Chapter Two

Ronon had been on the team for a couple weeks and he was fitting in nicely with the team but on Atlantis he just seemed to stand out too much. He was gruff and thought it was amusing to intimidate people who expected him to be a barbarian but he was a good guy. He worried her sometimes though. His whole planet was gone, the people he cared for were most likely dead and if anyone survived or got off world quickly enough then they could be anywhere.

In reality, he wasn’t much different from the people on Atlantis before the Deadalus came. None of them thought they would ever see their loved ones within their lifetime again either.

Buffy took a deep breath and smiled as she walked off the Puddle-jumper.

“Now this is the kind of planet I could get used to,” she said and looked at the white sand beaches and the tropical landscape opposite it.

“Yes, it is,” Rodney added.

“It is?” she asked, surprised. Ronon, Teyla and John had looked at him with varying degrees of shock. Rodney hardly ever had anything nice to say unless he was talking about himself.

“Well from what I’m reading the temperature pretty much stays the same throughout the year and there is plenty of edible vegetation. Depending on how the locals are, this would be a good environ for us to go should we ever need to abandon Atlantis,” he explained.

“That’s not going to happen,” John answered determinedly. “We’re not going to let it happen.”

“Whatever confidences you may have in your ability to simply will the Wraith away Colonel, I’d like to have a back up plan just in case,” Rodney said in a snarky tone.

“Don’t listen to him Sheppard,” Buffy said with a mischievous grin on her face, “he’s still twitterpated because Cadman was in his head.”

Teyla walked up to them to end the verbal sparring before it got going too far. “That is very wise Dr. McKay,” she said and then turned toward Sheppard. “Perhaps we should find a village now?”

“I think I heard something in that direction,” Ronon interjected nodding his head to the left.

“Ah, yes. Looks like you parked a little closer than usual this time, Colonel. We’re only two kilometers away from the nearest habitation. Nice work,” he added sourly.

Buffy smirked and patted Rodney on the shoulder. “Come on, McKay. It’s not so bad. We can walk along the beach as we go,” she said cheerfully as she started off in front of him.

“Oh yes, because we don’t see enough water when we’re home,” he said with sarcasm lacing his words.

“He’s right,” Ronon agreed.

Buffy looked at Teyla and rolled her eyes. “But we don’t have a beach and that makes all the difference.”

“Does it?” John asked her.

“Oh, come on Sheppard. I’m a California girl and I can feel the shore calling out to me,” she half-whined.

“McKay?” John questioned him.

“If what you’re asking me, Colonel, is if I believe we’ll be in any danger out in the open there then the answer is no. I’m not reading anything that indicated that this society has technology advanced enough to match our weapons.” He looked at Buffy, pointedly. “It looks like you’ll get your leisurely walk on the beach today after all, Summers,” he said and huffed as she smiled brightly at him.

Sheppard nodded and took point on the way down to the beach.

“Don’t worry Rodney, it’s not that far of a walk,” she said quietly so the others wouldn’t hear.

Rodney merely continued taking readings and walked past her.

Now that they weren’t alone anymore, John went back into the slot labeled co-worker and she went back to calling him Sheppard. It was a subtle thing she did in her mind to help her focus on what was important. Gathering intel on local fighting practices and seeing if the tale of the Slayer was merely and Earth thing. A few artifacts that Willow had found hinted that it might not be, hence the reason she decided to go on the Atlantis mission.

After Sunnydale was blown away the government could no longer ignore that demons and vampires existed. They had, after all, made their presence known in a way that could not be imagined or explained away. And so they had contacted one Buffy Summers not long after Sunnydale Crater was formed and requested a liaison. Buffy had met with them, alone, grudgingly. She still harbored bitterness toward the government since the Initiative and didn’t totally trust the people meeting her.

