Title: It's only just beginning
Author: Betty (sarah_jones on lj)
Fandoms: Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Primeval, JAG, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Animorphs & Angel
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters or fandoms. I wish I did… *g* I don’t make any money with this! I’m just writing the story for fun and hope someone else will enjoy it, too.
Summary: The story starts after the Stargate Atlantis season finale. There will be new enemies and new adventures, as well as new characters from other fandoms. Old enemies and older characters will return as well.
I was a little busy the past days and will still be. I need to write some papers for uni. :-(
But I’ll try to find time to update this story anyway.
There is a slight change of plans. In the beginning I thought I’d make Sally Sparrow a new companion of the doctor. But I decided against it. She will come into the story in another way.
I’ve watched Torchwood season 3 this week. I’m not going to include much from it into my story, but some things will be in it.
chapter 1,
chapter 2,
chapter 3,
chapter 4,
chapter 5,
chapter 6,
chapter 7,
chapter 8,
chapter 9,
chapter 10,
timeline for all chapters chapter 11:
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Day 8: London - the Arc (= Anomaly Research Center):
Captain Becker had introduced Colonel Carter and Dr. Jackson to James Lester. Then he and Stephen went off to find the others.
Abby and Connor apparently were in the kitchen for a late lunch.
Standing in the doorway Jason grinned as Abby wiped something off of Connors cheek.
Abby put away the napkin and then noticed that someone was standing in the doorway.
“Becker,” she called and then rushed forward and hugged him. She hadn’t known how much she’d actually miss him until he left.
Jason was surprised by the hug, but didn’t mind. Abby stepped back again and Connor came forward with a grin.
“No hug from me,” Connor said with a slight grimace and a laugh. Instead they shook hands in a manly manner.
“Missed us already?” Abby wanted to know. “Maybe you shouldn’t have left.” She crossed her arms infront of her chest.
Jason grinned a little. “Maybe a little. My new job is quite interesting though.”
Abby raised an eyebrow. What could possibly be interesting after you worked for the Arc? When you travelled through time, saw the past, the future and all kinds of creatures anything had to pale in comparison.
“… and helped me bring you a little present,” Jason added. Then he turned around, grabbed Stephen by the arm and pulled him from the corridor into the kitchen, practically placing him infront of a clueless Abby and Connor.
Stephen winced slightly when he stood in the kitchen. He had been waiting in the hall, wondering what he should say, but didn’t manage to come up with anything brilliant.
“Hi,” he said instead and waved a little.
Abby’s mouth dropped slightly open as she stared at the man infront of her.
“Oh my god,” she muttered. Then she stepped forward and flung herself into his arms.
Stephen almost had to take a step back due to the force with which Abby threw herself at him. A smile then appeared on his face as he wrapped his arms around her. Things had been a little off between them before he almost died. But she had a special place in his heart and always would have.
Still holding Abby close Stephen glanced at Connor, whose mouth was hanging wide open in shock. He grinned.
“Nice to see you, too, Connor,” he said.
Connor closed his mouth, but still stared at Stephen. “You died.”
“Not really,” Stephen answered.
Abby slowly let go of him while wiping a tear out of her eye. Glancing up at Stephen she still couldn’t believe that he was actually back.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Most of it is classified,” he answered.
“Bullshit,” Abby objected. Nothing was too classified for them.
“But…,” Stephen went on as if she hadn’t interrupted. “…basically I travelled through time and ended up at Jason’s new place of work.”
“Jason?” Connor muttered looking a little confused.
Abby hit him in the chest half-heartedly. “Becker,” she said in explanation.
“Oh. Right.”
Jason just smirked. Then he excused himself, leaving the three of them to reunite while he’d look for Sarah and Danny.
“I didn’t know his first name was Jason,” Connor complained silently.
Abby frowned. “We worked with the guy for a year!”
Stephen chuckled. Obviously they hadn’t changed a bit.
