Fic: Project: Initiative
Author: Lucinda
Rating: Pg 13
mentions Willow/Oz, no current Willow pairing
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Distribution: Charity's site, others please ask
Set beginning in season 4, will diverge into AU shortly.
Willow was laying on her bed in the dorm room she shared with
Buffy. She was feeling miserable. Oz was gone. Oz had slept with that
Veruca skank. He had slept with Veruca and tried to hide it from her. He
had turned into a wolf and killed Veruca. He had left Sunnydale and her
rather than talk about what had happened. She was alone. The one person
that had sen her as desirable was gone.....
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Her voice was dull, thick with the pain and misery
she was feeling. Willow didn't even think about the dangers of caling out an
invitation on the Hellmouth. She sat up, and began to approach the
door.
Spike burts through the door, immediately shutting it behind
him. He stalked towards Willow, his face ridges, eyes feral and hungry. A
threatening growl emanated from him as he approached the redhead.
He couldn't bite her.
Oh, he tried. He threw her on the bed, and lunged for her
throat. It didn't work. Something caused him the most agonizing pain he'd ever
experienced. Spike tried two more times to rip her throat open, but
had the same results.
Willow was certain that this was another sign of her complete
undesirability. The bloodthirst vampire couldn't bite her. She
wasn't even good enough to eat. To Willow's surprise, Spike tried to assure her
that it wsn't her fault. He even remembered the outfit she had been wearing
a year ago when he had locked her and Xander in an abandoned factory while
in a drunken haze. Willow was oddly flattered.
Then the power went out, and masked figures with guns knocked
down her door. Willow shreiked in panic tinged with a bit of anoyance. How
many people were going tobarge into her room tonight anyhow?
When the smoke finally cleared, Spike was gone.
Willow didn't see Spike the next day. Buffy was there, and had
found the commandos breaking into their room. She had helped to chase them
off, but hadn't gotten a good look at the other person, the one that had run
away. Then, Buffy had told Willow that Parker had dumped her as soon as
they had slept together. He had used his handsome face and a pretense of
sympathy to lure her into his bed, and she had fallen for it.
Buffy was miserable, bemoaning her loneliness that had made her
voulnerable to Parker's come-ons. She railed against Angel's
departure, which had made her alone to begin with. She had colorful but
unpleasent things to say about the gypsies that had designed Angel's curse and
included that happiness clause. Buffy was trying to find the reason why
there were no good men in Sunnydale.
Willow's only comment had been "They either die young or run
away." Buffy had agreed, to focused on her own pain to notice Willow's pain
and misery.
Everyone was to busy to realize the depths of Willow's pain.
Thanksgiving was almost here. The gang was going to have a turkey
dinner at Giles' apartment. They had decided this because Buffy's only family
was her mother, Joyce, who would be joining them. Xander had said he would
rather lock himself in a room and watch six hours of teletubbies than
attend another Harris family Thanksgiving brawl. Anya had no family,
having been a vengence demon for over a thousand years. Willow's parents were in
Dallas. Or possibly Houston. Willow wasn't quite certain where her parents
were, or how long they would be there.
She was sitting in a chair, leafing through a book of demons
that included pictures when there was a commotion at the door. She marked
her spot - right at the Ik'Tarin demon, a large creature with tentacles
and jaws like a crocadile. Whatever was causing this commotion...was
swearing with a British accent. Spike?
It was Spike, wrapped in a smoking blanket, and looking rather
unhealthy. He had been pale before, but now his skin loked unhealthy pale. His
eyes had dark circles under them, and his cheekbones were even more
prominent. He was swaying slightly as he stood.
"I want you to fix whatever your blody commando pals did to me!
How in the bloody hell is a vampire supposed to go aout his unlife with
whatever the hell they did to me! I want my life back, you daft bloody slayer!"
He sounded hostile, and posibly a bit afraid underneath.
Giles and Buffy didn't trust Spike. He ended up in the chair
that Willow had been sitting in, tied up like a turkey. He was still
cranky, but was starting to consider the possibility that maybe the slayer
really had no idea what he was talking about. He had explained to them that
something had been done that made him unable to feed. nobody had wanted to
believe him, until Willow mentioned the dorm room.
The focus had shifted to everyone yelling at her about how
foolish she had been to invite someone intoher room without knowing who it was.
How could she do that...didn't she realize the danger she had put
herself and the Slayer in with her unthinking words? Wilow had cringed at the
explosion of critisism. Sh emeekly replied that she hadn't been
thinking, she was very sorry, and since Spike seemed to be unable to bite
anyone, Buffy wasn't really in any danger. She then made it very clear that
she had not invited the commandos into her room.
The debate about what to do with Spike had continued until the
small gathering was attacked by indians. Giles and Buffy had gone forth
to deal with the source, while Xander was laying on the couch, somehow
instantly stricken with syphilis. Anya was tending him. Willow and Spike had
been ignored in the assignment of tasks. Spike was still tied to the
chair. A few arrows were embedded in his torso, thankfully missing the
heart. He was now muttering threats about what he intended to do to them when he
got his bit back and questioning if he would be able to feed from Xander's
corpse if he died from his sudden illness.
"Spike? I don't have anything to do right now, maybe you could
tell me what happened to you? Maybe I could help figure out how they
did...whatever. If they are local, they might have a computer
system I can access." Willow's quiet words disracted Spike from his ranting
threats.
"When I get my bite back, you realize that I intend to kill you
and the rest of the slayer's little friends, right? I am not my soddin'
ponce of a Sire, all nice and helping the slayer." Spike's words were
whispered, as is he were trying to keep anyone from hearing hte possibility Willow
had hinted at.
If she found out what they had done to him, he could find someone
to undo it. He could have his bite back, and get bloody revenge on everyone.
Willow was carefully removing the arrows from his body when she
answered. "I realize that you aren't our friend. I will offer you
this deal, since I know about the one you made with Buffy about
Acathala. You will tell me everything you can about what happened. I will try to
figure out who these commandos are, and what they did to you. In return,
when you come after me to kill me like all the others, I want you to make it
quick. And make certain that someone will find my body, I don't want to be
left rotting somewhere and need my corpse identified by dental records."
Willow's reply chilled Spike to the marrow of his undead
bones. Not because she assumed he would kill her, he had known that she was the
smart one of the group. It was the calm way that she had mentioned it, as
if her death held no importance, no dread for her. The way she spoke of
not wanting her corpse left to rot as if she had given the matter a
great deal of thought. She didn't care if she died right now. She was willing
to help him because it would give her something to contemplate other than
whatever was going on inside her head that had lead her to calmly bargining
over the manner of her death.
Spike began to tell her what he remembered. He also made a
promise to himself - he wanted to know what had brought her to this state of
empty pain. Her unconcern was baffling, he wanted to understand. Why hadn't
her friends done something about it, anyhow?
end part 2
The next two weeks witnessed things settle into a slightly awkward
routine. Spike was staying at Giles' apartment. They had started by
keeping him chained up and lying in the bathtub. He was being fed, although
he kept insisting that cold pig's blood from the butcher shop was not even
close to the same thing as fresh human blood, right from the throat. For the
most part, his complaints sell on unconcerned ears.
Spike learned about how Willow's boyfriend oz had been a
werewolf. He had cheated on her with a she wolf from another band. Theother wolf
had tried to kill Willow, Oz-Wolf had killed the she wolf, and Oz had
been shot with the tranquiizer before he could maul Willow. Oz had been gone
the next day, having left town. He had sent for his things. It had
explained to Spike why Willow had been an abject picture of heartbroken
desolation in her dorm room that night. That had been the day she learned his things
were gon. That he wasn't coming back to this place, to her. Reflecting
back to his own reactions to the many times that Drucilla had left him,
Spike had been forced to admit to himself that he understood how she had
felt. Completely abandoned and alone. It had never sent him into a
suicidal depression before.
Willow was either feling suicidal, or had moved past that to a
place where she felt her life or death truely didn't matter. Spike wasn't
quite certain which it was. It bothered him. He had spent a lot of time
talking to the shy redhead over the past two weeks. She had persuaded the
Watcher to let him out of the bathtub, and eventually out of the chains as
well. The chains had been a gradual process, and the watcher still snapped
a pair of handcuffs on him when he was annoyed. Spike had decided that it
really wouldn't be safe to tell him that with his vampire stregnth, he
could easily snap the handcuffs. The whole reasoning behind his freedom from the
tub and chains was to make it easier for Willow to try to determine what had
been done to him.
Willow had listened to Spike, and to Buffy's reports about her
nightly patrols. They had pieced together some of the story. The commandos
were called the Initiative, and were only part of some sort of secret
military project hidden inside or near Sunnydale. There was a basse that the
patroling commandos reported to, and Spike had remembered seeing
many scientists in a very well equipped lab facility. He didn't recall
seeing any windows, and has escaped through a long, sloping tunnel.
Because of that, they were suspecting some sort of at least partially
underground facility.
So far, they hadn't found the actual location of any installatin of
that magnitude. The military base that Xander and Cordelia had
stolen the rocket launcher used to destroy the Judge was to far away to be the
location of the initiative. Willow had found no documentation of
any facility that fit the requirements they were looking for in her
perusal of the Sunnydal City records. Spike had actually been impressed by
Willow's researching on the computer. He had known damn well that hacking
like that was illegal, and hadn't know the redhead had it in her to just
calmly ignore laws like that. She was starting to grow on him.
" I think I found them. Not a location or adress or something
physical like that, but I think I found their computer systems. If
I'm right, I can just slip right in and see what they've got in their
computers. They have to have files on what they did and how they did it in
there somewhere." Willow's gleeful voice sounded alive again. She was
almost giddy from solving the difficult problem.
Spike was interested in her discovery. Of course the big, bad
commandos had computers. Trend of the recent decades to have computers. Red
had found their's and she'd get their secrets in a trice.... what in the
world was on her screen now?
"hmm... They have protections against people just slipping in.
Makes sense I suppose, but it will slow me down slightly. Spike, you do
realize that I have no idea what sort of organization they will have for
their files? I doubt they will have one called 'What we did to Spike'
followed with 'how to fix it in three easy steps'. Can you pass me those
blank CD's over there? I want to copy their files, it will be safer to browse
them later from my computer than to stay in the Initiative systems."
Willow's voice was thoughtful, her mind already moving ahead to the next
steps of the problem.
Her words calmed his immediate delight. He wouldn't have kept
a file labeled how to fix the bloke I messed with', why would they? The
fact that they had never even asked what his name was...actually, that had
really annoyed him. Spike watched as Wilow copied vast amounts of computer
files onto the disks, labeling them with what looked like file names as
they finished. The labels didn't reallyhelp Spike have any clue what was
inside, but they did make it easy to tell the disks apart.
After she had copied everything she could, she exited the
Initiative systems, and took her computer off the intenet. She had her data,
now came the part that was tedious researching.
------------------------------
He had ended up playing minion for the watcher. He even had his
very own key to the apartment now. The watcher had given him a grocery list
and sent him off to the store while he ran off with his tart. The slayer and
her pals hadn't even figured out that Red was more than a bit mopey
about dog-boy leaving. He was really starting to wonder ow they had
managed to defeat so many evil dangers. They really were pitiful at reading
people.
When he got back to the apartment, it was quiet. There was only
the soft hum of appliances, adn a single heartbeat. Red wason the
computter, looking through those files. Spike put the perishables away into
the icebox and crept over behind Willow, hoping to startle her. When he looked
at the screen of her computer, there was a diagram of the human body, with the
bones highlighted. There were chemical formulae on the sides, and
complex mathematical equations. An instinct deep inside of Spike told him
that this was trouble. Other than that, he had no clue what in the hell it
meant.
"Red?" His voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper.
"I found the history of the Initiative. They trace back to
another operation called Project X. It did experimentation on humans and
mutants in the areas of biofeedback, biochemical alteration, and skeletal
modification. They had a ninety five percent casualty rate with their subjects."
Willow's voice was quiet, no louder than his had been. She was
clearly disturbed by her findings. "The Initiative is the new, Hellmouthier
version of the same idea. They are using demons and vampires to work on
behavioral control."
"They implanted a microchip into your brain.. I found a placement
diagram back here a bit. It receives a signal by satellite and prevents you
from acting aggressively against humans. They used a neurosurgeon to
install it, Spike. Unless you want the risk of permanant brain damage, it'll
take a neurosurgeon to remove it."
Willow paused, licking her lips nervously. "If it's any
consolation, you have one of the first generation chips. It only prevents you from
feeding or hurting humans. The second generation of behavioral chips is
listed as currently in testing. Those will let them actually make you do
things that they want you to do."
end part 3 Project: Initiative
Spike was very thoughtful as Willow spent the next few days
searching the initiative files over the next few days. The watcher had
implied that they would help find a solution to Spike's problem. The only person
that had even tried to find time to look had been Willow. The slayer's
suggested solution was to stake Spike.
Frustratingly, Spike was getting a feeling of a greater moral
good. It wasn't just his problem anymore, it was something bigger. He hated
these moments of moral responsibility - the last one had led to his making
a deal with the slayer to prevent the demon Acathala from sucking the world
into hell. He was getting a sinking feeling that this would lead him to
more complications.
He couldn't just ignore the fact that the Initiative was
experimenting on demons and vampires. Even if Willow found a spell that would let
her just conjure the chip out of his head, the Initiative would still be
there. They would have to be actively stopped. He had looked at the files
Red had copied. They were commiting horrible tortures in the name of
Science. Hell, they had records of doing things that had turned Spike's stomach,
and he had once been infamous for torturing people with railroad spikes. It
was clear that the Initative had to be stopped.
He just didn't have a clue who would help him do it.
Spike had tried to talk to the Watcher about the Initiative.
Rupert Giles hadn't seen why Spike was so concerned with the Initiative.
He didn't see the danger in a group that was capturing demons and vampires.
Spike hadn't been able to communicate the depths of torment the
researchers were inflicting on theri captives. He hadn't even got through to him
when he tried to reason that the initiative would eventually move on to
humans. His talk with the Slayer had gone worse. She had laughed derisively,
and said that if they were getting demons off her streets, she didn't care
what they did with them.
Spike sat in the cair in front of the tellevision. He needed to
distract himself. What to watch.. There were several soap operas to
choose from, with tales of passion, manipulation, and settings of luxury
and wealth. There was MTV with new music and half clad women writhing
around. Or, he could watch the History channel, maybe catch something about
a bloody, violent war.
Spike ws pulled from his thoughts of quality televisin
programming by an odd noise from Willow. It was part squeak, part gasp, and part
dismay. That was an odd noise. Perhaps he should see what she found that
would cause that sort of reaction.
