"I guess we could stay for a while," Buffy mumbled. "Maybe long enough for a movie and some popcorn. That sounds good, doesn't it, Faith?" As she talked, Buffy shifted slowly to her left. It put her closer to Ethan. She had a knife, and Ethan's bully boys didn't appear to see her and Faith as a serious threat. In fact, their weapons were pointed at the ground.
Ethan, though, wasn't underestimating the danger they posed. "Do be still, Ms. Summers. It would be tragic if something were to happen to the young ladies in my charge." His hand waved toward Willow and Tara. "Why don't you save the heroics and join us? My employer has been waiting rather impatiently to meet you."
His employer. Buffy glanced at Faith and saw her scowl. They'd been right about that, damn it. Ethan wasn't working alone. "I wouldn't want you to get fired," she said stiffly. "As long as the meeting won't make us late for the movie. I hate missing all those trailers."
"Thank you." Ethan ignored Buffy's attempt at levity. He snapped his fingers and two of the soldiers broke away from the group. Now their guns were at the ready. "These gentlemen will show you the way."
For a second, Buffy thought Ethan had made a mistake. If the two men moved in front of her and Faith, that evened up the numbers a little. Unfortunately, she found herself spun toward the tunnel's end with the surprisingly sharp barrel of a machine gun pressed into her back. Trapped, angry, and totally terrified, Buffy moved forward after a single shove.
The trip took forever.
The large open area she and Faith had discovered was massive. From their vantage point, they hadn't been able to see everything. Sheets of some sort of metallic fabric hung from beams near the tunnel's ceiling, creating tiny 'rooms' within the larger space. Plodding along at the head of the group, Buffy tried to get a glimpse of what those rooms held.
"You see what I see, B?" Faith's whisper was so soft that only another Slayer would hear. At least, Buffy prayed that was true.
Keeping her back to her captors and her head down, Buffy carefully replied, "Demons and vamps. Lots of them." And all of them had been strapped to tables and hooked up to equipment she didn't recognize.
Faith's head dipped slightly. "Don't think they're part of the team."
Buffy agreed; although, she refrained from comment. What the hell was going on down here? If Ethan's crew wasn't building a demon army, why bring them all into the tunnels? Buffy's mind struggled to put the pieces together.
She hadn't managed to even find the edge pieces by the time the gun in her back urged her up a set of metal stairs and through a guarded doorway at the far side of the facility. The bright lights were still there. The noise, though, was absent. So were the people. The gleaming hall was empty ahead of them. Buffy slowed her steps as much as she dared and sent her senses out. There was something here. Something powerful and different than the run of the mill demons they'd passed.
"Keep moving!" A sharp jab in her back sent Buffy stumbling forward. So much for getting a chance to explore.
Making sure her muscles stayed relaxed, Buffy sped up slightly. Only slightly. If they were going to try to escape, this was the best chance they had. "Be ready," she whispered to Faith. Then, taking her own advice, Buffy glanced over her shoulder. The soldier behind her held his weapon low, near his right hip. A knife nestled in a sheath on the same thigh.
Neutralize the gun. Get the knife. Take care of the other soldiers.
"On three," Buffy told Faith.
"One," Faith said immediately. Buffy recognized the carefully restrained anger in the quiet voice. The guys with the guns would never know what hit them.
Buffy took a deep breath. "Two." They had to hurry. Her enhanced hearing had picked up movement nearby. In one of the rooms ahead or back in the main base, though, she couldn't be sure. She silently cursed. Beating the crowd already in the hall was going to be tough enough. It would be next to impossible if there were reinforcements waiting in the wings.
"Three!" Faith spun as she called out the count, her right hand swinging back to thrust the gun barrel away from her body.
Buffy mimicked the move. As the gun barrel swung toward the left wall, she thrust her left hand at the soldier's face. With her fingers bent into a claw, she jabbed the fingertips directly into the man's face – and then raked down.
He screamed and his hands dropped from the machine gun to cradle his bleeding cheeks.
Perfect. Buffy dove forward and ripped the knife from the soldier's leg sheath. She hit the floor in a tight tuck and rolled into Ethan's legs. He went down from the momentum of her strike. Buffy took advantage of that. As she regained her feet, Buffy lashed out with her right hand. The fist struck Ethan in the temple, and he slumped.
***
Tara concentrated on not panicking as they left the main 'hanger' of the underground base. What were they going to do? Buffy and Faith were Slayers. They fought demons and vampires. Guns and soldiers were outside their training.
They were outside hers as well. She searched her mental storehouse of spells. Sunlight was out. There was nothing to levitate…unless she tried to float the guns away. Her brief happiness over that thought faded when she noticed the way each of the machine guns had a strap firmly encircling the soldiers' shoulders. Damn it. For an instant, Tara wanted to stomp her foot in frustration.
Her inner temper tantrum was interrupted when Faith shouted, "Three!"
The next few minutes were a confused blur of shouts and movement. When Tara finally realized that Buffy and Faith were trying to free them, though, she wasted no time in helping as best she could. Ignoring all the niceties of shared magic, Tara grabbed Willow through the link they'd established earlier. She had to pound on Willow's shield for a heartbeat until it dropped; however, once they were joined, Tara pooled their magical resources.
