Someone else screamed for the launch of a TOW missile, but he was overruled by an officer who didn’t dare risk that much explosive power when the President was in the line of fire.

good point, esp since Kinsey will then become prez

"We soon learned that there is more than one form of intelligence, a lesson we should have learned from our experiences working with the SGC. Simply possessing higher-capacity brain functions does not automatically make us ‘smarter’ when it comes to real-world applications or the proposing of required solutions. We have found on a number of occasions that SG-1 has come up with resolutions to problems we hadn’t considered because they were counter-intuitive to our thought processes. Buffy possesses that ability to an even greater degree.

nice Asgard commentary

On the screen, to Hammond’s amazement, the massive monster suddenly came crashing backwards, smashing through another part of the wall, masonry pulverizing, steel beams and rebar twisting like soft aluminum under the force of the rock creature’s momentum.

wheeeeee!!!

Hammond stared at the alien, shocked to hear that it’s earlier threat had been a calculated tactical measure
"... Fortunately, Miss Summers does not possess this problem. And it was, after all, her plan. She even went so far as to propose the words and phrases I used to get the reaction we wanted from your government. Her estimate as to their probable effect proved to be remarkably accurate.”

wowsers

She was reaching the point that Teal’c had arrived at when she tested him; time to make a desperate charge before she didn’t have the energy to attack.
Never before had it faced an opponent such as this one. Never before had it known such pain… or such fear. Not fear for itself, of course; but fear for the mission, the unacceptable possibility that he might fail, that this horrid little creature might actually defeat not just him, but delay the inevitable, interfere with the destiny of the Ori.

good pov from the two combatants - you sure do know how to set up a scene - alas, a film would never capture this. A few words can make a thousand pictures.

"Which was what this entire plan was designed to accomplish: the acquisition of a device which renders the wearer immune to psychic manipulation. A device which only the Ori have built, and only the Doci wears. It would appear that she is about to solve the problem of removing it from the Beast as well, in her own inimitable style.”

!

ps wondering how men all over the world watching this - esp in countries (mostly, but not exclusively, muslim) that treat women as 'lesser' - are having paradigm shifts

For a few seconds Berklyn did his best Clyde Barrow impersonation, twitching madly from the impact of hundreds of incoming bullets, which didn’t begin to taper off until he had been quite literally blown into a widely-strewn pile of tiny chunks of meat that no pathologist would ever be able to reassemble into anything even approximating humaniod shape.
The soldiers really, really wanted to make sure he was dead.

claps for soldiers

nice touch at the end with giving the bad guy a head

Hope the makers of the Legion gun get some public cred too

“You will be punished for this insolence! The Ori see all. They will send more ships, more powerful weapons and punish those who would deny the truth of the Origin!”
“You sure that’s a good idea, Gort? They send anything too fancy and it will attract the attention of the Replicators. Who, I’m sure you will have already noted, are immune to both the ‘thrall’ and to any attempts at religious conversion. But, hey, if you want to put them to the test, I say go for it.”

Sure wish all those people in history had Legion guns when faced by Christian and Muslim missionaries backed by huge armies

“We believe that the Powers That Be, with the consent of the Ancients, are risking the fate of your planet not just on Buffy Summers learning how to plan a campaign, but on her having learned to ask for help.”

Soooo... no pressure then.

One of the things that had always irritated the hell out of Giles was the way Buffy had led with her jaw, permitting her opponents to get in the first punch... she just needed the wake-up call of a good belt to the jaw to let her subconscious know that she was in a fight for her life. No matter how long she had been a Slayer, some part of her still couldn’t believe that a mean thing would really dare hit someone as cute and perky as her.

lol!

The hammer was driven towards the lower midsection of its torso, the aim true, the timing perfect, the hammer slamming home less than half a second before she felt the monster arm crush into her face with the force of a battering ram.

total youtube moment... zillions of girls and boys take down their posters of rock stars and johnny depp and put up Buffy posters

It was a brilliant move, perfectly executed: and it failed abysmally.

ouch seems a bit of an understatement at this point...she smashed into the masonry wall of the hanger with enough force to smash the blocks into rubble

completely immune to the charm her father –may he develop flat feet and ingrown buttock hairs, she silently grumbled to herself —found so enchanting.

buffy needs to mention hank more often - for purely entertainment reasons

Something about the disciplined nature of the military mind made them both the easiest and most difficult people for them to control, depending on the personality of the person they were trying to influence.

hmmm... i'll believe it

She wasn’t sure how they maintained that control once those they enthralled left their immediate vicinity and were no longer subject to direct mental manipulation. For the moment she assumed it was something inherent in the power, a way to convince people that they had arrived at the decision themselves.

!

The Slayer wasn’t afraid of anything, mostly because it was too dumb to be scared of things that could kill it deader’n hell. It was the human who provided the brains

interesting

... she doubted this guy had much to do with inventing the internet, which was about all she remembered about the President back home.

lol!

The truth was, she really did prefer to make a Big Entrance, and was pleased that she’d been able to justify talking herself into making one.

nosce te ipsum etc

Not to mention slightly concerned that her spectacular butt, once fully capable of diverting the attention of any red-blooded male no matter the distraction offered by relatively trivial issues such as the safety of The Leader of The Free World, might be losing its effectiveness, or even, horror of horrors, becoming fat.

:0)

The congressman was an older, fitter version of his son, who shook her hand with a politicians’ calibrated enthusiasm, but looked her over with a father’s eyes. Buffy tried to ignore it. She had never been very sexually promiscuous, so this was the first time she’d ever been in a situation where she had come into contact with the parent of someone she’d slept with. It was rather uncomfortable to be looked at as ‘the bimbo who took my son’s virginity’ instead of the way men had always looked at her in the past.

lol

I don’t know what you intend on doing here, but I expect it will be something appropriately spectacular. Or inappropriately spectacular, as the case may be. But whatever happens, none of it matters a damn compared to the most important words I can ever say; thank you for saving my son.”

wow a politico who gives a toss

Buffy stood there while the movers and shakers dutifully applauded, feeling like an idiot. She remembered the spontaneous, and far more genuine, time when she was awarded a tacky, hand-made trophy as ‘Class Protector,’ and knew which she preferred.

