of her mother's arms, smiling wanly, "I know... I'll miss you and Sam, you have both done so much for me," she wiped her eyes then turned to Jack and Daniel hugging them both, "I'll miss both of you as well, give my love to Teal'c."
Jack looked a little embarrassed at the idea of passing on Cassandra's message to the large Jaffa, "Ah I'll hmm do that," he told her.
Janet smiled at Jack before turning to Cassandra, "Don't worry I'll tell him. I'll phone you from DC tomorrow night, see how you got on with your first day of classes."
"Okay, you three should go before I start crying," Cassandra said moving to open the door.
As Jack and Daniel passed her the Colonel reach out and ruffled Cassandra's hair, "See you Cassie," he smiled, "Bye Dawn."
"Bye Jack, Daniel. Don't worry I'll look after her Janet, it was nice meeting you," Dawn said.
Cassandra quickly hugged her mum again, "Bye mum, talk to you tomorrow," she told her.
"Everything will be alright, you'll see," Janet reassured Cassandra as she left the room.
Cassandra closed the door and turned to Dawn who stood by her desk unsure what to do, "So ice cream?"
Dawn smiled, "Ice cream," she nodded, "Which video do you wanna watch first?"
Watchful Security
(Watcher Headquarters)
Cleveland
Buffy pushed the door open and entered the lobby waving to the receptionist before walking down the corridor to her office, she stopped at Amanda's desk, who doubled as her secretary as well as a slayer; "Everything okay?" she asked.
"Ah yeah we got a call from Jim MacLean, he got back to Bombay with Chandi and Carma safely, they are going to stay in Bombay for a few weeks while Jim finishes setting up his network then he said he'd leave Chandi with a friend he said would make a good Watcher while he and Carma travel around as sort of a roving slayer. Oh and Manda just got in, I assigned Vi to start her training and there are three messages on your desk," Amanda reported.
"Okay, give the details on India to Willow and Tara to checkout. Can you have Vi send Manda to my office I have something for her to do, she'll be going out to join Kennedy," Buffy told her.
"Don't tell me... Dawn found out about Kennedy and you want Manda there because Dawn won't know her!" giggled Amanda.
"Yeah, yeah so I can't fool Dawn," Buffy waved her arms in the air as she pushed her door open.
Faith got up from the desk she routinely shared with Buffy, and walked around to greet her girlfriend giving her a deep passionate kiss and caressing the blonde's breast lightly, taking the other senior slayer's breath away. She released Buffy and grabbed her leather jacket by the door, "Bye B, see you in about a week."
Buffy's arm snapped out grabbing Faith's upper arm, "Wait, what do you mean, 'see you in a week'?"
Faith smirked at the blonde, "Aleksandra called again, that master vampire in St. Petersburg is proving a bigger problem than she first thought, so I thought I'd take Toku to give her some field time," she explained with a smirk knowing what the kiss had done to the other slayer.
Buffy's eyes narrowed dangerously, "You bitch you did that on purpose," she accused touching her lips.
"Of course B, so you'd have something to remember me by and want to return the favour when I get back," Faith told her opening the door.
"Oh I'll remember and I'll most definitely pay you back," Buffy said between clenched teeth. "Amanda see if Willow and Tara can come to my office," she shouted as she slammed the reinforced door, courtesy of Xander after Buffy had destroyed the previous two, in frustration.
Sitting at her desk, she looked over her messages, nothing that could not wait. She turned to the chart on the wall, listing all the slayers and watchers and their locations around the world, she noticed that Faith had wrote St. Petersburg next to hers and Toku's names, that left only Amanda, Vi and Manda as back up on the Hellmouth. She let out a sigh as she studied all the names, only 15 of the slayers that had been with her in Sunnydale were still around. 'We have to find a way of keeping everyone alive,' she thought.
Buffy was brought out of her musing when an almost timid knock came on her door, "Come in Manda," she called out guessing who was at the door when she sensed a second slayer on the other side.
Manda stepped in and closed the door, she was quite small only an inch or so taller than Buffy herself, the senior slayer could sense the young girl's nervousness, she crossed the room a warm smile on her face, "Hi I'm Buffy... ah duh," she laughed, "Of course you know that. I'm pleased to meet you Manda."
"Pleased to meet you ma'am," Manda said quietly blushing slightly.
"Please call me Buffy, ma'am makes me sound old! I maybe the oldest slayer but I'm only 24. So how are you settling in?"
Buffy indicated for Manda to sit in one of the easy chairs when she took one herself.
"Yes ma...Buffy, I have never had so much. At home I was always hungry, poppa did his best but there was never enough to go around... I-I think I will like it here!" Manda said smiling slightly.
"Good, but you know as a slayer you will have to get use to moving to wherever you are most needed, of course if you do not wish to go no one will force you," Buffy explained.
"I am happy to go wherever you wish, god has made me a slayer, I will fight and slay whoever or whatever he needs."
"I'm glad to hear that, Amanda tells me that she assigned Vi as your teacher, but if you don't mind I'd like to change that!"
"Whatever you wish Buffy," nodded Manda a little less shyly.
"Well I'd like you to go to stay with Kennedy, as you may know my sister is attending PennState. What I am about to tell you must not be repeated to anyone, it is very important."
"I will keep anything you tell me secret."
"Good. My sister is not like other women she is the Key... Her blood has the ability to destroy the barriers that stop all the dimensions from merging together. Giles, mine and Faith's watcher, feels that if anything happened to her that things could get unpleasant. So we sent Kennedy to keep her safe, but because Dawn knows her I would like you to go and help," Buffy told the youngest slayer.
"Yes, when do you wish me to go?"
"Amanda will arrange a ride to the bus station where you can get a bus to the college; Kennedy will meet you at the other end okay?"
Manda rose from her chair, "I will pack my things," she smiled.
Buffy led her to the door, opening it just as Willow was about to knock, "Hi Will," she smiled at her friend. "Amanda can you sort out a ride for Manda to the bus station!"
"Sure Buffy," Amanda said picking up the phone.
"I'll see you again soon Manda, good luck. Will, Tara come in," Buffy said opening the door wide.
Willow and Tara both smiled at their friend as they took easy chairs, "So what's up Buff," asked the redhead.
Buffy closed the door and retook her seat, "Well we met Dawn's new roommate, she seems nice enough but her mother is in the air force. There were two men with her and her daughter both also work for the air force only one is an archaeologist, I want you to check them out, send a copy of everything you find to Kennedy. It may be perfectly legit but let's not take any chances." Buffy handed Willow a piece of paper, "Xand and I wrote down everything we got on them," she explained.
Willow nodded, "You got it," she said taking the paper. "So where are you sending Manda? Don't you want to give her some time to get use to being a slayer?"
"I'm sending her to help Kennedy; she is the only slayer Dawn hasn't met..." Buffy saw Willow frown, "Okay, so she found out about Kennedy, it was a long shot anyway; we all know how she has a way of finding out things. After all that's why Giles suggested training her as a watcher."
"Okay we'll get straight on it," said Tara getting up.
After finishing a rather large tub of ice cream and watching the videos Dawn and Cassandra got changed for bed and lay talking for awhile.
"So what does your dad do?" asked Cassandra.
"The last I heard he was a vice-president for some retail company," Dawn answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I take it you don't get along with your dad?"
"No, the first couple of years after Buffy and I moved to Sunnydale we saw him quite a lot but then he moved to Spain with his 23 year old secretary," Dawn explained, Cassandra could hear the contempt in her voice. "I got the occasional letter from him but he didn't even call when mum went into hospital so I stopped writing..." she sighed, "I don't want to talk about him. So what about your dad what does he do?"
"I don't have one... he died along with the rest of my family when I was 12... They were missionaries in central America, some sort of virus..." she repeated the semi-lie she had been telling ever since coming to Earth, "I was the only survivor, mum told me somehow I was immune. As I had no living relatives and she knew my parents she adopted me," Cassandra said.
"Sorry Cassie didn't mean to upset you," Dawn said sadly.
Cassandra smiled, "That's okay, I don't have a dad but I do have two mums, sort of anyway."
"What do you mean?" frowned Dawn.
"Ah you hafta promise not to tell anyone else," said Cassandra.
"Of course, I know how to keep a secret," Dawn reassured her friend.
"Okay, Sam and mum are together... if you know what I mean?"
"Oh is that all, Buffy's gay as well, so is her best friend, Willow," smiled Dawn before frowning, "Why is it so secret?"
"Ah it's not that, it's just because they are both in the military. Mum explained it to me as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', apparently anyone in the armed forces who thinks someone else is gay is not supposed to ask about it or tell anyone else about their own sexuality or something like that!"
"Oh I see... what a stupid rule," said Dawn.
"Yeah total agreement," nodded Cassandra.
"I think we should get some sleep now, we both have a long day tomorrow," suggested Dawn yawning slightly.
"Yeah," said Cassandra seemly catching Dawn's yawn as she found herself yawning along with her friend. "Night Dawn," she said as she turned off the table lamp between them.
"Night Cassie."
Cleveland Monday morning
Willow walked up to Amanda's desk, "Morning Amanda, Buffy available?" she asked.
Amanda looked up smiling, "Hi, yeah we got back from the gym about twenty minutes ago."
Willow nodded, "Is that where you got the bruise or did Andrew get a little ruff last night?" she said pointing at the light discolouring on the slayer's cheek.
Amanda laughed, "No, Buffy hits a lot harder and if Andrew ever hit me like that I'd snap him like a twig... ah not that he would he's far to sensitive," she mused before shaking herself out of her thoughts when she saw Willow giving her an amused smile. "Ah no it was from patrol last night, Vi and I found a small clan of Fariss demons, one got in a lucky punch," she explained.
"Oh okay, see you later," the redhead smiled as she knocked on the door and entered Buffy's office.
Buffy looked up from a report she had received from Sam Zabuto, Rona and Shannon's watcher, who were investigating some disturbing vampire activity in Seattle and the good news that he had discovered another potential, who had escaped the First's attack only by being on the streets. He reported that he had persuaded the 15 year old, called Janet, to return with him and his slayers when the situation in Seattle had been resolved. He felt that was best as the girl was wary of strangers but for some reason the ancient watcher could not understand, had attached herself to Shannon. Buffy made a note to contact Sam and suggest he have Shannon start Janet's training, if the watcher had not already!
"Hi Will, what's up?" she asked smiling at her friend.
"I got that information on Cassandra Fraiser and her friends," said Willow taking a seat on the other side of the desk and sliding a folder to Buffy.
"So what did you find out?" she asked opening the folder.
"Well for a start Cassandra does not seem to have any real records before she was 12 years old when she was adopted by Doctor Janet Frasier. The record before that are quite good but false..."
"How do you figure?"
