Authors Note: Before we proceed with the chapter, I feel I should clear up a slight misconception that one or two of my reviewers have had on the various sites where this story is posted. Some seem to believe that Kowalski is far too adjusted to being a whitelighter for someone who has only been dead a few weeks. Actually, it is not the case that he has only been dead weeks, instead he has been dead for nearly a year and spent the first few months after dying learning to use his new abilities as a whitelighter after he was offered and accepted the calling to be one from the Elders. Normally such a young and relatively inexperienced whitelighter like Kowalski wouldn't be assigned to a progenitor witch like Willow – that privilege and responsibility would normally be given to a far older and more experienced whitelighter like Leo or even be taken care of by one of the Elders themselves – especially one with her control freak tendencies. Unfortunately, the fact that she lives on a Hellmouth means that no other whitelighter can go there for long without being driven insane or corrupted into a darklighter by the ambient dark magic emissions of the dimensional rift. Kowalski can only do it himself because he was – albeit only briefly – a host to a Goa'uld, which has left an echo in him that essentially makes him immune to the dark magic aura of the Hellmouth.
Finally, while the Charmed ones have not appeared in the story yet don't assume that they won't be appearing. Especially given that Willow comes from an abusive home though not the kind of physical and mental abuse Xander endured, in her case the abuse is neglect by her parents. Parents who leave her home alone for weeks or months at a time as they go around the country giving lectures being too focused on their careers to really care for or raise their daughter. Something that I blame at least for part of Willow's need to control everyone around her, she's afraid that if she doesn't, they'll leave her as Sheila and Ira Rosenberg routinely do.
Okay now this longer than normal – sorry guys and girls – authors note is over with let's continue with the story, shall we?
~~~///~~~
Chapter Thirteen
Summers Residence
Revello Drive
Sunnydale
"And the fact that you are dating an ensouled vampire older than this nation."
Buffy flinched as her mother spoke, especially as she could hear the complete and utter disapproval for the relationship between her and Angel in Joyce's voice. It was why she had never mentioned that she was dating someone who was older than her - even if you just went on how old Angel would have been when he was still called Liam O'Connell before his fateful meeting with Darla and subsequent turning by her, he was still biologically a decade her senior – as she knew that her mother would never approve. Saying that she loved him and didn't care about the age gap probably wouldn't go down well either.
"Mom can we please not talk about Angel?" she asked, hoping desperately to avoid the lecture that Joyce was sure to give her. After all it wasn't like she could really date anyone other than Angel – she'd already tried that once with Owen Thurman and look how that ended up – due to this whole Slayer thing. It was simply too dangerous and she wouldn't be able to protect them when the supernatural inevitably stuck it's ugly, unwanted nose into her love life. Angel at least could defend himself against supernatural nasties as while he had never admitted it she knew him to be a master vampire and thus more than a match for the regular cannon fodder minions that made up the vast majority of Sunnydale's current vampire population. Even most demons would be cautious about challenging him given his level of strength and experience of fighting. Her hopes were dashed, however, when her mother's eyes narrowed in disapproval of her very transparent attempt to change the subject.
"Oh no Buffy Anne Summers we will be taking about this relationship you have with Angel," Joyce answered making Buffy winced and cringe as being addressed by your full name by a clearly very unhappy parent was never, ever a good thing. "Now sit down and we are going to be talking about not just your very unhealthy relationship with a demonically reanimated corpse but everything to do with your Calling as The Slayer."
As her mother spoke Buffy considered turning and running out of the house as she really, really didn't want to have this conversation now. Or ever in point of fact. Maybe if she went to see Giles, he would know something, some spell that could be used to remove the memories of her being the Slayer and in a relationship with an ensouled vampire from her mother's mind. Or if Giles couldn't or wouldn't help maybe she could borrow the QEC device and call Xander on the space station over Neptune. Given all the advanced technology he had he was sure to have something that could help.
