The Rings of Hell

Scoobies and SG-1

Scoobies and SG-1

Buffy never was one to be silent. She didn't want to hear from others, people she'd never met, where her best friend had been for the last couple of days. No, she wanted to hear it from Willow, and she was trying her utmost to arrange it.

And normally, Willow would. She was a shy girl, and generally automatically fell in with whatever Buffy might suggest - she remembered when Willow had been the only one to side with her over Ted-the-creepy-robot, even though she was drugged by his cookies - so Buffy was surprised when Willow utterly ignored her and went to the door, murmuring for them to come in.

However, that surprise was as nothing compared to the surprise she felt when she actually recognized two of the four people who came in. Those two visiting professors were the last people she would expect to be involved in - well, Buffy didn't know what they were involved in, but whatever it was, she hadn't expected them to be.

Willow introduced them, gesturing to each in turn. "Guys, this is Dr. Samantha Carter, or Sam. Or Major Carter. Dr. Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill, and last but not least Teal'c."

"Just Teal'c?" queried Xander, eyeing the large hatted man, who lowered his head in acknowledgement.

"Just Teal'c. It's a long story." answered Willow, before continuing "Guys - umm, other guys - this is Buffy, the man ferociously polishing his glasses is Giles, the other man staring at Teal'c is Xander, and the woman practically sitting on his lap is his girlfriend Anya. Oh, and the peroxide blond roped to the chair is Spike, who I'm sure you remember me telling you about."

Sam had noticed Spike a little before Willow had mentioned him - she remembered what Willow had told her on the journey here, that he was a dangerous vampire with a chip in his head stopping him from hurting people - mainly because he seemed to be having staring problems. Staring at her, that is. She sighed inwardly - so far, she had, through no fault of her own, induced a Tok'ra, a Tollan and an Ancient to fall in love with her, and it seemed as though a vampire was the next on this list.

Although, she had to say, he was easier on the eyes than the others had been.

But Buffy, who'd managed to be silent throughout the introductions, simply couldn't hold it in any longer. "Told them about Spike? Why would you do that? Who are you people, anyway, and why did you kidnap Willow?" she couldn't believe that Willow would reveal the supernatural to total strangers, so something weird must be going in here, and she would find out what.

"Hey, we didn't kidnap Willow! Someone else did that, and Sam, and - someone else - and ordered that we bring them to Cheyenne -" Daniel began hotly, before Willow cut him off.

"People, can we not go throwing accusations here? Buffy, these people didn't kidnap me. Now, before you start with the questions, which I just know you're going to do, I'm going to ask Sam here to explain exactly what these people do. Sam, if you would. Although if you could keep down the technical descriptions, that would be great."

And Sam did. She explained all about the Stargate, the Goa'uld, Teal'c, Ancients and the Jaffa. She explained where Willow had been and what had happened to her, about the lock they'd both been hypnotized into opening, and the threat to this world - this galaxy - that they'd unwittingly released.

By the end, even Buffy was silenced, as well she might be. It was a lot to take in, that not only did the supernatural exist, but stuff that belonged in a sciene-fiction programme.

Xander recovered first. "So aliens, huh?" There was nothing else he could really say.

"There are many mentions of beings similar to these - Goa'uld - you mention, in countless mythologies around the world, but I had always dismissed them as some species of demon, or perhaps magic-users." said Giles thoughtfully. Now that he thought about it, this new explanation made sense - the amount of power necessary to rip a portal through to other places, like this Stargate does, through magic would be phenomenal. But to do it repeatedly...

"I had similar thoughts when I first found out about the programme - I thought that many myths of gods and giants were in fact aliens" responded Daniel. When Willow had first mentioned Giles to him, he'd looked forward to conversations with a person of similar interests and learning to him, and it looked like it would be everything he had hoped for.

Buffy, however, had had enough of this talk. She was a girl of action, and she knew that Giles was bad enough by himself - who knew how long things might take if there were two of him to talk? She decided to take these people at face-value - she had no choice, really. As Defender of the Hellmouth, she had to stop evil doers from using it for there own ends, be they human, demon, vampire or alien. "Right, yes, this is all very well and good, but shouldn't we go and stop Carlos already?"

"It's Caelus, and it's not that easy-" began Daniel, before getting cut off, again, but this time by Spike, of all people.

"Bollocks to that, of course it is. We just pop round to the Hellmouth and slay the bugger." Sam wondered why Willow hadn't mentioned the accent before.

Buffy, of course, was having none of that. Even if that was exactly what she'd been thinking. "Firstly, Spike, there is no we. Secondly, Mr. I-had-a-plan-but-I-got-bored, we - argh, everyone but you needs to figure out what were going to do-" but then she too was cut off. There seemed to be a whole lot of that going around.

However, this was the most unlikely of sources. "Squabbling, squabbling, while the sky falls, destruction raining down upon everyone. So hot, the fires below, permeating through everything, wiping them all out. And the sky will stand there, laughing, as all below him burns." sang Drusilla in her throaty, rich voice.

Everyone was silent for a moment, but just as suddenly everyone was talking again, mainly in the theme of "How did she get here, she should be in Colorado! What's she doing in my house? Who invited the crazy woman?" and, from Anya "Who's she?"

Then Drusilla's voice cut through the babble "Are you just going to sit here? He's going to put the stars out, one by one!". And then she was gone.

Jack and Buffy both spoke the same words at the same time. "I guess that means we should get going then."