In Harm’s Way
Chapter Nine: The Truth


Spike stepped out of Riley’s room, dressed in fatigues and glaring at Xander who was trying not to laugh. The worst part was the stupid beret he had to wear to conceal his hair. As plans went, he grudgingly had to agree that it was a good one, even if he did look stupid.

Once it was established that Riley had slipped away from the Initiative to find Willow and see what they could do to get Buffy and Giles released, Spike had backed off. He still hated the wanker, but they needed him right now and he had to put feelings aside.

It took a bit more convincing to get Riley to stand down, though. Spike had to walk a fine line as he muttered out an explanation for why he wanted to help rescue Buffy. He made a brief mention of the Gem, and gave the excuse that he was the only one who should be allowed to kill or maim Buffy. The three of the humans gave him identical baffled looks, and he had to admit that the excuse sounded lame, even to him.

Spike had quickly moved the subject along to coming up with a plan. It wasn’t foolproof, but he was confident that it would work. Getting them all out alive was another story, which he didn’t care about. As long as he could get Buffy out alive, it didn’t matter what happened to the others.

Willow was holding a book with photographs of high ranking officials and chanting over Riley. The glamour would make him look like the Initiative's commanding general, who was normally based at the Pentagon. Riley could use his own voice activation clearance to get them in. Once they had reached the main computer hub, Xander and Spike would create a diversion.

With a swipe of his security card and the push of two buttons, Riley could open every cell and locked door in the facility. With the soldiers occupied by escaping and enraged demons, they would locate Buffy and Giles and get them out of there as fast as they could.

As they watched, Willow finished her chanting and waved a smelly, burning stick near Riley’s head. When she was done, the face of Colonel Jared Holbrook was staring back at them.

“Let’s roll,” Riley said, in a voice not his own.



~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~



Buffy struggled fruitlessly against the restraints holding her down on the cold steel reclining chair. It was no use, but she had to try. They’d separated her from Giles and brought her to this white room with the chair in the middle. She scowled at the mirror in front of her. There were probably men on the other side, laughing at her attempts to free herself.

She couldn’t help but imagine the fear that Spike must have experienced. He had been all alone with no one on the outside who would help him. She knew that Willow and Xander were frantically trying to come up with a way to get her out, and she took comfort in that.

The waiting was doing more to drive her mad than the restraints or the mirrored wall. They’d kept her like this for more than a half an hour now. When they’d first arrived, Buffy and Giles were kept in handcuffs made to withstand the strength of demons, but had been allowed to sit together on a couch in an office. Three guards, with guns drawn, hovered over them. Two men in white lab coats had then come in with more soldiers, and again, they asked where Hostile Seventeen was.

She wondered why Spike was so important to them, but she dared not ask. Instead, she let Giles do the talking. He told them the same thing he’d said at the condo. They had no idea where Spike was.

Buffy was shocked beyond belief when her Psychology professor walked in and the soldiers saluted. Dr. Walsh attempted to intimidate Buffy and Giles into talking, but when they still insisted that they did not know where Spike was, and they refused to answer any questions about slayers and watchers, the woman ordered them separated. She’d glared at them while going on about always having to do things the hard way.

The doors swung open, jarring Buffy out of her musing. She tensed up and gripped the arms of the chair. A man, pushing a rattling, metal cart before him, entered the room. Another man in a white lab coat entered, followed by Dr. Walsh.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to do this the hard way, but you leave me no choice.”

Buffy kept her eye on the man loading a hypodermic needle. “What are you going to do to me?”

Maggie took the syringe from the man and tapped it. “This is new experimental truth serum. It’s very strong and very effective.”

“I’m telling you, I have no idea where Spike went.”

Buffy gritted her teeth as the needle punctured her arm. The injection began to burn and she closed her eyes to the pain. When she opened them again, she glared at Dr. Walsh, who just folded her arms and waited with a smug look on her face. The man behind her pulled out a stop watch.

“Now,” he said to Dr. Walsh. “It’s ready.”

“Thank you,” she said as she turned to the two men. “You may both leave now.” Then she turned cold eyes on Buffy, waiting until she heard the door click shut before asking, “Who are you?”

