Wend Their Ways Together: Chapter Eleven

[jesterladyfic]

The first thing Buffy did when they got back was take a call from Riley letting her know he’d received permission from Professor Walsh, allowing Buffy access to the Initiative. They arranged for him to meet her there the next morning and give her the grand tour. Buffy hung up the phone and turned to Spike who was trying his hardest to unpack.

“I just received a phone call. Me, in our new apartment. My first phone call as a married woman.”

“From someone who might very well turn out to be evil,” Spike reminded. Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Look who’s talking. Oh, you’re just jealous I’m not going to stay all day indoors with you tomorrow.”

“Point.” He slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “But I don’t trust those wankers. And neither should you. I know you can take care of yourself, but be prepared, k’ love?”

“I promise, Spike.”

***

‘Prepared is right,’ thought Buffy in awe as she stepped into the cavernous main area of the Initiative the next day.

“This place is giganimous,” she said to Riley who smiled with pride.

“It’s the most up to date facility in the world. The government figured they should spare no expense for the only geographical location with a, what do you call it? Hellmouth.”

“Guess you guys didn’t get the memo about the one in Cleveland.”

“There’s one in Cleveland? Is it worse than here? Maybe I-“ Riley was cut off by the approach of Professor Walsh.

“Finn. Miss Summers, welcome to the Initiative. Let me remind you that this is a private military organization and you are not authorized to reveal anything you may learn in here. Understood?”

“Uh, sure.” Buffy fidgeted nervously, “Um, do I need to salute you?”

“No, that will not be necessary. Please follow me.” Professor Walsh led them toward the pit in the center of the room past a door labeled ‘Authorized Personnel Only.’

“So, what’s in there?” Buffy asked.

“Exactly what it states, Buffy. Something only authorized personnel need to know about. A lot of important and potentially dangerous research goes on in this facility. The less important research is conducted right here in this pit.” Buffy leaned over the edge and looked with surprise and a little disgust at the number of demons being operated on in the pit. She followed Professor Walsh thoughtfully through the rest of the tour of expensive-looking gadgets and useless looking guns. Once more at the door, Professor Walsh handed her a file folder.

“This is for you to look over. It can’t be removed from the facility however, as it contains confidential information about us.” Buffy nodded and leafed through the papers, noting it was mostly mumble jumble info about vampires and various other demons she knew more about than they ever would, and recruitment sheets and restrictions.

“Well, thanks for the tour and everything. It was great, full of fun facts to know and…not tell.”

“Now you know all about us, Miss Summers. But we would love to know more about you as well. I confess we thought the Slayer was a myth.”

“Well, you were myth-taken,” said Buffy, then dropped her head, knowing that even for her, that was a bad pun. Professor Walsh apparently agreed, but ignored it.

“Yes, well, frankly, we’d all love a demonstration of your abilities.”

“Okay, I guess. Now?”

“No, most of our troops are out at the moment securing a Polgara sub terrestrial.
I know they’d like to be here and in fact, I need to send Agent Finn out there now to take command of the operation. Perhaps tomorrow?”

“Yup, works for me.”

“Wonderful. I know both of us have class tomorrow morning, so how about directly after the test I know you haven’t studied for?”

“Right, that test. I’ll be here, right after that test, yeah.” Buffy turned red and handed the papers to Riley before leaving to go home.

***

Later that night, Buffy and Spike walked hand in hand to Giles’, to update everyone on the Initiative. When they arrived, they found Giles working with Tara in the kitchen, Xander and Anya smooching on the couch and Oz in earnest conversation with Willow in the portal.

“Hey, guys, we’re home,” Buffy called out cheerfully.

“Buffy, you’re not dead!”

“No, Xan, I’m not dead.” Tara came in and smiled warmly at the two newlyweds.

“How was your trip?” Then with a devilish glint in her eye, “Stray too far from
the hotel?”

“Feeling jealous, Glinda?” Spike teased, “If you wanted to tag along, all you had
to do was ask.” Buffy slugged Spike hard in the arm.

“Ow, Slayer. What was that for?”

“For being a pig, Spike.”

“One of these days you’re going to call me something else, love. In fact, I can
think of several other things you’ve called me, just not in polite company.”

“Is that the sort of thing you don’t like me saying in public?” Anya inquired of
Xander, who fondly put his arm around her.