Though given that there was no love lost between Xander and Angel – though she quietly acknowledged that there was no real jealousy there anymore, any romantic feelings Xander had had for her had vanished long ago when she used him as a human dancing pole in the Bronze, plus didn't Aura say that capsuleer emotions could be considerably weaker or at least less overpowering than normal human emotions due to their nature as infomorphic lifeforms – she doubted he would help there even if he could. Hell, he would be more likely to blast Angel with the same energy weapon type he – or rather at the time Alexander Zenakori – had used to kill Spike on Halloween. For a moment she once again saw the range of emotions that had flashed across the blond vampire's face – the shock then pain and mortal terror – as the intense heat of the energy blast ignited his undead flesh, swiftly turning the normally dangerous as hell vampire into a sad little pile of smouldering ashes on the floor. It was a memory she was going to cherish for a long time, though on the heel of that came the memory of seeing Drusilla kill Xander by snapping his neck all the while screaming about him being a bad kitten and needing to be punished for killing her Spikey. Did she know, she thought, that as a capsuleer Xander's functionally immortal and that when you kill him you just kill a clone, and he wakes up on that station in another body.
Honestly given that Drusilla was a seer – albeit one that was completely off her rocker having been tortured into insanity by Angelus before being finally turned – she wouldn't be surprised if she did know. Even if she didn't quite understand what being a capsuleer actually meant. Hell even after Aura's thorough explanation and having seen the ports for the cybernetic implants on Xander's back, she still didn't quite understand what it meant. She honestly doubted she ever really would as she was, at the end of the day, just a mortal human girl. One that came from a civilization that was twenty-five thousand years less scientifically and technologically advanced than the New Eden civilization that had birthed capsuleers.
"Buffy."
The annoyed snap of her mother's voice brought her out of her thoughts with a jolt. Reluctantly she sat down on the opposite couch to her increasingly annoyed looking mother. "Sorry mom I got lost in my thoughts," she said.
Joyce raised an eyebrow. "Oh, about what?" she asked, knowing that Buffy was generally not one for thinking deeply about anything. Buffy had far too much of the Valley Girl mindset in her for that, and while she had gotten a bit better since the bad old days of Hemery High – where she had been a big lover of influence games not to mention your stereotypical spoiled bitch who only cared about herself, her friends and their next trip to the mall – she still had this tendency to act first and think later if she even bothered. It was something she guiltily acknowledged she and Hank had been somewhat responsible for as they had shamelessly spoiled both of their girls.
"I was thinking about Xander and this whole capsuleer thing," she answered, knowing her mother wouldn't know what she was talking about. As far as she knew after all Xander was dead, as that is what Buffy had believed – and honestly cried her eyes out about – before she, Giles and Ms Calendar had walked into Giles home and found that QEC device. Hopefully talking about this, explaining what she knew as well as she could, would distract her mother from the Angel issue.
"Isn't Xander dead," Dawn's voice abruptly asked, sounding upset. "Or is he now a vampire? Have you slain him?"
"Dawn, I told you to wait in your room," Joyce said firmly, looking at precisely where Dawn's voice had been coming from. "And show yourself right now young lady."
"But mom…"
"Now Dawn."
"Fine," Dawn replied and both older Summers could hear the pout in her voice. A moment later air above the chair shimmered in the shape of a person and Dawn appeared as if by magic. Buffy's eyes widened.
"Dawn what…" she asked, "And how the hell do you know about vampires?"
"Remember who I dressed as for Halloween. I seem to have retained her powers and her intelligence," Dawn replied, "as for how I know about vampires. Xander told me a few weeks ago, after we were jumped by one, one evening when I got him to take me to the corner shop. He dusted it right in front of me."
I'm going to throttle him, Buffy thought, well right after I hug him for saving Dawn from a vampire attack. Though what the hell was he doing taking Dawn to the corner shop at night? He knows better than to do that. Then she blinked as she remembered that Dawn had dressed a Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four on that fateful night. And now she had retained her powers and intelligence even though the spell was long over. Was this another of those damned soul imprint things? Like the enhanced senses and stealth abilities that all the former members of the pack had retained from the hyena spirits they'd been possessed by a few months ago.
