Xander shifted uncomfortably, aware only of a rhythmic pounding in his head that matched the beating of his heart. He started to shift, and immediately decided that was a bad idea, as the pounding in his skull intensified.
There was a sensation of motion. He was being moved. Voices filtered into his awareness alerting him to the presence of people, but his brain was too fuzzy for him to make sense of what was being said.
He managed to drag his eyelid open, just a crack, and sunlight stabbed like a dagger into his brain, causing him to snap it shut. With his brain overloaded as it seemed to be the processing of what he saw took a moment.
A red sun?
He cranked his eye open again and stared in consternation at the bloated reddish orb that hung in the sky.
And there, hanging in the same sky: two moons.
One of the voices spoke again, the voice was deep, powerful. Xander felt like he should know what was being said, it was English, he knew, but his mind just refused to work it out. His eye followed the voice to its owner: a large black man carrying one end of the stretcher he realized he was lying on. The man was built like the proverbial brick house. The reddish light gleamed off a strange metal symbol embedded in the man's forehead. The symbol was familiar.
Someone leaned over him. An older guy, probably in his forties, his brown hair peppered with gray. The man was wearing some sort of military uniform. They all were, he saw, as he rolled his eye to look around. The person on the opposite end of the litter was a man in his thirties, brown hair, glasses. A little to the side, in front of some sort of pedestal thingy, was a woman, blond hair and blue eyes, for a moment he met her gaze.
And they all had guns. Large guns.
The older man said something to him. He should know what it meant, but in his current state it was unintelligible.
He closed his eye, exhausted, and aching like his entire body had been pulled apart and then put back together. What had happened?
He had been standing in front of the newly formed Sunnydale crater with Buffy, Wills, and the rest of the gang, and then, here.
There was nothing in-between.
He was vaguely aware of a series of metallic "thunks" and a"whooshing" sound. The litter he was on began to move again. Curious, but unable to find the energy to be alarmed he managed to get his eyes open. They were carrying him toward some sort of upright stone circle. With water.
Vertical water.
That glowed with its own silvery light.
Some sort of portal?
Maybe he had the energy to become alarmed after all. He tried to move, lift himself up, anything. He couldn't. The big guy might as well have been holding him down.
The blond woman was saying something to him in a reassuring tone. Considering the circumstances, Xander hoped that she understood why he wasn't too reassured.
A moment later, the circle looming far overhead, he hit the water.
It was the roller coaster ride from hell. The sensation of motion with out the sensation of motion. Completely nauseating.
And moved out of it seconds, or maybe years, later. If he hadn't been lying prone he would have fallen down. As it was, he made a good effort. The world went all unsteady, with darkness eating away at the corners.
The huge stone circle was behind him now. Or maybe it was a different one? Even as he watched, older guy and blond woman stepped out of the silvery surface.
His eyes moved away from the silver light to roam the cavernous chamber he was in. Military was his first thought. Only they would build everything entirely out of concrete. His second thought was, that is a hell of a lot of guns.
The darkness eating away at his perception closed in around him and, as he faded out, he heard the rather fat man in the general's uniform, waiting at the bottom of the ramp, ask, "Colonel, what the hell happened out there?"
Well, at least he'd understood that.
Consciousness was less painful this time. It didn't come in beating him with a sledgehammer, it just smacked him upside the head with a two-by-four.
He didn't immediately open his eyes. The voices were talking again at a slight distance this time. Some were familiar, some not. This time, however he could understand them. Here was a chance to get some information.
An unfamiliar voice spoke and Xander took an instant dislike to the speaker. "You can't be serious, Major! Look at him; he is clearly the product of an alien technology, and thus any human rights are not applicable-"
A woman's voice interrupted, blond woman, from before, "Sir, irregardless of his origins he is as human as you or me. All the tests done by doctor Frasier and myself confirm-"
"Irrelevant, Major. I have orders here to take him aback to Area 51 for examination."
Xander felt something in his gut tighten up as memories of the initiative flashed through his head. Examination? Oh, hell no. He did not like the sound of that.
There was motion someone moving toward him, and the deep voice he remembered quite well from before spoke, "MajorGriffin, if you move closer to AlexanderHarris you will swiftly find yourself in extreme pain."