“Yeah, Ahn. But whereas Spike just hints, you come right out and say.” Giles rolled his eyes before coming to give Buffy a hug and Spike a handshake.

“I’m glad you’re back safe. Come on in, we got up a few snacks to welcome you
home with. And now that we’re all here, let’s hear what you’ve learned about our government friends.”

“Friends? I thought they didn’t like us and hunted us down and we infiltrated
them to learn how to stop them from being evil?” A knock interrupted Anya’s inquiries and Oz opened it to reveal Jonathan and a nervous, weight-shifting, nerdy looking guy.

“Hey, Oz.”

“Jonathan.”

“Can we come in?” Oz sized Jonathan and the other guy up.

“Need an invite? Sorry about the suspicion, but the last old classmate I saw
tried to eat Willow.”

“Huh? Oh, no, we’re human.” So saying, Jonathan stepped in, followed by his
friend.

“Hi, Jonathan.”

“Hi, Buffy. I hope this is okay, us, just here and all.”

“Yeah, we’re about to do the boring exposition thing, but go ahead and pull up a
sleeping bag and join the slumber.”

“This is Andrew, the guy I told you about at the wedding.” Various hellos echoed around the room.

“Greetings, fellow friends of Jonathan. I am honored to participate with you in the bringing down of evil. Even though, I myself, have embraced the Dark Side on occasion, I hope to rejoice solemnly with you all in the timely end of our newest common foe, but first, can I have something to eat? I’m starving.” At Buffy’s surprised nod of ascent, Andrew rushed over to the table and began chowing down on Giles’ and Tara’s hard work.

“Is he always like that?” asked Willow. “All grand speech giving and munchy?”

“Uh, worse,” Jonathan apologized. “I just, well, I kinda am all that stands between him and sad attempts at being an evil genius.”

“Oh great, another helpless twonk to take care of. Still, gives the whelp somebody to talk to.” Spike smirked at Xander who glared at him.

“Buffy, do you think we could stake Spike so we can get the meeting going?”

“Yes to the meeting, no to the staking. Ok, so I went to the Initiative today to figure out what they were up to. Still don’t know cause they’re all secretive and hiding. But I’m going back tomorrow to show them about Slayers and we’ll go from there. Oh, and I don’t think Professor Walsh likes me.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“No, Anya, she didn’t.”

“Then how do you know? Everyone here always tells everybody else when they don’t
like them.”

“Well, we must be special then, pet. Afraid the rest of the world is a mess of
innuendo and lack of being forthright.”

“I see. Well, that’s stupid. We should change it.” Spike laughed.

“You can say that again. Harris, your bird is a beautiful form of a woman.”

“Mind your own woman, Dead-boy, and leave mine alone! Oh, did I just say Buffy
was his woman? Somebody kill me.”

“Happy to oblige, mate.”

“It’s a wonder to me how we ever save the world at all.”

“Giles is right,” said Buffy, jabbing Spike with her elbow. “Let’s be focused,
guys. I didn’t get a ‘like you’ vibe from her, that’s all I know. Which isn’t fair, I mean, I’m likeable. I’ve got happy, Buffy cheerfulness and outgoing perkiness. I didn’t beat her up or anything. I don’t see why she wouldn’t like me. I could be wrong, we’ll see. But that’s basically my report other than to warn you guys to continue to watch yourselves.”

“Okay, meeting adjourned?” Xander rubbed his hands together. “I gotta go. You know us working guys, construction early tomorrow.”

“And Demon-girl late tonight,” Spike murmured. Xander and Anya left and Oz walked Tara back to the campus after saying goodbye to Willow who blinked out after they left. Jonathan dragged Andrew away from the food and they left with Andrew’s parting words,

“Good meeting, everyone. Thanks for the food. I learned a lot and feel much closer to you all. We’ll be back tomorrow to receive our further instructions in the fight against evil.” This time is was Buffy who rolled her eyes before she and Spike headed home, leaving Giles alone wondering why he didn’t follow through on that grocer career.

***

When Buffy arrived at the Initiative the next day she found a whole slew of soldiers lined up in front of a bank of monitors. Professor Walsh was standing by them next to a table with some equipment on it.

