Story Title: Dungeon Monk Xander

Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/ Multiple x'overs

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or plots from, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Maburaho, Mx0, Final Fantasy VII, Anarchy Online, Andromeda, Warcraft, Phantom Brave and Charmed, all rights belong to their creators for which I am grateful because they were some of my favourite shows/games/animes. I also do not own any of the characters, items, and concepts of the Dungeon Monk which I had taken from the Phantom Brave game created by NIS America. The concept of the Dungeon Monk was fleshed out into something suitable for the story so no part of the story should be used as a guide for the actual content of the game itself.

Last of all, this is a work of fanfiction, done without profit, and just a fan's way of saying how much he liked the TV shows and games enough to spend his time out of work and studies to write something to carry on the memories of the shows and games.

Chapter 7: Changing Times

In her makeshift lab, a mechanic lab that Rommie had staked for herself in Home Base 2, Rommie observed one of the energy cells the group had brought back keenly. The device was glowing with a soft orange light as she hooked it to for testing apparatus, Rommie watched with controlled disbelief as she looked at the energy output shown on the small screen in front of her.

The tricorder was detecting chronoparticles and subspace energies. The massive energies generating from the energy cell seemed to renew itself at an astounding rate, with a small output of quantum decay. If her theory was right, the group might have gotten themselves a horde of energy cells from their latest dungeon crawl that was able to output zero point energies.

Rommie shook her head in wonderment. In physics, zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may possess and is the energy of the ground state of the system. She had not known of any race, even in her own reality that was able to create such a technology.

Rommie had counted nineteen of such energy cells in total. Based on the entropy rate of the energy cells, one such energy cell could effectively power the whole of Home Base 2 for the next few thousand years. And if she was to integrate one such cell into her android body, she could effectively exists for the next few thousand years or a millennium, depending on her power consumption, without needing to recharge every few weeks. The thought completed floored her as she tried to get her emotional programs under control.

If she was able to hook up these zero point energy cells to the group's current technological base, the group would effectively be able to live the rest of their lives in the sub-realities, especially since the Star Trek replicator technologies would have been able to provide for all of their material needs. Looking at the current time that was displayed on the nearby timer, Rommie decided that she would hold off news of her discovery until Xander and the others woke up from their sleep in a few hours of time. After all, the group had a pretty packed day, and the news could wait for another few hours, giving her ample time to create a "bridge", a power tapper, that could transfer power safely from the zero point energy cells to the rest of their technologies.

Once that was done… then she would start entertaining thoughts about upgrades to her own body, which with the help of the nanobots assisting her, would be a relatively simple task.

OoooO

In the wild chaos of the realities, D'Hoffryn stared at the protected sub-reality in front of him with a mixture of apprehension and fear, something that the Demon Lord had not felt for a long time. When Anyanka had informed him of a mortal teenager who could transverse reality and create sub-realities of them, he had scoffed at the idea. The humans of reality X-HO90 to which Anyanka had come from and was assigned to, had not even reach the state of ascension where reality manipulation of such scale was available to them, at least not through normal means.

But Anyanka had been one of his best agents, and so he had went to the seas of realities to take a look. What he had observed had caused the Demon Lord to feel fear for the first time in the past few hundred years. He had felt new sub realities being created near the reality of X-H090, investigating them had led him to a sight of mortal teenagers battling mindless energy constructs for the spoils in the dungeons. He had seen the mere mortal boy casting an almost impenetrable shield on one of the larger sub-reality he had created, something not even D'Hoffryn himself could do, and which would require power levels equivalent to a Demon Lord.

The boy was most certainly human, though he possessed spiritual powers D'Hoffryn had never seen before in a human from reality X-H090. There was no way the boy could had gotten his powers through mortal parents, not unless one of his blood parent was a member of the Powers that Be, the force of Good in reality X-H090, or a Demon Lord from the Triad that governs the darker side of the balance in that particular reality.

The crux of the problem now was that after the Second Dimensional wars, between the Demi-Gods and the Demon Lords, several centuries after the Elder Gods and Elder Demons somehow managed to destroy each other in one fell shot, casualties had been high on both sides and The Agreement was formed.

Reality X-H090 was declared a neutral zone, and none of the Demi-Gods and Demon Lords was allowed to interfere in affairs in the mortal plane. The surviving Demi-Gods became the Powers that Be, the Force of Good in the reality. The Demon Lords native to the reality formed the Triad, governing the darker aspect of reality X-H090. Each side was allowed to choose mortal champions granted a certain degree of power to keep the Balance between Good and Evil in check.