"Buffy, over the last few years I've done enough fake records to spot one when I see it," she laughed a little. "The records say she is Canadian and her family died of a mysterious virus only there is no reports anywhere in the newspapers or TV of any deaths around that time, plus her school records for some reason were security protected, it took me three hours to hack it. Her early records show that while her maths and science grades were quite high for her age, her English was that of a first grader! And she only had vague knowledge of things that a girl of her age would most likely have had an interest in."
"So she appears out of nowhere 6 years ago?" surmised Buffy looking up, "The main question now is, is it a coincidence that she is now Dawn's roommate or are the Initiative after her?"
"I don't think there is anything sinister and the people with Cassandra yesterday don't appear to be anything to do with the Initiative but a unit called Stargate Command, or SGC for short, based in NORAD," explained Willow handing over a second file and opening one herself.
"Hacking into the SGC was even harder than Cassandra's files; in the end I had to use magick, I managed to get the personnel files on Doctor Fraiser, Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Jackson. The group they belong to is, on the surface, a Deep Space tracking team. But the little I've found so far goes on about an ancient artefact that has the ability to transfer someone from here to anywhere in the galaxy that also has a similar artefact, they refer to it as a Stargate, which would at least account for the name."
"Well that would account for the archaeologist being attached to the air force!" mused Buffy.
"Ah yeah I guess. There is nothing particular unusual about Doctor Fraiser's record. She's been a doctor for about 16 years, just after qualifying she joined the air force where she met her husband Robert, they married a year later, divorcing 8 years ago because he couldn't handle his wife's career advancing quicker than his. Her speciality is exotic diseases."
"What about the others?" asked Buffy.
"Well Colonel Jonathan O'Neill, Jack to friends, is career military, he has special ops training in covert operations/infiltration, special weapons and tactics, demolition, chemical weapons, and is a field expedience specialist. He retired in 96 after his only child Charlie accidentally shot himself with his father's gun; he was divorced a few months later. He was brought out of retirement that year for a top secret operation, strangely after the mission was over he went back into retirement but at the end of 97 he come back again to head up a team codenamed SG-1. One thing that I noted in his file is: He possesses a sharp, sarcastic sense of humour, and is not above taunting an enemy in the heat of battle, or while in captivity." Willow smirked, "Remind you of anyone in this room!" she laughed at the look Buffy was sending her way.
"What about the archaeologist Daniel Jackson?"
"He has a very strange file. Born July 8 1967 to Clare and Melburn, who he saw killed in an accident at the Manhattan Museum of Art when a stone column fell on them. He has PhD's in Anthropology and Linguistics. Up until 96, he was regarded as a nut, publishing papers on the pyramids, theorising that they are landing sites for spaceships, after being laughed off stage that year he disappeared until he resurfaced at the end of 97, according to the file he spent that time somewhere called Abydos! The strangest thing is that according to the file he died of radiation poisoning last year and reappeared only a month ago..."
"Magick," interrupted Buffy.
"What?" frowned Willow .
"Was he brought back by magick like you did me?"
Willow scanned her copy of the file quickly to be sure, she shook her head, "It doesn't say but I somehow doubt it, aside from myself and Tara there is only half a dozen others that have that sort of power, and we've met them all, they would have mentioned something like that... Well except Ethan Rayne and somehow I can't see him doing something like that!"
"Well magicks are yours and Tara's area," mused Buffy staring into space, she shook herself, "Thanks Will, can you send copies of what you found to Giles, as well as Kennedy, he might have some clue about this Stargate," she asked.
"Of course Buffy," smiled Willow getting up, "Oh Tara wanted me to invite you to dinner tonight, what with Faith being in Russia and Dawn away at college."
"Thanks Will, I'll do a quick patrol with Vi and be there about 8.30, ok."
"Right, see you later. I'll try and see if I can get anymore info on the Stargate," the redhead said opening the door.
Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountain – Same time
General Hammond sat behind his desk reading one of the many reports that as CO required his authorisation when there was a knock on the door, "Come," he ordered looking up.
Major Carter entered, the anxious look telling him something was wrong, "Sir we've had a security breach of our computer system," she reported.
"What! How bad?"
"Well they managed to obtain general information on the SGC as well as some personnel files," explained the Major.
"Who's files?"
"Colonel O'Neill's, Daniel's and Janet's. They also obtained a copy of Cassie's doctored files but not the real one," Carter told him.
"Have they been located yet?"
"No sir and as it stands at the moment they are unlikely to, all we got is their general location, somewhere in the US, east of Chicago and north of Washington, whoever they are they are the best I have ever seen. They got past security systems in a few hours that the best programmers in the country assured us would be impossible as it incorporated alien technology."
General Hammond could detect more than a passing respect for this criminal, "Very well Major keep me informed and see if you can do anything to protect our more sensitive files."
"Yes sir," replied Carter before turning and leaving the office.
Westerly Parkway
Kennedy sat smiling at the younger slayer sat next to her as they waited to see the principle, "Nervous," she asked.
" Si... I mean yes, a little," said Manda holding up her hand with her thumb and forefinger a little bit a part.
Kennedy laughed, "You'll be fine just remember, you are my cousin on mamma's side, the family decided it would help with your education if you attended school in the US and dad recommended State College where I and he went to school," she ran through the background that Willow had come up with, with her dad's agreement.
Mrs Stevens, the school secretary, who was a permanent fixture, her dad remembered her looking as she did now when he attended here. Kennedy had briefly thought she maybe a demon if she didn't look any different, but she sensed nothing, Mrs Stevens just seemed to be one of those people that when they reached a certain age they seemed to stay there? "Mr Jurgenson will see you now Kennedy," the secretary informed them.
"Thanks Mrs Stevens, I must say I didn't think I'd see you again? Weren't you supposed to retire last year?" said Kennedy getting up.
"I was but then Mr Stevens died and the school and the children have been my whole life other than my husband, so Mr Jurgenson and the school board were kind enough to let me continue," smiled the short plump woman.
"My condolences Mrs Stevens," said Kennedy solemnly.
"Thank you dear, please go in," said the secretary holding open the door.
Mr Jurgenson stood up and came around his desk to greet them, "It's nice to see you again Kennedy, I can't tell you how much I was pleased to receive your father's phone call," the tall dark haired athletic looking principle said smiling at them, "So I assume this is your young cousin that will be joining us this semester!"
"Yes, she is staying with me at our townhouse, my father thought it would be beneficial for her to be educated in the States, so here she is," smiled Kennedy taking the Principle's hand.
"Yes indeed, please have a seat," he gestured towards the chairs by his desk as he walked around to his own; "I understand that while Manda is here you are to act as her guardian?"
"Ah yeah with dad's business taking him away so much the family nominated me to look after her," Kennedy told him taking a seat.
"Yes quite understandable," said principle Jurgenson browsing Manda's school records, "I see you did well in most of the sciences and physical education at your last school," he smiled at the younger girl. "But of course the tests we gave you this morning show that you are a little behind with English and IT, but we will arrange for extra tuition until you catch up."
"Well of course, but I bet she will ace Spanish," laughed Kennedy.
"Yes no doubt," said the principle joining in the laugh, "So Manda we will see you tomorrow, just come-by the office tomorrow and Mrs Stevens will have your class schedule ready," he said as he showed the two girls to the door, "And welcome to State College High School," he said shaking both Kennedy and Manda's hands.
As they exited the school Manda looked at the other slayer, "Why do I have to go to school?"
Kennedy smiled at the young slayer, "I told you it would help with our cover and if anything happens at the school you are there to help; besides education will help you later on, who knows you might even get into college."
"If I survive slaying and high school," pouted Manda.
Kennedy put her arm around Manda, "That's the spirit always look on the dark side," she laughed at her own joke.
NID black operations base (Unit one)
Maryland
Colonel Maybourne's office
Maybourne glanced at the files in front of him, he opened the first entitled: Subject One and began scanning the contents,
'Name: Cassandra (Cassie) Fraiser
Born: Unknown, given DOB
Birthplace: Hanka
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown. Adopted by Doctor Janet Fraiser on
Education: Graduated from Doherty high school Colorado Springs
Attending PennState
Declared Major: Astrophysics.'
'Brought to Earth after entire civilization was wiped out by the Goa'uld System Lord Nirrti. Who implanted the girl with a naquadah Trojan horse device in the hope of destroying the Stargate. Blood still shows large quantity of naquadah.'
'Adopted by Doctor Janet Fraiser shortly after being placed under the protection of the then President and SGC.'
He closed the first file and opened the second entitled Subject Two,
'Name: Dawn Marie Summers, sister to Elizabeth Anne Summers aka Buffy aka the slayer.
Born:
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Father: Henry (Hank)
Mother: Joyce (Deceased)
Education: Graduated from Cleveland Heights high school Cleveland
Attending PennState
Declared Major: Mythology and Ancient Languages.'
'Moved to Sunnydale 98 with mother and sister, with last group to escape the destruction of town in 2003.'
'Microscopic scan of blood tests show unknown substance not present in older sister or parents, initial test indicate that when subject two's blood is combined with subject one's, the destructive power of subject one's naquadah enriched blood is increased by a factor of 100 of that of normal naquadah bombs.'
Colonel Maybourne closed the file as he heard someone knock is door, "Come," he ordered.
The door opened and two heavy set men entered, "You sent for us Colonel," said the first.
"Yes Major Edwards, please have a seat gentlemen," said Maybourne waving them to the chairs. "Captain Miller welcome to Unit one," he smiled at the younger man as he took a seat.
"Thank you sir, I was surprised to be assigned here, until yesterday I was unaware that you even existed!" said Captain Graham Miller.
"As it should be Captain," nodded Maybourne with a slightly smug smile in place. "Tell me Captain do you know a Dawn Summers?"
Graham frowned, "I don't think so sir, I did meet a Buffy Summers while I was stationed in Sunnydale."
"Well I suppose you were unlikely to have met her she would have only been about 13 or 14 when you were there," said Maybourne partly to himself, "Dawn Summers is Buffy Summers younger sister."
"I see, I was unaware that she had any siblings. May I ask why this young girl is so important sir?"
"I assume you have been made aware of the present threat to Earth," asked Maybourne.
"Yes sir and I thought vampires and demons were bad," nodded Graham.
"True they are a problem but by no means the worst, the Goa'uld are the greatest threat to this world's continued existence and that is why this unit has been charged with using whatever it takes to assure our continued existence," said Maybourne with the type of conviction Graham had not heard since Professor Walsh had been killed.
Maybourne looked a little apologetically at the other two men, "I must apologise I sometimes get carried away. As I was saying we do what is necessary, so to that end our scientists have determined that a substance in Dawn Summers blood when combined with another young woman who was brought to Earth some years ago will give us enough power to destroy the Goa'uld and their threat to Earth," he told them. "Your team's orders are to snatch Dawn Summers and one Cassandra Fraiser and return with them," he handed the files to Major Edwards, "Dismissed."
