Chapter 15
Maggie Walsh was completely unnerved.
They were resting before heading off down another of the interminable tunnels that ran across the ceiling of the Initiative. She was huddled on one side while the blond vampiress sat with her back propped against the thin, sheet metal wall across from her.
Buffy had already drained several of the bags of human blood she had taken from the fridge in the lab, saving the genetically altered pouch for last. She was sipping slowly from it now, her oddly beautiful green eyes shining like jewels in the faint light as she stared at her hostage.
Walsh watched in amazement as the creature healed right before her eyes. Not completely—Riley had done a pretty thorough job on her, after all—but soon all that remained were the more serious of the cuts, burns, and bruises.
Draining the drugged bag, Buffy tossed it aside and sat back to savor the rush that swept through her. The heightening of her senses was incredible. Her already enhanced hearing was so in tune with her surroundings that she could hear the human’s muscles tense beneath her skin.
“Where were you people in the sixties?” she muttered with a smirk. “Coulda made a fortune off of this shit back then.”
“I was at Harvard in the sixties,” Maggie informed her stiffly. “I was thirteen at the time.”
“Oh, goody, we’re gonna converse!” Buffy snickered. “So, you were a child prodigy. Guess back then you weren’t quite the dedicated destructor of sentient beings that you are today, huh? Probably hadn’t realized your full potential yet.”
“A vampire killed my parents,” the woman spat. “I’ve always known the path my life would take!”
“Too bad he didn’t suck ‘em dry before you were spawned. My life would be a lot simpler.” Buffy yawned in an ostentatious display of boredom. A sly smile tickled her lips as her demon relished the waves of hate and frustration wafting from Walsh.
“I was second only to one in my graduating class,” Maggie informed her pompously. “The government was eager to utilize my skills as a--”
“Skills, schmillz,” Buffy cut her off. “We all know who you were scooped by. Right, Maggie? You got tapped by a second rate demon CIA and little Joycie got packed off to the prestigious Watcher’s Council. Denied again, huh? Sucks to be you.”
Her vitriolic comments were simple guesswork, but Buffy could tell she’d struck a nerve.
“What’s the matter, Maggie, you gonna cry?” she sneered. “Aww, you are!”
Walsh glared. “Stop it!”
“Oh, all right, but only because you’re boring and I can’t stand listening to you snivel like a damned baby.” Buffy sniffed at the change in the air and pointed down the tunnel that branched off to the left. “Slight change of plans. Down there. Move.”
“But that one leads to the labs.”
Buffy just smiled.
~*~*~
In spite of the debilitating chip, the retrieval team had to hit the over-protective vampire with the tazers countless times before he finally dropped, enabling them to drag a screaming Willow from his side. It had been at least twelve hours since she had been returned- kicking and thrashing- to her cell. From there she had watched with tear-filled eyes, waiting and hoping desperately for some sign of him being taken into one of the containment cells.
After an hour with no sign of Trey, Willow slumped to the floor and sobbed brokenly. She was haunted by her last sight of him, lying so still with blood trickling from his ears and nose. He’d been hurt trying to protect her, becoming yet another casualty in her twisted vendetta against Buffy.
Buffy…
The cell across from hers was still ominously empty. Willow curled into herself and gave in to her despair.
~*~*~
Xander slouched petulantly in his chair. “Why do I have to be the one to stay behind while Will and Oz get to dress up in the cool army gear and play the hero’s?” he demanded of Joyce.
“Xander, we’ve been over this countless times. William and Oz are going to have to move fast and you’ll only get in the way.” Gritting her teeth, Joyce struggled for patience. She was beginning to wish she had let William stuff the brunette in a handy closet like he’d wanted to.
“I have experience with the Army!” the young man sulked. At her look of disbelief, he slumped further down. “Well, I do!”
The Watcher finally lost her temper. “You were turned into a soldier for three hours one Halloween night. I’d hardly say that qualifies you as experienced!”
~*~*~
Junior Holloway had nurtured big dreams when he joined the Initiative two years ago. The pay had been a substantial incentive and he’d envisioned himself moving quickly through the ranks until he enjoyed one of the loftier positions with the likes of Riley Finn and his cronies, Forrest and Graham.
Instead, his embarrassing test scores- both academic and physical fitness- had condemned him to serving his country in what he considered to be the most demeaning capacity. Armed with a mop and bucket, Junior spent his days cleaning up after the creatures Finn and his men brought in for the scientists to experiment on.
After being called to the carpet and humiliated on several occasions by the great Maggie Walsh herself, Junior nursed a fearsome grudge against their illustrious leader. Stupid bitch! Didn’t she realize how hard Chaos demon slime was to get out of a carpet? And what the hell had she been doing with said demon in her quarters anyway? He shuddered at the thought.
