Chapter 19

“There are cameras,” Riley began. “Initiative surveillance cameras, all over Lowell House, including the bedrooms. After you told Graham what happened, he and Forrest had the idea to check the tape from that night –”

“And you kept it from me?” Buffy interrupted, giving his shoulder a hard shove. “When I was going crazy trying to find out what happened to me?”

“Spike didn’t say anything, either.”

“This isn’t about Spike!” she cried, nearly hysterical. “This is about you and me. You were my boyfriend – how could you say you care about me and not tell me you had a tape?”

“I wanted to take care of it myself!” He shook his head. “God, Buffy, do you know what it did to me, seeing that tape? I wanted so badly to believe it was rape, to believe that you wouldn’t cheat on me, but then seeing you with him… I couldn’t keep fooling myself. And I wanted to kill Spike for doing it.”

“So, that’s it,” Buffy said, the pieces starting to come together. “That’s why the Initiative has been coming after Spike. It wasn’t about recovering research or valuable technology. It was you and your vendetta.”

“Oh, and you wouldn’t have wanted to kill him if you thought he’d raped you?”

“Of course I would!” she retorted. “Which is why you should’ve told me what you knew!”

“Well, I probably would have, if you hadn’t been all over Spike all the time! It was like I saw that tape, and the next thing I knew, you two were best buddies, and you were going out of your way to protect him. What was I supposed to think, Buffy? And after I had defended you! The guys all thought I was a fool, that you were playing me, but I told them I trusted you. And clearly, I was wrong.”

“So you decided I really was a slut after all. Well, thanks so much!” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “You know, if your so-called friends hadn’t drugged me in the first place, none of this would’ve happened!”

“You think I don’t know that?” he snapped back. “I was furious with them for what they did! But it wasn’t just… I mean, come on, Buffy. Look me in the eye and tell me you never had any feelings for Spike.” Without giving her a chance to deny it, he barreled on. “I could see it – anybody could see it. All that drug did was bring out what was already there.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Buffy pleaded. “We could’ve talked this out, Riley. And if you’d just been honest with me instead of this passive-aggressive crap, then I would’ve known about the tape weeks ago!”

“Why do you care so much about the tape? Spike could’ve told you the day after it happened, but you’re not –”

“Because someone else raped me!” Buffy burst out, her voice breaking. “After Spike left… there was someone else, and that tape may be the only proof.”

Riley stared at her in shock. “What?”

“Riley, I need to see that tape.”

*****

At one time, getting to see the Initiative for the first time would’ve been a big deal, and Buffy knew that she ought to be fascinated by the pure size and scope of the underground facility, but she was too focused on the task at hand to even bother taking in the details. She and Riley rode the elevator down in silence, and he briskly escorted her through the maze of corridors, past countless soldiers giving her strange looks, everything from surprise and confusion to downright derision. She figured the latter were the ones who’d heard about her.

Riley led her into a small room with several video feeds playing on a wall of monitors. “Agent Michaels,” he greeted the soldier manning the station.

“Agent Finn, sir!” he replied, leaping to his feet and snapping to attention.

“At ease,” Riley commanded. “This is Buffy Summers. We need to check out some archived security footage.” As he rattled off the specifics, the junior officer hastily began typing on his computer, and one of the screens went blank. A moment later, a picture flickered into view, showing Riley’s empty bedroom.

Buffy blanched, finally faced with the truth she’d waited so long and worked so hard to find. She glanced uneasily at Agent Michaels, a stranger witness to her most shameful moment. Noting her discomfort, Riley dismissed the other soldier, giving them a little privacy in which to view the tape. She wanted to ask to watch it alone, but she knew Riley would insist on staying.

They watched as Xander escorted Buffy into the room, tucked her into the bed, and left, closing the door behind him. The video had no sound, but the visual was more than adequate for their purposes. A little while later, the door opened again, and they saw Spike come in the room.

Buffy let out an involuntary gasp at the image. She’d heard the whole story from Spike, of course, but seeing it in black and white on the screen, it became that much more real to her. She felt a perverse desire to watch their entire interaction, to see if what Spike had said was true, but before she could speak, Riley said coldly, “I don’t need to see that again.”

Buffy ducked her head in shame as he fast forwarded until she was alone again. Then the picture abruptly went black.

“Wait, go back,” Buffy said. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Riley replied, puzzled. He played the video forwards and backwards, but it refused to play beyond Spike’s departure out the window. Calling Agent Michaels back into the room, he demonstrated the problem once again.

“What’s the matter?” Buffy asked. “Why won’t it play?”

“That’s all there is, ma’am. Recording’s been erased after that.”

Riley and Buffy exchanged a suspicious glance. “Who ordered that?” he demanded.

The soldier began typing on the computer again, pulling up the log. “Special Agent Gates, sir.”

Buffy’s stomach dropped. “Forrest?”

“He’s the one who showed me the tape of you and Spike in the first place,” Riley told her, his eyes wide with realization.

“Probably to throw you off his scent.”

Their eyes met in mutual understanding. “We have to find him.”

