Spoilers: Anything up to the first few episodes of Season Eight of Stargate and all of Buffy is fair game.

A/N: Ignore anything said about the Scoobies during the last season of Angel. I’ve also modified parts of that season of Angel to fit my own diabolical mind.

A/N2: This part will be the last of this trilogy. The storyline has run its course, there will be no more when this one is finished.



No Rest For The Weary

Buffy stormed off the elevator and onto the floor where Angel’s office was located followed closely by Faith, Dawn, and Andrew. They had gone to L.A. immediately after leaving Colorado Springs. Drusilla’s ramblings left too many questions unanswered and Angel seemed to be the best one to answer them.

The blonde slayer drew up short when she recognized the person sitting at the receptionist desk. “Harmony?”

“Oh, hey Buffy!” The vampire said cheerfully.

“Who’s that?” Andrew asked.

“She went to school with Buffy, now she’s a vampire,” Dawn explained.

“See! Evil law firm! Evil secretary! Angel’s evil, too!” Andrew cried in a shrill voice.

“Shut up, Andrew,” the three chorused.

“Angel’s in a meeting, but if you’d like to wait...” Harmony began.

“Nope, no waiting,” Buffy said as she marched over to the double doors and kicked them open. “This is important.”

The office’s three occupants looked up when the doors flew open. Fred and Wesley blinked in surprise while Angel rose from his chair behind the desk. “Buffy...”

“Where did you get that amulet?” Buffy asked, cutting him off.

“I told you it wasn’t a reliable source, but it worked didn’t it?” He asked.

“Hello, crater! Of course it worked,” Dawn said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Where did you get it?” Buffy asked again. “What research did you do? What else can it do?”

“I got it from Lilah. It was part of the agreement of taking Wolfram and Hart over,” Angel explained.

“What else?”

“That’s it. I took it and left to help you. Not that you would let me,” he said in a slightly injured tone. “I told you then that I didn’t know anything about it.”

“Can I add something?” Wesley asked from his chair.

“No!” Buffy said, before shooting a glare at Angel. “Drusilla said Spike was alive. Could the amulet do that?”

Angel’s head popped up in surprise. “You saw Dru?”

“So not the issue here!” Buffy said in frustration. “Could the amulet bring him back?” She asked again slowly, emphasizing each word.

The vampire dropped his gaze to his desk. “I suppose it could. I mean we don’t really know what its powers were,” he said evasively.

“You’re dodging there, brood boy,” Faith said, narrowing her eyes. She caught the nervous look on Fred’s face. “What’s going on here?”

“There you are, Peaches,” said a very familiar British voice from behind them.

Tears sprung up in Buffy’s eyes and she squeezed them shut. The possibility of Spike really being alive and just standing behind her shook her to the very core. Opening her eyes she turned to see an equally stunned Spike staring back at her.

“Spike?” She whispered.

“Buffy,” he said just as softly.

“Is it really you?” She asked, scared that if she reached out to touch him that he’d disappear. A hint of a smirk appeared on his lips and she smiled in response. “You dope.”

Andrew couldn’t take the quiet reunion any longer and ran to the vampire. “Thank the Force you’re alive!” He cried as he threw his arms around Spike. “You came back to us! Like Gandalf or, or Goku!”

“Will someone get the geek off of me?” Spike asked as the boy hugged him harder.

Faith pulled Andrew away and smiled at Spike. “Glad to see ya in one piece, Blondie.”

“I see you made it, too,” he said in approval.

“What can I say, I’m a survivor.”

Spike looked at the other brunette. “You’re lookin’ good, Dawn.”

She tried to remain aloof, but failed. She didn’t embrace Spike as hard as Andrew did, but she did hug him warmly. “I’ve missed you.”

“You too, ‘Bit.”

After releasing her, Spike took several steps towards the woman who filled his dreams and his waking thoughts. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but feared she’d pull away. He just watched various emotions flicker over her face - relief, joy, anger, sadness, relief again, before settling on anger. It was all the warning he received before Buffy punched him in the face.

“You bastard! Did you think I wouldn’t find you hiding here?”

“Whoa! Hold off slayer!” Spike said as he pinched his nose to try and stop the blood flow.

“How long have you been back?”

“A month and a half,” he said. He jumped out of her reach as she swung again. “Hey now! I couldn’t leave, I was stuck here.”

“What do you mean?” She turned to the others. “What’s he talking about?”

Fred adjusted her glasses and stood. “The amulet was sent back to us and Spike reappeared when Angel opened the envelope.”

