Buffy had no idea what Maya was doing as she typed furiously at the keyboard on the laptop she had brought, windows and lines of code opening and closing faster than she could keep track of before grabbing a silver tube with a light on the end and pointing it at the screen, pushing a button to make a buzzing noise.

"What are you doing exactly?" Xander asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Laying the groundwork to get into the Initiative computer system and making them chase their own tails if they catch us snooping through their system." She said. "Setting up proxies and false trails so if they try to back trace they have to unravel an insanely complicated string intertwined with a lot of other strings. And stop looking over my shoulder, it's irritating."

"Where did you learn to hack?" Willow asked, watching from the side while Xander backed away.

"I have two hyper intelligent family members, a grandmother who's a thief, very high IQ myself and a lot of time on my hands as a kid. Plus, I'm cheating with this." She held up the tube before setting it down and going back to typing.

"Tobias used that before. He called it a sonic screwdriver." Xander noted, reaching to pick it up, only for Justin to grab his hand.

"Don't touch without asking please." He said, briefly glancing at Maya's screen. "Can't you just use Dad's stuff?"

"I could, but who knows when we'll need those programs. Let's keep the Initiative in the dark until we know we won't need them again."

"Fair enough."

"Uh, Justin. Can I, kinda, you know, have my hand back?" Xander asked, trying to pull his arm out with minimal success. It was like trying to pull out of Buffy's grip, but firmer. The hybrid let go and he flexed his wrist. "Thanks. So, what's the deal with the glowing buzz stick?"

"The 'buzz stick', as you so affectionately name it, is among some of the most powerful technology from our home universe." Maya said without looking up. "Sonic screwdrivers are able to scan just about anything, open anything that isn't deadlock sealed, including electrical and physical locks, hack past most anything. Basically if it can be scanned, manipulated, broken down, sonic can do it. It also has a psychic interface, so all you need to do is point and click." To prove her point, she picked it up and pointed it at the TV, pressing the button. The screen flickered on before cycling through multiple channels. She moved it Giles record player which started spinning before finally pointing it at the lights which dimmed considerably. Another pass at all the electronics returned them to their previous states. "With this and the right place, we could crash the world economy, kill the Internet, and send the world back to the age when you still used paper to communicate after stealing the dirty secrets of every nation you care to name." She said, pointing the sonic briefly at the laptop to change something before setting it down.

"Maya, stop trying to scare them." Kazehana said calmly. She was sitting on the couch, legs stretched out, while Yahan were sitting in the armchair. Neither looked the slightest bit interested in what was happening but just maintained their bland expressions.

The brunette took a breath, pausing in her typing. "Sorry. I'm trying not to completely lose it here."

"That's fine, but it's no reason to take it out on them." Yahan pointed out.

Maya took another breath. "Right."

"So, what are you doing exactly?" Willow asked, interested in the techniques the girl might be employing.

"Well like I said before, right now I'm just setting up proxies and a few dead ends so they'll have to go through that before they can trace us. If by some miracle they do, then they're going to have their hands full."

"How many are you setting up?"

"Right now? I got around fifty. My goal is two hundred across the globe."

Willow snapped her head. "Two hundred?!"

"When she goes big, she goes big." Justin smirked. "She also loves to base the last proxy in computer of someone in the base when we're hacking military. Or a city in the opposite direction before she cuts the connection entirely."

"And this time I'm thinking that the LA public library needs a little more action."

"You know, you still have yet to tell us what you're actually doing on that machine." Giles said, standing by the counter like he wanted to be as far away from the mass of chips and wires as possible.

"Well it's pretty simple so far. If we are going to rescue our father and Oz from the Initiative, we need to know the layout and where they are being kept. So Maya, being the computer whiz she is, is going to hack into their security system and computer files. Give us a start to planning on how to get them out, and what they know right now." Justin said. "After we know that, we can figure out the quiet and quick way in and out."

"Can't you just, oh I don't know, go in and get them right now?" Xander asked.

"And what then?" Justin snapped. "Technically yes, we could go get them right now, but what happens after? Go straight through the front door and take them back? Afterwards they know what we can do and how powerful we are, which makes them gun for us as threats and to study. Shadow portal in? Then they grow even more paranoid and again target Dad and by extension us as a threat/study subjects when they see what we can do. Knock them out as we go and shadow portal out? Paranoid, target, study. No, we are doing this the smart way. That means waiting for an opportunity, exploiting weak spots, and keeping our skills to a minimum or low enough level they don't have any reasonable expectations on what we can do." He took a breath and slowly let it out, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped. But we're all ungodly stressed here and having to...restrain ourselves from doing exactly what you suggested takes a toll on the nerves."

Maya glanced up. "Being fair, however, if we weren't staying here long-term and trying not to attract the full force of the government's attention, you can be certain we would have already done what you suggested. Unfortunately, this time we need to employ brains over brawn if we want minimal impact with the desired results." Xander looked suitably chagrined and even a little ashamed.

"Actually...maybe you can help with that." Justin suddenly said, getting Xander's attention again. "Dad told us once you have fake soldier memories from a Halloween?"

He nodded in confusion. "Yeah…"

"Anything in them about stealth ops? Specifically getting in and out of an enemy base undetected or quickly?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Xander perked up. "Now you're talking my game."

"Ok, well, while you two talk espionage, I got for question for you." Maya turned and looked at Willow. "How familiar are you with the security of Sunnydale's utilities and computer networks?"

"Um, well, I kinda know my way around. And maybe a few backdoors." She replied, looking a little sheepish.

The hybrid girl smirked. "Got your laptop?"

The redhead smiled back. "In my bag. But, do you really need the help?"

"Two heads are always better than one. And you know tricks I don't about the systems, so come help."

Buffy watched as her friends split off, Willow plugging in her laptop and Maya moving hers over to make room on the desk. Justin and Xander were sitting at the counter discussing tactics and ideas, Anya sitting and watching them closely in another seat. Feeling a little left out, the blonde looked at Kazehana and Yahan, but neither had moved from their spots. So, with everybody else busy, she sat down on the couch next to Kazehana, Giles taking the other chair with a cup of tea.

"Are you ok?" The Slayer asked.

Kazehana gave a small hand gesture that seemed to wander. "We're...coping." She said softly. After a small moment of silence, she talked again. "Before he was knocked out, we felt him. He was so afraid. And by the time we got to campus he was out of our reach."

"I'm sorry." Buffy said, offering a sympathetic hug. "I know what it's like when someone you love is in danger."

"You do." Yahan said simply, accepting the fact. "But do you know what it's like to feel that person's fear on top of your own? To know only that they're alive but nothing else until they wake up, though not for lack of trying?" Buffy didn't answer and the dark skinned Sekirei didn't seem to expect one anyways.

"How were they even able to catch Tobias? One would think he could evade capture quite well." Giles wondered out loud.

"Bad timing, dumb luck, and taking advantage of his distraction." Kazehana said, rubbing her right shoulder. "He was bitten moments before they sedated him, and whatever they were using for demons must be powerful stuff that he wasn't used to."

"How do you know he was bitten so soon before he was sedated?" Giles asked, frowning.

Yahan and Kazehana shared a look. "We think our bond with him might be growing as our… new Spirits develop." The former said with clear uncertainty. "We both felt the pain in our shoulders moments before he was knocked out. And when we asked, Tara said he was bitten on the right shoulder."

"Fascinating." Giles said, taking off his glasses. "Are you sure this is due to the Avatar Spirits?"

"It's our best guess." Kazehana said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Chiho and Uzume, some friends of ours who are Ashikabi and Sekirei respectively, never showed this level of connection. We visited them over the course of years and we didn't see any indication of them sharing physical feelings instead of emotional. Besides, that's not what we're really concerned about." She looked at them both. "The two pressing things are how much the Initiative could learn or rather attempt to learn from Tobias's body and genetics before he wakes up. Some of the things they can gleam could easily change the course of human history if they're discovered."

That was a rather unsettling thought, but Buffy had that nasty feeling this was the lesser of the two things they had mentioned. "What's the other?"

Now the Sekirei shared uneasy glances before Yahan answered. "Tobias made a deal with Black Wolf as you recall. In the event Tobias is unable to defend himself. Black Wolf can take control of their body and powers. This can be as simple as keeping away threats with barriers or running away if able, to being as powerful as assuming full control of their body and destroying anything and everything in sight that's a threat to their well-being."

Buffy felt her blood turn cold. She had never seen Tobias truly, absolutely lose it in a fight. Anger maybe, knocking something around like rag dolls. But the Slayer in her, her own experience, and even he himself had admitted he had never brought his full skills to bear. The only true hint was that rooftop back in LA with her and Faith, when he had evaded gun fire with pitiful ease.

"Are you saying what I believe you are?" Giles asked cautiously.

Kazehana nodded, biting her lip. "If the Initiative pushes too far and Black Wolf can feasibly justify it...there might be more than a few bodies before he's finished."

That thought seemed to darken the room to Buffy's eyes. Or maybe it was just her fear.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Black Wolf watched with amusement as the scientist looked at a report with frustration plain on his face.

"Are you absolutely sure?" He said, flipping through papers like he could change what he was seeing.

Another one nodded, looking just as stressed. "I ran the tests three times. The only thing we got off the saw was ordinary leather."

"It can't be though! We've tried everything to cut it and barely gotten a scratch! You can barely see where the saw cut!"