"There are survivors, Spike. Afte the Weapon X Project was shut
down, they tried to make the evidence disappear. Only, the evidence
included the survivors of their nasty super soldier project. There were two that
they didn't manage to kill." She did something with her computer, and the
screen was filled by two pictures. On the left was a large seeming man with
oddly dark eyes and a wild mane of blondish hair. Letters under his
picture read Codename Sabertooth; Creed, Victor. On the right was a different
man, with shorter dark hair and blue eyes. He would blend in with a crowd in
most places in America, and many in Europe. His caption read Codename
Wolverine: Logan, John.
Spike was thoughtful. He had the nagging feeling that he had
seen the man on the right before, somewhere. He was trying to place the man
when he sat down for the evening news. He might as well catch the sports
scores while he thought about it. There was a segment on the 'Mutant
Menace' that included Live coverage of a group of Mutants in New York fighting a
large purple robot....
"Red!" Spike bellowed at Willow, having thought something about
one of the mutants looked familiar. She darted into the room, and saw the
segment he was watching.
"That's Wolverine. I was just looking at the file on him...."
They sat in silence through the rest of the segment, many thoughts flickering
in their minds.
"Spike? I know we'd figured that you'd kill me after I found the
reason that you couldn't bite, but... I think this is important. I think
we have to get rid of the Initiative first. What they are doin isn't
right. It's wrong on so many levels... If it isn't stopped, it's going to get
bigger and uglier." Willow's voice was soft, her words following some of
Spike's thoughts.
"Nobody here sees it that way, Red. The watcher just sees that
they are working on demons and lets it go at that. They aren't human, so it
isn't his problem. The slayer only cares that every demon or vampire they
catch is one she doesn't have to worry about. I sure as hell want the
Initiative to go down, permanently. But we can't do it alone. Where are we
going to get the reinforcements to pull this off?" Spike was hoping that
Willow had a plan. He didn't have one. Hell, even an idea would be more than
he had.
"well, that was Wolverine in New York. I think if he knew there
was another program like the one that put him through months of
excruciating agony, he would want to shut them down. He wasn't on the camera
alone either, he had people with him in the same uniform. They might
help. If anyone knows where Sabertooth is, I think he might want to help
also." Willow's voice was determined, with a hard tone behind it that he
had never heard before.
"If it comes down to it, I'll take down the defenses and we'll
break Magneto out of prison to help take thisplace down. I can garantee
that he won't let a place like this stay in operation."
Spike stared at her, astonished. He had known she paid
attention to the news, so he wasn't surprised that she had placed Magneto in the
category of heavy firepower. He wondered if she could actually break him out of
the prison he was residing in... but foremost he was puzzled. "Red? Why
would Magneto not stand for the Initiative?"
"Because he's Jewish." She glanced up at SPike, seing his
continued puzzlement. "Spike, Magneto is Erik Lenscherr, a Jew from Poland.
He was sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. That was publicized in
his trial." Spike still hadn't made the connection.
"Nobody that went though that sort of hell would ever let
something like it happen again. Neither would anyone that lost someone to the
Holocaust. The idea that it's okay to do horrible things to dmons because they
aren't the same as you will only lead to the idea that it's okay to do
horrible things to people that are a bit different, with a different
religeon, or ethnic heritage. People would stand back and let it happen because
it wasn't them, until it was them, and by then there wouldn't be anyone
to stop things. I won't stand back and let another Holocaust begin."
Willow's explanation suddenly made sense to Spike. He also
found himself seeing the matter from that perspective, and her words made
a dark and terrible sort of sense. People would stand back and let things
happen as long as it didn't interfere with their lives. Spike also suddenly
found himself remembering that Willow was also Jewish by heritage.
There was another Holocaust brewing, and the forces against it
were a chipped vampire, and a Jewish hacker that had dabbled in magic. God
help them.
end part 4.
Willow's life had gradually reshaped itself over the past few
weeks. She had barely noticed that her friends were spending as little time
with her as they possibly could. They hadn't been there much since Oz
had left. Xander was to busy with his new job as a constructionworker and
with Anya. Buffy...Buffy thought that Willow should be over Oz leaving by now,
since it had been a few weeks since he had left. The fact that Buffy still
got all depressed and miserable because Angel had left Sunnydale and Buffy
nearly six months earlier didn't lend any stregnth to her arguement.
Why did Buffy still get to be miserable that Angel had left
her? They had had serious problems, everyone except maybe Buffy had seen
that. Angel had left because if he had stayed, he could wind up loosing his soul
over Buffy. Again. He hadn't cheated on her, he hadn't just vanished.
That was Oz, and somehow, she was supposed to magically be over him now.
She had tried to convince Buffy, or Xander, or Giles to
understand her reasoning that the Initiative wasn't all good. Buffy had told her
that she was just worrying about his so she wouldn't be moping about Oz.
Xander had explained in very short words and the tone of somone explaining to a
small child that demons were bad. Making them go away was good. End of
story, that's all there is to it. Giles thought that she was over-
reacting.
"There isn't a single person in this whole damn town willing to
help us stop this!"
Willow's angry declaration rang through the apartment. The
only person to hear her was Spike. He was a bit surprised. Red wasn't known
for swearing or shouting. He sauntered over, standing outside of her
reach.
" I already figured that one out, Red. No one here in Sunnyhell
cares. Hope you have a plan B. Or a neurosurgeon. With a surgeon, I could
get this chip out, and then I'd make them care...." Spike was curious.
He had already known nobody else would help. Planning anything more
complex than 'We go in, kill them all. Go home and party' was something he
hadn't been practicing lately.
"You still have that car? If nobody will help us here, I say we
go to New York. Once there, we find Wolverine, and explain to him and his
friends what we found. Then, we either get more reinforcements, or have
enough firepower to destroy the Initiative completely." Willow's answer
was steady, with a firm plan. She was also mentioning destruction and
that was normally a plus in most vampire's opinions.
"Sounds good to me, Red. Pack a few things, we can be out of
this town tonight." Spike was grinning, looking forward to taking down the
commandos. The fact that he'd have to cooperate with mortals again to get it
done was something he could deal with.
They were out of Sunnydale by ten. Willow had packed some
clothing, and her laptop, along with all the files she had copied from the
Initiatve. Spike didn't have much to pack. He ran over the 'Welcome to
Sunnydale' sign on the way out. For tradition.
* * * * *
The trip across the country had been interesting. They had
learned more about each other, and had actually achieved a tenative balance that
could almost be called friendship. Now, they were finally in New York.
Unfortunately, he had no idea where to find this Logan character.
Turning to ask Willow if she had any ideas, he saw that she had pulled out
the picture she had printed out of his face. He was about to tease her
that now wasn't the time to be getting a new crush when she started to chant
someting that sounded Latin.
A small green light, about the size of an eyeball appeared in
front of her. It then move ahead, passing through the frint window.
Spike wasn't sure what to think.
"Follow the light. It's a locator spell, and it should lead us
to Wolverine." Willow gestured at the floating light as she spoke.
The casual display of magic had surprised him. Dru had dabbled a bit with
magic, but had always made a fuss over it, talking to the stars and saying she
heard whispers from the moon. Something like this would have left Dru a
bit lightheaded, and tired. Willow looked as if it had been nothing.
The pair of them ended up at the locked gates of an impressive
mansion, with manicured grounds with flowers and hedges. There was a
basketball court to the right. Spike was contemplating how to break the chain
on the gates when Willow whispered a few more words in Latin.
The padlock opened itself, and the chain slithered around the
bars like a snake, leaving the gate unlocked. She then pushed open the gate
and smiled at Spike. They drove up to the mansion.
end part 5.
Scott Summers was running a basic check of the security
systems when one screen, showing the school gate, had a dreadful looking black
car pull up. The car was old, and the paint was scratched. A woman got out
of the passenger side and seemed to look at the gate, before just pushing
it open. He didn't see what had happened to the chain. This was not normal,
even for here, so Cyclops contacted the Professor to inform him what was
happening.
When the red haired young woman and the bleach blond man arrived
at the porch, the X-Men were there waiting. Scott opened the door, looking
at the pair of them.
"Why don't the two of you come in and explain why you are here."
The Professor's voice carried well.
The pair entered the mansion, glancing around them a bit as they
did. Willow moved slowly, almost staring at the surroundings. Spike
sauntered in, looking more with an eye for exits and possible weapons than
admiring the decor.
" I'm Willow and this is Spike. umm We came here searching for
John Logan, also called Wolverine. We have a problem that we wanted your
help with." The redhead spoke, her words setting off a reaction among
the X-Men.
"How did you get through the gates?" The man with the visor
demanded.
"What sort of problem do you have, and how big is it?" The red
haired woman, trying to get a sense of how sincere the strange pair was.
"How the hell do you know who I am, and how did you find me?"
Logan's demand cut right to the point of his concerns.
"What'd you want us to do for you anyhow?" Marie wasn't
supposed to be there, but she was anyhow.
As the questions were tossed out rapidly by all the X-Men at
once, the redhead drew slightly closer to the blond man. They hadn't answered
anything, but they had scarcely had time.
"Enough. I'm certain that Willow will answer our questions, but
she must have the time to do so. Let us all go to the dining room and
discuss this." Xavier's voice carried, and rang with an odd weight.
Everyone quieted, and the whole group went to the dining room, Spike and
Willow trailing a bit behind the others.
"I came here to ask for your help in getting rid of the
Initiative. Before you ask, it's a secret government project experimenting with
mind control and behavioral modification chips. I hacked into it's files
to get information on it after they experimented on Spike. The Initiative
traces back to a program called Project X or Weapon X. There were some
files from that, and they listed you, John Logan, codename Wolverine." Willow
looked directly at Logan with her last words. She also passed him the
printout of the picture she had used earlier.
There were gasps and expressions of dismay all around at
Willow's words. The implications were ominous, and troublesome.
"What sort of experiment did they do to you?" Marie's soft
question was directed at Spike, whom she had somehow ended up siting across from.
"Why come here for help? Why not someone closer to home?" Scott
was curious, slightly suspicious.
Spike was grinning at Marie, and reached across the table,
catching her hand in his. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand,
apparently unaware of the shocked glances from all the X-men as he did so. He
seemed to be trying to flirt with her.
Willow glanced as Spike and sighed. That wasn't any help to
her. "We tried to get the people closer to home to help us. They refused
because they didn't see why we were so concerned. Unlike the Weapon
Project, they aren't making soldiers disappear, and they aren't making ordinary
people vanish. They are experimenting on individuals that won't be missed,
that nobody cares about enough to worry. I think that if they aren't
stopped, the project will grow. If nothing stops them, they will be
everywhere, and people won't be able to stop them. Everyone will probably end up
with chips in their heads to make them think it's all okay." She was clearly
upset by the end of this explanation. Her audience was pretty upset as well.
"What do you mean, they weren't concerned?" Logan was clearly furious.
"They are just abducting people and nobody is concerned?" A
dark skinned woman with striking white hair and a hint of an odd accent.
She looked worried, and a bit nervous.
"Experimentation on mutants?" Xavier was unhappy, and troubled.
Spike looked up at the gathered individuals. "Thing is that
there's a bit of an arguement about the 'personhood' of the individual's
they're grabbing. I don't know if they got any mutants, but they have been
grabbing vampires and demons."
Willow and Spike had expected the expressions of disbelief and
denial from everyone. Logan had only frowned thoughtfully, and sniffed the
air. Everyone else was going on interrupting each other, voices
overlapping, insisting that there was no such thing as vampires.
"Bloody hell, do you people have to see everything before you
believe? Then take a look at this!" Spike bellowed at the group, his features
shifting to his golden eyed vampire face.
Silence fell. Everyone was hushed, staring at the blond before
them. They were trying to figure how he had done that. Jean attempted to
probe his mind, and could barely locate his presence, and the sense that
she got was of age and danger.
"Is that why you could touch me? Because you aren't really alive?"
Marie was the first to speak, her words directed at Spike.
"He smells off from a normal person. He hasn't got a pulse
either." Logan was looking thoughtful. Something was teasing at him, the
shadow of a memory. "I believe them."
"If he is a vampire, which I still have some doubts about, "
Jean was speaking now, " why is he working with Willow? What benefit is there
for you? How can we know that you aren't a danger to our students?"
Spike sat down on the chair again, his arms folded over his
chest and scowled. "I got a damn chip in my head."
Willow looked at the attentive group, and decided to elaborate a
bit. "Spike was implanted with a chip that prevents him from committing
any violence against humans. I promised to try to help him get rid of
the Initiative. I have their files, up to about a week ago." Willow
hefted the case with her copied files.
It was eventually decided that they would help Spike and
Willow. Jean talked Spike into letting her run a few simple tests on him in the
lab, which he only agreed to do if Willow was present. After that, Spike
and Willow both went to guest rooms to sleep.
end part 6.
They had spent the next afternoon explaining about demons and
vampires to the X-men. It hadn't been particularly easy, and most of the
team was reluctant to believe, even after Jean's tests. Spike had
demonstrated his stregnth, he had changed his face multiple times. Finally, he had
growled at them, saying he didn't care if they believed in demons or not if
they would help them get rid of the Initiative.
That had led to several hours of Wilow explaining why and how
she had got the files, in detail. She had used the large screen in the war-
room to put up some of the pictures included. The detailed, though
somewhat parrtial files on the Weapon X program had matched the information
they had already found, and then, once she had theri attention, Willow had
pulled the heavy ammunition out. She had put up the files on some of the more
brutal testing done at the Initiative, complete with the film footage on
file showing the reactions to certain types of physical trauma.
"This is what we want you to help us stop. You say you want to
help make a world where a few differences in someones DNA doesn't count
against them. Why should some major differences in someones DNA and
physiology mean that they aren't worth resueing? Not all demons are safe and
peaceful, some are outright dangerous. But this isn't right."
It may have taken some ruthless arguement, but Willow had
finally convinced the X-Men to help her and Spike take down the Initiative.
She was still working on convincing Jean that Spike's chip had to go. They
had started discussing plans on how to find the acutal base afterwards,
and with the setting sun had actually meandered out of the mansion. Willow,
the Professor, Jean, Scott, and Logan were involved in the debate.
They were discussing the possiblity of gatting satelite imagry
of the Sunnydale area to determine the most likely location of an
underground complex when they were interrupted. Sabertooth ponced right at
Logan, knocking Jean down with Logan's body. Scott was trying to blast
another person who kept making the most astounding leaps. The assault had
completely interrupted Willow's efforts to get planning done, and
she had had enough.
Her eyes went dark with power, and Willow punched Mystique
right in the face, dropping the blue mutant to the ground. "THAT IS ENOUGH! I
have had one interruption to many!" With a gesture, Toad was pinned to the
side of the mansion with an unseen force. Logan and Sabertooth both froze
in the middle of trying to claw each other to bits, both feeling the power
emanating from the redhead.
" I do not have time for you to kill each other.
You....Sabertooth. You are either going to help me destroy the replacement to the
program that rebuilt you into a killer or stay out of my way. Logan allready
said he would help me destroy the Initative, so you can't kill him."
