Chapter Thirty-Three

 

“We’re going to kidnap Professor Walsh.” 

 

Buffy strode into Giles’s flat with an unwavering sense of purpose.  She had fought all night to not descend into a mad heap of hysteria, but her blood continued to chill her into inactivity as her fear grew.  Images of Spike held captive in pure white cells- electrified glass doors that held no escape- testing and torturing him throughout the night.  It had taken her half an hour to stop vomiting and shaking enough to get dressed and make it to Giles’s.

 

Now that she had forced her feet to move consistently forward, her anger and hatred grew.  She had been so sure that she could trust Riley.  He had never been cruel from what she had seen- misguided and insecure maybe- but if he was behind this, then… She shuddered, unable to think clearly enough for an appropriate result of his betrayal.

 

Her statement had been met by a disbelieving silence, everyone dutifully assembled after her rousing calls, waiting for an explanation for her severe instruction.

 

“Hey, where’s the Soul Man?” 

 

Xander flinched in regret at the ravaged look on his friend’s face, and swallowed hard when she began to cry and collapsed in grief on the floor.  Now she was amongst friends she gave in to her terror and her sobbing prevented her from relaying her hurt.

 

Giles moved forward to gather her in his arms, trying to sooth her distress.  A loud knock on the door startled him, but he nodded toward Xander to open it.  Riley stood framed in the doorway, sunlight shining around him and suddenly Giles understood.  A quick look back at Buffy revealed a nasty enflamed scar on her neck and he at least took courage that Spike was still alive.  Buffy seemed unaware of their visitor, completely withdrawn in her grief, and his eyes narrowed in irritation as he turned back to the boy he had been plotting with the previous night.

 

“What the bloody hell have you idiots done to Spike?”

 

Riley shrunk back against the doorjamb in guilt, before taking a meaningful step inside the door.

 

“Just hold on a minute,” called Giles in his steely Ripper voice.  “I haven’t invited you into my home.  Tell me what you’ve done, you little prat!”

 

Riley looked momentarily confused by the name calling before resigning himself to their rightful anger.

 

“I couldn’t stop them.  There’s only the three of us that know anything about what Professor Walsh is planning, and after the reports of a Fyarl demon on the loose last night, the troops were out in force.  They think it’s a real coup that they’ve recaptured Hostile 17.”

 

At that Buffy finally regained an edge and her eyes flashed dangerously.  “Don’t you ever call him that again.”  She found it difficult to squeeze the words past the ball of pain in her chest.  Fear and desperation guided her, though as she formulated plans on the fly. 

 

“This is what you are going to do.  You are going to convince Professor Walsh to meet you somewhere we decide, and then you will help us restrain her and get Spike back.  If anything happens to him, I will guarantee you live to regret it.”

 

All the Scoobies looked at her, shocked that she would make such a violent threat toward a human, but nodded in acceptance of what had to be done.  Like it or not, Spike was now a bonafide Scooby, and torturing Scoobies did not sit well with the rest. With a sudden feeling of menace, Xander stepped forward to prevent Riley entering any further into the flat and crossed his arms across his chest, legs splayed in a stance of support.

 

“Just, why?  So, your buddies were out in force.  Looking for a Fyarl demon.  Why pick up Spike?  Was that the order?”

 

They all noticed Riley’s quick glance away from the interior and knowledge clicked in for them all.  Buffy jumped to her feat in a whirl of danger and grabbed the bigger body by the fisted fabric of his shirt.

 

“Why were there more orders?”

 

He remained standing silently, not even opening his mouth to pretend to offer an excuse.    Until she slapped him and his head jerked back and slammed into the door.  Rubbing his cheek shakily, he turned apologetic eyes to her and shrunk a little at her obvious turmoil.  Until this moment he hadn’t truly believed that she felt anything real for the vampire. Now, with this group of people backing her up- and accepting her threatening behaviour in order to get him back- he knew he had to acknowledge that he’d never had a chance with her.

 

“I…might have mentioned to the Professor that he had a soul.”

 

Buffy lifted her fist ready to plant it firmly against his teeth, but Xander wrapped his gentle palm around it and pulled her away, wrapping her in his arms as she once again began to cry tears of hopelessness.   

 

“I was trying to get her to see that he wasn’t a risk to the population and that we could back off.  I didn’t think she would decide it would make him even more valuable to investigate.”    Riley rushed out the sentence, knowing his explanation meant little.  He looked back and forth at the faces that all stared him down, expressions a mix of pity, anger and horror.

 

“I hope this helps you identify who the animals of your operation really are?”  Giles felt his bitterness rise and felt almost alarmed at the protectiveness he felt toward the blond vampire, never having felt anything similar for Angel at any point in time. He tried to argue internally that it was purely for Buffy’s benefit, but he knew—without admitting to himself—that he actually liked the vamp, just a little.  He knew.  Someone was trying to usurp his own research into the working of Spike, and he wouldn’t have it.  That bloody harridan was due her comeuppance.  In a split second he approved Buffy’s plan.  Now for a location to carry it out.  He eyed the boy, deeply frustrated that there was force about the association and that they couldn’t just exclude him from here on out.

