Disclaimers: All previous disclaimers apply.

Dawn reread the section and checked her notes again. What she had possibly found would really make Buffy's day. Sure that her translation was correct, she noted it and moved on with her reading. While her sister was out saving the day, she had been hard at work on the translation of a small portion of the database Buffy had earmarked.

The door to her room opened and Dawn raised the crossbow at her side in an instant, aiming it at the figure in the doorway. Dawn sighed and lowered her weapon. "World saved?"

Buffy shrugged. "For now." She said. "There are five more hive ships coming, but we're sending the Persephone and the…get this…BuffySummers, the new Asgard Battle Cruiser, out to meet them." She said, sitting next to Dawn. "What did you find?"

"Well, apparently the Ancients are also known as the Alterans." Dawn started. "And they did not originate on Earth, but in another galaxy altogether."

"Here in Pegasus?" Buffy asked.

Dawn shook her head. "No, apparently in one a long, long way from here." She keyed her laptop and showed Buffy the first bookmarked section. "There is absolutely no Stargate access from anywhere in Pegasus or in our galaxy. They came here in ships."

"Any mention of where they may have left a few?" Buffy asked.

"We have at least five hangers that I know of full of them." Dawn said.

"I'm not talking about jumpers…wait…five hangers?!" Buffy looked at the schematics on Dawns laptop.

Dawn nodded her head. "I found a city schematic and a running inventory of sorts. It labels labs, power hubs, hanger bays, city maintenance tunnels, computer bays…lots of stuff." She said as she tapped the keys. Highlighted on the screen were four bays similar to the one they had in the main spire they were using. "And get this…" she tapped again and the view changed. "When there is sufficient power and materials, the hanger bays will begin to construct lost ships automatically. At full capacity, the bay can construct a new jumper in about a day."

Buffy bit her bottom lip. "What kinds of materials?" she asked.

Dawn searched the data and a list came up. "Lots of stuff that we have on hand, plus a few exotic materials that we don't." she said. "But, the Ancients had a list of sites and addresses that had the materials."

Buffy nodded. "Mark this and we'll send it to McKay and Weir."

Dawn nodded and tapped the commands. "And then I was looking through the medical database that you marked, looking for anything that even remotely resembles something like a…" Dawn stretched back, reaching for one of the many stacks of paper that littered the area. "Here it is…a sarcophagus." She said. "I got nothing. It seems that the Ancients developed the ability to heal most diseases and wounds using their own innate power. And what little stuff they did research, like that box found by Dr. Jackson in South America, was the end of it."

"So, what do you have to show me?" Buffy asked.

"They were developing a way to combat the Wraith." Dawn said, typing the commands on her laptop. "And what they came up with was amazing." She said, turning the screen towards Buffy.

Buffy took the laptop and began reading. "They did more genetic engineering?!" Buffy said. "What, they didn't learn the first time?"

"What they did was a little less aggressive than what they did with the Wraith. And it was a lot smarter, too." Dawn began as Buffy read. "They started with one of their younger citizens and they accelerated her genetic potential. She was, faster, stronger, healed a lot faster…" Dawn stopped and looked at Buffy, who had stopped reading and was staring at Dawn. "You're picking this up, then?"

"She was a Slayer?" Buffy whispered.

Dawn nodded. "Yep. From everything I could see, she was built to fight them. The Wraith couldn't feed off her; something in her genetic make-up soured the milk, so to speak. And she was an amazing warrior." Dawn gushed. "She would take out entire platoons of foot soldiers while the Ancient battle ships were fighting in space."

"So she was the infantry General?" Buffy asked.
Dawn shook her head. "Buffy…she was the infantry."

Buffy raised her eyebrows and stared at the screen. "Wow."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. Wow."

"So what happened to her?" Buffy asked.

"Although she was phenomenally successful against the Wraith, there were just too many of them, so the Ancients decided to head back to Earth." Dawn said. "And here's where it gets all wonky…"

Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the only gate in Pegasus able to reach Earth is in the Gateroom here in Atlantis, right?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded. "Right."

Dawn shook her head. "Wrong."

Buffy furrowed her brow. "What do you mean wrong…the computer says so."

"Think about how the Stargate works." Dawn said.

Buffy paused for a moment and pursed her lips and after a few seconds she shook her head. "I don't know."

"If the Wraith towed any of the orbital gates in this galaxy into orbit around this planet, then they would be able to reach Earth." Dawn said. "Or any of the other planets in our galaxy."

Buffy's eyes went wide. "Are you saying they followed the Ancients?"

"Sort of. They sent several darts through filled with a few of their own genetically enhanced drones." Dawn said, typing on the keyboard and pulling up another database. "This is a copy of the database that we got from the Asgard."

"How did you get that on the laptop?!" Buffy asked, knowing how massive the data file must be.

"It's a link to the copy in the main Atlantis database." Dawn said. "Here…" she said, turning the screen to Buffy.

