AN: First things first: I am SO SORRY for being one of those authors that promise an update soon, and then it takes months for it to be uploaded. I feel bad. I really do. I just wanted to say thanks to those that have stuck with me. Something was wrong with my computer and/or . None of my latest chapters were up and I thought I had to re-write four chapters... But it's all okay now. So, here we go! Onto chapter 28!
Xander was alone in his basement, lying on his back, thinking about his life. He had nothing after high school. Just a bunch of dead end jobs, and hanging out with the same people. He still had feelings for one of his best friends, no matter what he tried to do. He had a wonderful girlfriend, who although she was a little strange, and didn't know when to not say the wrong thing. It was just a little terrible.
He heard his door open, then shut, and the stairs creak as someone walked down. He turned his head, watching as the aforementioned woman walk down the stairs. She mentioned him going to the unemployment office, and he felt like rolling his eyes.
"Maybe I should join the army," he mumbled.
"Don't they make you get up really early in the morning?" she asked, lying down next to him.
"Oh yeah. Never mind..."
"What's wrong?" she asked, noticing how he wasn't reacting to how her hand was moving across his chest.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
He sighed heavily and wrapped an arm around her. "I just feel like I'm not going anywhere in my life. I still hang out with the people I did in high school. I didn't go to college. All I can do is get dead end jobs. The only good thing I have is you."
"Aww..." she said with a smile. She kissed his cheek and rested next to him. "It doesn't matter. You're a good boyfriend, and you do amazing things with your tongue, and I'm in love with you." She said it so as-a-matter-of-a-factly that he almost missed it. She loved him. He smiled and kissed her as if he never had before.
...
"So, Adam's starting to make a big deal about those disks..." Spike said as they gathered about at Giles' apartment.
"The disks? Oh, yeah, I decrypted them," she said excitedly. She grumbled under her breath, "Well, they decrypted themselves, but I almost had it."
"What did they say?" Giles asked.
"A bunch of stuff we already knew about 314—but it also said there's some final phase where Adam manufactures a bunch of creepy cyber-demonoids, just like him..."
"Yeah, we knew that," Buffy cut in. "We've got a plan going. Giles is doing some research, asking some of his Council buddies for some secretive help."
"You've been doin' research without us?" Xander asked, almost in an upset tone.
"Just a bit," she says. "Look, I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but we're kinda in a hurry, and we needed Adam to think we haven't been getting along lately."
"So what have you found?" Willow asked, looking between her friends.
"A way to kill Adam," she said easily.
"Alright!" Xander cheered. "What do we have to do?"
Buffy and Spike looked at each other and then to the Watcher. Giles nodded slowly. Buffy sighed and looked to her friends. "It's not gonna be easy."
"Never is," Xander replied with a small smile.
Willow nodded and said, "Just tell us what you need us to do."
"The only way to kill Adam is to take out his power source. Now, when Jonathon did his mojo, he said that it was some uranium thing in his chest. We've been trying to find out a way get close enough to get it out of him..." Buffy said, handing Willow an open book Giles had hidden whenever the others had arrived.
"That's all we've gotten so far. It's some pretty heavy stuff, but we don't have a witch strong enough to do it..." Spike said.
"I'mma witch!" Willow exclaimed before she began to read silently.
"So am I," Tara muttered, looking over her girlfriend's shoulder to read along with her. After a quiet moment of the others staring at two witches, they looked at their friends. "Th-this is really, really..."
"Some heavy stuff..." Willow finished. She looked to Tara who seemed to look cautious and gleaming at the same time.
"We can do it," Tara muttered.
"But, this isn't anything close to what we've tried. Ever. I mean... This isn't exactly floating roses or pencils or sending a vending machine into a door to ward off the Gentlemen."
"I know. But it's kinda my first time at saving the world, and I think we're strong enough..." Tara took a moment to stare into Willow's eyes, begging her to trust her.
"Okay. We can do it. Only one problem though..." Willow says, looking to Giles.
"What's that?"
"Well, one, it says you have to be within striking distance..." she stated.
"And two, we don't know Sumerian..."
"I do speak Sumerian," Giles replied. "We just have to be close enough to Adam."
"Okay. So, when are we gonna do this?" Xander asked, looking around at his friends—the people he felt like was his family.
"Tonight..." Buffy said.
"As in, now?"
"Not quite now, but yeah. Soon," Spike said, giving a meaningful look to Buffy. "Be safe, love."
"You, too," she said, giving him a tight hug.
"Buffy," he whispered as he held her. "I wasn't going to say this, but I love you. I love you more than anything in this entire universe. I can't even start to say how meaningless I'd be without you."
Buffy took a step back and stared into his deep blue eyes. Tears were starting to form under both of their lashes, but neither of them let the water fall. "Don't," she said almost angrily. "Don't just say that because we're risking our necks here!" He looked hurt as soon as she said it, but he didn't know what to say. "If you really mean that, say it after."
