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Chapter Thirteen

Spike spent the afternoon sulking, refusing to send so much as an “up yours, Slayer,” in Buffy’s direction. When Giles got back from taking Olivia to the airport he immediately tried to call Buffy in her dorm room, but only got a surprised Willow who assured him she hadn’t seen Buffy since the previous night.

“She said she was really tired, Giles. Maybe she just stayed at her mom’s and slept all day.”

“That’s probably it, Willow. Thank you. I’ll call her there.” The Watcher hung up the phone with a frown, remembering Spike’s angry insistence that Buffy had decided to go the fraternity house and meet with Riley alone. He felt a twinge of fear at the idea of her not having at least checked in with Willow, or gone to class all day.

When the phone began to ring, Spike stared at it with indecision before finally grabbing it and growling, “What?” Followed immediately, by a much more William-like, “Good afternoon, Summers’ residence. William speaking.”

“William? It’s Uncle Rupert. May I speak with Buffy, please?”

“She’s not here. I haven’t seen her since she left this morning for her visit with the toy soldier.” Spike made no attempt to keep his disdain for Riley out of his voice. “She’s probably in class or back in the dorm.”

“No,” Giles said carefully, not sure who might be listening,” She’s not. No one has seen her since last night.”

There was a short silence, followed rapidly by a lengthy string of British profanity. When he ran out of obscenities, Spike paused and Giles took the opportunity to put in, “Quite right you are, but that is not helping us locate her. I will call Willow and bring her over to try a locator spell.”

“Wait a minute,” Spike said shortly, opening up his mind and extending it out frantically searching for Buffy.

(Come on, love. Just tell me where you are. Talk to me. Tell me you’re all right and I’ll go right away again. Buffy? Please, Slayer, just say something. Tell me you hate me. Threaten to stake me for interrupting your good time. Anything.)

There was no answer, and he couldn’t sense Buffy at all. His stomach clenched at the implications, but common sense told him there was no way she could have died without his feeling it.

(Right then, unconscious. I’m goin’ to hang that bloody soldier with his own entrails.)

“Watcher,” Spike’s voice was nothing like William, and Giles felt a chill go up his spine at the tone, “I think we’ve got a situation. Tell the witch to come to your place. It’s closer.”

“What do you know?” Giles surprised himself by not questioning the vampire’s instructions.

“I know she’s not dead; but she’s not conscious either. I’ll be there in ten,” he added, hanging up before the Watcher could question how he knew those things.

***********

Buffy came back to consciousness slowly, and kept her eyes shut as she tried to remember where she was and what had happened.

(Oh yeah, they wanted to take my underwear, and then the lights went out. All useful information, I’m sure.)

She did a quick check of her body and discovered that not only was she missing her underwear, she was missing her entire wardrobe.

(Naked. Naked is never good. And…tied up. Even more not goodness. Tied, though, with rope. Not chained. Stupid amateurs still don’t get it. Okay, tied up and hanging by my arms. Feet are not tied. Room is…warm? No, the room is hot. And getting hotter by the second. Are they planning to cook and eat me? What the hell?)

Unable to figure out anything else about her situation, Buffy opened her eyes and stared around. She found herself hanging from a pole, her feet just inches off the ground. The room she was in was obviously one of the lab’s experimental rooms that Spike had alluded to. She cursed herself for not making him tell her exactly what happened to him when he was in there so that she would have some idea what to expect.

Sweat began to pour off her body as the room continued to get hotter and hotter and she squirmed against the ropes in an effort to loosen them.

“Ah, I see that you are awake again Buffy,” came the voice of a woman the Slayer was really beginning to dislike. “We’ve begun our testing program. Would you please let us know what you are feeling just now?”

Buffy was dumbfounded at the calm, pleasant tone of Professor Walsh’s voice as she asked the sweating, naked girl how she felt.

“I’m hanging by my arms, which are getting tired, by the way; some pervert has taken all my clothes, and I think I’m inside a giant oven. How the hell do you think I feel, you arrogant bitch?”

“There’s no need to be abusive,” Maggie answered in a tone that undoubtedly cowed the young men under her command. “We are simply running you through some of the same tests we use on the vampires we capture.”

Changing the subject, she asked, “So, you do feel the heat then? That’s interesting. It didn’t seem to bother the vampires that much.”