Buffy read and sighed. "Now this looks familiar." She said.

Dawn nodded. "I thought it might." She said.

A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A

The BuffySummers rocked under the fire that the Wraith hive ship sent at it and Tyr calmly keyed in the commands to strengthen the already immensely powerful shields while targeting the Wraith. He surveyed the battle again and watched as the Persephone sent volley after volley of missiles at a Wraith battle cruiser. The onslaught was finally to much for the Wraith ship and it exploded, sending pieces rocketing through the battlefield. He tapped his console and felt the power relays charge, hold and then fire their volleys at the hive ship.

If Tyr had eyebrows, they would have raised to the top of his forehead. He watched as the energy raced for the ship and then dissipated against shields. Tyr watched as his sensors fed data back to the main computer. The shields were a variant of old Ancient shield technology.

"This is Tyr to the Persephone." Tyr spoke into the open channel.

Colonel Harriman answered. "Go ahead Tyr." He said.

"The Wraith hive ship is protected by Ancient shield technology." Tyr reported, recalibrating his weapons array. While the shields were of Ancient design, they were a design that was over ten thousand years out of date. Tyr was in the process of upgrading the shields that came after this design, among other things, when he was forced to go into his cryogenic sleep.

"Understood." Colonel Harriman replied. "Relaying the information to Atlantis now. Do we stand a chance against it?"

"No." Tyr replied. "Concentrate your efforts on the battle cruisers and the smaller craft."

"And what will you be doing?" Colonel Harriman asked.

"I shall concentrate on the hive ship." Tyr said.

"I thought you said we would be ineffective against it?" Harriman replied.

"I did. That is why I said for you to concentrate on the battle cruisers." Tyr said, a hint of black humor touching his voice.

Colonel Harriman grinned. "Right. Gonna take them down a peg?"

Tyr nodded. "That is my intent."

A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A

Buffy read and re-read the passage, making sure that the program got the translation right and then reading the page in the original Ancient, translating in her head. When she was sure, she looked up at Dawn. "She was the Slayer. The first Slayer." She said.

Dawn looked up from her books. "We know that."

"No, not the Slayer, like me." She said, turning the laptop to Dawn. "Remember how far above the evolutionary ladder they were compared to us." Buffy said. "All that power, all of the tweaking they did to make her able to fight the Wraith was too much for the human body to handle, so we only got part of the gifts." She said. "We got strength, stamina, speed and the healing but the Ancient version could do so much more." She said, pointing to sections in the text. "They could heal others, they had telekinesis, telepathy, and their expertise with weapons went way beyond what I have, they could use all of the weapons of the Ancients, the Asgard, almost literally everything they would run across they knew how to use, instantly. They were the perfect weapons against the Wraith."

"And the Ancient Slayer went to Earth with the rest?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded. "And she defeated the Wraith that followed, but not before this." She said, tapping the screen.

Dawn read the passage and her eyes got wide. "The last Wraith mixed his blood with that of a human. Right before it tried to flee back through the Stargate." She said. "Like the texts say about the last demons." She looked at Buffy. "The Wraith created the first vampires on Earth."

Buffy nodded. "And the Ancients, when they ascended, passed the Slayers power onto humans to help defend them against the vampires the Wraith created."

Dawn looked at Buffy. "Buffy, this is exactly what you have been looking for. This is the origin of the Slayer line."

Buffy looked up and nodded. "It certainly seems to be." She said softly. The klaxons sounding caused the blonde slayer to jump and turn, facing the door. "Incoming wormhole." She said. "Stay here, keep the crossbow handy. And don't be afraid to run away screaming." Buffy ordered, heading for the door.

Dawn nodded and rolled her eyes. Keying in commands on her laptop she looked up and saw a small flicker over her door. "Or I can put up the shield." She muttered.

A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A

Tyr watched as the Wraith hive ship sent volley after volley of intense, high energy plasma weapons fire into his shields. His instruments recorded the data and the analysis was as he thought. After such intense bombardment, their shields would drop in power for a span of several seconds. It seems that while they were very adept a stealing Ancient technology, they were grossly inept at implementing it properly into their systems, such as power distribution. As the Hive ship opened up again, Tyr keyed the weapons console. The barrage stopped and a bright beam of yellow energy lanced out of the main batteries of the BuffySummers. The shields held for a few seconds but the tremendous burst of energy drained the shields to entropy and the beam finally pierced the shield and ate through the massive ships hull.

Tyr nodded his satisfaction and keyed another switch. "Now." He said simply. Four other ships leapt into the area from different vectors, each from a different hyperspace window. The four DanielJackson class battle cruisers opened fire on a different hive ship, implementing a massive burst of weapons fire in one point of the Hive ship's shields. The Wraith ships returned fire, strafing the new threats as they glided away from Atlantis and opened up a hyperspace window, jumping away from inevitable defeat.

