Date written: Thu 15 Apr 2010

Authors: Starway Man and Nodakskip

E-mail: theop at hotkey dot net dot au and Nodakskip at aol dot com

Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN as they then were. Stargate SG-1, its characters and all related entities are property of Stargate SG-1 Productions (II) Inc., MGM Worldwide Television Productions Inc., Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp and Showtime Networks Inc./the SciFi Channel. Some of the text is from the various TV episodes, and so does not belong to us of course. Anything else you recognize belongs to their various owners.

Rating: R to be safe, with mostly PG parts.

Symbols: " " indicates speech. ( italics ) indicates thoughts. # # indicates phone or radio voice. / bold italics / indicates telepathic communication.

Feedback: We'd love to hear what you think! It means to us what linoleum means to Xander...well, almost.

Warnings: Some violence, sexual references, bad language and character death is present in this story. There are no spoilers for anything these days, with regard to BtVS and Stargate SG-1; except for those people who haven't seen the show(s), of course.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to StargateWiki and Buffyworld for housing the various TV show transcripts, that were used in the writing this story. Thanks also to Greywizard, Mister Mysterious and Memory King for all their suggestions and beta reading services.

Classification: Action-Adventure, Alternate Universe, Angst, Crossover, Romance

Story setting: BtVS season 2 and Stargate SG-1 season 1.

Summary: Two of the Scooby Gang leave Sunnydale during junior year, and end up first in Stargate Command – and then elsewhere in the galaxy, before the Goa'uld come to destroy Earth.

Title: Time For Change

"Oh yeah, baby. It's snake-a-licious in here."

(Xander Harris, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)

"I will tell you this. Your journey's just beginning."

(Cassandra Fraiser, STARGATE SG-1)

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

(William Jennings Bryan, 1899)

Chapter One: The Present And The Past Intersect

The planet Chulak, over two thousand light-years from Earth

June 19th, 1928

Chulak. An alien world with two suns, which had long been enslaved by the Goa'uld.

The Goa'uld were a snake-like, parasitic life-form that had first made their way out into the cosmos over ten thousand years ago, eventually taking human hosts and enslaving entire worlds, until they had gained rule over most of the planets in the Milky Way galaxy. For a great portion of that time, they had done so mostly unopposed.

That was especially true of the System Lords, the highest-ranking and most powerful Goa'uld of them all.

There was much that the people of Earth – or the Tau'ri, as the aliens called them – would know about the Goa'uld one day, including the existence of a small rebel group called the Tok'ra. In time, they would know that those members of the Goa'uld species were diametrically opposed to their evil counterparts in terms of philosophy and living in a true symbiosis with their hosts.

But here and now, that time was still a long way off.

Within a dark, fire-lit room that was the equivalent of a royal court on Earth, a man and a woman were on their knees before the Goa'uld known as Apophis. The System Lord once known on Earth as the serpent god, the lord of night, stared down at the captives which had been brought before him.

"Tok'ra," Apophis spat out the word as if it was a contemptible curse, his host's voice having an unmistakeably alien reverberating sound to it. "You will tell me your names! Speak!"

"I am Lantesh, offspring of Egeria," the male symbiote replied, who inhabited the man known as Martouf.

"And I am Jolinar of Malkshur, former underlord to Cronus," the female one added; her host was the blonde woman known as Rosha.

"CRONUS?!" Apophis yelled, before starting to curse angrily in Goa'uld at his sworn enemy.

"We await your decree, my pharaoh." A look from his queen Amaunet eventually silenced Apophis' tirade.

"What are your orders, Lord Apophis?" the First Prime named Bra'tac asked, pointing his staff weapon at the two prisoners.

"Kill them – no, wait. I have a more fitting fate in mind," Apophis said, calming down and deciding to take a leaf out of Ra's book. "Fetch a pair of canopic jars, and strip these two of their hosts. They will be banished into oblivion forever, and never know the mercy of their god's forgiveness in the afterlife!"

Lantesh swivelled Martouf's head to face his beloved, the person who would have been his mate for another seventy years under different circumstances. "Jolinar, tal mah veriunte shree," he said, which meant 'our love does not end in death'.

"SILENCE!" Apophis roared angrily. He gestured, and then quite a number of things took place.

One, Martouf and Rosha were strapped to a pair of evil-looking machines by Bra'tac and his Jaffa underlings.

Two, their symbiotes were forcibly extracted as the hosts' heads were pierced by long thick needles – and both Lantesh and Jolinar were sucked into containers containing a powerful sedative.

Three, both humans died as Martouf and Rosha started leaking their brains out of their ears.