"Is Xander dead or now a vampire," Dawn asked again, inwardly smirking at the look on her big sisters face at this revelation.
"Dawn, I told you to wait in your room," Joyce repeated, "go there immediately and don't come back out. If I find you have, even if you do the whole invisibility routine again, there will be trouble."
"But mom I want to know."
"No but's I will explain it to you later after Buffy has told me. Now go and don't come back down until I call you."
"But…"
"NOW DAWN."
Dawn winced and her shoulders dropped in defeat. Slowly she stood up and moved upstairs, every mannerism screaming that she didn't like this but knew better than to argue with her mother when she shouted like that as it meant she was dangerously close to losing her temper, to her bedroom and slammed the door. Before marching over to her bed and sitting down, crossing her arms over her chest, and sulking the sulk of petulant early-teens the world over.
Downstairs Joyce smiled slightly as she heard Dawn's door slam closed. She knew that her youngest daughter would sulk all night now, but it would do her good to learn she couldn't just use her new abilities to listen in on other people's conversations. Thinking about it she thought she might have to have a word with Mr Giles – she wanted to talk to him about Buffy being the Slayer anyway, though she knew from Buffy's memories that he had had nothing whatsoever to do with her being chosen for the terrible destiny of being a vampire slayer – or maybe Ms Calendar about seeing if there was a spell available that could stop Dawn walking around invisible – or throwing up force fields – in the house. Such abilities on top of typical adolescence angst were just a recipe for trouble.
"You realize that she is going to sulk all night and being a general pain for the next day or so," Buffy said, knowing her little sister quite well.
"I know but she needs to respect the rules superpowers or no superpowers just like you have to. Now fill me in on this Xander situation," Joyce replied, "though don't think you are going to get out of talking about Angel. We will still discuss it."
Well, there goes that hope, Buffy thought with a mental sigh. Then she began telling her mother everything that had happened. As well as she could she explained what a capsuleer was, at least as much as she could actually understand the whole thing. How Xander was alive because he'd been turned into a capsuleer by the spell cast by Ethan Rayne, how he had died here only to wake up on the space station orbiting Neptune but retained all the knowledge and abilities of the capsuleer he'd been turned into during the spell and some of the side effects like the fact that he consciously had to make himself speak English instead of the capsuleer Alexander Zenakori's natural tongue of Gallentese.
"So, the space station that's kicked off such a circus in the media belongs to Xander," Joyce asked. "And he's the only one there?"
"Well, him and an artificial intelligence called Aura who I have spoken to along with Giles, Ms Calendar, Willow and a few others," Buffy replied. "She's so smart and real that its frankly scary."
"Given what you went through with Molloch I would imagine so."
"Mom can you not do that. It's creepy that you know so much about my life now."
"It's not as creepy as a vampire two hundred plus years your senior stalking my daughter."
"He's not stalking me. I love him."
Joyce raised an eyebrow. "Do you really Buffy or are you clinging to the idea that you're in love with Angel to avoid giving other people a chance with you," she asked. "And if you were truly in love with Angel, would you be willing to sleep with him knowing that doing so would mean you are breaking California state law?"
"Wait what do you mean I would be breaking state law?"
Joyce sighed, wondering if Buffy was being deliberately dense on this issue. She knew after all that Buffy was actually quite a bit smarter than she generally let on. She just preferred to play up the dumb blond stereotype for some reason. "What is a vampire Buffy," she asked.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Everything now answer the question."
"They're a demon but Angel has a soul. He's good."
"He has that soul through a curse, and I have to wonder why you, or Giles haven't looked into the curse to find out what circumstances would lead to it breaking. Not to break it but to find out what could break it so you know what to avoid after all while I am no expert curses are always supposed to have a means of being broken. Something about balance. But this is beside the point yes, a vampire is a demon but what is it that the demon needs to inhabit to exist in our world?"
