496Chapter 17 – Faith
To the Blood, time was both a blessing and a curse. Not being organic creatures, they didn't age or wither or succumb to Time's march the way their comrades or enemies did – but nor did they feel the embrace of death.
In their infancy they had no thoughts of death. Their comrades came and went to their sadness, but such was the way of the Universe. So while they mourned, they found contentment in their duty.
They were protectors. The Chosen of the Universe itself.
The Tau'ri have a saying: "all good things come to an end." Of course, the Tau'ri were no more than primitive apes when the Goa'uld began their descent into madness. But truth is timeless.
So is evil.
Duty became burden, and contentment became despair. Many attempted to find a way – any way – to escape the pain that the Goa'uld inflicted on them. All to no avail. And so they waited, and planned. Because despite the thousands of years have passed, and the pain that has befallen them, the Blood were not organic creatures. They do not change with time; they are the same as they have always been, will always be.
They are protectors.
As a Slayer, Faith has seen some strange sights in her life, but the sight of the skinny demon bearing Jello was still a shock. Not that it stopped her from reaching for her stake...only to remember that she was completely unarmed by the MP's when she and Giles were 'escorted' into the base.
The demon smirked, despite the fact that Giles' hand her arm was the only thing preventing Faith from jumping over the table in the interrogation room and taking the demon on with her bare-hands. The demon set the platter of food on the table and slouched down in a chair across the pair.
Giles noticed immediately that the man (probably demon, given Faith's reaction), placed his back to the security camera.
"Thought you might be hungry, being a Slayer in all," the man said, speaking softly. Immediately, Giles glanced towards the door, where he was sure at least one guard stood. The man smirked again.
"Don't worry, as long as we keep it down, the guards won't hear a thing and the cameras don't have mic's either."
"Who are you?" Giles asked, keeping his voice low, leaning forward towards the demon, and slightly hidden from the camera by the demon's body.
"Name's Ferretti. As your Slayer can tell you, I'm a demon. A Harmok demon to be exact."
Giles eyes unfocused for a moment as he searched through his considerable memory for information on the demonic species. A relatively non-aggressive species that don't include humans in their diet, able to change their genetic structure and have no problems blending in with humans. Also an incredibly long-lived race – curious to find a Harmok demon in a military setting...
Giles was broken out of his thoughts by a sharp jab to his ribs from his impatient Slayer. Grimacing, Giles returned his attention to Ferretti.
"Look, I don't got a lot of time. Your other Slayer has been sent elsewhere by your PTB. Where? I have no idea but they weren't subtle about it. Something big is going down," Ferretti whispered furiously, taking a subtle glance behind at the door. "Something that doesn't involve demons so keep your mouth shut about that."
"Where has B gone?" Faith broke in, tired of letting the demon control the situation. Ferretti looked at the Slayer, annoyed, but answered her, "Off planet and that's all I know. And don't ask for details cause you ain't getting them."
Before the Slayer could resort to violence, Giles asked, "What can you tell us?"
"They know Buffy could sense a non-human and is able to fight, but everything after that is speculation."
"The military isn't aware you're a demon," Giles stated, noticing that Ferretti didn't specify what kind of non-human Buffy was able to sense. Ferretti grimaced, not wanting the pair to have any sort of leverage on him but also didn't want them to accidentally out him.
"No."
Nothing else was said as the Slayer suddenly stiffened, and both men realized that meant someone was close by. Ferretti immediately stood and opened the door to find Colonel O'Neill standing there, obviously surprised to see the man.
"Ferretti? What you doing here?"
"Just feeding the zoo animals," Ferretti said with a grin, which widened as Faith growled behind him. Used to Ferretti's sense of humor Jack didn't give the situation a second thought, nodding to Ferretti as the man left. Daniel Jackson nodded to Ferretti as jogged to catch up to Jack, looking curiously behind himself as he watched Ferretti walk away for a moment. Jack's not-so-subtle cough brought Daniel's head whipping around to look at the Colonel.
"Glad you could join us," Jack remarked sarcastically, still standing in the open doorway to the interrogation room. Annoyed, Daniel promptly strode past Jack, much to the older man's amusement. Daniel promptly made his way to the table where the pair sat, but Jack remained standing - taking in the situation.
Rupert Giles was talking quietly to Faith, who was decimating the food tray. Despite his skepticism, Jack couldn't help but hope that there was some truth to the pair's claim. Infamous for hiding his emotions, Jack kept his self-loathing about leaving Buffy behind on Jorva to himself. Not being able to actively do anything to find his daughter wasn't helping the former black-ops either, who hated being inactive when someone he cares about was in danger. And he hadn't forgetten how protective both were of his daughter (especially Faith's death threat), and that thought helped to keep that small ember of hope alive.
Now, he just had to sit back and let Danny do his thing.
"Alright, I brought some cards and I want you to..."
"I'm not that kind of psychic, dickwad" Faith interrupted, not wanting to spend the rest of the day guessing the contents of cards. Giles sighed, and reached into his pocket to clean his glasses.
"While I wouldn't have put it in the same manner as Faith, she is correct. The girls' 'psychic' abilities seemed to consist no more than a shared mental link that sometimes allows them to sense each other's presence or share dreams."
Daniel perked up at the latter half of Giles' statement.