The Demi-Gods and the Demon Lords also agreed that they would not sire anymore children with mortals, preventing the creation powerful mortals that might disrupt the balance. These half breeds had been used heavily during the Second Dimensional wars, and a few had been powerful enough to kill a Demi-God or Demon Lord, though after the war all half breeds were destroyed in order for the Powers that Be and the Triad to maintain their power pool.

But now… it seemed that one side of the balance in reality X-H090 had broken The Agreement. D'Hoffryn looked at the protected sub-reality before him grimly. Half breeds were known to be able to take on the characteristics of their human parents, so it would not be outwardly evident if the boy was born from either the Higher or Lower Powers. He needed to contact the Triad, after which they would most likely capture the boy to find out who the half breed was descended from. If one of the Demon Lords had sired the boy, it was best for the Triad to deal with the problem before the Powers that Be discovered the existence of the half breed. If the half breed was formed from the union of a mortal and a Power that Be however… well, there would be price to pay.

A ripple of energy and D'Hoffryn disappeared. There were plans to be made and opportunities to be had.

OoooO

The two Outsiders observed the disappearance of the Demon Lord unseen. Both possessed human forms, one was a dark haired male while the other was a blond haired woman. The male in particular was looking at the sport where the Demon Lord left with amusement.

"D'Hoffryn, child of an outsider with a mortal from Reality X-H090. He was born before the Elder Gods from that reality sealed away the Elder Demons, and with their sacrifice, prevented any Outsiders, or beings with powers equal to one of the Elder Ones from entering the section of space under their domain." The man said shaking his head. "The only Elder Ones left alive in that area of space are the three Fates who had become silent observers of the struggles between the descendants of the Gods and Demons."

"Things have certainly changed. Now the children, the Demi-Gods and the Demon Lords, are the one governing Earth and the section of space spreading out from it." The woman agreed. Her attention was on the protected sub-reality in front of them. The powers of D'Hoffryn have been unable to pierce through the protections of the sub-reality and see within. But to the two Outsiders, the protections were as visible and as tough as flimsy cobwebs. They were able to see the going-ons in the sub-reality clearly and enter the sub-reality if they had a wish to. "To think that boy is the mortal reincarnation of Baldr… the fairest, wisest and most charismatic of the Elder Gods, he certainly does not look like him at all."

"That's because his powers are sealed." The man said in silent amusement. "I always said that the only reason why everyone liked him was because his powers were heavily focused in the fields of charisma."

"But he was the wisest of them… or at least the most forgiving one." The woman said with hesitation, turning to look at her companion. "He is the reason why we're still alive…"

"He's also the reason why we're exiled, though with what had happened in that reality, it might have been a good thing we've became Outsiders." The man concluded grimly.

"What are you planning to do Loki?" The woman asked after a moment of silence.

"Right now? Nothing. Though I suspect life will become very interesting for Baldr's incarnation quite soon." The man said with silent humor. "The Demon Lords had no idea about the seals of the Sleeping Gods, they most probably thought he's a half breed."

"It is going to be dangerous for the incarnation especially since much of his true potential is suppressed." The woman noted.

"And knowing Baldr, if he has somehow awakens within the boy, he will still hold on to the pact of the Sleeping Gods, feeding powers to the Great Seals, instead of helping his incarnation survive." The man said shaking his head. "It doesn't matter anyway, if his mortal shell dies, he will be reincarnated again."

"But is this the right thing to do? To just stand aside and watch one of our own, especially him getting killed?" The woman asked, looking around.

"We are no longer one of them Sigyn, we were cast out." The man said, pulling the woman into his arms.

"That's because you tried to kill Baldr." The woman said softly. "Yet even when he was deadly wounded, he still plead to Odin to let us live. Loki, we own Baldr a life debt."

"To Baldr yes, but not his incarnation." Loki said darkly, pulling the woman through the seas of realities with him. "Come on love, let's leave the past behind us. Even if Baldr's incarnation only have access to a mere pittance of his true potential, he will still be more than a match against a Demon Lord. And since we're in the area, I feel like visiting some old haunts. We can't enter Earth or its surrounding space due to the protection of the sleeping Gods, but we can still visit other parts of the galaxies. I remember there were a few planets seeded with humans and other species by one of the Outsiders thousands of years ago. I wonder how those civilizations are thriving. There might be some mischief to be had."

"Loki…" Sigyn said shaking her head resignedly as she followed after her husband, the two of them winking out of sight as the energies of the multi-verse washed over their forms.

OoooO

His mind had been in turmoil at what had happened to him, his new circumstances and what he had seen. It was only his years of self-control that allowed him to project a calm façade while he was with the group of powerful children. Freezing time, creating sub-realities, the powers and technologies this small group possessed was mind boggling.