“Buffy, thank you for being prompt. Please step this way. An interesting thing happened this morning, quite fortuitous in our point of view. Several of our most vicious HT’s escaped through a vent early this morning. Now, only a few have ever done so and we have recovered all of them except for Hostile 17 and these. We hoped you could help us with the latter and at the same time demonstrate for us your abilities. What do you say?”

“Okay, you got yourself a Slayer.”

“Excellent. Now understand we will take every precaution to ensure your safety. Here on this table you see a headphone set. But it contains a camera and two-way radio, so we will be able to view everything from here. It also monitors your heart rate. Next to it, is our newest model of your typical taser gun. I understand you prefer to use older type of weaponry, but this will give you an advantage and also help to determine your safety.” Buffy nodded in understanding. Professor Walsh unfolded a map and they bent over it. “Now, this here is the tunnel our sensors have showed the two to be hiding in. There are several tunnels in and out with access gates that can open and close. We will keep all of them open, just in case you need an escape route. I will post two guards outside so that you have back up should you need it. Clear?”

“So clear it’s crystal.”

“All right then, let’s get started.” Buffy grinned in anticipation of slaying and started out wearing the headset and carrying the gun. As soon as she had gone, Maggie Walsh nodded discretely to a lab attendant leaning over the railing. He nodded back and disappeared into a small room. A few seconds later a siren rang out and echoed in the vast room. Every man snapped to attention.

“That’s a Code Red, men, prepare for action,” Riley called out. “What’s happening, Professor?” She had run to the upstairs railing and scanned a sheet the technician handed her.

“Hostiles 214, 21 and 80 have escaped. Immediate recovery is essential. Agent Finn, prepare your men for mobilization.”

“Are they escaping through the tunnels that Buffy is using?”

“Negative. They are at the other end of the compound. The Slayer is at no risk, Riley.”

“Right, men, let’s go. Basic search and capture, kill only if absolutely necessary.” With that, the men who had lined up to watch Buffy slay had grabbed weapons and disappeared. Maggie Walsh watched them go, then turned to the bank of monitors where Buffy was advancing, weapon at the ready.

***

Buffy walked slowly, senses tingling, down the tunnel. She ducked under an overhanging part of the ceiling into a small intersection of tunnels. A growl sounded behind her and she instinctively ducked, just in time to avoid having her head chopped off by a six foot tall, scaly demon with three horns and an axe. Three other identical demons stepped out of the tunnels. As they did, the gates smashed down behind them, trapping her in the tiny space with four demons. Buffy flipped over their heads to the outside of the circle they had her in and grabbed the taser gun she had dropped when she was first attacked.

She pulled the trigger and the gun exploded in her hands. Buffy nearly dropped it in shock, but recovering quickly, she used the hard butt she had left to ram it into the first demon’s head, leaving it sticking out of his left eye. He dropped to the floor and the other demons tripped on his body. Grabbing one by its horns, Buffy swung him into the other two, then kicked his hand so the axe he held flipped upward out of his grasp. She caught it as it came down and swung, cleaving his head from his body.

A blow from behind caught her by surprise, Buffy fell hard and the axe went sprawling. Flipping to her feet, she exchanged blows with one demon, using its weight to kick the other one off. The larger demon grabbed her arm and swung her against the wall. Stunned, Buffy fell to the floor and grasped the handle of the axe, turning, she ducked a claw swipe and sunk the axe into his stomach.

Getting to her feet, Buffy faced the remaining demon. She swung and he blocked, then his right fist caught the side of her head and slammed it into the wall. He advanced on her and she swept a leg under his, toppling him to the floor. Rolling out of the way, she grabbed a small knife hidden in her pant leg and stabbed him four times. Laying exhausted on the floor for a minute, Buffy got her bearings as realization dawned on her. Getting up, she grabbed the top of one of the tunnels and swung, kicking her way through two of the bars. Limping, she made her way up the tunnel, heading for Giles.’

***

At the Initiative, Maggie turned away from the monitors, a look of disappointment on her face, but she sipped her coffee calmly.

***

In the tunnels, a tall figure stepped out from the shadows where it had observed the fight.

“Interesting,” it said, before turning and walking down another tunnel, which it opened with a small remote clutched in a scaly, brown hand. Its immense shadow followed it down the tunnel, footsteps ringing out metallically.