“Buffy Anne Summers.”

“What are you?”

“The Chosen One. The Vampire Slayer.”

Dr. Walsh lifted a lock of Buffy’s hair. “Who made you?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did they make you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you really very strong?”

“Yes.”

“How strong?”

“I could crush you with my bare hands.” Buffy was angry with herself for talking. She’d told herself that she wasn’t going answer any of Maggie’s questions, but the answers just came out.

“So, you kill vampires?”

“Yes. And all sorts of demons.”

“And yet, you harbor one of them and protect it. Why?”

“I…I have feelings for him.” She groaned as she let that slip out.

Dr. Walsh glared at her. “You what? Have feelings for a monster? An animal?”

“He’s not a monster all the time. Spike has feelings. He’s…he’s different.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re projecting human emotions on a creature who has none.”

Buffy glared at Maggie. “You haven’t actually spent time with the vampires you’ve been experimenting on, have you?”

“I’ll admit, they’re usually not awake when I see them.”

“Thought so,” Buffy said smugly.

“So, do you make it a habit of getting romantically involved with vampires?”

Buffy closed her eyes and let out a growl of frustration, before saying, “No.” She'd only had one vampire boyfriend and that did not make a habit.

The narrowed eyes and look of unbelief from Professor Walsh made the Slayer's blood run cold. It was worse than being in her class. “There is something you aren't telling me. Have you been romantically involved with a vampire before?”

“Yes!” Buffy yelled, angry with herself. “But, he had a soul.”

“Does Hostile Seventeen have a soul?”

Buffy sighed. “No.”

“So you have feelings for a soulless monster?

Shaking her head no and glaring at the smug doctor, Buffy answered, “Yes. I don't want to talk about it. Can you ask me something else? Anything else!”

Dr. Walsh wrote something down on a notepad before asking, “Where is Hostile Seventeen, now?”

“I told you. I don’t know. He ran off earlier tonight, and he didn’t say where he was going.” She glared at Dr. Walsh. “Why is it so important that you know where Spike is?”

Dr. Walsh pulled out a walkie-talkie. “Miss Summers does not know where Hostile Seventeen is. Are you getting anything out of Mr. Giles?”

“No, ma’am. He says he doesn’t know where it is either.”

“Put him in a regular cell and prepare 314 for combat in room twenty-five.”

“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply from the walkie-talkie.

Maggie turned to Buffy and slapped a set of handcuffs on one wrist. “Hostile Seventeen was chosen by my staff for an experiment because he was the strongest vampire they’d come across. Not just in body, but in spirit and intelligence as well. He’s walking around with a very expense prototype in his head. We can’t just let him go.”

“You plan to put those in other vampires?” Buffy asked incredulously.

“Oh, yes. But we’ve found that only the strongest ones are worth the effort. The next step in the experiment has turned most of the vampires to dust or maimed them.”

She stared at Dr. Walsh in horror as the woman grabbed her arm and released it from the chair restraints and put the handcuff on her other wrist. “What do you do to them?”

“They go through a reconditioning of the mind, and then we set them loose on the other demons that we’ve caught. So far, none of them have passed the tests.”

“That’s just wrong.”

As she led Buffy out of the room, Dr. Walsh shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. The government is always looking for new weapons to surprise the enemy with. I happen to think it’s a great idea.” Dr. Walsh continued to talk as they walked down the hall. “It’s a pity that there aren’t more like you. The military could really use your skills.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To meet my pet project. The crowning achievement of my career. The thing that will set me apart from the others and make me famous.” She swiped her card on the lock for door twenty-five and stepped in. The room was similar to the one she had been in, only the mirrored wall was situated higher on the wall and there was no chair in the middle of the room. Just a concrete floor and white walls.

“I had hoped to test Hostile Seventeen against 314, but as soon as Riley told me about you, I began playing with the idea of having you go up against him instead. Let’s see how strong you really are.“ Dr. Walsh pulled her walkie-talkie out, once more. “Let in 314.”

