Chapter Nine
Asgard Cruiser Surtur
A Few Moments Earlier
Baldur was puzzled as he guided his cruiser through hyperspace towards the Sol System. Yesterday evening the security sensors that the Asgard had monitoring this galaxy - one never knew when the Goa'uld would try something against the Protected Planets as the System Lords forever chaffed under the treaties restrictions and they had to be ready to enforce it - had detected an enormous energy burst. A burst on a scale that they had never detected on the network before.
Concerned that the Goa'uld had made a worrying technological leap the High Council had ordered an immediate investigation. Thankfully a careful analysis of the sensor data had revealed that the energy burst had not originated anywhere in Goa'uld space, meaning it was not the product of some new weapons technology being tested by one of the System Lords presumably to be used to said System Lords advantage in the dynastic war that had been raging in the Goa'uld Empire since the mysterious death of the Supreme System Lord Ra over Abydos two years ago. Instead the energy burst had come from the Sol System which had been a surprise in itself; the humans who lived in this system were nowhere near advanced enough technologically to generate an energy pulse of such magnitude. They had after all only figured out how to split the atom fifty of their years ago and had yet to advance to more than the very basics of interplanetary travel.
The conclusion that this system was the origin point of the wave had thus been at first thought incorrect. However repeated checks, and even a full diagnostic of the monitoring system, had always yielded the same results. Determined to find out what had caused the energy pulse the High Council had dispatched him – a scientist who had only recently come out of long term stasis - with the only ship they had available at the moment as the bulk of their fleet was currently occupied trying to stop a Replicator force that had entered a vital industrial area in their home galaxy of Ida. Unfortunately the ship in question was this cruiser – and it was only available due to having just finished being repaired after the last skirmish with those technological terrors, which had taken place shortly after the Surtur had been brought out of reserve to fill a hole in their fleet ranks caused by the recent destruction of multiple Beliskner-class motherships in the war with the replicators - which was why it had taken him so long to reach this galaxy, cruisers just didn't have the power generation capacity to travel any faster than that.
And now, as he approached Sol, he was detecting something rather curious. It looked like something was using a device like a subspace anchor to keep something in a stationary orbit above the eighth planet of the system, referred to as Neptune by the system's inhabitants. He was not able to tell exactly what it was from hyperspace – interference from the subspace domains between hyperspace and normal space made gathering such fine details impossible – but from the size of the anchoring signature it was massive, certainly easily large enough to generate the kind of energy pulse they'd detected.
Shifting some stones around on his console he adjusted his course to emerge from hyperspace closer to the anomaly. A second set of commands transferred some power from his hyperdrive to the weapons systems and shield generators, while he would not fire first it was prudent – especially in a galaxy dominated, as it had been for the last eight thousand years, by the Goa'uld – to be prepared just in case those megalomaniacal parasites had something to do with whatever this thing was after all.
Once he was satisfied that everything was as ready as it could be while the hyperdrive was engaged he entered the command to return to normal space. The faint background humming of the hyperdrive as it propelled the seven-hundred-metre-long cruiser through subspace faded away until, with the faintest of jolts, the Surtur dropped back into normal space near the eighth planet of the Sol System. Immediately his sensor screens came alive with readings and Baldur blinked in surprise at what he saw.
Sitting in orbit above the blue and white ice giant planet was a space station. A space station that at a hundred and thirteen kilometres long, twenty-two kilometres tall and twenty-five kilometres across at its widest point had to be one of the largest space stations ever constructed by any known spacefaring civilization. Baldur didn't think even the Ancients had built stations this massive, oh they easily would have had the technology and scientific know how to do so, but had probably never really seen the need. He couldn't help but wonder who had built it, though its presence certainly explained the energy wave they detected as anyone advanced enough to build on this scale could easily generate such a burst.
"But who are they," he wondered aloud even as he instructed the ship to scan the station. The scan was just beginning when something else caught his attention. There was another ship hanging near the station, a ship that he instantly recognised though it had been over four hundred years since he'd last seen one. The smooth oval design, gravitic drive field emissions and organic construction made it obvious who the vessel belonged to. The Nox what are they doing here, he thought incredulously, knowing that the Nox hadn't ventured off Gaia in many centuries and even when they'd been more active space travellers they'd very rarely left their planet in all the time the Asgard had known them.
