She was cut off by the sound of the ringing of the phone. She picked it up hearing Dawn’s voice on the other end, “There are two demons here to see you. Man does that sound weird in my house with the slayer. They claim you know them from some adventure inside of a crystal ball thanks to some guy named Skuttle.”
Buffy whispered, “Kingsley and Tasha? Do they have Gerald with them?”
She hung up the phone not waiting for an answer, pulling Spike behind her as she raced down the stairs to see Kingsley and Tasha standing outside the door looking awkward with a toddling Gerald behind them. Buffy said, “Come on in.”
Spike looked down at Tasha’s protruding stomach, “Bloody Hell, you have another one on the way already?”
He slapped Kingsley on the back with a grin, “Congrats Mate. I haven’t seen you since the incident a few months ago. So how is everything?”
Tasha smiled, “Good but we have a problem. I’m really sorry we haven’t ventured out to see you before but we don’t usually leave our family area. My best friend, whom I met 300 years ago, has been kidnapped. She was taken along with her mate, Lawrence. Can you guys help? I know you guys usually don’t save demons but they are like us, only eating animal meat. Please, I’m so scared for them.”
Spike gestured for them to sit on the couch while he sat on the chair pulling Buffy down into his lap. Their conversation upstairs would have to wait until later as this was more important.
Tasha and Kingsley let Gerald down who quickly sat down as Dawn got up to return with crayons and paper leaving him to color. Dawn had been doing some babysitting lately to earn money for CDs and computer games so she was right at home with entertaining the baby while his parents got right to business. Kingsley glanced at his child and smiled but then turned to Spike with a serious look on his face, “Lawrence and Tilda, his mate, were hunting in the woods near Sunnydale High one night a few days ago. They weren’t alone and we had a whole hunting party out with them but they were the only ones taken. We know they were taken because we heard Tilda screaming followed by silence and when we went to where she had been screaming, we found her hat left behind. She always insisted on wearing this pink hat claiming the moonlight gave her sunburn which we all knew wasn’t the case but she is older than us so nothing we say is really going to deter her from wearing this hat. But anyway she’s been gone for 3 days. We have spent the last 3 days searching for her but we stick to ourselves so it’s tough to even know where to begin. We need help, I’m sorry to admit.”
Spike nodded as he glanced towards Buffy who nodded as well, “We will help mate. Do you know anything else?”
Tasha shook her head even as Kingsley spoke up, “No. I’m sorry we don’t know anything else.”
Spike stood up sighing at the fact that he had another two hours before he could venture outside. Instead he offered, “We have another bloody two hours before we can start to look but if you’d like to stay for dinner, we are having steaks and potatoes. We can simply cook your steaks less but you will have to deal with the others in the gang probably giving you bleeding death glares as they don’t take kindly to demons. You are more than welcome mate to join us, isn’t that right luv?”
Buffy nodded and smiled at the two demons and they readily agreed. Spike and Kingsley disappeared as Buffy leaned down to Dawn, “You ok with Gerald?”
Dawn nodded since they were both lost in coloring and Buffy took Tasha into the room upstairs where they sat down. Buffy asked Tasha, “Do you ever regret mating with Kingsley? I doubt you guys ever planned to leave that place but now that you did leave the place, do you regret it?”
Tasha shook her head with a gentle smile, “Never. I’m happy and I love the effects of the mating. They are getting stronger and stronger everyday. I’m expecting a second child if that gives you any hint about how happy we are. Are you thinking about sharing that with Spike?”
Buffy glanced down at Tasha’s hand that was resting on her swelled stomach and sighed, “I don’t know. I’m nervous…”
Tasha tried to comfort her as the two got lost in conversation. Tasha shared all about her community and what it was like and Buffy talked about the changes she and Spike had been making since their adventure together. In about a little over an hour later, Spike and Kingsley interrupted them telling them that the gang was here and steaks would be ready shortly.
As expected even with the laughter and good times had during dinner, Xander had given Kingsley and Tasha weird looks especially when Gerald joined the table along with Dawn. Gerald ate a barely cooked steak and mashed his potatoes into little bits obviously not interested in them. They also drank blood like Spike and enjoyed the fact it was pig’s blood instead of human blood. But other than looks, the two demons were accepted into the group at least they were once their story had been told.