Buffy shifted uncomfortably as she had a sudden feeling that she knew where this was going. Knew and didn't like it. Though she also wondered why Giles hadn't attempted to look into the curse the Romani had placed on Angelus creating Angel after he killed the daughter of a beloved clan elder. Did he like her not really see it as a curse? Or was something else going on.
"Buffy answer the question," Joyce prompted seeing the look on her eldest daughters face and knowing what it meant, Buffy always wore it when confronted with a reality that she didn't really want to face. "What does the blood demon need to inhabit in order to exist in our world?"
"A dead body," Buffy admitted reluctantly. "As the soul of the dead human whose been turned leaves, the demon takes up residence in the body and reanimates it. But how would that translate into me breaking the law if I slept with Angel – not that I have yet."
"Angel is a corpse, Buffy. An animated one who can walk and talk because of the demon that wears the body you know as Angel like a suit but still a corpse. If you slept with him, you would be committing necrophilia which is a felony under California state law."
Buffy went pale and shivered at that. When you put it like that it sounded both creepy and utterly repugnant. "But I love him," she said to defend herself, even though confronted with the truth about what Angel truly was – an animated corpse – the words sounded hollow and meaningless in her own ears.
Joyce sighed. "You don't Buffy deep down you know this. You are just desperately convincing yourself that you do to avoid attempting to date someone else."
"But I can't date anyone else. It would be too dangerous for them, I'm the Slayer."
"Bullshit Buffy," Joyce snapped back. "Police officers, FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel date civilians all the time. Soldiers date civilians all the time. In that regard you are little different. Is it dangerous for their spouses or significant others, yes as some criminals are the sort to go after the families of their enemies but that doesn't mean they stop and shut themselves off from wanting human companionship just because it would be 'too dangerous'."
"I… I… I hadn't thought about it like that."
"Obviously. That is why I am not going to let this relationship between you and Angel continue."
"You're going to stop me from seeing him? You can't do that I won't let you."
"I can and I will, and you will not stop me," Joyce said firmly, "your relationship with Angel stops now and I will make sure he knows that even if it means I have to dust him myself. And before you say I cannot do that let me show you something."
Buffy's eyes widened as her mother picked up the heavy trunk from by her feet without even the slightest grunt of effort. Then proceeded to hold it in the air, perfectly balanced on one hand and the lack of any movement in her arm showed how effortless holding it was for her. For a second she gaped and then her eyes widened as she realized exactly what this meant.
"You're a Slayer now as well."
"So, it would seem. So, you see I could deal with Angel – permanently – should you or him defy me."
Buffy thought about protesting further, to continue professing that she loved Angel and wanted to be with him despite everything and everyone. But somehow, she knew it wouldn't do any good. She knew how stubborn her mother could be and how determined she was. She had decided her relationship with Angel was over and that's all there was too it. She wanted to yell, to scream that she had no right to do this, in fact something inside was screaming at her to do just that before running back to Angels arms. But there was another part, a part that felt like the Slayer, that was relieved by the intervention.
Joyce frowned as she saw the turmoil on Buffy's face. Something about it was setting a number of mental alarm bells ringing. With all the knowledge of the supernatural that she had inherited from her brief possession by her own daughter – while said daughter had been possessed by someone else, a 18th century noblewoman from the dress she'd been wearing – she felt a suspicion begin to grow in the back of her mind. She had to wonder if there was some kind of spell on Buffy making her love Angel as her own memories confirmed that before her brief death at the hands of the Master while she had found Angel attractive, she hadn't seriously pursued more than a friendship with him due in no small part to his vampiric nature. Yet afterwards she had been practically willing to jump his undead bones and even deliberately used Xander to make Angel jealous.
"Buffy, do you know Mister Giles phone number," she asked, "his home phone."
"Yeah, I have it's in my diary upstairs why?"
"Get it for me. I need to talk to him."
Something about the way Joyce said that sent a shiver down her spine yet Buffy didn't argue. Instead, she just went upstairs to her bedroom, retrieved her diary from its place on her desk and flicking to the contacts page where she had Giles number. Then she returned with the diary downstairs and offered it to her mother who, having put the trunk down sometime while she'd been upstairs, took it with a muffled thanks, before walking over to the phone and dialling the indicated number. For a few seconds it rung then it was picked up.