Dawn gathered her books and followed the other students out of the class, she smiled as she spotted Cassandra waiting for her, "Hey," she said as the other brunette fell into step with her, "So how's your day going?"
"Not as bad as I thought it would, most people seem to be nice, though my professors are a bit intense! How about you?" said Cassandra as they joined the queue for the cafeteria.
"Well when Professor Wilson saw some of the books I brought to class this morning, I think I actually saw some drool, so I lent him a couple."
"Kissing up to the faculty already," Cassandra teased.
"It can't hurt can it," said Dawn giggling, she spotted two boys a dozen or so places ahead of them smiling in their direction, she gave them a little smile in return before turning back to Cassandra, "Have you noticed the two cute guys smiling at us?"
"I was going to ask you later but I guess now is as good as any... ah you do like boys right?"
"Yeah of course just because my sister and most of our friends are gay doesn't mean I am. Why are you asking?" Dawn asked a little confused.
"Well ah... those two guys are in my physics class, their both here on football scholarships. Anyway Frank, that's the blond one... ah he asked me out and hmm... not ah... knowing him or anything, I sort of said yes, but only if I could bring someone with me so that was when Frank... did I tell you he's the blond one? Suggested a double date... so will you pleeease come with me?" Cassandra said giving Dawn a puppy dog look.
"You set me up on a blind-date?"
"Ah I suppose... but then again you can see him so is it really a blind-date," Cassandra said trying to justify her actions. "And you did say they are cute," she pointed out.
Dawn sighed, she had to agree with Cassandra they really were cute, "Okay but no inviting them back to the dorm and I have a report to write so we leave them no later than 10, okay."
Cassandra lightly hugged Dawn, "Thank you, thank you." she blushed slightly at the amused looks some of the other students were giving them.
Dawn leaned into Cassandra ear, "Isn't football player and physics class an oxymoron?" she whispered.
Cassandra giggled, "Well sometimes I guess but those two are quite smart." she smiled at Frank and his friend nodding her head to them.
Dawn and Cassandra got their food and looked around for a couple of seats, "Over here Cassie," called out Frank waving in their direction from a table near the window.
Cassandra smiled at the two boys as she led Dawn over to their table, "Frank, Jimmy this is Dawn Summers my roommate," she said placing her tray on the table in front of her, "Dawn this is FrankKawalsky and his friend Jimmy Williams," she introduced everyone.
"Pleased to meet you Dawn," smiled Jimmy. "So what's your major?" he asked unsure what to say, he had always been awkward around girls until he got to know them. He had been a little apprehensive when Frank had volunteered him for a blind date with Cassandra's roommate, but now he had seen her he was at once happy that he was going out on a date with such a beautiful girl and at the same time a little apprehensive as to what to say and do.
Dawn, for as long as she could remember, had been able to sense when someone was trying to hide something but as time had gone on if she concentrated, she could almost pick out what they were feeling. She smiled gently at Jimmy, "You got set up as well didn't you?"
Frank tensed shooting Dawn a slightly worried glance before looking at Cassandra. "You too! Huh," Jimmy said returning Dawn's smile.
Frank relaxed when he saw them both smiling at each other, he had the feeling that if Dawn and Jimmy had not been happy with each other, he would not be going out with Cassandra later. "So what are you studying?"
Dawn glanced up from her plate, "I'm studying Ancient Languages and Mythology. What about you two?"
"Me, I'm taking Astrophysics like Cassie," Frank told her.
"And I'm majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computer science," finished Jimmy.
"Ah don't get me wrong but why are two nerds playing football?" asked Dawn.
"It was the only way we could get into college, on the football scholarship program. Don't get me wrong I hope to get picked up by the NFL but even if I am I will need to do something after my football career is over and maths and computers have always been my thing," explained Jimmy, beginning to relax a little.
"Me I've been into astronomy ever since I saw Deep Impact, I have always thought it would be so awesome to find an asteroid or comet that was going to hit Earth and then help destroy it or divert it." Frank looked at the other three, "Okay so I've fantasised a little about it," he blushed slightly as the others laughed.
"So what about you, why did you choose Ancient Languages and Myths?" asked Jimmy.
"Well when I was twelve I moved to a small town in California with my mum and sister, Buffy met the high school librarian. He had all these old books, when I was 15 I had to go and wait at his apartment while Buffy, my sister was away, well I started looking at his books, I've been doing it ever since," Dawn told the two boys.
"But is there really that much need for people that can translate old languages?" asked Frank.
"You'd be surprised," said Dawn with a knowing smile on her face, "There are ancient scrolls and tablets being unearthed all the time not to mention temples and other ruins."
"Make way for Indiana Summers," said Cassandra giggling.
"Cassie please," smirked Dawn, "I see myself as more a Lara Croft than an Indiana Jones."
Major Carter's office
Stargate Command
Sam sat at her computer having just finished transferring all the files from the main hard driver and securing them on the back-up, which was not connected to any external computer, when she heard the security alarm that she had placed on the computer system sound telling her that someone was trying to access the files.
Turning to read the information displayed, she had to make a decision quickly before the hacker left! Try to find them and possibly get them onboard, someone with their talents would be a great asset, or trace them and alert the FBI who knowing them would prosecute, then when they were released recruit them themselves!
She made her decision; she began to type, but started running the trace just in case.
Jolinar: You are breaking federal law.
There was a long pause before.
<> Busted, but you haven't caught me and SecurNet 2.1 isn't going to do it for you!
Sam was momentarily at a lose.
Jolinar: I don't know what you mean?
<> Oh please you're insulting my intelligence. I know the person who wrote it, they placed code to warn them if someone tried using it against them.
Jolinar: I see! I am afraid all our files have been moved, you will not be able to access anymore but the information you have obtained is very sensitive, how did you hack into our system, it should have been impossible!
<> Oh well I was only curious about the stargate, otherwise I wouldn't have come back. I gotta say wow!!!!! Awesome idea, do you go through yourself?
Jolinar: If this knowledge gets out it could cause widespread panic.
<> Please I'm not some rank amateur, the information I took was for background on three individuals that may have been a threat to a friend which it appears is not the case, you are not part of the unit we thought you were.
Jolinar: Who are you? And who is this person you thought was in danger from us?
<> You can call me hmmm lets see!!!! I know call me 'Kali' I have become death, destroyer of worlds hahaha... sorry private joke. The name of the person is secret.
Jolinar: Would you be interested in working for us?
Kali: Woo where did that come from? You want to give me a job.
Jolinar: Yes with your abilities you could be a great asset.
Kali: Sorry I'm doing something that is far more important to the continued wellbeing of the world than running around the universe, maybe when I'm looking for somewhere to take my girl! But no, you have no idea what is really out there in the dark. Probably best that way. Now I must go, sorry about what is about to happen!
Suddenly all the computers shutdown, moments later most of the mountain went dark before emergency lighting kicked in. "DAMN how the hell did they do that?" asked Sam as she got up and headed for the General's office.
Watchful Security
Cleveland
Willow looked up from her computer as Tara came back with their coffee, the redhead smiled up at her girlfriend as she placed the mug on the desk, "Thanks baby," she sighed as she took a sip, "Goddess I needed that."
"Something giving my baby problems?" smiled Tara sitting at her desk next to Willow 's.
"Well not really, I went back to the computer at this SGC under Cheyenne mountain but they were waiting for me," Willow smirked as the worry that suddenly appeared on her girlfriend's face. "Don't worry Tara they were using SecurNet 2.1, the program I wrote and sold to that software company back in college, it has a small subroutine that tells me if someone is using it against me. Anyway this person who calls themselves Jolinar offered me a job, saying I could be an asset to them, I turned them down of course but did say I wouldn't mine taking you on vacation using the Stargate."
"Willow your bad," smiled Tara, "Then what happened?"
"Well I sort of bluffed them about SecurNet 2.1, it was getting close to finding me, so I used magick to crash their system and wipe the trace," said Willow quietly, she knew that her girlfriend didn't approve of her using magick without a good reason. "I know, I know but I had no choice they would have found me... and I did exclude their medical departments from the crash," she said hanging her head.
Tara reached over and placed a hand underWillow's chin lifting it gently, "It's alrightWillow, I know you wouldn't use magick without a good reason," she said leaning in and gave the redhead a chased kiss before sitting back.
Willow stayed how she was for several moments, savouring the after sensation of the kiss, she opened her eyes, Tara could see the smouldering lust in them, "Let's finish early today," suggested Willow.
Any replyTara may have given was stopped by the telephone,Willow picked it up, "Hello ... Hi Amanda, what's up? ... okay we'll be there, bye," she hung up her face falling, "Shoot, Giles is coming in, he called an emergency meeting, I said we would be there."
Tara gave a small laugh, "Don't pout baby think of the anticipation of jumping me later tonight."
"But I wanted to jump you now," moaned Willow turning back to her computer as she began running checks on the list of people Jim MacLean had sent from India as possible watchers as Tara continued her own research, in the many books, for any reference to the Stargate.
Buffy entered with Vi, acting in Faith's absence, it had been agreed that the new council would always include the two oldest slayers, besides two slayers the council would include two witches, in this case Willow and Tara, and three watchers, Giles, Robin Woods and Sam Zabuto, whose place was taken by Xander.
Everyone else was already present, Buffy smiled at everyone as she took her seat at the head of the table and Vi sat to her left. "So Giles what's up?"
"Over the last couple of days I have come to the conclusion that we will soon reach crisis point with the number of slayers and potentials against the number of watchers and potential watchers. With all but Robin, Jim MacLean and myself being well into their seventies or older we need more watcher trainees in the long run and a temporally solution until then," explained Giles.
"Okay agreed, but what do you suggest?"
"Well it turns out that at least two watchers survived the bombing of the watchers headquarters and were in hiding until recently. They have indicated they would be willing to join the new council but as they put it, 'would not relocate to the colonies,'" Giles began, unable to keep the smile off his face at the dark looks on the five Americans around the table.
"They still have contacts at Oxford University so would be a great asset in educating potential watchers, I have taken the step of requesting a list of family members of former watchers that maybe amenable to join us..."
"Would it be a good idea to let these two watchers recruit future watchers," Willow interrupted Giles.
"Probably not, it would probably cause rifts later, so after we get the list I suggest that we set up a program to have these individuals at least partly trained in other parts of the world, this at the least would give them time in the field," suggested Giles.
"Okay," nodded Buffy, she looked over at Willow and Tara, who besides heading up the research department, which usually consisted of just the two witches, also ran the financial department, "You able to do that Will?"
"Yeah no problemo," smiled Willow.
