August 25: A Cascade of Echoes: Divergence
Title: A Cascade of Echoes, Chapter 08: Divergence
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / Stargate SG-1: Continuum
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,146
Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & Post-Stargate SG-1: Continuum
Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted belongs to yours truly.
Summary: In which there is diverging history.
Author's Note: Written for Day 25 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Previous: Back To Start . Try Again . Tok'ra . Stargate Command . Interlude . Specialized Vacation Destination . Tau'ri .
An hour after the not-so-successful meeting with a selection of Earth's politicians, Buffy and Egeria was in Daniel Jackson's office drinking coffee and helping with a translation the man was stuck on.
*This isn't exactly what I had in mind when we agreed to come and talk to these people.*
*I know, but we are helping, and hopefully it will be beneficial to us in the future. The Tau'ri have quite a lot of power despite being so new to all of this.* Egeria eyed the man who was definitely easy on the eyes. *It is quite unfortunate he will not consider becoming a host to one of our children.*
*Don't you dare ask him. He is one of the few who actually believe we're not out to doom all of them. Asking him might ruin everything, especially since SG-1 has had a lot of bad experiences with the Tok'ra.*
"Hello? Are you two in there?"
Buffy gave him a sheepish smile, "Sorry, Dr. Jackson."
"I take it linguistics and ancient history isn't something you have any interest in?"
"Not so much, no. I'm more of the kicking butt and taking names kind of woman. Now if Teal'c had been interested in sparring, I'd be more than willing to go for it, but old dusty books and incomprehensible alphabets and pictograms are so not my thing."
Jackson put a pen in the middle of the book he had been trying to get their help with and then leaned back in his office chair. "Can I ask you about the differences between you and this reality's version of you?"
"I'm from an alternate timeline, not an alternate reality, but yes, you can. I don't guarantee you any answers though. Both of us work with things that are classified."
"Right, of course," he nodded agreeably. "Do you know where your paths diverged, or even when?"
"Yes, it began diverging while we were in our mid-teens, and then completely separated not long after this timeline's version of me moved to a much smaller town while I remained in Los Angeles."
More precisely, the other Buffy had burned down the Hemery High School gymnasium and was then blamed for it before accepting the expulsion so as not to get a criminal record. Meanwhile, she had managed to barely escape any blame by quite by accident lying to the right person at the right moment so the police believed she had been somewhere else. She also hadn't told her parents about being the Slayer, which was something else they had done differently.
"Where did she move and why? That seems like something that should've been consistent between the two timelines."
"Neither of us believes in coincidences, but as far as we've been able to tell it came down to a small comment I made and she didn't. She got blamed for arson, and I didn't. She got expelled and her mother moved her to Sunnydale. I stayed in Los Angeles. Our paths were very different after that."
"Woah. Hold on. Arson? What did the two of you do? Because I'm absolutely sure that Coolidge and his fellows are going to use whatever happened there against the both of you."
Buffy sighed and removed some books and papers from the only other chair in the room before she sat down. "It's a long story, like most everything about our lives, but the cliff notes are that there was a serial killer who was killing off students back in the mid-1990s, and for some reason he wanted us to be his dark queen. Obviously, we didn't want that. His final play was at a school dance. He brought his entire gang and they attacked everyone. At some point, there was a huge fire and it ended up burning down the gym.
"It was a huge mess. In my timeline, the blame was rightfully placed on the gang, but in her timeline, she got the blame. In both cases, the gang somehow vanished during the fire and hasn't been seen since."
Of course, their disappearance hadn't been voluntary. Fire and sharp pieces of wood were not friends of vampires, after all.
"That..." Dr. Jackson frowned. "It doesn't add up. Why would they just disappear?"
"I don't know," she lied. "Life went on for me, and she started a new one elsewhere."
He scrutinized her for a moment. "Sunnydale is the small town that sank during an unexpected earthquake, right?" She nodded. "Were you there at the time, or was the other Buffy there?"