"Hello," an English voice asked, with her new Slayer hearing she could hear a voice she recognised as Jenny Calendar's speaking to another man she didn't know. Discussing something to do with Willow and learning magic.
"Mister Giles my name is Joyce I'm Buffy's mother."
"Ah yes Ms Summers I know who you are. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yes, I believe you can. I need you to come over here as soon as possible."
"Might I ask why?"
"Mister Giles I am not going to beat around the bush. I know that Buffy is the Slayer and that you are her second Watcher and no she didn't tell me I found out because of the actions of a certain chaos mage I believe you are familiar with."
"Ethan!" she heard Giles growl sounding annoyed before he spoke again, sounding concerned. "Is Buffy alright? Has something happened?"
"More a suspicion that I need you to look into. Me and Buffy have been talking and I have a suspicion a potentially very bad one regarding some aspects of how she's behaved."
"And what is this suspicion Ms Summers?"
"I believe that Buffy may have been enchanted."
"I'll be right there."
The phone went dead in her hand and Joyce returned it to its docking cradle before turning to face her daughter. Who was standing there frozen a look of shock and worry on her face. "Mom do you really think I have been enchanted," she asked.
"That's my suspicion," Joyce replied.
"But by who and why?"
Before Joyce could answer her daughter, a strange tinkling sound filled the air. Prompting both of them to look around in surprise and confusion a few seconds before what looked like a dense stream of white-blue orbs came through the wall and formed into three columns nearby. Columns that instantly changed into three figures, tow of which Joyce recognised as Mr Giles and Ms Calendar though the third individual – who was standing between them and holding both indicating he had probably been the source of the magical teleportation – was unfamiliar.
"When you said you'd be right here I wasn't expecting you to teleport in like that," Joyce commented, "how did you do that?"
"That was my doing Mrs Summers," the unfamiliar man replied, "my names Charles Kowalski. I'm what's called a whitelighter, a type of guardian angel. One of my abilities is a form of teleportation that is referred to as orbing."
"Given the potential seriousness of this situation Kowalski offered to bring us here instead of me driving here," Giles continued. "Now please explain to me why you feel like Buffy's been enchanted?"
Joyce sighed and quickly explained her sudden feeling after she and Buffy had been discussing Angel or rather, she'd been putting an end to Buffy's relationship with the ensouled vampire. Something that she noticed brought a slight smile to the faces of both Ms Calendar and Kowalski. As she came to revealing the conflict that she had seen in Buffy's face – and the feeling she had had seeing it – Giles face became deeply concerned.
"I see," he said when she had finished. "That does sound suspicious. Buffy, would you lay down please. Jenny and I will need to run a diagnostic spell on you to reveal any enhancements placed upon you."
Buffy nodded and did as she was bid to do. Still too shocked by her mother's supposition that she may have been enchanted by someone for some unknown reason or purpose to really offer any resistance. Instead, she watched as Giles and Jenny came and stood over her, with Jenny extracting a small crystal from her handbag and placing it on her chest.
"Buffy when we cast the spell this crystal will light up if you are indeed under a possibly hostile enchantment," Jenny explained. "The colour and brightness will tell us what kind of enchantment it is and who the likely culprit for it was. Once we know that we should be able to find the spell to remove it."
"I understand."
"Shall we Rupert," Jenny asked.
"Yes," Giles replied before holding his hands out over Buffy. Jenny doing the same. Then in a quite droning tone they both spoke.
"Astra, caelum, terra, aer, summa nos adiuvate cura. Ostende nobis incantationes aliquas hic in Slayer positas."
Instantly the crystal on Buffy's chest lit up with a grey/blue light that pulsed and flowed alarmingly. A second later it went dark, and the crystal crumbled to dust.
"What does that mean," Joyce asked.