Ah, this was his kind of entertainment. Granted the room was drab, boring really. He didn't have much fondness for the rooms that scientist types seemed to love, stainless steel tables and scientific instruments, but there was something so very satisfying about watching them wear a pair of heavy rubber gloves while trying to cut through the Vortex Manipulators leather strap with a bone saw. Especially when it ended up dulling all the teeth and the end result was a scratch that hovered in the perception between real and imagined. All he was missing was a snack and drink to complete the set up.

"I'm stumped on what else we can try. If there's secret way to get it off, we're going to need more resources and time. And we still need tissue and hair to run genetic comparisons and tests."

The first scientist, the leader, sighed and glanced at the heart rate monitor that was still on. Black Wolf glanced at it as well. Hmm, heart rate had climbed a little bit. Sedative must be almost gone and his 'roommate' would be back in the driver's seat again.

"We're not going to be able to apply any more sedatives if we can't get any needles into him. Unless maybe we try gas?"

Ok, as amusing as this talk was and laughing at the fact any attempt they tried was doomed to fail, now it was time to get their body away from the mad scientists organization that had created their own Frankenstein monster. Fortunately, Black Wolf had used Air Pulses and Tobi's own memories of the place to find the perfect spot to keep away any unwanted visitors from physical contact. Now it was just a matter of getting them there. Thankfully, Tobias himself had already provided a method of moving them.

One of the many projects and eventualities that his justifiably paranoid mind had thought up was that at some point, he would be rendered unable to move his limbs or body due to outside influences when he needed to. His creative solution was gathering air around his entire body, similar to his armor, and using it to move himself. Mind over matter at its finest, which would let him fight or escape if needed, manipulating his own body like a puppet on its strings.

With a smirk of anticipation, Black Wolf hardened the air around Tobias's body and made his the pointer finger on his right hand twitch as a test. It jerked slightly. "Now for the fun part."

"We'd have to gas the entire room if we can't move him, and make it airtight so the gas doesn't escape through the ventilation ducts."

"Well we need to figure out something. The Colonel isn't going like it if we tell him we have-"

Tobias's arm twitched, drawing their attention. Both wondered if they're eyes were playing tricks on them, only for it to twitch again.

"Is he waking up?" one asked, pulling out a penlight and looking into his eyes.

"Can't be. Heart rate has barely changed." The other said, looking at the monitor before checking Tobias's pulse in his left wrist. "Maybe it's a side effect. Something about his body reacting to the-"

Without warning, the teen's left hand shot up and grabbed the man's hair, ruthlessly slamming his head into the steel table to instantly knock him out. Not missing a beat, his other fist slammed into the throat of the scientist holding the light, making him choke and stagger back with his hands holding his Adam's apple. A swift kick to the jaw knocked him out as well. Tobias's leg stayed outstretched before setting down, his upper torso lifting off the table to sit up, his chin resting on his bare chest.

"Ah violence. Is there no joy like it?" Black Wolf sighed contently. He glanced down at Tobias and rolled his eyes. "Fine, don't provide the sarcastic response." With a thought Tobias's head lift up and he swung his legs off the table while Black Wolf fired another Air Pulse. Looked like they were a hop, skip, and jump from the containment cells holding the demons the Initiative captured. Plus a few heavily armed guards but that just added some spice to it. Tobias's body moved smoothly as he got off the table. "And three...two...one."

The second he finished counting the two were off like they had been fired from a gun. Tobias opened the door and the two sprinted down the hall ways, the unconscious body in front and the puppet master behind him. They had made two turns before finally running into two commandos talking to each other as they walked down the hall. The response as they saw Tobias running towards them was instant.

"Hey!"

One moved to block him while the other surged forward to engage in combat. Tobias simply jumped as he approached, slamming a knee into the man's hands as he moved to protect his face, breaking his nose and making him tumble backwards while the teen rolled to break his fall. He ducked under a jab from the one who tried to block him and delivered a devastating punch to his rib. Black Wolf was fairly certain he heard a rib or three crack, but that wasn't his problem. The other hand quickly snatched an I.D badge from his belt as they kept moving, since he remembered that you needed one to open a containment cell. Alarms started blaring before they were even turning the next corner, but the speed they were moving at would get them to the cells in the next three minutes, likely less. Then he spotted five more commandos setting up a human roadblock just down the hall from the door to the containment area.

"Hmm. Knock the crap out of them or evade and make them look like idiots. Decisions, decisions." He mused as they ran. Oh, who was he kidding? He was going to enjoy knocking these arrogant humans through a loop. Or perhaps a wall.

Turning the last corner to the hallway, Black Wolf saw they were standing roughly side by side, two rows of two and the fifth in front of the door itself, just as they had been since he first saw them. He smirked and made Tobias run forward while the first two ran to intercept him. One threw a punch that was easily caught, followed by breaking his wrist with a twist. The other managed to land a punch to the face, but didn't get a reaction besides a uppercut to the chin and spin kick into the wall next to them. However, the spin put their back to the next group of two, who used the opportunity to try and tackle them to the ground, their arms wrapping around his own in an attempt to trap them. Instead it merely made him put a foot forward to stop the momentum they hit him with. He ripped his arms from their grasps, slammed his elbows under their jaws, grabbed their shirts and hurled them over his shoulders back down the hall the direction he had come from. Turning around to face the last one, Black Wolf was highly amused that he was putting on a brave face, but was clearly terrified. He also looked a little confused by the fact that Tobias's body had its eyes closed. Snorting, he had Tobias flick his hand and sent the man smashing into the wall head first, knocking him out. Not paying attention in the slightest to the three bodies on the floor or two that were still trying to pick themselves, they entered the containment area. As expected, the occupants of the cells were greatly interested in the new arrival, standing as close to the electric glass as they could without touching it. Black Wolf considered them as they walked past, not that they could see anything but Tobias walking with his eyes closed, until they came to a cell with a vampire in it. This would work nicely.

As they were about swipe the keycard to open the cell, there was the distinct click of a gun being cocked. "Don't move."

Black Wolf glanced in the direction of the voice and saw three guards armed with Taser rifles. At the front was the new commander McNamara, holding military issue handgun in both hands.

"Put the key card down and put your hands on your head." He said loudly as the group of four moved closer.

Not even bothering with looking like Tobias had heard him, Black Wolf instantly seized control of their hands and forced them all to put their weapons under their chins faster than they could stop themselves. He disregarded their looks of shock and struggle to move their fire arms, swiping the card through the reader for the cell. There was a beep of confirmation, followed by the door opening. The vampire cautiously exited the cell before looking at Tobias. "Thanks for the-"

The rest of his sentence was cut off as Tobias's hands grabbed his chin and the back of his head, sharply twisting it to snap the spine. The vampire's body turned to their usual pile of dust which was ignored as they swiped the card again and stepped into the cell as the door closed behind them. Black Wolf searched inside the wall for the wires leading to the device with a Pulse and sliced clean through them all, effectively sealing them in. He turned Tobias around to look at the group of men that he had released after they were locked in, all of them looking suspicious and confused while one tried unsuccessfully to open the door, swiping his card through the reader that had been reduced to a hunk of metal and plastic in the wall.

Black Wolf sighed. Now Tobias was in a box that nobody could get him out of and he had gotten to vicariously beat the crap out of some people. With that finished, he released the control of the air that was letting him manipulate Tobias, causing him to crumble to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

He may have made sure he hit the ground face first on the fall.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ok, we are almost ready to go." Maya said, leaning back from her chair. Between herself and Willow, they had done all the groundwork to make sure the Initiative didn't trace them in about twenty minutes. If they tried, they'd have to untangle a string of proxies that circled the globe three times, only to end up in the LA Public Library that was hours away from their current location by car.

"And you're positive they can't trace this back to us?" Justin asked. His sister shot him an offended look, which made him hold up his hands. "Just double checking."

"I don't do half-baked work, thank you. But Willow was helpful with finishing the string."

"I didn't do much." The redhead said shyly. "You're incredible though. I had no idea about some of those tricks you used to-"

"Yes, yes, it's all very impressive work." Anya brushed off. "But don't you still need to get into the Initiative system to do anything?"

"Why yes, we do Anya." Maya said, looking and sounding more cheerful than one would expect. "However, the good news is that we're not going to do the hard work like we did setting the string up. Now," she grabbed the sonic and spun it before pointing the tip at her screen, thumb on the bottom on it. "We're cheating."

She turned on the alien device and the screen instantly jumped. Several windows instantly opened and lines of code raced across than faster than the human eye could, but Maya's were zipping back and forth as she frowned with concentration.

"Hmm, they've got a decent setup, but there are a lot of weak spots if you know where to look. Only problem is finding one that they don't know about and can't detect."

"What is she doing?" Buffy asked Justin as she watched a little ways back, giving the girl her space. Kazehana and Yahan however had relocated to her right side and were watching the screen as well.

"She's probing their system, finding a quiet way in." Justin told her.

"No, I got that." The blonde said, mentally adding the word 'kinda' to the end. "I mean...what's she doing? With the sonic?"

He opened his mouth. "Ah. Well, like we said, the sonic has a telepathic interface. Most of the time you can point it at anything electronic, like a phone, a TV, robot, computer, server, and make it do anything. What Maya is doing is using it to instantly hack through the Initiative firewalls and get in. She's essentially hacking at the speed of thought with the sonic acting as a middleman." He crossed his arms. "Some hackers can only code as fast as they can type. Maya, with a sonic, can code as fast as she can think."

"Got one!" Maya said suddenly, smirking. "Looks like a programmer's back door that they hid in the system. Password protected of course, but…" she frowned again before relaxing. "Not anymore." She set down the screwdriver and typed. "Now just connect it to our string and…we are in." She typed some more. "Ok, now let's get into the security cameras."

