BAD BLOOD

A Buffy the Vampire Slayer story.

P.J. Dickinson

Part Two: Secret Initiative Base

Two

Professor Farness led Giles into a small antechamber off the main corridor on this level. Giles was unsure how deep they were underground though during the elevator ride down his ears had popped. It felt warmer down here. Perhaps the increase in the ambient temperature was simply due to the rift, and the energies it was throwing off. But it may also have meant they were very, very deep under the ground.

The professor spoke into a grill and a door before him opened. He motioned Giles in. The door closed behind the Englishman. There was another door before him identical to the one he had just passed through and on the two walls that did not have doors there were racks of safety clothing. The professor indicated that Giles should put a set on and then began to undress. He quickly stripped naked and pulled on the one-piece jump suit the army had issued them with.

Giles examined his own suit. It was made of a black synthetic material lighter than cotton but with the texture of rubber. He looked at the scientist beside him. He was struggling with the skintight suit and it was not a flattering sight. Giles realized that it would be very easy to over-power the other man but what would he do then and where would he go and who would deal with the rift. He knew where his responsibilities lay.

With a deep sigh Giles began to remove his own clothes. Would this days indignities never end? He turned his back to Farness and stripped down, taking time to fold his slacks and shirt.

"I didn't think you were the type."

Giles froze.

"Excuse me?"

Professor Farness indicated Giles tattoo.

"Ah. Thank god." Said Giles as he continued pulling on the sticky jumpsuit. "Although I have always been descended from the first Watchers I have not always seen eye to eye with the Council. There have been times of estrangement."

"Couple of skeletons in the closet Mr. Giles?"

"Its hard to be a man and not have a few regrets." Giles put a lot of emphasis on the word 'man'. Farness picked up on it.

"Mr. Giles I can assume what you think of me. Of us. I do not know what methods were used to bring you here but I am sure you didn't travel first class."

Giles pulled up the hood of his protective suit and glared at the other man.

"Don't be naive Mr. Giles. Blame me if it makes you feel better but don't be naïve. I'm just a man trying to do his job the same as everyone else. We have more in common than you might believe."

"What could we possibly have in common?" spat Giles.

"We're expendable." Said Farness.

Giles nodded. He looked at the thin man before him in his badly fitting suit that kept none of his secrets. An understanding was reached between the two. They were perhaps not friends though neither were they enemies.

"The way you call me Mr. Giles irritates me greatly. My name is Rupert."

"Terry." Said Farness.

The scientist pulled on a hard hat and a facemask with filters and polarized lenses. Giles did the same thing. He was nearly completely blind due to the black eyepieces. The professor's voice came through on an earphone hidden in the mask.

"In the next room is the rift. I think it is important that you see what is ahead of us for yourself."

The second door in the room slid open and Giles realized why the dark lenses were necessary. It was like walking into the heart of a star.

*** ***

There were shouts coming from all around them now. Buffy put her hands in Anya's back and made the girl run quicker. They ducked between oil drums and crates covered in brown camouflage netting. When they ran along the high white walls of the hangers they kept low, petrified of being spotted. Buffy was convinced that they would be shot on the spot and she had no desire to find out what that felt like.

On either side of them the pair they were surrounded by the barrack buildings. They were all low, squat, flat roofed and windowless. Buffy leapt up and grabbing the edge of one roof pulled herself up to have a look about. Anya sat down in some shadows and tried not to think about how scared she was. Suddenly Buffy started motioning frantically. Anya scrambled under some netting just as a squad of heavily armored Initiative soldiers ran past. She could hear their boots clattering on the wooden walkways that seemed to run all over the base. Anya thought that the line of men was never going to stop.

Eventually the sound died away. They hadn't been found. Anya nearly jumped out of her skin when Buffy slipped around the crate and with a thin smile grabbed Anya and hoisted her to her feet. The two ran in the direction the soldiers had just come from. There was a door open in one of the barracks.

Buffy had run along the roof when she had seen where the squad had emerged from and leaping silently to the ground had rolled behind them and wedged Mr. Pointy in the doorway jamming the entrance open. She retrieved the stake and let the door close behind them as together they slipped into the Initiatives base. Although the door had been old and weathered on the outside, the inside was a different story.

It was exactly how Buffy expected an Initiative base to be. The door clicked shut and the hot and dark desert was replaced with a sterile and white interior.

"It's very clean," said Anya.

"It's certainly not contaminated with English men."

"I just meant. Its better than crawling around filthy graveyards and crypts."

"At least they have places to hide and weapons to use." Anya gave up as a grim faced Buffy took a few steps down the corridor swinging her axe from side to side. The corridor was a perfectly straight room that simply seemed to act as a connection between outside and inside. About twenty meters ahead there were a pair of doors that looked like the entrance to an elevator shaft. Half way along the corridor the floor began to slope; from the level of the outside down to the elevator doors.

"Come on Anya." Said Buffy, "We have to keep moving."

"We were shot at."

"I noticed Anya."

"I've never been shot at before. If I get my hands on a gun I'm shooting back. I've had enough of people shooting at me tonight."

"No-one is getting shot while I'm around Anya." Buffy slipped an arm around Anya and helped her along. Just at that moment the outside door was opened just enough to allow a soldier to poke the barrel of a gun through.