So, when he saw Maggie Walsh being led into one of the surgeries by that pretty little vamp that Finn was so keen on, Junior stifled a grin and continued to push his mop back and forth like the good little soldier he was. He told himself he hadn’t seen Walsh glaring at him with a pleading expression, silently urging him to alert someone to her situation.
Nope. Junior Holloway hadn’t seen a thing.
~*~*~
Buffy manufactured a garrote out of some very thin wire and a pen from Walsh’s lab coat. Twisting it around the older woman’s throat, she forced Maggie to kneel beside the metal table while she herself stretched out on its cool surface.
The horrified expression on the Oriental professor’s face was priceless. Dr. Hiroto had protested, of course, but the sight of his superior’s blood trickling down her neck as the thin wire cut into her skin changed his mind. The vampire’s threat was clear- make one false move and Professor Walsh would be instantly and efficiently decapitated.
“You just watch those slippy fingers, Doc.” Buffy’s green eyes sparkled with good humor as she stared up at the agitated man. “Once the chip is out and I’m back on my feet, I’ll let your precious Maggie go.”
Maggie bit her lip against the fiery pain at her throat. “Do as she says, Hiroto. With or without the chip, she’ll never make it out of here. We can always put it back when she is captured,” she assured him arrogantly.
Buffy giggled and tightened her grip, her small nose twitching at the sour smell of Walsh’s blood. She would keep her word and let Maggie go once it was done.
Nothing was said about draining her first.
TBC
Chapter 16
“What are you two doing here? This is a restricted area!” The scrawny little lab technician drew himself up and tried to look authoritative. “I’m going to have to ask to see your ID’s.”
William and Oz froze in their tracks and turned to face their newest threat. This was the third time they had been stopped since coming in through the hidden entrance. While William fumbled in the pockets of his borrowed fatigues, Oz calmly reached out and pinched the distracted tech in the soft tissues of his neck. The tech went down like a stone.
“You know, you’re really gonna have to teach me how to do that, mate,” William muttered quietly, leery of drawing more attention to their presence.
Oz quirked a smile and raised his hand, fingers parted in the age-old Vulcan symbol. “Live long and prosper, Jim.” Will snickered softly in appreciation.
They came out of the tunnel and onto a catwalk that overlooked the main floor of the complex. For the first time, Oz’s reaction was slightly less than laid back.
“My God,” he murmured. “You said it was big. You told me, but you never said it was huge!”
William rolled his eyes. “Let’s go,” he urged.
They headed for the nearest stairway and began to descend. About halfway down they had to pass three soldiers tromping upwards wearing uniforms identical to theirs. As they elbowed their way through, William was stunned when Oz suddenly let loose with a low but vicious growl.
“What the fuck?” he hissed.
“Willow,” Oz ground out, his eyes flashing with the opalescent sheen of the wolf. “All three of them smell like Willow, and she’s terrified.”
“Can you track her?”
The shorter man lifted his head, nostrils flaring. “Already am.”
It was hard to remain unobtrusive while moving at such a clip, but Oz only had one thought; get to the woman he would always consider his mate. Fortunately, no one was paying too much attention to them down here. They all seemed pretty worked up about something. Letting Oz go ahead a few paces, William paused to eavesdrop on one particularly large group.
“Finn is dead, and we have to assume that Professor Walsh is, too,” a tall, beefy looking officer said. He looked more than a little twitchy around the eyes. “We have no reason to believe that this hostile isn’t following the same route as her earlier escape. If she is, we can corner her when she comes out of the air ducts and take her out there.”
One of the commandos close to Will spoke up. “Is it true that she, uh… She, uh,” “You know… Bithisthingoff?” he rushed out. Every man standing there flinched and fought the urge to grab themselves.
The squad leader called them all to order. “We don’t know if the chip has stopped functioning or not, but from what was done to Finn, I’d have to say; yes, it has. Do not attempt to take her out on your own. She might look small and defenseless, but she is a vicious animal. Call immediately for back-up. That is all.”
The soldiers quickly began to disperse and William felt a surge of elation. It was Buffy. It had to be. Somehow she had taken that wanker Finn down and escaped into the ventilation system again.
His heart was thundering and he had to fight back the urge to follow the disappearing soldiers. He had to find Oz first and help him get Willow out of here if possible.
Cursing, he rushed after his friend.
~*~*~
Buffy sat up and prodded cautiously at the back of her head. “Wow, that was fast. Now to see if you really took it out, or if I have to rip your lady-boss’s head off. C’mere, Doc.”
Mincing forward, Hiroto gave Walsh an apologetic glance. Before he could say a word, Buffy popped him in the nose. Her only reaction as he slid to the floor in a daze was a hoot of triumph.
“Yeah! Oh my God, this is so fantastic!” She laughed gleefully in Walsh’s face. Even the massive headache she had couldn’t stem her joy at finally being free of her electronic leash.
