Two days.
”Buffy, have you seen Spike recently?” Giles attempted to break into her preoccupied state, getting worried for the lip she had gnawed at till it was bloody.
“No,” Buffy answered loudly, her mounting concern obvious.
“Hey, no need to stress. So the Big Bad’s not lurking at our necks. That can’t be anything but good.”
“Shut up, Xander!” Buffy and Giles shouted, the Watcher blinking in surprise at his own irritated yet spontaneous reaction.
“Xander, you’re not helping.” Willow patted his hand and gave him a dim smile, not liking how he kept denying the truth of what Buffy wanted, even if she herself thought it was beyond risky and just an incy bit suspect.
“So, what are you thinking, Buffy? Do you think he’s left or possibly been caught by the Initiative?” Giles rubbed his glasses, letting the fabric of his hanky hypnotise away his own anxiety.
“I haven’t been able to sense him around anywhere, and I really don’t think he would have left without taunting me about it.” Buffy started pacing, wringing her hands in a very unusual display of her worry. “I think he must have been caught. We have to get him out.”
“What? No! Didn’t you say he gets some chip thingy? Leave him there and make sure he gets it. Chips ahoy. It’s not like we don’t know he’ll be alright.”
“Xander Harris, if you don’t sit your butt down and keep your lips zipped, I’ll ban you from Krispy Kremes for the rest of the year.” Willow huffed in satisfaction as he quickly fell to the couch and pressed his lips tightly together. Then she turned to Buffy, frowning at the concern her friend and the Slayer seemed to be consumed by.
When she saw the little diamond of a tear fall down the blonde’s cheek, she stood up straighter and determined to help.
“What do you want us to do?” she asked and let her breath whoosh out on a heavy sigh as Buffy seemed to perk up and get a little more business-like.
“I have to get him out. No matter how long he’s been in there they would have given him the chip first. The rest is probably torture and studying him like he’s a lab rat. I don’t have clearance to get in this time around, so I think the best bet is for me to get caught.”
Giles and Willow’s eyes widened in shock.
The ‘NO’ that exploded into the room was no surprise, and rather than show her apprehension about the plan that was niggling away at her brain, she smiled.
“I’m gonna need you guys to help me.” She ignored their shaking heads, the almost volatile Xander struggling with his earlier fear of losing his favourite snack by opening his mouth with the other two. “There’ll be magic involved,” she added chirpily and giggled at seeing Willow’s whole demeanour change.
“Ooh, like what? What kind of spells?”
Buffy chewed a little further on her lip, ignoring the sharp pain and the bitter taste of her own blood. “The first thing I guess is that they won’t catch me unless they think I’m a vamp. Will, can you do something to make me seem like a vampire? Cold blood, no pulse, that kind of thing? Then again, maybe a glamour or something? I could attack them and they would just take me down.”
“But Buffy,” Xander shouted, his concern overwhelming his possible loss of his fave donuts. “What if you end up with a chip in your head before you can wake up?”
The Slayer looked at her brawny friend in approval.
“Great thinking, Xan.” Buffy quickly turned back to the firepower of this little rendezvous and shot out ideas, knowing Willow was more than up for the challenge. “Okay, they have these tazer type weapons they use to debilitate their prey. What if you could juice me up? Or how about allowing me to somehow induct the energy from the tazers and then I can act knocked out, even though I’m really not.” She beamed, really excited about her ideas and eager to get out there and save her Spike.
“Maybe you guys can follow along behind and watch how they take me in. That’ll really help when we need to go back in and take out their operation permanently.” Buffy’s bravado was catching and the military man in Xander was revelling in seeing the inside of an operation such as the Initiative.
Giles and Willow dived to the shelves, eagerly pulling out all volumes that might feature spells like the ones Buffy would require.
They had until nightfall.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
She recognised Riley through the memory of overt closeness. The type of closeness that now made her feel slightly green for not experiencing the attraction again.
He was with his army buddies, covered head to toe in camouflage wear and grasping hi-tech weapons. It was the way he walked, the way he spun around looking for evil to catch and hogtie back to base.
When Willow had completed the spell and made Buffy a glamourised vampire, they’d all gasped. “Whoa. You look a bit like Darla,” Xander had immediately told her, looking a little sheepish at her roll of eyes.
Now she stood and chuckled at how she was going to put a spanner in their works, or was it a hammer? Whatever, she was getting in and getting Spike so out.
So when she found herself in front of their group, she had a smile on her face. Fake lumpies and fangs making her skin itch.
“Hiya boys. Whatcha doin’?”
Riley stepped forward, his body strong with his over supply of bravery. “I think we were out looking for you.”
Buffy tilted her head to the side and felt a flutter in her heart at how she was adopting Spike’s moves. Her arms crossed over her chest and she jutted out a hip, her lips still showing her amusement. “What a coincidence. I was looking for something big and juicy to eat before bedtime, too.”
They didn’t move in response to her easy, conversational threat. Buffy had thought that she would be majorly wigged at being all vampy for even an hour, but it was kind of fun. Fun in that way of the getting of revenge for leaving her and being a vamp chew toy. Yeah, she could live with it. Especially if she got Spike out of there.