"That of course does not solve our present lack of watchers, although one bright point, when I was in Los Angeles the day before yesterday I spoke to Wesley and he is willing to help out by taking a couple of potentials on top of the slayer Helena he is already looking after."
"Alright Giles it will help, anything else?" said Buffy.
Giles looked at Buffy trying to judge how she would take the next suggestion, "Well I think we should contact Riley and try and recruit him and his wife. And although I am loathed to suggest it we could loan out some of the slayers to the British and United States governments as both have specialist units to deal with vampires and demons, I think they would be amenable!"
"I would be agreeable to bringing Riley and Sam in but there is no way in hell I will agree to slayers joining the military, Giles have you forgot the Initiative?" growled Buffy, "They tried to kill me."
"Buffy I'm with you, we would not have control over where and when they went anywhere," put in Xander.
"And what if they end up getting the slayers to kill non demons? Look what happened to Faith?" added Willow.
Giles sighed, "Very well we'll table that for another time but the problem will not go away Buffy."
"I know Giles, but I can't risk letting the girls get mixed up with governments," Buffy told her watcher.
"Alright... Now what is this about a Stargate artefact?"
PennState
Dawn and Cassandra met Frank and Jimmy outside their dorm building, Cassandra looked at them, "It's about time, I was beginning to think you had stood us up."
"Sorry Cassie coach Haise kept us late after training," Frank apologised as he took her hand and began to walk.
Dawn smiled up at Jimmy who looked slightly nervous; she put her hand in his and began to follow Frank and Cassandra, "So what position do you play? You didn't tell me earlier at lunch."
"Oh well in high school I played linebacker but coach wants to try me at receiver," Jimmy said, glad to be talking about a subject he was comfortable with.
"That's a big change linebacker to receiver, I would have said maybe linebacker to tackle or even cornerback would have been more likely," suggested Dawn, since she had moved to Cleveland, Xander had started taking her to the Browns home games, which much to her surprise she found she enjoyed.
Frank stopped walking and looked back at Dawn, "You're a football fan?"
"Yeah I follow the Cleveland Browns since moving there a couple of years ago."
"I'm a Bronco fan myself, you and Cassie should come to watch next Sunday's game at our dorm, there's a party afterwards, we can celebrate the Broncos crushing the Browns," smirked Frank.
"In your dreams, the Broncos haven't been the same since Elway retired," Dawn countered.
"Ah for those of us that have no idea what you are talking about, i.e. me, can we change the subject?" put in Cassandra.
"Sorry Cassie, so what do you wanna talk about?" asked Frank.
"Well for one thing you could tell us where you are taking us?" said Cassandra.
"Oh didn't I say earlier?" Cassandra shook her head, "Well there is only really one club around here so I thought we could go there... if that's okay with you?" he said.
"Yeah that sounds great but I expect to dance, the last guy that took me to a club just stood around like a dork cuz he couldn't dance to save his life," Cassandra said.
"No chance of that I'm a great dancer," boasted Frank.
"I'll be the judge of that," laughed Cassandra.
They entered Players, the moment Dawn walked through the door it felt like she was walking into the Bronze back in Sunnydale, not that she had gone that often, but still the club had a familiar feel to it. It was still quite early so they had their pick of tables, Frank led them to one corner away from the bar and dance floor.
As she sat down, her back against the wall Dawn instinctively swept the room for any danger, she didn't have slayer abilities but nothing looked or felt out of order, as her search reached the far side of the room her eyes met Kennedy's who raised her drink to her, a smile/smirk on her face. Dawn's eyes narrowed as a little anger entered her features, Jimmy noticed the look, "What's wrong Dawn?" he asked looking around trying to find whoever the young woman had seen.
Dawn turned to the boy smiling sweetly at his protective nature, "Just someone who wasn't supposed to be here," she told him mysteriously, "If someone is going to the bar I'll have a coke with ice but no lemon. I just wanna go and have a word with her, be back in a minute," she said getting up and heading towards the other side of the room.
Frank looked at Dawn's retreating back before turning back to Cassandra, "What did she mean by that?" he asked her.
"Beats me! Maybe it's someone from Cleveland?" said Cassandra.
"Okay," smiled Frank, "I got Dawn's drink what about you two?" he asked getting up.
Kennedy smiled weakly at the younger girl as she drew close, "Hey Dawn."
"Don't hey me Kennedy. I made it quite clear to Buffy that I didn't want you hanging where I would be hanging with my friends and here you are doing just that," Dawn's anger rising as she spoke.
"I'm sorry Dawn but this is the only club in town and how was I to know you would be here tonight?" pointed out the slayer.
Dawn raised her eyebrow in surprise, "You mean you haven't been following me?"
"No I swear it is a total coincidence that we met, besides you told Buffy you didn't want me doing that," 'Besides that's what Manda's for.' "I'm only here if you need me, I'm here to check there are no vamps in tonight, I'm planning on leaving for a patrol in a while anyway."
"Alright," sighed Dawn her building anger bleeding away, "So are there many vamps around here?" she asked curiously.
"Not many but I suggest you and your friends avoid Phyrst on Beaver Avenue, it's a demon bar, I've had a word with the sleaze that runs it so I'm hoping it will cut down on any trouble."
"Okay thanks, perhaps I'll see you sometime, BUT not while I'm in college, do you understand what I'm saying Kennedy?" Dawn began to turn to return to her friends.
Kennedy smirked, "Sure Dawn. So who's the cutie?"
Dawn stopped and turned shooting daggers at the slayer, "Keep your hands off my boyfriend... potential boyfriend," she growled.
"Not your boyfriend, sorry potential boyfriend," Kennedy giggled at the slight blush on Dawn's face, "No the girl, is she available?"
"Can I just say eww for my friend, no she's straight, so keep your hands to yourself," said Dawn walking away from the laughing slayer.
Cassandra could see that Dawn was a little angry as she retook her seat, "What's wrong Dawn?" she asked.
"Nothing to be worried about," snapped Dawn before an apologetic smile appeared on her face, "Sorry just a little annoyed at my sister."
"Huh, I thought Buffy was your only sister?" said a confused Cassandra.
Dawn gave Cassandra a little laugh, "She is but she's very paranoid about my safety, the girl I was just talking too works for Watchful Security, which Buffy is CEO of, she sent Kennedy here to be sort of my bodyguard," she explained.
"But she's a girl," put in Frank, he shied away from the looks the two girls were giving him, "Sorry didn't mean it the way that came out, but why would you need a bodyguard anyway?"
"Hmm we'll have to work on that male attitude of yours," smiled Dawn, "And don't let the fact that she is only a year or so older than me fool you, she could takedown everyone in this room like that," she snapped her fingers, "She's a master of numerous martial arts."
"Yeah okay but why would you need a bodyguard?" asked a slightly worried Jimmy.
"I don't, not really. When I was living in Sunnydale California there was this crazy woman that kidnapped me, Buffy and her friends found me and Buffy and the woman fought and the woman died, since then Buffy has been very protective," Dawn explained.
"Oh wow, were you okay?" asked Jimmy taking her hand.
Dawn smiled at him, "Yeah I got over it, but Buffy never really did... look I don't want to talk about it anymore. Come on lets dance," she said getting up and trying to pull him to the dance floor.
They stayed at Players until about nine, by the time they left Dawn's mood had improved and Jimmy was much more relaxed around her, even being bold enough to kiss her a couple of times. On the way back to Dawn and Cassandra's dorm, they stopped at Hi-Way Pizza.
As they sat at a table Cassandra turned to Dawn, a twinkle in her eye, "So they've taken us dancing, bought us drinks and now food, do you think they think we are easy?"
"Hmm maybe, but of course Pizza and soda are not really my idea of wooing... although the dancing was nice and Frank was right he is quite good at it... hmm maybe we could throw them a bone, we could let them do it again tomorrow."
"That's uncommonly good of you two but how do you know we aren't planning on taking out two more girls tomorrow!" smirked Frank.
"If you were planning that I'd have to have Kennedy have a word with you," countered Dawn smirking.
"And I'd have to call my uncle Jack to join her," added Cassandra, "He's in special forces."
Frank raised his hands in surrender, "Ok, ok we haven't got any other girls to go out with, so yeah we'll take you out again tomorrow."
They finished their food and began the short walk back to the girls' dorm, where they began making out to the side of the doors.
Alpha one monitored the two targets from a van as they began to kiss the two boys outside their dorm building, he pressed a mic button, "Alpha two move into position in two, Bravo team release the hostiles," he ordered.
"Confirmed Alpha one, Alpha team move in two," came the first reply.
"Bravo one to Alpha one confirmed Hostiles one to four released, self- destruct active."
"Confirmed Bravo one, activate self-destruct after the boyfriends have been eliminated. Make sure targets one and two are taken alive, and unharmed if possible," Alpha one reminded the others.
"Well what do we have here," came a male voice from the side of the building.
The four friends stopped and turned towards the speaker to see four men stood looking at them, their body languages reminding Dawn of Spike, then she noticed how pale they were, the panic sat in the pit of her stomach, she had to get her friends away from here, "Jimmy we should get inside now," she whispered to her boyfriend.
"You're not going anywhere my pretty," smirked the vampire in front of the others, Dawn forgetting for a moment about vampire hearing.
Frank and Jimmy sensed the four men's hostility and stepped in front of Dawn and Cassandra, "We don't want any trouble," said Frank.
"You're wasting you breath, that's all their kind want," Kennedy said from behind the vampires. Dawn sighed with relief at the sound of the slayer, before feeling guilty about earlier.
The vampires turned to see two Latino girls, "Oh goody desert," said the blond vampire.
"'Oh goody'! What are you retarded?" said Kennedy.
The vampire growled and sprang at Kennedy, who easily avoided the lunge and kicked the back of his knee sending him to the ground and pushed a stake through his back. Then the fight was on, the lead vamp attempted to deliver a kick to Manda's face but she ducked and holding his foot kicked him in the groin before spinning him around and plunging a stake into his chest as he finished a 360° spine.
Meanwhile one of the other vampires decided that it would be more fun to attack the two boyfriends, as he got close Dawn pushed in between the mass that was Cassandra and her boyfriends and holding what Cassandra assumed was a mace spray sprayed it into the vampire's face. Cassandra threw a shocked look at her roommate as the man screamed and holding his face fell to the ground with smoke weeping between his fingers.
Kennedy exchanged several blows with the last vampire but before she could position it for a stake, he suddenly exploded into dust. Kennedy frowned at Dawn and Manda, "That's a new one on me! Is everyone alright?"
Meanwhile
"Alpha one to Bravo one, what happen Graham?" asked Major Edwards braking operational procedure in shock at what he had just witnessed.