A futuristic door went up. A large, grotesque creature stomped in. Buffy had seen a lot of creepy looking things in her time as a slayer, but the creature in front of her now was tops. He was a twisted mass of human, demon and metal. She was so intent on the creature that she didn’t realize that Dr. Walsh was undoing her restraints until after she was done.

“Hello, Mother,” the creature said in a monotone voice.

“Buffy, this is Adam. He's an optimized combination of man, machine and demon. We've taken the most useful parts from demons and grafted them to him. Adam, show her your Polgara skewer.”

Obediently, the monster held out his left arm, and a thin bone-like sword with a sharp pointy tip popped out of his arm, extending past his hand.

“Adam, this is Buffy. She’s strong,” Maggie stated as she went to the door, swiped her card and opened it. “I want to see how strong she is. Kill her.” The door went shut before Buffy could get to it.

She turned to face Adam. Buffy was sure she could take him. She’d come up against some pretty strong foes and walked away the victor. It was just very unsettling to hear someone not of the demon variety ordering her execution.

As he lumbered towards her, Buffy began coming up with a strategy. He was slow; she was fast. If she kept moving and attacked with her legs with quick jabs, she could avoid the Polgara demon arm and skewer.

“You look human,” Adam remarked.

He reached out for her with his human arm and tried to grab her. She ducked and kicked at his stomach. When Adam didn’t budge or show any signs of having felt her kick, she started to worry.

Dr. Walsh’s voice came from the ceiling. “She is human, but she’s special somehow. Attack without mercy, Adam. I want to see what she‘s made of.”

The distraction of Dr. Walsh enabled Adam to get in a good punch. Panic set in when she hit the wall and slid to the ground. Her cheekbone felt like it was broken and she struggled to keep herself from fainting. Getting up quickly, Buffy shook off the pain and charged at him.

While Buffy struggled to stay alive in room twenty-five, Xander and Spike fell in behind Riley, in the form of Colonel Holbrook. They moved swiftly down the steps and onto the large platform surrounding the pit. Spike stroked the gun at his side, forcing himself to get past the fear that was gripping him as he took in the sight below him. The shining silver area was brimming with activity as men in white coats worked on various species of demons strapped to tables.

He wasn’t down there now, but because of what they’d done to him, he couldn’t even retaliate. Spike desperately wanted to aim the gun and take out every one of those bastards down there, but his head began to ache just thinking about it. He’d have to save the bullets for the demons that might attempt to harm Buffy as they got her out of there.

Riley took charge, barking orders. Soldiers and scientist alike jumped at his commands. Once they were near the platform’s main computer terminal, Riley turned to them. “Now!”

Xander grabbed his gun and pointed towards a hallway, shouting, “Demon escaping!” He ran towards the hall and a group of soldiers fell in behind him. Someone at the terminal started up the alarm. Red and yellow lights flashed all over as a siren blasted the warning.

In room twenty-five, Buffy flew back for the sixth time, but this time, she heard something snap. Her wrist was now on fire with excruciating pain, and Adam was still coming at her as the alarms sounded. The lights flickered and she took the opportunity to stand while Adam looked around in confusion. She kicked him again, but it was like hitting a brick wall. The only thing she accomplished was to get his attention back on her.

In the hub, Spike watched as all but one attendant left the computer terminal. He leaned down near the woman, pointing at one of the monitors as Xander yelled, “There are four HST’s down here. I need back up, now!”

“Look! There!” Spike said in as close to a Southern accent as he could muster. “I saw them.”

As the attendant typed on her keyboard, Riley quickly swiped his card and pushed a couple of buttons. A high pitched whine came over the speakers, warning them all that every door and cell had been opened.

“What's going on here?” Riley questioned with authority. “Contain this mess, now!”

“I’m trying, sir,” the attendant said in a panic. “Somehow, all the doors have been opened at once. I--I’ve never seen this before, but I think I can close them.”

Adam was coming at Buffy with his Polgara skewer out and ready to land a killing jab, when the door she was leaning on suddenly popped open. Holding her injured wrist, she scrambled to get off the floor and raced down the hall, trying to remember the way they had come. She turned back to see Adam came out of the room; his eyes blazing with blood lust. Maggie opened a door and shouted Adam‘s name. He turned on her quickly, accidentally gutting her with his Polgara skewer.

