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Betaed by Tasha.
Chapter 21 MEETING MAGGIE

Maggie Walsh, Graham Miller, and Riley Finn entered the outside seating area of the coffee shop situated just off campus. The professor hadn't expected the Slayer and her group to pick such a public place to meet. Most of the hostiles that the Initiative had dealt with on a regular basis preferred the darkness. Walsh didn't realize that her group was ill prepared for dealing with beings that were more human than demon.

"Afternoon, Professor Walsh." Buffy's called out to the older woman. "Why don't you guys come on over and sit down?"

"Miss Summers. How nice to see you ... and all your friends." Walsh looked at the group of people waiting for her while she moved over to sit down across from Buffy. This was no time for small talk, in her opinion. So, she launched right into why she wanted to meet with the Slayer. "I want you to agree to come in for some tests."

"Not bloody likely," Spike growled. There was no way he was going to turn over his mate to the professor.

"We could just take you." Walsh gave the group a knowing smirk. "After all, you are harboring a hostile." Whatever reaction she was expecting, she didn't get it.

"That wouldn't be in your best interest." Giles returned the professor's smirk, but where he had hadn't reacted to hers, she flinched and sat back in her seat.

"Are you threatening us?" Riley gave the petite blond woman a steely look. He was still smarting from when she ignored his warnings about the vampire she was currently holding hands with.

"If I was threatening you, Riley, you wouldn't have to ask. You'd know." Buffy gave the male human a stony look.

Spike took this opportunity to lean forward, and he asked a still slightly shaken Walsh, "So, what's in Room 314?"

Before she could stop herself, Walsh gave a start at the vampire's question. She resisted glancing at Graham before she sputtered, "How do you know about that?"

"We have our ways," Buffy replied. She twirled a lock of hair in a careless manner. "Answer the question."

"It's classified," Walsh sneered at the blond. "I don't need to tell you anything. You're just civilians. You interest us, but you are still just civilians.

"Since you're newcomers to the Hellmouth, let's be perfectly clear about something." Buffy gave Walsh a wide-eyed innocent look. "We are what stands between you and world endage."

"World endage," Walsh scoffed while she gave Buffy a skeptical look. "I find that hard to believe. Nowhere in your files has it been mentioned that the world is about to end."

"Every May, just like clockwork," Buffy replied in a perky voice. "And, I've only died once because of it. Go me!" She arched an eyebrow at the professor; almost as if she was challenging the woman to prove her wrong.

"What's in room 314?" Spike suddenly asked before he sniffed the air. Graham and Riley's scents stayed the same, but Walsh's changed. Spike relayed this information to the others in the clan.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Walsh spluttered. "Not only is it classified, it's none of your business." She still wondered how the vampire knew about the secret power, and why he was so interested.

"Don't lie to us." Spike leaned back in his chair, and he gave Walsh a cold look. "We're not bloody stupid, you know."

"She told you it's classified," Riley announced. He felt the urge to stick up for his mentor.

"Shut up, Finn," Walsh snarled at the young soldier. She could fight her own fights; she didn't need some young upstart to do it for her. "Otherwise, you might find yourself at the South Pole herding penguins."

"Yes, Ma'am," Finn said in a contrite tone.

"Miss Summers, we are the United States government. If we want to test you, we will," Walsh said with confidence. She was tired of Buffy's blasé attitude. Maggie Walsh was used to getting what she wanted by any means necessary. No college blond, and her rag tag group of idiots, was going to stop her from reaching her goal.

Buffy turned to look at Giles, and she cocked an eyebrow. At the Slayer's mental prompting, the Watcher pulled a brand new cell phone out of his pocket. After the push of a single button, he put the electronic gadget to his ear.

"Quentin, it's Rupert Giles. The United States Army has just threatened the only active Slayer." Giles gave Walsh a very Ripperesque smirk. "They wish to do experiments on her." He paused to listen to the person on the other end. "Yes, you can call me back at this number." Then, he hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Walsh demanded to know.

"Someone with more power than you, Miss Walsh," Giles answered. He refused to address the woman with any titles of respect.

"That's Professor Walsh to you," Walsh said. She glared at the British man. She was quite sure there wasn't anyone in the world with more power than the United States government. "Personally, I doubt an unemployed librarian knows anything about power."

Before Giles or anyone else could reply to the professor's words, Riley's walkie-talkie let out a squawk "Finn, are you with the Professor?" the disembodied voice bellowed.