Abby then turned back to Stephen, a smile appearing on her face. He was alive! It hit her hard when she thought he died. There hadn’t really been anything but friendship between them, but she once wanted more. Stephen meant a lot to her and still did. It was like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders now that he was back.
Connor shrugged, then looked at Stephen again and grinned. “You do get a hug,” he exclaimed and stepped forward, briefly hugging his friend.
Stephen smirked. It looked like they really missed him.
“We didn’t detect an anomaly,” Abby then said as Connor stepped back again.
“There was none. Something else happened.”
“Something other than an anomaly made you travel through time?” Connor asked, feeling both surprised and curious.
Stephen nodded.
“You’re kidding?!” Abby muttered.
“No. It’s hard to believe, but the Arc isn’t earths biggest secret.”
“Then what is?” Connor wanted to know.
Stephen grimaced. He really didn’t want to break his non-disclosure agreement before officially starting to work for the Stargate program.
“I really can’t tell you.”
“What… they’d shoot you otherwise?” Connor asked jokingly.
When Stephen didn’t say anything his eyes widened. “Really?”
Stephen started to laugh. “No, or at least I don’t think so. But I’d probably lose my new job.”
“New job?” Abby asked shocked. “You’re not coming back?” They just got him back and he was already leaving again?
“No. I got sacked, remember.”
“Cutter didn’t really mean that. Besides he’s…,” Connor didn’t finish the sentence. Did Stephen know what happened to Nick Cutter?
Stephen sighed. He really didn’t want to think about Cutter and the fact that he was dead.
“Did Becker tell you about…?”
“Yes,” Stephen said interrupting Abby. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he then added. Maybe he could have prevented it somehow. Yeah right. He probably would never have believed that Helen would actually pull the trigger. He was too trusting for his own good. He definitely had to work on that.
“It’s not your fault. There was nothing you could have done. And besides, you already gave your life to save him and a lot of other people once,” Abby said.
“I didn’t die.”
“You did to us,” Abby stated and tears were threatening to fall again. “There was nothing left besides a few DNA traces, but we thought you were in there!” She believed he had been eaten alive. Whenever she thought of it she started feeling sick.
“I’m sorry, Abby,” Stephen said and pulled her into his arms again. He hadn’t really thought about how much his supposed death would affect them. The only thing he thought about was that he couldn’t let Nick die. The man was his best friend, no matter their differences.
Abby wrapped her arms around Stephen again, holding on tightly as if afraid that he’d disappear again.
Connor watched Abby and Stephen and gulped. He really didn’t like to see them like that. Of course he understood that she was glad to see him again. They thought he was dead after all. Even he had the urge to hug him. But he knew that Abby used to have feelings for Stephen. After she kissed him a few weeks ago Connor really hoped that he had a chance with her after all. But now?
Abby let go of Stephen again and wiped away her tears. She hated being all whiney.
“Lester wants to see you in the conference room,” someone then told them and they left the kitchen.
----- -----
“Aliens. I knew it,” Connor exclaimed. He had started to write his dissertation about aliens before Cutter threw it into the trash.
Everyone glared at him.
“What? I really did. Come on, the universe is so big. We can’t possible be the only living creatures in it,” he stated.
Sam smirked. He was a believer, and as much as most people thought believers were crazy, he was right.
After talking to James Lester Sam had decided to grant the main members of the Arc security clearance. They signed a non-disclosure agreement and were told the truth about the Stargate program and the occurances that led to Stephen’s arrival in Atlantis. She hadn’t asked Jack for permission, but was sure that he’d agree that there couldn’t be a real cooperation unless they knew what was actually going on.
“So, you still have living dinosaurs?” Abby then asked.
“Yes,” Daniel answered. “And we will turn them over to you. Hopefully you can find a way to get them home.”
Abby smiled, feeling glad about that.
“What about this Stargate, can you tell me more about it? How does it work?” Connor wanted to know.
“Sam can tell you all about that,” Daniel stated and pushed her slightly in his direction. He was more interested in having a talk with Dr. Sarah Page.
