Please see previous parts for disclaimer, etc.  This fic is rated up
to NC-17.

**********

This is an underground emergency exit," Riley whispered.  "It
only
requires a key code to open the door, but there is a guard on the
other side."

"Xander could pose as an injured soldier so that we can distract
the
guard long enough for you to get in," Graham suggested.

"Fine with me," Xander quipped.

"Who's there?" demanded the armed guard.

"Agents Finn and Miller.  We've got a man injured," Riley
called.  "We need some help here."

The guard holstered his weapon and helped them lay Xander on the
floor.  "He looks okay to me."

"He's fine.  But you aren't," Spike replied as he
ripped the man's
throat out.

"What happened to offering them the chance to flee?" Giles
said
shakily.

"The rules changed when they captured my Red."

Graham swallowed hard.  "They'll know we're here in a
minute or two.
This way."  He led them in the direction of the cell where Willow
and
Anya were being kept.

Willow bolted up suddenly.  Anya looked at her expectantly.
"Soon,"
Willow said with a smile.

"I can feel her," Spike whispered to his sire.  Angel nodded
as
Graham stopped in front of a cell.

"Hello, pet," Spike drawled.

Willow smiled.  "I knew you'd come, Spike."

"Anya?"

"Xander?  Get me out of here.  I don't like this place."

"Open it up," Spike ordered.

"I don't think so, Riley," Forrest said, leveling a gun
at his best
friend.  Three commandoes behind him did the same.

Angel inhaled deeply.  "How many of these army guys is Buffy
screwing
anyway?" he asked.

"Only two for now," the blonde replied from behind them.  She
raised
a crossbow at Angel.  "Sorry, Riley, but you've been busy and
Forrest
hasn't been."

"How could you?" Riley choked.

"It was surprisingly easy."  Buffy remarked coldly.

"Easier than betraying your friends?" Xander snapped.

"They're not my friends anymore.  And neither are you.  And
Angel,
you're just a mistake I should have corrected a long time
ago."

Screams from elsewhere in the complex drew the commandoes'
attention.

"Reinforcements," Spike said calmly before attacking Forrest.
Graham
watched frozen in horror as Spike took down his friend.  Angel began
to attack Buffy as Xander grabbed Forrest's gun and began firing
at
the other commandoes.

"Graham," Willow called softly.  He jerked his head towards
her.  "Release us," she pleaded.

Graham punched in the code to lower the barrier.  "I'm sorry,
Willow," he said as Willow stepped out, pulling Anya with her.
The
redhead smiled at him.

"Which way out of here?" Anya asked.

Riley recovered from his shock enough to point in the direction where
Buffy and Angel were fighting.  "That way."

"Willow!" Spike yelled as he saw a commando level a gun at
her.

Graham saw it too and shoved her out of the way as several rounds of
automatic fire ripped into him.

"Fuck," he gurgled as he clutched at the bloody mass that had
once
been his stomach.

"Graham," Willow whispered as she knelt beside him.  "You
saved my
life."  Graham smiled at her weakly.

"Oh God," Xander gasped, clutching Anya as he stared at the
fallen
commando.

Spike had snapped the shooter's neck and now held Willow tightly
in
his arms.

"He saved my life, Spike," Willow sobbed.

"I know, pet.  Do you want him to live?" he asked seriously.

"Let him live," Riley said, gripping Graham's hand as he
slipped into
unconsciousness.

Spike bit into the man's neck and drained him until his heartbeat
slowed to barely beating.  Then he bit his wrist and held it to the
dying man's lips.  "A childe," he whispered softly to
Willow.  "A
brother for you, Red."  He threw Graham's limp body over his
shoulder
and grabbed Willow's hand.

Behind them, Angel stood over Buffy's unconscious body.  Even in
that
state, the cruel mask of hatred she now wore was apparent.  Giles
stepped beside the vampire and withdrew a pistol.  He began to speak
in a shaky voice.

"As long as there have been demons, there has been the Slayer.
One
girl in all the world, a Chosen one, born with the strength and skill
to hunt vampires and other deadly creatures, to find them where they
gather and stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their
numbers.  When one Slayer dies, the next is called.  Let the next be
called."  He closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.
Buffy's body
jerked from the impact and then lay still.  "And may God have
mercy
on our souls."

Angel picked up the slayer's body and reached out a hand to
steady
the weeping Englishman.  "It had to be done," he said quietly.

The somber group made their way towards the exit, the screams and
howls echoing behind them as they stepped into the cool night air.

End Part 16

**********

Riley sat on the floor of the mansion staring at nothing. The
organization and the people he'd believed in and trusted were
gone,
destroyed.  One of his best friends was dead on the cold floor of the
Initiative base.  The other lay on a bed upstairs, awaiting rebirth
as a vampire.  His girlfriend had betrayed both him and her friends.
She, too, was now dead.  He felt empty and hollow inside.

"You help the hopeless," Giles said to Angel as they watched
the boy
struggle to keep a hold of his sanity.

Angel nodded.  He moved towards Riley and offered him his hand.
Riley stared up at the vampire sadly.  "I loved her," the
commando
said.

"We all did.  She wasn't herself anymore," Angel replied.
"Let me
help you."

Riley nodded and took the vampire's hand.  He allowed the vampire
to
pull him into a hug, something he'd have never imagined doing.
As he
felt the strong arms encircle him, Riley began to sob uncontrollably.

"Will he be okay?" Willow asked her lover.

Spike nodded.  "Peaches will help him.  Hell, maybe they could
even
be friends and fight evil together somewhere far away and I
wouldn't
have to see either of the bastards anymore."

"You're impossible, Spike."

"But you love me anyway."

"And you love me," Willow said hopefully.

"That I do, pet," Spike replied, cupping the redhead's
face in his
hands and kissing her tenderly.  "That I do."

**********

"I can't believe you let her keep her soul," Graham
muttered as he
watched Willow terrorizing some of her old high school enemies.

"Well, Peaches insisted.  Pulled rank on me and everything.
Besides,
I spent a lot of time training her.  I'd hate to have to start
over
if she developed an attitude when she was all soulless.  And since
the soul is permanent, I didn't have any reason to put up a big
fight."

Willow ran towards her sire and her brother and launched herself at
Spike, wrapping her legs around him as she knocked him to the
ground.  "I want to go home, daddy," she purred, licking
Spike's neck.

"Why go home when we can shag right here?" Spike asked,
flipping her
over and pinning her arms.

Willow wrinkled her nose in disgust.  "It's all dirty and
there are
twigs everywhere.  I want to be in bed"

"All right, pet.  Let's go home."  Spike stood and dusted
himself
off.  He noticed the gleam in Graham's eyes as he stared at the
redhead on the ground.  Spike knew it was only a matter of time
before he was forced to share the redhead with his other childe.  In
spite of Spike's numerous attempts to find Graham a mate of his
own,
the former commando only had eyes for his sire's mate.  But Spike
didn't feel threatened by it.  Graham knew his place in the
family,
and Spike knew his childe understood that Willow was his sire's
mate
first.

Willow smiled up at her family..  "Home," she purred as they
helped
her to her feet.  Linking arms with both of them, the trio
disappeared into the darkness.

End

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