Part XI

“…And that’s how Cassie became a Slayer too.”

Jack looked at Harris for a moment after he had finished his story. Harris looked back at him expectantly from the edge of the bed that he had settled down onto. Russell was sitting beside him. Jack looked at her and saw that she was giving him a look similar to Harris’s. Cassie and Janet both seemed to be waiting for him to say something too. They had settled into chairs surrounding the table that the cell phone was sitting on. “That story has got to be…the biggest pile of bullshit I have ever heard!”

“It’s all true Colonel,” said Harris.

“Ask Cassie.” Faith turned to her. “You’ve dreamt most of it, haven’t you.”

“I’ve had dreams about a lot of that stuff,” said Cassie. “I didn’t know what any of them meant.”

“Captain Finn?” asked Jack. “Was all of that true?”

“I can’t vouch for the accuracy of a lot of the ancient history,” said Captain Finn. “This is the first time I’ve heard about the Shadow Men, and how they made the First Slayer. Demons and vampires are real. The Sunnydale Hellmouth was real, even though he left a lot of stuff out.”

“We don’t have a month,” said Xander. “We’ve already taken longer at this than we were planning. Cassie isn’t the only new Slayer we have to get in touch with.”

“But you still haven’t given me any sort of evidence that you’re not a couple of loonies,” said Jack.

“You ran tests on Cassie. You know how strong she is,” said Harris.

“We don’t need ‘magic’ to explain that,” said Jack.

“Oh?” asked Russell. “You got some other explanation?”

Jack glared at her. “It’s a long way from someone suddenly getting strong, to vampires and demons are real. And I’ve still only got your word that you’re strong too.”

Russell got up from the bed. She waved Cassie out of her chair by the table. “Move.” Cassie quickly vacated the chair, and Russell sat down in it. She placed her elbow on the table, with her hand raised. “Wanna arm wrestle?” she asked Jack.

Jack looked at her for a moment, and then placed his hand in hers. “Okay, go ahead.”

He felt the pressure of Russell’s hand against his, slowly pushing his arm over. He tried to push back, and nothing happened. As hard as he tried to resist her, her hand kept moving. He looked at her face. There was no sign there that she was exerting herself at all. No straining of neck muscles, no holding of her breath. She seemed to be completely relaxed, with her arm moving as smoothly as the sweep of the second hand on a clock. She had nearly pressed his hand down to the table top when she stopped, and then just as smoothly her hand moved in the opposite direction. Jack knew that he wasn’t forcing it back up. Russell was still in total control. He had no more hope of beating her at this than he would have had if her arm was made of steel, and powered by hydraulic pistons.

She stopped when their hands were vertical again. “Convinced?” she asked him.

Jack released her hand, and rubbed his shoulder. “Okay, you’re strong. Still haven’t seen any vampires.”

“I’m sorry Colonel, but we don’t drag vampires around with us,” said Harris. “They don’t travel well. They tend to try to eat the other passengers on a plane.”

“Plus there’s the whole bursting into flames thing if they get caught in daylight,” said Russell. “That really upsets the stewardesses.”

“Sam, could you send the Colonel any files from the Initiative?” asked Harris.

“I don’t know if I can get authorization to do that,” said Captain Finn. “I’m pushing what I’m supposed to be able to tell him already. There isn’t much left to send, anyway, Most of the records were sealed during the cover-up.”

“What’s ‘the Initiative’?” asked Jack. He was glad that Harris had brought it up, so he could ask that question, without giving away that they still had a bug active in the room.

“Your tax dollars at work,” said Harris. “The Initiative was a top secret project that was supposed to study demons and vampires and stuff. Called them ‘Hostile Sub Terrestrials.’ Unfortunately it was being run by a mad scientist type who decided to try to mix demon, cyborg, and human parts to make herself a super-soldier, with predictable results for anyone who’s seen Frankenstein. We had to bail them out, after the whole thing went to hell, almost literally. They still wound up with over forty dead.”

“Even if every word you’ve told us is true, I don’t like the idea of Cassie being involved in any of this,” said Janet.

“She doesn’t have to be involved, if she doesn’t want to be,” said Harris. “We’re not drafting anyone.”

“Didn’t you already do that, when you did your ‘spell’?” asked Janet.

“The spell was necessary to save the world,” said Harris, “but all it did to Cassie was give her power. What she does with it, is up to her.”

“With great power comes great responsibility,” said Cassie.

“Hey, a Spiderman fan!” said Harris. “Yeah, you have power, and that gives you the responsibility to use it, but we aren’t going to dictate to you how you use it. If you want to go and become a tennis star, or something like that, we won’t stop you… but… umm…”

“If I start knocking over banks, you’ll do something about it?” asked Cassie.

“Yeah,” said Xander. “Not that I think there’s much chance of that. And we’d prefer that you don’t decide to become a professional athlete. That sort of thing might draw some unwanted attention.”

“You still said that you want her to have some training,” said Janet.

“Untrained power is dangerous,” said Harris. “It’s dangerous to Cassie. It’s dangerous to the people around her. It’s going to take her a while to get a handle on her new strength. Right now, she could kill someone, completely by accident. And not in a fight, or anything like that: just fooling around. She needs to learn to control her strength. Without that control, she’s like a kid with a loaded gun.”

Jack cringed inwardly at the simile, and he saw the sympathetic looks that both Cassie and Janet sent his way. Harris and Russell saw their looks too, and they looked curious, but they didn’t make any comments.