Some of the powers that the group possessed had affected the Force greatly. The time stopping ability of Buffy, the precognition ability of Willow and the telekinetic ability of Xander resonated with purity and the light side of the Force. The sub-reality creation ability of Xander however emits a sense of balanced Order and Chaos within the Force, something Qui-Gon had never encountered before in his life.

Then there were the magic and elemental manipulation abilities of the group which felt decidedly neutral and almost invisible to his Force senses. If he had not been actively sensing for something while the group access those abilities, Qui-Gon would never have felt the stirring of the Force as those abilities were called into play.

The raw potential for destruction this small group possessed was enough to unnerve Qui-Gon. It was why when even one had retired for rest, Qui-Gon had retreated to the duplicate of the Jedi Temple in Home Base 2 and made way for the Jedi Temple Library. He had intended to search the Jedi records for any mention of the abilities the group had displayed. Entering the large and silent library had been unsettling. Qui-Gon had quickly made his way to the main console in the library, which had been controlled by one of the Librarian on duties in his reality.

The main console taps into all of the databanks in the library, even data that were available only to the Jedi Council. Unfortunately, it required a master code which Qui-Gon had no idea of. Qui-Gon had been planning on hacking his way in, he had not expected to find the system wide open. There were several security notifications which revealed that the system had been forced wide open several months ago, with all the information within the databanks copied out.

Stunned, Qui-Gon's mind came to a blank for a moment. Shaking himself out of his shock, it took him mere seconds to realize what had happened. Rommie had been in Home Base 2 for the equivalent of a year, she must had hacked into the Jedi's records and duplicated their contents. For a moment Qui-Gon felt anger that the immerse knowledge of the Jedi now lies in the hands of an outsider, but the anger abate as he realized that to the group, everything within a sub-reality was salvage. It took a moment before mounting horror took over, as he realized the amount of damage this group could do with such knowledge.

If the group attempted to utilize the Force by using the knowledge of the Jedi without an appropriate guide, they might end up going down the wrong path… to the path of the Sith. And with the special powers already available to the group, turning Sith for any of them would be a very bad thing. Turning, Qui-Gon left the library in a hurry. He needed to find Rommie before she began disseminating Jedi secrets out to the group.

OoooO

Xander stretched lazily as he woke up, lying on the comfortable bed in his apartment. It was located above a bar in the more advanced tech area of Home Base 2, a short distance away from the Jedi Temple to which Qui-Gon had retreated into after everyone had turned in for their rest interval.

The apartment was large, with three rooms, a living room, a dining area and a kitchen compartment. It also came fully furnished. Rommie and the nano-bots had apparently tidied up the place because all the basic facilities had been set up by the time he had taken over the apartment. A replicator had been installed in the wall partition which separated the living room and the dining area, it was where Xander had headed for right after he dragged himself out of bed.

Ordering up some breakfast, consuming them and then washing himself up, Xander was shortly walking out of his apartment in fresh clothes, heading for the transporter down the street. In a few minutes, he was exiting the transporter located at the end of Street 1, walking towards their meeting area.

He found the group already waiting there, Cordelia shooting him an impatient look as they sighted him. "Sorry I am late." Xander said with an unrepentant grin. "So what's on the agenda?"

"Rommie was telling us that the energy cells we found on our dungeon crawling trip, actually generates massive zero point energies!" Willow spoke up excitedly. "She and Qui-Gon have hooked up one of the energy cells to Home Base 2, with another energy cell acting as backup. The two of them have been working while we're resting to set up everything. By her estimate, those two energy cells will be able to supply Home Base 2 with enough energy to continue operations for the next millennium!"

"Huh?" Xander said blinking at the news, trying to make sense of Willow's words.

"She means we can effectively stay here for a million years, if we survive that long." Cordelia translated dryly. "With almost limitless energies and the replicator, all our needs are seen to."

"Wow… I've no idea the energy cells are so powerful." Xander said as a thought occurred to him. "But if that's the case, what will happen if we upgrade the Ironman armors with the energy cells?"

"With almost limitless energies, we'll be able to drastically improve the armors and install more features and weapons onto them." Rommie said, affirming Xander's line of thoughts. "However it will take some time for me to upgrade the armors, even with the nano-bots helping out. I've talked to Giles before meeting up and we might have a way to speed up the process."

Giles who had been standing at the side talking to a weary looking Qui-Gon paused and nodded at the group.