He could think of only one explanation for their old allies' presence here. The Nox had detected the same energy wave that the Asgard had and tracked it back here. Though the fact that they had felt the need to send a ship to investigate was concerning, especially as it indicated the true nature of the energy wave as it had to have been at least partially based in the reality distorting energies that the Nox – and to a lesser degree the Ancients before them – had long ago mastered but which his own people couldn't – and indeed never had been able to – manipulate in any real way themselves. They had been able to prove such energies existed and understood some of the theories behind what was commonly referred to as magic but there was something in his peoples biology – some quirk of evolution shared by all life on Halla though its exact cause was lost in time – that had prevented them ever learning to use it. Something they had long since learned to live with though Baldur would be lying if he said he didn't wonder sometimes how things would be for his people if they could use magic in all its many forms, would they be in the predicaments that they were in now with both the Replicators and their genetic degradation?
Information flashed up on his screens reporting that he was being scanned by the station with a mixture of subspace, gravimetric and magnetometric sensors. The station appeared to be focusing its scans on his shielding and weapons system no doubt having detected the power build up in both systems. He was also reading a power build up on the station, presumably weapons being made ready as well as an incredibly powerful shield going up no doubt in response to his own weapons being almost fully armed. Not wishing to appear hostile, anyone capable of building a station this size would certainly have the ability to swat his cruiser like it was a toy if they perceived him to be a threat, Baldur quickly powered down the weapons and reset the shields to navigational shielding level only.
The reaction from the station was immediate as the scan profile changed dramatically from focused, probing scans – the kind that were needed for weapons targeting among other things – to more general and far less aggressive scans. The power surging to what he presumed were the stations weapons systems also died away and after a moment its defence shield lowered. A second later one of the runes on his console began flashing indicating an incoming hail from the station.
Doing the Asgard equivalent of mentally crossing his fingers, hoping he didn't mess this up as that would seriously annoy the High Council especially as it was in front of their old – if now somewhat distant – Nox ally, he accepted the hail and opened a comm link. The main holographic display came on and Baldur blinked as instead of facing an unknown alien species, or even a member of a previously unknown but advanced human culture, he was looking at a male Nox well into the later years of that species lifespan, meaning he was certainly a member of the Council of Elders. The Nox was backdropped by a beautifully landscaped garden next to a lake, and it was all Baldur could do not to blink again as he saw that the grass was a pale blue colour and that a tree he could see had silver leaves.
"Greetings Asgard vessel, I am Elder Ohper of the Nox," the Nox said.
"Greetings Elder Ohper, I am Commander Baldur of the Surtur," Baldur replied. "I apologise if I seem a little startled, I was not expecting to encounter one of your people here."
"That is understandable. We came to investigate an unusually large energy wave that originated in this system," Ohper told him. "Given that the waves origin is at least partially based in magic we felt we had no choice but to investigate as a discharge on this scale has not been seen in millions of years, not since the defeat and exile of the Old Ones."
"I see. That is also why I am here; the sensors we have monitoring our protected planets detected the energy burst. I was dispatched with the only ship we had available." Inwardly Baldur grimaced at the mention of the Old Ones, though the Ancients and the Nox had fought that war long before his people had begun exploring the gate network the Ancients had built in their own galaxy the Asgard were well aware of the nature of the Old Ones and how big a threat they would be if they ever returned to this universe in any great strength.
"I assume you know what caused the energy wave?" he asked after a moment.
"That I do; it was the creation of this station due to a combination of chaos magic, ascended energy and a twist of fate caused by the intervention of the True Deity Janus."
"A True Deity interfered? That is most unusual; to the best of my knowledge they have not interfered with the mortal realms for many thousands of years and I have never heard of the ascended interfering with the lower planes."
"It is unusual, but circumstances demanded it."
"Truly?" Baldur asked, instantly concerned. As if his people didn't have enough to worry about right now between the Replicator War and the genetic degeneration of their clones they now potentially had something serious enough to warrant action from both the ascended Ancients and a True Deity to worry about. The High Council aren't going to like hearing that, he thought.