“Because they’re DEAD!” Buffy shouted. “Are you stupid?”

There was no reply, but the temperature in the room began to go down noticeably. And down, and down.

********************************

In Giles’ apartment, the Watcher, the red-headed witch and the vampire stared at each other.

“What makes you think Buffy is unconscious?” the older man was asking. “And how can you be sure she’s not dead?”

“I’d know if she was dead,” he mumbled, not really wanting to tell the watcher how he knew, but desperate to make him believe him.

Willow stared hard at the squirming vampire and said quietly, “He knows she’s unconscious because he can’t hear her right now. Isn’t that right, Spike?”

“Wha-? No! Don’t be ridiculous, Red. How would I be able to hear her? Vamp hearing is good, but it’s not—“

Giles looked back and forth between them. “What do you mean, he can’t hear her? We have to assume she has been taken to the facility under Lowell House. He’s quite right. Even vamp hearing can’t extend that far.”

“That’s not what he’s using. Is it, Spike?” Willow put on her “resolve” face and made the vampire look her in the eye.

“Don’t know what you’re on about, Witch,” he growled, trying to look away.

“You know, for somebody who’s all about the evilness, you don’t lie very well,” she responded.

Before Spike could respond, he felt the first confused stirring of consciousness in Buffy and he held up his hand for silence. Cocking his head, he listened as she collected her thoughts and sorted out her surroundings. He snarled when she realized she was naked, and groaned in recognition when she noticed how hot the room was getting.

Willow and Giles watched in slow understanding as they saw the emotions play across the vampire’s expressive face. Relief, followed quickly by outrage, and fear that they knew instinctively wasn’t for himself.

( Buffy? I’m here, love. We’re comin’ to get you. Can you tell me where you are?)

(Spike? I’m where you were. She said they’re running the same tests on me that they run on the all vampires they catch.)

He couldn’t disguise the stab of fear that went through him at her words, and she asked anxiously, ( What else are they going to do to me? They took my clothes, and it looks like they took blood out of my arm…oh, and they just tried to cook me, but it’s getting better now.)

(It’s going to go from hot to cold, pet. They tried to see how hot or cold they could make us before we couldn’t function anymore.)

(Terrific. I’m gonna go from baked Buffy to a Slayer-sicle).

“What’s going on?” The Watcher put aside his questions about how Spike was communicating with Buffy for the time being and demanded to know what was going on.

“They’ve got her in the lab and they’ve started their regular vampire tests on her.” Spike’s voice was even and cold.

“Buffy’s not a vampire, for the love of god! What are they thinking?”

“They’re thinkin’ they’ve got somethin’ they don’t understand, and they’re gonna take it apart and see what makes it tick. “

“Giles! We’ve got to get in there. We’ve got to find Buffy before they really hurt her.” Willow’s eyes were wide with worry.

“Yes, we do, obviously. However, we know nothing about that place or where she is inside it. Spike,” he turned to the vampire, “write down everything you remember about the facility and how you got out of there. Willow,” he pushed the anxious red head toward the table, “search on the web for whatever you can find out about what may have been built under there. There is no point in our charging in without a plan and some idea where we’re going.”

*************************

Buffy was still hanging in the room that was rapidly becoming colder and colder. Goosebumps burst out on her arms and legs, followed quickly by uncontrollable shivering.

(Hang in, love. We’re working on this. Need to figure out where you are exactly and how to get there.)

(I’m cold, Spike. They know I’m not a vampire. Why are they doing this?)

The discomfort and just a trace of fear that he felt in her voice, had the vampire growling aloud even as he tried to soothe her with the reassurances he was sending.

(You need to think about warm things, pet. Like my tight, little body and how hot it makes you. Think about my hands on your breasts, my tongue teasing your needy little...)


He felt a weak trace of amusement from the Slayer, even as her thoughts became disjointed and confused.

(Cold, sleepy, think of warm things…so cold…William makes me warm…Spike…Spike is warm…no…Spike is a vampire…not warm…why does he make me warm?…warm…sleepy…too cold…doesn’t hurt anymore….)

(Buffy? Slayer? Come on, pet. Stay with me. Don’t go out on me again, love. Buffy? Buffy?)