“You’re an Egyptologist, right?” he asked while sitting down next to her.
Sarah nodded. Then her eyes widened a little as she realized why this man looked so familiar.
“OMG, You’re the Dr. Jackson. You published something about pyramids being landing places for alien ships,” she said. Dr. Jackson was somewhat of a laugh in the scientific community. But after what she heard today she looked at him in a very different light.
“And you were right,” she added placing her hand over her mouth.
Daniel smiled. It really was good to hear that from someone. He knew he was right and so did everyone in the Stargate program. But it was still hard not to be able to tell people that he actually had been right.
“But you can’t let the public know.”
“No.” He sighed. Sometimes he really wanted to. But he had mostly learned to live with it by now.
“That must be hard,” Sarah said. She was sure that it would be hard for her.
Daniel nodded, but then shrugged. “It’s nothing compared to what I’ve seen out there,” he said and grinned. “You really should come by sometime and I can show you things you wouldn’t believe are possible.”
Sarah grinned. “Really? I’ll be there on my next free day.”
Daniel grinned. He was definitely looking forward to that.
-----
Sam looked at Connor Temple, feeling rather impressed. He was so young and already put together the anomaly detection device on his own. After she told him about the Stargate he had started showing her his work.
“Impressive,” she said.
Connor practically beamed at her. It was good to finally be able to talk to someone who actually understood what he was talking about.
“We should be able to build our own detector soon,” she said. With Atlantis technology it should be no problem at all.
“Call, if you need help.”
“Thanks, will do,” Sam said with a smile.
“I built something else,” Connor then said and led her to a storage room.
Sam followed him and looked at what he was showing her.
“A MALP,” she said with a smirk.
Connor turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
“We have something similar. We call them Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probes, in short MALP. They help us to determine what’s on the other end of a Stargate before going through.”
Connor grinned widely. “That’s exactly what we use this for. If we actually have to go through an anomaly, I mean.” Usually they preferred to just send back whatever came through.
“We should compare notes about them,” Sam suggested, which earned her another one of Connors big smiles. She definitely liked the guy. He was eager to learn and eager to share as well. She had a feeling that this cooperation would work very well.
-----
Jenny Lewis walked into the main room of the Arc. It felt strange to be back. A part of her had wondered for a while if it was the right decision to quit. She thought she could move on with her life better if she got some distance between herself and the Arc, where Nick Cutter had worked. But it hadn’t really worked so far. She was worrying about her former colleagues and friends all the time and her new job bored her almost to death.
“So, what’s so important that I needed to come by immediately?” she asked putting her hands on her hips.
Danny Quinn got up when he heard her voice. A smile appeared on his face. He had really missed Jenny a lot.
“Welcome back,” he said as he strode towards her and then gave her a brief hug.
“I’m not back. I just got a call that there was something here that I had to see at once.” She tried to sound annoyed, but Jenny had to admit to herself that she actually liked being back. The Arc kind of felt like home.
“Not something…,” Danny said. Then he stepped out of the way.
“Someone,” another voice said. She turned to look at the group of people. Abby was there, as well as Sarah, a man she didn’t know and Becker. But none of them had spoken. Her mouth almost dropped open when her eyes fell on the man standing a few feet away.
“Stephen?” she asked unbelievingly.
Stephen smiled and walked towards her.
Jenny stared at him as he came closer. This couldn’t be real, could it? Stephen was dead.
“It’s really you, isn’t it?” she asked.
Stephen nodded. Then she hugged him.
“How is this possible?” she asked as she let go of him again. “Don’t tell me this has something to do with altered timelines or whatever.”
Stephen chuckled, but then shook his head. “Nothing like that. And you’re the only one I remember, no Claudia Brown.”
Jenny smiled slightly.
