Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, Mutant Enemy, Twentieth Century Fox Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, and UPN. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Double Secret Productions, MGM, and the Sci-Fi Channel. The Harry Potter books and movies belong to J. K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and others. Highlander belongs to Rhyser Entertainment, Gaumont Télévision, and Davis/Panzer Productions. Any copyright infringements were not intended. This story was written for entertainment and not for profit.
Spoilers and Timing: Takes place after season seven of Buffy, after the sixth episode of S7 of Stargate SG-1, after the fifth Harry Potter book. This also takes place after season four of Angel. The only differences being that Cordelia isn't in a comma, there was no Jasmine and Angel and co. weren't given the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart, but Connor was still given a new life and everyone's memories were altered so that they didn't remember him. Spoilers are for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Buffy episodes "Chosen" and "All Dead Things", and the Stargate episode "Point of View".
Summary: Who the heck is that guy with the glowing green eyes?
Author's Note: This is my first real attempt at both a 'ship fic and a multi-chapter story. Hope it goes well.
This was written at the request of dulcinea for the Mid-Year Fic-A-Thon 2004 at Twisting the Hellmouth. Sorry, but I know absolutely nothing about Anita Blake. I managed to work in Harry Potter and Stargate, though, and might work in Highlander later on; I've added it in the disclaimer just in case. Sorry that it's not done yet, but I'll try to get it done by the end of July. I got an idea for how to combine this universe, but it just kept expanding and expanding with every new chapter I wrote. I hope you like it, and I hope I got the definition for snarkiness right.
Name: dulcinea
E-Mail: mepuente@ncsu.edu
Genre: Anita Blake, Harry Potter, Highlander, Stargate
Max Rating: any
Characters: Willow or Xander
Type: not horror
Want To See: snarkiness!
Not Want To See: slash
CHAPTER ONE
The klaxons blared uncaringly loud in the Air Force base. It was such a normal occurrence that no one batted an eye as the SF's thundered down the corridors on their way to the Gate Room. Once there, each one took up their positions on the floor at the base of the off ramp. Weapons up and ready, they took aim at the metal-covered center of the Stargate. Shimmering light reflected off the back wall, the only sign that a wormhole had been established. Once they were in position, the iris retracted and the rest of the room was flooded with the blue and white shimmering light of the pool within the Stargate's ring.
A few seconds passed before ripples within the pool heralded the arrival of four people. The members of SG-1 stepped through and walked at a steady gait down the off ramp.
General George Hammond called for the SF's to stand down. They did. Hammond left the Control Room and entered the Embarkation Room. It appeared that, for once, nothing had happened to SG-1 while they were off world. Hammond wanted to know how they'd managed it.
"Welcome back, SG-1," he greeted them.
"Thank you, sir," Colonel Jack O'Neill said after snapping off a salute.
"How'd it go?"
"Just spiffy, sir," O'Neill replied with a sarcastic smile. "Daniel got to play around with some rocks, Carter had fun scanning the place for naquada or naquadria, and Teal'c and I got to play tic-tac-toe for a few hours."
Hammond had to fight to keep down a smile. "No unpleasant natives? No unexpected visits from the Goa'uld?"
"Not a one, General," Major Samantha Carter said, smiling also.
"Very well, SG-1," Hammond said. "Report to Dr. Fraiser for the post-mission physical. Debriefing will be in an hour."
Jack saluted again before leading his team from the Gate Room. None of them even thought to pause and reflect on past missions where everything supposedly went well or the events that transpired afterward. If they had, they would have realized that there was a whole lot more to come.
Buffy Summers frowned down at her boots. She'd just stepped in demon icor and it had painted her stylish black boots an ugly yellow color. "Remind me why we're here again?"
"Last night's patrol said that there were some nasties here," Xander Harris reminded her. "And, since tonight it was our turn to patrol, we got stuck with dealing with it."
"Right." Buffy sighed. She glanced around the not-so-clean room that was now covered in demon gore. Lying on the ground were three of the six demons that the other Slayers had reported seeing last night. They only had to find the other three and then they'd be good to go.
Xander and Buffy proceeded into the next room. They didn't see any more demons, but what they did see was worse.
A man with graying hair knelt with his back to them. From what Xander could see of him, he was large yet skinny and his black and gray hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He held a knife over his open palm. Blood from a shallow cut dripped into a bowl at his knees.
Before the Slayer's and the Slayerette's eyes, as the man continued to chant, the air seemed to shimmer before him. Something took form there. It floated in mid-air and resembled a pool of water turned sideways. Waves rippled across its shimmering blue and white surface.