They had to keep the guns out of play. If levitation was out… Tara extended a tendril of magic and used it to plug the barrel of the nearest weapon. She caught Willow's amusement at the action, and then followed Willow's lead in repeating the action with the rest of the firearms. Now Buffy and Faith faced a fair fight.
Once the soldiers lost the advantage, though, the fight didn't last much longer. Within minutes, unmoving uniformed bodies littered the hallway.
"Dumb fuckers shoulda shot us," Faith groused as she glared at the soldiers. "Didn't nobody tell 'em they couldn't outfight a couple of Slayers?"
Willow pulled out of the joined link. "Oh, they weren't all that stupid. They just didn't know that Slayers weren't the only threat. Tara's as good as you and Buffy, Faith, only with magic. Even if the guys had tried to shoot you, the guns wouldn't have worked."
It was clear from Faith's scowl she didn't believe Willow. At least she refrained from stating that. "Huh. Whatever the reason, we got lucky. It's time to get the hell out of here and find Giles. Maybe he can figure out what all these guys are doing down here."
Feeling flushed from the success of the spell and Willow's ringing endorsement, Tara said, with no hint of her usual stutter, "Should we leave the bodies in the hallway?" She gestured toward the door they'd come through. "What if someone else decides to go this way?"
"I'm not sure it's going to matter." Buffy grimaced and rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I thought I heard something from one of the rooms as we came through the door. We need a way to get out of here – with Ethan. He's got to know what's going on down here, and I'm sure Giles will want to…talk to him."
"We can carry him, B." Faith restlessly paced back and forth across the hallway. "Only thing is, I don't know about makin' it back to the tunnel without getting caught. We don't look like soldiers."
Tara watched as Buffy seemed to stiffen in indecision. Trying to help, she said softly, "Ma-maybe there is someth-thing in one of the rooms we could use?" Her mind latched on to the image of a demon strapped to a metal table. "A gurney? Could we p-put Ethan on that and wheel him out?"
"OK." Buffy's lips twitched in a tiny smile. "From now on, Tara does all the planning." Then, in complete defiance of her previous statement, she turned to Faith. "Start rattling doorknobs. We need that gurney."
Feeling better now that Buffy was more confident, Tara considered what else they might need. "Even if we c-cover Ethan, we'll stick out, Buffy." Four young women in a base filled with soldiers and doctors. They wouldn't even make it halfway to the maintenance tunnel.
"It won't win any fashion awards, but we could borrow uniforms." Willow reached down and started unbuttoning the shirt of the body nearest her. "We'll have to walk fast and pray nobody sees the two feet of extra material dangling over our hands and stuffed in our boots." Her hands faltered, though, when a loud klaxon suddenly echoed through the hallway.
Tara stared at Willow, heart racing and stomach churning. This didn't bode well. Intuition became certainty seconds later.
Buffy's head whipped around and she frowned at the door leading to the base. "Company's coming. I hear boots. Lots of them." In the same breath, she called out, "Faith! Stop playing nice. Get the next door open. Now!" Pulling Willow to her feet, Buffy gestured for Tara to get moving.
It was an unnecessary effort. Tara was already sprinting to where Faith waited impatiently. "Didn't have to do nothin', B. This one was unlocked," Tara heard as Faith nearly shoved her into a darkened exam room. "Too bad you left the guns with the Soldier Boys. It mighta evened the odds."
"No guns," Willow said between gasps as she slid to a stop next to Tara. "We'll find another way." She pulled the backpack off her shoulder. "Tara, is there anything in here we can use?"
Only if they wanted to blow up the base – and themselves. Tara quickly shook her head. "I don't think so." Then she frowned. Faith and Buffy had closed and locked the door, and they were dragging pieces of equipment and tables in front of the door. That wouldn't keep anyone out of the room for long. "Actually, Willow, there is something we can do." Snatching the backpack away from Willow, Tara ripped open the front pouch. She remembered a vial of Artemisia Vulgaris.
Voices and heavy footfalls from the hallway made it hard to focus on the tiny scripts on the bottles.
Finally, though, Tara found the right vial. "Move away from the door," she ordered. Not giving herself time to second guess her decision, Tara waited long enough for Buffy and Faith to scramble away. Tara hurled the glass bottle at the door at the same time she called out, "Servo absentis!"
The vial shattered and light flared brightly as the liquid coated the metal door.
"What the fuck did you do, T?" Faith gripped Tara's shoulder roughly. "Ain't no one missing the light show. Did you want whoever's out there to find us?"
Tara was too rattled to answer. The spell had worked. Until she'd felt the ward spring up, Tara hadn't been sure… When Faith's fingers tightened more, though, she dragged her attention away from the shimmering curtain of power blanketing the door. "The mugwort in the vial repels th-things. I used it to k-keep the s-soldiers out." Innate honesty made her add a disclaimer. "It w-won't last long th-though."
"Then let's stop wasting time." Buffy pried Faith's fingers from Tara's shoulder. "See if there's a way out. Another door. Air ducts. I don't care." The orders flowed effortlessly as Buffy scanned the room. "Will, they've got computers. Do your thing. Shut down the whole base if you have to."
Willow scampered around them and started poking at a darkened terminal, leaving Buffy and Tara alone in the center of the room to watch. And wait.