"Sir the two unknown females are slayers, I felt it safer to activate the hostiles self-destructs, sir I have fought a slayer on several occasions, the operation would have been severely compromised had we proceeded," explained Graham.
"Agreed Bravo one bring the men home, Alpha one out," Major Edwards turned to the driver, "Get us out of here."
Same time
Conference room
SGC
Colonel O'Neill, still in his dress uniform, led Daniel and Doctor Fraiser into the room to see the General, Sam and Teal'c sat waiting for them, "So what is so important that we have to leave the meeting with the Joint Chiefs and come back here?"
"Jack, take a seat and we'll try and find out," General Hammond told his second in command, allowing a small smile onto his face at the confusion now on the Colonel's face.
"What is that supposed to mean? You called us back and you don't know why?" said Jack taking his customary chair.
"Yesterday we had a security breach, someone got into our computer, and besides getting general information on the Stargate and this command, obtained copies of yours as well as Doctor Jackson's and Doctor Fraiser's personnel files and a copy of Cassandra's school record," explained General Hammond.
Jack and the other two looked shocked; he turned to look at Sam, "How? You told everyone that would be impossible."
"It should have been sir; we had the best system analysts as well as all the former hackers that now work for the government attempting to get into the system." Sam looked down at the files in front of her for a moment, the embarrassment clearly on her face before looking up at her CO, "They all assured me that no one would be able to get in."
"Well we all know how much they know don't we Carter," snapped O'Neill. He turned back to the General, "So now what? Have these people been arrested?"
"No Colonel and it gets worse," said Hammond.
"Worse, what else?" sighed Jack this was starting to look like a bad day.
"A little over five hours ago there was another incursion, on my instructions Major Carter secured all our files on the back-up computer system, which as you know has no connection to the outside," explained Hammond. He glanced at Sam, "When the second incursion happened Major Carter made the decision to attempt to recruit them if possible while still trying to locate them to inform the appropriate law enforcement agencies if they refused."
"I take it things didn't go well?"
"No sir, this person who called themselves 'Kali', which seemed to be a joke to them, this 'Kali' had advance knowledge of the security program I was using to trace them, claiming to know the original designer. I then offered them the chance to work with us; they turned me down, saying something about doing something to protect the world from something in the dark!" Sam explained.
"What did they mean by that?" mused Daniel.
"All they said was that it was best that I didn't know! Then they said they were sorry about what was about to happen, that was when the entire mountains computer system crashed... well all except the infirmary, the operating theatre which Doctor Evans was using at the time, and isolation. Techs are still trying to workout how they managed that!" finished Sam.
"So they have access to advanced technology! Which means they are one of two groups," put in Daniel, "Either they are from offworld or they have connections to someone in government."
"That was my first thought, but they made no mention of the Goa'uld etc and claimed that this last time they were just curious about the Stargate, so I don't think they were from another branch of government!" pointed out Sam.
"So how are the three of you connected to this security breach," said General Hammond, "They told Major Carter that they were checking on you in case you were a threat to someone, but concluded that you were not. So we need to find out who connects the three of you and Cassandra?"
"When exactly did the first incursion happen?" asked Jack.
Sam glanced at the file in front of her, "Approximately 1300 EST and ended at 1832 EST yesterday," she said somewhat quietly, blushing lightly.
"You're telling me they were on the system for over five hours Carter," ranted O'Neill, Janet wanted to console Sam at that moment, but knew that would have to wait.
"Y-yes sir, it appears it took them three of those hours to obtain Cassie's file then they hit the barriers installed to protect our systems, it seemed to hold them back for over two more hours, then something unknown entered the system and took all the protections down. Whatever it was must have wiped itself from the computer because there was no trace of anything on it when I investigated later."
"Dawn Summers," put in Daniel.
"Who?" asked the General.
"Cassie's new roommate, unless anyone can think of anything else that directly connects the three of us and Cassie but exclude everyone else it has to be Dawn," Daniel explained.
"Would this individual be in a position to try something like this?" asked the General.
"I don't think so, and anyway we were with her until about 1500 so she couldn't be the one that hacked the system," Janet pointed out.
"No but her sister could have!" Jack said, "By all accounts she is head of some type of Security Company, presumably in the Cleveland area where they live."
"It would fit sir," said Sam looking at the General, "Cleveland is east of Chicago and north of DC."
"You wanna run that by us again Carter?" asked O'Neill.
"Yes sir, the security programs managed to narrow down the location of the hacker during their first incursion to east of Chicago and north of DC," Sam explained.
"Alright people we will go with the assumption that it is this... did you get her name?" said the General.
"Buffy, Buffy Summers," supplied Daniel.
"Right that this Buffy Summers and her associates are behind this, I'll contact the appropriate people, in the meantime anyone talking to Cassandra should not inform her of our suspicions," said the General beginning to get up.
"Do you think Cassie is in any danger?" asked Janet, they could all hear the worry in her voice.
The General gave his CMO a reassuring smile, "No I don't believe so! And if I did the five of you would already be on your way to bring her back home," he told them, they all knew that, although he did not vocalise it, he loved Cassandra as much as anyone else in the room with the possible exception of Janet and Sam. "Dismissed," he said turning towards his office.
Dawn unlocked their door and led everyone into Cassandra and her dorm room, when everyone was in Kennedy closed the door.
The slayer's eyes met Dawn's she could see the pain and anger there, "You had to expose my friends to your damn job didn't you!" Dawn accused between clenched teeth, "All I wanted was a nice normal shot at college before I had to come back to it."
"Hey don't blame me for the vamps," snapped Kennedy, "If Manda and me hadn't decided to make a sweep of the campus before going home you would be dead or worse and Buffy, Faith and Willow would be on their way here to kill me."
Dawn considered Kennedy's words, she realised the slayer was right, a slight blush appeared on her face, "Sorry, I know it's not your fault Ken," she apologised. She looked at the new girl, "So you must be Manda?" the younger girl nodded, "Pleased to meet you." a smirk lit up her face as she looked back at Kennedy, "So my sister sent another slayer, a new one cuz I wouldn't know her, I didn't think she was that good at deceiving me!" she laughed.
Kennedy joined in the laugh, "Well actually she only came up with the idea after she left you yesterday when you found out I was here. I told her that I wasn't surprised that every one of her friends found out about her."
"Yeah, I found out just three days after she became the slayer. The only two people that didn't find out were mum and dad, they just thought she was falling in with a bad crowd," Dawn said.
"What happened out there? What were those things? What are you three?" asked Cassandra looking at Dawn and the other two girls. 'None of those guys... things were Goa'uld! I need to phone mum.'
Dawn looked at her friend sadly, "I so didn't want you involved in any of this Cassie," she told her roommate.
"Thanks," Cassandra said sarcastically, "So are you going to tell us what just happened?"
Dawn sighed, "Okay, but I'm not sure you'll believe me."
"You'd be surprised at what I believe," Cassandra said.
"Okay then," said Dawn taking her desk chair she turned it around and sat down. "What I'm about to tell you can't be repeated outside this room, not just because most people will think you're nuts but because it could place you and them in danger, the other side don't like too many people knowing about them."
"You don't have to worry about me telling anyone, I already think I'm nuts after tonight," put in Frank.
"Just tell us Dawn... please, I need to know," said Cassandra.
"Right. Those four outside were vampires, yes they exist," Dawn added quickly as she saw Frank about to ask her to confirm what she was saying. "Please hold off any questions until I finish ok?" at their nods she continued, "All the evil you thought was myth is real, vampire, demons, werewolves although werewolves are just ordinary people that survived an attack by another and became infected.
"I am just a girl whose sister became the slayer," 'They don't need to know about the Key!' "Her friends helped her guard the Hellmouth below Sunnydale," she looked at Cassandra, "That was what destroyed Sunnydale, because of an ancient evil that had come to town, my sister and the rest of us had no real choice but to destroy it."
"You said your friends here are slayers but you imply that there is only one?" Cassandra pointed out.
"Well both are true, when a slayer dies the next is called, just after we moved to Sunnydale Buffy was drowned in a fight with a vampire called The Master, but Xander brought her back using CPR but because she was technically dead the next slayer was activated, she died a year later which activated Faith, my sister's girlfriend. Well that was how it stayed until just before we closed the Hellmouth in Sunnydale when Willow with her girlfriend's help cast a spell to activate all the potential slayers around the world but for whatever reason only those at the Hellmouth became slayers. Kennedy was one of them while Manda replaced one that died after."
"Spell? What like Harry Potter?" asked Jimmy.
"Look we need to go, Manda has school tomorrow," Dawn saw the sour look on the younger girl's face, "You can get together tomorrow and get all the details," pointed out Kennedy, she looked at the two boys, "We'll escort you home, just in case there are more vamps around."
Dawn could see that both of the boys were about to protest, "Jimmy, Frank, please go with them, I'll feel much happier knowing that you got home safe, I promise that I'll explain everything tomorrow after classes, we'll come to your dorm okay?"
"Alright," nodded Frank musing over everything that Dawn had just told them, he walked over to Cassandra and gave her a quick kiss goodnight while Jimmy stood looking awkward, Dawn smiled reassuringly at him as she walked over and gave him a very passionate kiss that had his knees buckling.
"Wow does Buffy know you can kiss like that," smirked Kennedy.
Dawn turned towards the slayer, "No and she is not going to find out, I don't want her told about Jimmy either," she said her eyes narrowing with the veiled threat.
Still smirking Kennedy held her hands up, "I swear she won't hear it from me."
"Make sure she doesn't," said Dawn, opening the door and allowing everyone to leave, "And thank you Kennedy."
"No problem, just doing my job, call if there is any trouble, night Dawn," said Kennedy heading for the exit.
To the surprise of Cassandra, Dawn spent an hour writing the report she had to hand in the next day, while she herself could not get the idea of vampires out of her head; she spent the time just channel hopping not able to concentrate on any of the shows. When Dawn got up from her desk to start changing, Cassandra sighed and turning the TV off began changing herself.
There was strained silence as the two young women got ready for bed. They climbed into their beds laying in silence before Dawn began to talk, "When I found out that vampires really existed I thought it was so cool, all those old vampire movies... But when I was twelve we moved to Sunnydale... I saw my first victim six weeks later, I had snuck out one night to follow Buffy, she was always telling me it was dangerous but being young and stupid I didn't listen. Anyway I followed her, I got bored very quickly thinking that she had lied about vampires and was probably just meeting a boy, I was going to go home and tell mum that she had snuck out in revenge.