:-)

Especially since she wasn’t certain what the point was of making her the center of attention, when Berklyn had to know why she was putting in an appearance.

wondered about that - how come she's not in chains for punching someone who has everyone in his thrall?

A fraction of a second later the pressure on Buffy’s mind disappeared, and the dignitaries looked around in confusion, once again seeing their old acquaintance as Berklyn used his power to affect their minds. But the camera wasn’t affected, and those viewing at home realized that the ‘Jar’en’ had a spy on earth. Even the most benign allies found it difficult to explain away an attempt to infiltrate the upper reaches of their supposed allies’ society.

nice one! not sure if you're being consistent with the effect of the hammer & the thrall on those watching remotely

“Resistance to the influence of a Prior is forbidden! Young races must be guided along the path to Ascension. Obedience is required. You will cease the use of such technologies immediately.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna happen. Since when did we need you to show us how to Ascend? Or even decide if we want to.”
For a second he looked confused that she would actually question his right to make such decisions. “Ascension is the goal of all races....”
“Not mine. Sorry, dude, but my goal is to fight evil, defeat the forces of darkness, and resist the encroachment of cellulite. But, if I did want to ‘ascend,’ you’re the last person I’d be asking about how to do it. No offence, but the pasty skin, the weird eyes, the bad hair and gruesome scars on your face? Not exactly signs of enlightenment. Or even good hygiene.”
...“Not going to happen. We don’t need to be ‘saved,’ and we sure as hell don’t need to be saved by the sort of assholes you have chosen to represent your religious tenets...if they are the sort of people your precious Ori are looking to as candidates for the job, it’s not a sign that you’re exactly looking for our best or our brightest.”

Fascinating discussion with Mork on ascension, its desirability, and the Asgard. Ori, eh? No wonder I wasn't thrilled - I'm not fond of the Ori plot development in the tv series. Nice to know I'm consistent in my values - they normally change each week... but then again, if Buffy's gonna kick someone's ass, I dont care who it is, I just wanna watch!!!

so glad I'm not a regular human in this universe who'll just be following this on the talking heads networks

Later he would be embarrassed to realize how long it took him to understand why she had picked her spot and wasn’t budging. Even after all he had seen, he still didn’t fully appreciate the tactical skill the girl could bring to bear on any situation. He was still seeing her as a dangerous predator; deadly, but not too bright.... O’Neill understood that she had chosen the single point in the room which gave her the most flexibility, the greatest set of options for any subsequent action. It was probably only then that he understood just how good she was, that despite all his experience and training this girl was a whole different level of ‘dangerous’ than even him.

good one

... only California congressman Dan Kessleton seemed to be seeing the girl as something other than an object to be manipulated into doing what they wanted using any means necessary...

how much did Mark tell his dad? And if he did, did he describe Buffy?

here was just something about his expression that annoyed her, a momentary glitch in her fog of sexual attraction. There was an almost audible click as her mind suddenly cleared, reaction instantaneous as she lashed out with her left hand, belting the billionaire in the jaw hard enough to knock him flying back into the wall, twisting to follow up with an uppercut to Denneck’s smug face before his friend’s already-unconscious body hit the floor.

popcorn!

surprised other Secret Service types didnt shoot her down

why does she knock out O'Neill? Why doesnt she knock out Berklyn a second time? Why does she leave West with Berklyn?

not sure i like this Jasmine development storywise

“You know this is one of the most homophobic cities in America, right? Sort of ‘Riyadh in the Rockies’.”

good phrase

Bending her head, a blushing Willow giggled, but inwardly sighed just a bit. There went one of her fantasies. But then she smiled evilly in remembrance of some of the things she and Tara had already done. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a whole lot of other fantasies. Even a few that didn’t involve the kitchen.

bummer - the kitchen is fun. Especially when people can see you from the street if they turned their heads just ... so

It would make no sense to go to such immense effort unless Buffy Summers either possesses, or has access to, a weapon sufficiently powerful to defeat a being so awesomely powerful in itself.”

all very well, but does Buffy know that? And doesnt the someone who "changed the fundamental nature of space and time in our universe" have pieces on the board other than Buffy? Eggs in one basket and all

she may be the greatest Slayer who has ever lived, and if you knew how great some of them have been you were understand just what a compliment that truly is.”

vvip-age warranted - wonder what Jack thinks

“Because it has my sister! And if I don’t fight it, who will? This thing is dangerous, and it has to be stopped. I hate losing! I especially hate losing like that, like I was nothing, something so pathetic that it didn’t even have to work at it to beat me.” She looked up finally, meeting Willow’s eyes. “But mostly because it has Dawn. For all her annoyance and whininess, Dawn is my sister, and the thought of that bitch messing with her head, pretending to be me and using that to hurt her, makes me want to kill the fucking thing with my bare hands.”
Sitting utterly still, Willow’s blood turned cold at the rage in the Slayer’s eyes.

smart woman, Willow

“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do? I mean, I totally understand you wanting to protect your sister, but just wanting to do it doesn’t mean you can. If this First thing is as dangerous as you say, you’re going to need a real good plan to have a chance of defeating it.”

W asks what everyone wants to know (hope Tara gets some lines too - Tara's like Xander - glue. Useful thing, glue. Cements people and groups together.)