The sheer unexpectedness of it brought things to a halt. Scott
and Toad were both looking at Willow as if she had lost her mind. Sabertooth
and Logan were very carefully separating from their fight in such a way
as to not appear to be quitting or backing down. They were both certain
that Willow was dangerous right now, intensely emotional and
unpredictable, with apparent power to back her will. Mystique and Jean were both
unconscious on the ground, and the Professor was trying to figure out exactly what
was going on in Willow's head.
"Initiative?" Sabertooth was the one that had finally spoken.
"Yes. You and Logan were both in a secret military program called the
Weapon X project. You are now the only survivors from those experiments.
However, after the Weapon X project was shut down, the files weren't
completely destroyed. I don't know how, but someone got ahold of the files,
and now there's the Initiative. They are mainly trying to develop mind
control, with terible torturous experiments on the side. I hacked
into their files. They have to be destroyed."
The Professor was now very worried. He had already been
concerned because of the horrible things the Initiative was doing. Now, he
was concerned for Willow. She was undeniably intelligent, but
emotionnally she was in terrible shape. He could sense that she had suffered some
sort of painful betrayal, and felt all the expected shock, grief and outrage
from that. He wasn't certain where the sense of despair had come from.
He could tell that this focus on the Initiative was possibly the only thing
holding her together in a semblance of sanity.
Very cautiously, they all went inside to figure out what was
going on, and so that Toad and Sabertooth could ask some of the questions they
had about the Initiative. Scott carried Jean, mutteing something about
Logan being trouble, and always trying to get his girl, while Sabertooth
was carrying Mystique, stroking her hair gently.
end part 7.
They had proceded into the mansion, and now the Professor was watching
the group of people in the war room. There was Logan, scowling at the room
in general while Spike asked for details on the violence. Toad was
in the corner, looking around suspiciously. Sabertooth sat in one of the
chairs, still holding Mystique, who was now starting to come awake. Willow
was pacing along the wall, muttering something under her breath about it
not being the time or place for the violence. Her eyes were still a
disconcerting black.
"What hit me?" Mystique's odd voice, a bit quiet, drew
attention back to the reason why they were here, in Xavier's mansion.
"The redhead did. You okay?" Sabertooth answered her, his
voice unexpectedly tinged with concern.
"I want to know what this Initiative is, and why you want it
taken down so badly." Toad was not happy about being here, and was still
glaring at Willow.
"The Initiative is a secret government research project that
performs horrible experiments on demons and vampires while trying to develop
behavioral control chips. They have a base in Sunnydale,
California." Willow's voice was tense as she activated the controls to put images
on the screen again. "They also have information from an older
experimental program called Weapon X, which was used to alter both Sabertooth and
Wolverine. After the Weapon X project was closed, they attempted to
kill all survivors of their project. You two were the only ones they
didn't successfully kill. It looks like they have based some of their work
is directly building on research from the Weapon X program." Willow
proceeded with the full explanation, something that she had lately been
getting a lot of practice with.
The questions from Sabertooth and Mystique were more serious
than some of the ones from the X-Men. They didn't waste time trying to figure
out why Spike was helping Willow. They didn't have to be convinced that the
experiments were wrong. What was more of a concern for them was why
she had approached Xavier and his people with this.
Willow had explained that nobody in Sunnydale would help, nobody
in Sunnydale cared what was being done to demons and vampires. She had
found the information on Wolverine and Sabertooth and thought that either
of them might have an interest in getting rid of the next generation of
illegal experimentation, but the files had no information on their
locations. Spike had then seen a news broadcast that had shown the X-Men, and had
recognized Logan, which was why they had come to New York.
Meanwhile, Spike had left the room while Willow explained all
this, again. He already knew this. He wanted a nice beer to drink. He
stopped outside the kitchen, listening to the voices inside.
"She's dangerously unstable. I know the information seems to be
genuine, but can we trust her? Is it possible that she could have
faked the data?"
"To much of the information on Logan matches what we've been
able to discover. She obviously found valid information. However, we have
no way to be positive that this operation is still current."
"We can't take the risk of ignoring this. There could be real
danger for all of us if this program actually exists."
"I don't trust that Spike. His mind is dificult to read and
full of violent impulses."
Suddenly, a beer didn't sound as appealing. It didn't sound
like the X-Men would be particularly helpful. Damn.
end part 8
Sabertooth, Toad and Mystique had left the mansion after Willow had
explained what was going on. They were quite clearly concerned about the
Initative, and wanted to discuss among themselves what they intended
to do about it. Mystique gave Willow a slip of paper with a phone number
on it, saying that if Willow ever wanted to work with people that would go
for results, call her.
Nobody at Xavier's trusted these three enough for them to be
welcome on the school grounds. Spike and Willow had had a long quiet
discussion about what to do, and Willow had managed to get a bit of time with the
school's computers. She had managed to get some satellite imagry of
Sunnydale, and was certainthat she had found the location of the Initiative's
base. She had been exhausted, and had fallen asleep over the printouts on a
table.
Jean had agreed to perform the surgery on Spike to remove his
implant, mainly as a means to keep him in one place. She had sedated him,
and removed the implant from his head, setting it aside to examine
later. It seemed to be a remarkable piece of technology. Spike was left
unconscious in the medlab, expected to be asleep for close to eight hours.
* * * *
Jean hadn't figured on Spike's vampiric recouperation. She had
dosed him as if he were a normal person, and based it on his body mass. He
woke up barely an hour later. His head ached, a dull throbbing pain
radiating tendrils of fire from the back of his skull. The medlab was empty.
The entire lower portions of the school were also empty, and he rushed
upstairs, a suspicion growing inside.
The X-Men were gone. Willow was asleep at the table where she
had been gathering information on the Initiative, using satellite images.
They had left without Spike and Willow. Spike had a feeling that this
wouldn't turn out well.
end part 9.
Spike growled in frustrated anger. The noise of it woke Willow
up, and she looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. She only
saw Spike, looking slightly wobbly, and wearing his vampire face.
"Spike? What's wrong? Everything's all quiet." Willow still
sounded a bit sleepy. She lookd at the mass of papers spread over the table,
suddenly frowning. "Where's the thermal imaging of Sunnydale?"
"Remember I said they didn't trust us? I think they left
without us. The redhead did something to my head, said she'd take the chip
out." Spike grimaced, his head throbing. "My head hurts a lot, she must have
done something to me."
Willow gestured for him to come closer, and stood up in front of him.
She held her hands out, one on either side of his head, and chanted a few
words. The pain faded.
"Red, that's wonderful."
Suddenly, he reached out and pinched her arm, right below the
elbow. Willow winced, and Spike got this incredibly big, wicked smile on
his face.
"She really did it. I can hurt people again. Red, find a way that
we can go after those Initative bastards without these X- people, I want
them to bleed."
Spike prowled the mansion, pondering the best, most painful ways
to toruture and kill the soldiers, and Willow used the computers once
more, this time getting detailed information of Magneto's prison. She had
carefully routed herself, and had worked some sort of complex
computer thing that she told Spike would prevent the people at the prison from
finding who had accessed their data, assuming they even noticed. She downloaded
blueprints, and wiring systems, a listing of the gaurds on duty, and
their schedules.
She had gathered a vast amount of new papers before she fell
asleep again. There was only so far that willpower could substitute for
sleep, and Willow had gone beyond that point. The computer had been
disconnected from the prison, and from the Initiative, and was now simply doing some
sort of internal maintenance when Spike looked in near dawn. He gathered
the papers, and took them and Willow to the room she was supposed to be
sleeping in.
He also slept, knowing that Willow would have some sort of plan
for the next effort.
* * *
Charles Xavier was worried. His X-Men had decided that Willow was an
unknown, and there had been concern over how trustworthy she was. Spike was
a dangerous and violent individual, and so it had been decided, after much
debate, to go investigate the Initative, and if the proved dangerous, to
impede or remove their operations, and to do so without either Spike
or Willow.
They should have been in touch with him again by now. He
could only assume that something had gone terribly wrong.
end part 10.
The X-Men's jet returned shortly after dawn, and landed in the
hanger. Charles Xavier did not hear Scott's voice over the radio as this
happened. He was very concerned, and went to the hanger to figure out what
was going on. He realized that his concerns about something going wrong were
accurate. He sensed Logan's mind, filled with too much anger to read
easily. Storm, disturbingly unconscious and tinged with pain. Jean's mind was
there, similarly unconscious.
The X-Men had underestimated the Initiative. They hadn't taken
Willow's warnings seriously enough. Cyclops was captured, Jean and
Storm to injured to be on any active missions. Logan was in decent enough
shape, but his uniform was slashed, perforated by circular holes proclaiming
that he had been shot with bullets, and almost covered in dried blood.
Xavier had the sudden realization that if not for Logan's healing factor, none
of his X-Men would have returned from this mission.
"The girl was right. They were military, with rows of
captives. Whole place smelled like pain, fear, and antiseptic. We didn't
prepare well enough. They got Scott, it was all I could do to keep them from
getting Jean and 'Ro. We have to go back. But, we have to be better
prepared next time." Logan's voice was thick with exhaustion and smothered rage.
"I think you should rest. We will plan what to do next when
you've had enough rest to think clearly again. I will tend to our injured
in the medlabs." Xavier's voice was concerned.
That evening, when Spike and Willow wandered downstairs, the
Professor's voice rang in their minds, asking them into his study.
He was there, and Logan was as well. Neither of them looked calm, although
Xavier looked unhappy and worried, Logan looked unhappy and angry.
"My X-Men were underprepared for the Initative. Scott has been
captured. Jean and Ororo are in the medlab, both seriously
injured. I confess, we were uncertain as to the validity of your concerns, and
so we didn't take your cautions seriously enough. I have asked you here
to see if you have a suggestion as to our next action." Xavier's voice was
quiet, clearly upset by what had happened.
"We can't leave him there. Their records indicate that they
are going to regard him as a hostile non-human if he displays any abilities
outside the normal human range. The complication is that you don't have any
other students ready for something like this." Willow was clearly thinking
about this, voicing her thoughts for the Professor and Logan's benefit.
Spike figured that Willow had thought about all this upon
learning that the X-Men had left without them. "We bloody well told you they were
dangerous. You should have listened to us on that point, even if
you lot did decide that we were both crazy." Spike couldn't quite refrain
from an I-Told-You-So.
"You don't have the numbers or firepower to take them down
yourselves anymore. The first step is to call Mystique, Sabertooth, and Toad,
and have them help us with step two." WIllow's voice was confident. She had
a plan, and now Xavier was finally willing to listen to her.
"What is step two, if I may ask?" Xavier was thoughtful,
wondering how sound her plan would be.
"Step two is liberating Magneto from prison so that he can help
us eliminate the Initative. I can't picture anyone that survived the
Nazi concentration camps ever permitting something like this, let alone
the mind control chips that they are working on."
Xavier and Logan both gasped at the scope of her plan. It was
on one level amazingly simple, obvious that Magneto wouldn't stand for
this. On the other hand...
"You can't just waltz up to a prison and pop the doors like you
did at the mansion. It will be something much more complicated and
difficult." Logan spoke, not arguing with her idea, only wanting to be certain
that it was well planned in advance.
" I know. That's why I used your computers to access the plans
for the prison. I have all the information that we need." Willow had a
faint smile on her face. Finally, things were moving in the right direction.
As Spike went to get the stack of papers from her room, she found the slip of
paper, and called Mystique.
end part 11.
They had agreed to listen to Willow's plan, and so Toad,
Sabertooth, and Mystique returned to Xavier's mansion. There had been some glares
exchanced between Logan and Sabertooth, but they had restrained theirselves
from actual fighting.
Willow had gotten their attention when she had began by saying "I
want you to assist in the retrieval of Magneto from federal prison."
Seeing that everyone was now focused on her, she smiled slightly. "I have the
blueprints, and the listing and schedule of the gaurds. This won't
be easy, but we can manage it as long as we keep our timing right, and don't
stop for any extra violence. You did catch that part, right guys? No ad lib
violence, or it will throw off the schedule." Willow glared
slightly at Spike, as well as looking at Sabertooth when she said that.
Then, Willow began to elaborate the plan. She and Xavier had
considered all the security measures, and had also taken into
consideration Mystique's shapeshifting. Mystique actually played a pivotal role
in this plan, and after some questions, everyone was clear on the details.
* * * *
They hadn't had much dificulty. The plan had worked, and they
had retrieved Magneto. He had lost weight while in prison, and he
looked to have a few bruises on his body. The expression on his face had been
surprise, and relief. He had also been extrememly puzzled to see
Logan working with Sabertooth and a strange red haired young woman to free
him. Willow had gone into the building and done something to the
computers. She had only smiled, and said it was a minor surprise for later when
Toad had asked her about it.
They had all boarded the jet and Logan had them airborne before
Willow would answer any questions, of which Magneto had a great many.
" Let me explain, and umm I'm Willow Rosenberg. There is a
secret miliary project called the Initiative. They are using demons and
vampires to experiment and perfect a mind control chip. They also have
Cyclops right now. I found out about them, and hacked into their system. They
trace back to another illegal secret research program called Weapon X, which
was responsible for Sabertooth and Wolverine. I asked the X-Men to help
me get rid of them. They didn't take me seriously, and went without me or
Spike." She gestured at a blond man sitting across from her.
"They failed. The Initative captured Cyclops, and Logan was
barely able to get Jean and Storm out with him. We need more than just myself,
Spike and Logan to get rid of the initiative, so I asked Sabertooth, Toad
and Mystiqe to help get you out of prison."
Grining, Spike took up the next line. "We want you to help
destroy the Initiative. Completely."
Magneto was quiet for a moment. He remembered the horrible
things that had happened to himself and so many others in the camps. He
recalled his fears about experiments to find some way to act against mustants.
The fears of so many people that mutants would destroy humanity, and now it
sounded like humanity would do the job all on it's own. There was only one
possible response.
"Count me in."
end part 12.
After the plane had returned to the mansion, Mystique, Willow
and Magneto went to the kitchen for a bit of food, while the rest of the
people went to shower and in most cases, go to sleep. Willow explained
about the Initiative in greater detail, wanting Magneto to undertand why they
had to be dealt with. She figured she didn't need to use the war-room and
its visual display screens, and he looked like he needed a good meal
anyhow.
They decided to have a session for planning in the morning, after
everone had rested. Willow, Xavier and Magneto would plan a strategy for
dealing with the Initiative. After he was shown to a room, Magneto asked
Mystique to explain what had happened to result in him being retrieved from
prison with Charles' jet.
She explained that the X-Men had viewed Willow as mentally
unbalanced, obsessed with the destruction of the Initiative. They hadn't taken
her warnings seriously, and had gone to investigate the Initiative
without either Willow or her companion Spike. Mystique didn't know any
details, but things had gone very wrong for the X-Men. Jean and Storm were
injured, recovering in the medical area. Cyclops had been captured.