Four, Apophis personally threw the canopic jars into the local Stargate after dialing an arbitrary address, ensuring they would never be found by the Tok'ra.

The address just happened to be that of Earth, whose Stargate had just been uncovered in Giza...

But at that moment, something very unexpected happened.

The wormhole between worlds intersected with the magnetic field of a solar flare, and that caused the two jars to be shifted temporally as well as spatially. Whether it was a coincidence or the work of a higher power, the canopic jars went back in time to the days of ancient Egypt – when Ra still ruled the planet, circa 3000 BC.

After emerging from the Stargate and being found by one of Ra's Jaffa, the jars were buried in a pyramid and then forgotten when the Tau'ri rebelled against the Goa'uld oppression and buried their Stargate – and Ra abandoned his former throne world.

Thousands of years later, the canopic jars were found, and eventually wound up in a museum...

...in a place called Sunnydale.

The Sunnydale Museum of Natural History, Sunnydale, California

November 19th, 1997

It was a Tuesday, and so, almost by definition, something weird and wacky had to happen in this town built upon the mouth of Hell.

As said, the canopic jars had been delivered to the Sunnydale Museum of Natural History. Before putting them out on display, the curator had thought to himself that they appeared unusual. There were the standard Egyptian hieroglyphs, of course, but there were also a second set of markings; symbols of some kind that he had been completely unfamiliar with.

The museum curator had no idea that the mysterious symbols were Goa'uld words that read 'hako kra terak shree'; which when translated into English read, 'banished to oblivion'. But then, it was practically impossible for him to have known that; almost all traces of the Goa'uld had been wiped out since the days of ancient Egypt, including their language, and nowadays, the public and even the general scientific community thought that the false gods were nothing more than myths and legends.

At that moment, the main area of the museum was invaded – first by a couple of vampires, and then by four teenagers known as Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase. The blonde Slayer was chasing the vampires and her Slayerettes were loyally following after her, with the cheerleader bringing up the rear.

Changing tactics, the undead stopped and turned around to fight. One of the vamps grabbed Xander and threw him at Buffy as a diversion. It worked for a moment, before Harris was shoved aside and he careened into Willow, taking the young woman out of the equation as well.

"I just HAD to ditch my sheep at the Bronze tonight," Cordelia muttered angrily, that was why she was here – well, that and the vampires had attempted to kidnap her as a sacrificial offering to be held at the museum. Cordy then ducked as the other vampire grabbed one of the canopic jars and hurled it at the Sunnydale High beauty queen. The jar smashed apart as it hit the wall and, unnoticed by everyone, the Tok'ra trapped within was released from the stasis fluid keeping it sedated.

Jolinar immediately and instinctively sought a human host; and since Cordelia was the closest person, the extraterrestrial creature leaped toward the back of her neck, burrowing its way inside her as the young woman's eyes glowed yellow-white for a moment.

( NO!!! ) Cordelia screamed, as her body was taken over by the alien rebel.

/ Please be quiet, / Jolinar informed the Chase girl, the symbiote speaking silently within her host's mind even as she adapted to Cordelia's knowledge of English in order to soothe her fears with something more familiar. / I'm sorry if this is causing you distress, but for now I have to do this. Just don't fight me- /

/ The hell I won't! / Cordy fired back, and then she mentally screamed as Jolinar inflicted momentary pain deep within her brain.

/ My apologies for that, but you left me with no other choice in order for you to understand the situation, / Jolinar told the dark-haired cheerleader. / Please, I promise you I won't be here for any extended length of time; only as long as it takes for Lantesh and myself to return home. I mean you no harm, and I promise I will not hurt you that way again unless you force me to do so. All right? /

/ You really mean that? / Cordelia asked fearfully and suspiciously, hating to feel such a lack of control but unable to see any way around it for now. / And who are you? Not to mention, who's Lantesh? /

/ I am Jolinar of Malkshur, and Lantesh is my mate. We are both members of the species known as the Tok'ra, / the symbiote replied. / But in order for you to understand everything in complete detail, we must blend fully. The Tok'ra do not take unwilling hosts, except in dire emergencies such as this one – so out of respect for your mental privacy, I have shielded myself from your mind as much as I can. But if you choose for me to fully open myself up to you, then there will be no secrets between us any longer. All that I know you will know, and vice versa. /

Cordelia remained silent after hearing that. Jolinar looked around less than five seconds after the mental conversation had begun, and she saw Willow and Xander get up off the floor as Buffy managed to finish off the two vampires.