"Yes, it is a complicated story that I would rather explain to you in person and not over a subspace link," Ohper replied. "I have spoken with Alexander, the owner of this station, and he is willing to allow you to transport aboard to these coordinates. However, if you are willing to wait for your answers, beyond my telling you that there is no longer a threat here, I can discuss them with you later aboard my vessel. I might also need your help imparting some important lessons to Stargate Command."
"Stargate Command?" Baldur asked curious as to who that was.
"A faction of the humans on the third planet of this system found and unlocked the Stargate on their planet. They've set up a secret military and scientific organisation called Stargate Command to oversee exploration and likely exploitation of the Stargate networks. From what I have learned they are keeping it secret from the other factions on their planet and have even lied about an event a week ago that saw them destroy at least two Goa'uld vessels that attempted to attack the planet."
"I see that is a concern," Baldur replied, the Asgard had seen such instances before with human worlds and it seldom ended well. They had seen a number of worlds annihilated due to such things in the past, either through Goa'uld assaults on the planet in question or the inhabitants turning on one another when the existence of the gate became known as it inevitably always eventually did. "When you are ready, I will transport to your vessel so we may discuss this and other issues further. In the meantime, I will speak with the Asgard High Council and assure them that the energy wave poses no lingering threat." Any maybe suggest to them that we begin looking into including the third planet in the Protected Planets Treaty, he thought, if the Goa'uld have already tried to attack Earth once and failed, they will soon surely try again but with greater force. We cannot allow that.
"Very well we will contact you when we are ready. In the meantime, Xander would like to know if you have any questions for him."
"Xander," Baldur questioned.
"It's the name Alexander prefers to be known by," Ohper explained, "he was once an ordinary human but due to the actions of the True Deity Janus and the Ascended, which created the energy wave both our races detected, he has become something never seen in this universe before to the best of my peoples knowledge anyway."
"Really interesting," Baldur replied, fighting down a surge of excitement at the thought of learning about something new for the first time in centuries. Especially something that had apparently never been encountered by even the Nox – who now that the Ancients had ascended were the oldest and wisest of the old Alliance of Four – before now. "I believe that I would like to meet him. I will transport aboard to your coordinates as soon as we finish this transmission."
"That might not be a good idea. Xander prefers people to initially come aboard for the first meeting via shuttlecraft. It is why we came aboard via shuttle instead of transporting."
"That will not be possible I carry no such auxiliary craft. The High Council forbade the carrying of such craft shortly after our war with the Replicators began."
"Replicators?" Ohper asked, looking confused as he had no knowledge of a race called Replicator, in fact it sounded like they were a machine race which could be problematic.
"It is a long story, but they are a malevolent artificial intelligence that the Asgard have been at war with for the better part of a century."
"I see, that is another thing we will need to discuss later," Ohper replied in a firm tone that said to Baldur that the Nox Elder would tolerate no evasions or hiding of the truth for the sake of Asgardian pride. Baldur honestly didn't mind telling the Nox everything, while he doubted, they would be able to help against the mechanised menace of the Replicators they could almost certainly help with that other very pressing issue facing the Asgard given the Nox had a mastery of both healing arts and bioengineering that was second to none. Not that he could truly hide anything even if he had been so inclined as it was almost impossible to successfully lie to the Nox.
"In the meantime, Xander has agreed that you may transport over to these coordinates," Ohper spoke again startling Baldur who realized that he had gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he'd missed the Nox looking away. "But first you must close to within a thousand kilometres of the station where an energy beam Xander referred to as a tethering beam will lock onto your vessel. He also asked me to advise you that you may transport to these coordinates only, transportation to anywhere else inside the station will trigger counter-insurgency defences."
Something tells me I don't want to learn what those could be, Baldur thought with an inward shudder though he understood that it was both a genuine warning from this Xander and a test. A test to determine if he could be trusted to honour his word. Though what's a tethering beam? Only one way to find out.
"I understand and will proceed to the indicated position immediately."
"Understood we will speak more when you come aboard."
With that the communications link with the space station closed causing the holoscreen to shimmer out of existence. Baldur paid it no mind; instead he manipulated the control stones on his console, first sending a subspace burst transmission to the Asgard High Council with a copy of both this conversation and his sensor readings from the moment he'd arrived in system. With that done he brought the Surtur's sublight engine online and approached the station. It took only a few seconds to cross to the position indicated whereupon he brought his ship to a stop.