Dr. Walsh fell to the ground with a shocked look frozen on her face. Buffy felt sick to her stomach, but now Adam was glaring at her again. She ran and pushed open the nearest door, hoping that it was the one leading to the large central area. She forced the heavy door closed with her shoulder.

The sirens stopped as security doors clicked shut all over, but the red and yellow lights continued to flash. There was chaos in the pit and on the platform, as soldiers fought escaping demons. Adam pounded on the security door and glared at her through the small square window.

“Buffy!” Giles called out to her.

Her watcher was too far away from her. She could do nothing but watch in horror as a large grey demon slammed an elbow into Giles’ head. She yelled out to him as he slumped to the ground.

Xander came running out of a hallway, clutching his gun and looking terrified as two ugly, squid faced demons chased him. She made her way to Giles as quickly as she could, but with her injured wrist, she couldn’t pick him up.

A soldier rushed up to her, trying to grab at her arm. She slapped him away until he said, “Come on, Slayer. No time to lose.”

She turned and gawked at Spike, but snapped out of it as a demon rushed up behind him. She called out a warning and watched as Spike turned to fire his weapon, before turning back to her. “Let’s get you out of here,” he told her.

“Giles. I’m not leaving without him.”

Spike growled, but reached down and roughly threw Giles over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She followed Spike into a hallway where a group of demons rushed at them. They quickly hid in an office, slamming the door behind them. None too gently, Spike placed Giles on the desk and held his gun at the ready.

“Your hand,” he asked when he finally glanced at her. “What happened?”

“I think it’s broken.”

Their eyes met and she could swear she saw concern in them.

Spike asked, “Can you fight?”

“With one hand tied behind my back,” she told him, placing her injured arm behind her.

Spike smirked at her.

It was just too strange to be fighting side by side with him.

“What are you doing here, Spike?”

Keeping his eye on the door and his gun at the ready, Spike said, “What does it look like, Slayer? I’m saving your arse.”

“I get that, but why?” She shivered when he stared at her hotly. Was that anger or something else that she saw in his eyes?

“You have something I want, and if you’re dead, you can’t tell me where it is.”

“That’s all? Because I have the Gem of Amara?” Buffy had no idea why she was pressing him like she was. What did it matter why he was there?

He let the gun hang at his side and advanced on her. Spike didn’t touch her but was just a mere inch away. “What do you want me to say? Huh?” Their noses were touching now as he leaned his head forward. “That I couldn’t stand the thought of you being tortured like they tortured me? That you’re in my blood now after one amazing morning of blissful shagging?”

Putting her good hand on his chest, she didn’t push him away, but glared at him. Her heart sped up as his eyes dropped to her lips. With a will of its own, her tongue poked out and moistened her bottom lip. She was thinking that he was dangerously good looking, when he slapped her hand off his chest, leaned in, and smashed his lips to hers.

Unable to think straight, she kissed him back, not caring that the side of his gun was pressing painfully into her ribs. Only when she attempted to reach up to him with her injured arm, did she snap out of it. With her good hand she pushed him away.

Spike looked just as shocked by what had happened as she was. As he brought his hand to his lips, he asked, “What the hell have you done to me?”

Giles groaned behind him, and Buffy gave the vampire one last glance before rushing around him to help Giles stand up. “What happened?” the bewildered man asked, gently rubbing his temple.

“A demon knocked you out, and we got you to safety,” Buffy said.

Spike whirled around and readied his gun, his eyes fixed on the door handle as it slowly turned. Xander poked his head in.

“There you are. Hurry. Riley has a golf cart like thing waiting for us.”

Buffy helped Giles with her good arm as they hurried out of the office. They sped away with Giles up front next to Riley, who did not look like Riley--but Xander insisted that it was, and Spike confirmed it. She sat squashed between Xander and Spike in the back. They both had their guns out, but the chaos had died down some and they were not challenged as they drove out of the facility. Spike tossed his gun once they were clear and grabbed Buffy’s upper arm to steady her as they went over bumps.

Xander leaned forward and glared at Spike as he grabbed her good arm. “I’ve got her, Spike. Get your hands off her.”