Chapter Text
"You want me to go where with the who?" Buffy stared incredulously at Brigadier General Jack O'Neill.
The Sunnydale Council, a name they had agreed on after months of deliberation and arguments, had gotten a formal invite specifically mentioning Buffy a month prior. It had been peppered with vague terms like 'protection against enemies foreign and domestic', 'an expedition into the unknown', and other phrases meaning nothing without the actual context.
Willow had attempted to hack into their servers but had been mostly unsuccessful as they were using a closed network. There had been some breadcrumbs, though, mainly terms that meant nothing without context, just like the invitation. Words like 'Stargate', 'Goa'uld', and 'Jaffa' seemed to be common for the project. 'Merlin' and 'ascension' had also been included. It had sent Willow, Dawn, and a few other researchers down the rabbit hole to see what they could dig up. As of that day, they hadn't gotten much.
"We would like you, and up to three other people from your organization, to join an expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy in the hope of finding the Lost City of Atlantis."
Slight amusement was glinting in his eyes, and he was leaning back in a position to appear more relaxed than he felt. It seemed more habitual than anything. A cover for a man who was intelligent and dangerous. She could relate.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "An expedition through a giant ring that's going to be filled with not-water, and then transport us to another planet in a dwarf galaxy."
"Yes," he replied easily.
"This giant ring will allow all these military people and scientists to walk from a bunker deep underground and straight into the lost city of Atlantis."
"Yes."
"A city that has supposedly been underwater for millennia and is probably full of water and fish and other water creatures."
"Yes, Miss Summers. But if it's full of water, the Stargate won't connect. There are failsafes. We'll also send a M.A.L.P. through first." He consulted the papers in front of him carefully before he added, "That stands for Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe." He looked her in the eye, "I have no idea who named it, but it's a bad and boring one. Anyways, it kinda looks like a mini tank but with a camera and microphone, and other doodads, so we know planets are safe and the air is breathable."
Being able to breathe was of the good. Knowing if there were bad guys on the other side was also of the good, but...
"What if there are people there? Descendants of whoever built it, or if someone else got there first and is already squatting there?" Buffy's brows furrowed slightly. "Ten thousand years is a long time for no one to swoop in and take advantage."
He nodded along. "All good questions, but as far as we have been able to deduce, all the Alterans have either ascended, been killed, or died of other stuff. The ascended Alterans have a very annoying no-interference rule, so they're of no help to us. As for anyone else living there..." He trailed off. "It's a possibility, but research shows they hid the City before they abandoned it."
It was Buffy's turn to be amused, "But if you found the address for this planet, then they left clues. If there were clues to find, then someone else could've found them."
"True," General O'Neill admitted, "But we're hoping it's empty, livable, and safe for our people. Everyone who has volunteered for this mission is aware that they could be walking straight to their death. We believe the benefits outweigh the risks. Having you and a team of your colleagues on the expedition should help a lot, or so we hope."
The next hour was spent getting more details about Atlantis (limited and mostly guessing), the military personnel (more than she wanted to know), an overview of the scientists and their specialities (her eyes showed a distinct lack of interest even though she tried to be polite about it), and where her people would fit in.
When she left, General O'Neill handed her a physical file with information, but also a thumb drive.
Forty minutes later, she was in a Council condo, using a scrubbed laptop computer with no connection to anything in case there was malware or something else bad on the little drive. There was a lot of information, no doubt cherry-picked to make her want to take the chance, but without being too obvious about it. She got comfortable in a chair and began reading.
A week later, the Scooby Gang was all assembled in another Council apartment, this time somewhere in Connecticut, as it was easier for everyone to get there on short notice. The files had made the rounds before they got there, and now it was a question of whether they were going to accept, and if so, who would go?
Buffy was holding a printout of the Stargate itself. It appeared to be metallic with red inserts of some kind set at regular intervals around the entire edge. O'Neil had explained that the symbols were glyphs, or chevrons, depicting constellations. It was how they knew where in the galaxy a planet was located.
It had been years since she had been excited about something new, but as soon as General O'Neil had gotten to the real explanation, she had felt her heart start to beat faster. She had known then that she would go. The real question was, who would go with her?