Maybe someone was sort of on his side. Go big guy!
"Hold it right there Major Griffin." This voice was familiar too. After a moment he had it; it was the bald, fat, general. "I just got off the phone with the President. He agrees that Mr. Harris is related to our current situation and should thus remain here at the SGC. Your orders have been rescinded Major."
"All right. I'll wait. But after all this is over, he's still mine." There was the sound of someone walking quickly away.
"Bye!" Another voice called cheerily, the old, gray haired, guy. "Nice of you to stop by." The voice lowered a little. "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."
Xander was was getting the feeling that he wasn't the only one who didn't like Major Griffin.
Old guy spoke again. "Is there some some shady officer training school they send these guys to to teach them to act like that?"
The questions seemed to be rhetorical because nobody bothered answering it.
"Carter?" It was old guy again. "Are you and the Doc sure about this? I mean he's a TV character for crying out loud."
TV character? Who? What?
"Yes sir. We're sure, and..." she trailed off.
"What is it, Sam?" That was glasses guy.
"Well, if you think about it, it's our fault that he exists."
Exists? What the hell was going on!
The deep voice rumbled from nearby. "I concur, Major Carter, we are responsible. But I believe we should explain matters to AlexanderHarris."
"We will Teal'c," Old Guy said. "As soon as he wakes up."
"He is not asleep, O'Neill."
Uh. Whoops. Xander opened his eye to find five people looking back at him.
Five sets of eyes met one half set, and silence reigned.
After a moment it was broken by by the General. "Hello, Mr. Harris. How are you feeling."
How was he feeling? Gee, well, more than a bit freaked out. But he wasn't going to tell whoever these people were, that.
"Confused," he said, carefully. Then he asked the most obvious question, "Where am I?" He flicked his gaze to the old guy, the Colonel, and also said, "What the hell did you mean, "TV character?"
The Colonel winced and said, "Do'h. Heard that, huh?"
"Yeah," Xander said and couldn't help his glance toward the doorway of the room where Major Griffin must have exited. "Among other things."
"Don't worry." The man with glasses spoke, obviously trying to be reassuring. "We won't let him get hold of you."
At his dubious look the blond woman said, "You really don't have to worry Xander, we're not anything like the Initiative."
His head snapped around to stare at her. The Initiative. How did she know- Then he realized what she had just called him.
"How do you know..." He trailed off staring at her.
Something weird was going on. Even by his standards.
"It's all right, son." The General spoke again, from his soothing tone, obviously seeing just how freaked out Xander was getting. "My name is General Hammond. I'm in command of this facility, and as long as I am, I assure you, you have nothing to fear."
"Oh, right," glasses guy said. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, Major Samantha Carter, and I'm Daniel. Sorry, I should have introduced everyone first."
"People," the General broke in. "We'll answer his questions soon. But I think, now that he's awake, that Doctor Frasier might might wish to finish making sure he's all right."
A voice called from Xander's blind side, stating, "Doctor Frasier would."
Xander turned his head to see a short, auburn haired, brown eyed, woman in a doctors coat approaching from the other part of the room.
An infirmary, he noted, really looking around for the first time. A really, really, well outfitted infirmary, if the number of recognizable and unrecognizable things in the room were anything to go by.
She stopped by his side and glanced around at the others and said, "If you would excuse us?"
Everyone but the General began to leave, casting a few glances at Xander as they went.
The Major Carter, as she left, said, "Don't worry, every thing's going to be fine."
"Xander?" The Doctor Frasier drew his attention back to her. "How are you feeling?"
He opened his mouth. Then closed it. Why did these people know to call him by the name Willow gave him? He shook his head and, his voice rising a little, said, "What is going on?"
She looked sharply to the General, and then asked, "No one's told him?"
"Told me what?" His frustration and fear leaked out into something damn close to a yell.
"Calm down, son," the General said. "We will answer your questions, but you need to let Doctor Frasier look you over first."
A warm hand took hold of his and squeezed it.
He turned back to look at the Doctor. Holding his hand, she was looking at him with an expression of sympathy. "General, please?" She nodded to the door.