His sleep was full of troubled dreams. Dreams of horrors in
the past, and of what might come to be. If this initiative succeded in
creating mind control chips, what would become of mutants? Would they be hunted
down by mind-controlled soldiers? Would they become mind controlled slaves
to a world of intolerance and hate?
Morning was a welcome end to his dreams. He found clean
clothing provided, clothing that neither suggested prison wear or carried the
logo of Xavier's school. It was a gesture he appreciated very much.
Hopefully, there would be plentiful coffee for the planning session.
There was hot coffee and also breakfast. He entered the
room, folowing the scent of coffee and eggs, and saw that Willow was
already there, a cup of coffee beside her, and busily using the computers
for something. She looked up as he entered, and offered a half smile,
and waved in the direction of the coffee.
"Professor Xavier's not here yet, I think he went to check on
Jean and Storm. Your people are fine. Toad's in the library, looking at
some books on engineering. I really don't think I want to know what Sabertooth
and Mystique are doing. They shared a room, and haven't come out yet.
Spike isn't a day person, he's still asleep, probably dreaming about
gutting soldiers or something. He's a bit violent at times. Have coffee,
it's really good."
Magneto was drinking his coffee and asking Willow about the
layout of the Initiative when Xavier joined them. Willow was explaining that
it was underground, located beneath the local college, and used the screens
of the war-room to put up the blueprints of the Initiative base.
"This complicates things. The location under a collage... it
will make any actions against them much more difficult." Magneto was
thoughtful, considering the difficulties they would have to work around.
"Do not forget that we must be careful not to cause injury to
the students of the college!" Xavier was concerned. How much danger
would there be to the students of the college? He would have to make certain
that whatever plan they settled on did not endanger the surrounding
people.
"I want this to be thorough. I don't want to lave any corner
operational, and I want to make certain that the Initiative is
closed down for good. As near as I can tell, there should be minimal risk to
the structural integrity of the nearby buildings, after all it's
California. People have to build to withstand earthquakes, which Sunnydale does
get on a regular basis. However, that does mean that the underground
facilities will be designed fairly resistant to impact or shaking. Honestly, I have
no experience in destroying an underground faciity. Hopefully, one of
you will be able to make up for my lack in that area."
The planning continued for hours, details of structure being
discussed, along with questions of how many soldiers, and what sort of
electronic measures they would have. Xavier kept trying to inject a note of
caution for the surrounding citizens.
end part 13.
They had eventually hammered out a plan. They would move at
night, to minimize the risk of endangering the ordinary students and citizens
of Sunnydale. Xavier would be staying in Westchester, as he lacked the
physical mobility to be particularly useful during the actual
assault. They had made their plans to make the best use of their abilities. Toad
would be responsible for releasing as many of the prisoners as he could.
Mystique and Willow would disable the computers, as well as making certain
the Initiatives files were completely destroyed. Sabertooth, Spike,
Logan and Magneto would deal with the main forces of the Initiative, which
should also provide enough distraction for the others to accomplish their goals.
Xavier still thought it would be far to bloody, and would result
in to many people killed. He did admit that the Initiative had to be
stopped, but wished there was another way. Unfortunately, he hadn't ben able to
think of a less violent workable plan in the short time they had available.
* * * *
The flight went better than Magneto had hoped. Mystique was
piloting the plane, which had caused Charles some dismay. Wolverine was sitting
by Willow, and they appeared to be talking. Sabertooth was sitting
near the blond, Spike. They seemed to be discussion the upcoming violence,
and he heard Spike mention that the Initiative soldiers carried some sort
of electrical stun gun. There were o conflicts between Wolverine and
Sabertooth. The flight was almost peaceful.
Logan was talking to Willow. He thought she was attractive,
and intelligent. She also seemed to be a nice person, except for the
Initiative. He wanted to get to know her a bit better, to know the
actual person instead of the fact that she was an excellent computer
hacker, and looked pretty, even first thing in the morning. maybe after this
was over, he could ask her to go out for dinner somewhere. Assuming they all
came back from this.
* * * *
They had arrived in Sunnydale, landing the plane near the place
Spike remembered escaping the compound. Carefully, they emerged from the
plane, alert for any sign of the Initiative soldiers. Seeing that the area
was clear, they very carefully moved to the access way that Spike had
used, and Willow, Mystique, and Toad began their descent into the complex.
Referencing the printout that Willow had given them, the others
moved to find the major access to the base, the one they had used to move in
the large equipment. It was time for the Initiative to fall.
They had found the main entrance, and Magneto used his power to
rip the main doors, made of a steel alloy to withstand earthquake, fire or
bullets from their hinges. The shriek of tormented metal got the attention
of everyone inside, and a siren began to sound inside. He raised a
field around him, one that should stop any bullets from actually coming
into contact with him.
"The Initative shall fall. We shall begin now."
Soldiers began to come forth in response to the siren. Magneto
could feel the metal in their weapons, and was something else.... other
small bits of metal that he could sense. When he had a moment, he would have
to locate them more precisely. He could see Sabertooth and Logan, each having
taken a position at the edge of the doorway. SPike was standing a bit
inside, a lit cigarette in his hand, and his face having changed. His eyes were
now yellow, with sharp teeth and his features no longer looked quite
human. He looked like he was looking forward to the violence ahead.
Meanwhile, Toad had found a guard by the hall of cells, and
rendered him unconscious with a boot to the head. He picked up the keycard,
and moved down the hall, opening the cells one by one. Some of them
were occupied by what looked like almost normal people, others contained
beings that would never pass as human. The X-Man was huddled in one of the
cells, curled in a corner, bruises and burns showing clearly in the harsh
light. He hadn't been the only injured prisoner, many of the others had
shown burns and cuts over them, and there had been bruises visible on some of
them. Others, he couldn't tell if they had bruises under their scales or
fur, but they had been sliced into as well. He was glad that he hadn't been
a prisoner here.
Willow and Mystique had found the main computer, and had only
minor difficulties getting inside. Mystique had shifted into one of the
men they first found, after first dropping him to the ground. They had no
more problems after that, as Willow had picked up a lab-coat and
clipboard, looking like a researcher at a casual glance, and Mystique now
looked like one of them... The computer system was doomed.
end part 14.
They had managed to take down the Initiative. Toad had come
forth, Cyclops unconsious and slung over his shoulder. The protective
visor was gone, as was his shirt, and he had bandages over parts of his arms
and chest. Bruises and a few small burns mottled his skin, making it
clear that his stay had not been pleasant. He was pronounced annoyingly heavy,
and almost but no quite dropped to the floor of the plane.
Mystique was limping, and Willow was holding her arm oddly, a
military green shirt wrapped around it from wrist to elbow. Sabertooth and
Logan were showing no signs of serious injury, despite the numerous
bullets that had struck both of them. Logan had displayed a capacity for
violence that would have entirely appalled Xavier, having gone into a terrifying
rage after being hit with the taser. Apparently, his metal skeleton had
conducted the charge very well, and he had gone into a frenzy.
Magneto was not actually injured in the attack, but he was exhausted.
Maintaining the shield that prevented him from being shot had been demanding, and he
had also sent careful pulses that had interfered with the electronic
security.
He had been a bit disturbed when Spike had been shot by one of
the soldiers. Other than the initial bloodspray from the impact, his
wounds had not really bled, and then there was the way he had torn the throat
out of the first soldier he had grabbed. There had been very little blood
that had spilled from the body of the soldier. He had always assumed that
stories of vampires were untrue...but now, he had seen Spike in action.
After their return, Xavier had been appalled at the extent of
the violence they had used. His outrage had faltered when he got a good
look at Scott, who was now wearing the pair of special sunglasses that logan
had taken along on the plane. Scott had bruises, clearly of differing
ages. There were burns, and under the bandages had been what appeared to
be acid inflicted wounds as well as deliberate incisions. The sight of his
student having clearly been beaten and tormented with these brutal
experiments had stunned him into silence. Logan had helped carry Scott to the
medlabs, so that his injuries could be properly tended to.
They had gone to wash up, and put on clean clothing before
discussing what had happened. He had the feeling that Xavier would not like
the news of what had been going on any better than he had. Especially not
the bit about how some of the soldiers had carried bits of metal implanted
in their bodies. Perhaps they were closer to perfecting their behavioral
control than they had assumed. He hoped that whatever Willow and Mystique
had done to the computers had caused their records to be permanently
destroyed.
end part 15.
To the relief of Charles Xavier, the injuries inflicted on Cyclops,
painful as they were, would heal. He had suffered no permanently
disabling injuries, and had not been implanted with any devices. It appeared
that there had ben tissue samples taken, and that he had been injured in
a variety of ways, as well as having some cracked ribs, and a crack
along one of his armbones and a sprained wrist. It would take time to see
what sort of mental trauma he had suffered from his captivity, and how well he
would recover from that.
They had eventually gathered in the war room. Everyone had
taken the time to clean up, and have their injuries tended as needed. By the
time everyone that had gone had meandered into the war room, there was a
plentiful supply of hot coffee waiting for them. Willow's arm was
now encased in a cast, a dull blue nylon covering her arm from wrist to
shoulder. Toad had acquired a few minor bruises and scrapes,
Mystique had a limp, but it was impossible to tell if she had any bruises. She was
curled on Sabertooth's lap, looking tired after the exertion of the assault
on the Initiative.
They referenced the plans that Willow had downloaded, each
explaining their part of the mission. Toad had gestured at the row of cells,
describing the condition of the occupants as best he could. They
had scattered after he opened the cells, and he had no idea where any of
them besides Cyclops had gone, or what had become of them. Willow
explained that she had deleted the records about their chips, leaving only the
sections about the torturous experiments. She had made certain he chip
studies couldn't be retrieved.
The remaining files would give the people that would inevitably
go to search the debris the impression that the horrible torturous
experiments had been done for no further purpose than the infliction of pain on
individuals with abnormal features and abilities. Considering the extreme
emotional feelings that the mutant debate had caused, any rumors of an
organization kidnapping and torturing people, especially under government funding
would be such a public relation nightmare that the people responsible for
authorizing it would be hoping to the promotion to janitors. She
had also done something to leave the impression that the Initiative had been
behind Magneto's disappearance from prison, intending to study him as well.
The description that Spike was able to give of the surgical
tables located in the central area had appalled the professor, as had
Magneto's news that there had been small chips implanted in the chests of the
soldiers. He had removed one so that it could be studied. A quick
comparison had shown it to be very similar to the one that had been
implanted in Spike.
After several long hours discussion over the probable motives of
the people behind the Initiative, they had concluded that they didn't
know the plans of Dr. Maggie Walsh, but they could not have been good. They
had also concluded that the Initiative complex was done for, through a
combination of certain explosives hat had been planted by Mystique and Toad,
Willow's rendering their computer system inoperable, and the fact that
Magneto had used his power to warp and bend the steel structural supports,
bringing down sections of the walls and ceilings. While parts of it were still
standing when they left, the entire structure was dangerously unstable, and
the remaining walls could collapse at any time.
end part 16.
After everyone had concluded that the Initiative was now a dark
note in the pages of history, and they had no idea what the intentions of
Dr. Maggie Walsh had been, the discussion had moved to one of philosophy. It
was a direct, immediate philosophy, about the question of mutants and what
sort of future they would face. There were considerations of political
concern, legal matters about mutant rights and the use or misuse of mutant
abilities. Logan, Sabertooth and Mystique slipped out as this progressed,
clearly not feeling like joining the debate. Spike stayed, not so much
interested in the words as he was in just watching Willow.
She seemed alive again. Not that her actual physical health had
been in question, but she was alive again. She was caring about things
again, letting herself feel things beyond pain and heartbreak. He didn't
think she was suicidal anymore. Spike also suspected that part of Willow's
renewed interest in life had to do with Logan. He had seen them glancing at
each other when they though nobody was looking. She found him
interesting, and he seemed to want to know her better. He watched as her eyes
sparkled when she argued about whether a mutant should be held responsible for
arson if they used their powers to burn down a building. Yeah, Willow was
alive inside again.
He went to find Logan. Since the mutant was partly responsible
for Willow feeling again, he wanted to have a few words with him. Logan
was sitting in a chair, a cold bottle of beer in hand.
"I've seen how you look at Willow." Spike spoke, getting the
man's attention.
Logan wasn't surprised, he had known Spike was there. But he
hadn't expected the vampire to talk to him. They hadn't been particularly
friendly. He looked at Spike, wondering where this was going,
hoping that he wasn't about to get the 'stay away from my girl' speech.
"You want to know her better. I just want you to treat her
right. Red's had a lot of trouble in her life, and she deserves better than
what she's got so far. If you're interested, just make sure you treat
her right. She's the closest I've got to a friend. Hurt her and I'll hunt
you down and make you bleed." With those parting words, Spike went to the
room his things were in so that he could pack.
He left a note for Willow, and packed his things. There was a
whole world away from California or Brazil, and it was about time he go
see some of it. Now that he was a fully capable vampire again, he could get
back to really having a life, so to speak.
end part 17.
After some time discussion the possible futures of mutants,
Magneto and Xavier concluded that they had said enough on the matter for now.
Willow had been right in the discussion, and while she had not had the same
number of years watching events unfold as the other two, she had
considerable practice observing people, and in planning to deal with unusual
activities. While Xavier believed that given enough proof that mutants were
still people, they would be accepted, Willow was convinced that one team
of superheroes, or several teams for that matter wouldn't convince
people to accept mutants.
Willow argued that people wouldn't accept mutants as their
equals based solely on the actions of a few, highly visible powerful mutants
fighting. First, they would have to be reassured that mutants were held
responsible for their actions, and then a gradual process of acceptance could
begin. She assumed that it would be a long, difficult process, but was
hopeful that there could eventually be co-existence. Her view had been argued,
and debated, but eventually, they had conceded that she was as entitled
to her view of the future as they were.
Magneto had gathered Sabertooth and Mystique, as well as prying
Toad out of the library, and they had left. They had offered Willow a nearly
polite farewell, and Toad had promised to look her up if they needed to
break anyone else out of prison. They had left to go somewhere else, and
Willow didn't ask about their future plans.
Willow wondered how much of a future she had. Before they had
come here, the deal had been that Spike would kill her, quickly and with
minimal pain after his chip was out. The plan had held some appeal then, when
she was still devastated over Oz and his cheating and departure. Now, she
thought there might be some reasons to live, like a certain interesting
Canadian. She went upstairs, and found a note by her computer.
Red - I know that we had a deal. Thing is, I got to know you,
and you aren't half bad, for a mortal chit. Go out and live a while. Be
happy, maybe have a nice shag with Logan bloke you keep staring at. I'll
have a new life ahead of me, only fair that you have one to. Take care of
yourself. Spike
Smiling, Willow went to find Logan and see if he still wanted to
go somewhere for dinner. A new life.... maybe a new love. She was
willing to try that.
end part 18. end Project Initiative.