"The other Buffy was there, I was not."
*It's okay, our location at the time is not a secret.*
*Are you sure? I don't think he'll be happy about it.*
*Daniel Jackson is an adult, Buffy. Not a child. I believe the phrase you would have used is 'give him some credit'.*
*Hey, no fair using my language against me.*
"Buffy?" Jackson asked as they had been silent for a little too long. "Where were you and Egeria?"
"We were visiting the Nox."
Dr. Jackson's blue eyes widened behind his glasses. "I didn't know they saw the Tok'ra or the Goa'uld as advanced enough. They consistently referred to us as children."
She inclined her head a little. "It might be because you wanted technology and information they were not willing to give you. Or if they were unfortunate enough to meet your politicians. Our visit there was for other, classified reasons."
He sighed almost inaudibly. If her senses hadn't been enhanced she would not have heard it. "Right. Moving on."
He regrouped a little. "Did you return to Earth after what happened there? Did she or anyone else try to contact you to help with whatever it was that actually happened? Because I don't believe for a second that an earthquake actually brought down Sunnydale."
"I met up with my counterpart in Los Angeles after the fact. And yes, she did try to get my help, but I received the message too late to do anything."
If she had gotten the message then she might've been able to bring an army of Jaffa and Tok'ra to help out with the First Evil. Maybe she could've done something so they wouldn't have made the desperate move to awaken all of the Potentials. Maybe.
"And the reason Sunnydale sank?"
She decided to lighten the mood a little. "Bad intel, bad translation about something that might've been scrubbing bubbles." Jackson snorted. "Bottom line, it worked even if it wasn't in the way any of them expected. Don't ask for more details, it's all classified."
"Right, of course, it is."
"Anyways, the trip down memory lane is over. General O'Neill is on his way." She smiled teasingly, "Shall we look busy for the important General?"
Daniel rolled his eyes, "Sure, why not? He won't buy it, but we can pretend, and maybe he will, too."
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / Stargate SG-1: Continuum
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,146
Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & Post-Stargate SG-1: Continuum
Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted belongs to yours truly.
Summary: In which there is diverging history.
Author's Note: Written for Day 25 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Previous: Back To Start . Try Again . Tok'ra . Stargate Command . Interlude . Specialized Vacation Destination . Tau'ri .
An hour after the not-so-successful meeting with a selection of Earth's politicians, Buffy and Egeria was in Daniel Jackson's office drinking coffee and helping with a translation the man was stuck on.
*This isn't exactly what I had in mind when we agreed to come and talk to these people.*
*I know, but we are helping, and hopefully it will be beneficial to us in the future. The Tau'ri have quite a lot of power despite being so new to all of this.* Egeria eyed the man who was definitely easy on the eyes. *It is quite unfortunate he will not consider becoming a host to one of our children.*
*Don't you dare ask him. He is one of the few who actually believe we're not out to doom all of them. Asking him might ruin everything, especially since SG-1 has had a lot of bad experiences with the Tok'ra.*
"Hello? Are you two in there?"
Buffy gave him a sheepish smile, "Sorry, Dr. Jackson."
"I take it linguistics and ancient history isn't something you have any interest in?"
"Not so much, no. I'm more of the kicking butt and taking names kind of woman. Now if Teal'c had been interested in sparring, I'd be more than willing to go for it, but old dusty books and incomprehensible alphabets and pictograms are so not my thing."
Jackson put a pen in the middle of the book he had been trying to get their help with and then leaned back in his office chair. "Can I ask you about the differences between you and this reality's version of you?"
"I'm from an alternate timeline, not an alternate reality, but yes, you can. I don't guarantee you any answers though. Both of us work with things that are classified."
"Right, of course," he nodded agreeably. "Do you know where your paths diverged, or even when?"