"Right. I've been testing out the limits of my information type magic and have come to the conclusion that I can safely transfer digital knowledge, regardless of the amount to all of you safely." Giles said, addressing the whole group. "As a point of fact, Rommie had compiled a database of all of our gathered knowledge, from the Star Trek Voyager's information banks, knowledge of the books found on our dungeon crawls, the nano-bots and other tech available in Home Base 2. I have already magically implanted this database into myself, allowing me to mentally access this information at any time without any side effects. I plan to pass this magical database to all of you as well."

"That will be great!" Willow cried out enthusiastically, seemingly giddy at the thought of having all those knowledge passed down to her instantly.

"With all these information only a thought away, all of you will have the technical knowledge to upgrade your own armors or do any other technological customizations of your own." Rommie revealed. "Not all of our gathered information will be passed to you however. I've discussed with Qui-Gon and Giles that some information are just too dangerous to be commonly shared. Qui-Gon had also requested that the information gathered from the Jedi Temples remain untouched, except for some of the technological blueprints which will be available to all of you."

"If you and Giles think those information are dangerous, then they are dangerous." Buffy said with a shrug. "We'll follow your decision."

"Then there's no time like the present to pass the knowledge to all of you." Giles said. Xander could sense the magic building up from Giles, expulsing out of the man to settle on everyone around him in a light magical cloak. He could feel the spell threading its way into him and then suddenly… his head expanded… with vast amounts of information carefully sorted out and organized.

With just a thought, Xander accessed information about how to build a tractor beam engine. Reaching out, he snagged mental information about how to use the nano-bots. Browsing through the stunning array of information, Xander was startled out of his thoughts as Giles' gave a sharp cough.

"I am sure all of you are feeling the heady sensation of all those information within your head." Giles was saying firmly. "Don't let that information overwhelm you. And before I lose all of you in exploring the knowledge you now have access to, let's proceed on to discuss our plans for the next few days."

"Well I was thinking we should take a few days of rest, to get use to Home Base 2 and such." Xander suggested. "Especially now with all these new knowledge, I have some ideas for gadgets I want to build."

"Exactly what Xander said." Cordelia voiced her agreement with a nod. "We have been going on a spree of dungeon crawls. I want a break and a chance to shop around this place."

"I want a chance to try out my new knowledge as well." Willow spoke up. "How about we rest for around three days, explore Home Base 2 and do whatever we want in the meantime? We can have another dungeon crawl after that."

"That sounds good to me." Buffy agreed. As everyone voiced their agreements, Giles nodded his head.

"Very well, we'll take a break in Home Base 2 for three days. It is a sensible decision since we still need to give Cloud and Qui-Gon time to decide what to do with their new circumstances." Giles announced, looking at the two newcomers in the group. "But if I may suggest, since our group is so small, I will like it if we can have at least one meal together during a day. I am afraid that with such a big home base, it can get awfully lonely with only the eight of us here and there's no need for us to isolate ourselves with such a small group."

"I am okay with that." Buffy said looking around the large paved open area the group was standing in, the cargo ship parked not far from them. "We can set up tables and chairs here. Maybe set up a replicator and a cooking area."

"I will get the nano-bots to help out with that. They should complete the task by the next rest interval." Rommie said with a nod.

"That will be great Rommie. Now if we're done, let's meet back after the next rest interval, at 1200 hrs." Giles said looking around the group. "Qui-Gon, Rommie and I have some things to discuss, so you'll have to excuse the three of us."

"Alright then." Xander said with a grin. "I need to go build myself some advance equipment."

"Me too! Maybe we can find a place to set up a lab." Willow said excitedly. "All those knowledge, I have so many things I want to construct."

"I am going shopping." Cordelia said turning to Buffy. "You want to come along? Cause I've looked through the clothes and shoes in the replicator system and they're boring templates. I am hoping to find something new in the shops."

"Oh shoe shopping!" Buffy said with a gleam in her eyes. "I am in."

Since Rommie, Giles and Qui-Gon had walked to the cargo ship for their discussion, the group turned to the last member of the gathering.

"So what's your plan?" Xander asked Cloud who had been calmly observing the whole meeting.

"If you and Willow don't mind, I'd like to join the two of you." Cloud spoke up. "The technologies all of you possessed… is astonishing. My world's technologies… definitely can't match up with any of the tech base that's now inside my head."

"Alright then, let's go hunt down a place we can use as our very own lab. I know Rommie has one set up, but I want to build one with our own customizations." Xander said leading the way to the transporter. "We need somewhere with a lot of space and is near a power supply line…"

OoooO

Mentally accessing the map of Home Base 2 that Rommie had created during her long stay in the sub-reality, Xander, Willow and Cloud narrowed their selections down to a few areas. After visiting each of the proposed sites, they at last chose a shuttle repair shop not far from Xander's current area of residence.