“Who sent it?” Dawn asked.

“We don’t know,” Fred answered with a shrug of her slim shoulders. “But Spike was ghost-like and was confined to the city of L.A. He told us not to call you; he didn’t want you to see him like that.”

“Told you I couldn’t leave,” Spike muttered, earning him a glare from Angel.

“Then a few days ago there was a flash of light and he was... well, alive,” Fred finished with a big smile.

“Obviously he’s... wait. Alive, as in alive alive?” Buffy asked.

“Feel for yourself, luv,” Spike said, holding his arms out wide.

Buffy hesitantly walked over and reached out to touch his cheek with her fingers. “You’re warm,” she said in wonder. She moved her fingers to his neck. “There’s even a pulse.”

“I’m a real boy,” he said with a smirk. “Even got a few perks.”

“Like what?” Dawn asked with interest.

“Still got my speed and strength.”

“Go ahead, rub it in,” Angel said as he plopped down in his chair.

“Stop being a drama queen, you big poofter,” Spike said while Buffy and the others continued to marvel at the manner of his return.

“Should have been me,” Angel muttered.

“Well it wasn’t, so sod off,” Spike bit back. “I can still hear.”

“What’s he talking about?” Buffy asked.

“Why don’t we all sit down? It’s a fairly long explanation,” Wesley said, gesturing to the various chairs in Angel’s office.

**********

“Let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” Buffy said a half hour later. “You heard this prophecy about a souled vampire who became human as a reward for saving the world. You thought this shoe prophecy...”

“Shanshu,” Wesley corrected.

“This shoe prophecy,” she continued, “was about Angel, but instead it was Spike. Now he’s human and sort of like a male slayer. Is there anything else?”

“When you put it that way... no,” Angel said with a sigh.

“So what now?” Faith asked.

“I was just gettin’ ready to leave when the lot of you showed up,” Spike said. “I think I’ve had enough of L.A.”

“Where will you go?” Buffy asked softly.

Spike turned his blue eyes to gaze into her own. “I was going to find you.”

“Oh come on,” Angel protested.

“You found me, now what?” Buffy asked, ignoring Angel’s outburst.

“I’d like to go with you. But if you don’t want...”

“When can you leave?” She asked.

“Let’s see. I’ll need to pack, oh wait! Don’t own anything. Need to say goodbye to everyone.” He looked at Angel, Fred, and Wesley. “It’s been fun, a real blast, but see ya later. Tell Gunn bye for me.” He turned back to Buffy. “I’m ready to go.”

*********

“What have you got for us, Carter?” Jack asked as he walked into the briefing room where SG-1 sat.

“I tried to get back into their database, but they’ve installed some unusual firewalls. I tried everything I know to get past them. Even tried some new things, but nothing worked,” Sam said.

“Do you think it could be mystical?” Daniel asked.

“I doubt it. I just don’t see how you could combine electrical equipment with ‘magic’. It’s probably just a sophisticated software. Willow’s background had shown strong computer abilities,” Sam said with a shake of her head.

“Aren’t there backdoors into those kind of systems?” Jack asked.

“I looked. They’ve got it locked down tight. It’s amazing, sir. I’ve never seen a system like it before.”

“But I’m guessin’ you found something,” Jack said, looking at the stack of folders she had and urging her to continue.

“Yes.” She passed the thick folders out as she talked. “I tracked their flight to Los Angeles and they went directly to Wolfram and Hart - a law firm.”

“Lemme guess, it’s run by an ex-boyfriend?” Jack asked.

“How did you know, sir?” She asked in surprise.

“Lucky guess,” he said with a frown. “So what’s with the ‘evil’ law firm?”

“In this case, it literally is an evil firm,” Sam said with a half smile before elaborating. “They keep a few legit clients, but for the most part they deal with demons and mystical contracts. They have several branches located over the world. But things changed at the L.A. branch a several months ago when Angel took it over. Which by itself isn’t too strange, except it happened only days before Sunnydale collapsed into the earth.”

“What does this Angel have to do with it?” Daniel asked.

“He’s Buffy’s ex-boyfriend. He also happens to be a vampire who was cursed with a soul. He’s suppose to be a champion for something called the Powers That Be,” Sam said, checking the file in front of her.

“Wait a minute!” Jack said, an incredulous look on his face. “Are you telling me that Buffy, the vampire slayer, a woman who kicks some serious vampire ass on a daily basis, actually dated a vampire?”

“Umm, according to the file the firm kept on her, she dated two of them,” Sam said with a weak smile.