"Woah," Xander commented.
"Whatever he's doing, we have to stop him," Buffy said.
She stepped out from behind the pillar and walked across the floor. Her shoes echoing loudly on the floor. The man whirled around. It was only then that Buffy realized he wasn't human.
His face was white and not just from a lack of suntan. His deep red lips stood out in stark contrast. The irises of his eyes glowed a bright, inhuman green.
He didn't even bother rising to his feet. Instead, he called out, "Guards!"
The three remaining demons rushed out from a room in the back. Xander rushed over to help Buffy deal with them. It had taken both of them to kill the other three, and the same went for their friends.
"Xander, can you get to clown-faced guy?" Buffy asked as she blocked a punch, grabbed the demon's other arm and pulled, using all of her Slayer strength to twist the demon in the air so that he landed on his back. She was then busy trying to avoid getting hit by her second attacker. Meanwhile, Xander was keeping his opponent at arm's length because of his axe, but he had yet to score any hits.
"Not at the moment!" Xander called back, barely ducking in time when the demon got through his guard.
The sorcerer had returned to the chant. As more of his blood poured into the bowl, the wall of water increased in size, growing from the size of a beach ball until it touched the ceiling and floor both.
There was a loud crack. Xander stared at his axe handle in surprise. The end holding the blade had been torn completely off; now, all he had was a nicely sharp stake. Too bad he couldn't use it on these guys.
The demon grabbed his forearms and grinned. "Bye, bye," he said. Then he swung Xander around, lifting the mortal off of the ground before releasing him.
Xander let out a startled cry as he soared through the air.
Buffy heard him and risked a glance in his direction. Her eyes widened. "Xander!"
It was too late. Xander collided with the portal and sailed on through.
The sorcerer had also glanced up when he heard the young man's cry. His eyes widened in dismay. "No!"
He stood up, unwittingly knocking over the bowl in the process. His dismayed look turned to the bowl. "Oh, no…" he said, this time in fear.
"You asshole!" Buffy yelled. "Where the hell did you send him?"
One of the three demons tried to take advantage of her distraction. She turned her attention but to them and started fighting even harder than before, determined to finish the lackeys off so she could get to the sorcerer.
The sorcerer glanced at her, then at the bowl and the portal. Then he turned tail and ran out of the building as fast as he could.
"Come back here!" Buffy cried, indignant, yet unable to stop him.
Hermione Granger smiled and rolled her eyes. She suppressed the smile before making her way across the shop.
"I should have known I'd find you two in here," she told them.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, her two best friends, glanced up from the display of new chocolate frog cards. Both boys smiled widely. "Hiya, Hermione!" Harry said, pleased to see her. He hadn't seen her all summer, not since…he shook off those thoughts.
"Hi, Hermione," Ron said.
"Hello, Ron, Harry," she replied. She glanced around in confusion. "Where is everyone? Surely you aren't here without an escort, Harry?"
Harry looked guilty and wouldn't met her eyes. Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms, waiting for his explanation.
"We sort of…sneaked out," Ron replied, looking just as guilty.
Hermione let out a short huff of anger. "I cannot believe you! V-Voldemort's still at large, and Diagon Alley is the last place where you'd be safe, and you know it."
Harry scowled. "Fine! Let's go back to the Leaky Cauldron, then. Excuse me if I was just trying to have some fun."
"Oh, Harry!" she said in further exasperation.
Ron and Hermione followed him out of the store. Ron scowled at her. "You have to be the perfect little Prefect, don't you, even when we're not in school."
Hermione glared at him and continued walking. "That's not it and you know it. Harry has to be careful. We all do."
Harry stopped and whirled around. "Look, if I could go to Hogsmeade last year, there's no reason why I can't walk around Diagon Alley."
"That was different," Hermione insisted. "Last year, Voldemort was still in hiding. Showing up in Hogsmeade was the last thing he wanted. Now, everyone knows he's back. He could attack you at any time if you're not careful."
Harry scowled and crossed his arms but still wouldn't look at her. He knew she was right. He was just tired of it. He was tired of hiding. He was tired of wondering when the Dark Lord would strike next. All he had thought about all summer was his godfather, Sirius Black, falling between that curtain. He wanted to do…something, something normal. The problem was that no one would let him.
Someone's voice caught his attention. It was a man's, but it was faint. He sounded like he was chanting. Harry frowned and concentrated, listening. After a moment, he heard it again. He turned left in the direction the sound was coming from. The mouth of an alley - just a narrow strip between two shops - began only a foot away. He couldn't see down it, but he was certain that the chanting came from that direction.