 

“How much does your operation know about any of us?”  He thought quickly of their options, and hoped that Riley and his outfit still knew nothing of the Slayer, and thus Buffy and her friends, leaving them with a number of places to shelter.

 

“Um, all we know is that Buffy is super strong, but me and the guys haven’t said anything to the Professor about her.”  Riley had a questioning face, a face eager for an explanation.

 

Giles had to be sure.

 

“So you don’t know she is the Slayer?” 

 

“Giles!” 

 

Four voices shouted at him, but he didn’t even flinch.

 

“So much for the secrecy deal.”  Buffy threw her arms in the air and walked away to flop on the sofa in resignation.

 

Riley just looked at Giles, his eyes quizzical and shining interest.

 

“What’s a Slayer?”  His enthusiasm caused Giles’s lips to thin in disapproval, but at least now he felt confident that Finn had no clue what he was dealing with.   A plan began to form and he merely stared into space for a moment, ignoring the restless Scoobies behind him.

 

“Your friends,” he began, then waited for confirmation by the supply of their names.

 

“Forrest and Graham?”

 

“Are they trustworthy?”

 

“In what way?”  Riley betrayed his suspicion but found himself shamed again by the fierce pack of friends surrounding the tearful Buffy.  He saw that she looked weak, wrung out and terrified, and his guilt took on a sharper edge. 

 

Giles observed the changes in the young man’s expression and knew that he was naïve and incapable of being devious.  He emanated an innocence that Ripper would have no compunction but to take advantage of, and he allowed his plan to solidify and take on form.

 

“Are they eager to stop project 314?”

 

Riley was startled, still alarmed by the extent of their inside knowledge; but since his own digging the three could do nothing but be shocked at the plot instigated by the Professor, easily seeing the disaster in releasing such a monster in the world.  What she proposed was way beyond anything he and his friends had signed up for.  Adam was under such close security that it had been quite a job for Riley to gain the information, but once he did and presented it to his friends, they knew that they had to do something.  So, in ready compliance, he nodded his head.   The three of them would do whatever it took, including risking their careers.

 

“Right then.”  Without looking back at any of the faces behind him, his hard voice took on the authoritative tones of one not to be crossed, and he nudged himself a little at the obvious amount of fun he was having.  “You are to go to Professor Walsh and tell her that you have information about the Vampire Slayer.  Tell her that you can take her to meet with Buffy, but make sure she only takes you and your two friends as back-up.  If you can manage it,” his voice was saturated with sarcasm, then shooting a livid look at the commando that was causing Buffy so much pain, “tell her that Buffy would be willing to join the outfit or submit to tests, but only if you return Spike.”  He paused at Riley’s steady understanding nods, and then yelled “unharmed!” and made everyone around him jump in surprise.   

 

“Bring her here after sundown, stressing that Buffy won’t speak to anyone but her, because she so admires her from class or some such thing equally saccharine, and we will take it from there.  Do you think you will have trouble doing this?  It is imperative that we get the opportunity to…convince… the Professor that it would not be in her best interests to let loose such a creature, and from what Buffy has told me, there isn’t much time left.”

 

The Scoobies contemplated Giles, awestruck but uncomfortably reminded of his demeanor when Jenny had been killed and his Ripper rampage, and suddenly felt a smidgen of pity for the misguided academic.  Well, a fraction of a smidgen.    

 

With his resigned consent, Riley left to fill in his two accomplices and Buffy was able to breathe a little in relief and hope.  She jumped up and hugged Giles, her eyes shiny.  She buried her reddened face in his shoulder and strived for calm.  Looking up once again she fingered the burning scar and whimpered. 

 

“They’re hurting him, Giles.”

 

Suddenly she was engulfed in a group hug that she never wanted to be released from.

 

“Not for long, Buff.  We’ll get him back, then we’ll kick some commando-government ass!”  Xander’s angry voice filtered through her emotional haze and she smiled at her would-be protector, glad again that these people were her family.  He looked down a little sheepish.  “Well, you will anyway.  Us?  Not so much.  But we can watch, and videotape, and make disparaging  comments later at the survival party.”

 

Suddenly her confidence returned and Buffy grinned, the image of kicking Maggie’s ass supremely satisfying, but not before she had managed to squeeze an A out of her.  No B’s for Buffy, no siree Bob.  With a renewed sense of purpose, the group set to organising the kidnapping, in surprisingly happy moods, despite the ugliness of the situation.            

 

Tonight she would have Spike back in her arms, or God help her, heads would roll.