“Most unusual,” Teal’c said.

“Who was the other one?” Daniel asked.

“Drusilla’s childe, Spike.”

“He’s the one who died saving the world, right?” Jack asked, trying to keep everything straight in his head.

“The same one,” Sam confirmed.

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Jack said in excitement. “Did you find out why they went to this evil law firm?”

Sam grinned. “Apparently to get Spike, since he left with them.”

A slightly shocked silence followed her statement.

“Didn’t you just say he died?” Daniel asked.

“He did, now he’s back,” she answered with a shrug, smiling at Daniel.

“Finally, people with weirder lives than our own,” Jack said as he rubbed his eyes. “You got anything on that green energy that crazy vampire... or is it vampiress?”

“I think vampire will do, sir.”

“Anything on that energy?”

“I was able to do a lot of snooping in Wolfram and Hart’s database. They’re defenses weren’t as impenetrable as Girl’s Unite. The closest I got was a ball of energy that was called the Key. A select order of monks was its original protector, but it was sent to Sunnydale over three years ago to a new protector.”

“It is possible that Dawn Summers is the new protector. Every time Drusilla mentioned it, she looked directly at her,” Teal’c said.

“But why send it to her instead of Buffy. Being the slayer, she’d be the more logical choice,” Daniel argued.

Sam shook her head. “It’s possible that there is something in Dawn’s genetic makeup that made her better suited for the task. The General mentioned she used magic during the fight in the warehouse. Maybe the protector needed to do magic.”

“That’s possible, and Buffy could be there as backup,” Daniel agreed, seeing the logic in Sam’s statement.

“What is the Key’s function?” Teal’c asked.

“What little they had on it, said it was a source of power and could break down dimensional walls.”

“And that would be...” Jack started.

“Bad, very bad,” Daniel said. “I did some digging into the Wiccan religion and the arts,” he explained at Jack’s curious look.

“Is any of this going to affect us?” Jack asked, satisfied that he had a better idea of what was going on.

“I don’t see where it would, sir. Aside from the vampires here, this is outside our jurisdiction.”

“Fine, but can we keep an eye on them somehow?”

“We tried already,” Sam said with a sheepish look.

“Huh?”

“There are glitches that prevent any recordings and our observers say there are chunks of time passing that they don’t remember,” Sam explained.

“It would not be the first time that they have prevented such observations,” Teal’c reminded Jack.

Jack leaned back in his chair. “Then we’ll leave them be. We can always get a hold of them if we see anything else demony. Let’s get back to business.”

The warning klaxon began sounding, cutting off what Jack was going to say next. “Unscheduled off world activation!” Came the familiar voice over the intercom.

“See, business as usual,” Jack said as they got to their feet and headed to the gateroom.

*********

Buffy looked up when Xander walked into her office. “What’s up?” She asked seeing the worried look on his face.

“We just heard from Willow.”

“What’s wrong?” Buffy asked, knowing Willow would only break her three week retreat for something serious.

“One of the coven’s seers saw something,” Xander said, sitting in one of the large, overstuffed chairs. “Her words were - ‘The Key is in danger. A snake beyond the Chaapa’ai is close to the power. The Last Chosen and the Shanshu shall stand beside her along with the Shol’va, the Former Host, and the Fallen. No other shall be there or the Key will fall into darkness. Only beyond the Chaapa’ai will the Key be able to fulfill her destiny.’”

Buffy’s forehead connected with the top of her desk with a loud thud as Xander finished the message. “It’s Tuesday isn’t it?” She asked with a sigh and continued without waiting for an answer. “We’ve been back for five days. I suppose it was a nice long rest.”

“I’m sorry, Buffy,” Xander said, sympathy shining in his one eye.

She raised her head up. “Why does Chapstick sound familiar?”

“Because it’s another name for the stargate,” Giles said as he entered her office.

Her forehead hit the desk again. “That’s not good.”

“Why? I thought you got along with Jack and Daniel,” Giles said in confusion. Buffy muttered something. “What was that?”

“We were kind of rude in our hasty retreat to L.A.” She said, raising her head back up. The phone on her desk rang and she answered it. “This is Buffy Summers,” she said with a weary sigh.

“Sounds like your week is going as well as mine,” said a familiar voice.

“Speaking of the devil,” she said with a groan. “Hi Jack.”

“Hope you were only saying good things,” he said.

“More vamp problems?” She asked hopefully.

“Ah, not exactly. We’ve just received some intelligence...”

“A gold is after some power called the key,” she said.