Riley grabbed the walkie-talked from his belt, and he spoke into it, "Yes, sir. Professor Walsh is sitting right beside me."

"Tell her to stand down immediately," the voice bellowed. "We just got a call from the President of the United States. She is to leave the Slayer and any of her people alone."

"What?" Walsh grabbed the walkie-talkie. "What do you mean we are to leave them alone? They are vital to our research!"

"You heard me, Professor," the voice answered. "It came from the top. Buffy Summers and her contingency are off-limits from here on out."

Walsh rose to her feet, and she pointed a finger at Buffy. "I will have my tests. Just you wait and see, Miss Summers." She turned to leave the coffee shop, followed closely by Riley. Both of them failed to see the grimace of sympathy Graham shot at Buffy and her group.

After a few moments, Xander said, "Well, that was about as fun as a case of syphilis at Thanksgiving."

"You'd know, wouldn't you, droopy boy?" Spike asked in a snarky tone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ronald Jones, the Uixa demon pledged to the Clan Sultana-Aurelius, watched from his spot in the darkened closet. He knew that Walsh was off site with the Slayer and her group. He figured this would be his chance to get inside of Room 314. He noticed over the past few days that the door to said room took several minutes to fully close. Ronald's plan was to slip inside the next time another person went inside.

Ronald slipped out of the closet, looked both ways to make sure no one was around, and grabbed the door to Room 314 just before it closed. Once inside he realized that it wasn't just a room, it was an entire section. He walked confidently down the hallway to the biggest door. Ronald could tell there weren't any humans in the room, but there was something that felt off.

Ronald pushed the door open, and once inside, he had to hold back a gasp. Lying on the steel table in the middle of the room was a creature that appeared to be part man and part demon.

"This is bad," Ronald muttered as he inched closer to the table. "Very bad. What on earth are these humans thinking?"

Ronald pulled a small digital camera out of his pocket. He quickly took several pictures of the creature while he wondered just how many demons the Army had tried to merge together in one body. Then, Ronald moved over to the computer terminal, but he soon realized he didn't have the know-how to hack in.

Ronald made a mental note to bring up codes and computer languages at the next Uixa council. The world was changing after centuries of being stagnant with just spoken and then written languages. The Uixa's needed to grow and change too. Maybe some of the teenagers would be interested.

Ronald knew he needed to get the pictures he had taken of the nightmare creature to the Slayer. It wasn't alive, -- even he could tell that -- but the Uixa demon could feel the underlying evil supernatural feel of its demonic parts. He made sure the hallway was clear before he left the room. He did the same thing when he left the entire 314 section. Ronald met his wife Betty at the base's checkout point. He was nervous about carrying the camera out of the Initiative with him. Both he and his wife breathed a sigh of relief when they made it past the guards without being detected.

"It's time to do something else," Betty muttered as they hurried across the U.C. Sunnydale campus. "The human's government has no idea what they're playing with here."

"What happened?" Ronald's eyes darted around to make sure nobody could overhear them.

"Walsh is wanting Polgara's, Ronnie," Betty said in a quiet, but firm voice. "Chipping vampires is one thing, but all these other demons? This just isn't good."

"I know, baby." Ronald grabbed Betty's hand, and he gave it a squeeze. "We'll figure something out. Let's find the Sultana's witch. She'll know what to do with the pictures I took.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Willow passed the pictures out to the other Scoobies. After Ronald and his wife had dropped a digital camera off with her, the redhead had called a meeting with Buffy and the others. Then, she had printed off the pictures.

"Well, I can see why Walsh didn't want to tell us anything," Xander said. He grimaced at the picture one more time before he threw it down on the table. "Maybe she should change her name to Frankenstein."

"I'm working on hacking in to her system." Willow walked over to where her laptop sat on Giles' desk. "That's the easy part. Hiding it? That's the hard part."

"We can't do much until we know exactly what Walsh is planning." Giles shook his head as he studied the picture in his hand. "Normally, I'd say destroying this creature would be easy for Buffy, but I have this feeling there's more to it than just grafting human and demonic parts together."

"We need to talk to Graham some more." Buffy decided this would be the best course of action until Willow was able to finish her hack job into the Army's computer.

"He'll be at your birthday party this weekend, luv." Spike grinned at his mate. "We'll hit him up for info then."





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