Author: Lucinda
Rating: Pg 13
mentions Willow/Oz, no current Willow pairing
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Distribution: Charity's site, others please ask
Set beginning in season 4, will diverge into AU shortly.
Willow was laying on her bed in the dorm room she shared with
Buffy. She was feeling miserable. Oz was gone. Oz had slept with that
Veruca skank. He had slept with Veruca and tried to hide it from her. He
had turned into a wolf and killed Veruca. He had left Sunnydale and her
rather than talk about what had happened. She was alone. The one person
that had sen her as desirable was gone.....
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Her voice was dull, thick with the pain and misery
she was feeling. Willow didn't even think about the dangers of caling out an
invitation on the Hellmouth. She sat up, and began to approach the
door.
Spike burts through the door, immediately shutting it behind
him. He stalked towards Willow, his face ridges, eyes feral and hungry. A
threatening growl emanated from him as he approached the redhead.
He couldn't bite her.
Oh, he tried. He threw her on the bed, and lunged for her
throat. It didn't work. Something caused him the most agonizing pain he'd ever
experienced. Spike tried two more times to rip her throat open, but
had the same results.
Willow was certain that this was another sign of her complete
undesirability. The bloodthirst vampire couldn't bite her. She
wasn't even good enough to eat. To Willow's surprise, Spike tried to assure her
that it wsn't her fault. He even remembered the outfit she had been wearing
a year ago when he had locked her and Xander in an abandoned factory while
in a drunken haze. Willow was oddly flattered.
Then the power went out, and masked figures with guns knocked
down her door. Willow shreiked in panic tinged with a bit of anoyance. How
many people were going tobarge into her room tonight anyhow?
When the smoke finally cleared, Spike was gone.
Willow didn't see Spike the next day. Buffy was there, and had
found the commandos breaking into their room. She had helped to chase them
off, but hadn't gotten a good look at the other person, the one that had run
away. Then, Buffy had told Willow that Parker had dumped her as soon as
they had slept together. He had used his handsome face and a pretense of
sympathy to lure her into his bed, and she had fallen for it.
Buffy was miserable, bemoaning her loneliness that had made her
voulnerable to Parker's come-ons. She railed against Angel's
departure, which had made her alone to begin with. She had colorful but
unpleasent things to say about the gypsies that had designed Angel's curse and
included that happiness clause. Buffy was trying to find the reason why
there were no good men in Sunnydale.
Willow's only comment had been "They either die young or run
away." Buffy had agreed, to focused on her own pain to notice Willow's pain
and misery.
Everyone was to busy to realize the depths of Willow's pain.
Thanksgiving was almost here. The gang was going to have a turkey
dinner at Giles' apartment. They had decided this because Buffy's only family
was her mother, Joyce, who would be joining them. Xander had said he would
rather lock himself in a room and watch six hours of teletubbies than
attend another Harris family Thanksgiving brawl. Anya had no family,
having been a vengence demon for over a thousand years. Willow's parents were in
Dallas. Or possibly Houston. Willow wasn't quite certain where her parents
were, or how long they would be there.
She was sitting in a chair, leafing through a book of demons
that included pictures when there was a commotion at the door. She marked
her spot - right at the Ik'Tarin demon, a large creature with tentacles
and jaws like a crocadile. Whatever was causing this commotion...was
swearing with a British accent. Spike?
It was Spike, wrapped in a smoking blanket, and looking rather
unhealthy. He had been pale before, but now his skin loked unhealthy pale. His
eyes had dark circles under them, and his cheekbones were even more
prominent. He was swaying slightly as he stood.
"I want you to fix whatever your blody commando pals did to me!
How in the bloody hell is a vampire supposed to go aout his unlife with
whatever the hell they did to me! I want my life back, you daft bloody slayer!"
He sounded hostile, and posibly a bit afraid underneath.
Giles and Buffy didn't trust Spike. He ended up in the chair
that Willow had been sitting in, tied up like a turkey. He was still
cranky, but was starting to consider the possibility that maybe the slayer
really had no idea what he was talking about. He had explained to them that
something had been done that made him unable to feed. nobody had wanted to
believe him, until Willow mentioned the dorm room.
The focus had shifted to everyone yelling at her about how
foolish she had been to invite someone intoher room without knowing who it was.
How could she do that...didn't she realize the danger she had put
herself and the Slayer in with her unthinking words? Wilow had cringed at the
explosion of critisism. Sh emeekly replied that she hadn't been
thinking, she was very sorry, and since Spike seemed to be unable to bite
anyone, Buffy wasn't really in any danger. She then made it very clear that
she had not invited the commandos into her room.
The debate about what to do with Spike had continued until the
small gathering was attacked by indians. Giles and Buffy had gone forth
to deal with the source, while Xander was laying on the couch, somehow
instantly stricken with syphilis. Anya was tending him. Willow and Spike had
been ignored in the assignment of tasks. Spike was still tied to the
chair. A few arrows were embedded in his torso, thankfully missing the
heart. He was now muttering threats about what he intended to do to them when he
got his bit back and questioning if he would be able to feed from Xander's
corpse if he died from his sudden illness.
"Spike? I don't have anything to do right now, maybe you could
tell me what happened to you? Maybe I could help figure out how they
did...whatever. If they are local, they might have a computer
system I can access." Willow's quiet words disracted Spike from his ranting
threats.
"When I get my bite back, you realize that I intend to kill you
and the rest of the slayer's little friends, right? I am not my soddin'
ponce of a Sire, all nice and helping the slayer." Spike's words were
whispered, as is he were trying to keep anyone from hearing hte possibility Willow
had hinted at.
If she found out what they had done to him, he could find someone
to undo it. He could have his bite back, and get bloody revenge on everyone.
Willow was carefully removing the arrows from his body when she
answered. "I realize that you aren't our friend. I will offer you
this deal, since I know about the one you made with Buffy about
Acathala. You will tell me everything you can about what happened. I will try to
figure out who these commandos are, and what they did to you. In return,
when you come after me to kill me like all the others, I want you to make it
quick. And make certain that someone will find my body, I don't want to be
left rotting somewhere and need my corpse identified by dental records."
Willow's reply chilled Spike to the marrow of his undead
bones. Not because she assumed he would kill her, he had known that she was the
smart one of the group. It was the calm way that she had mentioned it, as
if her death held no importance, no dread for her. The way she spoke of
not wanting her corpse left to rot as if she had given the matter a
great deal of thought. She didn't care if she died right now. She was willing
to help him because it would give her something to contemplate other than
whatever was going on inside her head that had lead her to calmly bargining
over the manner of her death.
Spike began to tell her what he remembered. He also made a
promise to himself - he wanted to know what had brought her to this state of
empty pain. Her unconcern was baffling, he wanted to understand. Why hadn't
her friends done something about it, anyhow?
end part 2
The next two weeks witnessed things settle into a slightly awkward
routine. Spike was staying at Giles' apartment. They had started by
keeping him chained up and lying in the bathtub. He was being fed, although
he kept insisting that cold pig's blood from the butcher shop was not even
close to the same thing as fresh human blood, right from the throat. For the
most part, his complaints sell on unconcerned ears.
Spike learned about how Willow's boyfriend oz had been a
werewolf. He had cheated on her with a she wolf from another band. Theother wolf
had tried to kill Willow, Oz-Wolf had killed the she wolf, and Oz had
been shot with the tranquiizer before he could maul Willow. Oz had been gone
the next day, having left town. He had sent for his things. It had
explained to Spike why Willow had been an abject picture of heartbroken
desolation in her dorm room that night. That had been the day she learned his things
were gon. That he wasn't coming back to this place, to her. Reflecting
back to his own reactions to the many times that Drucilla had left him,
Spike had been forced to admit to himself that he understood how she had
felt. Completely abandoned and alone. It had never sent him into a
suicidal depression before.
Willow was either feling suicidal, or had moved past that to a
place where she felt her life or death truely didn't matter. Spike wasn't
quite certain which it was. It bothered him. He had spent a lot of time
talking to the shy redhead over the past two weeks. She had persuaded the
Watcher to let him out of the bathtub, and eventually out of the chains as
well. The chains had been a gradual process, and the watcher still snapped
a pair of handcuffs on him when he was annoyed. Spike had decided that it
really wouldn't be safe to tell him that with his vampire stregnth, he
could easily snap the handcuffs. The whole reasoning behind his freedom from the
tub and chains was to make it easier for Willow to try to determine what had
been done to him.
Willow had listened to Spike, and to Buffy's reports about her
nightly patrols. They had pieced together some of the story. The commandos
were called the Initiative, and were only part of some sort of secret
military project hidden inside or near Sunnydale. There was a basse that the
patroling commandos reported to, and Spike had remembered seeing
many scientists in a very well equipped lab facility. He didn't recall
seeing any windows, and has escaped through a long, sloping tunnel.
Because of that, they were suspecting some sort of at least partially
underground facility.
So far, they hadn't found the actual location of any installatin of
that magnitude. The military base that Xander and Cordelia had
stolen the rocket launcher used to destroy the Judge was to far away to be the
location of the initiative. Willow had found no documentation of
any facility that fit the requirements they were looking for in her
perusal of the Sunnydal City records. Spike had actually been impressed by
Willow's researching on the computer. He had known damn well that hacking
like that was illegal, and hadn't know the redhead had it in her to just
calmly ignore laws like that. She was starting to grow on him.
" I think I found them. Not a location or adress or something
physical like that, but I think I found their computer systems. If
I'm right, I can just slip right in and see what they've got in their
computers. They have to have files on what they did and how they did it in
there somewhere." Willow's gleeful voice sounded alive again. She was
almost giddy from solving the difficult problem.
Spike was interested in her discovery. Of course the big, bad
commandos had computers. Trend of the recent decades to have computers. Red
had found their's and she'd get their secrets in a trice.... what in the
world was on her screen now?
"hmm... They have protections against people just slipping in.
Makes sense I suppose, but it will slow me down slightly. Spike, you do
realize that I have no idea what sort of organization they will have for
their files? I doubt they will have one called 'What we did to Spike'
followed with 'how to fix it in three easy steps'. Can you pass me those
blank CD's over there? I want to copy their files, it will be safer to browse
them later from my computer than to stay in the Initiative systems."
Willow's voice was thoughtful, her mind already moving ahead to the next
steps of the problem.
Her words calmed his immediate delight. He wouldn't have kept
a file labeled how to fix the bloke I messed with', why would they? The
fact that they had never even asked what his name was...actually, that had
really annoyed him. Spike watched as Wilow copied vast amounts of computer
files onto the disks, labeling them with what looked like file names as
they finished. The labels didn't reallyhelp Spike have any clue what was
inside, but they did make it easy to tell the disks apart.
After she had copied everything she could, she exited the
Initiative systems, and took her computer off the intenet. She had her data,
now came the part that was tedious researching.
------------------------------
He had ended up playing minion for the watcher. He even had his
very own key to the apartment now. The watcher had given him a grocery list
and sent him off to the store while he ran off with his tart. The slayer and
her pals hadn't even figured out that Red was more than a bit mopey
about dog-boy leaving. He was really starting to wonder ow they had
managed to defeat so many evil dangers. They really were pitiful at reading
people.
When he got back to the apartment, it was quiet. There was only
the soft hum of appliances, adn a single heartbeat. Red wason the
computter, looking through those files. Spike put the perishables away into
the icebox and crept over behind Willow, hoping to startle her. When he looked
at the screen of her computer, there was a diagram of the human body, with the
bones highlighted. There were chemical formulae on the sides, and
complex mathematical equations. An instinct deep inside of Spike told him
that this was trouble. Other than that, he had no clue what in the hell it
meant.
"Red?" His voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper.
"I found the history of the Initiative. They trace back to
another operation called Project X. It did experimentation on humans and
mutants in the areas of biofeedback, biochemical alteration, and skeletal
modification. They had a ninety five percent casualty rate with their subjects."
Willow's voice was quiet, no louder than his had been. She was
clearly disturbed by her findings. "The Initiative is the new, Hellmouthier
version of the same idea. They are using demons and vampires to work on
behavioral control."
"They implanted a microchip into your brain.. I found a placement
diagram back here a bit. It receives a signal by satellite and prevents you
from acting aggressively against humans. They used a neurosurgeon to
install it, Spike. Unless you want the risk of permanant brain damage, it'll
take a neurosurgeon to remove it."
Willow paused, licking her lips nervously. "If it's any
consolation, you have one of the first generation chips. It only prevents you from
feeding or hurting humans. The second generation of behavioral chips is
listed as currently in testing. Those will let them actually make you do
things that they want you to do."
end part 3 Project: Initiative
Spike was very thoughtful as Willow spent the next few days
searching the initiative files over the next few days. The watcher had
implied that they would help find a solution to Spike's problem. The only person
that had even tried to find time to look had been Willow. The slayer's
suggested solution was to stake Spike.
Frustratingly, Spike was getting a feeling of a greater moral
good. It wasn't just his problem anymore, it was something bigger. He hated
these moments of moral responsibility - the last one had led to his making
a deal with the slayer to prevent the demon Acathala from sucking the world
into hell. He was getting a sinking feeling that this would lead him to
more complications.
He couldn't just ignore the fact that the Initiative was
experimenting on demons and vampires. Even if Willow found a spell that would let
her just conjure the chip out of his head, the Initiative would still be
there. They would have to be actively stopped. He had looked at the files
Red had copied. They were commiting horrible tortures in the name of
Science. Hell, they had records of doing things that had turned Spike's stomach,
and he had once been infamous for torturing people with railroad spikes. It
was clear that the Initative had to be stopped.
He just didn't have a clue who would help him do it.
Spike had tried to talk to the Watcher about the Initiative.
Rupert Giles hadn't seen why Spike was so concerned with the Initiative.
He didn't see the danger in a group that was capturing demons and vampires.
Spike hadn't been able to communicate the depths of torment the
researchers were inflicting on theri captives. He hadn't even got through to him
when he tried to reason that the initiative would eventually move on to
humans. His talk with the Slayer had gone worse. She had laughed derisively,
and said that if they were getting demons off her streets, she didn't care
what they did with them.
Spike sat in the cair in front of the tellevision. He needed to
distract himself. What to watch.. There were several soap operas to
choose from, with tales of passion, manipulation, and settings of luxury
and wealth. There was MTV with new music and half clad women writhing
around. Or, he could watch the History channel, maybe catch something about
a bloody, violent war.
Spike ws pulled from his thoughts of quality televisin
programming by an odd noise from Willow. It was part squeak, part gasp, and part
dismay. That was an odd noise. Perhaps he should see what she found that
would cause that sort of reaction.