“How’d you know?” He asked sullenly, a little disappointed that he didn’t get to surprise her.

“Just got a warning from a seer.”

“Well, then why don’t you and Dawn head on out here and we’ll take care of this little problem,” he said cheerfully.

Buffy tensed. “Why Dawn?”

“She’s the key’s guardian isn’t she,” Jack said, sounding a little confused.

The tiny slayer was thankful that Jack couldn’t see the relieved look on her face, the phone was not secure enough for that discussion. “Can you get clearance for four of us to get in the mountain?”

“Why four?”

“Our seer gave us some more info. I can explain better when we get there. Can you do it?”

“Yeah. Who’s coming so I know who to clear?” He asked.

“Me, Dawn, Faith, and Spike.”

“How soon can you get here?” He asked. Buffy could hear him scribbling the information down.

“Tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll see you then.” Then he hung up the phone.

“Guess I should tell everyone to repack their bags,” Buffy said as she placed the receiver onto the cradle.

“Are you sure it’s wise for you to go?” Giles asked. “You weren’t listed, that could be detrimental.”

She smiled. “That’s the easy part. I just can’t go through the stargate with them.”

“What’s the hard part?” Xander asked.

“Convincing Jack that they have to go through.”

**********

“Luv, I sure hope you know what you’re doing,” Spike said as they stepped inside Cheyenne Mountain. They waited patiently while an office checked their bags. “Secret military bases and I don’t exactly get along.”

“Like we’re any better?” Buffy asked with a snort.

“My last visit to an underground facility wasn’t pleasant.”

“You didn’t like getting your chip out?” Dawn asked.

“That one doesn’t count, I don’t remember it.”

“Oh, then the time you were betraying us to Adam then,” Buffy said.

“No! I meant when I actually got chipped,” Spike nearly yelled.

“Oh, that time,” the blonde said with a grin.

Spike was prevented from retorting by the airman checking their bags. “I’m afraid you can’t take these into the Mountain,” the young man said as he opened their weapons bag.

“Yes, we can, and we will,” Faith said.

“No, ma’am, you can’t.”

Faith’s eyes widened at being called ma’am and was about to retort when Buffy spoke up. “Just call Jack, I mean General O’Neill.”

“He still won’t...”

“Just call him. We’re his guests,” Buffy insisted.

He frowned, but picked up the phone and dialed. There was a short pause while he waited for someone on the other end to pick up. “Sir, this is Airman Jones... Yes, sir... They’re carrying weapons... Sir?... Yes, sir.”

“Well?” Buffy asked as he hung up.

“Welcome to Cheyenne Mountain,” he said as he handed her the bag.

********

Daniel was waiting for them when they stepped off the elevator onto Level Eleven. He was leaning against the wall wearing green fatigues and a black tee. An uneasy smile graced his lips as he pushed off the wall. “Hi guys.”

Dawn surprised everyone by giving the archaeologist a hug. “How are things?”

“Same old, same old,” he said with a light chuckle as he hugged her back. When they broke apart, he offered his hand to the only male in the company. “You must be Spike.”

“Possibly.”

Buffy elbowed him in the stomach. “Play nice.”

Spike let out a suffering sigh. “And you are?” He asked, still staring at the other man.

“Daniel Jackson.”

“Ah,” Spike said as he finally shook the proffered hand. “The one interested in books and old rocks.”

“You have to excuse him,” Buffy said in a strained voice. “He doesn’t have any manners.”

“I do, too,” Spike protested, straightening his leather coat. “I just don’t use ‘em.” Daniel watched the interaction with smile on his lips. He couldn’t wait to watch Spike and Jack interact, it had all sorts of entertaining possibilities. “You need to sign in here before we take another elevator down.”

“Again?” Buffy asked.

He shrugged. “Everybody does it.”

“Fine,” Buffy said and the four guests went over to sign in. They waited while Daniel swiped his card and they entered the second elevator.

When the doors slid shut, Faith sent a smoldering look in Daniel’s direction. “Book boy, if I had known you looked so hot in military clothing I would have dressed up.”

“Faith,” Buffy said reproachingly, not really in the mood to listen to Faith torture the poor man. “Remember Robin back home? Your boyfriend, man, lover, whatever it is that you call him.”

“I know, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just saying, he’s a hottie. And if he looks this good in a uniform can you imagine how Jack looks?”

Buffy’s only response was to send her another glare.

Daniel, somewhat used to their banter by now, kept out of the conversation, not wanting to pull more attention to himself. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as the doors slid back open to reveal Level Twenty-Seven. He gallantly gestured that this was their stop with a sweep of his hand.

