— Thor's Slayers —

Chapter Ten

Coalescence

Author's Notes: Apologies for the delay, folks. As I mentioned before, I've got a new job and it's not so much the number of hours that are hindering my writing, so much as my scheduled shift. My current schedule should end within two weeks and I should have a much more comfortable shift after that. I'll talk more about my plans for this story at the end of the chapter.

grd: The biker quote is from an AtS season 4 episode (Salvage) where Faith remarks on the ease of getting back into slaying after her stay in prison. To be fair to Wesley in regards to his humor (or lack thereof), he did make a comment to her about her needing some "release."

#

Wesley sighed as he approached the door to the hotel room that his compatriots were occupying. It was easier, he supposed, to accept what he had seen by having the proof in front of him. Then again, perhaps facing aliens in battle won't be entirely surreal to young men and women who face demons. He inwardly shrugged, either way, this would surely change the way some of these people viewed the world.

The door opened before he had a chance to knock, Vi dragging him inside with a dagger uncomfortably close to his throat. Wesley had felt his throat sliced open once before; he felt no need to feel it slit again. Still, security measures had to be observed so he allowed Vi to sit him down in a chair facing Willow, who had an arrangement of items in front of him.

Willow nodded toward Kennedy, who pricked Wesley with a small knife and let the small droplets of blood fall into a small bowl. Wesley said nothing but looked on in interest as Willow began chanting softly, a small wind that had no source lifting the Wiccan's red hair as a soft glow emanated from the bowl. The same glow that was coming from the bowl was now coming from Wesley himself, albeit much less luminously. Willow studied him intently, looking for something that only she knew to look for. Finally, she nodded and closed her eyes. The breeze that had flowed around Willow stilled and the glow that had come from both Wesley and the bowl that contained his blood disappeared.

"Sorry Wes," Vi said, blushing.

Kennedy just pat his shoulder before helping him to his feet.

"It's quite alright, girls, I understand." Wesley took a moment to stretch and look around. On the other side of the room, apparently unconcerned with Wesley's presence, was Xander who was cleaning out some very impressive looking pistols. Beside him were a few assembled AR-15s, which were pretty much as good as you can get without going into military grade hardware. Wesley's eyebrows raised but he didn't comment.

Facing the three girls who were now staring at him, he sat down in the more comfortable chair in the room.

"Well?" Kennedy demanded.

Wesley caught the other girls' brief looks of surprise and remembered Buffy mentioning that Faith had becoming surprisingly close to Kennedy. Given their polar opposite backgrounds and attitudes, Wesley could well understand the surprise that this friendship had incurred.

"First and foremost," Wesley said softly, "Faith is well."

Xander moved and sat down next to Willow to hear of Wesley's findings.

"She has not been harmed or mistreated in any way that I can discern. I won't describe the details of the operation Faith has encountered, but I can tell you that they were, until our arrival, largely unaware of our world. In fact, there was only one person in the base that was aware of our existence and he was only there because he recognized Faith's name."

"So not Initiative?" Willow asked hopefully.

"They have had no dealings with the occult or supernatural, or if they have, they have been accidental and unrecognized as such," Wesley confirmed.

"But could they become a danger to us in the future?" Xander asked.

Wesley sighed. "I suppose they could, Xander, but from that viewpoint just about anyone could." He finished his statement with a pointed look towards Willow, who blushed. Kennedy glared at him. "The people I met seemed like smart, talented, individuals with the same drive to protect our world that we have. But their battlefield is not the same as ours; I don't believe there is much potential for them to become overly concerned with our existence."

Wesley idly rubbed at the scar on his neck. "I believe, so long as we remain cautious with our overtures, they can be trusted. Apparently the British government is aware of this organization, as Giles managed to convince the US military to give us a great deal of highly classified material."

"And so what about Faith?" Kennedy asked.

"Well..." Wesley began, "It seems that..."

June 17th, 2003

Buffy and her closest friends sat uncomfortably in Angel's new, very fancy, office. To be fair, Angel and the members of the now defunct Angel Investigations looked just as disquieted at their new surroundings.

Perhaps 'helping the helpless' isn't quite the same when you're sitting on a chair that costs as much as a new car, Buffy thought sourly, and the leather is probably made out of babies or something.

"Well?" Dawn exclaimed impatiently.

Angel sighed and looked to Cordelia.

"Apparently," Cordelia said, in that tone of voice that had landed her the moniker 'Queen C', "Wesley has placed his stuffy British seal of approval on It."

Angel scowled at the mention of It. He wasn't alone in his displeasure; nobody wanted to be left out of a secret, especially the Scoobies or Angel's team. It, the secret Wesley and Faith were keeping from them. It, the thing that had all of Buffy and Angel's team concerned. It, the secret that Wesley wouldn't tell, no matter how much they cajoled or threatened. It was intolerable. It was inconceivable. When he had said this, he had heard Willow laughing on the other side of the phone, shouting, "I do not think that means what you think it means."