"There are survivors, Spike. Afte the Weapon X Project was shut
down, they tried to make the evidence disappear. Only, the evidence
included the survivors of their nasty super soldier project. There were two that
they didn't manage to kill." She did something with her computer, and the
screen was filled by two pictures. On the left was a large seeming man with
oddly dark eyes and a wild mane of blondish hair. Letters under his
picture read Codename Sabertooth; Creed, Victor. On the right was a different
man, with shorter dark hair and blue eyes. He would blend in with a crowd in
most places in America, and many in Europe. His caption read Codename
Wolverine: Logan, John.
Spike was thoughtful. He had the nagging feeling that he had
seen the man on the right before, somewhere. He was trying to place the man
when he sat down for the evening news. He might as well catch the sports
scores while he thought about it. There was a segment on the 'Mutant
Menace' that included Live coverage of a group of Mutants in New York fighting a
large purple robot....
"Red!" Spike bellowed at Willow, having thought something about
one of the mutants looked familiar. She darted into the room, and saw the
segment he was watching.
"That's Wolverine. I was just looking at the file on him...."
They sat in silence through the rest of the segment, many thoughts flickering
in their minds.
"Spike? I know we'd figured that you'd kill me after I found the
reason that you couldn't bite, but... I think this is important. I think
we have to get rid of the Initiative first. What they are doin isn't
right. It's wrong on so many levels... If it isn't stopped, it's going to get
bigger and uglier." Willow's voice was soft, her words following some of
Spike's thoughts.
"Nobody here sees it that way, Red. The watcher just sees that
they are working on demons and lets it go at that. They aren't human, so it
isn't his problem. The slayer only cares that every demon or vampire they
catch is one she doesn't have to worry about. I sure as hell want the
Initiative to go down, permanently. But we can't do it alone. Where are we
going to get the reinforcements to pull this off?" Spike was hoping that
Willow had a plan. He didn't have one. Hell, even an idea would be more than
he had.
"well, that was Wolverine in New York. I think if he knew there
was another program like the one that put him through months of
excruciating agony, he would want to shut them down. He wasn't on the camera
alone either, he had people with him in the same uniform. They might
help. If anyone knows where Sabertooth is, I think he might want to help
also." Willow's voice was determined, with a hard tone behind it that he
had never heard before.
"If it comes down to it, I'll take down the defenses and we'll
break Magneto out of prison to help take thisplace down. I can garantee
that he won't let a place like this stay in operation."
Spike stared at her, astonished. He had known she paid
attention to the news, so he wasn't surprised that she had placed Magneto in the
category of heavy firepower. He wondered if she could actually break him out of
the prison he was residing in... but foremost he was puzzled. "Red? Why
would Magneto not stand for the Initiative?"
"Because he's Jewish." She glanced up at SPike, seing his
continued puzzlement. "Spike, Magneto is Erik Lenscherr, a Jew from Poland.
He was sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. That was publicized in
his trial." Spike still hadn't made the connection.
"Nobody that went though that sort of hell would ever let
something like it happen again. Neither would anyone that lost someone to the
Holocaust. The idea that it's okay to do horrible things to dmons because they
aren't the same as you will only lead to the idea that it's okay to do
horrible things to people that are a bit different, with a different
religeon, or ethnic heritage. People would stand back and let it happen because
it wasn't them, until it was them, and by then there wouldn't be anyone
to stop things. I won't stand back and let another Holocaust begin."
Willow's explanation suddenly made sense to Spike. He also
found himself seeing the matter from that perspective, and her words made
a dark and terrible sort of sense. People would stand back and let things
happen as long as it didn't interfere with their lives. Spike also suddenly
found himself remembering that Willow was also Jewish by heritage.
There was another Holocaust brewing, and the forces against it
were a chipped vampire, and a Jewish hacker that had dabbled in magic. God
help them.
end part 4.
Willow's life had gradually reshaped itself over the past few
weeks. She had barely noticed that her friends were spending as little time
with her as they possibly could. They hadn't been there much since Oz
had left. Xander was to busy with his new job as a constructionworker and
with Anya. Buffy...Buffy thought that Willow should be over Oz leaving by now,
since it had been a few weeks since he had left. The fact that Buffy still
got all depressed and miserable because Angel had left Sunnydale and Buffy
nearly six months earlier didn't lend any stregnth to her arguement.
Why did Buffy still get to be miserable that Angel had left
her? They had had serious problems, everyone except maybe Buffy had seen
that. Angel had left because if he had stayed, he could wind up loosing his soul
over Buffy. Again. He hadn't cheated on her, he hadn't just vanished.
That was Oz, and somehow, she was supposed to magically be over him now.
She had tried to convince Buffy, or Xander, or Giles to
understand her reasoning that the Initiative wasn't all good. Buffy had told her
that she was just worrying about his so she wouldn't be moping about Oz.
Xander had explained in very short words and the tone of somone explaining to a
small child that demons were bad. Making them go away was good. End of
story, that's all there is to it. Giles thought that she was over-
reacting.
"There isn't a single person in this whole damn town willing to
help us stop this!"
Willow's angry declaration rang through the apartment. The
only person to hear her was Spike. He was a bit surprised. Red wasn't known
for swearing or shouting. He sauntered over, standing outside of her
reach.
" I already figured that one out, Red. No one here in Sunnyhell
cares. Hope you have a plan B. Or a neurosurgeon. With a surgeon, I could
get this chip out, and then I'd make them care...." Spike was curious.
He had already known nobody else would help. Planning anything more
complex than 'We go in, kill them all. Go home and party' was something he
hadn't been practicing lately.
"You still have that car? If nobody will help us here, I say we
go to New York. Once there, we find Wolverine, and explain to him and his
friends what we found. Then, we either get more reinforcements, or have
enough firepower to destroy the Initiative completely." Willow's answer
was steady, with a firm plan. She was also mentioning destruction and
that was normally a plus in most vampire's opinions.
"Sounds good to me, Red. Pack a few things, we can be out of
this town tonight." Spike was grinning, looking forward to taking down the
commandos. The fact that he'd have to cooperate with mortals again to get it
done was something he could deal with.
They were out of Sunnydale by ten. Willow had packed some
clothing, and her laptop, along with all the files she had copied from the
Initiatve. Spike didn't have much to pack. He ran over the 'Welcome to
Sunnydale' sign on the way out. For tradition.
* * * * *
The trip across the country had been interesting. They had
learned more about each other, and had actually achieved a tenative balance that
could almost be called friendship. Now, they were finally in New York.
Unfortunately, he had no idea where to find this Logan character.
Turning to ask Willow if she had any ideas, he saw that she had pulled out
the picture she had printed out of his face. He was about to tease her
that now wasn't the time to be getting a new crush when she started to chant
someting that sounded Latin.
A small green light, about the size of an eyeball appeared in
front of her. It then move ahead, passing through the frint window.
Spike wasn't sure what to think.
"Follow the light. It's a locator spell, and it should lead us
to Wolverine." Willow gestured at the floating light as she spoke.
The casual display of magic had surprised him. Dru had dabbled a bit with
magic, but had always made a fuss over it, talking to the stars and saying she
heard whispers from the moon. Something like this would have left Dru a
bit lightheaded, and tired. Willow looked as if it had been nothing.
The pair of them ended up at the locked gates of an impressive
mansion, with manicured grounds with flowers and hedges. There was a
basketball court to the right. Spike was contemplating how to break the chain
on the gates when Willow whispered a few more words in Latin.
The padlock opened itself, and the chain slithered around the
bars like a snake, leaving the gate unlocked. She then pushed open the gate
and smiled at Spike. They drove up to the mansion.
end part 5.
Scott Summers was running a basic check of the security
systems when one screen, showing the school gate, had a dreadful looking black
car pull up. The car was old, and the paint was scratched. A woman got out
of the passenger side and seemed to look at the gate, before just pushing
it open. He didn't see what had happened to the chain. This was not normal,
even for here, so Cyclops contacted the Professor to inform him what was
happening.
When the red haired young woman and the bleach blond man arrived
at the porch, the X-Men were there waiting. Scott opened the door, looking
at the pair of them.
"Why don't the two of you come in and explain why you are here."
The Professor's voice carried well.
The pair entered the mansion, glancing around them a bit as they
did. Willow moved slowly, almost staring at the surroundings. Spike
sauntered in, looking more with an eye for exits and possible weapons than
admiring the decor.
" I'm Willow and this is Spike. umm We came here searching for
John Logan, also called Wolverine. We have a problem that we wanted your
help with." The redhead spoke, her words setting off a reaction among
the X-Men.
"How did you get through the gates?" The man with the visor
demanded.
"What sort of problem do you have, and how big is it?" The red
haired woman, trying to get a sense of how sincere the strange pair was.
"How the hell do you know who I am, and how did you find me?"
Logan's demand cut right to the point of his concerns.
"What'd you want us to do for you anyhow?" Marie wasn't
supposed to be there, but she was anyhow.
As the questions were tossed out rapidly by all the X-Men at
once, the redhead drew slightly closer to the blond man. They hadn't answered
anything, but they had scarcely had time.
"Enough. I'm certain that Willow will answer our questions, but
she must have the time to do so. Let us all go to the dining room and
discuss this." Xavier's voice carried, and rang with an odd weight.
Everyone quieted, and the whole group went to the dining room, Spike and
Willow trailing a bit behind the others.
"I came here to ask for your help in getting rid of the
Initiative. Before you ask, it's a secret government project experimenting with
mind control and behavioral modification chips. I hacked into it's files
to get information on it after they experimented on Spike. The Initiative
traces back to a program called Project X or Weapon X. There were some
files from that, and they listed you, John Logan, codename Wolverine." Willow
looked directly at Logan with her last words. She also passed him the
printout of the picture she had used earlier.
There were gasps and expressions of dismay all around at
Willow's words. The implications were ominous, and troublesome.
"What sort of experiment did they do to you?" Marie's soft
question was directed at Spike, whom she had somehow ended up siting across from.
"Why come here for help? Why not someone closer to home?" Scott
was curious, slightly suspicious.
Spike was grinning at Marie, and reached across the table,
catching her hand in his. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand,
apparently unaware of the shocked glances from all the X-men as he did so. He
seemed to be trying to flirt with her.
Willow glanced as Spike and sighed. That wasn't any help to
her. "We tried to get the people closer to home to help us. They refused
because they didn't see why we were so concerned. Unlike the Weapon
Project, they aren't making soldiers disappear, and they aren't making ordinary
people vanish. They are experimenting on individuals that won't be missed,
that nobody cares about enough to worry. I think that if they aren't
stopped, the project will grow. If nothing stops them, they will be
everywhere, and people won't be able to stop them. Everyone will probably end up
with chips in their heads to make them think it's all okay." She was clearly
upset by the end of this explanation. Her audience was pretty upset as well.
"What do you mean, they weren't concerned?" Logan was clearly furious.
"They are just abducting people and nobody is concerned?" A
dark skinned woman with striking white hair and a hint of an odd accent.
She looked worried, and a bit nervous.
"Experimentation on mutants?" Xavier was unhappy, and troubled.
Spike looked up at the gathered individuals. "Thing is that
there's a bit of an arguement about the 'personhood' of the individual's
they're grabbing. I don't know if they got any mutants, but they have been
grabbing vampires and demons."
Willow and Spike had expected the expressions of disbelief and
denial from everyone. Logan had only frowned thoughtfully, and sniffed the
air. Everyone else was going on interrupting each other, voices
overlapping, insisting that there was no such thing as vampires.
"Bloody hell, do you people have to see everything before you
believe? Then take a look at this!" Spike bellowed at the group, his features
shifting to his golden eyed vampire face.
Silence fell. Everyone was hushed, staring at the blond before
them. They were trying to figure how he had done that. Jean attempted to
probe his mind, and could barely locate his presence, and the sense that
she got was of age and danger.
"Is that why you could touch me? Because you aren't really alive?"
Marie was the first to speak, her words directed at Spike.
"He smells off from a normal person. He hasn't got a pulse
either." Logan was looking thoughtful. Something was teasing at him, the
shadow of a memory. "I believe them."
"If he is a vampire, which I still have some doubts about, "
Jean was speaking now, " why is he working with Willow? What benefit is there
for you? How can we know that you aren't a danger to our students?"
Spike sat down on the chair again, his arms folded over his
chest and scowled. "I got a damn chip in my head."
Willow looked at the attentive group, and decided to elaborate a
bit. "Spike was implanted with a chip that prevents him from committing
any violence against humans. I promised to try to help him get rid of
the Initiative. I have their files, up to about a week ago." Willow
hefted the case with her copied files.
It was eventually decided that they would help Spike and
Willow. Jean talked Spike into letting her run a few simple tests on him in the
lab, which he only agreed to do if Willow was present. After that, Spike
and Willow both went to guest rooms to sleep.
end part 6.
They had spent the next afternoon explaining about demons and
vampires to the X-men. It hadn't been particularly easy, and most of the
team was reluctant to believe, even after Jean's tests. Spike had
demonstrated his stregnth, he had changed his face multiple times. Finally, he had
growled at them, saying he didn't care if they believed in demons or not if
they would help them get rid of the Initiative.
That had led to several hours of Wilow explaining why and how
she had got the files, in detail. She had used the large screen in the war-
room to put up some of the pictures included. The detailed, though
somewhat parrtial files on the Weapon X program had matched the information
they had already found, and then, once she had theri attention, Willow had
pulled the heavy ammunition out. She had put up the files on some of the more
brutal testing done at the Initiative, complete with the film footage on
file showing the reactions to certain types of physical trauma.
"This is what we want you to help us stop. You say you want to
help make a world where a few differences in someones DNA doesn't count
against them. Why should some major differences in someones DNA and
physiology mean that they aren't worth resueing? Not all demons are safe and
peaceful, some are outright dangerous. But this isn't right."
It may have taken some ruthless arguement, but Willow had
finally convinced the X-Men to help her and Spike take down the Initiative.
She was still working on convincing Jean that Spike's chip had to go. They
had started discussing plans on how to find the acutal base afterwards,
and with the setting sun had actually meandered out of the mansion. Willow,
the Professor, Jean, Scott, and Logan were involved in the debate.
They were discussing the possiblity of gatting satelite imagry
of the Sunnydale area to determine the most likely location of an
underground complex when they were interrupted. Sabertooth ponced right at
Logan, knocking Jean down with Logan's body. Scott was trying to blast
another person who kept making the most astounding leaps. The assault had
completely interrupted Willow's efforts to get planning done, and
she had had enough.
Her eyes went dark with power, and Willow punched Mystique
right in the face, dropping the blue mutant to the ground. "THAT IS ENOUGH! I
have had one interruption to many!" With a gesture, Toad was pinned to the
side of the mansion with an unseen force. Logan and Sabertooth both froze
in the middle of trying to claw each other to bits, both feeling the power
emanating from the redhead.
" I do not have time for you to kill each other.
You....Sabertooth. You are either going to help me destroy the replacement to the
program that rebuilt you into a killer or stay out of my way. Logan allready
said he would help me destroy the Initative, so you can't kill him."