“Kind of dreary,” Dawn said, walking close to Buffy and Spike.

“Let’s just hope they’re not running any Frankenstein experiments on aliens here,” Buffy said dryly.

“Only if you count the unusual explosions in the science department,” Daniel said cheerfully.

“Explosions?” Buffy asked.

“One of our on-going objectives is to obtain technology to help in our fight against the goa’uld. We bring back a lot of minerals that aren’t native to Earth. So experiments occasionally, uh... get out of hand,” he explained as he led them up some stairs and into a room that contained a long table surrounded by chairs. Jack, Sam, and Teal’c were already there waiting for them.

After introducing Spike, everyone took a seat around the table.

“Can I just say something before we start?” Buffy asked suddenly, preventing Jack from speaking. “I just want to apologize for our rudeness the last time we were here. Some of our allies had been less than truthful with us and we needed to find out what was going on.”

“We don’t know anyone like that,” Jack said with a dark grin, his voice filled with irony.

“Jack,” Daniel said under his breath.

“Just because, say like, the Tok’ra, suddenly decide to renege their alliance with us in the middle of a controversy. I’m not bitter about it at all,” Jack said grandly.

Buffy couldn’t help but grin at him. She wasn’t the least bit surprised to see he was dressed in casual military fatigues like the rest of SG-1 despite the fact that he was in charge of the base. The blonde was pleased to note that her initial impression of the man was accurate - he was not a sit behind the desk kind of guy, but more of an action, go-getter type. She also noted that Faith was right, he was a total hottie in uniform.

“So what’s the big news you got for us?” She asked.

“Sam’s father, Jacob, sent word to us that a lesser goa’uld known as Yort is planning on secretly invading Earth to find a weapon known as the Key,” Daniel said.

“Yort?” Spike asked with a snort.

“Yort,” Jack said with smirk of his own.

“Where did he get this info?” Faith asked.

Jack let out an uneasy laugh. “Funny thing about that. Jacob is a Tok’ra.”

“You just said they weren’t reliable,” Faith pointed out.

“Well... not really, okay yeah. We’ve had trust issues with the Tok’ra in the past. Except Jacob is different,” Jack assured them. “He has ties with Earth, and he and Selmak...”

“Selmak?” Dawn asked.

“His symbiote,” Sam said. “She’s one of the oldest of the Tok’ra.”

“They both try to do what’s best for Earth,” Jack said. “We can trust them.”

Buffy looked disbelievingly at him.

“Let me put it this way,” Jack said, his face serious. “I trust him.”

She nodded. Her instincts told her that Jack didn’t hand out that level of trust to just anyone. The fact that he practically vocalized his feelings towards the man told Buffy all she needed to know. “What made you think of us?”

“We did some snooping,” Jack said with a shrug.

“I hacked into Wolfram and Hart’s mainframe when I couldn’t get back into yours,” Sam said.

“Impressive,” Dawn said. “They even gave Willow trouble and she can hack into anything.”

“Dawn!” Buffy said. “Not such a good idea to tell the military the name of our hacker.”

“Like they hadn’t figured it out already,” Dawn said with a roll of her eyes.

“We won’t do anything, I promise,” Sam assured them before continuing. “We discovered that the green energy that Drusilla kept talking about was a mystical energy known as the Key. She looked at Dawn every time she mentioned it, so we put two and two together.”

“And that made...?” Buffy asked with a blank look on her face.

“That Dawn is the Key’s guardian,” Daniel said, a look of light confusion in his eyes. “That is who she is, right?”

Buffy looked over at her sister. “Dawn, plug the ears.”

Dawn nodded. The brunette raised the palm of her hand up and mumbled something. Even listening closely this time, Daniel couldn’t make out the words.

When she finished, she said, “They’re still recording us. Picture is there, but the sound is breaking up.”

“What I’m about to say, can’t leave this room,” Buffy said. “In fact, the four of you can’t tell anyone about this.”

“Buffy Summers, I assure you that the SGC will hold everything you say in the strictest confidence,” Teal’c spoke up.

“No, I trust you guys. But I don’t know your friends or your friends’ friends. I don’t know everyone in this facility. I barely trust you, but that’s because I have to in order for us to succeed, but beyond that no one else,” the blonde argued. “And believe me, if I find out you break this confidence I’ll hunt you down.”

The members of the SGC looked at each other and seemed to carry on a conversation without words. Jack finally nodded and said, “You have our word, no one will hear about this.”

