Banner by the lovely and talented nmcil12

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The gang got together for planning sessions every day for the next few days. They decided that since Riley Finn had showed an interest in Buffy she would ‘accidentally’ run into him while he was on his patrol and let him see her on patrol. They figured that if he saw her in action Buffy could explain that she was the Slayer and it might be enough to get a peek at the military base. It took a few days for the timing to work out, but eventually Riley found out that Buffy was the Slayer. He took her to see his boss, Prof. Walsh. The professor asked Buffy to come see their installation, telling her that they were very proud of it and how much good they were doing for humanity.

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With a groan, Spike started swimming towards consciousness. There wasn’t a spot on him that didn’t hurt.  He wondered how long he’d been out of it. “Oi, mate? How long was I out?” Spike asked groggily to the vamp in the cell across the hall.  

He was sickened to hear the reply of, “A week.”

“Bloody hell,” Spike grunted and started to work against the pain, trying to get himself up. He was determined to get out here this week even if he had to kill everyone in the place - or himself. But he couldn’t go on like this. He needed a plan and a bit of luck.

A commotion from the other cells drew Spike’s attention; yells of ‘Slayer’ could be heard. Some of the demons even started begging the slayer to put them out of their misery. Spike struggled to sit up and find out what was going on. He looked up in time to see Buffy walking past the cells with the soldier Spike had nicknamed Captain Cardboard walking stiffly next to her. She stopped in front of his cell and asked what had been done to him. As Finn told her, Spike could see the Slayer getting angry.  He even swore he heard her growl as they turned and left. He collapsed on his back and tried to get some sleep to build up his strength, wondering if she was angry that he was back in town or because she’d found out he was talking to her mum. It never crossed his mind that she was angry about what had been done to him and the rest of the demons.

After seeing all the demons in the cells and what had been done to them, Buffy was livid. As she gave her report to Giles, he got more and more agitated. Slaying evil harmful demons was one thing, but the things Buffy was telling him were an abomination. She’d pretend to Riley and Walsh that she was okay with what they were doing, all the while asking questions and trying to find out more information. The gang had regular meetings to discuss what Buffy learned from each patrol and trip into the base.

At just such a meeting, Buffy was telling the group that Professor Walsh had seemed very upset when she’d caught Buffy poking around a room that only the Professor went in. Just then, Buffy’s new Initiative pager went off. With a quick goodbye, Buffy went to find out what ‘mission’ she was being sent on. When she came back a few hours later, Buffy was in full Slayer rant mode.

“Giles, that woman tried to kill me! She sent me after two demons, harmless she says. Gives me a weapon that doesn’t work and those demons weren’t harmless or peaceful! Then she tells Riley that I disobeyed her and went after them myself and that I refused backup and left without any weapons and was killed!” Buffy was yelling at the group assembled in her living room. “I am so beyond pissed right now, but I saw Spike again, Mom. I couldn’t talk to him, but I know he saw me.”

“We have to do something. First Spike, and now you. These people are dangerous, worse than the demons.” Joyce wrung her hands. “I don’t understand. If they were capturing demons to find out how to kill the different kinds it would make some sense. But that isn’t what they’re doing. They’re torturing them, what is the purpose of that? Spike and the rest must be in horrible pain. How can they cause such pain in another being and ignore it? Doesn’t it bother any of them?”

Giles was galvanized by the sight of two of his favorite women in such obvious distress. And no one touched his Slayer. “Joyce, may I use your phone? It’s a long distance call,” Giles asked. At her nod, he grabbed the phone and entered the kitchen to have his conversation.  The gang only heard parts of his side of the conversation that included words like, ‘tried to kill the only active slayer, demon experimentation, military involvement.’

When he returned, Willow was the first to speak up, “Guys, I have an idea. Do you think the demons like Clem would help us do a raid on the place? We can release the nice ones and stake the evil ones?” Willow was practically bouncing on the couch.

“But what about the soldiers?  We can’t do anything to them. They’re still human – they’re just sucking at it,” Xander added.

“A raid is exactly what we’re going to do.  I just spoke with the Council. Even though they couldn’t care less about me - they know they cannot allow this sort of thing. They’ll be going through channels to have the place shut down, but they need us to take care of the demons in captivity,” Giles explained with a sigh. “Anya, we’ll need you to come with us. You have the most knowledge about demons in the group. We’ll need you to tell us which are dangerous and which ones can be released safely.” Giles turned to Willow. “Willow, if you could try to hack in and find out what experiments have been done, that might help us decide which, if any, demons can be released.”  Willow nodded and Giles turned to Joyce wearing a smile that he sincerely hoped was reassuring.  “Give me a little time, Joyce. I promise - we’ll get Spike out.”