"Of course being Sunnydale it didn't work out that way I hadn't got 10 yards when a vamp in game face, that's what we call it when a vamp changes from a human face to a vampire face. Anyway I screamed so loud I'm sure mum could have heard," Dawn laughed humourlessly. "Buffy caught the vamp trying to carry me off, she beat him almost to unconsciousness while I just stood and stared, after she staked him she really ragged on me... until I started crying then she went all protective and concerned, she took me back home and sneaked me in through her bedroom window." She giggled again, "The next day she met me out of school and took me to see Giles who gave me a longwinded speech about irresponsibility and not to do it ever again. From then on all I wanted to do was join her and the Scoobies."
"Scoobies?" queried Cassandra.
"Oh yeah, Xander the guy who helped me yesterday, he came up with the name as they helped Buffy and Giles find out what was happening around Sunnydale's demon population plus he has this thing about cartoons so they began calling themselves the Scooby gang."
"Thanks for telling me... you've had a very strange life," Cassandra said.
"You can say that again. I hope this hasn't ruined our friendship before it's really started," Dawn said with trepidation.
"Of course not, I get that you just wanted to forget that things like vampires exist for awhile, it wasn't your fault we were attacked and if anything, having you here meant I didn't die," pointed out Cassandra.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you weren't here your friend Kennedy would not have been around to save me tonight."
"I guess I never thought of it that way!"
Tuesday morning
SGC
General Hammond had a deep frown on his face as he walked into the conference room. Having been informed by Daniel that the most likely suspect behind the security breach was the sister of Cassandra's roommate he had contacted the President, who had just returned his call.
The General looked at SG-1 and Doctor Fraiser who had awaited the outcome of the call he had just received, "What did the President say?" asked Jack.
Hammond took his seat before replying, "He informed me that in all likelihood it was not Ms Summers but a friend of hers that broke into our system, her name is Willow Rosenberg, who is something of a computer genius. He ordered us to forget we ever heard of Ms Summers or Ms Rosenberg but he would arrange for someone to go and see them in Cleveland and ask them to refrain from anymore attempts to enter our computer system," he told them.
"What!" exclaimed O'Neill, "This Rosenberg woman brakes into a top secret computer system and takes information on the Stargate and our personnel files and all he is going to do is ask her to not do it again?"
"I was as shocked as you." Hammond looked around the table before continuing, trying to assess how they would react, "I got the distinct impression that after he received my call yesterday he received additional information on Ms Summers and her associates, whatever it was it seemed to scar him, I could hear it in his voice."
"What could scar the most powerful man on the planet?" Daniel mused.
"I have no idea," answered the General, "But the only time I have heard that kind of fear from a President was after the two naquadah bombs failed to destroy Apophis and his two motherships four years ago."
"Is Cassie in any danger?" asked Janet.
"He assured me that neither Ms Summers nor anyone associated with her would harm her as long as she was no threat to Dawn Summers, by all accounts Ms Summers is very protective of her sister."
Jack looked around at the other members of SG-1, "So that's it?" disgust on his voice.
"Yes Jack it is," sighed Hammond, he looked over at Major Carter, "But Major I think it prudent to leave all our files off the main system... for now."
NID black operations base (Unit one)
Maryland
The two officers entered Colonel Maybourne's office and took the two seats he indicated, Graham could see he was not happy, "What happened Major?"
"All was going to plan, the hostiles had been released and had just got into place to kill the two boyfriends when out of nowhere two Latino females appeared and began to take down the hostiles. That was when Captain Miller activated the hostiles' self-destructs, which I wholeheartedly agree with; he has more experience than any of the unit in regards to slayers."
Maybourne looked at Graham, "How did you know they were slayers?" he asked.
"I once sparred with Buffy Summers back in Sunnydale plus I had several occasions in which to observe her, not least when she helped evac the Initiative after the demon hybrid Adam had released all the hostiles," Graham explained.
Maybourne nodded considering what to do next, his superiors would not be pleased if he failed them; "Very well Captain but I was under the impression that there was only two slayers, Buffy Summers and the girl that escaped from prison some years ago... could this Faith have been one of them?"
"I'm sorry sir I can't explain what has happened; as I understand it one slayer is only activated when the last dies!" Graham told the two other men, "All I can think of is that Buffy Summers lied when she told us that... or she is unaware of any other slayers, although that I would say is unlikely as the two tonight were so near her sister."
"Agreed Captain, we will operate on the assumption Buffy Summers lied and that there are an unknown number of slayers." Maybourne said before pausing, "We will continue to observe Dawn Summers and Cassandra Fraiser but another team will watch the two slayers and if it becomes possible we will secure one for study; our behavioural modifier techniques have gotten better since Sunnydale, maybe these slayers can be made to work for us!"
"With your permission sir I'll make the necessary arrangements," said Edwards.
"Yes Major please do. And keep me advised. Dismissed," said Maybourne.
SGC, General Hammond's office
Colonel O'Neill knocked on the doorframe of his CO's office, Hammond looked up, "Come in Jack," he said gesturing to the chair.
O'Neill closed the door and took his seat, "What's going on George?"
General Hammond sighed, "Honestly I don't know? As I said, I could hear the fear in his voice. Whoever this Summers and Rosenberg are, they must have something on him that he wants to keep them onside."
"Could they be offworlders? Someone we don't know about?"
"To be honest it's as likely as any other explanation," said Hammond.
"Sir I know we were ordered to forget about them but I'd like Carter to take a closer look at them," said Jack.
General Hammond nodded, "Yes, but discreetly Colonel."
"Right sir, discretion is my middle name," smiled Jack rising.
Cleveland-Hopkins airport
Riley and his wife Samantha got into the rental car at the far side of the airport where their military chopper had dropped them, "Any idea why we got the call?" asked Samantha.
"No, other than I'm known to Buffy and Willow, I guess the President figured I'll have more pull than a stranger," answered Riley.
"What do you think Willow found out, it must have been pretty big to pull
us out of
"All I know is it is a top secret facility in Colorado Springs. So what's the address?"
"Just off the corner of West 9th and Frankfort Avenue," Samantha said glancing at part of the telex they had received earlier.
Watchful Security
They parked the car and got out, Samantha looked at her husband a little worried, "How do you think Willow will react?"
"I think she will be okay with doing what the President wants," Riley said giving his wife a reassuring smile.
Walking into the lobby and up to the receptionist Riley gave her one of his disarming smiles, "Good morning, may I help you?" she asked.
"I hope so, would it be possible for us to see Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg?" said Riley.
"I'll see, who shall I say is calling?" asked the receptionist picking up the phone.
"Riley and Samantha Finn."
The receptionist pressed one of the buttons, Riley could hear the muffled response at the other end of the phone, "Hi Amanda, I have a Riley and Samantha Finn to see Buffy and Willow." The receptionist raised her eyebrow as she looked at Riley while listening to Amanda, "Okay will do! Bye," she replaced the receiver frowning at them, "They were not expecting you to get here so quickly they only contacted your superiors about an hour ago," she told them.
Riley and Sam exchanged a confused look, "Why would Buffy and Willow contact our boss?" asked Sam looking at the receptionist.
"I'm not privy to that information, sorry," she smiled at them. The receptionist pointed to her right, "If you go down there you will find Buffy's office at the end," she told them before picking up the ringing phone.
As they walked down the indicated corridor Samantha looked over at Riley, "What do you think they contacted Colonel Stevens for?"
"I don't know, I can't believe they need our help, with Buffy's last experience with a semi military operation I can't think of any reason she would want our help."
"But they were asking for us not our unit," pointed out Sam as they pushed open the door to Buffy's office, to be greeted by a tall very slim, Samantha would have said skinny, young woman of about nineteen.
Amanda looked up, mentally assessing if the two people entering the office were a threat, ever since Willow had cast the spell at Sunnydale high to make her and the other potentials there full slayers, she had discovered that whenever she saw someone for the first time she would assess the quickest way to take them out. She shivered involuntary, not liking that part of her new psyche. "Riley and Sam I assume?" she said.
"Yes, are Buffy and Willow available? We need to speak to them," Riley told the young woman.
"Buffy is waiting for you, Willow is unavailable at the moment but Giles is coming to see you, please come with me," said Amanda getting up and walking towards the other door in the room.
"Thanks," said Riley.
Amanda knocked and entered without waiting for an answer, smiling as
Buffy got up from her desk and walked towards the three, "Your
Buffy closed the distance between herself and the Finns, "Riley," she said smiling as she hugged him, "It's so nice to see you again," she released her former boyfriend and hugged Sam, "I hope you're keeping him in line," she laughed lightly.
"Yeah most of the time, his military training to obey his superiors has helped a lot," she joined Buffy in laughing as they saw the sour look he was giving them.
"When you two have finished we have things to sort out," Riley said indignantly.
"Right," agreed Buffy, "Take a seat, Giles will be here soon. So how have you both been?"
"Thanks," Samantha smiled at Buffy taking a seat, "Fine, we've just got in from Peru, a group of religious type vampires are taking dozens of local villagers somewhere into the mountains, we haven't managed to fined them yet," she told the slayer.
"Sorry for taking you away but if you can give us everything you know we'd be more than happy to help," said Buffy.
At that moment Giles came in, he smiled at Riley who rose to shake the watcher's hand, "It's nice to see you again," Riley said before turning to his wife, "Giles this is my wife Samantha, Sam this is Rupert Giles, I think I told you about him?"
"Nice to meet you Samantha."
"Likewise Mr Giles but please call me Sam."
"Very well Sam but only if you call me Giles."
"Agreed Giles," said Sam smiling at the Englishmen.
Retaking there seats Riley looked at his ex, "What did you mean just now when you said you were sorry for taking us out of Peru?"
Buffy looked confused for a moment, "Didn't we? I know we only managed to get hold of your bosses an hour or so ago but I assumed that was why you were here."
Giles smiled at his slayer, "Buffy it takes longer than an hour to fly from South America to Cleveland, it is fortuitous that they are here but I suspect it has nothing to do with my call."
"We have no idea what you are talking about Giles. We are here on the orders of the President," Riley told them.
"Why?" Buffy asked a little worried.
"He suspects that you had Willow look into a top secret base in Colorado Springs, he wants your word, as well as Willow's, that you will not do it again," Riley told them.
Buffy had an amused look in her eyes, "The President of the United States asks that Willow not hack into the SGC again, why didn't he just send the FBI to arrest us?"
"All he told me was that if you were to ask that type of question I was to tell you he is aware of what Willow almost did a few years ago!" Riley answered frowning, "What did she almost do?"
Riley saw a tightening of Buffy's jaw, "She tried to end the world, until Xander talked her down. A guy called Warren shot me and Tara, she thought Tara was dead, she went a little insane, she's better now."
Sam went a little pale, "She can do that?" she asked barely above a whisper.
Giles, who had been cleaning his glasses, just gave her a stony face, "Yes."
At that moment the door opened and the redhead entered with her girlfriend, Sam unconsciously sought her husband's hand, feeling the tension in him, "Hi Riley, Rachel our receptionist said you were here and wanted to see me. So what's up?" smiled Willow pulling Tara into the room with her.