For a second more nothing happened then, with almost breath-taking suddenness, a translucent light-blue energy beam shot out from a point on the station's hull and locked onto his craft. Baldur blinked as his residual forward momentum stopped dead. Interesting, he thought before noting, with some surprise, that the beam was also scanning his hull like it was checking for damage. Seeming to quickly determine that there was no damage – though Baldur idly wondered what would have happened if there had been damage – the beam ceased its scanning and seemed content to just hold his ship in place.
"Intriguing," he said aloud as while it was clear that this beam was certainly based in tractor beam technology it was also somehow quite different, the sciences being applied in a way that he'd never seen before. He made a mental note to ask a little about the technology later in the meantime he decided that there was no point in continuing to stall so with a few quick commands he programmed the outbound transporter to lock onto the coordinates of the Nox life signs inside the station…
…then he engaged the transport sequence.
~~//~~
Rupert Giles Residence
Sunnydale, California
That Same Time
Willow didn't look well was the thought that immediately entered Buffy's mind as he met her red headed friend at the door to Giles small townhouse. Willow's hair was messed and looked like it had only barely been brushed, her clothes looking more like they'd been literally just thrown on that put on but it was the look in her eyes that really sent a dagger into her heart. Willow's expressive eyes were dark with grief and swollen from crying, the bags under her eyes telling her that the other girl had not slept well if she had slept at all. Poor Willow, she's really taken Xander's death hard, Buffy thought, how's she going to react to the fact that he's actually still alive though massively changed by the spell and cannot be here at this time, instead he's on that space station out by Neptune.
She was so startled, and concerned, by Willow's appearance that she almost didn't see the middle-aged man behind her. He was of average height, with dark hair and a compact but muscular build, his stance screaming to her that he was – or at some point had been – a soldier. Something about him also set off her Slayer senses but not in a bad way in the way vampires or demons did. Whoever he was he was clearly a supernatural being but not a hostile one.
"Hi Buffy, I came as soon as Giles called me," Willow said, clearly putting on a front to appear her normal self and failing miserably. Buffy stood aside, in normal Sunnydale fashion, to let Willow in which she immediately did while speaking again, the strange man walking behind her. "What's this about?"
"I cannot say yet we're waiting for a few more people to arrive," Buffy said, "Ms Calendar and Cordelia are bringing them here. Who's this?"
"My names Kowalski miss, Charles Kowalski," the man said, holding out a hand which Buffy took. Immediately she felt the Slayer spirit within her, the urge to hunt and kill evil supernaturals that always burned at the back of her mind, going calm and quiet almost like it was respectful towards whatever this man was. "It's a pleasure to meet you Slayer Summers."
Buffy's eyes widened. "How did you? Did Willow tell you? What are you?" She fired off the three questions in rapid succession in her own version of Willow's patented rapid-fire speech known as Willow babble. Which of all of them only Xander could really understand due to his long experience dealing with it and the fact that Willow tended to talk that way if she had had just a little too much coffee in the morning. More than once she'd seen Xander take coffee off Willow when she'd had too much as Willow was very much a coffeeholic.
"We always know whenever we meet a Slayer, Buffy," Kowalski told her with a warm smile as he released her hand, "Willow didn't tell me, she didn't need to as I was informed of your existence when I was assigned to Willow. As for what I am it's a long story the short version is I'm what's called a whitelighter."
"Did you say you're a whitelighter?" Giles asked as he came in from the kitchen area, a look of shock on his face.
"Indeed, I did Mister Giles."
"Giles?" Buffy said, asking all sorts of questions with just her Watchers name.
"Whitelighters are a type of angel Buffy," Giles explained, "they're usually assigned to natural born witches to help them learn magic and avoid the temptations of dark magic,-" He looked at Kowalski, "they also cannot normally come to Hellmouths due to ambient dark magics emitted by the dimensional rift. So how are you here? And why have you been assigned to Willow? To the best of my knowledge while she has great potential for the mystic arts Willow is not a born witch."
"Normally that is true but a consequence of something that happened just prior to my mortal death means I'm immune to the dark magic emissions of an active hellmouth, -." Kowalski explained, "Please don't ask for details as I cannot talk about them plus, like most of my kind, I find talking about how I died when I was human somewhat morbid. It was another life and has no bearing on the here and now. As for Willow, she is in fact a born witch, an exceedingly rare type that doesn't come around very often. I have been working with her the last month to begin establishing the proper moral and ethical foundations for her to begin learning the arts of magic and eventually discover what active power or powers she possesses."