Tyr nodded in satisfaction. "This is Tyr to Atlantis, the Wraith are retreating." He said.

"Good news Tyr, but we have a new problem." Dr. Weirs voice replied.

"What is the problem, Dr. Weir?" Tyr asked.

On Atlantis, Dr. Weir looked down into the Gateroom and watched as the single point of contact on the energy Iris flared even brighter and then glanced at the power readings. The Iris would hold, but the power drain was massive, even in only 38 minute intervals she figured that the Iris would collapse in a few weeks, tops. It was a siege.
A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A

SGC-Earth

Willow looked over at the table next to her and Tara and frowned as the marines all tried to now look everywhere but at the two. Word of Tara's display of power had spread on the base and all of the members of SG-11 had been in fights over the incident and Tara's sudden, newfound abilities.

Tara looked at Willow and followed her gaze. "Relax, sweetie." She said softly. "There's nothing you or I can do."

Willow poked angrily at her salad and brought the bite to her mouth. "I know. I just get…grrr." She said, tearing into the lettuce.

Tara smiled. "Tell me about the Ancient outpost." She said. "I read the report, but I want the juicy stuff." She said.

Willow smiled. "Well, Dr. Jackson was in his lab drooling over things for a few days before they went to Pegasus. I also happen to know that he has a small black ledger he writes all of his findings is before making nice, neat copies on the computer for the brass." She said, grinning.

"And you know where he keeps this book?" Tara asked.

"I might." Willow smirked, setting the mentioned book on the table. She giggled at Tara's wide eyed look.

"Willow Rosenberg!" Tara shook her head, reaching for the book. "You little thief." She grinned.

Willow nodded, seemingly disappointed. "I am a bad, bad witch." She said. "So, what does he say? Did he decipher the coordinates on the wall?"

Willow had found a partially damaged computer terminal that still had some power while at the outpost. While she didn't have anything compatible with the ancient technology to download the information, she did have the camcorder, which she used to film all of the data that flickered over the screen. The last bit of information that scrolled across the damaged screen was a number of gate addresses, seven to be precise. And the last two had eight chevrons. Willow recognized the last as Atlantis, but the other six she didn't know off hand and Daniel had confiscated the recorder as soon as the got back.

Tara looked up and just stared. "Yeah, he made some progress." She said. All of the gate addresses had a designation next to them, but one also had a name. The fifth address was P3X-774 and written and underlined next to the designation was one word. Nox.

Willow raised an eyebrow. "I found the Ancient version of a Rolodex?"

Tara shook her head. "I don't think so. None of the other addresses have names."

"And those two have eight symbols." Willow said. "One is Atlantis, but the other one…I know it's not Asgard, so who is it?"

Tara skimmed the book and shook her head. "He doesn't know either. It doesn't match anything in their database."

Willow sighed. "Well, back to work, I guess." She said, nodding as a man in a lab coat poked his head into the cafeteria and tapped his watch when he got Willow's attention.

Tara smiled. "Have a good day, sweetie. I'll see you tonight."

Willow nodded and waved as she headed for the door. They didn't kiss because, while they didn't agree with the military rule and they weren't military anyway, they didn't want to make any new ripples that had to be dealt with.

A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A~~~~~A
Atlantis

Dawn frowned and skimmed the passage again. Buffy had told her of the newest attack and since then, every 39 minutes an announcement for an incoming wormhole was made. It was starting to get annoying. But what she found was truly amazing. It turns out that the Ancients had not been the first to experiment with genetics on humans. The Asgard had been doing it as well, though they never altered a human like the Ancients did Slayers. But what shocked her was that another of the alliance of races had; the Nox. While the Ancients had done it with technology, the Nox were far more subtle. It took several tries, and several thousand years, but there was finally a breakthrough. A human was starting to develop along the same lines that the Nox had; they used the natural energy of a planet by harnessing it with their mind and reshaping it as needed, energy and matter being very malleable.

Dawn snorted. "Malleable my butt." She said. "Anyone who tried to alter a form of energy from one thing to another had a load of work ahead of them." She said, shaking her head. "The same for matter." She sighed, looking at the clock. She still had a few hours before she could sleep. Looking back at the text, she saw what were called early examples. Primitives turning fire to ice, or making things defy gravity without the use of technology…Dawn suddenly sat bolt upright and rapidly re-read what she just read. "Fire to ice?" she remembered a story about Willow Buffy told her once, from high school. About burned bed sheets. Dawn reached for the radio and quickly asked the tech for Buffy to come and see her as soon as possible.

Dawn shook her head as she read the passage again. "The Nox taught early humans Magic!" she said as she scanned through the passages. One other thing kept popping up here and there, in the same context the Wraith had in passages about the Slayer. As Dawn read she couldn't help but wonder what an Ori was and why had the Nox been asked by the Ancients to unlock this power in humans?