The place was large enough to hold three highly advanced shuttles which according to Rommie's compiled database were of the Lambda-class T-4a. The place also comes fully equipped with high tech engineering equipment and raw materials, which meant that they could start work customizing the place for their own use.

Contacting Rommie through the comm badges, Xander managed to get the android's help in sending ten nano-bots to their location to help out with their construction. It took the three of them and the ten nano-bots roughly six hours to construct an industrial size replicator from the raw materials in the shop's storage, set up work stations and hooks everything up to the central power grid.

By the time Buffy and Cordelia arrived to check up on them with arm loads of shopping bags, Xander, Cloud and the nano-bots had transferred everyone's Ironman armors to the new location.

"So that's what you three were up to the whole day." Cordelia said eyeing the interior of the new lab appraisingly. She walked forward, dumping a bag full of clothes and other items beside him, before turning to Cloud and unload a similarly filled up bag next to the weary blond haired man. Buffy walked towards Willow and handed her a bagful of stuff as well.

"We managed to get new clothes, shoes and other essentials for everyone." Buffy explained. "Took us a while to input everything inside the bags into the replicator database, so there would be copies for next time."

"Thanks Buffy, Cordelia." Xander said as he dug into the bag Cordelia had given him. He heaved a sigh as he saw the comfortable t-shirts and pants inside, with Cordelia picking the clothes, he had half expected to find expensive formal wear within the bag.

"Don't worry dork." Cordelia said rolling her eyes, apparently guessing the reason for his relief. "I've taken it easy choosing the clothes for you guys. There's not much point to dress up here anyway and I went for practical comfortable clothes."

"I appreciate this Cordelia. Thank you." Cloud said, causing Cordelia to blush slightly.

"So are you guys planning to upgrade the Ironman armors?" Buffy asked as she eyed Willow's armor which the girl had already taken apart and had laid out on her workstation. "What new features are you planning to install?"

"Well I plan to add in a miniature force field generator and phaser weapons. But the first thing I am going to do is to create a female A.I. I mean Jarvis is nice and all, but I would rather customize my armor to have a more personal and feminine touch." Willow spoke up.

Cordelia's eyes light up at the suggestion as she looked around the workstations, her eyes landing on the armor that was hers. "Now that's a thought…"

OoooO

By the end of the three days' rest period, the group had made enormous upgrades to their Ironman armors. Xander in particular with his comic book know how and deadly imagination had created gadgets with their available technological base, geared towards offensive uses that Willow had never thought of.

In particular, Xander had merged Rubi-Ka's nano-science with Star Trek transporter technology, creating a miniature transporter that could be outfitted into an Ironman armor. Currently the Ironman armors were all outfitted with a zero point energy cell. With the installation of the miniature transporter, the Ironman armor was able to do point to point teleportation within a certain range, by calculating the appropriate coordinates.

The new armors equipped with this technology were also able to generate transporter beams, and storing those struck by the beams within the databanks tied to the new miniature transporter tech. If the user of the armor so wish, they could even delete those "data" within the databanks, thus destroying anyone struck by the transporter beam. Xander had termed it the "Vanishing Beam".

Xander had then went on to modify the tractor beam technologies of Qui-Gon's world, creating a device that he had termed a graviton disruptor which generates an intense beam of fluctuating gravity waves that rips anything in its path to pieces. The device requires enormous amounts of energy to work. But with the new zero point energy cells, they have more power than they ever need flowing into each of the armor anyway.

Cordelia had snidely commented that they were more than a match for those Borg creatures right now, and Willow had to agree. With all the upgrades done to their armors, the group was now a force to be reckoned with. Xander had surprisingly been the key factor with coming up new tech uses using their new knowledge. Willow in particular was starting to be frightened of what her goofy childhood friend would come up with next. The creative uses he had come up with to alter and turn all their tech knowledge into devastating destructive forces awed even the stoic Cloud.

Cloud had also provided a fresh perspective to the creation of new technologies. Currently the man was trying to integrate materia, some sort of sentient energy stones from his world, that grants magical powers, to the Ironman armors. Cordelia had been helping him with the project, and initial tests had been successful but more tests needed to be done before they could safely roll out upgrades for materia grafted Ironman armors. The blond haired man was also working on a way to convert energy from the zero point energy cells into something that the materias could use to power themselves.

Qui-Gon had initially resisted use of the Ironman armor assigned to him until he had actually tried on an armor. The man had then proceeded to make his own personal upgrades, on top of the general upgrades already implemented to the armor.