Kazehana and Yahan both inhaled sharply, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Hey, you two ok?" Xander asked.

They both looked at him and said the same words in unison.

"He's awake."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tobias resisted the urge to groan to as he swam back to awareness. His shoulder ached, but the real pain was focused on his nose and right cheek. His mind felt slow, wandering, like he had too much to drink from the one time Jack had taken him drinking. He also felt he was naked from the waist up, which begged the question of where the fuck his shirt was.

'Well, well, well. He does live.'

"Fuck off you." He mumbled, groaning as he put a hand to his head. "What the hell happened?"

'What do you think happened, Sherlock? Did that sedative have amnesia drug mixed in it?'

Tobias snapped his eyes opened, only to instantly shut them as the white wall he looked at burned his eyes. Shit, now it was coming back to him and what he remembered wasn't good. 'Did they take Tara?'

'Nope. Just you and Scooby Doo. You're welcome for making sure the people down here didn't play mad scientist with you.'

Tobias frowned as he sat up, knees on the ground and eyes closed as he stretched his arms. 'What about Oz? Where is he?'

'Don't know. Don't care. Here's what happened when you were taking a nap. Figure it out yourself.' Black Wolf responded flippantly before his presence receded from Tobias's perspective. In its place were his memories of the time when Tobias was asleep. He shifted through them, frowning when he saw how he gotten them where they were. That was going to bite them in the ass, but he definitely preferred it to being poked, prodded, sliced, and in the extreme yet likely case, dissected. At least he had found them a good place to regroup. He opened his eyes again, blinking quickly to help them adjust to the light and white walls of the cell. He stood up slowly, rolling his shoulders before looking at the right one. The gauze work and tape was professional, though some red had bled through and the tape was lifted in places when Black Wolf had played puppet master with their body. He touched his nose and felt while tender, it wasn't broken. His face felt the same in the spot where he'd gotten punched.

"Sadistic psychopath." Tobias muttered. He frowned looked out of the glass door to the cell and saw the demons across the way were looking at him. Flaring his killing intent and turning his eyes white, he snarled deeply. The demons instantly backed away from their own doors, looking in any direction besides him. He smirked, a brief thought materializing a short sleeve shirt of white air around his upper body. Now that he was no longer naked, he ran another internal check and found that his links with the girl's was closed. He swore silently. They must be worried sick.

He wrenched open the bonds and was instantly flooded with the girl's emotions. Fear. Anger. Concern. Hope. Relief. Love. Joy. He sighed with his own relief as he sent back emotions to soothe them, taking away the fear and anger with his own love. He sighed softly as the effects worked and their emotions calmed significantly. For a second, he just embraced the calm, before he felt their emotions spike. He fired a Pulse and saw a man walking down the hall with two guards. He frowned and looked out of the cell again, spotting a security camera pointing at him. Looked like the new warden was coming for a visit. Now how did he want to play this? Cold, no answers plus ignore them? Or...he smirked.

'Hey Wolfy.'

'What do you want Tobi?' He instantly responded.

'New Commander is coming to talk I believe. Interested in helping fuck with his mind and perception?'

That got the attention of his inner half. 'I'm listening.' Tobias didn't speak but opened his thoughts and shared them. He heard an excited growl. 'Oh, this is going to be fun.'

Tobias's smirked widened before his eyes flicked to the glass door. One second later, McNamara came into sight with two guards. The teen in question was now sitting on a chair with a bored look on his face, staring at the ceiling until he looked at them.

"Ah, you're finally here." Tobias said.

McNamara frowned and nodded at the guards, who nodded back and went to either ends of the hall. "Your name is Tobias Song?" He said it like a question but his tone clearly made it a command.

"I've gone by a lot of names. But yes, that's the one I greatly prefer, McNamara." The man narrowed his eyes and Tobias snorted. "Please, you think you're the only one who did his research. I know about you. Pentagon, department of defense, career solider, highly disciplined. And the new leader of the Initiative. Bravo." He clapped his hands a few times for emphasis.

The older man frowned and tried to regain control of the conversation. "Yet we know barely anything ab-"

"Do you have anything to eat?"

He blinked. "What?"

"To eat. I'm hungry. Skipped lunch, what with saving a friend and fighting a werewolf. Where is Oz by the way? I don't see him." He leaned side to side to look around McNamara for effect.

"The HST-"

"Oz. His name is Oz. Do him the simple courtesy of calling him his name."

McNamara scowled. "The HST is being studied right now. Otherwise, I don't know."

Tobias scowled. "That's a strike against you." He said plainly, a hint of steel in his voice. Internally he smirked as he saw the man take a slight step back and his hand go to his pistol. "So, what did you want to talk about?" He said, suddenly sounding and looking normal again. "Because I seriously doubt you come down to say hi to all the new neighbors. You look like that guy children make up scary stories about and parents keep them away from since you keep your gun collection in the living room."

That made McNamara narrow his eyes. "I've taken a look at your file. Walsh seemed to think you very interesting, but when we looked into your background, very little came up."

"Yeah, that was never meant to hold forever." Tobias yawned. "Frankly ninety five percent of what she found was fake. Just enough to keep her attention and something to chase while I'll took a look around. Decent setup. Impressive tech."

"So, you were sent to infiltrate this base. What are you? MI6? French intelligence? Mossad?"

"Dear god, you really are a military idiot."

'Was that ever in doubt?'

"No, not really."

"What?" McNamara asked.

"Nothing. Anyways, no, I'm not in any of those intelligence agencies. I'm also not Chinese, Japanese, North Korea, South Korea, Russian, Australian, or any other country at all. Frankly, I don't know what I am. I have no idea where I was born." Tobias yawned again. "Satisfied?"

"Not even slightly. Yo-"

"Says every woman you've ever been with." Tobias could hear Black Wolf laughing hysterically in his head, rolling on the floor.

McNamara clenched his teeth. "I am a Colonel of the United States, and as such-"

"That means less than nothing to me." Tobias cut off again, standing up and walking to the door, eyes hard. "I don't answer to nations. I don't belong to countries, states, organizations, governments. I belong to people I know. I like. I trust. The only thing that mentioning the military does is make me back the hell away to stay out of your messes. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that you idiots were poking your noses into the supernatural realms, I wouldn't give a crap about what you were doing. So don't think pulling rank will get you the slightest respect from me, Colonel." He relaxed suddenly. "Also, I'm still waiting for that snack. I wasn't kidding about being hungry."

As expected, the military man seemed off balance at the sudden change before pulling himself together. "We checked your past. Until several months ago, you didn't exist. No cell history, digital footprint, credit history, nothing."

"And by we, you mean the people who know how a computer actually works." Tobias said, turning around and walking to the back wall, leaning against it.

"Based on your lack of history or origin, as well as your...unique, talents, I assume you're a HST."

Tobias groaned, rolling his eyes. "HST. God, you military types have an acronym for everything. Call them demons, you idiots. And no, I'm not a 'HST' as you put it." He put quotation marks around the three letters. "I'm human. Just...extra."

"With some serious hardware behind you." McNamara said, glancing at his wrist. Tobias followed his gaze.

"Shouldn't have tried touching my things. Your lab tech is lucky he just got some mild burns instead of cardiac arrest."

'Which with us not knowing how high the voltage on that defense measure goes thanks to your future self setting it is a legitimate possibility.'

"Not that he needs to know that." Tobias responded, turning around to face the wall again.

"Who are you talking to?" The white haired man finally demanded.

'Ready?'

'And switch.'

"That would be me." Black Wolf's distinctive growl said as he turned around, eyes white and feral with a grin. The Colonel took a noticeable step back and put his hand on his gun. "Hello again McNamara. You're looking well for a man who had his gun pressed under his chin."

"What are you?"

'And back.'

"He's my other half." Tobias said, eyes and voice normal again as he started pacing. "Also the one responsible for beating the crap out of you and your men, plus my lovely accommodations." He twitched slightly. "I thought you might appreciate not being poked at. I for one found it supremely annoying, didn't you?" Another twitch and turn to walk to the opposite wall. "Greatly, but that might be the military in general."

"What are you?" McNamara said, looking greatly unsettled.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry is this upsetting you?" They asked, switching in mid-sentence. "We can make things easier for you. One second." Tobias was struggling not to burst out laughing at the sheer fun this was. He frowned for a second before grimacing like he was in pain for their audience. A second later, he took a step to the left while, using their Astral form, Black Wolf took a step to the right. The two looked at him with a smirk.

"Is this better?" They asked at the same time. The man didn't answer, just stared at them. Black Wolf snorted. "I thought this guy was a hard ass able to adapt. I don't see the hype behind his file."

"Yeah, well, people like the military are boring like that." Tobias sighed, walking to the wall again, only this time, he used his powers to walk up it and to the ceiling, where he sat down cross legged, gravity pulling his hair towards the ground. "You see, McNamara, you act like you know how the world works. You, Walsh, Forest, the scientists that tried to poke and prod me, you all think the world follows your logic. You think if you can dissect, profile, test, label it, you can control it."

"It's adorable really. Now you," Black Wolf leaned closely to the glass, his nonexistent nose almost touching it. "You look like you expect a rigid, structured world, where the person with the biggest stick is in charge. You see the supernatural as another place to conquest, to utilize, weaponize. It's adorable." He chuckled darkly. "This world is filled with monsters beyond your wildest nightmares. Rules that change minute to minute, second to second. It's kill or be killed, and you idiots swagger in like the moron who's ego is bigger than his common sense, or other things." His eyes flicked down for a second to drive his point home.

