Fic: A New Challenge (B:tVS, SG-1)
Mar. 29th, 2006 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupPG-13; B:tVS, Stargate SG-1. 1000 words. (Sequel to yesterday's Ring of the Gods; darn you all).
Buffy meets with the General and considers her options.
Title: A New Challenge
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.
Rating: PG-13
TtH Prompt: #41 - Doctor
Summary: BtVS, Stargate SG-1. Buffy meets with the General and considers her options. 1000 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-"Chosen"; SG-1 general season 8.
Notes: I wasn't going to write a sequel to "Ring of the Gods". Really. But I got to thinking after so many of you asked about the three slayers, and this came pouring out of my fingers.
"Riley," Buffy said, startled, as a parade of uniforms entered the conference room.
He looked different in his uniform, at the head of a line of other former Initiative soldiers. Older maybe? More mature? Looking at him, their history together seemed absurdly improbable; she couldn't imagine this serious, military young man having a sexathon with her in a frat house, or getting suck jobs from the vampire equivalent of whores.
"Ms. Summers," he replied, with a nod. His wife wasn't with him today-- which, how did that work with the whole fraternization thing?-- but she guessed all the brass in the room was having a similar effect; he hadn't been this formal with her the last time they'd talked on the phone.
"Major Lorne," he said next, nodding to the man seated to her left.
"Captain Finn," Lorne replied. "It's good to see you again."
"Likewise, sir," Riley said.
Buffy's stomach did a strange swoopy thing at the sound of her macho former boyfriend calling her current crush 'sir'. She could feel the hot rush of a blush creeping up her cheeks, and mentally kicked herself for it; after all she'd been through, shouldn't she be past this kind of teenage emotional one-upmanship? She swallowed, shoving the event to the back of her brain as fast as she could, and turned her attention to the general, who had started to say something about 'the reason we've asked you here.'
As it happened, Riley had come bearing proof: records and footage that had survived the meltdown of the Initiative, verifying the information Buffy and Giles had shared with these people earlier in the week. They had been very polite in the initial meetings, very careful not to say "I don't believe you" and "I can't imagine what the President was thinking sending you here", but the implications had been there, despite Dr. Jackson's repeated outbursts of "That would explain so much!" and Major Lorne's personal testimony about his encounter with a vampire. It was irritating to see their suspicions vanish so quickly over a few sheaves of paper that could-- after all-- have been faked, but mostly Buffy was relieved they were finally getting this hoop out of the way.
Just one more to jump through. "So," she said, when the conversation reached a pausing point. "About your three Slayers. When do I get to meet them?"
The general cleared his throat. "Before we do that," he said, lacing his fingers together atop his the table. "I know why you said you came here, and I know why the President says he sent you, and I know what the, uh, Slayers themselves are looking for, but I need to know. What do you really see happening here?"
Buffy remembered Lorne referring to "one of the reasons we asked you"; she remembered him comparing vampires to bloodthirsty Chihuahuas; she remembered having an inkling that this might be the most important contact the new Council could ever make. She glanced sideways at Giles and thought about his advice to give away nothing unnecessary and withdraw with as much advantage as possible. Screw it, she thought.
Giles might not want to be beholden to the US Military, but she wasn't in any kind of official position with the Council anymore, and Rome was getting stale now that Dawnie was in college and the Immortal had lost his luster. Wasn't acting on instinct one of the things that made a Slayer so effective? And wasn't she-- love life aside-- one of the best Slayers ever?
"I could use a new challenge," she said.
In her peripheral vision, Giles went scarily pale; across from her, Willow choked, then straightened in her seat, an argument building in her eyes. Buffy closed her mind to the swift knock of Willow's telepathic contact, and tried not to think about the argument they'd be having later.
"Meaning?" the general asked, his eyebrows inching upward.
"Your Slayers are going to need training, no matter how good they already are," she said. "You know I'm the best person for the job, and I've been semi-retired since Sunnydale, so it's not like I have anything else to do. If that means I have to join your project and help you fight your monsters-of-the-week..." She shrugged.
The general looked surprised, but pleased; next to him, Dr. Jackson looked as if he'd just won the lottery. Buffy could just imagine all the questions she was going to get from the archaeologist later; hopefully, she could pawn him off on Andrew or somebody, clog up the Council's email instead of boring her to tears. Riley looked more proud than anything, which she found mildly irritating; he hadn't had the right to be anything on her behalf in several years.
She refused to look at Lorne. There'd be time for that later, hopefully in a more private setting. Maybe involving an exchange of first names, even.
"In that case," General O'Neill said, and proceeded to rewrite the plans for her entire future.
Her students turned out to be a Major, a Lt. Colonel, and a young Lieutenant who'd just joined the program. The Colonel was on the front-line team, very visible on the base; she was the one Major Lorne had seen in action. The Doctor-Major, on the other hand, rarely went anywhere or did anything that would expose her heightened abilities; there'd been a close call the year before when she'd been shot in front of Dr. Jackson, but they'd managed to keep the knowledge of her superhuman healing limited to one other doctor and the lead team. After the emergency surgery, they'd sent her home for a few months to 'recover' and spend time with her adopted daughter.
Buffy liked them, more than she'd expected. Giles and Willow were predictably pissed and Dawn very teary when she called her, but it didn't shake Buffy's resolve; she knew she'd done the right thing.
Now, if she could just get them to let her redesign her BDUs...