Giles' eyes widened. "You don't mean…" he started to say as he guessed what the whitelighter was hinting at, that Willow was a progenitor witch, the first witch in an entirely new magical bloodline. Such progenitors did not come around very often, in fact only happening every two or three generations on average and sadly, in this day and age, most progenitors never realized their magical potential conditioned as they were to the idea that magic wasn't real. As for those that did, few survived for long as there were dark forces out there that always tried to corrupt or if that was not possible kill them. Willow being a progenitor witch thus put her in very grave danger while also putting an incredible responsibility on her shoulders.
"Yes."
"What… what does he mean?" Buffy asked even as she heard two cars pulling up outside. Guess Ms Calendar and Cordelia are back, she thought.
"I'll explain it to you later, Buffy," Giles replied, the tone of his voice communicating to his Slayer just how potentially serious this was, then he looked at Kowalski. "And I believe that you, I and Jenny will need to have a very long and serious conversation about this issue."
"That we will, it's why I took this opportunity for us to meet," the whitelighter agreed. "Well that and I know what you're going to reveal – it's caused quite a stir among the higher powers. My superiors, the Elders are intrigued though the Powers That Be are in quite a flap over it – so I'm here to provide some support as well." And isn't that the truth as from what the others tell me they've never heard the Powers That Be curse and swear so much before, he thought recalling the talk around the whitelighter watercooler so to speak about how the Powers That Be - or the Pricks That Bungle as they often called them along with other far less polite things - were in a virtual panic as the unprecedented dual interference of a True Deity and the Ascended Ancients had not just disrupted their plans for their precious balance but metaphorically burned many of them to ashes before chucking them out the equally metaphorical window.
The recent withdrawal of the demon lord triumvirate known as the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, the evil trinity fleeing in mortal terror, had only made things worse at least as far as the PTB were concerned.
"I see," Giles replied as Willow went to sit down only to stop when she saw the silver disc sized object on Giles coffee table.
"What's this Giles?" she asked as she examined it. Easily concluding that not only was it a technological device but one that was more advanced than anything she had ever seen. Kowalski followed her down and sat on the couch smiling slightly as he looked at the device himself. Oh wouldn't the folks at the SGC love to get their hands on that, he thought knowing full well what it was and how the scientists and technicians back at his old place of work – well before that thing had took him over, ultimately resulting in his death at the hands of Teal'c though he didn't hold any ill will to the Jaffa over it, he actually kind of liked being a whitelighter and being able to help people without having to shoot anyone for a change – would love to take that device apart to learn how it worked.
"I'll explain in a few minutes Willow," Giles told her as the doorbell went again and Buffy once again went to let the arrivals in. "Ah that will be the last of our guests." The wards he'd put up around the townhouse, a necessity now he knew that Sunnydale was the sight of a very active Hellmouth, a revelation that had really set the cat among the pigeons with the Watchers Council once he'd informed them of it, telling him who it was.
Willow pouted slightly, her inner scientist demanding answers now, but accepted that she would have to wait for her answers. Then she saw who came in, she wasn't that surprised to see Cordelia but what did surprise her was the fact that following along behind her were Kyle, Tor, Heidi, and Rhonda. What are they doing here? she thought, eyes narrowing in suspicion and distrust for Sunnydale High's resident gaggle of mean kids.
"Giles," she questioned, giving the Watcher her resolve-face to indicate that she really wanted answers about what those four meanies were doing here. Somewhat to her annoyance it seemed to have absolutely no effect upon the British man, certainly not the kind of effect it always had on Xander. "Giles, what are they doing here?" she said aloud glaring at the former members of the pack. Who glared right back at her as all four had often blamed her for the fact that Xander hadn't been able to openly hang around them without the redhead interfering and drawing his attention from them by any means necessary.
"They have every reason to be here Willow as what we have found out is very important to them as well as us," Buffy told her, getting the 'resolve' face thrown at her in response. She ignored it though she was a little irritated with the way that Willow was behaving. "You have no idea what is going on so do us all a favour by sitting down and shutting up."