/ So. Your friend there is a Vampire Slayer, / Jolinar said, as she knew who and what the Chosen crowd were. The Tok'ra came with built-in genetic memory like the Goa'uld, and Jolinar's progenitor had been on Earth long enough to know all about the demon and vampire population. / Tell me, do you trust her? /

/ Well, kinda sorta, / Cordelia admitted unwillingly. / I mean ever since Buffy Summers rode her ass into town, my life has been full of non-stop demon and vampire crap; but likewise, if it wasn't for her, then I'd have been killed at least two or three times by now. So yeah, I guess I trust her, but I sure as hell don't like her! /

Jolinar then turned her attention to Xander, who briefly glanced Cordelia's way to make sure she was okay. / Who is this? /

/ Xander? Uh, he's no one important, / Cordelia replied a bit too quickly.

/ He feels...pleasing to you, / the female Tok'ra contemplated Harris carefully.

/ What? NOOOO!!! / Cordelia semi-screamed in denial, even though she'd started making out with Xander just a few days ago; the day they'd ended up being trapped in Buffy's basement by a bug-man assassin working for an organization called the Order of Taraka. / Xander and I don't even like each other, so where in the hell did you get a crazy lame-ass idea like THAT? /

/ I may have shielded myself from your thoughts, but I can still feel what your body feels, / Jolinar replied as Buffy and the rest of her friends decided to run for it, in order to avoid Rusty the security guard. Hurrying after the so-called Scooby Gang, Jolinar added, / Your skin warms whenever you look at him. Your heart rate increases, and your pupils dilate as well. Thus, you may as well face it – you are physically attracted to that male Tau'ri specimen. /

/ I am NOT! / Miss Chase denied vehemently and yet also pointlessly. / And what the hell is a Tau'ri, anyway? /

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California

November 20th, 1997

By the next day, the nightmare of sharing her body with an alien from outer space had abated for Cordelia Chase, at least somewhat.

After the fight with the vampires was over Jolinar had maintained appearances, acting like she was Cordelia in order not to arouse anyone's suspicions. Both host and symbiote had had a long talk at Cordelia's house after parting company with the others – and later, Jolinar had returned to the museum to steal the stasis jar containing Lantesh. Eventually, after Jolinar had talked the female teen into it, Cordelia had called Xander on the phone to meet with her in the library this morning.

"We're going to have to make this quick, or we'll be late for class," Xander told the brunette girl. "So what is it, what's the emergency?"

"Xander...look, I have something kinda weird to tell you," Cordelia began uncertainly. "Weird even by Sunnydale standards, I mean."

"Yeah? What?" Harris demanded.

"I...I...oh God, I can't do this," Miss Chase said, even though Jolinar was pushing her to come clean about everything for this little episode of 'show and tell'. "Jolinar, you do it; I'm sorry, but I just can't force myself to tell the dweeb here what's happened to me!"

"What? Cordy – who are you talking to?" Xander asked in concern, briefly looking around the library in confusion.

"Me," Jolinar said in her reverberating alien voice, startling Xander a lot. "Hello, Xander Harris. I am Jolinar of Malkshur, and it is nice to formally make your acquaintance."

The male teenager instantly backed away. "Who – what ARE you?!"

"She's a Tok'ra, you dork," Cordelia unexpectedly took back control. "And you can relax, she's not evil! She's not a demon or whatever either, believe it or not – she's an alien snake from another planet, who entered my body at the museum last night."

"An alien snake from another planet?!" Xander demanded angrily, certain now that she was playing some sort of trick on him. "That's it, joke's over! I'm outta here-"

"NO, WAIT!" Jolinar shouted as Cordelia's eyes briefly lit up a bright white colour, and Xander quickly became convinced that this was the real deal. "Please, we require your help."

"Uh, my help? What kinda help do you want from me?" Harris asked, trying to edge his way to the door.

"Oh stop squirming, you idiot!" Cordelia said in exasperation. "Ugh! I can't believe you, Xander. You face vampires and demons just about every night, but something like THIS freaks you out? I already told you, Jolinar's not evil! She's just sharing my body for a bit, even though I still find it hard to believe I'm actually saying that. What am I, a time-share resort or something?"

"On the contrary, you are a decent soul helping me in my time of need," Jolinar replied in that echoing, reverberating voice. "For which I sincerely thank you."

"Cordy?" Xander said in confusion. "Are, are you like possessed or something?"

"No, I'm NOT possessed!" Cordelia shouted, even though less than sixteen hours ago she had certainly felt that way. "Why won't you believe me? God, if it had been your precious Buffy or Willow, you'd have believed THEM without question! So why not me?"

