Chapter 20 – Thwarted



A fierce headache from the tranquilizer drugs ripped Spike from unconsciousness. Before opening his eyes, he listened and heard voices, waves, heartbeats and a motor. He cracked open his eyes. He was in the hold of a boat, along with five drugged or sleeping humans. The hatch to the deck was closed, so he rolled over to the side of the boat and peeked out a porthole.

He’d gone outside the apartment to smoke a fag and catch some more moonlight while Buffy was sleeping. The soldiers were waiting for him. They nailed him with a tranquilizer dart , but not before he got in a few licks on Captain Cardboard’s face.

Damn Willy. Willy had been bribed or beaten into telling the soldiers where to find him. Should have known better than to rent an apartment from that worm. Wasn’t like he had much choice though, being dead.

By the light of the setting moon, he could see the coast, and the twinkling yellow, aqua, pink and green electric lights of the Ferris wheel at Isla Vista and the dark water of the bay. He was on the way to Fuego.

“I’m up the sodding creek now.”

He shook his head to fight off dizziness from the drugs and staggered up to examine the hold for some way to escape. The only way out was the deck hatch and he had no weapon. Hearing the rasp of the hatch being lifted, he dropped back to the deck and feigned unconsciousness.

The boat banged against a pier and the soldiers shouted and secured the boat. More soldiers poured onto the boat and hauled Spike and the sleeping humans out of the hold and dumped them into the back of a small truck.

“Gates!” Finn shouted. “Give them another dose of tranquilizers. I don’t want anybody waking up.”

“Shit, Finn. They’re sleeping like babies. They don’t need another dose.”

Gates was in no mood to obey his commanding agent. Dumb Butt Finn chased after that Slayer girl when the Professor waved him off then, burned out Hostile 17’s behavior implant. As a result, the whole team ended up on this god-forsaken island with nothing but crazy-ass newbie vampires and their knocked up girlfriends for company. To top it off, Gates had to stop Finn from committing sexual assault on the Slayer when they went to pick up Hostile 17. They’d be chasing frost demons in Antarctica if Finn had banged the Slayer against her will. If Finn had lived to tell about it, that is.

“Did I ask you? If Hostile 17 wakes up, you’ll wish you’d given him three doses. Do it.”

Gates shook his head and moved to the back of the truck. He shot each of the humans with another dose of tranquilizers.

He was reloading darts in his rifle, when Spike jumped up and leaped out of the truck and smashed his fist into the closest soldier. He tossed another soldier off the pier into the ocean.

Gates shot Hostile 17 twice. No use taking chances with that one. Finn was an asshole, but he knew a thing or two about vampires.

Spike fell to the pier. The soldiers tossed him back into the truck.

***

Buffy didn’t greet her mother or Joyce’s guest when she arrived home. She rushed up the stairs to grab weapons from her trunk. She didn’t want to talk to her mother. Talking meant telling and telling meant crying and she had no time for crying. Not when her vampire was in danger.

She changed into her baggiest break-and-enterish black clothes, her favorite fighting boots and a black cloth cap. She smeared black grease paint on her face to complete her scary commando look and threw crossbows, arrows, handcuffs and knives into her patrol bag, along with a couple of stakes. She would have to get other weapons if she was going to go against humans.

She ran back down the stairs and saw her mother setting up a bunch of signs and boxes of leaflets in the dining room. The room looked much as it had when her mother started her stupid MOO group when Buffy was in high school.

An older woman, older than Buffy’s mother even, was sitting in the dining room, drawing more signs. The woman was plump with huge breasts, long grey hair braided down her back and no makeup. She wore a baggy red, purple and green, sleeveless dress that looked like it was woven out of shredded bark. On her feet, she wore Birkenstocks. Brown Birkenstocks. She wasn’t wearing a brassiere either. There must be some government program to rehabilitate people like her.

She probably doesn’t shave her armpits. Hope she doesn’t raise her arms. She raised her arms. Ewww.

Buffy picked up a sign. The sign was printed with large green letters and attached to a wooden stick. The sign said ‘SPIT.’

“Mom? You didn’t get involved in another group, did you?”