Without another word to the soldier on duty, they tore out of the security room and down the hall. Buffy was following Riley’s lead, having no idea where she was going or how to find Forrest. She found it easier to mindlessly follow, anyway, because her brain was still stuck on processing this revelation. Forrest, her rapist. Riley’s best friend. He’d never seemed to like her, sure, but this? It seemed unfathomable that it was someone she knew, someone Riley had trusted… but in the back of her mind, she was repeating all the statistics her counselor had told her about the likelihood that the person who’d assaulted her was a friend or acquaintance.

She was still trying to wrap her mind around it when Riley skidded to a stop, flinging open the door to what looked like a rec room. Forrest was there, seated at a table along with four other soldiers, playing poker. All five of them glanced up at the commotion, and Buffy found herself studying Forrest’s reaction for any sign of guilt or suspicion when he saw her.

She was sorely disappointed, as he only displayed the typical surprise at seeing Riley burst in with the Slayer hot on his heels. Riley didn’t give him a chance to speak, upending the card table and sending cards and chips scattering across the room. “Get out,” he growled in warning to the other soldiers. They did as they were told, hastily making their exit.

“What the fuck, Riley?” Forrest protested, getting up from his chair indignantly.

Buffy immediately shoved him back down with one strong hand on his chest. “That was pretty much my question, you asshole.” She gripped him by the throat and demanded, “Why the hell did you rape me?”

“You’re insane!” he choked out. “Riley, tell your freak of an ex to get her hands off me.”

“Not until she gets the answers she’s looking for,” Riley replied, crossing his arms over his chest and stepping back to let Buffy run the show.

“You erased the security tape,” she said, in an attempt to prove to Forrest that he’d already lost. “You convinced Riley that it was all Spike’s fault, to cover up the fact that you raped me. I know you did it. I wanna know why.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you psycho bitch!” Forrest struggled against her grip, but he was no match for the Slayer. “Riley, you actually believe this shit? Come on, man. Call off Supergirl and let’s talk about this.”

“No,” Buffy replied. “I’m done talking.” She let go of Forrest and took a step back, bringing her leg up in a sweeping kick that knocked him out of his chair and sent him flying across the room.

He staggered to his feet and returned the blow with a punch that was easily deflected. Buffy whipped her arm across his face, hitting him with a fierce backhand that left him bleeding from the nose and mouth. With another powerful kick, she sent him sprawling across the pool table, balls flying off in every direction. There was a distinct snapping of bone as he landed, and Forrest rolled off the table clutching one arm.

“Buffy,” Riley said, a slight warning in his tone. “Be careful. We mere humans are fragile.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, glancing back at him. “I won’t give him any more than he deserves – unngh!”

While she was distracted, Forrest came up behind her and managed to deliver a solid side kick, knocking her off her feet and shoving her into Riley. They went down like dominos, giving Forrest a chance to sprint for the door and escape from the room.

“Damn it!” Buffy exclaimed, disentangling herself from Riley and then offering him a hand up. The two of them set off in pursuit, with Riley again in the lead. Buffy knew that she could easily catch up to Forrest on a straightaway, but she was at a significant disadvantage not knowing the layout of the underground facility, which was a veritable labyrinth of corridors and side rooms. She had to rely on Riley’s familiarity with the floor plan, as well as his knowledge of his friend, in order to predict where Forrest had gone, when they couldn’t always keep him in sight.

After chasing him through a series of rooms that appeared to be used for various types of experimentation that Buffy couldn’t afford to get upset about at the moment, Forrest led them into a corridor that was lined on both sides with sterile white cells, each one containing a different species of demon behind an invisible force field. Buffy would’ve taken a second to stop and marvel at the sight, but Forrest was just disappearing out the far exit as they burst through the door at the opposite end of the hallway.

Buffy sprinted to the other door, but Forrest had locked it behind him. “Shit!” she cried, tugging futilely on the handle. “Riley!”

Slightly out of breath from the chase, Riley jogged up and input a security code on the electronic panel. He tried the door again, but it still wouldn’t open. “He’s overriding the system. I can’t get us out.”

Simultaneously, they ran back to the door where they’d come in, only to find it locked as well. “Come on!” Buffy said. “There has to be some kind of manual override code or something.”

“Hang on, I gotta think.” In a panic, Riley tried to mentally sift through his various security codes, trying to come up with the right one.

“We don’t have time!” she replied. “Just try anything!”

“Buffy, don’t!” he said, reaching out in a vain attempt to catch her arm as she pushed past him. She was stronger than him, of course, and managed to shake him off and began inputting random codes.

“Stop that!” He pulled her away from the security panel. “If you try too many wrong ones, it’ll lock down,” he explained. “And then we’ll never get out of here.”

“Then hurry! He’s getting away.”

“Okay, okay, okay.” Riley took a deep breath and entered in a four-digit code. When nothing happened, he tried another. This time, the electronic panel immediately turned red and began flashing.

“Uh, I don’t think that’s what’s supposed to happen,” Buffy said.

“No,” he agreed. “We can try the other door again, but I’m still just guessing on the –”

He abruptly fell silent as the force fields keeping the demons in their cells suddenly deactivated all at once.

Buffy uneasily glanced down at herself, and then at Riley, both of them unarmed. “Well, that can’t be good.”