Buffy felt the change in air pressure and reacted instinctively. Her Slayer senses knew that she had just become open to an attack from behind. With movements that she performed faster than she could think them Buffy changed her grip on Anya. She slid her right forearm into Anya's armpit, dropped the axe, took hold of Anya's wrist with her left hand, then snapping Anya's arm into a lock, bent it across her own chest and with a twisting snap catapulted the other woman down the corridor. Anya hit the ground at an oblique angle and slid along the tiles onto the slope where she disappeared out of the soldiers' line of sight.

Still turning Buffy drew a knee high up into her chest and leapt up into the air. A soldier emerged from the doorway. He reacted quickly, raising his strange weapon to his chest. It wasn't fast enough. Buffy drove her foot out as hard as she could and the gunstock hammered him right between the pectorals. He grunted and flew straight back against the wall hitting it with all the grace of a three-cheese pizza. Another soldier, this one carrying a long knife took his place but Buffy was still moving forwards. She jabbed her fingers into his forearm and the knife spun into the air. Still turning she extended one foot and raised the other from the floor to his jaw as fast as she was able. His lights winked out and he went down like a sack of hammers.

Buffy caught the knife and swept it to her side. It parried the edge of another blade that had been moving in her direction and threw sparks across the corridor. A few fast punches dropped that cretin.

The door was still open and this was a problem, their position would have been reported by now. Reinforcements would be on the way and she had as yet no idea how many were outside. She needed to put distance between them and Anya as well as blocking the corridor. The door!

She snapped a push kick into the bottom third of the door and the bottom hinge blew out of the wall. A huge soldier squeezed through the doorway pushing his massive frame against Buffy. He tried to shimmy to her side but he was too big for such a delicate maneuver. Buffy went the opposite way and threw a roundhouse toward his head. He blocked it beautifully and countered with a right that went straight through her guard and connected hard with her face. The next thing she knew she was on the floor. He was above her and one huge boot was raised. She kicked at his knees and he crumpled as bones broke. Buffy flipped onto her feet and lifted him high into the air with an uppercut. He crashed back against the door and the top hinge blew. The giant teetered against the broken door as it bent and twisted in the doorway. Buffy chided her self, her aim had been off, she had hoped he would rip it right off.

She ran at him and leapt up and went into the splits wedging herself high in the air. She stopped herself by placing a hand on his massive forehead. She bent his head back and he peered up at her. Then she drew back her arm until the elbow was touching the ceiling and drove a punch right between his eyes. His feet were squeezed out from underneath him and he did the Titanic in fast motion.

The door flipped into the air and she caught it then dropped down and rammed it hard into him. He roared as a blunt guillotine caught him right across the abdomen. She pushed the top of the door into the opposite corner and he gasped as the contents of his lungs were forced out. A blue flash went off outside and twin Tazer needles stuck into the wood near her face. She ducked down out of their range and grabbed the axe. The door might not be locked but that would slow them down she hoped.

She tried to run but the giant wasn't finished yet. He grabbed her ankle and pulled her down to the ground beside him. He yanked a grenade off his shoulder grip and put it into a wide smile. Holding the pin between his sweaty teeth he ripped it out and spat it at her.

"You stop here demon. You're not having earth, I'll die first. We all will."

Buffy twisted but his grip was maniacal and strong like Riley's roid rage. The grenade sprung open in his hand. Buffy raised the axe, his arm or her life; easy choice.

Anya stepped past her and her big ugly easy sneaker chipped the grenade out of his hand and out the doorway. There was a scream of 'CHRIST!' from outside and Buffy heaved and broke free. She and Anya sprinted down the corridor.

"We're all going to Hell. Yee hah!" screamed the giant and the grenade detonated. The entrance to the Initiative base collapsed dropping rubble into the corridor.

"I got the elevator open. It only goes down."

"Down it is then." Shouted Buffy as she passed the only soldier that had managed to get past her. The one she had knocked past her. The elevator doors were propped open and they ran down the slope and into the carriage colliding against the back wall. Buffy frantically searched for buttons that would take them down.

"Its automatic I think." Shouted Anya, "I propped it open."

She bent down and pulled the prop from between the doors. They slid closed and the lift immediately began to descend.

Buffy sat down and tried to catch her breath. They were safe for the moment.

"Anya. What's that?" She indicated the firearm Anya had propped the door open with. She was holding it in a very business like way across her chest.

"I think it's a PK-46 Multimelter," she said reading the writing on its side. "I've decided to keep it."

Buffy spat out some blood.

"Anya. I really don't want any ones life on your conscience. Please don't use that. I'm not going to stop you but I'm begging you not to use that."

"I don't have your powers. You are the Slayer. I'm just a girl but now I'm a girl with a gun and it's my right to protect myself and I'm going to. At least until they give us time to explain ourselves. That's fair."

Buffy relented and checked her pockets for Mr. Pointy. In the same way an asthmatic likes to tap their inhaler Buffy liked to be sure Mr. Pointy was always close by.

"Just make sure I'm well behind you when you fire that thing."

"Sure. You point at it and I'll multimelt it." Anya made a few practice aims.

"Do you even know what it does?"

Anya stared at the trigger then put her finger in the end of the barrel.

"Yes. Well, no. No I don't."

"Well you've the amount of time it takes me to open the hatch in the roof to find out."