Willow still laughing in the background, Wesley had promised to tell them more about It once they were back in L.A. and hung up.

"So, we wait for Wesley?" Dawn asked.

"We wait for English," Gunn said tiredly.

It was still something of a surprise to Buffy, that Angel's team had been so willing to stick up for Faith. Having heard the story about the Beast and Angelus, she understood why, but it still astonished her. It was sad, she thought, that these people had been willing to accept Faith even knowing her background, even knowing she had escaped from prison and yet the Scoobies hadn't. It made her think, it made her think hard, and she resolved that the next time she saw Faith, she'd give her a hug no matter how little Faith would appreciate it.

Buffy jumped slightly when she felt Cordelia patting her shoulder. "It'll be okay Buffy. We'll know more soon and hopefully she'll be back in all her leather-gloriousness soon."

Buffy wasn't quite sure how to take the strange, almost mischievous, knowing smile Cordelia was giving her, but she put it out of her mind as she thought about Faith, and hoped they'd see each other again soon. Her heart beat a little faster at the thought.

June 21st, 2003

Faith sat on one side of the table. On the other side was General Hammond. On his sides were Paul Davis and Samantha Carter. Nothing had been said yet, they just looked at each other as they thought about all they'd learned. Faith shook herself. "So, what's the what, Generalissimo?"

Sam rolled her eyes and a corner of Paul's mouth lifted.

"Well, Faith, I think some of that will be up to you. Thor brought you hear for a reason. Partially out of his and the Nox's own curiosity regarding the Slayers, but also because he wanted you known to us," the General stopped speaking and turned a sealed envelope over in his hands, considering it.

Paul spoke up. "The fact is that we don't know a lot about your capabilities. Not just physically, but intellectually. We know that your education is far from complete or comprehensive and being the best fighter on the planet won't always save you when embroiled in our kind of fights."

Faith furrowed her brows. "I know I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, Major. What are you talking about?"

"Faith," Sam began and paused. "Don't put yourself down like that, Faith. Even if you're not a fount of wisdom, Major Davis is right in that you haven't really had a chance to learn much of anything except survival."

General Hammond finally slid the envelope to Faith, who looked at it with confusion and suspicion before finally opening it. The others remained silent as Faith read the neatly typed letter that had been inside, watching as the Slayer's eyes grew wide.

Faith wasn't sure what to think, what to do, what to say. She finally looked at the General, with something akin to desperation. "What does this mean?" Faith asked hoarsely.

"What it means, Faith, is that you have another option that you can pursue, if you decide you're dissatisfied with your life here," Paul said with a slight smile.

"As the letter explained," Sam said, "This wouldn't be automatic. You will have to pass a series of academic and physical tests for us to go through with this, but...if you're willing to put in the work, perhaps it might be you in a uniform one day."

"As Major Carter said, Miss Lehane, if you're willing to accept this proposal, you'll have a great deal of work in front of you before you'll be allowed to walk through that gate. But if you do the work, and if you put in the effort, you're in."

Are you ready to be strong?

Buffy's voice rang in her head as it always seemed to do when she had a decision to make. She could stay here, work with the Scoobies or with Angel. She looked at her surroundings, and thought about the Stargate, and alien worlds. School had never been her strong point, she'd have to work at it to be someone they'd consider accepting into the SGC.

She might be a Slayer, but that didn't mean the physical tests would always be a breeze. And training probably consists about more than just swinging a sword and firing a crossbow. Faith would have to rethink everything.

Are you ready to be strong?

She couldn't wait to tell Buffy.

"What do you think, Faith?" Sam said with a smile. "Do you want this?"

Are you ready to be strong?

"Yes."

The End

(Or is it?)

End Notes: I hope someone got the Fuffy overtures. If I continue, you better believe it that I'll expand on that. Throughout my writing, I've questioned whether I should continue writing this story as a series or whether I should end it as a short story. I believe I made it fairly clear that I'd like to continue my writing, making this story the beginning of a multi-part story. Unfortunately, I'm going to put that plan on hold. For now, I don't have enough time to write regularly and I don't want to promise something I can't deliver.

I've done my best in writing this story, in both my presentation of the characters of both fandoms as well as trying to combine those fandoms in some reasonable fashion. This story has been a greater challenge than either of my previous fics, it being a crossover felt like the greatest aspect of that challenge. I hope I managed to satisfy all my readers and that I'll be able to continue this in the future.

I'll be marking this story as complete and when I'm ready to continue, I'll mark it as In-Progress again. Before I make any additions, I plan on going through my story and making changes/edits/additions.