"But Buffy…"
"Enough Willow Buffy is right," Giles said firmly. "If you are willing to sit quiet and keep an open mind, I will explain everything."
Willow huffed and crossed her arms, expression radiating disapproval at the continuing presence of the former members of The Pack and her desire to send them all packing. Buffy scowled and glared warningly – with full Slayer authority – at Willow not at all liking seeing this particular side of her personality, a side that she realized that Xander had subtly warned them about before he'd had to leave to prevent his ship decloaking and no doubt being found by the Feds. Finally, though, realizing that she wasn't going to get her way, Willow sighed and sat down.
"Fine," she said, pouting unhappily. "Though shouldn't Angel be here to hear this as well?"
"I'll fill him in later when it's dark," Buffy said, seeing the question for what it truly was, an attempt by Willow to delay the conversation so she could attempt to get her own way. Now she thought about it, she realized that Willow did such quiet manipulations on a regular basis. It made her wonder how well she knew her friend after all. "Right now, he'll be asleep as you well know Willow."
"Not to mention the ensouled vampire you know as Angel is already aware of some of this," Kowalski said, giving his charge a look that said he was well aware of her manipulation attempts and did not approve. It worried him as that control freak streak Willow had could easily leave her vulnerable to manipulation by some of the Source's subtler minions as not all the demonic minions who worked for the Source went around flinging energy balls and fireballs. I will have to speak with her about that, he thought, maybe orb over to San Francisco to pick Leo's brains a bit on the issue as well.
"Really?" Buffy asked her gaze snapping to the whitelighter.
"Yes, he was informed by one of the balance demons who work for the Powers That Be. Though to be fair to him Whistler only told him the term capsuleer, he has no idea what it means."
"Why would he do that?" Buffy asked.
"And what's a capsuleer?" Willow added.
"Because that's the way of the Pricks That Bungle," Kowalski answered, eliciting amused smiles all around at his description of the PTB. "They only tell you part of the truth and what they think you need to know, instead of what you actually need to know." Though the Elders are no angels in that area either, he thought.
"As for what a capsuleer is Willow I will explain that in a minute," Giles added. "But first I have to tell you that Xander, and these four," he nodded at Kyle and his group of friends, "remember everything about the hyena possession."
"But why would…." Willow started to say in surprise.
"Embarrassment," Kyle said, "you have no idea what it's like to have memories of what you did while under the control of a primal spirit. I still can't look at bacon. That and Xander knew that neither you nor Summers would let him continue to talk to us, even though the possession left a bond between us all."
"Such possessions leave a permanent imprint on the host Willow," Giles explained, "some trait or traits that are left behind even after the spirit has been exorcised. It's called a soul imprint. It is why if you notice Xander had considerably improved hearing after the incident, not to mention his improved skill at stealth, though before you ask Willow there is no magic in existence that can remove such an imprint."
"I had noticed the latter," Buffy admitted even as she remembered a few instances where she'd honestly forgotten that Xander was there as he had been so good at moving quietly, "sometimes I couldn't even hear him when he was patrolling with me. I just never thought that was the reason."
"It was," Giles confirmed. "And now to the reason why we," he gestured to himself, Jenny, and Buffy, "asked you to come here. You see we have proof that Xander is alive, changed on a deep and very fundamental level by whatever massively overpowered Ethan's spell, but alive and himself."
"He's alive," Cordelia exclaimed just beating Willow to the punch. "But how? We saw that goth-girl vampire kill him."
"Which is something the Drusilla is going to pay with her unlife for when I get my hands on her," Buffy growled. Giles ignored Buffy's statement though he did make a mental note to speak with his Slayer about it later, he had to make her understand that Drusilla was not a vampire to be challenged lightly even if she was vulnerable now that Spike was dust.
"What you saw die was actually a clone of him," Giles explained, "or rather it was his original body turned into a clone by the spell, the same spell that turned him into a capsuleer."
"Which brings us back to the question of what a capsuleer is," Cordelia said seeing that Willow and the former members of the Pack were too stunned to react, "and why hasn't the dweeb come back to us already if he's alive?"
"Capsuleers are a type of life known as an infomorph," Kowalski said, stepping in with what he knew. "They've never existed in this reality before now, Xander is currently the first and only member of his kind. When they die their minds and souls are instantly transmitted to and downloaded into a new clone body. Xander is currently aboard that space station orbiting Neptune, a station that was created during the spell by those who interfered."