He didn't say anything. He just nodded. She finally looked around, and noticed no one was paying them any attention. They were really just like them, still staring at their partners, except for Giles, who was staring intently at the book in front of him.
Buffy cleared her throat, and it brought everyone back to what they needed to do. "Time to go."
...
Spike walked cautiously into the cave, careful not to make any noise. He knew Adam would know he was there, but he needed to get in and make sure the others got in without a hitch. He heard him talking to Riley, who seemed to be quietly sitting in a chair, still not moving.
"Your thoughts are troubled," the thing said. "In turmoil. I understand, brother. We have a lot to discuss. Speak," he commanded.
"What have you done to me?" he asked in a panic.
"Nothing. It was mother, Your... Professor Walsh. She implanted the behavior modifier. You see, we are brothers, after all," the mechanical being said.
"Warms the cockles of my non-beating heart seeing you lads together," he said, walking into the cave.
"I didn't send for you, Spike," he said angrily.
"Yeah, well, I'm not the 'being sent for' type. I'm more of a 'I did my part, so get this chip out of my head' kinda guy." He walked past Adam, toward the man sitting idly in the chair. "Slightly stiffer than usual. It's subtle, but I like it." He eyed Riley, making a show of how much he disliked the commando. "What's with him?"
"I activated his chip," Adam replied, looking to Riley somewhat adoringly.
"So, it's chips all 'round, is it?" Spike almost laughed. "Someone must've bought the party pack."
"You get yours when the Slayer is where I want her." Spike noticed the sharp intake in the soldier, but Adam didn't seem to. Maybe the boy may have cared about the woman at one time, but it could never compare to the way he felt about her.
"She's separated from her friends. They want nothing to do with her. She's all alone," Spike said.
"She really did it," Riley muttered quietly. "A chip... in my head..."
"Actually, the chip is here," Adam said, pointing to the man's chest. "It's tied directly into your central nervous system through your thoracic nerve. This is Phase One of your preparation. It lay dormant until the time came. I simply activated it, brother."
"Stop calling me that!" Riley exclaimed, standing and attempting to move. "I'm not your brother. You're a botched science experiment. I'm a human being, who's going to do everything in his power to—"
"Sit," Adam commanded, and he did. "You have no power. Not yet. Once you forget your old life and embrace your destiny as I have, you will know power you've never dreamed of. I think you're going to like it."
The real monster prattled on about how and where he wanted the Slayer, and Spike played his part well. He would never let the thing put another hand on her if he could help it. Spike pretended to have snagged a problem getting Buffy back into the lab, but it was all a ploy. They just needed a little more time.
...
"Willow, I'm sorry," Buffy said as they descended down the elevator shaft.
"For what?" Willow asked nervously as looked down to her feet, making sure she wasn't going to slip.
"For not being around so much... I mean, I know I've been with Spike a lot, and you've had stuff with Oz and everything... But I feel like it would've been easier if I was around a lot more," she said, unsurely.
"Oh, sweetie, it's so not your fault! You've helped so much, an—and I have no idea what I would have done if Oz had gotten caught, and I didn't have you to help get him out. Buffy, you're awesome! I mean it!" Willow said as they finally reached the bottom and hugged her tightly.
"Aw, I love you, Will!"
"I love you, too, Buff!"
Xander and Tara arrived next to them quickly. Abruptly, they brought them both into the hug. "Oh, Xan! You know we love you, right?"
"Oh, God, we're gonna die, aren't we?" he asked, looking scared.
"No, we just... we're sorry. We've been really busy and stuff's been crazy," Buffy explained. "And, Tara... Tara, I know you're new to the group, but I just wanted to say, you're so amazing. I know it was a big adjustment for all of us, but you and Willow... you're great."
Tara stammered out a thanks and blushed profusely. "You guys are pretty cool, too." The girls giggled as Xander laughed heartily and Giles joined them at the bottom of the shaft.
"Are we good to go?" Buffy asked, motioning to the cameras ahead of them.
"We are. You are not. He'll be able to see you, but we'll be fine," Giles told her.
"Good. The safer you are, the better," she said as they stepped forward. As soon as they approached the door, it opened on its own, revealing ten armed commandos. And Colonel McNamara. "Yipee," Buffy said quietly. "Colonel, wait!" she said as he grabbed her bag.
"Shut up. You've got some nerve, lady! You think you can just waltz into a government installation brandishing weapons like—" he unzipped the bag, and pulled out...
"It's a gourd," Buffy said.
"A magic gourd," Giles grumbled, but thankfully, no one heard him.
"What kind of freak are you?" he asked, stuffing the gourd back in the bag.
"The kind that's going to save your life!" she exclaimed.
"From what?"
"From Adam!"
"Nice try."