He nodded to her and then looked at Xander, saying, "Just cooperate with the Doctor, son. I'll explain everything after."
He exited the room.
Something was really wrong here, Xander just didn't know what. His stomach was in knots and his hands were trembling slightly.
"My name is Janet," the Doctor said, squeezing his hand. "I need to look you over because we've never encountered what-" she paused seeming to struggle for words. "What happened to you. I just want to make sure everything is working properly."
She looked at him with kind eyes for a second, and then said, "How about I tell you everything I'm going to do, before I do it? Think that will help?"
Working properly? Why wouldn't everything be working properly? What had happened to him? Why was he on a freaking military base?
He licked his lips and gave Janet a shaky nod.
"Carter, you okay?
Sam jerked her head up from where she'd been staring at her hands. "Sir?"
The Colonel was sitting on the edge of Daniel's desk nursing nursing his pilfered cup of coffee. "You look like someone torched your favorite science project."
"I'm all right, Sir."
The Colonel looked at her over the rim of his cup as he took another sip. Then he said, "You didn't make him, Carter. This mess isn't your fault."
Yes it is, she thought.
"Yet we cannot escape responsibility, O'Neill," Teal'c said, from his position by the door. "Were it not for our presence the Drhacyn would not have created him."
"Yeah," the Colonel said. "But we didn't do it."
Daniel chose that moment to return from the commissary with the sugar he'd gone for. "Do what?"
"Create AlexanderHarris, DanielJakson."
"No, no, we didn't, but they did make him from us." Daniel glanced at Sam. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Sam, but if I understood the Drhacyn right, Xander was created from what was in our minds. And-" broke off staring at Jack. "Isn't that my coffee?"
Sam followed Daniel's gaze and felt a slight smile ghost across her lips. Only one of his teammates would dare touch Daniel's coffee, everyone else in the SGC knew better, but only Jack O'Neill would be so brazen about it.
There was a pause as the Colonel glanced down at the cup and then back to Daniel. "No, it merely resembles your coffee." There was another pause, then, "It's tricky that way; it all looks the same."
He gulped down the remainder of the evidence and set the cup back on the desk. He quickly said, "If that's the case, Carter, then we've all got equal blame."
She shook her head. "No, Sir."
"Oh?" His tone clearly a warning that said, "Don't beat up on yourself, Carter."
"Sir," she said. "How much of the show have you seen?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, the first couple seasons." He caught Daniel's look, and said, "Hey, it had good humor."
She switched her gaze to Teal'c. "How about you Teal'c?"
"I have seen precisely twenty three episodes, MajorCarter. CassandraFrasier was most insistent."
"Yeah," she said. "And you Daniel?"
"A couple shows. I don't really watch TV much."
The Colonel said, with an innocent expression, "No surprise."
As Daniel cast a glare in his direction Sam said, "It is Cassie's favorite show, Sir. So I've seen everyone episode, start to finish. My point is, that I'm where they got their info, and I'm the one that brought up the discussion of Cassie's birthday that lead to us mentioning the show. I'm most responsible."
The Colonel immediately objected. "Yeah, but..." then he trailed off. A second passed, then he said, "Daniel, come up with something."
After a moment Daniel said, "I don't believe that's true Sam. Think about it. Your memories of the show might be where they got the shape of Xander's personality, some of his memories, and pieces of his history, but it takes a lot more than that to make a whole person."
The Colonel pointed at Daniel. "What he said."
Sam considered the idea, actually a little relieved to have an actual solvable problem to focus on, before she said, "So your saying that what I gave them was just a template, and then they had to work backwards to fill in the person expressed?"
Teal'c spoke, suddenly, saying, "DanielJackson, are you saying that the Drhacyn created AlexanderHarris from our memories?"
"Not exactly Teal'c. It is more like they took how our experiences shaped us and used that to create experiences that would make Xander into the pattern they had from Sam." He gestured in the general direction of the infirmary, saying, "I bet that when we talk to him, we'll find that he has all the memories of the show, but also memories of an entire life unique to him."
Sam found herself nodding in agreement; it made sense. It didn't however, make her feel much better. She opened her mouth, but the distant sound of klaxons interrupted her.
The PA system blared. "Off world activation! Incoming wormhole!"