Tara immediately sensed the fear and general tension coming from their guests, "Willow," she said quietly trying to warn her girlfriend, "I think we should come back later."
Willow frowned at Tara, "Why? This is Riley and Sam," she turned back to the Finns, her smile disarming, "Sorry about that but you know what Tara's like around strangers and she doesn't know Sam."
Giles rose from his chair and went over to the witches, whom he had spent
so much time with in
The tears came then as she hugged Tara who pulled her into her arms, "Oh goddess, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she kept repeating.
Then Buffy joined Giles as they hugged both young women lending their own strength in aiding the distraught redhead.
Samantha's own eyes misted up as she sat observing Willow, somehow she could feel the many emotions that the redhead was feeling not least the guilt, without thinking she rose from her chair and crossed the room to the four friends. Sam placed a hand on Willow's shoulder and simply said, "I forgive you," she had no idea where it came from or even why she had said it but she felt an overwhelming need to say it to the young witch.
Willow looked stunned for a moment before she broke away from her three friends and threw herself into the older woman's arms; "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Willow began to repeat into Sam's chest.
At that moment Sam, although only five years older than the redhead, felt her maternal instincts rise, stroking Willow's hair, she met Tara's eyes and an understanding passed between them, "It's alright Willow, everything is going to be alright now."
Tara's heart ached to pull Willow back into a hug but when she looked into Sam's eyes, she realised that Willow needed the forgiveness of this virtual stranger. She and the rest of the gang had been telling her since Xander had stopped her from destroying the world that they forgave her, but to Willow that was what friends did, but a stranger forgiving her. 'Now we can move on,' she thought.
Buffy looked sadly at her best friend, "Will why don't you let Tara take you home," she suggested.
Willow pulled away from Sam smiling a little sadly at her, looking at the wet stain that now covered part of her top, "Sorry about your top," she apologised.
"That's alright Willow, you'd be surprised at how often Riley cries on my tops," Sam laughed lightly at her own joke.
Willow also laughed as the image of the larger Riley crying in his wife's arms, she turned to Buffy, "Yeah I'd like that if it's okay with you?"
"Of course it's okay, I'm sure Giles and Robin can sort out anything you are working on," said Buffy.
"Yes of course Willow," added Giles.
Riley looked at the redhead as Tara led her out the door, "I hope you feel better soon Willow."
Willow turned to face them all, "Bye," she said smiling sadly at them.
"I need a drink," said Sam suddenly breaking the silence that had descended after the two witches had left.
Buffy smacked her forehead, "I'm so sorry I should have asked you if you wanted a drink when you got here," she apologised, "So what do you want? Tea, coffee or something stronger?"
"It's a little early for alcohol Buffy," pointed out Giles.
Sam turned to the slayer, "Coffee will be fine Buffy, we've had about two hours sleep since... what day is it?"
"Tuesday," Buffy told her.
"Since Sunday morning," Sam informed them.
"Well maybe we could finish our business over dinner tonight?" suggested Giles, "That way you will be able to think more clearly."
"And what business would that be Giles?" asked Riley, "The only reason we came here was to get Buffy and Willow's assurances that they would not hack into the military computer in Colorado Springs again."
"I suppose that the person that Willow spoke to the second time figured out who we were from what she told them," Buffy mused. "You can tell them that we will not do it again as long as they are no threat to Dawn," a hardness came into her eyes, "If that changes all bets are off," she told the Finns.
"I'll inform the President," Riley said solemnly.
"The other business we want to discuss is the possibility of you two coming to work for us," Giles told them while Buffy opened the door and asked Amanda to get them all drinks.
"What? Why?" asked Riley.
"We can't really go into details until we know that you will join us," Giles told them, "What I can tell you is that you would mostly be doing the type of work you are now and that we would pay you 25% above your currently salary."
"Wow very generous," said Sam taking a seat.
"We'll talk it over and give you our decision tonight," put in Riley as he took a seat next to his wife.
"That's fine," said Buffy grabbing a note pad from her desk and taking her
seat, handed the pad to a confused Giles, "So what can you tell us about these
religious vamps in
Major Carter's lab/office
SGC
Colonel O'Neill walked into Major Carter's office several hours after speaking to General Hammond; "So Carter what you got?" he asked sitting in a spare chair.
Carter swivelled her chair around to face her CO, "Well sir quite a bit on Willow Rosenberg but not so much on Buffy Summers, most of her records seem to have been destroyed with the earthquake that destroyed Sunnydale," Sam began.
"They met in high school in Sunnydale when Buffy Summers was expelled from Hemery in LA after the gym was burned down, although there was no direct evidence of her involvement she was the chief suspect and was asked to leave, Sunnydale was the only place willing to take her. Her grades in high school were erratic but she scored well enough that she was offered college places in several schools including North Western, but chose to attend UC Sunnydale instead... There are indications that while attending college she got involved with a government, probably NID, black ops project, it's hard to tell for sure as most of the files have been purged..."
"Well if she and Rosenberg were involved with the NID that could be why we have been ordered to forget about them and why the President is so frightened of them," O'Neill surmised.
"It doesn't have anything to do with Buffy Summers, although I'm sure she could embarrass the government if whatever happened in Sunnydale came out," Sam told him. "No the one the President is worried about is Willow Rosenberg. She was a straight A and honour roll student in high school, she was offered places at every prestige's school in the country as well as half a dozen in Europe but she also chose to attend UC Sunnydale. Although she was not initially involved with the black ops project she was aware of it, probably through Buffy Summers, she was involved somehow at the end, but as I said the files have been purged so I can really only speculate?"
"Still not hearing anything that could cause the President of these here United States to wake up in a cold sweat?" put in O'Neill.
"Well from the little I have been able to gather, Willow Rosenberg came close to destroying the world a few years ago..."
"Oh come on Carter you have got to be kidding me, one little girl from a destroyed one horse town in southern California somehow almost destroyed the world? What have you been drinking Major?" Colonel O'Neill threw his arms up in the air as he rose and began heading for the door.
"Its true sir that's what I've been able to find out?"
The Colonel turned back to her, "Well it is obviously an elaborate cover story! Anubis may have the power to destroy an entire world but even he needs a huge spaceship. So okay, say its true! How could she have done it?"
Sam began to blush, knowing he would no more believe it than she did, "Magic," she said barely above a whisper.
"What! Whoever came up with this story needs to be locked up. Just see if you can find out the real reason the President is shitting himself," said O'Neill storming out the door.
Ritz-Carlton hotel
Riley and Sam's room
Samantha walked into their suite to see Riley stood by the fax machine, "You should have come for a sauna, very invigorating," she said walking over and wrapping her arms around her husband, " Mmmm what's that?"
Taking the small stack of papers, he laid them to one side before turning around in Samantha's arms, "Just some info on the vamps in Peru that Giles found out." He let out a little groan as Sam began alternatively nibbling and kissing his neck, "Someone's horny?" he said as he grabbed her backside and ground her against his hard-on.
Samantha pulled away from his neck and smirked up at him, "I'm not the only one, I think our little soldier wants to come out to play," she said working down his zip and sliding her fingers in and stroked it, "He's already at attention."
"Oh god what you do to me," he said bending slightly to pick her up in his arms and carrying her to the bed.
Riley came out of the bathroom drying his hair, "So what are we going to wear tonight?" he asked his wife who sat at the vanity table combing her own hair. "We didn't exactly pack with the idea of eating at top class restaurants!"
"Everything is sorted; Buffy is sending over a dress for me and a tux for you, she said they'd be here by 6... That's probably the clothes now," Samantha finished, hearing a knock on the door. She got up and checking that her robe was fastened modestly, went to answer it.
On returning to Riley, she held two clothes bags, laying his tuxedo on the bed, she opened the other letting out a gasp as she saw what Buffy had picked out for her, she took it out of the packing and holding it up to her front she looked into the mirror. "Wow its gorgeous, it must have cost a small fortune," she exclaimed. It was dark blue, knee length cut modestly in the front but open backed to the waist. She smirked at Riley as something occurred to her, "No bra for me tonight, I wonder if that's why Buffy chose it?"
Riley made strangling noises with his throat as the implication hit him; Samantha could not hold it in, she fell backwards onto their bed laughing. "Why you..." he stalked over to the bed and used the one weakens his wife really had, her ticklishness, she squealed as he used his weight advantage to hold her down as his fingers mercilessly tickled her sides.
PennState campus, Frank and Jimmy's room
Cassandra knocked on the dorm room door, Dawn and she could not help staring at the half-naked football players walking around, catching Dawn's eye she smirked at her, "We should think of asking for a room transfer."
"Uh huh," nodded Dawn.
As the door was opened by Frank they snapped their eyes away from the other boys, blushing slightly when they realised he had caught them looking; "So if you caught Jimmy and me looking at half naked girls it would be alright?"
Dawn smiled slyly, "I'd be more worried if you didn't stare at half naked girls!" she told him, "So are you going to let us in?"
"Sure," said Frank opening the door wider.
Dawn looked at him the smile leaving her face, "A little advise, never invite anyone into your room after dark, always just open the door, without saying something like 'come in'."
"Already got the low-down from your friend last night," he explained.
"Good," smiled Dawn walking in and Frank closed the door behind them, "Where's Jimmy?"
"Just gone to the bathroom, unlike some people, we all have to share a bathroom," said Frank.
"Jealous?" smirked Cassandra.
"Some. Have a seat," he indicated one of the beds.
Cassandra and Dawn sat side by side on one bed as Frank sat on the other. Cassandra gasped as her eyes fell on the photograph on the bedside table, she picked it up, "How do you know Jack?" she asked.
Dawn could see that there was a younger looking Jack O'Neill stood, with a man that looked a lot like Frank, behind two boys of about six or seven both holding fish up to the camera; "I'd say that the other guy is Frank's dad!" she said looking up at him for confirmation.
"Ah yeah it was taken on our last fishing trip just before Charlie accidentally shot himself with Uncle Jack's gun. How do you know him?"
"He works with my mum, I've know him since I was twelve. How come we never met before now?" asked Cassandra.
"Well after my dad was killed on some type of secret mission, he was in the special forces with Uncle Jack, mum took me to live in Denver... a new start, that sort of thing, she married a cop there a couple of years later," Frank explained.
Just then Jimmy came in wearing just a pair of shorts, he blushed with embarrassment when he saw the two girls on his bed, "Oh I'm sorry," he said, loosening the towel he carried so that it fell open covering most of his body from his chest to his knees, "I wasn't expecting you yet." He slowly edged over to his wardrobe keeping the towel between him and the girls.
Dawn burst out laughing, "Jimmy, are you shy?" she immediately felt bad when he blushed, "Sorry didn't mean to embarrass you, look if you like Cassie and me will wait outside."