"Enough!" The head of the Initiative had steadily been getting redder with the insult and now they had apparently crossed the line. "I don't know who you think you are, but I will make you regret every word you anarchist freak." He snarled, trying to intimidate them.

Black Wolf and Tobias burst out laughing, hugging their stomachs before the latter spoke up, voice filled with his amusement. "Oh, that's a good one. Make us regret it." He dropped the floor again, landing feet first in a crouch with his head bowed enough for his bangs to cover his eyes. "You just don't get it, do you? You are trespassing on a place you cannot begin to understand. The demons you're men have fought? Small fry. Barely worth a second glance. There is far worse the deeper into this world you search. Adam? Your sordid, horribly ill-advised attempt at a super solider? He's a prime example of how trying to control demon kind is a horrible idea."

"He's a rogue experiment. He can be contained with enough man power." McNamara brushed off.

"You think this comes to numbers? You poor, deluded fool." Tobias stood up, hair still covering his eyes. "Adam is smarter than you are. This doesn't come down to man power, this comes down to knowledge. Ability. Skill. Instincts. While science is trying to play catch up with the supernatural, he is doing the smarter thing. Adapting. Learning on the fly. Gathering followers. Growing." Tobias tilted his head, exposing a silver, unblinking eye. "You think you understand this world? You have barely scratched the surface of it. In a real fight, your men wouldn't have even caught us in the first place."

"So why did we?" He asked, not showing any signs of fear, but they could see the bead of sweat on his neck, the larger pupils, and the increase of his heart beat.

Tobias lifted his head fully, suddenly losing the aura of fear. "Honestly? Bad luck on my part. Sheer, bite me in the ass at the worst possible moment, luck. Frankly, if it wasn't for a few circumstances, I wouldn't even be here."

"Yet you had to save the damsel in distress." Black wolf rolled his eyes. "Don't you get laid enough as it is?"

"So help me, I will seal you back in my head and put a literal cork down your throat!"

"Bite me. Oh, wait, you can't."

"Jack ass."

"Enough!" The two looked innocently at McNamara. He had a vein pulsing in his neck and he looked angry again.

'Fiftybucks say he dies of a stroke in the next ten minutes.'

'I'm betting heart attack.'

"I am growing tired of your nonsense!"

"Nonsense, you say?" Tobias asked, switching back to serious. It wasn't every day he swapped back and forth between crazy and serious like this. In fact he rarely did it, unless he didn't want somebody to figure him out at all. Switching between intimidation, normal, and his own brand of crazy made specifically to unsettle and disorient a person was amazingly effective. A person couldn't talk which of the personalities was your real one or a mask, giving them glimpses that went by too fast to pick. A military background was a handicap here as they were always "on" with respect before a superior officer or addressing the troops. With the right pressure and ammunition, you could feasibly reduce a man to tears from sheer confusion as he tried to keep up. Sadly, that wasn't the ultimate goal here. He just wanted the man getting next to nothing solid on his personality, throwing any and all previous information McNamara may have about him in doubt while giving away nothing of value. "You don't get it. This world alone is filled with demons. Good and bad. Hell, I know one in Germany that tells you your future through karaoke." Ok, and maybe give him some false information to chase just for the hell of it. "Then there's taking into account magic. Scoff if you want, but the fact remains two weeks ago a spell was cast that rewrote reality as you know it and nobody noticed a fucking thing, either when it was in effect or when it broke. Then you have multiple layers of reality, alternative dimensions, parallel universes, all of it filled with things I can't keep straight, and I grew up knowing all of this existed in the first place."

"Basically, if you think you understand even a fraction of what the world of the supernatural has to offer...you are even more stupid than we thought you were, and that's not an easy task." Black Wolf picked up. "Tell us, do you notice the demons over there?" He nodded at the cells behind the man. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the demons were all as far away from the cell containing the teens as possible, eyes not even blinking as they watched every move. "They're primal, instinct driven with higher brain functions that make them sentient enough to form cultures, societies, rules. But at their core, they know one thing better above everything else. Do you know what that is?" He asked, his smirk growing.

"Enlighten me." McNamara said dryly.

"They recognize a predator. A killer. One that is better than them. You talk a big game, have a lot of fancy toys and maneuvers and training." Black Wolf listed off before waving it away. "But us, we're different. You push us to the limit, we grow."

"You put us in a situation that we aren't familiar or capable of handling, we adapt." Tobias said, stepping up to the glass as well.

"You put us in an environment designed to kill us, we thrive."

"You try to control or contain us…"

Black Wolf took a single step through the glass, the Astral body slipping through like the barrier, or himself, didn't exist. "We escape."

McNamara acted instantly, grabbing his gun and pointing at the spectral personality. "Hold it right there!"

With a snort, he thrust his hand directly through the man's chest. He tensed, face twisting in expected pain, only to transform into confusion as he looked down. There was no blood, no pain, nothing.

"You don't understand a thing, old man." Black Wolf scoffed, taking his hand out only to walk straight through the man, who shuddered and patted down his chest. "You and every other military or man of science is concerning yourself with unimportant details. Genetic profiles, tensile strength of bones and muscle fibers, immune system reactions. All utterly useless when it comes down to killing things. You think you can catalog and predict demons when the rest of the world did that hundreds of years ago as time marched on."

"And you still think you're in power." Tobias said, drawing his attention back. "Hmm. Funny, you think your security detail would've done something the second he stepped out of the cell." He noted, looking up and down the hall.

The colonel looked and saw his men were stiff, unmoving. Their bodies were moving shaking slightly and their eyes were dancing in their sockets, clearly afraid as their neck muscles flexed, trying to turn their heads.

"You think you hold the power here. You're a fool." Tobias drew attention to himself again. "You came down to...what? Interrogate me? Learn what makes me tick? The problem is that to do that, you need something worthwhile to get to them to cooperate, get inside their head." He tapped his right temple. "Not that I recommend mine. Others have tried and regretted it. But, you...have...nothing." He said slowly, stressing every word. "Not one scrap of information that will give you an edge, nothing that will give you back control. Frankly, the only reason I'm in this cell is because I want to be. And if I want… would you like to demonstrate?" He asked, looking over McNamara's shoulder at Black Wolf.

"I'm so glad you asked." He said with a evil gleam in his eye. He lifted his hand and held up three fingers. "See, the funny thing is time is the ultimate killer. Every second, something somewhere dies. A plant, animal, person, demon. They die just…" He lowered a finger, followed by the sharp snap. One of the demons in the cell across from Tobias's dropped dead, with a broken neck. "Like…" He lowered a second finger. A second snap, and a second body hitting the ground. "...Clockwork." The last finger, a third snap, and a vampire turned to dust. He smiled. "Every second of every day. Something's time runs out."

"So you see Colonel," Tobias said with faint amusement and disgust present. "You are here talking to me because I allow it. You are alive because I don't senselessly kill people like you seem to think I do. If I did, or let him run loose," He jerked his chin at Black Wolf as he walked back into the cell with a smirk. "Then there wouldn't be a single living thing on this base besides the insects and rodents." He turned around and walked to the back wall. "You have no leverage to make me jump through hoops."

The man in question felt his control of the situation had dissolved into nothing. No, he had never had control to begin with. This...thing, in human skin, had made it exceedingly clear that while it may look the part and act with morals, it had no problem killing to make it's point, to prove it had the power. However, he had one last card to play to force some answers.

"I do have one thing I found interesting about you." He said. Tobias didn't even move or give any indication he was aware McNamara had spoken. "One of the men you served with, Forest, told me of two individuals he saw you with. Gave a description. I'm sure if you don't want to talk, they can be convinced t-"

"Stop."

The word was spoken softly. It was barely more than a whisper, a soft breeze brushing by as you walked, but it was heard clearly and some deep primal part of the human mind froze along with his body. McNamara didn't, couldn't move as Tobias slowly turned around. His eyes were weapons that locked into the man's own and didn't let them go.

"I am a patient person. I am reasonable. At times I may take things too far, or miss something, or let my emotions cloud my judgement." He said calmly, walking back to the door. "But if you touch them...if you even begin to entertain the notion that getting to me through them is a good idea...I'll burn you." His eyes seemed to glow slightly as his rage was made apparent in them. "I will burn the heart out of you, and scatter the ashes with my own hands." He paused. "And if you're doubting my words, let me tell you a free bit of information. I have fought an army of monsters. Not demons. Monsters. I fought them with some of the best friends and strongest warriors I had the pleasure of knowing. But when I was faced with that army of monsters, I didn't run. I dove in headfirst. And do you know what the end result was at the end of the battle?"

Without warning, he reared back a fist and smashed it into the bullet proof glass. The entire frame shook as a spider web of cracks spread from the point of impact, along with the sharp mingled crackle of breaking glass and electrical discharge. McNamara jumped slightly at that, while Tobias pulled his fist back with red patches on his skin.

"The monsters ran away from me." He glared at McNamara while off to the side, Black Wolf was watching and looking very entertained. Finally, Tobias jerked his head. "Leave." His body reacting before his mind could catch up, McNamara instantly started to. "Actually wait. I got one last thing." The man had a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face as he looked at the teen. "I'm seriously hungry. Who do I talk to about getting something to eat?"

Instead of answering, McNamara left without a backwards glance, his two escorts following since they were released now. Tobias shrugged and looked at Black Wolf. They both walked towards each other and seemingly merged into one being again, before the teen went to the back right corner of the room. Sitting down and crossing his legs, he closed his eyes and entered his mind scape, appearing in the cloud cover/barrier that protected the insides. Once he had gotten his bearings, he promptly fell onto his back laughing so hard he cried.