“Buffy, I’m glad you’re home. Did Spike show you the apartment? How did you like it?”

“Yes, he showed me. It’s great.”

Should she mention Spike’s capture to her mother? Mom would be upset and she’d make Buffy even more upset than she already was. Mom would not like what Buffy planned to do about getting him back, either. There’d be crying and arguing, exactly what Buffy didn’t need.

“What’s this group, Mom?”

“Buffy, this is Sunglow Panger. Sunglow, my daughter Buffy. I met Sunglow at a crafting fair in San Francisco while I was on my buying trip. She’s the founder of the Society for the Protection of Indigenous Terrestrials. She told me all about how the government was experimenting on terrestrials and how we need to stop them. The government, I mean. I couldn’t stop thinking about the ryzark demon nest you cleared out the other day. I’m opening a new SPIT chapter here in Sunnydale to help preserve the terrestrials. Sunglow came to help me.”

She was never going to live down that ryzark lie. “Mom, I don’t think this SPIT thing is a good idea.”

“I know, honey, but you didn’t think MOO was a very good idea either, and look how well that turned out.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. Her mother enjoyed a selective memory when she was enjoying a nostalgic about MOO. Mom and her MOO friends nearly got Buffy and Willow and Amy burnt at the stake. Amy was still doing rat aerobics on a wheel thingie in Willow’s room, because of MOO.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Buffy,” Sunglow said. “Your mother tells me you work with demons.”

Buffy frowned. What had her mother been saying about her? “Actually, I kill …”

Joyce interrupted. “I told Sunglow all about Spike and how the two of you are expecting.”

“Mom?” What had Mom been telling this Total Stranger Reject From A Commune Female Person? Why couldn’t she gossip about her own love affairs, like that time she dated a psycho robot, or when she boinked Giles on the hood of a police car?

“I think it’s wonderful, dear,” Sunglow said. She patted Buffy’s hand. “It’s lovely you’re settling down after you ran away from home and had that affair with that other vampire who turned all nasty and killed your school teacher. Is your baby going to be a vampire like its father?”

“Mom!”

“What do you think?” Sunglow held up a sign with a crude drawing of a face with vampire fangs.

“I have to find Giles, Mom.” She had to get out of the house before she found out what else her mother had been saying to this Freakazoid Old Flower Child.

“Okay, honey. You run along. I need to make phone calls for SPIT. Will you be back for dinner?”

No time for dinner. I’ll be taking down a heavily guarded, high-tech government military installation with a crossbow and two one-half ounce bottles of Eau de Holy Water.

“I’ll pick up something later. Don’t wait up.”

Buffy kissed her mother and rushed out the door.

***

Buffy brought Aspen to the Scoobie meeting that evening at the Magic Box so Aspen could tell Giles how the Initiative captured Thomas and turned him into a vampire.

“Don’t worry Mr. Giles,” Aspen said. “Buffy told me you were going to make me explain everything three times.”

Xander held up a stake he’d finished sharpening and admired his handiwork. He tossed it to Buffy.

“Yes,” said Xander. “And, I am going to make Buffy the Vampire Slayer explain three times how she came to be pregnant and shacking up with William the Bloody Vampire.”

Buffy twirled the stake overhand, then underhand to test its balance and dropped it on the floor. She tossed it back to Xander for further whittling.

“Give it a nap, Xander,” Buffy said. “We need to concentrate on getting Spike and Aspen’s boyfriend, Thomas, and the rest of the vampires out of Fuego.”

“Why, exactly do we need to do that? Fuego is a fine place to keep a bunch of bloodthirsty killers. You won’t have to stake them if they get out of line or their chips stop working, because, hey, they’re in prison.”

Tears floated up in Buffy’s eyes and dripped down her cheeks leaving pink trails through her black combat makeup. She couldn’t believe Xander was saying these things about her Spike. Yeah, Spike was annoying, but that was no excuse to leave him in the hands of evil Professor Walsh and her Scalpel Squad. Xander always claimed he loved Buffy, but when it came to helping her have the one thing that she wanted and loved, the most, he was nothing but smart remarks and bad jokes.

“We have to get Spike back.”

“And, Thomas,” Aspen said. She sniffled, too.