In the end they had come to an understanding. The government wanted to know what was going on in her ‘business’ and she didn’t want them interfering. The solution? The government subsidized portions of their ‘business’ such as the duties of the watchers, etc for which Buffy gave them intel on certain demons and vampires and how to kill them in addition to giving them quarterly reports on how the hunting was. Part of the reason Buffy agreed to the proposition was that there was an offer on the table for her to gain military aid if the occasion should ever arise again.

Buffy only had to think of the final battle with the First to agree to it. It didn’t hurt that the Scoobies were more or less convinced that it was a good idea. They were all more than shook after the last battle they had in Sunnydale.

And so a beautiful friendship had formed between her and one General Jack O’Neil. He was, she was told, the only one who was qualified to meet and discuss things with her because out of everyone he was the one who would be most likely to believe her and the one who seemed to mesh with her personality the most. In other words, even though he was very military, he didn’t have a corn cob stuck up his butt. Plus, he was in charge of an operation that was just as unbelievable as her ‘business’ so they had something in common.

All Buffy could think of after the first couple meetings she had with him was that the government had finally gotten something right when they chose him to work with her.

Then the offer of a lifetime came her way. There was an expedition group going to a place Buffy was soon to find out was the lost city of Atlantis and the big boys wanted her to go along and make sure that there was a skilled hand to hand fighter on the team. The reason was because they didn’t know what they were going up against. Originally they wanted ten of her slayers but there simply weren’t enough girls around that they could spare on the good ol’ blue marble. Nope.

Still, if she was going to another planet, another galaxy, she had to admit that if she knew there were people out there who could take a lot of damage and still keep fighting she’d want them on their team. And Atlantis? She’d have been lying if she said that she wouldn’t want to go. Who wouldn’t want to go? When she brought up the possibility of going herself her friends had been understandably hesitant to let her go. Especially when they found out it would probably be a one way mission.

After sharing the findings of a strange tablet that Willow had found on ‘vacation’ in Africa with Jack though, things had changed. Jack ended up telling her that there might be a possibility of Slayers on other worlds and that had fascinated the Scoobies. When they were trying to figure out who would actually go on the mission they found that all the slayers had something called an ATA gene. That was when the link between them and the Ancients had opened up wide.

The Atlantis mission was one that she couldn’t pass up. Things had changed since the hellmouth had closed and she felt … useless. Everyone had their duties but she just didn’t feel needed. That wasn’t to say that she wasn’t happy that she didn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders alone anymore but she was listless. She found that she kept asking herself what the point was. Why was she still here? What was her purpose? She was The Slayer. Now there were many. More and more Watchers had come out from under the woodwork since the destruction of the hellmouth and Giles had taken control of things as far as that was concerned. They were included in a Watcher capacity but the rules had changed regarding how much control they had over their slayers. A lot had changed.

It had taken a couple years but there were established bases of command set up in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia and they were all in working order. The best part? There was no girl there under the age of twenty. That was something that Buffy and Faith had both decided and didn’t budge on. Every single slayer that was called that was found would be left alone until they were an adult. They would have the childhood that the previous slayers had been denied.

The gist of the matter was simple. She had done all she could on Earth. What had been bothering her the whole time was that she felt herself waiting for something to happen and it never did. At least not like before. Now that this chance had landed in her lap she was taking it. The only problem with her having to cut ties with the family she had gained over the years.

It was lucky that her best friend was a witch. Buffy thought of the picture frame in her quarters that held a picture of those most dear to her. Dawn had helped Willow make it and if she touched the various gemstones on it in the complicated sequence that they had written on the back of the photo a portal would open to allow her to go back home. Once. That picture frame had given her the freedom and assurance she needed to leave and so she did.

Now she was Buffy Anne Summers, an ‘anthropologist’ in the ways of hand to hand combat and a ‘mythological’ historian looking for more information about her areas of study on other worlds.

Buffy felt the breeze from the ocean caress her face smiled.

Finally she was useful again. Finally she was needed again.

And that was enough.