Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. Star Gate SG-1 belongs to MGM TV Entertainment and probably someone else.
AN: Hi! I've been trying to think of a crossover for these two series for a while, and though this one may seem a bit unpractical it works... And I find it amusingand I've seen worse, and so have you if you've read even a fraction of the crossovers I've read.
Warnings:
1) This is based on the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2, but the SGC have already allied themselves with the Tok'ra, Jacob is already blended with Selmac. I know that that doesn't make a lot of sense in regards to the part of the story this is placed in, but... tough; writer's license.
2) Anya didn't die at the end of Season 7. Just because.
Anyway, I'll probably babble a bit at the end, but until then, enjoy!
A Fine Line
Prologue: Money Makes the World Go Round
"I understand your concern, Mr. President, but the Appropriations Committee has voted. The United States is not benefiting from this project—"
"The human race—"
"Can take care of itself. We are not responsible for all of humanity, only for the ones that pay taxes here. And this is a waste of their money."
"Do you have any idea of what you are doing—"
"Of course I do, Mr. President." The President could practically see the iniquitous grin Senator was wearing on the other side of the phone line. "I've been at this a long time. We don't need another mistake like the Initiative. And that mistake didn't spend anywhere near the amount of money that this one does, yet we were able to see at least some results—"
"There have been results."
"Minute, insignificant ones perhaps," the Chairman conceded, "but nothing to justify spending a billion dollars each year on lighting the facility alone. No, this project is a mistake, as I will explain to the commanders posted there when we visit tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your flight, Mr. President; I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Kinsey—" the President stopped as the line went dead. After a moment he heaved a frustrated sigh as he slammed the receiver back into the cradle, glaring at the instrument simply because it was the vessel by which the Senator had caused his distress.
It was true that the Stargate teams hadn't been bringing much back that the military benefited from. Nonetheless, on the grounds of historians, scientists, doctors and countless other practitioners of higher learning, the device's full potential hadn't even come close to realization yet. And they also knew that they had an enemy out there, far away perhaps, but one that was a threat to all humanity, and could most definitely come here.
So what then could they do?
He sighed, bringing his hands up to his head to massage his temples, where a headache was beginning to make itself known.
The checks and balance system that served as a safety in the U.S. government were an ingenious invention, but they could so easily be used to do harm, as this case showed. He could take this to the Senate, but then the Stargate and all of the activities of the SGC would need to be made public. And even he knew that the public was nowhere near ready for this. None of them really were, but they had no choice now...
He paused suddenly, his eyes falling upon the pen that was sitting in a semi-ornate holder on his desk. It had been a gift, from a very special group of people, a little over two years ago; in gratitude for the financial aid he'd sent them to help them restart an international organization that had been in existence longer then many modern nations. He hadn't been the only one, so he had no doubt many other nations leaders had received similar tokens of gratitude, but it had been a clear attempt to bridge the gap that the Initiative and decades of politics had made between the government and these people.
This was what they handled everyday, in a way. It was a little different, but they considered Earth, and all of it and all of its intrinsic inhabitants, theirs to protect. That's what the board behind the Initiative had voted on. He'd signed it through. Only one or two people out of that small group had disagreed, and Kinsey hadn't been one of them...
After one more moment's consideration he nodded, bringing his hand down to the phone and pressing the button that would get one of the secretaries' attention. A moment later the call came through.
"Yes, Mr. President?"
"Ms. Thomas, could you get me the number for the W.S.C. Head, please? A Mr. Rupert Giles?"
"Yes, sir."
Several days later, after sitting through the joke of an interview Senator Kinsey conducted, and later watching as his flag team committed a court marshal able offense, soon after discovering that they had done so in order to save the world from an imminent assault, and then facing the reality of the fact that they had probably been on one of the Goa'uld vessels that had been destroyed so close to their world, Major General George Hammond was not entirely sure he wanted to leave see why Major Davis had activated the alarms, but he did so anyway.
"Incoming traveler! Incoming traveler!" After a moment the Major glanced back at his commander, "It's SG-1's signal sir."
More then a little bit surprised at that good news, the General nodded, "Open the iris."
The trinium enforced titanium iris sections slid open to reveal the Gate horizon, which rippled a moment later as Daniel Jackson stumbled through. "Dr Jackson! Was SG-1 aboard one of those ships?"
Daniel blinked, looking up at the Control Room and replying after a moment's hesitation, "Ah, yes?"
General Hammond frowned, shaking his head, "Well, well how did you get…"
The doctor cut him off, "There was a Stargate aboard the ship we were on. So once I realized we were close enough to use Earth as a point of origin, I dialed P3X 984."
"The Alpha site?"
"Yeah," Daniel frowned, "well they called it the Beta site in the alternate reality."
Hammond nodded, then forcing his voice to remain neutral, "Where's the rest of SG-1?"