One look at the anguish on the vampire’s face and Giles knew things weren’t going well for his Slayer.

“What happened? What’s going on, Spike?”

“She’s passed out from the cold. Let’s hope the wankers are smart enough to figure out she could die from cold like any other human and don’t just leave her there like they do the vamps.”

“What happens to them?” Willow couldn’t keep the trace of scientific curiosity from her voice and he gave her a glare before reluctantly answering.

“The first few, they jus’ left there to freeze solid. Then they whacked them apart with hammers and laughed when they shattered. By the time they got to me, they were trying to figure out exactly how long it took to get a vamp so cold it couldn’t move, so they took me out when I stopped movin’.”

“Well, they’ll know that Buffy can’t freeze and live, won’t they?”

“I’m sure they will, Willow.” Giles’ voice was as reassuring as he could make it while he was pondering how many explosives it would take to blow up Lowell House if his Slayer didn’t leave it alive.

***********************

Buffy woke up to find that someone had put her clothes back on her, and draped her in a blanket. She was also strapped down to a table with an IV drip in her arm.

“Ah, Buffy,” came the hated voice, “I’m glad to see you are awake. That was quite informative. It appears that you can withstand temperatures much higher and lower than the average human, and yet, had we left you there, you would have died. Very interesting.”

“You could have asked me, you know,” she gritted out through teeth that still wanted to chatter.

“Oh, we are planning to,” Maggie’s voice was cheerful and she nodded to the technician standing beside the examining table. He twisted a knob on the tubes leading to the IV and Buffy immediately felt herself getting woozy again.

“This is one of our better discoveries here. It is designed to elicit truthful responses from subjects – whether demon or human. Far superior to old fashioned ‘truth serums’.”

“Not telling you anything,” Buffy growled, sounded a great deal like a certain blond vampire.

“You sometimes sound surprisingly like Hostile 17, as I recall him,” Maggie said, speculatively. “Perhaps it’s an attitude thing you have picked up from spending so much time around vampires.”

“I don’t tend to spend much time with them. Only as long as it takes to make them dust.”

“And yet, you prevented my men from recapturing Hostile 17. Why is that, Buffy?”

Buffy fought the urge to tell the woman everything about Spike and their history, although she couldn’t prevent herself from growling, “He’s mine.”

“Yours? Interesting. We will have to go into this further. But right now I have some questions about your uncle and your friends. Tell me about Rupert Giles.”

“No,” Buffy said flatly.

Maggie gave an exasperated sigh. “Very well, we’ll do this the hard way. Is your uncle in any way connected to your Slaying duties?”

Buffy thought about her mother’s brother in Ohio and grinned to herself. “No, he’s not,” she said truthfully.

The older woman glared at her, then turned to the technician. “Turn it up,” she ordered. He looked at her as though he wanted to argue, then shrugged and twisted the knob again. Buffy felt more warmth as the increased drug flowed into her veins.

“Now, lets try again. Is Mr. Giles aware of your activities?”

“Yes.” Buffy responded immediately. “But shouldn’t you already know this stuff from your cameras and recorders?”

Before she could stop herself, Maggie replied, “They don’t seem to be working very we-- Oh, very clever, Buffy. You’re not a dumb as you look, are you?”

“Nope!” Buffy replied cheerfully and truthfully.

Gritting her teeth and vowing that the impudent young woman tied to the table in front of her was not going to rattle her, Maggie Walsh turned and called Riley into the room.

“Agent Finn, I want you to bring in Ms. Summers’ uncle, cousin, mother, and those other young people who seem to be part of her circle. We’ll see how they respond to my serum.”

Buffy pulled furiously at the restraints holding her down, glaring at the smiling woman.

“You leave my friends and family out of this!”

“I don’t think so. I think we’re going to find that they are in this up to their ears. Aren’t we, Miss Summers?”

“Yes,” Buffy almost sobbed as she was unable to prevent the word from leaving her mouth. “But my mother isn’t. She doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

“She gave birth to you. I’m sure there is something we can learn from her.”

The professor turned to leave the room.

“I’ll be back when we have more subjects to study. Until then, enjoy your stay. Perhaps Graham and Forrest might want to keep you company…”

“Hurt my friends and family and I WILL kill you.” There was no trace of the young coed Maggie knew from class in her voice. The sound of an angry Slayer made the woman hesitate for a minute as a chill went up her spine.