“Why don’t we sit down while Stephen explains,” Danny suggested.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Day 8: Torchwood London:
“They do seem more competent than the ones yesterday,” Cameron Mitchell muttered as he, John Sheppard and Rodney McKay were sitting in a room together. Torchwood 1 was located in Canary Wharf, London. Apparently it had been destroyed a few years ago according to Captain Harkness. But they had rebuilt and everything looked really high tech.
So far they had gotten a tour through the huge building, but probably hadn’t been shown the real interesting stuff.
“The food is excellent,” Rodney muttered before putting another piece of muffin into his mouth. He hadn't been thrilled to go to Torchwood today, as he had much more important stuff to do in Atlantis, but now he didn't mind so much anymore.
“I’m glad you enjoy it here,” John said a little sarcastically. He actually would have preferred to stay in Atlantis and spend some more time with Elizabeth. She had started to remember some things when he spoke about them, which was a good sign. But someone had to check out Torchwood 1, and apparently it needed to be him.
“Mr. Stanton will be with you again soon.”
Cam looked up as the assistant came into the room. She had been with them the whole time, probably organized everything. She was nice and part of why he had the feeling these people were more competent than Torchwood 3.
A second later they heard an alarm.
Cam and John were on their feet in a second. Rodney looked up a little irritated and swallowed the last of his muffin.
----- -----
“I just read this,” Sally Sparrow said placing a paper on Mr. Stanton’s desk.
“I don’t have time for this right now, Miss…”
“Sparrow. Sally Sparrow.”
Right. She was one of the interns, if he remembered right. She had been found investigating alien matters a few months ago and was offered a job, as Torchwood 1 needed re-staffing after it’s reopening. But just because she worked here now, didn’t mean she could show up in his office whenever she wanted to. He had more important matters to tend to right now. The members of the Stargate program were here. He needed to make this cooperation work. Apparently they had space ships, very powerful technology and a Stargate through which you could travel to other planets. Torchwood definitely needed to gain access to stuff like that.
“I have a very important meeting right now,” he said while getting up. “Make an appointment with my assistant Lois.” Stepping around his desk he headed for the door.
“But it’s important,” Sally protested. “Torchwood moved the angels.”
Mr. Stanton frowned. Angels? What was she talking about? And who cared about angels?
“Later, Miss Sparrow.”
Sally followed him out of the office. She needed to tell him what the angels could do. They were frozen after the Doctor tricked them. But who knew what happened when they were moved and no longer looked at eachother.
Before she caught up with Stanton an alarm went off.
----- -----
John, Cam and Rodney left the room, even though the assistant tried to calm them down and make them stay. Mr. Stanton was a few feet away and John walked towards him.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Lois looked at her boss apologetically. She had tried to keep them in the conference room, but they just wouldn’t listen to her.
“I don’t know yet,” Stanton answered. “Let’s go into my office.” He led the way.
Once in the office Stanton contacted his people, trying to figure out what caused the alarm.
“Something is here,” someone reported a few minutes later.
“What is it, Fint?” Stanton wanted to know.
“I don’t…” The answer just stopped.
“Fint?” No answer. “Fint, are you still there?”
“Where are our weapons?” Cam asked. He had a bad feeling about this.
Stanton frowned. Torchwood didn’t allow any guests to carry weapons inside their building. But under the circumstances it might be good to have some protection, right? He had no idea what was happening after all. Besides, he wanted to gain these people’s trust. Infact he had been ordered by his boss to do everything to ensure this cooperation.
He glanced at his assistant and nodded.
Lois pulled out her keys and went into her office next door. “Come with me,” she said.
A few minutes later they were back in Stanton’s office, fully armed. John definitely did feel better.
“Any news on the cause of the alarm?” Rodney asked. He wished he had access to the systems and could figure it out himself. He hated not to know what was going on. And alarms usually weren’t a good thing. They had just seen that again a few days ago.
“Not really. I have reports about something or someone moving around the building. But noone can tell me what or who exactly it is.”
“The angels,” Sally said from the corner of the office.
Stanton sighed. “Not now, Miss Sparrow!”