"Although I do understand your concern for your friend, I find your anger to be somewhat misplaced. We are not the ones who tortured her, Dr. Jackson. We did not abuse her or create the emotional stresses and fatigue she presently endures. Under the circumstances, you are in no position to suggest that we are responsible for her condition. This battle needs to be fought. Granted she might have been better prepared to meet her destiny had you not physically and mentally brutalized her to the point where she may not be capable of handling what she must soon face. But this was not our fault.”
What happened was committed by your kind, approved by your own government. No one has been punished for it. No one in authority has disavowed the action. So, yes, you are responsible for it. All of you. So I must filter your expressions of horror and shock over our plans for the Slayer through the prism of your own actions, and find myself with somewhat less than full belief at your sudden avowal of concern.
So if you wish to express concern over our plans or proposed actions, I am going to have to insist that it be of a somewhat more constructive nature than ‘You’re being mean to her’ when it is, in fact, your actions which have been nothing short of disgraceful...
The enemies I speak of do not create reality out of nothing, General. They work with what is already present. You could have resisted. Your own laws, your own ethical standards suggest that you should have resisted. You not only failed; you embraced the delusion and went out of your way to subvert those who pointed out that you were not living up to your own ideals. It would do you well to remember that fact when you attempt to convince yourself that what happened was not your fault, and therefore you do not bear responsibility.”

Wow - I wonder if that'll get the NID reined in. Great rant, esp the "No one has been punished for it. No one in authority has disavowed the action" bit. This is being recorded, right? And replayed in the White House? (PS: Surprised that the pebble that breaks the dam is DJ & not JO'N)

When you act like barbarians, your allies look at you different. Your friends look at you different

yay!

good talk by Willow to Buffy.

We preferred to deal with the SGC rather than an international organization because we found you, and those who worked here, to be honorable; beings who held themselves to a higher ethical standard than many others on your planet. Since you have decided that it is more efficient to no longer strive to meet those standards, our primary motivation for working directly with you is no longer applicable.

!!!

“I would strongly advise you to inform your government that they not take any actions which might restrain Miss Summers’ freedom of movement in any way, shape, or form. Should they do so, the Asgard will directly punish those responsible. Everyone responsible. Not just those who commit any actions against her, or even anyone who authorized such actions, but including anyone who fails to prevent such actions. No matter who they might be within your political or judicial hierarchy. No matter what the consequences to our relationship with your government. You have chosen to adopt a policy of ‘the ends justifies the means,’ and ‘might makes right’ in your dealings with others on your own planet. From this moment forward we, too, will adopt these policies in our dealings with you.”

!!! always fun to read about when big bullies meet bigger bullies, but wow !!!

So - NID gonna get shut down or what? (My dough's on 'what')

this is in my top three chapters - the others being Willow meets Tara and - hm, one other, can't remember which.

O’Neill was quite outspoken with his certainty that Buffy had probably caused so much mayhem and destruction when the poor unwitting Asgard had let her loose on their planet that they were likely rebuilding their ‘Gate from scratch in a desperate effort to send her back and free themselves from her presence.

lol

O’Neill tried to put aside the images of massive riots in Houston being shown on CNN. Since the Attack, as the media always capitalized the word, there had been rioting in a lot of cities. People were scared, and they were freaking out.

wondering about that - shouldnt the govts tell the peeps they were under alien attack? After all, nothing unifies a group of disparate tribes than knowing there's a massive new tribe out there that's a threat to them

“General Hammond, Colonel O’Neill, this is Sif. She works with Thor. Actually, he kinda works for her. Be nice... I think he’s sweet on her though.”
The alien looked up at her grinning face, expressionless as always, but both men got the impression that if it could have blushed, the Asgard would have. “We reproduce by cloning, Miss Summers. My kind have not engaged in… that sort of activity… for thousands of years.”

LOL

The six other newcomers watched jealously as Buffy introduced the redhead to the two men in charge of the entire facility, and an actual alien being as well.

cool - that should establish Willow (& W's peeps, like Tara) in the pecking order

“You are free to leave. I shall attempt to restrain my licentious nature during your absence, despite being surrounded by males of your species.”
Frowning, Buffy looked over at O’Neill. “That sounded like sarcasm. I didn’t know the Asgard could do sarcasm. Did you know they could be sarcastic?”
When O’Neill shook his head negatively, Sif spoke up. “Seven days in your presence was more than sufficient to train us all on the subject, Miss Summers.”

major LOL!

Buffy wanted to find a computer, so she could show Willow the pictures of her trip, before someone classified them so highly secret not even God would be allowed to see them.

those someones will be appropriately horrified

"Our entire society has been transformed to ensure that this supply chain is operational, capable, and effective.
“Simply by existing, Buffy Summers has forced us to throw it all away.”

oh my. that takes being a spanner in the works to a whole new level. Not that it's BS' fault or anything

Neither realized you were supposed to sign a dozen forms in triplicate, then wait six weeks for security checks to process before you received a computer. Buffy wanted one; Buffy got one.

lol

my main memory of the whole trip was that I was in a city with like ten million Asgard, and there wasn’t a single toilet available outside of the apartment I slept in.

there's priorities for ya ...

Her voice was hoarse when she finally choked out a few words which couldn’t possibly convey the depth of her appreciation. “Thank you… thank you so much for giving me Tara.”

awwwww ... also glad Willow got a good deal from the govt

there were nearly a thousand pictures on the chip, and despite the wonders they were seeing, it quickly got a bit boring.

ahhh... holiday snaps

Willow giggled. “No. Mjolnir. That’s what they called Thor’s hammer.”
Buffy was indignant. “Thor names his hammer and it’s a part of history. I call my stake ‘Mr. Pointy’ and everybody looks at me like I’m weird.”

SOL (that means Sniggered Out Loud, which I really did)

I kind of assumed people only went so crazy after 9/11 because the Capitol Building got hit. A lot more people died in the World Trade Center collapse, but none of them were Senators. Only four of them died, but the politicians had grown so used to the idea that they were invulnerable, that they could send out other people to die, but nobody was allowed to mess with them. The whole ‘divine right of kings’ thing where only another king is permitted to kill royalty. When they found out it didn’t work that way any more, and they were at risk along with everyone else, they went kinda crazy with rules and regulations and laws designed to take out anyone who might threaten them.

wow - hadnt thought of that angle

“It is called the First. It is the most dangerous creature in the Universe. And the only being with even the remotest possibility of stopping it is Buffy Summers.”

not Dawn Summers?