"OH, OH, OH GOD, THAT WAS AMAZING!" He gasped, hugging his stomach as it hurt from his exertion. "HE LOOKED SO CONFUSED AND AFRAID!"

"And you call me the evil one." Black Wolf said, lifting out from the barrier with a feral grin on his face. "You played him like a fiddle. They're going to be terrified to let us out of the cellar fear of what we'd do. Brilliant mind game."

"Killing the demons was a nice touch to that. Coming close to us will be a test of courage for any of the overly paranoid ones."

"Well, yeah. But I mostly did it because it was fun."

Tobias sighed, having gotten out his laughter. While he had enjoyed playing the insane/unpredictable act, now he needed to get serious. He got up and tilted his head. "Right, keep an eye on things while I'm gone. I wouldn't be surprised if they try pumping in knock out gas through the feeding tube in the ceiling to subdue us."

"That sounds like something out of a bad spy movie."

"Yet still valid. See you later."

He exited his mind scape straight into his Astral body and teleported away while, to the cameras watching the cells, it looked as if he was sitting, possibly napping in the corner.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Maya let a breath out in slow whooof. "Wow. It has been a long time since Dad pulled a haunted house show."

"It worked though. McNamara is going to be terrified of him." Justin replied.

"He's not the only one. All in favor of running for the hills, say aye." Xander said, lifting his hand. Nobody else responded.

Buffy for one felt slightly shaken. That had been...horribly familiar. The way of talking, the showmanship, the belittling comments and amusement mixed with condescending behavior, lack of fear. If she didn't know any better, she'd say she had just watched Angelus in action again. The problem was mixed in were innocent breaks that Tobias had just acted normal, destroying the sense of fear and pressure before reverting back. And the sheer fury at the insinuated threat to the girl's...Angelus had never shown any care about anyone other than himself.

She glanced at the other Scooby members. Giles had a rather stony face, Willow looked a little pale for her tastes, Xander looked wildly uneasy, and Anya looked...almost impressed, but she wasn't exactly normal. She would be surprised if they were like this when they saw Tobias agai-

"BOO!" A insanely loud yell came from behind them, scaring them all so much Willow fell out of her chair with a yelp while the rest almost left the floor. The sound that followed was full bodied hysterical laughter. "Hahahahahahahahaha! Ah, ah, that was good! You all jumped a foot in the air!"

"Damn it Dad, that wasn't funny!" Maya yelled angrily.

"Oh, I beg to differ." He said, wiping away a fake tear. When he caught sight of the girl's, however, his humor was wiped away and he was instantly sweeping Kazehana into his arms to hug her. The fact that Xander happened to be in the way and it required going through him was both noted and ignored.

"Tobias, just for future reference, maybe you can avoid stepping me through me. Not good for the creepy factor." He said after parting himself down.

"Bite my incorporeal ass, Xander." He off handedly shot back, brushing a strand of hair behind Kazehana's ear. "Are you two ok?"

She smiled. "Better, now that you're awake."

"And scaring the pants off people." Yahan added. "That was...intense."

"But good, no?" He asked with a slight grin. "McNamara isn't going to touch me or let ANYBODY near me now after that show."

"That was a very polished performance. I take it you've done it before?" Giles asked, polishing his glasses and mildly irritated with the teen's previous scare.

"A handful of times. The trick to unnerving people is to make them believe you're partially insane while flexing your muscles slightly. Throw in moments of perfectly normal conversation and they have no clue if the scary or normal side is the real you, leading to confusion and paranoia, and you have on your hands the perfect recipe to make someone leave you alone for fear of what you can do to them." He said with a confident smile that, strangely, did not inspire confidence in the Scoobies.

"That was fantastically done though. Killing the demons one by one was an excellent touch, very dramatic. You'd make a fantastic vengeance demon." Anya said approvingly.

Tobias opened his mouth, then closed it. Coming from Anya, that was a genuine compliment while others might mean it as an insult. "Um...thank you Anya." He shook his head. "Anyways, glad my performance wasn't wasted on military grunts. How'd you get into their systems anyways?"

"Cheated." Maya said, holding up the sonic screwdriver.

"Clever girl." He said with a smile, getting one in return. "Have you found a way out for me and Oz?"

Maya shook her head. "We got in just in time to see the start of your little scare, but I haven't had time to look at the blueprints and find him."

Tobias hummed. "I doubt I'll be much help. I don't want to spend too much time in my Astral state since I gave McNamara the impression it could be seen, as well as I can't use it myself. Sitting still for too long might get him suspicious and they try something. I'll do what I can to make sure they focus on me though so they don't notice you poking around." He frowned and, seemingly without noticing, rubbed his right shoulder. "Also, bring some tranquilizer darts or punch me to knock me out just in case. I have no clue what a werewolf bite is going to do to me."

That made Buffy's eyes flick back to the screen, showing Tobias's real body and the gauze in the same place. She felt sorry for the teen, knowing how painful the transformation was from watching Oz go through it when they locked him in the book cage at Sunnydale High during the full moon.

"Tobias, I'm...I'm sorry." Willow said, looking horribly guilty.

"What on earth for?" He looked genuinely confused at the redhead. "You're not the one who bit me. I don't even blame Oz for it, he didn't look like he was fully in control of himself when we fought. It's just an unfortunate event that happened, nobody really at fault." She didn't look fully convinced but at least less guilty as she nodded slowly. "There you go. Guilty Willow isn't as much fun as regular or happy Willow. He said with a comforting smile. It dropped as something crossed his mind. "What time is moon rise tonight?"

Maya checked the clock. "It's 3:24 right now. My guess is somewhere between seven or eight tonight."

"Is transformation trigger by the moon rising or the sun setting?" Tobias directed this question towards Giles.

"The former."

"So we have three to four and a half hours before we know for sure if I'm now a werewolf. Fun." He grumbled.

"Normally such a thing isn't optional after being bitten." Giles said dryly.

"I have an immune system that begs to differ after everything it's been exposed to. And a lot of people that can do the seemingly impossible that owe me quite a few favors." He said with a glint in his eyes.

"Should we call Dante?" Yahan asked.

"No, let's wait until we know for sure. Otherwise we may get dragged into another misadventure."

"Yeah, that's likely. Uncle Dante doesn't do anything normal." Justin agreed.

"Well, I should go. I need to put on the show to keep their attention while you take a peek through their systems, find a way in that doesn't involve the front door." He hugged Kazehana and Yahan in a group hug. "Will you two be ok?"

"We'll be fine." The former said with a smile. Tobias narrowed his eyes, easily feeling they were not, in fact, fine. In fact he could feel they were anxious as hell with an undercurrent of worry. He would guess, with a fair amount of certainty, they wanted nothing more than to rip through the Initiative and get him back now. It was only knowing that he would warn them to take the safer path that they were holding back. His thoughts were clear to them, he could tell by the look of slight exasperation and love that spread across them.

"We WILL be fine." Yahan said firmly. "Just don't get yourself hurt until we come to get you. Sekirei's orders."

He smiled and gave a small, two finger salute. "Yes ma'am." Damn he wished he could give them a real kiss goodbye, but that was one of the few disadvantages of his spiritual form. He settled for another hug and surge of love through their link. "Be careful when you come to get me and Oz." He looked at Maya and Justin. "Same goes for you two. And all of you." He sent a pointed glare at the Scoobies. "Because if you get yourselves caught and I need to break you out, I'm going to be irked."

"Gotcha. No being caught by the secret military guys." Xander said with a completely serious nod.

"Better not." He reluctantly let go of the girl's and took a step back. "I'll see you tonight."

And he vanished without a trace.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, Adam was sitting in a subterranean cave he had found in the hills. The cave in question didn't appear on any maps, but it did connect to Sunnydale's sewer and electrical system. He stole some computer equipment from some hardware stores and tapped directly into the cities power, using it to run his equipment without being detected. The place in question was hardly luxurious, being damp and dark, a permanent cold lingering in the air, while the only furniture was the desk to hold his equipment, a desk chair, and an old sofa he used to lay on when he rested briefly to satisfy the biological demands on his still present brain matter. However, it suited his purposes perfectly and comfort was of little importance to him. He had brought Spike here hours ago and filled the vampire in on his plans.

In the end, the blonde had looked suitably impressed. "Well, that sounds like a lot of fun." He said with a full tooth grin.

"You see my problem, though. Total annihilation of the humans doesn't help me. I'll be needing heavy casualties on both sides." The cyborg replied with his normal monotone.

"I get that." Spike replied, glancing around the cave. "I'm still not sure how the Slayer fits in."

"The humans need a leader... a champion." He explained. "The Slayer can do that." Having a leader would give them a rallying point, a focus. Something he needed to get them in one place.

Spike looked at him, skeptical. "Yeah... the thing about the Slayer is... she is a whiny little thing, but when it comes to the fighting, she does have a slight tendency to win." He said with condescension.

Adam didn't react. He was aware the Slayer was a fierce fighter from listening to the intelligence some of his followers had, some of her past exploits available if not the details. He had accounted for it, and her strength during their brief fight in their first encounter. "Then I guess you should be on her side."

The vampire smiled tolerantly. "This all goes down, the chip comes out, yeah? No tricks.

Adam held up his middle three fingers on his right hand. "Scout's honor."

Spike raised both eyebrows. "You were a Boy Scout?"

Adam didn't blink as he responded. "Parts of me."