The calm and unruffled man had also taken tissue samples from the group for some unknown purpose, during the meal time of the second rest day. He had applied the samples to a hand held device and the readouts had unsettled the man. He, Rommie and Giles had gathered for another of their secret discussions.

Willow had caught the words "… no midi-chlorians at all… impossible!" From a seemingly stunned Qui-Gon as Rommie and Giles tried to calm the bewildered man. Willow had put it out of her mind. If there was something important, Giles would tell everyone. In the meantime, life still goes on.

By the end of the three days' rest period, Qui-Gon had sufficiently recovered his composure. When the group had gathered at the meeting square, everyone was decked out in the new armors. The group had agreed the day before to go on another dungeon crawl to test out the upgraded armors, which was why Xander would be making a dungeon with a higher level.

The familiar sensation of Xander's dungeon magic rolled over Willow as the group waited for Xander to be done creating the new sub-reality.

"It's done." Xander said after a few minutes. "A higher level sub-reality with a small land space, which would hopefully be perfect to test out our new armors. One of the realities I've used is the one where the zero point energy cells came from. Hopefully we can get some more incredible prizes this time round."

Willow tapped into her powers, her hands touching the interior of her armor. Immediately a vision blossomed in her mind.

Towering robots walked around the landscape firing energy blasts at the group. On the ground were several ring shaped devices of some sort made of unknown materials. The group's powerful weapons and shields were however more than a match for the giant robots.

"There are giant robots this time round, but we'll not encounter much problem with our new armors. We're good to go." Willow said as the vision ended.

"Alright, flight Xander taking off." Xander said cheerily as he teleported all of them into the new sub-reality.

They appeared on the ground and instantly took off, blasting into the air as they caught sight of the looming robots before them.

"Rose." Willow spoke up as she commanded her new A.I. "Give me a firing solution for the giant hulking black robot in front of me."

"Calculations complete. Targeting solution on screen." Rose's husky voice came over the communications, even as a red cross hair appeared over her visual screen, showing her where to fire.

Powerful energy blasts erupted from Willow's armored gauntlets, slamming into the eyes of the black robot which screamed in anger. Crisscrossing energy blasts from Cordelia and Rommie in their armors vaporized the robot's head as its whole body dissolved into energy.

Looking around, Willow calculated four more of those giant robots. Rommie's voice came over the communications.

"Let's go after the silver robot girls. It'll be faster if we work together." Rommie said leading the way.

"Alright, I am going to try out the graviton blast next." Cordelia's voice came through with grim anticipation. "I hope the spoils for this dungeon are as good as last time."

Willow rolled her eyes at Cordelia's comment as she tagged after the two of them. Cordelia it seems would never change.

OoooO

It had been exhilarating fighting inside the Ironman armor. Encased within the armor, Cloud had a feeling of nigh invincibility as he flew circles around the giant robots which were quickly dispatched by the group.

The spoils for the latest dungeon had been six giant ring shaped devices with six smaller console devices providing power to the giant ring like structures. They had returned to Home base 2 with the latest spoils. Rommie had been unable to deduct on the spot what the devices were meant for, and Willow had offered to try calling up a vision of the devices' usage.

Stripping out of her armor, Willow had laid a hand upon one of the ring like device before freezing up, pushing herself backward with a cry of alarm.

"What did you see Willow?" Giles asked as everyone saw Willow's pale and horrified face.

"These devices, they are some kind of wormhole travel device if what I've seen is true." Willow said, her eyes wide as she turned to Xander frantically. "Xander, you've got to help! The device I've used to call up the vision belonged to a race of Humans. Their world is under orbital bombardment! I saw the device being destroyed, people trying to flee in starships only to be shot down. I saw beams of energy destroying an entire civilization! Bodies, devastation everywhere. Oh god…" Willow shivered as she crouched down and burst into tears.

Xander who had already gotten out of his armor froze in shock at Willow's words. He turned towards the ring like device in question. In seconds, his eyes had gone blank. Cloud could sense energy of some sort expelling out of the boy, similar to what happened every time Xander had access his sub-reality abilities.

Buffy kneel down to comfort Willow and there was a few minutes of shocked silence as the group tried to figure out what to do with Willow's vision. Then Xander stumbled back as he was punched. His eyes returned to focus and his face was grim.

"I found the reality and planet where the humans of your vision are from." Xander said in a harsh voice. "What Willow had seen is already taking place. I saw a lot of ship debris in space, with only one more fleeing ship left. The attackers seemed human in nature… but I could detect a second life form inhabiting all of their bodies. On the planet itself, the whole city of the humans is devastated. I could only detect less than a hundred life signs, with many suffering grave injuries. If I am to give an estimate, there's probably a little more than two hundreds of the humans left, on the fleeing ship and on the planet itself."

