Title: The Assistant, part 49
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: More about the Initiative
Spoilers: season 4
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
It took Xander and Buffy two hours to find the miserable vampire. He was sitting in the cemetery waiting for the sun to rise and put him out of his misery. When Buffy offered him the opportunity to help, he sneered at her.
“Not much in it for me, is there?”
“Well, if you won’t help, I’ll stake you right now and move on. I’m sure I can find some nice friendly demons down at Willie’s who would love to help out the Slayer in exchange for amnesty.” She grabbed her stake and hoisted him to his feet.
He looked alarmed. “Hold on, Slayer! I didn’t say I wouldn’t help, did I? I just need a little incentive.” He rubbed his fingers together suggestively.
She sighed tiredly. “How much?”
“Three hundred—that’s only a hundred a head!” he leaped backwards when she readied her stake in anger.
She looked at Xander expressionlessly. Actually, the vampire’s price was less than what she had expected to pay. Still, it didn’t hurt to go through the motions.
“That’s a lot of money.” She pretended to think it over. “All right, but if anything happens to any of them, not only will you not get your money, I’ll be planting flowers in what’s left of you. Are we clear?”
“Clear, Slayer.”
They left him and headed home. Neither of them saw the vampire head to the one remaining tunnel leading into the demon’s lair and descend into the blackness.
Giles read over the spell one more time. He looked at the young Wicca. “It’s really not that complex a spell, it’s simply the energies that we will gather will be enormous. Are you sure you’re up to it, Willow?”
“Do we have any choice, Giles? If we don’t do this, a lot more people are going to die, including Xander and me and you and Buffy. I’d rather take the chance and go down fighting.”
“Very well. If you’re sure.”
They packed a small bag with the ingredients for the magic and then sat down to wait. Willow had drifted off by the time Buffy and Xander made their way home again.
Giles looked up as they entered the house. “Did all go well?”
“Piece of cake, Rupert.” Buffy grinned at him. “We’ve got Spike in the bag.”
Xander shook his head. “How can you be sure he’ll cooperate?”
“Well, let’s see: he’s evil, he’s a vampire, he’s EVIL. Yeah, that pretty much covers things as far as I can tell.” Buffy nodded as she enumerated the demon’s facets.
“Aren’t we assuming an awful lot though? I mean, you’re just guessing he’ll attempt to betray us.”
“Xander, it’s Spike. Betrayal is like, I dunno, his middle name or something. We gave him the story about the three of you doing a protection spell on the town. It sounds really good, like something we’d do if we could. He’ll never know the real purpose of the spell and Adam won’t care about a protection spell at all.”
Giles put his hand on her shoulder. “Buffy is quite correct in her assessment of his character. He will waste no time in attempting to betray us for his own benefit. I daresay that he is trying to bargain with Adam even as we speak.”
Spike felt very leery of the large multi-parted demon that stood before him. To tell the truth, it gave him the creeps to think of humans building something this, well, revolting. Normal demons didn’t bother him, they were just people with differences as far as he was concerned. But this thing, this creation, was evil embodied. It reeked of the base arrogance of humanity and was filled with the unwholesome corruption of all that was good. Man had played God and this was his flawed creation. ‘Ah well, needs must when the devil drives,’ he thought with a shrug.
“So, you’re Adam. Heard of you, mate.”
“You are a vampire. I have many in my service.”
“Aye. I have a bit of knowledge about your enemies; the Slayer and her team. I want to make a trade. My knowledge in return for you popping this chip out of me skull. That’s fair.”
“Why should I not simply kill you? You are… annoying.”
“Oi! I’m here to cut a deal, plain and simple. If you kill me, you won’t get my information.” He looked around and spotted Riley tied to a chair. “I see you have Captain Cardboard over there. Did you know he’s in love with the Slayer? Puking sod. Like she’d ever give him a tumble when she’s got her fancy Watcher panting after her.”
Adam turned his head sideways and contemplated the strange being before him. The vampire was unafraid and yet there was something…Perhaps he should make a bargain. The creature was clearly inferior but he could possibly be put to good use. “If you serve me, I will remove the chip.”
“You’ve got yourself a new soldier, then.”
Spike laid out the Slayer’s plans to enter the tunnel the next evening just at sunset. “She’s going to come in here and kill as many of you as she can get.”
“This is a foolish plan. She will be annihilated. The town will fall at my convenience.”
“Well, that’s the thing about Slayers. Kill one and before you can say Bob’s yer Uncle, there’s another one popping up. Worse than roaches, really.”
“And your role in this battle was to protect her friends?”
“Yeah. Like I really care if they get eaten. My job is to mind her friends while they cast a protection spell on the rest of Sunnydale. They were going to pay me, though.” The vampire sighed at the thought of missing the money.
“After they are dead, you may take their money. I have no need of it.”
Spike brightened at the possibilities.
Graham called Buffy and told her that the military was sending an additional two hundred troops. She told him to be at the tunnel entrance by sunset.
“Good luck, Graham.”
“Good luck to you, Buffy. Um?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think Riley could still be alive?”