"How about all the crap you've put me and Willow through ever since kindergarten?" Xander replied nastily.

"Well, what else did you ever expect from me and my friends? You two were and are both such complete LOSERS!" Cordelia ranted at him.

Jolinar was beginning to get embarrassed as Xander growled angrily, "You know what? Congratulations, I'm now convinced; you're not possessed after all. Because no demon could ever pull off such a realistic BITCH act!"

"OHHH!" Cordelia screamed, automatically giving Xander a vicious slap to the face. Unfortunately, from the force of the physical blow, Harris collided with the table where the canopic jar containing Lantesh was standing; and the top of the jar smashed apart as it hit the ground.

"NO!" Jolinar called out, as recent history repeated itself and the male Tok'ra instinctively flew into Xander's neck in order to survive. "Lantesh?"

There was no reply, as Xander's body became a battleground. Thanks to the possessions by the Primal Hyena spirit and the Soldier Guy back on Halloween, Lantesh had quite a bit of difficulty with integrating into his host's brain and voluntary muscular system. He had never encountered this sort of resistance before.

/ Please, do not fight me any longer, / Lantesh thought at Xander, as the human's strength finally began to fade and the symbiote adapted to his host's knowledge of English like Jolinar had done with Cordelia. / All I wish is to find the local Chappa'ai and rejoin my people, and afterwards I swear I will leave your body! Unlike the Goa'uld, the Tok'ra co-exist with their hosts willingly! /

/ Tok'ra? / Xander asked suspiciously. / Are you – you're like that thing inside Cordelia? Jolly-whatever? /

/ I am Lantesh, and what are you... / The symbiote then figured out who Xander was referring to and exulted in pure joy that Jolinar was here as well, finally able to sense her presence within Cordelia.

"JOLINAR! You're safe," Lantesh said excitedly using Xander's mouth. Having complete control of the body by now, he rushed forward and passionately kissed his mate, completely uncaring of his host's reaction or the fact that Cordelia wasn't exactly happy about this either.

That is, until the kisses grew more and more intense and all those teenage hormones started up, at which point Xander and Cordelia decided to just go with the flow and willingly joined in on the fun.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Willow's astonished and horrified voice distracted both the Tok'ra and their human hosts, as they broke off to see Buffy, Giles, and Willow's slack-jawed faces at the entrance to the library.

Somewhere in pre-Mayan Mexico

The previous day

"Come on, now, push! PUSH!"

The male voice was heard outside the burial chamber, as a piece of stone fell to the ground deep within the Mayan pyramid. Flashlight beams then appeared in the darkness, as two archaeologists climbed through the hole and walked down a series of stone steps.

"Would you look at this! Many of us suspected there was another chamber, but the Mexican government wouldn't let us dig the compartment...'til now," one of the archaeologists said as he looked around in wonder.

The flashlight beams fell on a large golden shape, the only thing in the chamber. "What's this?" the other archaeologist asked. "It looks like a sarcophagus of some sort."

"That's almost unheard of for Mayan temples," the first archaeologist said as he pulled out a brush. "Look for glyphs, pictographs. Something to give us a hint as to who might be inside." After he brushed away the dust, the sarcophagus was revealed to contain very familiar inscriptions and pictures. "Hieroglyphics?"

"My God, they're Egyptian! But that doesn't make any sense, Egyptian hieroglyphics in a Mayan temple?" the second archaeologist asked in amazement, brushing away more of the dust.

"I read a journal article once by a young archaeologist – what was his name again? Uh, Dr. Jackson, yes, Dr. Daniel Jackson. He had some ideas about a connection between the various ancient civilizations," the first archaeologist recalled vaguely.

"Well, maybe he was onto something – because I recognize one of these pictographs. It's the symbol for the Egyptian goddess Hathor." The second archaeologist began brushing off more dust, revealing a glowing red stone on the top of the sarcophagus.

Full of curiosity, his colleague placed his palm on the stone, and it twisted around of its own accord. There was a grinding sound, and the top of the sarcophagus shifted position. Slowly the top slid apart, and a perfectly manicured hand reached out; then a beautiful red-haired woman wearing an Egyptian headdress sat up, her eyes examining the intruders.

Hathor said in a deep Goa'uld voice, "Where is Ra?"

One of the archaeologists managed to get over the shock enough to say, "Uh, I...I assume you mean the Egyptian sun god, Ra?"

Hathor looked displeased. "You are not Goa'uld." She raised her hand, revealing a ribbon-like hand device on her palm. A yellow-orange beam shot out of the device, and the two archaeologists briefly screamed in pain before they knew nothing more – ever again.

TBC...