Having some of Elizabeth’s psychic talent would explain even more, like her feeling that she had to go see Faith just when she was in trouble. Or, especially, being able to see space ships at Jupiter in real time. What the hell kind of useless talent was that for a Slayer?!? But to a psychic, on the other hand...

good angle

she was treated like the Veriest of Very Important People by everyone she met. Only the SGC and the few dozen people who had been in the War Room at the time of the attack knew what she had done; but everyone knew she had immediate, unrestricted access to the most powerful Generals in the facility, and had heard the story of Kerrigan being willing to offend State Security rather than anger her.

cool

The NID doesn’t use Unix on their mainframe. They use a highly-modified version of ADA as their programming language, for security purposes.

er - operating systems and programming languages are like pods and peas

Carter shrugged. “Breaking into government computers is a federal offence.”
That wasn’t what Buffy wanted to hear, and irritation quickly overcame concern. “I’ve noticed that a lot in your world. It’s okay-fine to do something sleazy. The real punishment is reserved for anyone who lets people know when something sleazy is being done.”
Shrugging to show she wasn’t interested in arguing the matter, Carter simply pointed out that regardless of her motives, the law was the law.

I see Sam's point - though I hate it -

ps wonder how the Buffy vs NID thing is playing out in the white house & other corridors and dark unlit alleyways of power ... woulda liked to flyonwall those discussions

Granted that a workaholic like Sam would need a system to keep her many and varied interests separated, but Buffy herself preferred the casual messiness of Dr. Jackson’s office, with its stacks of books and paper-strewn surfaces. It reminded her of Giles…

makes sense - also wondering why Daniel is so silent in this fic, and T seems to have gone silent again, thought he'd be begging Buffy for sparring practice

her dumb blonde act... didn’t work on Carter anyway.

lol

There had been considerable discussion on their new employees’ penchant for ignoring the rules when it suited her, for assuming she was a law unto herself. Given her Slayer background it was understandable. For much of her life she literally had been the law, one far more effective and essential than the police department, if her claims were anywhere close to being true. But her attitude had the potential to cause considerable difficulty in the structured environment of the SGC, especially as she came to understand just how critical her cooperation was becoming to their future plans. The SGC was a team, but Buffy had been operating as a lone wolf for a long time.

good point - same storyline played itself out in a zillion sagas

No one doubted for an instant that she would just walk away if she felt unappreciated or needlessly restrained. Hammond had instinctively known what a dozen psychologists had taken hundred-page reports to declare; Buffy considered herself to be a hero, and wanted to be treated as one. More importantly, she would act like one under most circumstances. But she was also a young, spoiled girl, used to getting her own way, who would instinctively rebel against military discipline

also true, though Buffy would be properly horrified to be told that she considers herself a hero

It was obvious to them all they needed the girl a lot more than she needed them. But that was true with a lot of the people who worked for the SGC, including Carter herself.

glad Sam realizes that abt herself - she tends to have low self-esteem too often (why else would she want Jack? she can do a lot better than him)

Sam knew that everyone would be much happier if she didn’t risk herself going on off-world missions. But that was what she wanted to do, so to keep her happy they indulged her adventuresome spirit, and probably crossed their fingers every time she stepped through the ‘Gate

yes! knew that was the case! ok, mebbe not knew - always wondered why , but put it down to Sam's geek side being needed offworld too

In the meantime, there were other ways of dealing with people who considered themselves heroes. To a hero, a ‘bribe’ did not necessarily mean money. Sometimes it meant being able to take care of their friends. “I could talk to the General about offering her a job at the SGC, I suppose.” The offer was made casually, tentatively, as if they had not been watching Willow Rosenberg for years

lol - great - nice to see the manipulation from the pov of the manipulators, and seeing Sam doing it

Imaging a scene with Buffy coming to the aid of her friend when she was being belittled by a particularly loathsome IT manager was bringing a secret smile to Carter’s face

lol!

Impressing the Asgard wasn’t easy, and was high on the list of SGC priorities. They were Earth’s most powerful ally, and if humanity wanted to be taken as a serious player, the Asgard needed to know they could rely on Earth to stand on its own, and not just be a defenseless victim needing to be constantly rescued.

didnt think about that

“Its okay, Thor. She doesn’t bite. We’ve even got her potty trained.” Which, as intended, got him a hard glare from the Slayer, causing him to smile and make a triumphant ‘2-points!’ gesture.

lol

“Can I take a camera?” She wanted pictures to show Xander, but the way the others in the room practically salivated at hearing the request –one they would never have made, it being a diplomatic faux-pas only she would have been able to get away with—made it pretty clear any pictures she brought back would be classified and never again be seen by merely mortal men.

lol - can't help but contrast your take on human-asgard relations with the usual 'Asgard ship named after human hero' attitude in most SG fics

Going any further was simply more zeroes added to a number already so huge there was no basis for comparison on a human scale. As she followed the small alien Buffy contemplated the distance she would be traveling, muttering to herself “How many zeroes are there in a Brazilian?”

that's picturesque!

Buffy continued walking, excited and enjoying herself immensely. She had come to the conclusion that the Asgard weren’t going to be offended if she said something stupid, and since she knew it was a virtual certainty she would sooner or later say something stupid it was nice not to have to worry about getting shot for it.

the freedom to ask stupid questions is one of the most underrated of life's freedoms

“No. We don’t. But someone does, because you are here. And that someone went to considerable effort to ensure that no one would know you were here. Not even the First.”

The little grey peeps know about the First? eep!