"What can we do to help?" Rommie asked instantly, gearing into action. "Can you teleport such a large number of them here?"

"Even my reality transportation ability has limit. I'll need to be in the actual reality, near the ones I am going to transport. With such a large number of them spread out over a large area, it would take me hours to expend my spiritual force to cover all of them, by then they will already be dead." Xander said grimly, a hard look in his eye. "We can try to sabotage the attacking ships, but I've no idea if more attackers are on the way. What we need is a miracle. Luckily I can still produce five more of them."

"You are talking about the five miracle spells you inherited from Kazuki Shikimori's soul piece." Giles noted with a resigned look in his eyes. "So what are you planning to do? Bring the humans here? Or help them destroy their enemies?"

"Each of the miracle spells unfortunately can only be cast for one purpose. I can't teleport the humans here and heal them with just one spell count. Even if I destroy their enemies for them, who knows if more of those enemies will return to their planet in the future? With the near total destruction of their infrastructure, they would not be able to heal a lot of the injured or prepare for another attack." Xander said rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Call me selfish, but if I have a way to prevent using too much of my miracle spells, I'll take it. We never know when we'll need those miracles in the future. The best thing in this circumstance is to use one of my miracle spells to bring the survivors here. We can heal them and return them to their reality at a later date."

"Then we'll need to set up medical stations." Rommie said, already planning out the rescue operations. "Can you transport all of the injured to a central area?"

"I can do that." Xander affirmed with a nod.

"It might be prudent to secure all of our higher technologies and database before we transport them here." Giles pointed out reluctantly. "We have no idea why those humans are being attacked. There might be a reason behind it."

"There's no reason that should allow for the genocide of an entire race." Willow spoke up, her voice raspy from crying. "I saw children dead on the streets! Children! Oh my god, the blood and the body parts…" There was a hint of hysteria in her voice. "Xander, can't you revive them?"

Xander hesitated uneasily. "I can try I guess. But I am not sure if even those miracle spells can revive thousands of dead people."

"I will advise against it." Giles said in a hard voice. "Reviving the dead is very dark magic because you're basically ripping the souls who had passed on to the afterlife back into a physical body. It is something that goes against all nature and there will always be a price to pay if one is brought back from the dead, let alone thousands of them."

"But…" Willow protested, only to wither at Giles stern look.

"No Willow, reviving the dead is an area where no mortals should tread. Such an action disrupts the balance of the world and would most likely draw unwanted attentions of whatever Higher Powers that governs that reality." Giles said grimly. "It is something we should avoid."

Willow's shoulders sagged as tears continued to pour out of her eyes. The group stood silent in uncomfortable silence.

"Come on Willow, you need to calm down." Cordelia said in a surprisingly gentle voice as she moved beside the sobbing girl. Buffy and Cordelia exchanged looks of silent understanding as the two girls led Willow away, towards the tables set up for their daily meals.

Xander paused, looking at Giles before speaking. "So I guess there will be no reviving the dead. Time in Home base 2 is already altered, which means only seconds will have passed in the reality where the humans are being attacked for every week spent here. So Rommie, how long do you estimate we'll need to set up a medical area that can house at least a hundred people, and prepare enough living space for two hundred plus of them? I predict that we're going to need to house them here for a while yet, considering that most of their possessions were destroyed."

"The nano-bots and I have cleared up all of the living quarters in Home base 2 during the year we're here. We can easily accommodate six hundred people if there's a need to." Rommie said with a frown. "The problem lies in the fact that there are not enough replicators to comfortably supply the needs of two hundred people. Add in the construction of large medical facilities, by my estimate we're going to need a month or more to complete the relevant infrastructure to support two hundreds of people with many injured. Not to mention we need to think of ways to crowd control that many people in Home base 2. After what they have been through, it's likely these people will panic once they are transported here."

"Then I guess I will just have to hasten the time in Home base 2 drastically." Xander said with a firm nod. "Maybe we can split the work, with a team working to build and install the necessary replicators, while another work to construct the medical facilities. As for crowd control… are there any suggestions?"

"How about building droids to guide the crowd?" Qui-Gon suggested. "My world has advanced droid technologies, and so does the reality Rommie came from. All the blueprints and technical explanation are already compiled in our magical database. The Jedi Temple already have a few droids, add in some customization, scan their molecular template into the replicator database, and we can use the industrial replicator in Home base 2 to replicate them. Having more droids will provide the added bonus of hastening the rest of our constructions if we use them in helping out."