“What sort of training do you want to give her?” asked Janet.

Harris looked uncomfortable. “We’re still working on that. A lot of the old Council’s support system was taken out by the First, and we’re still rebuilding. Plus a lot of what they had in place was all about controlling the Slayer, and we don’t want to work that way.”

“How do you want to work?” asked Janet.

“We’re making it up as we go along,” said Harris. “Our main goal is to make the Slayers the masters of their own fate. Not be anyone’s tools.”

“Maybe we can help,” said Jack.

“No offence Colonel, but we really don’t want them to become the tools of the military, or the government.”

“You think I want something like that for Cassie?” asked Jack.

“I don’t know,” said Harris. “I don’t know you.”

“I know him,” said Cassie. “He’s my friend.”

Harris looked at her for a moment, and then shrugged. “Fair enough.”

That wasn’t the end of it, of course. Jack still wanted to see some sort of proof about what they said about vampires, demons, and magic. Janet wanted to know if there was some way to undo what had been done to Cassie. Neither was happy with the responses that they got.

Cassie seemed to be more interested in what sort of training they thought she should have. If there was anything she could learn on her own, or any sort of classes that she could take locally.

“T’ai Chi would be good,” said Russell. “I’ve never had the patience for it myself, but my first Watcher tried to teach me some, and some of the other girls swear by it. And it’s something you can practice openly, sign up for a local class, something like that.”

“Stay away from any sort of martial arts classes,” said Harris. “It’s too easy to have an accident.”

“What if I have Sam teach me?” asked Cassie.

“Sam?” asked Harris, with a curious look toward the phone.

“Blondie,” said Russell.

“Major Carter,” said Jack.

“She’s got, what, level four, in hand-to-hand combat?” asked Cassie

“Level three, advanced,” said Jack.

“We don’t want you telling just anyone about this,” said Harris.

“Sam isn’t ‘just anyone,’ and she already knows,” said Cassie. “She was there helping Mom when she ran all the tests on me, and she knows that we’re meeting you now, and I’m going to tell her everything you’ve told us.”

Jack shot an annoyed look at Cassie. She was talking too much. He didn’t want these people knowing that Carter was waiting outside. At least Cassie hadn’t mentioned that they had a bug that was still working.

Harris didn’t seem to notice. “We can’t stop you, but we don’t like it. If Major Carter does agree to help you, be careful: no sparring; concentrate on katas, and things like that. Work on your form, not strength.”

“Something like gymnastics might be good too,” said Captain Finn. “Develops your balance and coordination, precision movement, and you’re not working directly with anyone you could accidentally hurt. You’d have to be careful not to seem to be too good though, if you’ve got a teacher you don’t want to tell about being a Slayer.”

“And again, we don’t want to be seeing you on next year’s Olympic team,” said Harris. “Even if you do want to visit Greece.”

They left the room not too much later. Captain Finn had promised to put together what she could on the Initiative, and have it couriered to Jack in the morning. Jack had made sure that he collected one of her cards from Harris before they left.

They met Carter back outside in the parking lot. “You don’t really believe any of that is true?” she asked them.

“They seem to be pretty convinced of it,” said Jack. “Just a minute. I want to check something.” He took out his cell phone and hit one of the speed dial numbers.

It only rang once. “DSRT Communications Centre, Lieutenant Reynolds speaking; this is an unsecure line; how may I direct your call?” came the answer, all in one breath.

“Yes Lieutenant, this is Colonel O’Neill. I want you to get me a secure line to Captain Samantha Finn at the…” He looked at the card he had received from Harris. “…International Environmental Cleanup Taskforce, Pentagon office.”

“You are not calling on a secure line, Sir,” said Reynolds.

“I know. I just want to make sure that we can establish a secure line from the DSRT, to her.”

“One moment, Sir, and I’ll place your call.”

Jack had to wait for about thirty seconds before he heard Captain Finn’s voice again. “Good evening Colonel. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again so soon.”

“Good evening Captain. I just wanted to confirm that you are really who you said you are. For all I knew, Harris had just called up one of his lunatic friends.”

“I am one of his lunatic friends, Sir.”

“Yes, but now I know that you’re a lunatic who really does work in the Pentagon,” said Jack.

“Was there anything else I can do for you, Sir?”

“No, that will be all. Good night Captain.”

“Good night, Sir.”

Jack snapped his phone shut. “Well, at least we confirmed that much. These people really do know people in the Pentagon who will back up their story.”

“So, Sam, you wanna help me train?” asked Cassie.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Jack.

“Harris may have had a point, about it being dangerous not to give her any training,” said Janet. “Sergeant Siler’s got a cracked bone in his hand. The sort of strength Cassie’s exhibiting, there could be other accidents if she’s not careful.”

“Is he alright?” asked Cassie.

“He’ll be fine,” said Janet. “He’ll have to wear a splint for a bit, but it’s nothing to worry about. He usually manages to do worse to himself every other month or so.”

“So, Sam?” asked Cassie.

Carter gave him a look, and Jack gave her a reluctant half nod back. She smiled at Cassie. “Sure, I can help you. I don’t think we should be doing much self-defence though, but I’ve done a little T’ai Chi myself, and can teach you that, and a few other things.”

“Maybe we can get Teal’c to teach me how to fight with a staff,” said Cassie.

“Staff? Who said anything about staffs?” asked Jack.

“Uh…my dreams,” said Cassie. “A lot of them have had fighting with staffs in them.”

“I’m starting to think that this is a bad idea,” said Jack.