“Elizabeth Summers is psychic. You are Elizabeth Summers! Buffy Summers is dead... When Buffy died, Elizabeth simply became Buffy. For all her psychic power, Elizabeth would have been unable to withstand Buffy’s vastly superior strength of will, her commitment to her cause, her desire to survive.”
Buffy was horrified at the implications. “I killed her…”
“No! What happened was natural, was meant to be. Semantically, in the context you are implying, ‘killing’ her would involve intent. You had no more choice than a snowflake ‘chooses’ to melt in the sun, than a leaf ‘chooses’ to fall from a tree. What is, is. There was no intent. It is problematic who died in any event.

good stuff - that I will not bother trying to capisce

In the fundamental reality the First examined so carefully afterwards, it was Buffy Summers who ceased to exist, except to provide a physical host for itself.”

so the old Willow and Xander are walking around with a Buffy whose really the First?

the key? oh my Dawn

He was a young guy, very thin, uber-geeky. Hair prematurely balding. If anyone told her he was the smartest guy on the planet, she’d have believed it. He did something on the keyboard, and the screen flickered just the slightest bit, but was suddenly in focus. Buffy smiled, forming her fingers into the ‘ok’ gesture, and Carter and the Russian guy stared at each other, eyes wide, amazed by something. Everyone could see that Carter was suddenly excited.

I like that it's the Russian who figures it out first - and it's pretty amazing that anyone does - and that the American plays #2. A very good #2, mind.

Hammond just smiled, and silently took a few of the shopping bags she handed him, not realizing that was a breach of military etiquette on par with desecrating the flag. Ordinarily, major generals were not porters, but Hammond was no ordinary major general. And after her activities that day, he had no intention of ever even attempting to teach her military etiquette.

lol

And she watched how Hammond handled a meeting.... She recalled with embarrassment the long, pontificating diatribes she had given when dealing with the Potentials. She compared and contrasted it to the way Hammond took control while almost never saying a word.

love this

" It’s starting to look like my earlier protests that what Buffy claimed would happen was impossible, is turning out to be not only possible but likely. I have no idea how he did it"

I like Sam's blunt honesty and her giving credit to Buffy

“When it comes to technical stuff I always agree with Carter. Even when I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about I still agree with her. But in this case I think she’s missing the trees for the forest"... When he saw Carter frowning O’Neill took his seat to let her point out the problem, having already seen it but wanting her to let everyone else know.

i like how O'N makes his point without crushing his 2IC

Essentially, the man wanted to know if she saw any more details in her vision of the Goa’uld fleet at Jupiter. Any moons or bright background stars and their exact positions relative to the planet and the ships. When she nodded, Carter looked like she wanted to kick herself over not having thought of it sooner.

smart people, Russians... love the way they use Buffy's memories of her vision afterwards

Silently observing the discussion flowing around her, Buffy was amazed at the complexity of the issues brought up and the breadth of knowledge of the people present. Her previous experiences with military personnel had not left her with an overly-favorable opinion of those who entered the profession, but this group was as talented and opinionated as any she had ever met. Somehow she had expected that any deviation from the instructions of the person in command would be forbidden, obedience demanded, one person making the decisions and everyone else being charged with implementing his or her brilliant plan. That wasn’t the way Hammond ran things; everything was open to debate until a decision was reached, and only then was the floor closed to further discussion on that issue. It would have been a waste of time: by then, he’d already moved on to the next subject.

wow, good for her - good for the even handedness of this fic - also much closer to RL

Hammond took up a subject that Buffy knew had been another of her failures; flexibility. She had assumed that you either played it completely by ear, or planned out your campaign to the last detail. She was soon given a clinic on flexible response, as the group brought up possible options, but never went too far into details, leaving that up to the people who would actually have to handle it in the field.

ditto... and honestly, the people on the old Watchers Councils, good slayers like Kendra, should be - shoulda been - watching this as well

From the attention she was receiving, it was apparent that most of the people present actually were interested in her opinion, which surprised her. Until then she hadn’t been aware her status had changed so much among the military... She would have been even more stunned to realize that it was the trust she had shown to the two soldiers who had accompanied her to the spy’s apartment which made the difference. They hadn’t said much, not wanting to violate security, but they had told one part of what had happened to their friends, and the story had spread quickly.... being treated like someone whose word meant something by someone in a position of authority, meant a lot to the rank-and-file.

!

“For what it’s worth, my own opinion is that you never rely on someone else to protect your home. I have no problem with someone else lending a helping hand, or the cops following up afterwards… but nobody comes to my home, hurts my family, and just walks away afterwards. Nobody gets a free shot while I just hide and hope the cavalry arrives in time to save me. Some things you just have to stand up for. Not just because it’s right, but because if you don’t, it’ll keep happening.... “Either way we’re going to get hurt. If we fight back and lose, the survivors will at least have the satisfaction of knowing their loved ones died for a reason, trying to defend their home. The other way, they’ll have died for nothing, because the Goold will just come back again later when the Asgard aren’t around. That’s the way monsters do things. Even the human kind of monster.”

amazing speech

It was entirely possible she would die there, along with everyone else. Yet she felt almost nothing. No fear, no regret, no special desire to survive. She wished she cared more. A person should care about surviving. About living.

good to know she's still the - not broken exactly, but not exactly all happy buffy - same person she's been for a while... I'm speaking as a selfish reader who wants to be entertained, not as a human being with a conscience, of course.

Buffy admitted that she was good driver… if you considered Mario Andretti to be a good driver....Almost every accident she had ever been in had been the other driver’s fault. All they needed to do was not panic and everything would have been fine. Although he didn’t ask for his keys back, his smile started looking increasingly pained by the time Buffy left the office.

lol

Yeah, she was saving the world. Been there and done that. But all the other times she’d saved the world, ‘the world’ had been a nebulous thing, an abstraction. It had been her and her friends fighting the Big Bad, fighting to save themselves, and the fact that winning also meant they would save the rest of the world was just an added bonus.

good pt

But enough comments had been made concerning the actions of others, behavior Buffy thought amusing, for her to understand that they found it to be at best unprofessional, if not a sign of immaturity, to act inappropriately when there was serious work to be done... Buffy was pondering how far she was willing to modify her own behavior to fit in with the group... clothing had provided a mechanism for her to demonstrate her self-worth, her attractiveness and confidence. But it wouldn’t work that way within the SGC. It would be seen differently, judged differently. She would be judged differently.