(fin)
(x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tth100 & stargate_xing)
Buffy meets with the General and considers her options.
Title: A New Challenge
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.
Rating: PG-13
TtH Prompt: #41 - Doctor
Summary: BtVS, Stargate SG-1. Buffy meets with the General and considers her options. 1000 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-"Chosen"; SG-1 general season 8.
Notes: I wasn't going to write a sequel to "Ring of the Gods". Really. But I got to thinking after so many of you asked about the three slayers, and this came pouring out of my fingers.
"Riley," Buffy said, startled, as a parade of uniforms entered the conference room.
He looked different in his uniform, at the head of a line of other former Initiative soldiers. Older maybe? More mature? Looking at him, their history together seemed absurdly improbable; she couldn't imagine this serious, military young man having a sexathon with her in a frat house, or getting suck jobs from the vampire equivalent of whores.
"Ms. Summers," he replied, with a nod. His wife wasn't with him today-- which, how did that work with the whole fraternization thing?-- but she guessed all the brass in the room was having a similar effect; he hadn't been this formal with her the last time they'd talked on the phone.
"Major Lorne," he said next, nodding to the man seated to her left.
"Captain Finn," Lorne replied. "It's good to see you again."
"Likewise, sir," Riley said.
Buffy's stomach did a strange swoopy thing at the sound of her macho former boyfriend calling her current crush 'sir'. She could feel the hot rush of a blush creeping up her cheeks, and mentally kicked herself for it; after all she'd been through, shouldn't she be past this kind of teenage emotional one-upmanship? She swallowed, shoving the event to the back of her brain as fast as she could, and turned her attention to the general, who had started to say something about 'the reason we've asked you here.'
As it happened, Riley had come bearing proof: records and footage that had survived the meltdown of the Initiative, verifying the information Buffy and Giles had shared with these people earlier in the week. They had been very polite in the initial meetings, very careful not to say "I don't believe you" and "I can't imagine what the President was thinking sending you here", but the implications had been there, despite Dr. Jackson's repeated outbursts of "That would explain so much!" and Major Lorne's personal testimony about his encounter with a vampire. It was irritating to see their suspicions vanish so quickly over a few sheaves of paper that could-- after all-- have been faked, but mostly Buffy was relieved they were finally getting this hoop out of the way.
Just one more to jump through. "So," she said, when the conversation reached a pausing point. "About your three Slayers. When do I get to meet them?"
The general cleared his throat. "Before we do that," he said, lacing his fingers together atop his the table. "I know why you said you came here, and I know why the President says he sent you, and I know what the, uh, Slayers themselves are looking for, but I need to know. What do you really see happening here?"
Buffy remembered Lorne referring to "one of the reasons we asked you"; she remembered him comparing vampires to bloodthirsty Chihuahuas; she remembered having an inkling that this might be the most important contact the new Council could ever make. She glanced sideways at Giles and thought about his advice to give away nothing unnecessary and withdraw with as much advantage as possible. Screw it, she thought.
Giles might not want to be beholden to the US Military, but she wasn't in any kind of official position with the Council anymore, and Rome was getting stale now that Dawnie was in college and the Immortal had lost his luster. Wasn't acting on instinct one of the things that made a Slayer so effective? And wasn't she-- love life aside-- one of the best Slayers ever?
"I could use a new challenge," she said.
In her peripheral vision, Giles went scarily pale; across from her, Willow choked, then straightened in her seat, an argument building in her eyes. Buffy closed her mind to the swift knock of Willow's telepathic contact, and tried not to think about the argument they'd be having later.
"Meaning?" the general asked, his eyebrows inching upward.
"Your Slayers are going to need training, no matter how good they already are," she said. "You know I'm the best person for the job, and I've been semi-retired since Sunnydale, so it's not like I have anything else to do. If that means I have to join your project and help you fight your monsters-of-the-week..." She shrugged.
The general looked surprised, but pleased; next to him, Dr. Jackson looked as if he'd just won the lottery. Buffy could just imagine all the questions she was going to get from the archaeologist later; hopefully, she could pawn him off on Andrew or somebody, clog up the Council's email instead of boring her to tears. Riley looked more proud than anything, which she found mildly irritating; he hadn't had the right to be anything on her behalf in several years.
She refused to look at Lorne. There'd be time for that later, hopefully in a more private setting. Maybe involving an exchange of first names, even.
"In that case," General O'Neill said, and proceeded to rewrite the plans for her entire future.
Her students turned out to be a Major, a Lt. Colonel, and a young Lieutenant who'd just joined the program. The Colonel was on the front-line team, very visible on the base; she was the one Major Lorne had seen in action. The Doctor-Major, on the other hand, rarely went anywhere or did anything that would expose her heightened abilities; there'd been a close call the year before when she'd been shot in front of Dr. Jackson, but they'd managed to keep the knowledge of her superhuman healing limited to one other doctor and the lead team. After the emergency surgery, they'd sent her home for a few months to 'recover' and spend time with her adopted daughter.
Buffy liked them, more than she'd expected. Giles and Willow were predictably pissed and Dawn very teary when she called her, but it didn't shake Buffy's resolve; she knew she'd done the right thing.
Now, if she could just get them to let her redesign her BDUs...
(fin)
(x-posted to
tth100 & stargate_xing)
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Date: 2007-05-20 05:32 pm (UTC)