“Dawn is the Key,” Buffy stated simply.

“Huh?” Jack asked.

“Dawn is the Key,” she repeated slowly.

“That’s impossible,” Daniel said. “The Key is a mystical, green energy.”

“I know. But trust me, Dawn was made from the Key.”

Four heads turned as one to look at Dawn in disbelief. She smiled nervously and nodded. Even though she had had time to come to terms with her Keyness, she was worried about how others would see her.

Comprehension dawned in Sam’s eyes. “That’s why her background check was strange. It was all fabricated. She’s only been here for roughly three years. That’s when the background check became less suspicious.”

“Yup,” Buffy and Dawn said together.

“So she was sent to you to be protected,” Daniel said.

“Yes.”

A boyish grin appeared on Daniel’s face. “See, I knew it made better sense to send it, or rather her, to Buffy for protection.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re real smart,” Jack said with a roll of his eyes, despite the fact he had secretly agreed with him. He looked at Dawn. “You might want to turn the sound back on before security gets suspicious and comes to investigate. We can circumvent the topic of who you really are.”

Dawn nodded and was thankful he said who and not what she was. After mumbling as few words she smiled at everyone to let them know the spell was done.

Jack turned his attention back to Buffy. “When I called, you said you already knew about this threat. Care to elaborate?”

“Remember that Willow was off on a Wiccan retreat when we were here last week?”

“Yeah, I seem to remember something to that effect,” Jack said, rubbing his eyes.

“She’s still there but she sent word. The coven’s seer had a vision.” Buffy looked over at her sister and indicated for her to continue.

Dawn pulled a slip of paper out of her bag and recited, “The Key is in danger. A snake beyond the Chaapa’ai is close to the power. The Last Chosen and the Shanshu shall stand beside her along with the Shol’va, the Former Host, and the Fallen. No other shall be there or the Key will fall into darkness. Only beyond the Chaapa’ai will the Key be able to fulfill her destiny.”

“Do all visions give such detailed instructions?” Teal’c asked.

“No,” Buffy said with a sigh. “This one is way more detailed than most, but we’re still hazy on some of it.” She took a deep breath. “It’s like this... Better yet, Dawn, you explain it. You’re explanation girl, Faith and I are the go out and kill it part of the group.”

“Hey!” Spike protested.

“Ok, he does the fighting, too - when he’s not being evil.”

“Real mature,” Spike said.

She just smiled cheekily at him.

“For the most part, it’s self-explanatory,” Dawn said, ignoring her sister and Spike. “The Key is in danger. The Chaapa’ai is the Stargate, the snake is a goa'uld - now known as Yort. Me, Spike, and Faith have to go through the gate to stop Yort. The only thing we don’t know is who the other three are.”

“Wait a minute,” Jack said, waving his hands in the air. “How do you know that you’re the ones who are supposed to go?”

“Me for obvious reasons,” Dawn explained. “Faith because she is the last of the chosen, and Spike because he’s the Shanshu.”

“Shanshu?” Daniel asked. “I’ve never heard that term before.”

Spike grinned. “Prophecy - souled vampire, fights in apocalypse, becomes human, that’s me.”

“So you’re saying you’re not a vampire now?” Jack asked, his brain slowly going into overload. This was beginning to top his weird stuff meter.

Spike nodded.

Without taking his eyes off of Spike, Jack leaned his head towards Sam and whispered, “I thought you said he was a vampire?”

“He was,” Buffy said. “Now he’s not. It’s a thing, just go with it. We’re still adjusting to it ourselves.”

“Ok, so we know the Key, the Last Chosen, and the Shanshu,” Dawn said, trying to get everyone back on track. “We just don’t know who the Shol’va, the Former Host, and the Fallen are. I don’t even know where to start looking.”

Daniel grinned at her. “It’s us.”

Once again Jack asked, “Huh?”

“It’s us,” Daniel repeated, his grin getting bigger. “Teal’c was branded as a Shol’va for his betrayal of Apophis, Sam was briefly a host to the Tok’ra Jolinar, and I’m the Fallen.”

“What did you fall from?” Faith asked curiously.

“I died and then ascended. I broke the rules and they, the other ascended, sent me back.”

Buffy and Faith traded smirks before exchanging glances with Dawn and Spike.

“I know that that should shock me, but it just doesn’t,” Faith said tiredly.

Buffy shrugged and then gave SG-1 and Jack her most winning smile. “So it’s settled then. They go through the gate, kick Wart’s ass, and then we all go home.”

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