"It means that Buffy indeed has had an enchantment placed on her," Giles replied, "one that has apparently been designed to mess with her emotions and attachments. Though for what purpose I do not know. However, whoever has placed it has been both subtle about it and done their job far too well for it to be easily removed. Certainly, I don't have the power to do it and I don't think Jenny has either."
"No single mortal witch, wizard or sorcerer would be able to," Kowalski said. "That colour is associated with the Powers That Be, they've placed this enchantment on Buffy. Presumably to advance yet another of their convoluted, needlessly complex plans."
"Then what do we do about it," Joyce asked.
"You do nothing right now. I will need to go and speak to the only three mortal witches who collectively would be strong enough to remove such an enchantment."
"You mean your…" Giles started to say.
"Yes, I'm going to see the Charmed Ones. I wanted to talk to Leo anyway. Wait here." Without waiting for a reply Kowalski dissolved into a column of shimmering white-blue orbs that disappeared up into, then through the ceiling. Passing by the bed of a startled Dawn Summers before disappearing out through the roof.
"So now what," Buffy asked.
"We wait until he comes back, I suppose," Giles answered. "Though while we wait maybe Ms Summers you could tell me a bit more about what you remember from Halloween and how you got caught up in Ethan's Ritual of Masks spell."
"I can do one better than that Giles," Buffy said. "Mom knows far more than just everything I've been through and done from the moment I was first Called but has been permanently changed by the spell. So has Dawn in point of fact."
"How do you mean?"
"Ugh mom's kind of a Slayer now too."
"WHAT!"
~~//~~
Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountain
That Same Time
Colonel Jack O'Neill was certain he had a migraine coming on as he massaged his temples. He was currently sitting in General Hammond's office attempting to coordinate a search for the general who had been snatched out of the base by what was obviously some kind of alien transporter beam. To make matters worse he had also just been informed by Vice President Susan Takashima that the president had disappeared from the Oval Office in an identical transportation at almost the exact same moment, though strangely nobody else had been taken by whoever it was who had abducted them.
In the half hour or so that had passed since the two men were taken, they had been searching, with a special focus on orbital and near-Earth radars for the ship that would have to have taken them. Nobody on Earth had anywhere near the technology to do anything like that after all, yet they had found nothing. According to radar aside from satellites, a few meteorites that would burn up in the atmosphere in the next few days – no doubt giving somebody below a very pretty celestial light show to enjoy - and the usual space junk there was nothing unusual up there. No alien starships, nothing which meant that either the aliens had left with their captives, or they had a real-life cloaking device or something like the stealth technology that the Minbari had had in Babylon 5 that was preventing their detection.
Frankly he wasn't sure what was worse. In any case it was another, very uncomfortable reminder, of just how far more advanced many of the alien civilizations of the galaxy were in comparison to them. Hell, the presence of the alien space station over Neptune proved that as something that massive was far beyond their technology. From what Teal'c said it was also beyond the technology level of the Goa'uld. Which was, when he thought about it, frankly quite terrifying considering how powerful the thrice damned egomaniacal parasites were.
The sound of someone knocking on the door caught his attention. He looked up and saw Daniel coming into the room holding two mugs of steaming hot coffee. "Here you are Jack," Daniel said offering him one of them.
"Oh, thanks Daniel you're a lifesaver," he said, smiling at his friend despite their current circumstances even as he took the indicated mug from the archaeologist/anthropologist/linguist. He took a moment to inhale the rich aroma – which confirmed to him that it was a particularly expensive Columbian blend meaning it had come from Daniel's private stocks that he could never, ever find no matter how hard he tried – before taking a sip. He made a slight blissful sound – bringing an amused smile to Daniel's face – as the hot, bitter liquid made with just the right amount of milk and sugar first touched his tongue then disappeared down his throat.
"Have they found anything yet?" Daniel asked, before taking a sip of his own coffee.
"Unfortunately, no," Jack admitted, "our orbital and near orbit radars have done numerous, very thorough sweeps and they've found nothing up there that shouldn't be up there. Meaning that whoever took General Hammond and President Marcel have either left orbit without us ever detecting them or they're cloaked somehow."