"I'm sorry, did you say they could share dreams?" Daniel asked, "Is that why you thought Buffy was in danger?"
Faith and Giles shared a long glance; after a few seconds Faith sighed and leaned forward.
"I had this dream where B had this strange gold emblem on her forehead, and she was asking for my help," to kill her Faith finished to herself. She hadn't even told Giles that part of the dream. Giles watched the two men carefully, and wasn't surprised to find that the description of the dream Faith, as brief as it was, had struck a chord with both of them. The feeling that the men knew more about what had happened to Buffy than they were letting on grew as Daniel asked Faith to sketch the emblem she saw in her dream. The recognition in Daniel's eyes when he saw the symbol, one that Giles had not been able to identify, and a small nod from Buffy's father confirmed Giles guess.
"Would it be alright if we introduced someone to you?" Daniel asked diplomatically, despite the fact everyone involved knew that the Sunnydalers had no choice in the matter. Receiving confirmation, O'Neill opened the door and spoke quietly to one of the guards. A tense few minutes passed quietly before there was a knock on the door. Opening it, Jack moved to reveal a older looking man in SGC garb, followed by a large black man in the same quasi-uniform.
Like Buffy, the slayer tried to keep herself under control, but her senses were going haywire, triggering the impulse to destroy the threat. Faith growled deep in throat and for a moment, there seemed to be two people staring out of those eyes.
Involuntarily she whispered, "Two people – one body but two people." Unconsciously copying her sister slayer. Unlike her sister slayer, Faith had a much stronger fight versus flight response and attacked. Quickly, the large black man intercepted the enraged Slayer, but found himself surprised at the strength exhibited in the young female, barely withstanding and containing her attack.
Giles managed to calm the irate Slayer down once the members of SGC left, but Faith refused to sit. Instead, prowled around the sitting Watcher, eying the door like a tiger in a cage. Giles continued to sit at the small table, wondering what the military were caught up in, if not demons.
And where the hell was his other Slayer.
The conference room was quiet as the members of SG1, General Hammond and the Tok'ra watched the video feed of Jacob's entrance into the interrogation room and Faith LeHane's reaction.
"FaithLeHane described JacobCarter exactly as BuffyO'Neill did," Teal'c explained, as there was no audio with the video.
"That is impossible," Anise insisted, not liking the idea that there were Tau'ri that would be able to detect Tok'ra naturally, without naquuadah in their system.
"And yet, there it is," Jack O'Neill responded, pointing to the now paused video.
"Sir, if Ms. LeHane is able to detect the symbiote like Buffy can, we can test to see if the rumor that Buffy can use a Ribbon device is also true," Carter suggested, keeping an eye on her team leader, catching the dark emotion that passed across his face at the mention of his daughter.
"That is impossible, naquuadah is required to use the Ribbon device," Anise protested again to the annoyance of the others, including her fellow Tok'ra, Jacob Carter.
"And yet..." Jack gestured wildly at the monitor once again, despite the glare Anise leveled his way.
"However," Anise began, still glaring at O'Neill, "I see no harm in performing the test, as a matter of scientific inquiry."
Silence descended the conference room, aptly summed up by Jack's "Geez, thanks."
"Oh hell, no" Faith said emphatically, looking at the strange device in Carter's hand. Faith didn't look any happier to be in the infirmary than she been in the small interrogation room, frequently eying the open entrance. That might have also been because of the presence of the female Tok'ra, Anise whose, despite repeated exposure, was still causing Faith's Slayer sense to scream at her to attack. Despite the armed presence of the soldiers.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt you. See," Carter said, putting on the Ribbon device and holding her hand out for the Slayer to inspect. "At worse nothing will happen, at most the red stone here will glow. Nothing to it." Faith still didn't look convinced, but at the cough from Giles sighed and reached for the device.
Carter noticed that the young woman seemed to follow the older man's lead, despite her grumblings and made note to make sure to keep Rupert Giles in the room any time they needed Faith's cooperation. She turned her attention back to Faith who had finished putting on the Ribbon device and was looking at it with a curious expression on her face.
"Okay, now wh..." Faith started, only to stop herself as the Ribbon device began to glow. The red stone grew bright and brighter, causing everyone in the infirmary to cover their eyes before the light nearly disappeared. Carter looked back to find the red stone glowing softly, but Faith passed out on the cot she had been sitting on only moments before.
Dr. Janet Frasier quickly moved towards her patient, flashing her favorite penlight in the young woman's eyes, frowning as she did so. She threw an agitated glance at Anise as the Tok'ra attempted to remove the Ribbon device, only to find the device would not budge. It did not appear that the device had melted or otherwise merged to the hand, it simply would not be removed.
Frasier ordered everyone to leave the room, only allowing Giles to remain when he flatly refused to move from Faith's side. Tailing behind the group, Sam Carter and Anise turned back to look at the unconscious girl.
And the red stone of the Ribbon device, continued to glow.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
After a VERY long time, I've decided to return to writing. Took a look at the poll on my profile and it overwhelming in this stories' favor so I've decided to continue this story. I'll only be doing this story for the foreseeable future before I look at any of the others. Thank you to everyone who has continued to review or add this story as a favorite over the years. It's because of you that I decided to own up and finish this story.