"Yes, it began diverging while we were in our mid-teens, and then completely separated not long after this timeline's version of me moved to a much smaller town while I remained in Los Angeles."
More precisely, the other Buffy had burned down the Hemery High School gymnasium and was then blamed for it before accepting the expulsion so as not to get a criminal record. Meanwhile, she had managed to barely escape any blame by quite by accident lying to the right person at the right moment so the police believed she had been somewhere else. She also hadn't told her parents about being the Slayer, which was something else they had done differently.
"Where did she move and why? That seems like something that should've been consistent between the two timelines."
"Neither of us believes in coincidences, but as far as we've been able to tell it came down to a small comment I made and she didn't. She got blamed for arson, and I didn't. She got expelled and her mother moved her to Sunnydale. I stayed in Los Angeles. Our paths were very different after that."
"Woah. Hold on. Arson? What did the two of you do? Because I'm absolutely sure that Coolidge and his fellows are going to use whatever happened there against the both of you."
Buffy sighed and removed some books and papers from the only other chair in the room before she sat down. "It's a long story, like most everything about our lives, but the cliff notes are that there was a serial killer who was killing off students back in the mid-1990s, and for some reason he wanted us to be his dark queen. Obviously, we didn't want that. His final play was at a school dance. He brought his entire gang and they attacked everyone. At some point, there was a huge fire and it ended up burning down the gym.
"It was a huge mess. In my timeline, the blame was rightfully placed on the gang, but in her timeline, she got the blame. In both cases, the gang somehow vanished during the fire and hasn't been seen since."
Of course, their disappearance hadn't been voluntary. Fire and sharp pieces of wood were not friends of vampires, after all.
"That..." Dr. Jackson frowned. "It doesn't add up. Why would they just disappear?"
"I don't know," she lied. "Life went on for me, and she started a new one elsewhere."
He scrutinized her for a moment. "Sunnydale is the small town that sank during an unexpected earthquake, right?" She nodded. "Were you there at the time, or was the other Buffy there?"
"The other Buffy was there, I was not."
*It's okay, our location at the time is not a secret.*
*Are you sure? I don't think he'll be happy about it.*
*Daniel Jackson is an adult, Buffy. Not a child. I believe the phrase you would have used is 'give him some credit'.*
*Hey, no fair using my language against me.*
"Buffy?" Jackson asked as they had been silent for a little too long. "Where were you and Egeria?"
"We were visiting the Nox."
Dr. Jackson's blue eyes widened behind his glasses. "I didn't know they saw the Tok'ra or the Goa'uld as advanced enough. They consistently referred to us as children."
She inclined her head a little. "It might be because you wanted technology and information they were not willing to give you. Or if they were unfortunate enough to meet your politicians. Our visit there was for other, classified reasons."
He sighed almost inaudibly. If her senses hadn't been enhanced she would not have heard it. "Right. Moving on."
He regrouped a little. "Did you return to Earth after what happened there? Did she or anyone else try to contact you to help with whatever it was that actually happened? Because I don't believe for a second that an earthquake actually brought down Sunnydale."
"I met up with my counterpart in Los Angeles after the fact. And yes, she did try to get my help, but I received the message too late to do anything."
If she had gotten the message then she might've been able to bring an army of Jaffa and Tok'ra to help out with the First Evil. Maybe she could've done something so they wouldn't have made the desperate move to awaken all of the Potentials. Maybe.
"And the reason Sunnydale sank?"
She decided to lighten the mood a little. "Bad intel, bad translation about something that might've been scrubbing bubbles." Jackson snorted. "Bottom line, it worked even if it wasn't in the way any of them expected. Don't ask for more details, it's all classified."
"Right, of course, it is."
"Anyways, the trip down memory lane is over. General O'Neill is on his way." She smiled teasingly, "Shall we look busy for the important General?"
Daniel rolled his eyes, "Sure, why not? He won't buy it, but we can pretend, and maybe he will, too."