"Those overcrowded cells you have down there, think of them as courtesy of Adam. He's pulling the Trojan Horse on you, and you're just walking straight into it," she grabbed her bag from him, and tried to break free of the guys who was surrounding her, but just stood there instead. Too many...
"Everything in this installation is under 34-hour surveillance," the Colonel said coolly.
"Including the secret lab?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Including everything!" There was a moment of silence as everyone around her took in what she had said. "What secret lab?"
"It's behind 314. Maggie Walsh built it for the final project." A look of disbelief was etched into his face. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about."
"I know everything that goes on around here," McNamara said defiantly. "A tick on a mouse couldn't get in without my knowing it. And if Adam wants to try, we're ready for him." He puffed out his chest as if that would help the situation.
"How exactly do you plan to get close enough to him get his power source out?" she asked.
"Hit him simultaneously with multiple Taser blasters. Incapacitate him with as much voltage as we can muster," McNamara said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Right. Great plan. Right up there with 'duck and cover.' Too bad it won't work. He feeds on that, and you're just gonna fill him up with an all-you-can-eat buffet!"
"What gives you the right to tell me my business?" he asked, taking a daring step toward her.
"This..." she said, waving her hand around to the cells and labs, "is not your business. It's mine. You're all in way over your head. You have no idea what you're messing with. This is my turf."
"Up there, maybe, but down here, I'm the one who—" The lights cut out and Buffy groaned with anger.
"Okay, look, that was him, right there. He knows I'm here, and it's only just a matter of time before he opens those cages! Just please, let me get to 314, and then you can do whatever you want." She watched as a soldier tried to open the door, but it was tightly shut.
"We're locked in," he said. Buffy gave them an I-told-you-so look.
Colonel McNamara looked to his soldiers and ordered them to head to the armory. "Boothe," he said to a nearby man, "place her under arrest." The man nodded and as he tried to fold her arms behind her, she propelled him away and started running toward the room in question. She opened the door long enough for her friends to get in before looking around for Spike. He should be here by now, she thought, trying not to let the fact that he wasn't there scare her. She shut the door behind her, and barricaded them in.
"Is this a good place?" she asked, looking around the small lab. "Can you work your mojo in here?"
"It should do," Giles replied as he took the bag from Buffy and began to set up.
"How long before the ritual kicks in?" she asked, looking worriedly between the barricade and the space she needed to enter.
"Five minutes, give or take," Willow said as they sat in a circle.
"I still don't like you going in there alone, Buff," Xander said, looking at her with concern.
"I won't be," she said with finality. She opened the hidden door and barred herself in. Giles did the same on the other side before joining them in the circle. She heard him, Willow and Tara beginning the chant on the opposite side.
"The power of the Slayer and all who yield it. Last to the ancient first, we invoke thee. Grant us thy domain and primal strength. Accept us in the power we possess. Make us mind and heart and spirit joy. Let the hand encompass us. Do thy will."
Buffy turned and looked around in the secret room. She saw Riley sitting in a chair as the putrid smelling bodies Angelman and Walsh walked around, with grotesque fittings of tubes working around and through their bodies. "Riley, are you hurt?" she asked as she approached him. When he didn't answer her, she shook him lightly. "What is this? Why won't you answer me?"
"He can't," the dreaded voice of the monster boomed. "He hasn't been programmed to. He's part of the final phase now, as you were supposed to be."
"Sorry. Never been one to jump through hoops on command."
"Oh." He tilts his head to the side as if sizing her up. "Kill her."
"I thought you'd never ask," a dead and disfigured Forrest said gleefully. The fight wasn't what Buffy needed at all. She didn't need Forrest in the way. She needed to finish it with Adam. The sooner, the better. She managed to knock out the mutilated doctors before turning back to Forrest. It wasn't easy when he was not only three times her size, but also had a fake cardiovascular system, and he didn't feel his muscles ache.
Just when she thought that she wasn't going to be able to fight him, she looked up to see the various fluids from Forrest's tube being splayed across the ground. She thought she was going to be sick until she saw Riley standing next to his now dead friend with the tubes still in his hand. Adam was grinning, as much as the machine could, as he watched his "brother."
"Riley, you don't want to do this," Buffy said as she stood up, putting her hands in front of her palms facing him defensively.
"He doesn't have a choice," the beast growled. "Finish her." Riley straightened his stance and began walking toward Buffy.
"Well if that's how it's going to be..." she mumbled under her breath. She raised her fists and waited for him to make the first move. It didn't take long before his soldier training and mind control kicked in and he came toward her with all his strength. It wasn't hard, using his own weight against him propel him into a nearby wall, knocking him unconscious.
She grinned confidently as she stood and faced Adam. That wasn't that difficult, she thought, looking to the machine-demon-man combination. Yes, he was stronger, and bigger. But she was the Slayer.