After that, the vampire left and Adam continued working on his plan. Learning layouts, planning for contingency after contingency, checking on the moral of his troops, their recruitment rates, how many had been captured. It was demonic cyborg business as normal until his computers had tossed up something of interest. A brief investigation quickly turned into his entire attention being devoted to the matter at hand. It seemed that by sheer luck the Initiative had captured Tobias Song and a then unidentified demon that turned out to be a werewolf, but it was the former that had caught his focus.

He hadn't forgotten the teen during his planning but unlike the Slayer there was much less to go. To the demon population, he had simply shown up one day and befriended the Slayer, killing them with such efficiency he had quickly grown to be as feared if not more than Buffy Summers. The reason being that while the Slayer was feared, she was well known, and their abilities easily found. Tobias, however, was a mystery and they didn't like it. Adam had attempted to find any scrap of information he could but aside from the fake past from before, he couldn't find anything. The males past became even more clouded as two, then four more people joined him and the forces of good in their fight. Aside from fragmented accounts of their powers from what few demons they didn't kill in their path and the fact that the five were a tight knit, familiar group, there was no other information on them. Or at least no digital copies. It intrigued Adam and now that the silver eyed teen had been caught, he was curious what results testing would yield.

The next few hours were enlightening for the cyborg even if there was a lack of scientific data to back it up. He was fascinated by the fact that despite being rendered unconscious, Tobias Song seemed to be able to defend himself from invasive tests. More than that, he was able to cut off any avenues of inquiry to learn anything substantial about him, such as burning his shirt to destroy skin and hair samples. His interest grew stronger when he witnessed the escape only to be locked in a containment cell. Then, at last, the meeting between Tobias and colonel McNamara.

Adam was not easily impressed, but in this instance he would be willing to admit that Tobias Song had entertained him. The act had been well done, subtly robbing McNamara of control before tightening it with an iron grip, controlling the man and making him do what he wanted with fear and showmanship while giving away harmless if frightening information. The split personality that had divided, Black Wolf, had caught his interest. Between it and the teens behavior, Adam would logically say the male was schizophrenic, but he didn't display the right symptoms, nor was it predictable like the sickness was. It was more like he was purposely acting this way, painting a picture that made no sense to McNamara for the sole purpose of scaring the man. The ending, however, was different. This, Adam could tell, was no act. McNamara making the insinuation he would hurt the people in the group Tobias was part of had crossed some unspoken line and, for a moment, the silver eyed teen had showed a true killer side. Dark, primal, predatory.

In the end, Adam did two things. Resolve to learn more about this group and wonder if, despite the fact that Buffy Summers was the apparent leader, that Tobias Song was in fact deadlier than she ever was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The teen in question killed a hour doing various things. First, apparently McNamara decided to get Tobias some food, though whether it was so he would be quiet or because he was afraid of him was up for debate. Either way, they dropped an apple from the chute overhead which Tobias had caught, hearing and seeing the fruit on its way. He held off taking a bite however until he examined every inch of the skin, looking for telltale needle marks in case they injected some kind of drug to knock him out. He didn't find any, but he slowly chewed and swallowed every bite before waiting, looking for any unusual taste or feeling of drowsiness. If he didn't, he took another bite, methodically repeating the process until he was left with a gnawed apple core. It didn't completely satisfy his hunger but it was enough. After that, he sat cross legged...on the wall, back to the ground. It was laying on a platform of air than sitting actually, and the position was slightly awkward but it was worth it just to keep them guessing. He used his Astral form to find Oz and when he did, the teen was tempted to let his limits gosh he could tear the Initiative a new skylight.

The redhead had been strapped to a metal table, a white blanket being the only thing covering his lower half while he had electrical burns on his chest, needle marks on his arms, and seemed to be very weak. Tobias didn't think it a stretch that they had used the electricity to force him to change into his werewolf form and taken blood, hair, and skin from it as well as his human form. Two men had been working on him, but Tobias had to force himself to leave seconds after arriving. He couldn't help Oz, not without endangering himself and the others, and similarly he couldn't bear to watch them torture him in the name of science.

He may or may not have gone into his mindscape and made a replica of a generic city, followed by destroying everything in sight while screaming the foulest insults and curses he knew. That took a good half hour with the rather extensive list. Black Wolf during this time had wisely not made himself a target by staying completely silent and as far away as possible. After his rant was finished, Tobias went back to the real world and killed time with meditation, floating in the center of the cell instead of the wall. He HAD debated about scratching words into his cell walls using an air blade, but decided that was a bit more crazy than he was currently willing to go. He also had none of the demons trying to talk to him after their display of his...lethal, side.

His relaxed state was disturbed when the door to the right of the containment area opened. On reflex he fired an Air Pulse without moving, only for his eyes to snap open when he saw it was Oz. Well, he assumed it was Oz, but given the fact it was human shaped and being supported by two more people as the moved down the hall, he was willing to say it was. A second later, it was confirmed as they came into view and opened the cell right across from his, dumping the teen unceremoniously into it. He also didn't have a stitch of clothing on him.

"Why isn't he clothed?" Tobias asked, only to be ignored as they sealed the cell. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Without giving any indication that he had spoken, the pair started back to the door they had come from. Tobias snarled and, lifting his left hand, flicked it to his right. At the same time, both men felt something slam into their chests and hurl them backwards, stopping on the ground in front of the cells they had just filled and ignored. "I didn't say you could leave. Why isn't Oz clothed?" He said, voice rumbling with an undercurrent snarl.

"We're not supposed to talk to you." One of the men said as they picked themselves up, not looking at him as they tried to leave.

"Tough." Tobias snapped his fingers for effect as he again used the air around the two men's limbs to freeze and make them face him. "Now, I want an answer. Why is Oz not clothed? Tell me and I'll think about letting you go on your merry way."

"We were just told to take the HST-"

"His name is Oz!" Tobias flared his killing intent enough to render a human, no matter how well trained, mute and terrified. The result was instantaneous as both men stiffened and started sweating with wide eyes. He doubted they understood what was happening and frankly didn't care. "You call him that or I will make what you face every night look like a pleasant day dream." He held his aura of fear for a second before pulling it back. "Now why isn't he clothed?"

"W-we were just told to take him straight to containment." The first man said with not nearly as much confidence he had ten seconds ago.

The silver eyed teen scowled. "He is a fucking human being! He might be a werewolf as well, but he still feels and thinks like you! And you can't even give him the dignity of a damn shirt and some pants?! You." He snapped his fingers and pointed at the second man who was released from the air grip. "Get him some clothes. When you come back, I'll let your co-worker go. Don't, and you'll see me more than vexed like I was a minute ago. I suggest you hustle too."

The man didn't even question the orders, just turned and ran while the first couldn't move. He was ignored as the teen focused on the werewolf in the cell across from him. He had made his way to the side of the cell and curled his legs to his chest, hugging them close. With a thought, Tobias made the air around him change into an opaque white to give him some privacy. Oz blinked, one hand emerging from the mini dome before meeting Tobias's eyes. A second later, he hunched his head down and looked away as his hand went back inside.

Seven minutes of uncomfortable silence later, the second man came back with a gray sweatshirt and some sweatpants. Not bothering with playing nice, Tobias ripped the ID card from his vest and the clothes with Air Hands, opening the cell and placing the clothes next to Oz. After closing it again, he shoved the card back into the man's hands and let the one he was holding prisoner go. "Now you can leave." They didn't need any more prompting and, as quickly as they could without running, left. Tobias ignored them and extended the barrier of white air to cover wall and ceiling, giving Oz the privacy he needed to get dressed. He waited roughly five minutes before slowly lowering the barrier. It took him a minute until it was low enough to spot the ginger since he was once again sitting in the same position, only now clothed. The silver eyed teen nodded before releasing his control to allow the air to return to normal transparency.

"Thanks for that." Oz said, not looking at him.

"Everybody deserves to wear something, even if it's rags." Tobias said, going back to the center of his cell and sitting on an air cushion now that the excitement was over. He didn't get an answer. Truth be told, he would be content to go back to his meditation but something was bugging him. "Why don't you like looking at me? You did the same thing back when we first met."

Oz gave a sideways glance before grimacing. "It's...unpleasant. How much do you know about werewolves?"

Tobias hummed, resting his chin on his right fist. "About as much as the next person I guess. Change with the full moon, silver vulnerability, transfer the ability through a bite." He noticed Oz wince slightly at that but ignored it. "Enhanced senses during the change, though I would wager you have them afterwards as well. At least if you have control over the transformation, which also means you can change when you choose or under stress, both emotional and physical. Otherwise the rest I know is theory and conjecture that may or may not be wrong. How right am I so far?"

"Pretty spot on." He admitted. "What you don't know is the wolf is still there, lurking beneath the surface. It's dim, hard to feel, but at times you can feel the instinct enough to know what it wants."

'Sounds more like a puppy than a wolf.'

'Shut up you.'

"But when I look at you, it's...different. Stronger, more focused. It's more a feeling than instinct."

"Fascinating. What's the feeling?"

This time Oz actually made eye contact for three seconds before his mouth twisted slightly as he looked down. "Alpha. That's the feeling I get looking at you."

'Damn right it is. About time somebody acknowledged it too.'

'I swear I will push the mute button if you keep talking while I'm trying to have a conversation with him.'

"Hhmm. That's actually kinda funny all things considered. Both because of the werewolf bite," he vaguely waved at his shoulder. "And the fact I have the title of Black Wolf."