“Children, children, please stop,” Giles said. “Buffy and, er, Aspen, we’re going to get Spike and Thomas and the others back, but you must refrain from these emotional displays.”

Giles examined Buffy’s combat clothes and black face paint and cleared his throat. He’d meant to say something when she first came in, but had been distracted by Aspen’s fascinating story and the necessity of taking notes for his Watcher’s Journal.

“Buffy, please tell me you’re not going to attempt to rescue Spike and the others by yourself.”

Buffy’s heart cried out to race to Fuego and free Spike. Her first plan had been to get somebody to drive her to Isla Vista and steal the first boat she could find to chase after Spike and his captors.

But, she couldn’t rescue anyone by herself from a military stronghold like the one on Fuego was bound to be. She didn’t know where Fuego was, she didn’t know the layout of the place or where Spike and the others were being held. She wouldn’t even be able to get inside without some Major Planning and possibly some Major Mojo. She’d need the resources of the entire gang and a plan of action to take on a couple hundred soldiers on an isolated island. A plan that required no killing of anyone. Well, maybe Angel.

“No, I just felt like getting dressed up like a ninja and putting shoe polish on my face.” She snuffled and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and smeared her commando makeup around until she looked like a raccoon.

Giles tisked.

“There’s something Aspen didn’t tell you, Giles,” Buffy said. “It’s about Angel.”

Xander smiled. “I knew it. I knew that guy would come to no good. Can we stake him?”

“Do be quiet, Xander. What about Angel?” Giles asked.

Buffy hesitated. If there was one thing that would make Xander happier than Spike being in trouble, it was Angel returning to his murderous ways.

“The government captured Angel, too. He turned all the new vampires on the island. Angel’s eating people like Pringles.”

“At least,” Giles said, “we don’t have to worry about Spike feeding on people. His chip will keep him in line until we can arrive.”

Buffy and Willow exchanged nervous glances. No one but Willow knew that Spike’s chip was deactivated. Buffy hadn’t informed Giles of Spike’s current no-chip status. She didn’t intend to give Giles that bit of news and receive a whole big Your Duty As the Chosen Slayer Lecture as long as there was the slightest chance that Spike might be behaving.

Up until last night, Spike fed on bags of blood from the butcher and the occasional sip from her own neck, or at least, he’d snuck out of town and kept her from finding out. Although, he’d always been hanging around to see what she was up to with Riley, no maybe no sneaking had occurred. Riley claimed Spike killed somebody last night, but nobody reported tripping over a dead body with its throat ripped out yet. Maybe Riley was lying.

There was another thing she didn’t plan on telling Giles. She had no intention of staking Spike no matter what he’d done. She loved Spike.

Xander smacked his hands together. “Count me in, Buffster for the Big Gov takedown. I’ll bring sharp, pointy wooden objects and tasty snacking cakes.”

Buffy glared at Xander. Xander was going to do some major gloating now that he knew what Angel had been up to lately. He’d hated Angel for years and now he’d been proven right. Xander was going to be an insufferable pig about this whole thing.

“Why don’t you go ahead and say I told you so?”

“I was relishing the moment, Buff. I was working up a witty remark to go with my I-told-you-so, but I think I can savor being correct about Angel in its pure, unwitty form. I told you so.”

“Are you going to help me or not, Mr. Witty?”

“Sure, Buffster, what’s the plan?”

“Willow, I need you to steal the blueprints for the Fuego Island installation.”

“I can try, Buff, but the password you gave me doesn’t have high enough clearance.”

Buffy pulled out the paper she’d found in Spike’s coat. The pattern of the writing looked similar to the passwords she’d stolen from Riley. She handed Willow the scrap of paper.

“I found this in Spike’s coat. While you’re snooping, see if you can print some blank military orders and information about the personnel on the island – troop numbers, weapons, security. And, get me the file on Special Agent Riley Finn.”

Willow grabbed the password and headed for the school computer lab.

“Giles, I want you to get a boat, a big, fast one. Xander, you and I are going to visit the army base north of town and liberate supplies. Aspen and Anya, I want you to go see my mother. You’re going to create a diversion.”