The sheer unexpectedness of it brought things to a halt. Scott
and Toad were both looking at Willow as if she had lost her mind. Sabertooth
and Logan were very carefully separating from their fight in such a way
as to not appear to be quitting or backing down. They were both certain
that Willow was dangerous right now, intensely emotional and
unpredictable, with apparent power to back her will. Mystique and Jean were both
unconscious on the ground, and the Professor was trying to figure out exactly what
was going on in Willow's head.
"Initiative?" Sabertooth was the one that had finally spoken.
"Yes. You and Logan were both in a secret military program called the
Weapon X project. You are now the only survivors from those experiments.
However, after the Weapon X project was shut down, the files weren't
completely destroyed. I don't know how, but someone got ahold of the files,
and now there's the Initiative. They are mainly trying to develop mind
control, with terible torturous experiments on the side. I hacked
into their files. They have to be destroyed."
The Professor was now very worried. He had already been
concerned because of the horrible things the Initiative was doing. Now, he
was concerned for Willow. She was undeniably intelligent, but
emotionnally she was in terrible shape. He could sense that she had suffered some
sort of painful betrayal, and felt all the expected shock, grief and outrage
from that. He wasn't certain where the sense of despair had come from.
He could tell that this focus on the Initiative was possibly the only thing
holding her together in a semblance of sanity.
Very cautiously, they all went inside to figure out what was
going on, and so that Toad and Sabertooth could ask some of the questions they
had about the Initiative. Scott carried Jean, mutteing something about
Logan being trouble, and always trying to get his girl, while Sabertooth
was carrying Mystique, stroking her hair gently.
end part 7.
They had proceded into the mansion, and now the Professor was watching
the group of people in the war room. There was Logan, scowling at the room
in general while Spike asked for details on the violence. Toad was
in the corner, looking around suspiciously. Sabertooth sat in one of the
chairs, still holding Mystique, who was now starting to come awake. Willow
was pacing along the wall, muttering something under her breath about it
not being the time or place for the violence. Her eyes were still a
disconcerting black.
"What hit me?" Mystique's odd voice, a bit quiet, drew
attention back to the reason why they were here, in Xavier's mansion.
"The redhead did. You okay?" Sabertooth answered her, his
voice unexpectedly tinged with concern.
"I want to know what this Initiative is, and why you want it
taken down so badly." Toad was not happy about being here, and was still
glaring at Willow.
"The Initiative is a secret government research project that
performs horrible experiments on demons and vampires while trying to develop
behavioral control chips. They have a base in Sunnydale,
California." Willow's voice was tense as she activated the controls to put images
on the screen again. "They also have information from an older
experimental program called Weapon X, which was used to alter both Sabertooth and
Wolverine. After the Weapon X project was closed, they attempted to
kill all survivors of their project. You two were the only ones they
didn't successfully kill. It looks like they have based some of their work
is directly building on research from the Weapon X program." Willow
proceeded with the full explanation, something that she had lately been
getting a lot of practice with.
The questions from Sabertooth and Mystique were more serious
than some of the ones from the X-Men. They didn't waste time trying to figure
out why Spike was helping Willow. They didn't have to be convinced that the
experiments were wrong. What was more of a concern for them was why
she had approached Xavier and his people with this.
Willow had explained that nobody in Sunnydale would help, nobody
in Sunnydale cared what was being done to demons and vampires. She had
found the information on Wolverine and Sabertooth and thought that either
of them might have an interest in getting rid of the next generation of
illegal experimentation, but the files had no information on their
locations. Spike had then seen a news broadcast that had shown the X-Men, and had
recognized Logan, which was why they had come to New York.
Meanwhile, Spike had left the room while Willow explained all
this, again. He already knew this. He wanted a nice beer to drink. He
stopped outside the kitchen, listening to the voices inside.
"She's dangerously unstable. I know the information seems to be
genuine, but can we trust her? Is it possible that she could have
faked the data?"
"To much of the information on Logan matches what we've been
able to discover. She obviously found valid information. However, we have
no way to be positive that this operation is still current."
"We can't take the risk of ignoring this. There could be real
danger for all of us if this program actually exists."
"I don't trust that Spike. His mind is dificult to read and
full of violent impulses."
Suddenly, a beer didn't sound as appealing. It didn't sound
like the X-Men would be particularly helpful. Damn.
end part 8
Sabertooth, Toad and Mystique had left the mansion after Willow had
explained what was going on. They were quite clearly concerned about the
Initative, and wanted to discuss among themselves what they intended
to do about it. Mystique gave Willow a slip of paper with a phone number
on it, saying that if Willow ever wanted to work with people that would go
for results, call her.
Nobody at Xavier's trusted these three enough for them to be
welcome on the school grounds. Spike and Willow had had a long quiet
discussion about what to do, and Willow had managed to get a bit of time with the
school's computers. She had managed to get some satellite imagry of
Sunnydale, and was certainthat she had found the location of the Initiative's
base. She had been exhausted, and had fallen asleep over the printouts on a
table.
Jean had agreed to perform the surgery on Spike to remove his
implant, mainly as a means to keep him in one place. She had sedated him,
and removed the implant from his head, setting it aside to examine
later. It seemed to be a remarkable piece of technology. Spike was left
unconscious in the medlab, expected to be asleep for close to eight hours.
* * * *
Jean hadn't figured on Spike's vampiric recouperation. She had
dosed him as if he were a normal person, and based it on his body mass. He
woke up barely an hour later. His head ached, a dull throbbing pain
radiating tendrils of fire from the back of his skull. The medlab was empty.
The entire lower portions of the school were also empty, and he rushed
upstairs, a suspicion growing inside.
The X-Men were gone. Willow was asleep at the table where she
had been gathering information on the Initiative, using satellite images.
They had left without Spike and Willow. Spike had a feeling that this
wouldn't turn out well.
end part 9.
Spike growled in frustrated anger. The noise of it woke Willow
up, and she looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. She only
saw Spike, looking slightly wobbly, and wearing his vampire face.
"Spike? What's wrong? Everything's all quiet." Willow still
sounded a bit sleepy. She lookd at the mass of papers spread over the table,
suddenly frowning. "Where's the thermal imaging of Sunnydale?"
"Remember I said they didn't trust us? I think they left
without us. The redhead did something to my head, said she'd take the chip
out." Spike grimaced, his head throbing. "My head hurts a lot, she must have
done something to me."
Willow gestured for him to come closer, and stood up in front of him.
She held her hands out, one on either side of his head, and chanted a few
words. The pain faded.
"Red, that's wonderful."
Suddenly, he reached out and pinched her arm, right below the
elbow. Willow winced, and Spike got this incredibly big, wicked smile on
his face.
"She really did it. I can hurt people again. Red, find a way that
we can go after those Initative bastards without these X- people, I want
them to bleed."
Spike prowled the mansion, pondering the best, most painful ways
to toruture and kill the soldiers, and Willow used the computers once
more, this time getting detailed information of Magneto's prison. She had
carefully routed herself, and had worked some sort of complex
computer thing that she told Spike would prevent the people at the prison from
finding who had accessed their data, assuming they even noticed. She downloaded
blueprints, and wiring systems, a listing of the gaurds on duty, and
their schedules.
She had gathered a vast amount of new papers before she fell
asleep again. There was only so far that willpower could substitute for
sleep, and Willow had gone beyond that point. The computer had been
disconnected from the prison, and from the Initiative, and was now simply doing some
sort of internal maintenance when Spike looked in near dawn. He gathered
the papers, and took them and Willow to the room she was supposed to be
sleeping in.
He also slept, knowing that Willow would have some sort of plan
for the next effort.
* * *
Charles Xavier was worried. His X-Men had decided that Willow was an
unknown, and there had been concern over how trustworthy she was. Spike was
a dangerous and violent individual, and so it had been decided, after much
debate, to go investigate the Initative, and if the proved dangerous, to
impede or remove their operations, and to do so without either Spike
or Willow.
They should have been in touch with him again by now. He
could only assume that something had gone terribly wrong.
end part 10.
The X-Men's jet returned shortly after dawn, and landed in the
hanger. Charles Xavier did not hear Scott's voice over the radio as this
happened. He was very concerned, and went to the hanger to figure out what
was going on. He realized that his concerns about something going wrong were
accurate. He sensed Logan's mind, filled with too much anger to read
easily. Storm, disturbingly unconscious and tinged with pain. Jean's mind was
there, similarly unconscious.
The X-Men had underestimated the Initiative. They hadn't taken
Willow's warnings seriously enough. Cyclops was captured, Jean and
Storm to injured to be on any active missions. Logan was in decent enough
shape, but his uniform was slashed, perforated by circular holes proclaiming
that he had been shot with bullets, and almost covered in dried blood.
Xavier had the sudden realization that if not for Logan's healing factor, none
of his X-Men would have returned from this mission.
"The girl was right. They were military, with rows of
captives. Whole place smelled like pain, fear, and antiseptic. We didn't
prepare well enough. They got Scott, it was all I could do to keep them from
getting Jean and 'Ro. We have to go back. But, we have to be better
prepared next time." Logan's voice was thick with exhaustion and smothered rage.
"I think you should rest. We will plan what to do next when
you've had enough rest to think clearly again. I will tend to our injured
in the medlabs." Xavier's voice was concerned.
That evening, when Spike and Willow wandered downstairs, the
Professor's voice rang in their minds, asking them into his study.
He was there, and Logan was as well. Neither of them looked calm, although
Xavier looked unhappy and worried, Logan looked unhappy and angry.
"My X-Men were underprepared for the Initative. Scott has been
captured. Jean and Ororo are in the medlab, both seriously
injured. I confess, we were uncertain as to the validity of your concerns, and
so we didn't take your cautions seriously enough. I have asked you here
to see if you have a suggestion as to our next action." Xavier's voice was
quiet, clearly upset by what had happened.
"We can't leave him there. Their records indicate that they
are going to regard him as a hostile non-human if he displays any abilities
outside the normal human range. The complication is that you don't have any
other students ready for something like this." Willow was clearly thinking
about this, voicing her thoughts for the Professor and Logan's benefit.
Spike figured that Willow had thought about all this upon
learning that the X-Men had left without them. "We bloody well told you they were
dangerous. You should have listened to us on that point, even if
you lot did decide that we were both crazy." Spike couldn't quite refrain
from an I-Told-You-So.
"You don't have the numbers or firepower to take them down
yourselves anymore. The first step is to call Mystique, Sabertooth, and Toad,
and have them help us with step two." WIllow's voice was confident. She had
a plan, and now Xavier was finally willing to listen to her.
"What is step two, if I may ask?" Xavier was thoughtful,
wondering how sound her plan would be.
"Step two is liberating Magneto from prison so that he can help
us eliminate the Initative. I can't picture anyone that survived the
Nazi concentration camps ever permitting something like this, let alone
the mind control chips that they are working on."
Xavier and Logan both gasped at the scope of her plan. It was
on one level amazingly simple, obvious that Magneto wouldn't stand for
this. On the other hand...
"You can't just waltz up to a prison and pop the doors like you
did at the mansion. It will be something much more complicated and
difficult." Logan spoke, not arguing with her idea, only wanting to be certain
that it was well planned in advance.
" I know. That's why I used your computers to access the plans
for the prison. I have all the information that we need." Willow had a
faint smile on her face. Finally, things were moving in the right direction.
As Spike went to get the stack of papers from her room, she found the slip of
paper, and called Mystique.
end part 11.
They had agreed to listen to Willow's plan, and so Toad,
Sabertooth, and Mystique returned to Xavier's mansion. There had been some glares
exchanced between Logan and Sabertooth, but they had restrained theirselves
from actual fighting.
Willow had gotten their attention when she had began by saying "I
want you to assist in the retrieval of Magneto from federal prison."
Seeing that everyone was now focused on her, she smiled slightly. "I have the
blueprints, and the listing and schedule of the gaurds. This won't
be easy, but we can manage it as long as we keep our timing right, and don't
stop for any extra violence. You did catch that part, right guys? No ad lib
violence, or it will throw off the schedule." Willow glared
slightly at Spike, as well as looking at Sabertooth when she said that.
Then, Willow began to elaborate the plan. She and Xavier had
considered all the security measures, and had also taken into
consideration Mystique's shapeshifting. Mystique actually played a pivotal role
in this plan, and after some questions, everyone was clear on the details.
* * * *
They hadn't had much dificulty. The plan had worked, and they
had retrieved Magneto. He had lost weight while in prison, and he
looked to have a few bruises on his body. The expression on his face had been
surprise, and relief. He had also been extrememly puzzled to see
Logan working with Sabertooth and a strange red haired young woman to free
him. Willow had gone into the building and done something to the
computers. She had only smiled, and said it was a minor surprise for later when
Toad had asked her about it.
They had all boarded the jet and Logan had them airborne before
Willow would answer any questions, of which Magneto had a great many.
" Let me explain, and umm I'm Willow Rosenberg. There is a
secret miliary project called the Initiative. They are using demons and
vampires to experiment and perfect a mind control chip. They also have
Cyclops right now. I found out about them, and hacked into their system. They
trace back to another illegal secret research program called Weapon X, which
was responsible for Sabertooth and Wolverine. I asked the X-Men to help
me get rid of them. They didn't take me seriously, and went without me or
Spike." She gestured at a blond man sitting across from her.
"They failed. The Initative captured Cyclops, and Logan was
barely able to get Jean and Storm out with him. We need more than just myself,
Spike and Logan to get rid of the initiative, so I asked Sabertooth, Toad
and Mystiqe to help get you out of prison."
Grining, Spike took up the next line. "We want you to help
destroy the Initiative. Completely."
Magneto was quiet for a moment. He remembered the horrible
things that had happened to himself and so many others in the camps. He
recalled his fears about experiments to find some way to act against mustants.
The fears of so many people that mutants would destroy humanity, and now it
sounded like humanity would do the job all on it's own. There was only one
possible response.
"Count me in."
end part 12.
After the plane had returned to the mansion, Mystique, Willow
and Magneto went to the kitchen for a bit of food, while the rest of the
people went to shower and in most cases, go to sleep. Willow explained
about the Initiative in greater detail, wanting Magneto to undertand why they
had to be dealt with. She figured she didn't need to use the war-room and
its visual display screens, and he looked like he needed a good meal
anyhow.
They decided to have a session for planning in the morning, after
everone had rested. Willow, Xavier and Magneto would plan a strategy for
dealing with the Initiative. After he was shown to a room, Magneto asked
Mystique to explain what had happened to result in him being retrieved from
prison with Charles' jet.
She explained that the X-Men had viewed Willow as mentally
unbalanced, obsessed with the destruction of the Initiative. They hadn't taken
her warnings seriously, and had gone to investigate the Initiative
without either Willow or her companion Spike. Mystique didn't know any
details, but things had gone very wrong for the X-Men. Jean and Storm were
injured, recovering in the medical area. Cyclops had been captured.