The next few hours passed with surprising speed, considering the number of phone calls the General had to make in order to send a U.S. space shuttle up into orbit to find his missing insubordinate subordinates. But after hearing the Endeavor's pilot confirm that they had spotted two strange space vessels and were bringing them in, and then watching the reunion between the members of SG-1 as he finally met Teal'c's mentor, he couldn't really bring himself to care.
"Master Bra'tac," he smiled as he came up to meet the senior Jaffa, "Words cannot express our gratitude."
"You are Hammond of Texas?" the Jaffa inquired, as the group came to a stop.
"I am." The General nodded, wondering what exactly SG-1 had said about him to make his name so memorable without ever actually meeting him.
The Jaffa bowed his head respectfully, offering a small smile as he raised it again to mee the General's eyes, "Your warriors serve you well."
"I know they will be sorry to see you return home so soon."
"I must return, before word of our rebellion reaches Chulak. My place is there." Bra'tac replied, before nodding to Captain Carter, shaking hands with Colonel O'Neill and gently touching his former pupil's face in farewell.
"This way, sir," the Major requested after it became apparent that the Jaffa was now ready to leave, "we want to ask you some questions before you leave."
Bra'tac nodded before following him out of the room.
"Not a bad day at all." O'Neill commented, offering his teammates half a smile.
"SG1," Hammond offered after a moment's silence, realizing what it was that might be clouding their moods, "there's someone who'd like to see you." With a slight smile he stepped aside to reveal their missing teammate, who was moving out from behind several of the gathered Airmen.
Captain Carter's smile brightened in relief, "Daniel!"
The Colonel also smiled, moving over to meet the man that he had thought dead aboard one of the enemy space ships they'd destroyed a short time before, he hesitated only a moment before hugging the other man, "Space monkey. Yeah!"
After O'Neill released him, Carter also moved over to hug Daniel, and everyone began congratulating each other.
Before it could get out of hand, the General chose to make the morning meeting that the team had to be present for known. "SG1." Once everyone had gone quiet, he nodded, "Enjoy the rest of the day. At 0900 tomorrow morning, the President and Senator Kinsey will be coming to reevaluate the Stargate's import."
"So we're not being shut down?" Daniel asked, smiling at the thought.
Hammond sighed as he turned towards the doorway, shaking his head as he called over his shoulder, "I should hope not, but only time will tell."
And so it was early the next morning that saw them in the same briefing room they'd been in several days before, watching as the man that had only days before told them that they were a hoax or waste of some sort stumbled over politically correct adjustments.
"Well, in retrospect, the board may be willing to reassess the value of the Stargate project." The Senator allowed, forcing himself to keep a smile pasted on his face at the smug look on Colonel O'Neill's face. "The N.I.D. will, of course, be expecting full reports along with anything of value the SGC teams find—"
"No, they will not." The President's interruption caught the attention of everyone around the table, including the Colonel, who'd stopped halfway through the process of rolling his eyes. The Executive Officer of the United States of America hadn't said much throughout the duration of the whole meeting. After congratulating SG-1 on a job well done and thanking them for their heroism, he'd chosen to remain silent and simply listen throughout the duration of the meeting, most of which had simply been the Senator admitting defeat in the face of irrefutable evidence.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. President?" Kinsey demanded, not bothering to conceal his shock, which was quickly giving way to outrage. "Of course they will. The Stargate Command is a branch of the military; they have to turn everything over to Intelligence."
"Not anymore."
"What do you mean, sir?" Colonel O'Neill inquired uncertainty clearly written across his face.
"The Stargate is not the property of the United States Military any longer. It became the property of the W.S.C. a short time before 8 o'clock yesterday morning."
Utter silence hung around the room for several minutes before the Senator in question lost it. "What...What... Are you an idiot?!" He shouted as he leapt to his feet, his face reddening with his palpable ire. "You-You sold it to...to them?!"
"No, I don't believe I am. And yes, I did."
"How...When...Why..."
"As I stated earlier, the Stargate became theirs when I signed the agreement, which transferred control and ownership of the Stargate to the Watcher and Slayers Council for eight billion dollars." He offered an obviously fake, but nonetheless pleasant smile. "That more then covers any debt this program has caused, with interest. As for why... Well, I should think that the necessity of SG-1's actions is a perfect answer for that."
"But...but..."
"This is no longer a government funded or operated project. It's true this isn't quite the sort of thing the Council generally handles, but they'll adjust, they always have." The President looked across the table, nodding to the very clearly shocked General. "One of my secretaries is making arrangements to negotiate use of the Stargate with Council Representatives. A meeting should be scheduled within the next few days." Then he looked back at the Senator who'd caused the vast majority of the problems that had plagued the SGC the last few days. "As this is no longer a financial matter for the United States government, the Appropriations Committee does not need a representative at the meeting... Good afternoon, Senator."
"So what is this thing? A mini-Hellmouth?" Xander asked.
"Actually, 'Chapa'ai' translates literally to 'Doorway to Heaven,'" Giles replied tiredly as they continued to look over the many files several secret service men had brought to his door some time that morning.
"Hmm...Doorway to Heaven vs. Mouth of Hell," Xander pretended to consider it. "Yeah, I think I'll like this more. What'd you think, Wills?"