At the end of dinner, Spike and Buffy gathered together a few stakes and headed out towards Willy’s in search for information. The mated demons followed behind amazed at how Buffy was able to walk into a demon bar and find out information from Willy. Willy always held information for them and was often times willing to give it with a tiny bit of persuasion from Buffy’s fists.
They found out that a group of scientists were in town collecting up mated demons. It appeared only mated demons were the ones being picked off so Willy figured it was some weird testing experiment concerning that. Willy didn’t know who the scientists were but did know that they were holding their experiments underground. Buffy and Spike had whispered at the same time, “The Initiative” but Willy could neither confirm nor deny that belief. Armed with their new information and the fear that these were human scientists, Buffy and the others went into the cemetery near where the Initiative was to seek out a plan.
Spike spoke up nervous, “I can’t really protect anyone against humans. I hit one or even think about hitting one and my chip goes off sending me into a powerful headache.”
Buffy nodded putting a hand on his arm understanding, “I know. We will have to come up with a better plan if they are back. Perhaps we can get them to do something about your chip if it really is them.”
Spike eyed her, “About my chip?”
Buffy nodded, “Sure I trust you and I’d rather have you able to fight along side of me than just give yourself a headache.”
Spike sighed but said nothing as he took a step backwards allowing the others to talk. Spike didn’t think it was likely they were going to do the group any favors since they were barging in about to release some of their captured demons but he didn’t want to disappoint Buffy by stating that little fact. Kingsley spoke up next, “Well I’ll do anything in my power to protect you and my mate and to help the others to be rescued. How does this Initiative work?”
Spike took a step forward explaining the glass cells the demons are kept in as well as the experimentation that is done on them. Fear showed through Spike’s eyes as he described in vague detail what goes on within the walls of the Initiative and how important it was not to get caught as demons. He even spoke up stating, “Buffy I’m bloody afraid for you too. We are all sodding ducks. We all have superpowers they don’t understand and with them interested in mated couples, Kingsley and Tasha are really in danger and you Buffy, they never did get to understand and learn about you so there’s nothing stopping them from wanting to experiment on you too luv. I suggest we get Tara to put a cloaking spell on us before we go in and see if we can’t check out the place before performing any actions. You guys all game?”
Buffy reluctantly agreed as long as Willow didn’t touch the stuff so they all headed back to the house for help.
Back at the house, the gang was all gathered around the television. Spike spoke up loud and clear as Dawn turned it off letting Gerald get hugs and kisses from Tasha, “Glinda, we need your help. Think you can perform a few cloaking spells or glamour spells on us to get us past the Initiative building?”
Tara nodded, “Only Glamour. I can’t do cloaking…”
Willow spoke up, “If Tara grounds me, I can do the cloaking spell after she does the glamour. Then you will have two lines of defense. It’s pretty basic magic but unfortunately it only holds up in a normal environment. I don’t know what the Imitative is like inside but if you run into water or weird gasses or anything like that, it will disappear. So four ready?”
Buffy glanced towards Tara who shrugged unable to think of a good reason to say no to Willow’s help. They did need the spell she was right and two was always better than one. So reluctantly Buffy gave in as Willow got together the items she would need. Spike whispered towards Buffy, “We will talk to your watcher about anything that can help ground Red herself instead of depending on her bird. All that energy flowing through the good witch, Glinda, can’t be doing her any good.”
Buffy nodded in agreement and sat down waiting for the spell. To be honest, she was a bit nervous. She didn’t want to see Riley again and really didn’t want to deal with the Initiative again. Last time the government closed them down and she had assumed it was for good but apparently not since they were supposedly underground. She might be jumping the gun and it might just be some other kind of scientists. As if reading her thoughts, Spike reached over holding her hand gently squeezing it a little.
Willow smiled as she entered the room and Tara created her circle. One by one, Tasha followed by Kingsley, then Spike then Buffy last stepped into the circle to turn into a scientist. Buffy accepted Spike’s hand and Tara whispered towards them, “You might want to restrain from that once you are inside. I doubt Scientists are often involved.”
Spike nodded but kept Buffy’s hand for now as Tara asked, “Can we come with you? A few spells might help…”
Buffy frowned and shook her head, “I’m thinking we might even get captured and the stronger the ones that are captured, the better chance we have of getting out alive.”
Tara nodded and Willow looked grim as Xander and Anya stared on. Anya had just found out she was pregnant so she wasn’t eager to race in to save the day and Xander was worried he would die and leave Anya behind alone so it would just be the four of them heading off to save the demons.