"Damn," Daniel replied with a sigh. "I don't understand how whoever is behind this could hide like that. I mean we detected Apophis when he and Klorel attempted to invade us."
"I know. The current thinking of the Joint Chiefs is that our radars only detected Apophis and Klorel because they didn't care about us seeing their ships after they emerged from hyperspace behind Saturn. Knowing the Goa'uld they probably wanted us to see our impending doom approaching."
"That would fit with their psychology."
"Yeah," Jack replied as he took another longer, drag of the coffee. "You know Daniel, you never tell me where you keep this coffee."
"That's because I don't want you to requisition it, Jack. Though it is fun seeing you try to find it," Daniel replied with a smile, he knew Jack would never be able to find where he hid his coffee. He had long ago figured out how to use magic to conceal his little cache, an ability that Jack didn't know he had. Indeed, nobody at the SGC aside from the few fellow archaeologists who worked as part of his department knew but then all good archaeologists got some training in magic as part of their education. It's just something that wasn't talked about publicly just like they never talked about the supernatural nasties that they knew were out there – especially vampires. Though he was suspicious that quite a few other people who worked here at the SGC had some knowledge of magic and the supernatural world, hell he was half-convinced that some of the marines were not quite as human as they looked Colonel Makepeace especially – he suspected that he had at least some Brachen in his ancestry.
"Me! Damn Daniel I am irked that you would even think I'd pinch your coffee."
"You would and you know it."
Jack pouted before taking another swig of his coffee. It was a tacit admission that he would have done just that if he found where Daniel kept his hidden stash of coffee. It was the same with the chocolate that Sam always seemed to have handy when she needed it, yet there was never any sign of where it came from or if there was any more hidden nearby.
They spent the next few minutes quietly drinking and enjoying their coffee. However, the peace was not to last as suddenly the internal phone on the desk buzzed for attention. "Typical never lets you finish a good cup of coffee," Jack griped making Daniel chuckle slightly, earning him an irritated look from Jack, before he picked up the phone. "Yes?"
"Makepeace here Colonel," Makepeace answered, "Jack Captain Carter is gone from her cell. Security tapes and the marine on duty there report that she abruptly disappeared in a flash of silver-white light that made a musical tone as it grabbed her. Also, an unknown marine disappeared from the upper levels of the base at the same time in the same silver-white light. Shall we search the base?"
"Do it. It's probably not going to do us any good but do it anyway."
"Yes sir," Makepeace acknowledged before signing off. Jack punched a few keys on the phone, connecting to the main switchboard. "This is Colonel O'Neill get me the Joint Chiefs as soon as possible. Buzz the phone when they're on."
"Yes sir," the airman manning the switchboard acknowledged.
"What is it," Daniel asked as Jack put the phone down.
"Sam just disappeared from her cell in a silver-white flash, simultaneously a mystery marine – I suspect our Ashrak – vanished from the upper levels of the base."
"Someone has taken them," Daniel said knowingly, "someone different to whoever it was who took General Hammond and President Marcel."
"Yeah. What else can go wrong today?" Jack replied then blinked when Daniel stared at him in shock and horror. "What?"
"Ugh Jack you do realize that you just taunted Murphy, right?"
"Oh, for crying out loud."
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it; I am just sorry it took so long for me to write it. Hopefully the next one will not be quite so long in coming, but life being what it is I naturally cannot promise anything. Next chapter I plan for us to see Xander again among other things, including the appearance of the Charmed Ones and more shenanigans in Sunnydale now that both Dawn and Joyce have been revealed to have kept the powers of the people they dressed as for Halloween as an unexpected side effect of the Ascended and a True Deity interfering in Ethan's spell.
As I promised before here is a translation of the spell Giles and Jenny used to detect the enchantment placed upon Buffy. The spell is as following: -
Stars and sky, Earth and air, assist us with your greatest care. Reveal to us any enchantments placed upon the Slayer here.
But that's it for now. Until next time.