"I don't know," the Witch sighed as she scanned another mission report. "I mean, this is the military that was running it, and they'll probably want to stay involved too. But..." she shook her head, "This doesn't sound all that much like the Initiative."
"Aliens versus Demons..." Xander nodded again, his humorous effort slightly dulled by the patch he still wore across his left eye. "Yeah, a bit of difference there."
"Not really," Buffy shook her head, before glancing up at her Watcher. "Why haven't we heard about these -- what'd they call them? ...Snakeheads? – Why haven't we heard of them before, Giles?"
"We have." The Englishman replied, setting the file he'd been reading down to take out a handkerchief before removing his glasses from their proper resting place to clean them, before placing them carefully atop his nose once more. "There are references to the Goa'uld historically. Several Slayers were sent against them before the Council was able to engineer a rebellion that a final Slayer led to drive them back into the 'Chapa'ai,' before burying it. The Council had set up a watch around Giza, Egypt, to make sure it was never dug up..." he shrugged, "Apparently they failed."
"Lazy Watchers?" Xander smirked.
"No, a Slayer native to Egypt was called and one of them was assigned to her. When he was killed, the other took his place."
"There were only two there in the first place?" Willow asked incredulously.
Giles shrugged once again. "As the centuries past the Council doubted the Goa'uld ever being capable of returning, so they reassigned people occasionally, or more often then not, didn't assign new Watchers when the older ones that were Watching there died."
"And when nobody was Watching, somebody dug the gate up and 'voila!' intergalactic warfare." Willow shook her head.
Buffy sighed, "Yeah, looks like that, doesn't it?"
"So is this thing some kind of Hellmouth?" Xander raised his hands defensively when all of them looked at him. "I'm just saying that the base is just outside of Colorado Springs, and the things that go bump in the night around there..."
"Are not quite as active as they were in Sunnydale, but there is more activity then there should be." Giles sighed, shaking his head. "A valid point. The Chapa'ai is not a Hellmouth, however it is a mode of transportation across great distances, which may affect the dimensional barriers."
"And the Stargate isn't active twenty-four seven, just often." Willow nodded, "So it's nowhere near as strong as a Hellmouth, but it could very well be a demon magnet of some kind."
"Well of course it is," Anya offered with a shrug. "Demons are always attracted to the paranormal. That's why many humans have this natural reflex to ignore paranormal activity. If they're normal, demons wouldn't be quite as interested."
"But Vampires attacked plenty of normal people in Sunnydale." Willow objected.
"That was Sunnydale," Buffy pointed out, "the Hellmouth, upon which normal does not exist."
"Right," Anya nodded absentmindedly as she flipped through more files, apparently actually interested in the contents. "And Vampires aren't really normal demons. They're half-breeds; part human. Therefore the rule doesn't really apply to them. There's a part of them that still wants to be part of the human world. At least for a few centuries."
"Anya, are you actually reading any of that?" Giles demanded after a few moments of silence, clearly bewildered by the speed she was flipping through the files at.
"Hmm?" the Vengeance Demon looked up in surprise, blinking for a moment before the inquiry registered. "Oh...No, of course not. I'm just looking for anything that might be worth something." At the confused looks she was getting all around she sighed, "What? We paid a fortune for it, and with all of the worlds out there, there must be something of value we could get from it!"
"Aside from the preservation of humanity and all life on this Earth?" Giles smiled, shaking his head in fond amusement.
Major General George Hammond of the Stargate Command sighed, shaking his head as he entered the conference room once more a few hours later, to see many of the SGC personnel, SG-1 among them, waiting.
"He actually sold the Stargate?" Colonel Jack O'Neal asked after the general had taken his seat at the head of the table and a few moments of silence had passed. "How could he sell the Stargate?"
Hammond shook his head once again, "I'm as surprised as you are, Jack. But this does keep the program going, and the President believes that this group is up to handling the task..."
"On the plus side," Daniel Jackson offered with a shrug, "it won't be going into storage for an undetermined amount of time. It means that we can keep researching."
"And we can keep it out of the N.I.D.'s hands," Major Samantha Carter added.
Jack nodded, "Well, that's a plus... but how could he expect any civilian organization to handle this?"
"According to the President, this organization is tied in some way to every nation on the planet," the General replied, frowning, "and 'the safety of the world is in their hands every day, and has been since before written history began.'"
"What the hell does that mean?"
"I don't know, Colonel, I don't know..." After a few moments, Hammond shook his head. "What I do know is that the President and Senator Kinsey will be staying for a while longer to help us negotiate a partnership with this 'S.W.C.' Hopefully, they'll be willing to trust our experience and allow most of our trained personnel to stay."
End Prologue.
AN: Well, what'd you think? I've had this one floating around at home for a while, so I figured I'd just get it up. Is it worth continuing? (And yes, I'm still working on my other stories too, don't worry about that. If you review, please keep the feedback to this story.)
Bye!
Jess S