glad she figured that out

...‘Group dynamics’ was another area of psychological behavior she wanted to study, to get the opinion of others in order to help her reach her own conclusions.

hmm

Her spider sense was really starting to tingle. Holding the door open for the three men shadowing her, she noted how serious they were, armed and grimly determined, probably with no clue what was happening but prepared to do whatever was necessary to assist her. She was starting to understand how useful soldiers could be.

wow good for her - and for the military too

The men nodded, not asking how she knew what she was telling them, simply putting away their side-arms and drawing wicked-looking black batons.

they have batons? thought only coppers had those

Moving up to the door, she drew her arm back and drove her fist forward where a latch mechanism should be. There was a loud ‘bang!’, and the metal bent about four inches, but the door held. Instead of one latch in the middle, the door had two, one at either end of the left side. Buffy ignored the shocked looks from the soldiers, her own expression showing that she was impressed. “That is one tough door! Get ready.”

lol

she used her forearm to smash the blocks leading directly up along the pipe, then used her hand like a zipper to rip out the shattered hunks of masonry.

!! like a zipper !!

“You don’t see that too often. Someone taking a prisoner away from State Security. The General really, really doesn’t want to be on your bad side.”

cool!

Buffy just shrugged, and gestured apologetically towards Carter. “I don’t know what I found, but from the way they reacted I think I just caused Sam to have to put in a whole lot of extra overtime.”
Gently gripping the small girl’s arm for positive reinforcement, Carter looked her in the eye before speaking. “Don’t ever worry about that. These are things we absolutely have to know about, Buffy! I’d much rather put in a few long days now than have to deal with the consequences later. You have no idea how bad they could be.” She paused, then smiled. “Actually you probably do. You keep doing what you’re doing, and let us handle the rest. No matter what it is.”

I like Sam, and Sam's interaction with Buffy... hope they get a chance to have a heart to heart sometime during this fic. Even a sleepover with lots of ice cream and stuff.

The problem was that Carter was just so damned smart there weren’t many people who could handle most of the things she did, so it wasn’t a question of being afraid to delegate.

Willow?

It would suit her just fine if she had enough clout to cause aggravation for the NID. If she couldn’t kill them, then she felt she deserved to make their lives at least a little bit more miserable

lol

“Are you human?”
“Uh.. yeah. Born and raised in sunny California.”
He nodded. “Good. I was kinda wondering for a bit there. And, well, you’re kinda hot, so it would have really freaked me out if it turned out you were a lizard or something.”

LOL!

It was becoming increasingly apparent that she was being tested, given enough freedom to act on her own initiative, to see how she reacted, testing how much rope she should be given. Buffy strongly suspected Hammond was behind it simply because no one else had the power to do it, or knew her well enough to think it was something worth discovering. She was surprised at how determined she was not to disappoint him. And that gave her a hint how to proceed. “Didn’t you sign an oath when you joined up?”
They both seemed to suddenly sit at attention. “Yes, ma’am. We did.”
Buffy just shrugged. “Then you either meant it or you didn’t.”

wow, good one - both buffy's realization of hammond's trust/test and the way she handled it

Thinking was not something she enjoyed. Not because she was stupid, but in many ways the opposite: because she wasn’t.

good line

With the First they had tossed aside all of the methods and techniques which had made them such a formidable team. The reason they had failed was not something Buffy wanted to think about. Because it had been her own fault.

glad you're not making Buffy perfect - I've read so many horrible potter fics where the author (usually male I suspect) thinks Harry has a divine right to be superpowered and perfect... such authors would explain Buffy's decisions away

Because she had felt that way she had turned to Spike and begun a sadistic, masochistic, abusive relationship which made her feel even guiltier and more disgusted with herself, making it that much harder to bring up the issue with even those people she was closest to.... She had been the one using him, not the other way around

sounds right.. in retrospect it's amazing Joss was allowed to get that on tv - wish he'd had the same freedom with Firefly

Looking back, she was grateful they had ordered her to leave her house when she insisted on going back to the winery, with no new plan, no better reason than the subconscious ‘feeling’ even she didn’t trust. At the time she had been pretty upset, and still was in some ways, but looking back she wasn’t sure if they could have done anything else. She had demanded unconditional obedience and they had rejected it. As she would have rejected it in their place, because what she was demanding was insane.

oh, very well done!

ps - how's Joyce doing?

Even she could see that she was, emotionally speaking, a ticking time bomb. The alien invasion had provided a useful distraction, something to concentrate on rather than face how close she was to going completely postal.

good angle - wouldnt have thought of it

There was considerable… discussion on the matter, considering your threat to murder NID personnel. It wasn’t until I indicated we have an unedited copy of their interrogation report that State Security admitted you might have some reason to be… resentful.

woulda liked to have seen the SS people's faces if they were watching the vid with POTUS

"he has ordered that no NID personnel will be permitted to set foot on the SGC site.”
“I believe what I said was that I would kill them on sight.”
The General just smiled thinly. “I must have misunderstood. I was certain you said you would kill any you caught on this site.” Butter wouldn’t have melted in his mouth, he was so smooth.

lol

Without torture, without threats, they got more information out of her in three hours than the NID had in three weeks.

i remember hearing one of the top mossad interviewers on the radio saying that torture was a terrible way of getting reliable information (mind you, i doubt all mossad interviewers agreed)

...the sharp blade of the knife slid between the tines, the point of the blade stopping a few inches in front of Carter’s left eye...

badass!