“I don’t think so,” she managed to say without her voice quivering. “Such braggadocio is admirable, but hardly believable from someone in your situation.”

“Truth serum,” Buffy said coldly and smiled to herself when she saw the meaning of the two words hit the other woman.

Lab coat fluttering, Maggie quickly left the room without saying anything else, vowing to humble the irritating girl before she was done with her.

*************************************

Willow put the spells she’d found that she thought might be helpful into her pocket along with the layout of the duct work in the facility. While the actual facility itself was apparently a secret, it hadn’t seemed to occur to anyone that the schematics for blocking out the duct work and electrical wires gave anyone who cared to look at them a very good idea of what the layout was. Willow had no trouble hacking into the systems of the companies that did the work and printing out their plans.

Giles and Spike, who was still dressed in William’s new blue shirt and jeans, were digging through the weapon’s chest for easily hidden, but lethal objects to take in with them. They each slipped sharp knives into ankle holsters, as well as garrotes in their pockets. Although he didn’t change out of William’s clothes, Spike did get his Doc Martin’s and exchange William’s loafers for his own boots. He raised his eyebrows curiously when the Watcher went to the hall closet and pulled out a metal box.

When Giles pulled out an automatic pistol and loaded it, Willow’s eyes bugged out.

“I never knew you had a gun, Giles!” she said wonderingly.

“There is a great deal you don’t know about me, Willow,” he replied evenly, causing the vampire to give him a hard look, even as he admired the comfortable way the other man handled the gun.

“That wouldn’t help you much against vamps, Watcher,” Spike drawled as Giles shoved the gun into the waistband of his pants.

“Not everything evil we meet is bullet-proof, or non-human,” Giles answered with more than a trace of Ripper in his voice.

“True enough, Watcher. True enough.”

The three would-be rescuers stood in the middle of the living room, double checking their weapons and going over their plan.

“I’m sure Buffy appreciates your willingness to assist us, Sp-William, but I can’t see what help you think you can be when you will rendered immobile the first time you hurt a human.”

“You let me worry about that Watcher. If they don’t know about my…disability…, just flashing m’ fangs might be all it takes to back somebody off. And if they do, I’ll jus’ have to pick my one human really carefully.”

He looked at the dubious man and said firmly, “’M not leaving her in that place, and ‘m not gonna sit here and worry until you get back.”

“Fine. I suppose you are old enough to make your own decisions about something like this.”

Willow and Spike both smiled at Giles’ words and the vampire snarked, “That I am, Uncle Rupert. But I do ‘preciate the thought.”

“Then I guess we should get going. We’ll need to figure out how we’re going to get into the--“ When Spike’s head flew up and they realized he was listening to Buffy, Giles stopped talking and waited.

(Spike? Can you hear me?)

(Yeah, I hear you, pet. What’s goin’ on? Had me a little worried there, Slayer. What with turnin’ into an ice cube an all.)

(I’m okay. But I’m tied down to a table and they gave me truth serum to make me tell her about Slayer stuff.)

( What do they know?)

(Not much. I made her mad and she left until –Spike! You’ve got to get away somewhere! They’re coming to get Giles and Willow and mom, and William. You need to hide!)

(Not happenin’, pet. We’re just leaving the Watcher’s to come get you.)

(I don’t want them to get their hands on you again.)

(It’ll be alright, pet. You concentrate on getting’ loose and quit worryin’ about me. ‘M jus’ another vampire, love, nothing for the Slayer to be concerned about.)

(Dammit, you stupid vampire! I don’t want anything to happen to you – I don’t want to lose you!)

Spike couldn’t respond for a few seconds. He swore his unbeating heart skipped a beat as he felt her embarrassment at the unintended admission.

(That the truth serum talkin’, love?) He didn’t try to hide the effect her words had on him.

Buffy didn’t answer him directly. She just said, (Please, Spike – just don’t be there when they come…Giles can tell them William went back to England or something.)

(Too late, pet,) he said as the door burst open and Riley came in, rifle held in front of him and followed by two more commandos. (See you in a bit.)

“We should have no problem finding Buffy, Uncle Rupert. It seems as though we’re getting an escort.”





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