'And a personality with the SON OF A BITCH!' He yelled as Tobias mentally hurled a bolt a of lightning at the annoying bastard. The pain and temporary paralysis were both real enough to give him pause. "What the fuck is with the kami damned lightning!?'

'I did say I will hit the mute button.'

'That is not a mute button!'

'Suck it up.'

"I'm sorry." Oz's voice broke through the mental argument and drew their attention back to the now guilty looking ginger. "I didn't mean to bite you, I just-"

"Lost control?" Tobias cut him off. "I figured as much when you were transformed." He did not want to talk about this. Not only was "Big Brother" listening in, but he was fairly pissed at Oz for attacking Tara, intentionally or not. "Forget it. Can't change the past. Honestly I'm more interested in what this is going to do to me at moon rise in… three to four hours. As are the eyes watching us I'm sure!" He called, looking at the camera, giving a mocking wave. "Hi Colonel Run Away."

"Who?" Oz said with a brief glance.

"Well, technically speaking his name is McNamara. He paid me a visit actually, tried to get in my head. Instead, we had a talk, I put the rather impressive crack in my bullet proof glass sliding door and he ran away. Gave the order I'm not to be talk to either I think based on your escorts." He said cheerfully. "And I have no respect for the man, so henceforth I'm going to call him Colonel Run Away."

Oz looked at the crack Tobias mentioned, finding it easier to focus on that so he could at least pretend to be looking at the teen while they talked. "How did you do that?"

"Punched it, and I have the mild electrical burns to prove it." He looked at his hand to see said burns were halfway gone actually. "Okay, not really but I did make Run Away jump a foot off the ground when I did it."

Oz's normally calm face frowned a little. "Anybody ever tell you you're a bit-"

"Nuts? Insane? Bat shit crazy? Energetic?"

"I'd go with eccentric." Oz replied.

"Well that's one of the kinder terms. And yeah, but let's be honest. We deal with supernatural creatures and walk around like it's perfectly natural while people who didn't would call us crazy. So eccentric depends on your point of view, as does the state of our sanity." He shrugged.

"Hhmm." He hummed thoughtfully before nodding in agreement. "How are you floating, by the way?"

"That I'm not going to tell you for two reasons. One, we have audience who can fuck off and out of my business!" He called at the camera again. "Two, quite frankly...I don't know you. I mean, I've heard of you of course, Buffy and the others have told me stories, but personally...I have no idea what makes you tick or how you think. And I don't give out this secret," He pointed at the ground he was currently not standing out. "Without knowing a person. So, please don't take offense, but you don't have the right to know this trick."

Oz didn't look offended. Actually he looked pretty understanding. "Fair enough."

The two lapsed into quiet again which the silver eyed teen was thankful for. Oz seemed nice enough, but their conversation topics were extremely limited when their captors were likely recording every word to examine more closely later. He sighed and reclined, stretching out his legs and surface of air. Might as well doze while he could. He had a feeling he was going to be bone tired tomorrow after he changed. If he changed at all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ok, we're ready to go." Maya said, pushing away from the desk and standing up, stretching her stiff muscles and twisting her upper torso.

The plan wasn't fool proof, but it was the closest they could get without pressing their luck. After spending hours of getting blueprints of the Initiative base from their servers and matching it with camera views, the Scoobies and Song family had debated about the best way to get into the structure. The front door, aka the elevator, would have been preferable and was even suggested. Buffy's clearance was long gone but Xander had suggested grabbing a guy and making them take the group down. That was quickly nixed as they pointed out that while they could do that, it was equally likely the man would raise the alarm as soon as they got down there. They didn't want a fight. Searching through the ventilation ducts was no help was the openings that lead to the outside were much too small to squeeze into, though that had brought up the debate of gassing them. It was also discarded as too impractical to get enough gas for the entire base, and they'd have gas masks. Finally though, Justin had found a solid possibility.

Between the cameras and plans, the groups found what looked like a ignored back entrance, likely leftover from when the base had been constructed under the school. Oh, the Initiative knew it was still there, but based on the direction of the tunnel, it went deep into the woods, likely a little traveled section to minimize the risk of it being found. Because of that, it was kept as an emergency exit if the base needed to be evacuated quickly and discreetly. However, because of the length and fact it was difficult to find unless you knew it was there, it wasn't as heavily surveyed as the other entrances to the base. With a place of entrance found, the rest of the plan fell quickly into place.

After they found the entrance in the woods, Giles and Anya, who would be staying behind, would use a program Maya made with instructions to shut down the power in the area surrounding Sunnydale's campus, and therefore the base. While they might have backup generators, it would knock out any alarms the door might have and let them enter undetected. Moving quickly from there, they planned to stop by McNamara's room on base. Going through footage had revealed the man had sleeping quarters on base and turned in there every night. They'd grab him and use him as leverage to make the others on base let them pass to the containment cells if they ran into any. If they didn't, and got Tobias and Oz out of the cells without any trouble, they planned to knock out McNamara and Oz before using Justin and Yahan's portals to get them off base. Anyone would think they had simply evaded notice and escaped. If they did run into someone, than they planned to use the elevator before disabling it, also taking McNamara until they reached ground level, in which case they'd again knock him out, leave, and scatter until tomorrow when everything had settled down. After that they'd figure out where to meet.

It wasn't a perfect plan by any means, not taking into account if Tobias was transformed or not, but Maya had pointed out plans rarely, close to never, went exactly as you laid out. Better to have some flexibility in it to deal with things as they came up. And maybe going as such a large group of seven people was a bad idea, but nobody dared suggest to Kazehana and Yahan they stayed behind, or the kids. Buffy had actually been in the base which would be an advantage, Xander had pseudo military knowledge of tactics and Willow...she said she just couldn't sit there and a look at her desperate face crushed and all resistance to her coming.

"I still wish we could have gotten in touch with Riley. He hasn't returned any of my calls." Buffy frowned.

"It might be better that we couldn't." Justin said, zipping up the oversized black hoodie he grabbed from their apartment. The sleeves were big enough that if he left his arms down his hands were almost swallowed by them except for the tips of his three middle fingers, and the hood completely put his face in shadow. "If the Initiative found out he knew we were coming, he'd be branded a traitor and get a dishonorable discharge, if not court martialed. This way he can truthfully say he had no idea about the rescue."

"Still wish we could've gone through the front door." Xander said.

"Yeah, well, wish we didn't have to spring our dad and Oz from the Initiative." Maya sighed, typing in some last minute changes. "Besides, what else would you want to do? Break in with explosives?"

"Or you could always use the back way."

Maya and Justin both snapped their hands at the door, zig zagging tree like constructs of shadows and white, condensed air erupting from both and ending in quarter of an inch wide spikes that halted centimeters away from the vital spots such as the eyes, jugular veins and heart. The person in question didn't even flinch as he smirked.

"Well, hello to you too." Spike said casually.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Yahan asked shortly, glaring at the blonde vampire as she and Kazehana stood next to their kids.

"Door was open. You might want to watch that Rupert. Someone dangerous could get in."

"Or formerly dangerous, currently annoying, and on the verge of becoming a life size voodoo doll." Buffy replied.

Spike smirked, looking amused and pleased. "Now, now. No need to be nasty. Or I won't help you get Red's mongrel and talk, dark, and brooding back."

"How the fuck do you know about that?" Maya demanded.

"Bad news travels fast with us demons. We like a good laugh. And finding out the newest demon slayer is off the streets is just icing on the cake." He leaned back a little to look at the spikes made of elements pointing at him. "So, the kiddies do have a few tricks up their sleeves. Thought the stories were just stories."

"Why would you want to help?" Kazehana asked flatly. "You never showed even the slightest sign of liking us."

"Or are you short on cash?" Giles asked, knowing how Spike worked when he 'helped'.

"Well, I happen to be seeking monetary gratification, yeah. But I also get

a kick out of jackin' up those army ginks myself. I know how to find the

big guy who can take you to Oz and silver eyes."

"Cute. But, we also don't need you." Maya snorted as she and Justin lowered their arms. "The back way you're talking about, entrance is in the woods behind the campus isn't it?" Spike didn't show any reaction, but that was just taken as confirmation. Nobody noticed as Kazehana and Yahan frowned and looked at their hands, then each other with a questioning look. "Frankly we already know how we're getting our friends back, so you can go. Pip pip, cheerio, good night sir, whole bit." She said with a English accent that was flawless as the end.

The vampire shrugged. "Fine. But I've been in there, know the way to the containment cells. Though if you don't want…"

Kazehana and Yahan both grunted loudly as they grabbed their respective kids. Everyone looked at the pair as their faces twisted slightly in pain.

"Are you two ok?" Buffy asked with concern.

"I-I don't know. I feel wrong." Kazehana replied.

"Like something is crawling under my skin." Yahan added.

Everyone looked confused for a second before the siblings inhaled sharply. Well, guess they had their answer about something. "Spike, you can leave now." Maya said firmly.

"Nah, I think-"

Justin snapped his fingers and the shadows behind Spike gathered, making a portal just as Maya glared at the vampire to make the air in front of him solidify and slam into his chest, sending him through the hole in space.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the alley outside the Bronze, the shadows wriggled and gathered to make a portal before a blonde vampire sped out of it and crashed into the bare brick wall on the other side.

"Guh!" He grunted as some of the bricks cracked under the impact. He landed a little uneasily on his feet and looked just in time to see the shadows dissolve back to their original form. "What the bloody hell was that all about?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Shit, shit, shit!" Justin growled as the hole he had just made closed while the two full blooded Sekirei hunched over with a whimper. "This is going to make things problematic."

"You know what's happening to them?" Giles said.