Stunned at how close she had come to being killed, it took even someone with Carter’s training and experience a few seconds to get herself under control, adrenaline flooding her system and causing her to shake long after the danger had passed. But unlike Buffy, Carter’s best weapon was her magnificent brain, and it was already considering the consequences of what had just happened.

wow - Carter's a badass too

“That’s the price for compromising on torture, General. I don’t want any part of it. And I don’t want to be part of any group that is part of it. So, with all due respect, take your job and stick it.”
She never rose from her chair, never changed the tone of her voice, but everyone knew she had given her final word on the subject. When she calmly returned to eating her pie they all knew she had just dismissed a major general in the US Air Force, something no uniformed soldier enjoyed. But on this occasion nobody said anything, because none of them were even sure she was wrong.

whoa - good one - and I've even got a lot of sympathy for fatso!

ps hope Sam says thanks at some point

...she settled from quietly mumbling how ludicrous it was for the doctor not to consider herself ‘tough.’ She had no doubt that every one of those commandoes regarded the doctor with far more terror than they did her.

janet would be flattered

To her considerable surprise the doctor took her tantrum in stride, was neither insulted nor intimidated, and even occasionally snuck in a quick, subtlety insulting retort that Buffy usually missed until a few minutes later when it was too late for a suitable come-back.

cool

Just to drive that point home she casually brought it up a few times, comparing the light tapping of a reflex test to the way the NID had used hammers to break her legs to see how long they took to heal, or a gently-offered glass of water to the waterboarding process, an experience she went on to describe in nauseating detail.

good work by b

Frasier showed her x-rays of her skull, showing the secondary teeth buried behind her primaries, ready to drop and replace any tooth she lost during a fight.

cool!

Nearly a dozen of those replacement teeth were gone, having dropped to take the place of the teeth smashed by NID interrogators

less so

It looked ridiculous. They were all more than six feet tall and with all their equipment looked like Battletech droids. Buffy had put on ten pounds and grown an inch since escaping the NID, but still barely topped five feet tall, and hadn’t gotten up to the hundred pound mark yet.

Like lionesses guarding a puddy tat

Curious onlookers watched her at each tunnel intersection, held back by one of the forward guards. Again, they displayed none of the leering she recalled seeing in the eyes of the workers at the NID facility, nor did anyone talk to her at all, let alone make sneering comments like she also remembered. That thought alone was enough to stop her sulking, and she had to damp down her fury. The open curiosity and interested speculation on the expressions of these people showed once again they were a far cry from their NID counterparts, and perhaps didn’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush.

huh - i would never have considered that method of bringing that point home to her

Buffy just looked at her. “To almost quote someone famous, ’And yet, it still happens.’” She looked up with a frown, thinking. “Darwin?” Carter muttered “Galileo” under her breath, and Buffy nodded.

nice little side scene there, glad it just involves Carter & Buffy

“Don’t you dare question my patriotism, you son of a bitch! Have you seen what it’s really like outside of this mountain, Colonel? What’s happening out there? This isn’t my country! This isn’t anything like my country! I was thrown into prison without trial, tortured, and it was all done legally...How hard is it to verify if someone is taken over by a Goold, General? I don’t see how the part where they broke my legs with sledgehammers helped them verify I was snake-free. Or am I missing something, and that is a standard test?”
They all winced, Jackson going wide-eyed in horror.

ouch good one

“The Goa’uld were installing a StarGate somewhere in Iraq, with the complicity of the local government. We did not know where it was located. We could not permit such a ‘back-door’ invasion route to become operational. When the terrorist attacks of September 11 occurred we used it as justification for an invasion.

that certainly makes far more sense than the WMD thing - hell I'd almost believe it in RL.. would also explain the missing billions

“So you believe this is the place to stop them. This is the place you might stop them. You don’t believe in us, but you do care, and you are here because, despite everything, you still think the Goa’uld are worse than we are.”

damn, the fat man is good!

side note - what will Daniel think of staying friends with Jack - who clearly condones torture?

The one time that stupid policy might actually provide useful information; they don’t even tell you about it! So not only does it not work, it turns a potential ally into an enemy for life. Real smart.

yep - dunno how many of those who went into gitmo hated the usa enough to use force, but pretty sure it was less than among those who left

"They knew people who didn’t deserve to be aggressively interrogated –okay, call it by its real name: tortured-- would be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with limited or no oversight would be treated inappropriately. But the numbers of those who would be mistreated would be a vanishingly small compared to the multitudes who depend on us for their safety.

I get that, but those mistreated would be seeds - the whole hydra thing... those who believe in that policy should have just killed the prisoners after a quick interrogation, not tortured them for ages

I think of the implications for American soldiers in future combat where our enemies will use our own standards against us, in the ethical legacy we are bequeathing to the next generation.

good one

Even knowing what I know now, even after meeting you, I still find myself in essential agreement with the decision... for the past few days, I’ve been thinking about you, and what I would be feeling right now if you happened to be one of my granddaughters.”

good speech by h, you're handling both sides of the argument very well here

"I would do such a thing, Miss Summers, because I am not a hero.”
He paused for a second, and the room was deathly quiet. “But you are.”

oh my!

I believe you because the price you were willing to pay to get the information to us was so high. Nobody who demonstrated the tactical skills you showed us yesterday could fail to realize the likelihood that you might fail, be captured, and returned to the people who tortured you.
I believe you… but nobody else will. There is no way on God’s green earth they will let me take down Xerxes just on your unsupported word. Because they’ll see what happened to you and will believe that you are reacting the way they would react, the way I would react.

deep deep chapter, I'm impressed - dunno who you are, but you're wasted in fanfiction.

‘Pondering’ wasn’t her strong suit. One of the reasons why she had a team to support her work as the Slayer was so they could do the ‘pondering’ while she handled the violence. She was real good at the violence part.

good one

PS - i like that so many MIT folks (a 100+ researchers) know about the Stargate program - that makes sense

Part of her image, her style, had been to project a certain sense of sartorial elegance. It had been a direct, in-your-face challenge to the vampires, wearing high-heeled boots and clingy pants, her way of showing her contempt for them, a direct challenge and enticement, a silent statement that she would put herself at such a disadvantage just to look good, but would win anyway.