“Don’t know. If he is, we’ll find him.”
“Thanks. He and I, well, we’ve been friends since boot camp. I miss the big lug.”
“I hope he’s OK, Graham. He was a total pain in the ass when I was in high school, but his intentions were good.”
“I remember how shook up he was when he thought you were dating somebody bad for you. Then he came home and said you and Mr. Giles had tried to make him think you were an item. He felt very proud not to have fallen for that.”
Buffy giggled at the memory. “Be careful, Graham. Today is important.”
“Thanks. And would you say thanks to all the others? I know it hasn’t been easy on you guys being spied on by the Initiative.”
“No, it hasn’t been, but don’t sweat it. We have bigger fish to fry now.”
Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander made their way across campus in the late afternoon. Just before sunset, they arrived outside Lowell house, the dormitory used by the Initiative. They entered the house and made their way to Riley’s now abandoned room.
“You guys ready?” Buffy asked.
“As ever,” Xander quipped.
Giles and Willow settled for a simple nod. They were too strung out for banter.
Entering the commando’s room, they pushed all the furniture aside and drew a circle on the floor. Buffy got out her climbing gear while they were working and forced open the secret panel to the elevator. She looked down the empty shaft. The car must be at the bottom of the tunnel. Shrugging, she attached her rope to the wall, took one last look at her husband and friends and pushed backward off the side of the shaft, rappelling quickly to the bottom.
Walking through the empty labs, she passed the cages where the captives had been held. The place still stank of fear and despair. Closing this hole down had been good work and she knew it. As she walked closer to the tunnel she began to hear sounds of fighting. Machine guns rattled and a grenade exploded. Shrieks from the wounded sounded loud in her ears as she rounded the final corner and faced the battle full on.
Riley, still surprisingly alive, was the first to see her. His eyes widened as she stepped into view. Adam turned from the fight to make a comment to him and followed the direction of his gaze. Instantly, he computed that the soldiers were merely a diversion and that this girl, the Slayer, was here for the real battle.
Buffy could feel an odd tingling as the spell effects started to hit her. Her eyes must be doing something totally funky, she thought as she looked out on a world now tinged with gold.
Adam tipped his head sideways as he studied his opponent. She was tiny but power seemed to radiate from her very being. He was intrigued. After she was dead, he would take a great deal of time to dissect her.
He tensed as she charged him. Her blows were strong, powerful threats. They knocked him backwards a few steps. He slapped her but she dodged. Her reflexes must be super-attenuated, he speculated.
“What are you?” Adam demanded.
“We are, it is enough for you to know.” Buffy’s voice, yet not her voice echoed in the chamber.
Adam decided he didn’t care for her tone. He tried to skewer her with his Polgara arm. She grabbed it in her bare hands and broke the sharp spike off at the base. It hurt him.
He unfolded the machine gun from his other arm and began firing at her. She simply waved her arms slowly and the bullets sank to the ground a foot from touching her. This was astonishing to Adam. Though he was a creature created through the blackest magic of the Hellmouth mingled with science, his brain was that of a computer enhanced human and magic was outside his ken. He attempted to launch a rocket at the girl, but it turned into a small flock of doves at her command. He strode forward and tried to grapple with her but her strength had quadrupled. She pummeled him, pushing him back and farther back until he was against a wall.
Again, he asked her what she was.
Her eyes flashed with a golden glow that personified all that was good and pure. “You can never hope to fathom the source of our power.”
“But yours,” her hand pushed into his belly and came out holding a small box-like thing, “is right here.” She smiled coolly.
Adam watched as she held his life in her hands. His vision was slowly fading as his battery drained but he had enough juice left to see his power supply turn into a ball of light and simply dissipate in her hands. As his remarkable brain shut down, his last thought was that she had won. This small human had defeated him. He slumped down slowly, her face the last thing he saw as his eyes gradually closed and dimmed.
Buffy walked over to Riley and freed him, helping him to his feet effortlessly. They made their way from the sight of their personal battle to that of the greater conflict outside. Riley’s men cheered to see him. The demons, never the bravest of creatures, wavered when they felt the human morale grow in power. Soon, the tide of battle turned and the monsters were put on the run.
Buffy killed at least forty on her own. Riley was in awe. She was in full Slayer mode and it was truly something wonderful to behold. As the battle ended so did the spell and her eyes flashed gold again before returning to their normal blue. She slumped tiredly against a wall. Riley was bleeding from half-a-dozen slashes and cuts when he found her.
“Are you OK?”
“Tired.” Her head slumped as if she simply couldn’t support its weight.
He slipped an arm under her shoulder and helped her to the elevator shaft. They rode up together. The door opened into his one-time bedroom and he looked slightly surprised to see Xander, Willow and Giles resting on his floor. Giles managed to give him a glare before getting to his feet and taking Buffy out from under Riley’s arm. She grinned up at her husband.
“We got him.”
“Are you all right?”
“Pretty tired. Home now?”
Xander got to his feet and helped a groggy Willow up. The four of them left Riley without another word and staggered out to Giles’ car.