"I have toyed with the idea of creating more droids during my year of stay here, to help with construction." Rommie admitted, supporting the suggestion. "It was only the energy requirements needed for such a large number of droid work force that stopped me. But since we have access to near limitless energy now that will not be a problem. I agree with Qui-Gon's suggestion."

"Then we might as well begin all the construction and customization starting with the droids since they will increase our construction workforce." Cloud said with a nod. He had been standing at the side silently listening in. "In addition, for curing wounds, there are some healing materia that might be a great help in the area, provided I can figure out a way to link the materia to an energy source, instead of using the finite pool of magic within living beings, to cast out their powers. It will take me a few days, but I believe I have a solution…"

OoooO

He would never have expected the Curia to agree to such duplicity, forced to submit to the Goa'uld Tanith, who had used the Tollans to construct technologies that would annihilate the humans of Earth. Yet when Narim had made his choice to help and save the people of Earth, he had sealed the fate of his people, for the Goa'uld Tanith had proceed to rain down energy blasts to destroy the people of Tollan.

The Stargate was destroyed. The surviving Tollans could not flee by that venue. Starships had taken into the air with refugees, but Tanith had ruthlessly gunned them down. Before his very eyes, Narim was watching his race being wiped out. Tears clouded his eyes, his hands operated the long distance communication device in his hands, around him those left in the ruins of Tollan looked at the blazing sky in despair, he had one last message for the people of Earth. A secret cache of Tollan technologies hidden off world, which the Stargate explorers of Earth, SG-1, could hopefully find and use against the Goa'ulds, at least granting the Tollans their revenge.

The device connected. Narim opened his mouth to speak… and the world twisted around him in a dazzlingly blur of colors. In the passing of seconds, he found himself standing in a well furnished apartment of some sort. A look around revealed that the apartment had three other rooms, and what seemed to be a kitchen. There were two other Tollans in the apartment with him, both looking as startled, disoriented and confused by their new environment. He recognized the only woman in the group as Lera one of his colleague who had boarded the last ship heading out of the planet.

"Narim… what is going on?" Lera said with a hint of fear as she sighted him. The apartment was blissfully silent, a sharp contrast to the cries of pain and horror that was all around him in the ruins of their city only moments ago.

Before Narim could answer, a silver looking droid that had been standing silently in the room activated.

"Do not fear people of Tollan." The droid said in clear Tollan tongue. "My creators have saved the survivors of the Tollan race. They are currently busy attending to the wounded in another location. Those that are physically fine are transported into apartments similar to yours. Your one surviving ship is now docked at our space port. I am droid M-09 and will be your guide and caretaker during your stay here. Please state your name and identity so I may better serve you."

For a moment, Narim just stared at the droid in stunned silence. There was movement beside him, and the voice of the unknown Tollan man had called out urgently.

"All of you, come and look at this." He said in a shocked voice. Narim turned, seeing him looking out of the only window in the room. Walking closer with Lera and the droid following behind, his mouth dropped open at the sight of the clustered buildings opposite a paved street. Their apartment was apparently located at the third or fourth floor of whatever building they were in, and as he watched, he could see Tollans stumbling out onto the street from other buildings, looking around them in amazement.

"We should go out to the others, find out what is going on." Lera was saying. Narim simply shook his head, turning to the droid standing patiently behind them.

"Or we can simply ask the droid who his creators are." Niam said with a touch of practicality. He bends down to the eye level of the droid. "M-09. I am Niam Ler'kinan, aid to the Curia, ruling party of the Tollans. Are you able to answer questions about your creators?"

"My primary function is to serve the inhabitants of this apartment to get used to Home base 2 until such a time when there is no longer a need for such services." M-09 replied. "I am allowed to answer general queries regarding my creators."

"Very well." Narim said decisively. "Who and what are your creators and why did they save us…"

OoooO

5 minutes ago

He was the Goa'uld Tanith, and he felt a grim satisfaction as he watched the energy blasts from his Ha'tak destroy all of the Tollan fleeing ships. Those lower beings had renegade on their agreement with him, seeking to fight him even when it was clear their weapons could not penetrate the powerful shields Lord Anubis had granted him. Their ships were defenseless against the superior weapons that he had and it was easy to squash them like bugs.

He reached a hand to press the controls to destroy the last Tollan vessel when the very space twisted and distorted around him. Blinking in shock, he found himself standing in a forested area with his army of Jaffa all around him exclaiming in fear and confusion. His Ha'tak had seemingly disappeared.

"What is going on?" Tanith said as his bloodlust and excitement at destroying the Tollans vanished to be replaced by an emotion he had seldom felt. Fear.

Something had just gone very wrong, and he had a feeling he was going to find out soon just what had really happened…