"No it's okay, its just that growing up it was just me and my three older brothers, my father is a minister, he had very strict rules about walking around half naked in front of girls," explained Jimmy pulling a t-shirt over his head as he reappeared completely dressed from behind the door.
Frank looked over at his friend, "Man you really need to loosen up, you're in college now, it's not just a place for study but for keggers and meeting girls... ah not that we are that interested in meeting anymore girls now we know you two," he finished looking back to Dawn and Cassandra. He could see the two were not really buying it so decided to change the subject, "Hey guess what Jimmy, it turns out that Cassie knows my Uncle Jack. Some coincidence don't you think!"
They spent the next hour going over what had happened the night before as well as background details on vampires and demons in general, Dawn also explained why her 'family' had moved to Cleveland after the Hellmouth under Sunnydale was destroyed. Slayers, watchers and witches were also explained but she left out the whole Key thing.
"So we going out tonight?" asked Cassandra.
"Ah yeah if you want?" said Frank then looked at Dawn, "If it's safe?"
"Its safe, if you take sensible precautions, holy water, holy symbols that sort of thing, they will help stop a vamp but you have to just try and avoid other demons altogether, which isn't that hard as most can't pass as human so avoid populated areas," Dawn explained. Holding up the pentagram necklace Willow and Tara had given her for a graduation present, "It's a fallacy that only crosses work against vamps, although because of its shape a cross is usually the easiest to use. But you should all be aware that holy water or symbols will not kill a vampire just hold it at bay."
"Right then," said Frank rising, "We thought we'd take you to see a movie tonight, maybe visit Players after. How does that sound?"
"Great, what's showing?" asked Dawn beginning to follow him out.
"Dawn of the Dead!" he said.
"Oh good I like comedies," laughed Dawn.
Cleveland
The limo pulled up and the driver jumped out and came around to open the door for Riley and Samantha, they climbed in they were sat in abject luxury; the car seemed to have everything except a bath. "Wow do you think they are trying to bribe us into joining them?" said Riley, "The restaurant is only about half a mile down the road."
"There was no way Buffy was going to have us walk to the restaurant with what this dress cost, and yes it may well be a bribe, lets just enjoy it while it lasts. If we decide to say no we will be on our way back to Peru and some godforsaken seedy hotel in the middle of nowhere," pointed out Samantha.
Lincoln Inn
Riley walked into the restaurant, Samantha on his arm, many eyes followed them, some envious others jealous, they approached the maître d', "Good evening sir may I help you?"
"Yes we are supposed to be meeting some friends for dinner," replied Riley.
"May I have your names and in whose name the reservation was placed?" asked the maître d'.
"Riley and Samantha Finn, I believe the reservation is in the name of Giles?"
"Ah yes Mr Finn, Mr Giles and Ms Summers are awaiting you," he said giving them a smile before turning to one of the waiters, "Michael please show Mr and Mrs Finn to Mr Giles table," he ordered, he turned back to Riley and Samantha, "I hope you enjoy your meal tonight."
As Riley and Samantha followed the waiter, they spotted Giles and Buffy sat at a table in the far corner, both smiled at the couple as they drew closer, Giles wore a tuxedo and Buffy had the twin of Samantha's dress but in pale blue. She hugged Buffy, whispering into her ear, "You look stunning."
Buffy smiled at the older woman, "So do you Sam, when I saw it, I decided to buy one for myself as well."
"Thank you so much but you shouldn't have spent so much," said Samantha taking her seat.
"Why not, just call it a small signing bonus to come and work with us," smiled Buffy retaking her own seat.
"But we haven't agreed to join you yet!" pointed out Riley.
Giles looked at the young soldier; he had matured from the enthusiastic young man Giles met in Sunnydale to the serious well-rounded leader of soldiers in the field. 'With a few years of study he will make an excellent watcher.' "Riley over the last few years I have heard some excellent things about you and your team, but because of your superiors' refusal to believe in Magick and prophesy you can only react, sometimes when it has already caused the deaths of numerous civilians. Take this group in Peru, had they looked in the numerous books of prophesy they would have known where those villagers were being taken. With us, you would have a greater chance to forestall the spread of darkness. We are not offering you these jobs lightly, we could all benefit from this arrangement."
"That's Giles long winded way of saying we can help each other," smiled Buffy.
Riley looked over at his wife, who nodded, before turning back to Giles, "Alright were in, we'll contact our superiors later and resign our commissions effective immediately," he told them.
"Excellent, it is a little public here so I will just give you the general details, after dinner we can return to the office and give you a more detailed explanation," Giles said looking around. "As you know Riley, up until the time of the destruction of Sunnydale only two slayers existed, Buffy here and Faith who just before the destruction of the town was incarcerated in the Californian state prison in LA.
"Although there were only two slayers, around the world were a large number of girls, commonly referred to by the Watchers Council as potentials, up until these girls reach eighteen any of them could have become a slayer if Buffy or Faith had died. Now some two years ago an entity known only as the First Evil made an appearance in Sunnydale, but over the proceeding months its followers, know as the Harbingers, eliminated many of these young girls with the idea of eventually ending the Slayer line.
"Buffy eventually came up with a last ditched plan to not just close the Hellmouth but to destroy it for all time, with the aid of Willow and Tara who used an ancient scythe, which held the power of the slayer. The two activated all the potentials in town at the time, although we had hoped to activate them all over the world, and they all became full slayers. With the aid of another two dozen slayers, Buffy and Faith were able to hold off the creatures within the Hellmouth so that Spike was able to use an amulet that had come into our possession, this amulet had the power, if the wearer was willing to sacrifice themselves, to destroy a Hellmouth from the inside out."
"Spike did that?" asked a stunned Riley, he had never trusted the vampire but just tolerated him for Buffy sake, he began to reassess his feelings for the vampire, he looked at Buffy, "Sorry for your loss."
Buffy smirked at him knowing how much he loathed the vampire, "Don't worry about it he turned up at Angel's a few months later, the two now work with each other... when they aren't trying to kill each other."
"How is that possible?" asked a shocked Samantha.
"You need to know that when you dedicate your life to holding the dark in check that sometimes you are 'rewarded' in unexpected ways, dealing with Primal forces both good and evil can and is very dangerous... look if you want to change your minds we will understand!" said Giles.
"No we are in this for the long haul," said Samantha.
"Very well then. I suggest you stay at your hotel until you find a permanent home, you don't have to worry about the bill the company will pay," said Giles.
"We'll start house hunting tomorrow, any suggestions where?" put in Samantha.
"I would go for an apartment if I were you rather than a house, you may be away for long periods of time, I know there are a few available in our building, Willow and Tara also have an apartment in the same building," said Buffy.
"That would be nice, at least we would know some of our neighbours and you can keep an eye on it when we are away," pointed out Riley.
"And Willow and Tara regularly ward the building against thieves as well as vamps and demons, in the almost two years we have been there no one has been burgled so it seems to work," Buffy told them.
"Okay we'll have a look at the apartments tomorrow," agreed Samantha.
The Finns superiors were not pleased to receive their resignations but could not persuade them to reconsider, as a parting gift Riley sent them everything Giles had found on the vampire cult in Peru.
Over the next couple of days, Giles spent a great deal of his time orientating Riley and Samantha. Riley was a great help with training the fifty or so potentials in the private girl's 'school' that had been set-up nearby as a cover to explain the number of girls that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Samantha spent some time helping Willow and Tara in research or helping Riley with the girls training.
On Thursday, Giles left town with the two potentials that Wesley had agreed to take, leaving Robin to continue Riley and Samantha's orientation.
While at PennState, Dawn and Cassandra's lives started to return to normal, there were no more vampire attacks or other supernatural occurrence, they went to class, did various research projects relating to their courses and spent all their spare time with Frank and Jimmy.
Kennedy contacted Dawn on several occasions to let her know that Willow and Tara had found nothing on self-destructing vampires and that there seemed to be very little in the way of work for her and Manda to do!
None of them noticed the various service vehicles that were always around the college as well as Players where they spent a large part of their spare time.
Summers-Spencer apartment Cleveland, Friday
Buffy groaned as she turned over and grabbed the phone, "Hello," she said, yawning as she looked at the clock, which read 5.30 AM.
"Hey B, Whatya doing?" came Faith's to chipper voice from the other end.
"I was sleeping, didn't we have this conversation last time you went somewhere without me... the one about different time zones?"
"You know me babe never could listen to the boring stuff. So how is everything? Any problems?"
"Na nothing major, Kennedy and Manda ran across some self dusting vamps... how come we never get easy ones? We recruited Riley and his wife Sam as Watchers and oh yeah the President asked us not to hack into some military computer in Colorado."
"What? Your joshing me, no way the President is just going to ask something like that!" said a shocked Faith.
"No it's true... he knows about Will and what happened when Tara and I got shot by Warren," sighed Buffy remembering the pain her best friend had felt when Riley and Sam had turned up.
"Oh... do you think she's safe? Do you think he might try removing her?" asked Faith, a little worried.
"No I don't think he will do anything, he's obviously known for sometime, plus he has no way of knowing what the rest of us would do if we found out that he was responsible for her death."
"I guess you're right. So Riley and his wife are onboard, how did that happen," asked Faith changing the subject.
"It was Giles idea, we 'are' desperately short of watchers, he also suggested
lending out some slayers to the
"No way would I go along with that," interrupted Faith.
"I said the same thing, anyway Giles phoned Riley's superiors asking that he get in touch, he and Sam turned up about an hour later, it turned out that the President asked them to come and talk to Will and me about hacking into the military computers."
"So you okay with your ex joining the firm?"
"I'm okay with it but maybe I should be asking you that?" Buffy heard someone in the background speaking Russian, "What was that? Where are you?" she asked.
"In order, that was a Russian chick speaking over the tannoy and Moscow airport waiting for our flight home."
"Moscow? Why are you in Moscow... wait your coming home?" asked Buffy sitting up.
"I'm in Moscow cuz that was where the real master vamp hung out, seems someone fooled Aleksandra and Vlad into thinking he was the master, after we dusted him we found details that led to Moscow, took two friging days to find his lair. Dusted him about three hours ago, couldn't wait to get back to you babe. So got any plans worked out to pay me back for Sunday?" smirked Faith.
"Some, what time do you get in?" smiled Buffy.
"Around 4.30 PM your time, do me a favour and have someone pick us up from the airport... sorry B, gotta go they just called our flight, Bye love you," Buffy heard the phone on the other end disconnect.
Buffy jumped out of bed, "Lots to do," she said to herself as she headed towards the bathroom.
Buffy made a quick stop at the office to tell Willow and Tara she was taking the day off and that Faith and Toku were on their way home, both witches smile