"You know who they were?" Giles asked.
"Yes, I do but I am not at liberty to explain who they are. So please Mister Giles don't ask."
"If Xander's on that station how do we get him back to Earth? Maybe if we get him here, we can find a spell that will turn him back to normal," Willow said.
"Xander cannot be turned back to normal Willow," Kowalski explained, "the nature of the changes he's gone through are so deep and so fundamental that they cannot be reversed. Not even the Charmed Ones – the most powerful witches on the planet – have the power to do that, in fact not even a True Deity like Janus could undo it. To even attempt it could completely destroy him, body and soul."
"But…" Willow started to say.
"Willow one thing you will need to learn if you are to become a good witch is that even magic has its limits," Jenny told her, "and that if you attempt to exceed them or attempt to break magical rules that cannot be broken, then the consequences to both yourself and whoever you are casting the spell upon can be very dire indeed."
"What kind of consequences?" Willow asked nervously.
"If you're lucky it will simply not work or burn the magic out of you leaving you unable to use magic ever again," Jenny told her, "if you're not, well it can literally burn you up from the inside leaving you a lifeless husk. It's well known in mystical circles that some of the instances of spontaneous human combustion have been caused by witches attempting to exceed the limits of their powers or break the fundamental laws of magic."
"Yikes," Willow replied with a nervous gulp appreciating the warning from her favourite teacher in school. Magic had sounded so easy to her but from what Jenny was saying it was far more complex, and far more dangerous, a thing to use than she had ever thought. She decided to change the subject. "So how do we get Xander back here?"
"He's already been here once," Buffy said, "he left that device on the table here for us to contact him. Giles, Ms Calendar, and I also met him briefly at the CRD building before he had to leave. The cloaking device on the ship he flew here was failing and he had to leave to prevent the ship decloaking and being found by the military and I think we can all agree that having soldiers trampling all over the Hellmouth and Sunnydale as they attempt to secure the ship would not be a good thing."
"No it wouldn't be," Kowalski replied knowing that they would be easy prey for the vampires and lower level demons who frequented Sunnydale and he shuddered to think what a vampire version of someone like Jack O'Neill would be like. Jack's bad enough mortal and human, he thought, a soulless, undead Jack would not be a nice thing to see. Especially as Jack's a lot smarter than he likes to let on, a vamp version certainly wouldn't hide that intelligence in the way Jack does.
"So are we going to contact him?" Tor asked.
"Of course," Giles replied as he looked at the quantum comms device on the table locating a large green button that he guessed was probably the button to hail the station. Mentally crossing his fingers, he and modern technology didn't get on that well after all, he pressed the button. Immediately the device emitted a distinct bleep and a holographic screen appeared above it, showing a green flag with a stylized black eagle on it and characters in an alien language that flashed softly. Hopefully, that means stand by, he thought.
After a few more moments the holographic screen disappeared, and a three-dimensional image of a female appeared. "Greetings Mr Giles, I am Aura," she said.
"Ah you're the artificial intelligence that Xander told us about."
"That is correct. I am afraid that Xander cannot come to the comm now, we have some visitors aboard the station from two other races."
"Aliens," Willow squeaked.
"Miss Rosenberg, I presume?"
"Yes. What do the aliens want?"
"Mostly they're curious. They detected a massive energy wave and tracked it back to this station, prompting them to come and investigate," Aura explained, "they currently have representatives aboard speaking with Xander so I am sure you can understand why he cannot come to the comm right now. If you wish I can take a message for him from you."
"Just tell him that we called and to call us back as soon as he is able to," Giles said.
"Of course, Mister Giles. Since I am here do you have any questions? I will do my best to answer them for you."
"Could you tell us more about capsuleers?" Willow asked, wanting to know more about what her best friend apparently now was.
"Of course, what do you wish to know?"
"The basics will do for now please," Jenny said.
Aura nodded and began giving them capsuleer one oh one.
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the dust. I had hoped to get Xander's conversation with the Scoobies in this chapter but it wasn't to be as the chapter was getting far too long so the two scenes that I had in mind – the talk would have been the second of them – for the final act of the chapter will now be in the next update. Hope nobody minds.