It was like a Mexican standoff. Buffy couldn’t help herself; she giggled. Then attacked, taking Riley down hard as his second and third in command—Forrest and Graham—scuttled around to help him up while preparing their stun guns.
Buffy flinched a little at seeing them charge, but felt confident in Willow’s abilities. She’d seen in her dreams what Willow was capable of after all. So she let them sneak up behind her, allowed her fists to defend herself against a group that were intent on doing her as much harm as they could. She felt a peculiar lack of guilt as her fist sunk into Riley’s softer belly and he was winded, dropping to the ground on his knees as he let out a few gasping breaths.
And then she felt the prongs latch on through her clothing, bolts of electricity not quite hitting her body so much as being absorbed by it. The flash of light behind her eyes was all she needed to know that it was time and she collapsed—apparently unconscious—at their feet.
Buffy felt them fling her around, wanting so much to snap out of this pretend sleep and give them the fight of their lives, but Spike meant more than her own discomfort right now. Still, she tallied up all their vile touches and rougher than rough handling, and smiled within at how she was going to bring them all down. With a chipped vampire by her side. Sheepishly, she added the rest of the Scooby gang while she tried to think of other things so she wouldn’t snap to it and start the round of revenge before she even got to the lab.
Her eyes were closed but even she knew when she crossed into the stark cold of military white. One eye opened barely a slit and she could tell she was about to be locked in a cell, which would kind of defeat her whole purpose. So she bucked against the shoulder of the soldier that was carrying her and struck out with one booted foot as she gained her balance, her lightening movements managing just to prevent the soldiers from getting out and locking her within. She knocked them unconscious, all but Riley as she grabbed his limp and pained body by his army regulation shirt and tugged him out of the cell.
Buffy’s eyes widened at the long rows of sterile cells, holding more demons than she thought actually existed on the Hellmouth.
“God. Did you actually catch all these here? Some of them must be harmless if I’ve never come across them.”
Buffy ignored the grunts of discomfort from Riley as she dragged him down the row, her eyes fixated on finding Spike and getting out. He was half way down, and as she attempted to use the slidy card thingy she stole from one of the more comatose of the soldiers back at her own cell, Riley decided it was time to bear through the pain and try to be the hero. His knees buckled once Buffy had his arms twisted behind his back.
“Now now, you gotta learn when it’s time to just stop fighting the inevitable. You’ll never win against me, Riley. I’m too strong. Now, let’s get Spike, shall we?”
The door slid open as Riley stared at her in confusion, the vamp face still in effect. Buffy was relieved, knowing that it would cause a whole world of problems if Professor Walsh could identify her now. She wasn’t ready to embark on that part of her ‘tell all’ dream, so being all vampy suited her just fine for now.
Spike was passed out on the floor; the scent of human so close doing little to alert him to danger. His eyes slid open a crack and he flinched at the brightness of fluorescent light before slowly dragging himself to his feet. He licked at dry, cracked lips and stumbled at his weakness.
“Bloody hell, what did you bastards do to me?” His voice was rough, almost broken with thirst.
Buffy felt no guilt as she punched Riley hard, letting him slide immobile to the floor and freeing her arms to grab hold of Spike and move him to the door. She felt cold at how pale he was, how malnourished he looked. And felt a surge of anger at herself that she’d needed him to get the chip so he could be part of her life.
Amazingly there were no sirens yet; no one had discovered her infiltration of the system and the scattered downed soldiers littering an empty cell further down the row.
“Move that ass, Spike. If we don’t get out of here now we may never escape.”
Spike stopped in dead shock, his weakness and surprise overwhelming his feet as he stumbled.
“Slayer?”
Buffy grinned then leaned forward and quickly pecked him on the lips. “Come on, Spike. You look so deader than usual.” She giggled quietly as she slung his arm over her shoulder, bearing his weight as she pulled him back to a quick walk, cleverly avoiding any main turns that showed an abundance of army authority. Finally she found a grate and pushed Spike through, relieved at last to be on their way out. It had all happened so fast and they were back outside the secret compound, left to bask in relief under the shining moon.
When she turned back to Spike, she embraced his weak frame hard and in giddy happiness she didn’t even feel insulted when he opened his mouth.
“You look right tasty as a vamp, luv. Though a little too much like Darla for my tastes.”
In the space between her thump on his shoulder and her blinding smile, she changed, her Slayer face back to dominate her features.
“Ahhh,” he sighed, allowing himself to collapse a little in her arms. “Never thought I’d prefer that look, Slayer.”
Buffy kissed him again, her happiness catching on a little as she dragged him further to safety. Back to Giles’s where they had packets of blood all set up.
No more words were spoken as she led him to her Watcher’s apartment, and they slipped comfortably into the night, leaving uproar and anger in their wake.
It was all as it should be—and more.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Great to see all your names on the reviews of this story again. I apologise for the tardiness, but a new chapter makes it worthwhile, right? I do warn though, I have no idea how long till the next new chapter. I am working on extending the one off fic I did 'What Place is This' and as I have been suffering from severe burnout recently I am refusing to stop working on one incase I lose the flow and stop altogether. So, no panic that I won't come back to this, but not right away. And for those following nanny and The Slayer, it is the same story. Updates for Here We Go will continue, however, as that fic is complete.
Hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Hope you all enjoy this chapter.