His sleep was full of troubled dreams. Dreams of horrors in
the past, and of what might come to be. If this initiative succeded in
creating mind control chips, what would become of mutants? Would they be hunted
down by mind-controlled soldiers? Would they become mind controlled slaves
to a world of intolerance and hate?
Morning was a welcome end to his dreams. He found clean
clothing provided, clothing that neither suggested prison wear or carried the
logo of Xavier's school. It was a gesture he appreciated very much.
Hopefully, there would be plentiful coffee for the planning session.
There was hot coffee and also breakfast. He entered the
room, folowing the scent of coffee and eggs, and saw that Willow was
already there, a cup of coffee beside her, and busily using the computers
for something. She looked up as he entered, and offered a half smile,
and waved in the direction of the coffee.
"Professor Xavier's not here yet, I think he went to check on
Jean and Storm. Your people are fine. Toad's in the library, looking at
some books on engineering. I really don't think I want to know what Sabertooth
and Mystique are doing. They shared a room, and haven't come out yet.
Spike isn't a day person, he's still asleep, probably dreaming about
gutting soldiers or something. He's a bit violent at times. Have coffee,
it's really good."
Magneto was drinking his coffee and asking Willow about the
layout of the Initiative when Xavier joined them. Willow was explaining that
it was underground, located beneath the local college, and used the screens
of the war-room to put up the blueprints of the Initiative base.
"This complicates things. The location under a collage... it
will make any actions against them much more difficult." Magneto was
thoughtful, considering the difficulties they would have to work around.
"Do not forget that we must be careful not to cause injury to
the students of the college!" Xavier was concerned. How much danger
would there be to the students of the college? He would have to make certain
that whatever plan they settled on did not endanger the surrounding
people.
"I want this to be thorough. I don't want to lave any corner
operational, and I want to make certain that the Initiative is
closed down for good. As near as I can tell, there should be minimal risk to
the structural integrity of the nearby buildings, after all it's
California. People have to build to withstand earthquakes, which Sunnydale does
get on a regular basis. However, that does mean that the underground
facilities will be designed fairly resistant to impact or shaking. Honestly, I have
no experience in destroying an underground faciity. Hopefully, one of
you will be able to make up for my lack in that area."
The planning continued for hours, details of structure being
discussed, along with questions of how many soldiers, and what sort of
electronic measures they would have. Xavier kept trying to inject a note of
caution for the surrounding citizens.
end part 13.
They had eventually hammered out a plan. They would move at
night, to minimize the risk of endangering the ordinary students and citizens
of Sunnydale. Xavier would be staying in Westchester, as he lacked the
physical mobility to be particularly useful during the actual
assault. They had made their plans to make the best use of their abilities. Toad
would be responsible for releasing as many of the prisoners as he could.
Mystique and Willow would disable the computers, as well as making certain
the Initiatives files were completely destroyed. Sabertooth, Spike,
Logan and Magneto would deal with the main forces of the Initiative, which
should also provide enough distraction for the others to accomplish their goals.
Xavier still thought it would be far to bloody, and would result
in to many people killed. He did admit that the Initiative had to be
stopped, but wished there was another way. Unfortunately, he hadn't ben able to
think of a less violent workable plan in the short time they had available.
* * * *
The flight went better than Magneto had hoped. Mystique was
piloting the plane, which had caused Charles some dismay. Wolverine was sitting
by Willow, and they appeared to be talking. Sabertooth was sitting
near the blond, Spike. They seemed to be discussion the upcoming violence,
and he heard Spike mention that the Initiative soldiers carried some sort
of electrical stun gun. There were o conflicts between Wolverine and
Sabertooth. The flight was almost peaceful.
Logan was talking to Willow. He thought she was attractive,
and intelligent. She also seemed to be a nice person, except for the
Initiative. He wanted to get to know her a bit better, to know the
actual person instead of the fact that she was an excellent computer
hacker, and looked pretty, even first thing in the morning. maybe after this
was over, he could ask her to go out for dinner somewhere. Assuming they all
came back from this.
* * * *
They had arrived in Sunnydale, landing the plane near the place
Spike remembered escaping the compound. Carefully, they emerged from the
plane, alert for any sign of the Initiative soldiers. Seeing that the area
was clear, they very carefully moved to the access way that Spike had
used, and Willow, Mystique, and Toad began their descent into the complex.
Referencing the printout that Willow had given them, the others
moved to find the major access to the base, the one they had used to move in
the large equipment. It was time for the Initiative to fall.
They had found the main entrance, and Magneto used his power to
rip the main doors, made of a steel alloy to withstand earthquake, fire or
bullets from their hinges. The shriek of tormented metal got the attention
of everyone inside, and a siren began to sound inside. He raised a
field around him, one that should stop any bullets from actually coming
into contact with him.
"The Initative shall fall. We shall begin now."
Soldiers began to come forth in response to the siren. Magneto
could feel the metal in their weapons, and was something else.... other
small bits of metal that he could sense. When he had a moment, he would have
to locate them more precisely. He could see Sabertooth and Logan, each having
taken a position at the edge of the doorway. SPike was standing a bit
inside, a lit cigarette in his hand, and his face having changed. His eyes were
now yellow, with sharp teeth and his features no longer looked quite
human. He looked like he was looking forward to the violence ahead.
Meanwhile, Toad had found a guard by the hall of cells, and
rendered him unconscious with a boot to the head. He picked up the keycard,
and moved down the hall, opening the cells one by one. Some of them
were occupied by what looked like almost normal people, others contained
beings that would never pass as human. The X-Man was huddled in one of the
cells, curled in a corner, bruises and burns showing clearly in the harsh
light. He hadn't been the only injured prisoner, many of the others had
shown burns and cuts over them, and there had been bruises visible on some of
them. Others, he couldn't tell if they had bruises under their scales or
fur, but they had been sliced into as well. He was glad that he hadn't been
a prisoner here.
Willow and Mystique had found the main computer, and had only
minor difficulties getting inside. Mystique had shifted into one of the
men they first found, after first dropping him to the ground. They had no
more problems after that, as Willow had picked up a lab-coat and
clipboard, looking like a researcher at a casual glance, and Mystique now
looked like one of them... The computer system was doomed.
end part 14.
They had managed to take down the Initiative. Toad had come
forth, Cyclops unconsious and slung over his shoulder. The protective
visor was gone, as was his shirt, and he had bandages over parts of his arms
and chest. Bruises and a few small burns mottled his skin, making it
clear that his stay had not been pleasant. He was pronounced annoyingly heavy,
and almost but no quite dropped to the floor of the plane.
Mystique was limping, and Willow was holding her arm oddly, a
military green shirt wrapped around it from wrist to elbow. Sabertooth and
Logan were showing no signs of serious injury, despite the numerous
bullets that had struck both of them. Logan had displayed a capacity for
violence that would have entirely appalled Xavier, having gone into a terrifying
rage after being hit with the taser. Apparently, his metal skeleton had
conducted the charge very well, and he had gone into a frenzy.
Magneto was not actually injured in the attack, but he was exhausted.
Maintaining the shield that prevented him from being shot had been demanding, and he
had also sent careful pulses that had interfered with the electronic
security.
He had been a bit disturbed when Spike had been shot by one of
the soldiers. Other than the initial bloodspray from the impact, his
wounds had not really bled, and then there was the way he had torn the throat
out of the first soldier he had grabbed. There had been very little blood
that had spilled from the body of the soldier. He had always assumed that
stories of vampires were untrue...but now, he had seen Spike in action.
After their return, Xavier had been appalled at the extent of
the violence they had used. His outrage had faltered when he got a good
look at Scott, who was now wearing the pair of special sunglasses that logan
had taken along on the plane. Scott had bruises, clearly of differing
ages. There were burns, and under the bandages had been what appeared to
be acid inflicted wounds as well as deliberate incisions. The sight of his
student having clearly been beaten and tormented with these brutal
experiments had stunned him into silence. Logan had helped carry Scott to the
medlabs, so that his injuries could be properly tended to.
They had gone to wash up, and put on clean clothing before
discussing what had happened. He had the feeling that Xavier would not like
the news of what had been going on any better than he had. Especially not
the bit about how some of the soldiers had carried bits of metal implanted
in their bodies. Perhaps they were closer to perfecting their behavioral
control than they had assumed. He hoped that whatever Willow and Mystique
had done to the computers had caused their records to be permanently
destroyed.
end part 15.
To the relief of Charles Xavier, the injuries inflicted on Cyclops,
painful as they were, would heal. He had suffered no permanently
disabling injuries, and had not been implanted with any devices. It appeared
that there had ben tissue samples taken, and that he had been injured in
a variety of ways, as well as having some cracked ribs, and a crack
along one of his armbones and a sprained wrist. It would take time to see
what sort of mental trauma he had suffered from his captivity, and how well he
would recover from that.
They had eventually gathered in the war room. Everyone had
taken the time to clean up, and have their injuries tended as needed. By the
time everyone that had gone had meandered into the war room, there was a
plentiful supply of hot coffee waiting for them. Willow's arm was
now encased in a cast, a dull blue nylon covering her arm from wrist to
shoulder. Toad had acquired a few minor bruises and scrapes,
Mystique had a limp, but it was impossible to tell if she had any bruises. She was
curled on Sabertooth's lap, looking tired after the exertion of the assault
on the Initiative.
They referenced the plans that Willow had downloaded, each
explaining their part of the mission. Toad had gestured at the row of cells,
describing the condition of the occupants as best he could. They
had scattered after he opened the cells, and he had no idea where any of
them besides Cyclops had gone, or what had become of them. Willow
explained that she had deleted the records about their chips, leaving only the
sections about the torturous experiments. She had made certain he chip
studies couldn't be retrieved.
The remaining files would give the people that would inevitably
go to search the debris the impression that the horrible torturous
experiments had been done for no further purpose than the infliction of pain on
individuals with abnormal features and abilities. Considering the extreme
emotional feelings that the mutant debate had caused, any rumors of an
organization kidnapping and torturing people, especially under government funding
would be such a public relation nightmare that the people responsible for
authorizing it would be hoping to the promotion to janitors. She
had also done something to leave the impression that the Initiative had been
behind Magneto's disappearance from prison, intending to study him as well.
The description that Spike was able to give of the surgical
tables located in the central area had appalled the professor, as had
Magneto's news that there had been small chips implanted in the chests of the
soldiers. He had removed one so that it could be studied. A quick
comparison had shown it to be very similar to the one that had been
implanted in Spike.
After several long hours discussion over the probable motives of
the people behind the Initiative, they had concluded that they didn't
know the plans of Dr. Maggie Walsh, but they could not have been good. They
had also concluded that the Initiative complex was done for, through a
combination of certain explosives hat had been planted by Mystique and Toad,
Willow's rendering their computer system inoperable, and the fact that
Magneto had used his power to warp and bend the steel structural supports,
bringing down sections of the walls and ceilings. While parts of it were still
standing when they left, the entire structure was dangerously unstable, and
the remaining walls could collapse at any time.
end part 16.
After everyone had concluded that the Initiative was now a dark
note in the pages of history, and they had no idea what the intentions of
Dr. Maggie Walsh had been, the discussion had moved to one of philosophy. It
was a direct, immediate philosophy, about the question of mutants and what
sort of future they would face. There were considerations of political
concern, legal matters about mutant rights and the use or misuse of mutant
abilities. Logan, Sabertooth and Mystique slipped out as this progressed,
clearly not feeling like joining the debate. Spike stayed, not so much
interested in the words as he was in just watching Willow.
She seemed alive again. Not that her actual physical health had
been in question, but she was alive again. She was caring about things
again, letting herself feel things beyond pain and heartbreak. He didn't
think she was suicidal anymore. Spike also suspected that part of Willow's
renewed interest in life had to do with Logan. He had seen them glancing at
each other when they though nobody was looking. She found him
interesting, and he seemed to want to know her better. He watched as her eyes
sparkled when she argued about whether a mutant should be held responsible for
arson if they used their powers to burn down a building. Yeah, Willow was
alive inside again.
He went to find Logan. Since the mutant was partly responsible
for Willow feeling again, he wanted to have a few words with him. Logan
was sitting in a chair, a cold bottle of beer in hand.
"I've seen how you look at Willow." Spike spoke, getting the
man's attention.
Logan wasn't surprised, he had known Spike was there. But he
hadn't expected the vampire to talk to him. They hadn't been particularly
friendly. He looked at Spike, wondering where this was going,
hoping that he wasn't about to get the 'stay away from my girl' speech.
"You want to know her better. I just want you to treat her
right. Red's had a lot of trouble in her life, and she deserves better than
what she's got so far. If you're interested, just make sure you treat
her right. She's the closest I've got to a friend. Hurt her and I'll hunt
you down and make you bleed." With those parting words, Spike went to the
room his things were in so that he could pack.
He left a note for Willow, and packed his things. There was a
whole world away from California or Brazil, and it was about time he go
see some of it. Now that he was a fully capable vampire again, he could get
back to really having a life, so to speak.
end part 17.
After some time discussion the possible futures of mutants,
Magneto and Xavier concluded that they had said enough on the matter for now.
Willow had been right in the discussion, and while she had not had the same
number of years watching events unfold as the other two, she had
considerable practice observing people, and in planning to deal with unusual
activities. While Xavier believed that given enough proof that mutants were
still people, they would be accepted, Willow was convinced that one team
of superheroes, or several teams for that matter wouldn't convince
people to accept mutants.
Willow argued that people wouldn't accept mutants as their
equals based solely on the actions of a few, highly visible powerful mutants
fighting. First, they would have to be reassured that mutants were held
responsible for their actions, and then a gradual process of acceptance could
begin. She assumed that it would be a long, difficult process, but was
hopeful that there could eventually be co-existence. Her view had been argued,
and debated, but eventually, they had conceded that she was as entitled
to her view of the future as they were.
Magneto had gathered Sabertooth and Mystique, as well as prying
Toad out of the library, and they had left. They had offered Willow a nearly
polite farewell, and Toad had promised to look her up if they needed to
break anyone else out of prison. They had left to go somewhere else, and
Willow didn't ask about their future plans.
Willow wondered how much of a future she had. Before they had
come here, the deal had been that Spike would kill her, quickly and with
minimal pain after his chip was out. The plan had held some appeal then, when
she was still devastated over Oz and his cheating and departure. Now, she
thought there might be some reasons to live, like a certain interesting
Canadian. She went upstairs, and found a note by her computer.
Red - I know that we had a deal. Thing is, I got to know you,
and you aren't half bad, for a mortal chit. Go out and live a while. Be
happy, maybe have a nice shag with Logan bloke you keep staring at. I'll
have a new life ahead of me, only fair that you have one to. Take care of
yourself. Spike
Smiling, Willow went to find Logan and see if he still wanted to
go somewhere for dinner. A new life.... maybe a new love. She was
willing to try that.
end part 18. end Project Initiative.