John frowned at the man and turned to the young woman. “What did you say?”
Sally swallowed, but then straightened up. This was her chance to finally tell people what she feared had happened.
“I saw a file about Torchwood moving angel statues this morning. I have encountered these specific angels before. They are aliens and if Torchwood ‘woke’ them up we are in big trouble.”
“Torchwood didn’t wake anything up,” Mr. Stanton insisted.
“Let’s hear her out,” Cam stated, then turned to Sally. “Tell us everything you know about these aliens.”
Sally was glad that someone at last seemed to value her information.
“I encountered them about 1 ½ years ago. They are statues as long as you look at them. But when you turn away or even blink they come to life and move really fast.”
Rodney gulped and glanced around the room quickly.
“Look in all directions,” John called and he and Cam stood back to back at once. Rodney joined them, pulling his gun as well.
Stanton glanced around, not feeling too happy about this information. “We don’t know if it really are those angels.”
“So it’s all just a coincidence that something is moving around and people disappear on the same day you moved the angels? I bet you didn’t place them somewhere looking at each other, did you?”
Stanton had no idea what exactly happened to those statues. He had been busy with more important stuff.
“What do you mean, people disappear? What do those angels do to people?” Cam asked.
“If they touch you they send you back in time.”
“Oh great,” John said groaning. “I hate time travel!”
“So we’re up against an alien race that turns into stone and can send you back in time by touching you?” Cam summed it all up.
“Yes,” Sally said.
“Why do they turn to stone?” Lois wanted to know.
“It’s a defence mechanism. They are quantum locked, or something," Sally explained.
“What?” John asked, glancing at her.
“It’s what the Doctor said. They turn to stone when seen, so they can’t get killed.”
“The Doctor?” Stanton asked. “You know the Doctor?”
Sally nodded. “We’ve met, briefly. He helped me defeat the angels the first time.”
Stanton looked at Sally, suddenly seeing her in a different light.
“Really? What is he like?”
“Can we talk about that later?” John asked, feeling a little annoyed.
“So, how do we kill them?” Cam asked.
“They can’t be killed. The Doctor said they turn to stone, because stone can’t be killed.”
“Bullshit. I bet they die when they get blown up,” John stated.
They all glanced at Sally, who shrugged.
“It’s worth a try,” Cam stated. “Do you have any C-4 with you?”
John frowned. “No. You?” They were just here to work out a cooperation, not to blow up aliens.
Cam shook his head.
“We have explosives,” Lois said.
“Where?”
“I can show you.”
“Alright. Let’s move out. You four stay between us,” Cam said gesturing at Sally, Lois, Rodney and Stanton.”
“Do… do I have to come?” Stanton asked.
“If you’d rather stay here, be my guest,” Rodney called, feeling a little irritated. He tended to feel that way when his life was in danger.
Sally turned to her boss. “You sure? I think you’re safer with us. You can’t look in all directions at once. And you have to blink eventually.”
Stanton gulped and looked a little terrified.
“Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good luck,“ Sally quoted.
Everyone turned to her. “It’s what the Doctor told me.”
Stanton was by their side in the blink of an eye. “I think I better come with you. You might need my help.”
John rolled his eyes and shared a look with Cam. Then they opened the door and left the room. Cam was in front, Lois and Sally behind him, looking to the front, right and left. Behind them Stanton and Rodney looked backwards, right and left. John was last, moving backwards.
“It’s this way,” Lois informed them and they continued on their way, following Lois instructions.
Then they suddenly heard movement. Someone or something was coming towards them fast.
They stopped, guns raised.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
That's it for now. The next chapter will be up as soon as I find time to write more.
If you want to know more about the angels, check out this:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Weeping_Angel and/or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwFIu4Demx8&feature=related and/or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZRhj03MZD4&feature=related.
I don't know if the angels could move again if they no longer looked at eachother. For the purpose of my story they can. ;-)
poster / book cover for this chapter:
chapter 12