Chapter Text
Buffy was sitting completely still, meditating to conserve what little energy she had left. Most of the time, having the abilities of a Slayer was a good thing, but when food was scarce, it meant she suffered longer than normal humans. All she had was water, but even with rationing, that would not last for much longer.
Keeping her mind empty became easier the more time went on, but somehow she didn't think that was a good thing.
Then suddenly the whole ship shook as if it were being hit by weapons fire again. A light sigh escaped her, but she slowly rose from her position. It had been almost five days since the last time anyone had shot at the Daedalus.
The ship was nearly dead, even with almost everything turned off to conserve what little power was left. Not that it mattered; it would've been better if they had just exhausted all power so it became inert, but no, they had refused to believe that they were going to die. Now AR-1 was dead, and the likelihood of her ever making it home was slim to none.
Another hit rocked the ship, and she took a sip from one of the last water bottles before she slowly made her way toward the bridge. It took her longer than she wanted to admit to realise that the power was back on, there was light in the hallways, and rather than the freezing temperatures she had gotten used to, the temperature had risen.
She closed her eyes; that meant someone else was on board. Someone else had boarded the ship and was stuck here, too. The reality drive engaged again, and she saw nothing but white light for a moment. Then, as she walked through the hallways, she felt the temperature rise. She frowned; had the shield failed already?
Then, abruptly, a human-form alien was standing in front of her, aiming a weapon of some kind. She reacted instinctively; Buffy kicked it back a little so she had more space, and then shen she unsheathed her sword. Her first attempt went wide; the second cut off part of his hand, which only made it angrier. The fourth hit the wall, but the fifth finally managed to cut its head off. He collapsed on the floor.
As she looked at the downed alien, she could hear an echo of Major Connelly in her mind telling her to check enemies for weapons and anything that might be useful. Following that bit of wisdom on autopilot, even if she wasn't sure why, she found an odd-looking gun and a crystal. She pocketed the crystal, but kept the gun in her hand before she moved on. The gun in her thigh holster was unused.
The hallways somehow seemed longer than they had when she had first volunteered to go with AR-1 and investigate the ship that had entered orbit out of nowhere. It had seemed innocent enough, if strangely ominous. The Daedalus hadn't been to Atlantis in months, as it was away on some kind of secret mission. The Apollo had been doing supply runs instead.
After a while, she heard gunfire in the distance, and she walked a little faster. As she peeked around a corner, she saw another of the aliens. It was firing, so she brought up her newly stolen gun and shot it several times in the back. Right before she reached the next turn, everything whited out again, and she frowned. That was too soon, wasn't it?
Whoever was fighting the aliens took advantage of the blinding light and shot the remaining two. There was a beat of silence, and one of them was either talking to himself or through the radios. This was it; Buffy straightened up and walked closer to the corner.
She peeked quickly around the corner and saw Colonel Sheppard and Ronon. For a second she thought she was seeing things, but the Satedan was wearing a thin leather jacket that the Ronon from her reality hadn't worn on this particular mission. The Colonel was in the same black uniform as hers had been.
Knowing the two men had just come out of a firefight and were therefore on edge, she called out. "Don't shoot." She didn't know if they had a version of her, if so, if she was friend or foe, but if this AR-1 had a way off the ship, then she was taking the chance.
Buffy heard arms being raised and guns, no doubt being raised in the direction of her voice.
"Who's there?"
"Colonel Sheppard, my name is Buffy Summers. I'm coming around the corner; don't shoot me."
"Okay, as long as you don't do anything stupid, we won't shoot."
She turned the corner, gun in one hand but only half raised, just in case.
Both Sheppard and Ronon gave her a quick check from the top of her head and all the way down to her military-issue boots. Going off-world meant wearing the new standard-issue black BDU's. "You look like you've been through hell and back."
Buffy gave them a wan smile. "I've been stuck here alone for three weeks. Please tell me you have a way off."
Both of them lowered their weapons, clearly deciding she wasn't a threat. But points to them for not holstering them yet.
"We're working on it."
"Yeah, my AR-1 was also 'working on it', right up until they died."
That got her Ronon's attention. "The team back there, they're yours?"
She nodded, "I came with them to check out this Daedalus since ours wasn't supposed to be in Pegasus. The reality drive kicked in, and McKay was unable to get us back to our reality." Then she added, "Do you have food? I haven't eaten anything in over three weeks. All I have is water, and that is almost gone.
Sheppard immediately went through his pockets and handed over two energy bars. "This is half of mine. Eat slowly, or you're going to make yourself sick."
She thanked him and ate half of the first one slowly as he had instructed while they walked back up to the bridge. The second energy bar went into one of her pockets, because she didn't know if this version of AR-1 would have better luck than the last one that had tried.