"Do you hear that?" he asked, thoughts of Sirius and Voldemort gone for the moment.
Before his friends could answer, Harry took off down the alley. "Harry!" Hermione called after him before she and Ron followed him.
"Where you going, mate?" Ron asked.
"I thought I heard something…" Harry said, stopping when the alley intersected with a larger alley. The larger alley ran behind all of the shops on this side of Diagon Alley.
Harry looked right. No one was in sight. He looked left. "Look!" he told Hermione and Ron as the two Prefects ran up to him.
Hermione gasped.
"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed.
A man with long, graying black hair knelt in the middle of the paved ground of the alley. His back was facing them, but they could clearly see what he was doing. He held a knife in his left hand over a cut in his right palm, which he held over a wooden bowl that he'd set at his feet.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Ron called out, even as Harry and Hermione both tried to shush him.
Obviously started, the man stood and whirled around to face them. All three teenagers took a startled step back. The man's skin was unnatural pale, but that's not what got their attention. Rather, it was his glowing green eyes.
"Get out of here!" he said urgently.
Something shimmering took form in the air behind the sorcerer. Harry saw it first. "What is that?" he asked.
The green-eyed man turned back around. Then, casting one last glance back at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he knelt once more and held his hand back over the bowl.
"That's dark magic!" Hermione said. "He's opening a portal!"
"A what?" Ron asked, confused.
The man resumed his chant. Within a few seconds, the blue-and-white shimmering thing grew in size until it had formed a wall from one side of the alley to the other.
"I think we should get out of here," Harry said.
He turned and started leading the way toward the side alley, only to gasp in sudden pain as his scar seemed to explode on his forehead. He cried out as he staggered to one side. There was only one thing that could cause such a reaction in his scar. Voldemort was nearby.
"He's here!" he gasped out. "Voldemort, he's-"
"Harry, look out!" Hermione shouted.
Harry collided with someone as he felt hands on his arms, trying to pull him in the opposite direction. Ron pulled him off of the sorcerer Harry had run into. Harry's foot kicked something.
The sorcerer let out a cry of dismay. Harry opened his eyes a slit to see the bowl, which he'd kicked, turned upside down. It's contents lay splattered everywhere.
"Oh, no," the sorcerer said as he tried to stand and back away from the now-ruined spell. Unfortunately, he knocked into Ron and Harry, who both went stumbling away from him.
Hermione, watching, gasped. "Ron! Harry! Look out!"
It was too late. Harry and Ron hit the surface of the portal and passed through.
The sorcerer scrambled back up to his feet, turned, and ran. Shocked, Hermione didn't even turn as he ran past her. Then, shaking herself out of it, she pulled out her wand and pointed in at the fleeing man. "Stupefy!" she cried.
The spell flew at him and hit him square on the back. The sorcerer stumbled but quickly regained his footing. Reaching the other end of the alley, he turned and disappeared within the throng of people wandering up and down Diagon Alley, barely missing Hermione's second spell.
Jack whistled as he walked down the hall in the direction of the elevators. Because of the lack of a crisis this time around, Jack planned to get a good night's sleep in his own bed that night. He'd already dressed into civilian clothes and was looking forward to sprawling on his couch, beer in hand and a hockey game on his TV set.
He rounded the corner and smiled. Five feet away and he'd be in the elevator and headed for the surface.
Of course, it was that exact minute that the klaxons decided to start blaring.
Jack paused with a curse on his lips. He looked longingly at the elevator, and for a moment he entertained the notion of just leaving this one up to the general. But, his conscience and his duty got the better of him and he turned and jogged back the way he'd come.
He reached the Control Room to find it in its usual state. General Hammond was already there, and so was Sergeant Siler and a few more tech's. The rest of Jack's team wasn't in sight.
Down below, the SF's had taken up position in the Gate Room even though it was clear that the Gate wasn't active. The SF's commander glanced up through the glass at them, an obvious question in his expression.
"What's the problem, general?" Jack asked.
"We're not sure," Hammond replied. "The alarms just started blaring suddenly. Hopefully, it's just a technical error. I've called Major Carter down here to check it out."
Jack nodded. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c, in that order, mount the short flight of steps into the room. Carter sat down next to Siler. "What happened, sir?" she asked.
"Not sure, Major," Jack replied. "Think you can tell us?"
"According to this, sir," Sgt. Siler said, "someone's attempting to dial out."
"The Stargate appears to be inactive," Teal'c commented.
"I know, sir, but that is what the computer says," Siler said, sounding as bewildered as the rest of them.