Maggie flinched away as the garrote Buffy still held cut into her flesh. “You might as well kill me now,” she hissed. “You’ll never make it out of here, you realize that don’t you?”
Buffy shrugged nonchalantly. “Did before.”
In spite of her predicament, the good doctor smiled. “Pure luck. My men have their orders to destroy you on sight. They won’t fail me this time.”
“Please!” Buffy scoffed. “I out-smarted them all when I escaped the last time. Finn was the best you had, and he’s just a little bit dead right now.” She took an enormous amount of pleasure in throwing that fact in the other woman’s face. “They’re all probably out there chasing their own asses around trying to find you. Getting caught is the least of my worries.”
“I don’t think it’s my men you have to worry about, is it, Hostile?” Walsh insinuated slyly. For once Finn’s obsession with the little bitch would pay off.
Buffy narrowed her eyes threateningly. “What are you babbling about now?” Dread caused her belly to cramp in a sickening fashion.
“Sure, you might make it out of here, but you’ll only make it so far. You’ll run right back to your Slayer boyfriend, and he’s going to be waiting for you with open arms...until he finds out you no longer have that chip.” She smiled maliciously as she continued, “What do you think he’ll do then, Hostile?”
Nothing of what she was feeling showed on her face, but inside Buffy was a roiling mass of gut-wrenching fear. At the time she had been too hyped up at the thought of actually getting the chip out to think of the ramifications.
Of course the demon rejoiced; it was free to indulge once again in its true nature, to hunt once more. To wallow again in the blood of its prey, blood that wasn’t flat and tasteless, but properly seasoned with the spicy tang of terror that it had reveled in for over a hundred years.
It eyed the scrawny neck of its captive, enthralled by the thin trail of blood that wended its way down from the wound.
‘Do it,’ the demon hissed.
Another droplet welled up and began to slide down, holding her in its hypnotic thrall.
‘Do it!’ it insisted, oozing with confidence that its force of will would win out. 'Look at it. Smell it. You know you want it.'
It would be easy. Oh, so very easy to answer the call of crimson sustenance that had been so long denied. But the softer side, the side that housed the last vestiges of the Elizabeth she had been, the side that had dared to fall in love with the slayer of her kind, surged forth.
“No.”
It took every ounce of control that she possessed to push the demon back down, but it finally subsided with a petulant snarl.
Buffy battled the sting of tears. She knew in her heart that once her secret was out, it was over between them. There was no way she could go back to the way she was before, but William would never trust her to abstain. Trust for him was the small plastic chip that was no longer nestled in her head, and now that it was gone there was only one alternative.
Having made her decision, Buffy undid the wire and let the woman slump down into a chair. Walsh eyed her with something akin to amazement as she began tearing a sheet and binding her to the chair with the long strips.
“What? What are you doing?” she asked in confusion.
“Buying myself some time.” Smiling sadly, Buffy tied off the last strip and stepped back.
“But…you aren’t going to kill me?” Walsh stammered as the chair she was bound to was dragged into a supply closet.
Buffy stared down at her, hanging on to her self-control by sheer strength of will.
“As much as it kills me to admit it, you’re right. If I had taken a few minutes to think about my actions, I probably wouldn’t have done it. But it’s gone now and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Her resigned sigh had more than a quiver of regret. “The only thing I can do now is make sure he never has to make the decision to take me out. I love him too much for that.”
Walsh made a face of pure disgust. “Love? You’re a demon, you’re incapable of—”
The slamming of the door cut off her diatribe. Pausing only to tie up the still unconscious Dr. Hiroto, Buffy left the lab and made her way through the maze of hallways to the main floor.
Uncaring of the utter chaos that reigned around her, she found the nearest stairway to the upper level and began to climb. Bitter tears streaked her face and the occasional sob broke free, but still she climbed.
On the main catwalk, she suddenly froze. As she glanced down into the heaving mass of humans and demons below, both hands found and gripped the handrail with enough force to bend the steel.
William.
He was here. He and Oz were supporting a practically lifeless Willow between them while a dark-haired vamp in hospital scrubs cleared a path for them.
As if sensing her presence, Will looked up. Their eyes met; hers wet with tears, his wide with shocked amazement.
‘Buffy!’
She swore she could hear the jubilation in his voice as he said her name. She was just as certain that she heard the final crack as her heart broke and bled.
For one last time, Buffy opened herself up to him and sent every ounce of love she felt for him through the claim. She nearly buckled from the onslaught as he projected his feelings back to her.
Refusing to look away, she shook her head sadly and mouthed ‘goodbye’ to him. His fear and disbelief were palpable even across the distance between them. He shook his head vehemently and tried to shrug off Willow’s clinging arms.
‘No! Buffy, wait!’
Nearly blinded by her tears, she blew him a final kiss. And in the midst of all the confusion, she walked away.
TBC~
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