I always wondered about that... but it actually makes evolutionary sense - lots of predators do get discouraged (and angry, but discouraged eventually) if their prey is going all 'Hey I'm not even gonna bother going 100% against you) ... it's why a little fishy waggles its tale more than necessary when chased by a big fishy... mind you, that only works if the big fishy tires before its gobbletime

...a very expensive crossbow, which she had purchased from a hunting supply store where she had astonished the grizzled salesman with her knowledge of and expertise with the weapon.

woulda loved to have read that scene

She had taken it as axiomatic that since they were incompetent, they would inevitably fail in their sacred duty to protect the Earth from the Goa’uld. A kid, a short, vacuous, loony-bird who had never held a job or done anything useful in her entire life, had casually dismissed the finest, most professional military organization in the history of the world as incompetent, their failure inevitable.

lol!

Nobody knew who sent the dvd, or how they managed to get their hands on it....Because what the disk showed was so horrific, so disgusting, so offensive to everything O’Neill felt about his government and his nation, that if it ever got out what they had done to her there would be rioting in the streets.

good job Willow!

He also knew that just witnessing the short video clips on the dvd had broken something in Carter. She would never be able to think of her government in the same way again.

good! but poor Sam, that's a painful process to go through, when something you've believed in all your life (for me it was religion) goes kaboom

Their only bit of good luck was that Jackson had been working in his lab at the time and hadn’t seen the disk. O’Neill knew that his friend’s reaction to it would have been… unpleasant.

I wondered about Daniel's reaction

In fact, everyone she had seen had been carrying either Taser’s or similarly non-lethal weapons. It made her clench her teeth in frustration, because if they weren’t out to kill her, she wasn’t allowed to kill them, not even inadvertently.

interesting point, wondering how it fits in with Ash's philosophy

Those people were really starting to piss her off, because their tactics weren’t like those of any opponent she had ever faced, except to some degree Riley’s commandoes. They didn’t back off. They didn’t panic. They didn’t pout, or blame each other, or fight among themselves. They were like machines, constantly regrouping, constantly adapting....

bet they'd be flattered as hell to hear her thoughts

He still had problems believing the kid had been able to take out a Blackhawk helicopter with a friggin’ crossbow, for cryin’ out loud! If he wasn’t so figgin’ pissed at her might even be impressed.

lol - loving the pov... though my money's still on buffy going down after a valiant struggle

Teal’c was in fact openly cheering for the girl. And despite O’Neill’s growled accusation that he just wanted her to win so that he wouldn’t be the only one to have lost to her, Teal’c wasn’t doing it out of pride. He figured she had proven herself to be an honorable opponent, one who deserved better than to be run down like a great jungle cat being brought down by individually insignificant but a numerically overwhelming pack of wild dogs.

yeah!

“...the SGC is subservient to the government of the United States, and if that government commands you to turn the young warrior over to the NID, you will have no choice but to comply. This is not acceptable....If you wish to save the men under your command, you have the power to call off this attack. This would save far more of them than might be saved through my deceiving the girl and sacrificing her –as well as my own—honor in order to capture her, would it not?”

go Big T!

glad Jack goes in on his own

By that point the older woman was just plain confused. At first she had been afraid for her life. A fight for survival didn’t leave a lot of time for thinking. Having gone down to defeat however, and having the victor bring you orange juice, well, that really threw you for a loop.

good scene - in Sam's defence, Buffy might well be behaving like the Joker - a real psycho - in behaving normal.

It wasn’t often anyone looked at Carter like they thought she was an idiot, and having it come from a vapid cheerleader made it even less palatable than usual. The fact that the vapid cheerleader had a point didn’t make it any more enjoyable. “Oh, yeah, let’s hear it for the ‘judicial process.’ I had a real fun ‘up-close-and-personal’ look at your wonderful judicial process, lady, and let me tell you: it sucks. The thought that you’d hand me over to the NID without even bothering to listen to what I have to say, when I never threatened you in any way, makes it pretty obvious you are not the person I was hoping you would be, and that this whole thing is just a colossal waste of my time.

Wonder what the reaction would have been if Buffy had approached the other smart one, Daniel? She probably would have convinced him (and not just because Daniel's a guy though that wouldnt hurt), but nobody ever believes Daniel. I definitely approve of the storytelling choice you made by having her talk to Sam first.

Carter could have built a nuclear reactor out of stone knives and bear skins in the time it took their quarry to select her shoes. Wanted posters everywhere, every cop in the country looking for her, the star of her own episode of ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ yet she blithely spent the entire day calmly shopping for shoes. Ugly shoes, in O’Neill’s opinion.

lol.

Blows fell quicker than the eye could see; punches, kicks, martial arts moves from a dozen fighting styles. O’Neill, only able to move his eyes and watching in stunned amazement, could not believe what he was seeing. He knew how strong the Jaffa warrior was, knew how hard it was to damage him thanks to a larval Goa’uld symbiote that could heal almost any damage as soon as it happened. But the man was, unquestionably –unbelievably!- getting his ass kicked. ...Teal’c went down, exhausted, covered in sweat, wracked from the agonized pain from not only the broken wrist but bone-deep bruises covering almost every major organ. He didn’t cry out, didn’t beg; but simply met her eyes... casually tossing the unit over to Teal’c.

love this scene!

also interesting to see how different authors deal with the whole Slayer vs Jaffa matchup, seeing who makes them evenly matched, who gives Slayer numero uno, etc.

My job is to protect people, to keep them safe. I can’t do a very good job of that if I’m dead. One of the reasons I never fit in with the military, and their ‘death before dishonor’ crap.

wonder how long the three military types in SG1 will think about that. Oh and Daniel too, seeing as he dies as often as kenny, usually with some self-sacrifice thing going on while the Stargate tv series accountants are in negotiations with Shanksy

“Yes Colonel, I’m messing with you. Deal with it. I’d even be worried about you retaliating were it not for the fact that your stupidity, your self-righteous, condescending, smug incompetence, is about to get most of the people on this planet killed. So when it comes to fucking up, you’ve got me beat by a mile. Don’t worry about it; you’ll get your revenge. You’re about to get me killed… along with everyone you have ever known. Congratulations. I hope you’re proud.”

oh my (fanning myself)