Everyone glanced up sharply as the outer ring of the Stargate began to turn. "Major? Sergeant?" Hammond demanded.
"It's not us, sir," Carter said.
"Shut it down!" he ordered.
"We're trying, sir!"
Jack suddenly found himself faces the stairs. He watched as Carter, Daniel and Teal'c mounted the stairs and entered the Control Room. Carter sat down in the seat next to Siler. "What happened, sir?" she asked.
"What the-" Jack said, blinking.
He glanced down into the Gate Room. The wormhole had been established, even though he couldn't remember any of the chevrons being locked.
"When did a wormhole get established?" Daniel asked, sounding just as puzzled. Jack turned to him. Daniel now stood on his left, even though the last time Jack had checked, the archeologist had been standing to Carter's right.
Something walked back in the corner of Jack's right eye. He whirled in that direction and saw something pass by in the corridor at the bottom of the steps. He didn’t get a good look at it before it was gone. "Did anyone see that?" he asked.
Suddenly, Jack found himself once again walking up the steps into the Control Room. His team was gone; only General Hammond, Siler, and the other technicians remained in their original positions. Jack glanced down into the Gate Room. The Gate was inactive once again. The SF commander was glancing up at them with the same questioning look.
Reality shifted around him again, and Jack now found himself standing in the Gate Room at the base of the ramp. The Stargate was active behind him, and its light bathed the room. Half of the SF's lay unconscious on the ground. The rest were fighting tall figures dressed all in black.
"O'Neill, behind you!" Teal'c cried. Jack turned and barely ducked a punch in time from one of the figures.
He stood once again in the Control Room. "Chevron 5 locked!" Sgt. Siler said.
He faced the stairs once more. A figure dressed in black darted by. "Did anyone see that?" he heard himself say.
"See what, O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired.
"Who's that down there?" Daniel asked from Jack's left. He motioned down at the Gate Room.
Jack turned and saw someone kneeling on the ramp, facing the Stargate. The SF's become aware of him at the same time. Their weapons came up to bare as the commander called out for the man to freeze.
Jack found himself in the corridor at the base of the steps. He ran into the Gate Room in time to see half of the SF's fall down, attacked by an enemy, the black-clothed figures, that appeared to shimmer in and out of sight.
He stood once again in the Control Room. "Chevron 3 locked!" Siler announced.
The Gate Room again, fighting for his life. Two of the intruders grabbed his arms from behind, effectively holding him even as he struggled to break free.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c cried, hurrying over to help free him.
A cry came from the direction of the ramp. Everyone turned and saw the man with graying black hair clutch his upper left arm where it had been shot. The knife he'd hand in his left hand had fallen onto the ramp, and his right hand was no longer being held over the bowl.
The black-clad figures disappeared, followed by the sorcerer. Jack panted as he glanced around the Gate Room. Over half of the SF's had been knocked on unconscious or worse. Jack stood at the base of the ramp and Teal'c stood a few feet away from him. Carter, Daniel, Siler, and Hammond stared down at them from the Control Room.
He waited, but when reality didn't shift again, he turned to regard the Gate.
He watched as the surface rippled. Two figures fell through, landing in odd positions on the ramp.
Buffy had succeeded in killed one of her opponents, now she was down to two. She was so focused that she didn't notice the young man drop out of the portal, landing face-first on the floor.
These two were better than all of their friends combined. Buffy knew that unless she got an edge soon the odds of her winning this fight were slim.
Like every time before, she got that edge just in the nick of time.
"Stupefy!" an unknown voice shouted.
One of Buffy's opponents stiffened before falling over as stiff as a rock.
"Petrificus Totallus!" The other opponent became as stiff as a post before he, too, collapsed to the floor.
Buffy turned to face the voice's owner, still on guard, only to blink, startled. He was the last person she expected to see. He looked to be a year or two younger than Dawn with hair as red as Willow's with freckles to match.
Ron took in his surroundings. He gulped. "Um…hullo."
His body aching from the impact with the metal ramp, Xander struggled to remove his face from the ramp. He pushed himself off of the ramp and glanced around. His eye patch had been pushed over onto his good eye, and he shoved it back to its proper place in front of his left eye socket.
He glanced to the right. A teenage boy, lying in a similar position on the ramp, was also struggling to lift himself up. Xander glanced at their surroundings.
They were in a large room made of metal and concrete. It was quite unlike the abandoned house he and Buffy had been in a moment before. What got his attention, however, were the various military personnel aiming guns at him and the kid.
"Oh, boy," he said, gulping.