"Oh, we know alright." He growled as shadows gathered again, only this time they made two rectangular shape and lifted up from the ground on four legs, making tables as he picked up Yahan bridal style to set her down on one as she groaned and whimpered. "Maya, soundproof the room, I have a feeling this is going to get loud."

"Already did it." She said, doing the same with Kazehana, who was reacting the same. As soon as they both were laid out, shadows creeped over their arms, legs, and abdominal area to make restraints, holding them down. "Guess we also have that proof of their bonds growing stronger."

"Wait, are you saying…" Willow started to say.

"Tobias…" Kazehana managed to get out, teeth gritted and body trying to move in pain but the restraints held her in place. "It hurts…" she whimpered, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Dad's transforming and our mothers are feeling it right alongside him." Maya said, cupping her mother's face. "Mom. Mom, look at me. You need to block it out, ok? You need to block the link, right now."

"Can't...focus. Too much." Yahan got out, hands moving between fists that turned her knuckles white and tight claws.

"You can do it, both of you." Justin reassured them. "You just need to focus, ok? Focus on us."

For a second, Kazehana focused on Maya while Yahan did the same with Justin. They both relaxed slightly like it was working on helping them ignore the pain, before suddenly throwing their heads back and screaming, every muscle flexing at once.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the same time, Tobias was sitting patiently in cell, waiting. Another apple had been dropped down for dinner and he used the opportunity of the open hatch to float the core of his other one, now quite brown, up the shaft to be thrown away. Following the same methodical way of eating, he finished the apple and killed time by napping, meditating, or making shapes with his air bending. There wasn't much else to do otherwise. There was some brief excitement when they brought in two new demons to the holding cells Tobias had emptied by killing the former occupants. The guards had looked at him carefully when they passed. He responded with a bland, flat smile that for some reason seemed to unnerve them, if the slight step back they took said anything. Maybe it was the taste of killing intent he let leak out during the encounter mixed with the reputation he had no doubt spread during his time here. After that there was nothing else new happened but the lights dimming to what he guessed was the night time cycle. Enough to sleep by but also enough for the cameras to keep watch. The other demons seemed to settle down for the night, laying on the ground of their cells, but Tobias and Oz didn't. He kept waiting and sending pulses out, watching everyone on the base as they went about their routines. He watched as doors opened, closed, people walked up and down guard routes, doing what he guessed were experiments in the labs. He watched all of this and waited for signs of his changing, seeing if he into a werewolf, and watching for signs that the rescue was on the way. He sat in the middle of his cell, in a meditation position with his legs crossed and eyes closed. With his stillness and mind spread like he was, he had arguably reached a Zen state in which he was everywhere and nowhere.

As such, he noticed when someone came down the elevator from Lowell house above, but ignored them. He was more focused on where people were than who they were. One person coming down from above hardly rated anything more than brief acknowledgement. It was when he saw the person make a roundabout path through the base, going through a few rooms, followed by stopping in a storage room and stealing some clothes before making a straight line towards the containment area that his attention was drawn. He focused on the individual and his eyes snapped open when he saw the outline of their face. "Shit!" He whispered harshly. Now the universe was just fucking with him for laughs.

The door opened at the end of the hall and Riley stepped in with a shirt and sweatpants, looking around quickly before walking down the hall, looking left and right before stopping at Oz's cell, not seeing Tobias since he didn't even glance his way when he found the ginger. "Oz." He said softly, getting the redheads attention. "I'm-"

"Where you're not supposed to be." Tobias said harshly, making the blonde Initiative member spin around with a look of shock, but Tobias ignored that. "What the hell are you doing here, Riley?"

"I-I came to get Oz out." He stuttered, clearly still processing the other teen's presence. "Tobias, what are you-"

"It's a long story of bad luck, mistakes on my part and sheer circumstances being stacked against me, but that's not important. You need to leave, right now."

Riley looked like the hybrid had just slapped him and he wasn't too far from the mark. Riley hadn't been part of the team that had brought Tobias in so when he got the notice that they had caught a demon that could have possibly been the one that attacked Graham and his men plus one extra unrelated being, he had focused on the demon. He had seen the thing inside a cage in the Pit as the scientists ran genetic profiling, growling and moving around, and had known, just know, the thing inside it was a killer. He'd drawn his firearm in preparation to put a bullet in its head, only for it to change into Oz. The shift had been like a kick to the gut, going from demon he was ready to kill to a guy he had gone to class with and knew personally. After that, they knocked him out, put him a metal table and started experimenting, kicking him out when he objected. He spent the rest of the day wrestling with indecision, trying to decide what to do. It was one thing to know Oz was a werewolf, it was another to see him change from one to back, and it didn't fit his black and white mentality. Finally he decided he couldn't leave an innocent man down there and went down to get Oz out. He was not expecting to run into Tobias.

"But, I can get you both out."

"Riley, that won't happen!" Tobias whispered harshly, glancing at the security camera. "First of all, the second you open the door they're going to know Oz is loose and see you helping him! And my cell is sealed. That card reader isn't connected to anything right now, all the wires are cut." Glancing at the camera again, he thickened the air density around the device and changed it to white. "Besides, someone is already coming to get us out."

He blinked. "But, they can't-"

"Riley, I don't have the time or the right location to explain!" He snapped. "You need to leave before something ha-" The silver eyed teen paused. He felt something twist slightly inside him. Not painfully, but uncomfortable, like twisting an arm slightly more than it could go. It started in his core, between the chest and stomach region and quickly spread until every part of his body just felt wrong. "Oh crap." He muttered.

'Tobi...there's something here.' Black Wolf suddenly chimed in slowly. In their mindscape, all the lights seemed to grow a little dimmer as some unfamiliar thing moved, grew and changed, like it was waking up.

"Riley, leave now. I'm not kidding, you need to leave right now." Tobias said seriously before wincing as his sense of balance suddenly went, making him need to put a hand on the wall to stay upright. That uncomfortable feeling was itching now, like insects or snakes under his skin and was quickly growing painful. "Before someone comes along. Ugh!" He grunted, stabbing pain in his shoulder sending him to his knees.

"Tobias? What's wrong?" Riley asked, kneeling down to look at him with concern. Oz on the other hand looked resigned.

"It's happening."

"What is, what's happening?" The blonde demanded, looking between him and Tobias as he groaned in pain, holding the place he was bitten.

"You know those stories on how werewolf bites transfer the ability?" Tobias growled out. He was filling with liquid fire as it burned through his veins. His shoulder felt like it was covered in biting fire ants and the bandage over the spot he was bitten was feeling massively uncomfortable. Without a second thought, he dissolved the air shirt in that spot and ripped off the white fabric and tape, ignoring the sting as he examined the wound. The skin was turning black, tracing lines across his body and expanding like a network of ink in his blood stream before it expanded further. As he watched, fur was starting to form and lift out of the black areas. "They're not just stories. And it hurts like helllLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He trailed off in a scream, falling to the ground and arching his back as his muscles, his bones, his cells were forcibly changed and rearranged into something new. His screams instantly drew attention as men started to make their way to the containment area.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Can we do anything to help them?" Buffy demanded as Kazehana and Yahan screamed and whimpered, trying to twist and turn but only able to move their heads while the rest were pinned down.

"No. There's nothing physically wrong with them, it's all mental, feedback from what dad is feeling at the moment." Maya said, looking frustrated and angry and even a hint afraid at their inability to do anything. "Their bonds are the problem and they have to close them."

"But with the pain, it's like trying to plug a dam as it's spewing out water. The harder you push against the current the harder it pushes back." Justin looked at their parents with sadness and frustration. "The best we can hope for is they close the links on their own, dad finishes changing, or they pass out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Guh! Ugh!" Tobias forced himself not to scream anymore as the black transformation had spread. His right arm was covered in fur, his nails transformed into claws, and it was expanding like an infection across his body. The right side of his face and torso were claimed and the rest was quickly being changed. His right eye had changed to the black color Oz's had been, but the physical wasn't the only change. He could feel the instincts of a werewolf trying to take control. Instincts to hunt, kill, eat, prey, run in the forest and howl his power and glory to the moon. It was like a splitting headache and he was fighting the primal, animalistic mind with everything he had. His entire body shook violently as he laid on his stomach, hands tightened into fists as his body was changed on the cellular level. That was only what was happening on the inside of the cell. The outside wasn't as painful but no less eventful.

As expected, the screams of pain that could wake the dead had gathered some attention. The demons had gotten up long enough to figure out what was going on before deciding it had nothing to do with them and went back to trying to sleep. But Initiative grunts HAD decided it had something to do with them. Or rather, they were very interested in the fact Riley was there with a pair of clothes that he didn't need, when he wouldn't have any reason to be in this part of the base, after vocally decrying the treatment of Oz. It didn't take a Einstein to put together what had been about to happen, which was fortunate since Forest was the one in charge right now. Looking at the blonde soldier being held by two more of them with a blank look, he looked at the clothes, Oz and Tobias. "Take him to the brig. Alert the Colonel, let him decide what to do." He looked at Riley one last time. "End of the line."

As Riley was taken away, Forest looked at Tobias again. His right leg had changed and half his body was covered in black. His face had elongated in a slight snout and it was causing him immense agony resisting the change, but he could barely make any more noise as he was more focused on the internal fight. "I never liked you. You were always too unpredictable, undisciplined. You and Summers, you were never going to fit in." He turned and started to walk away.

"That...was...the...point." Tobias grunted out, making the darker skinned man stop. It was taking a truly immense amount of willpower to even talk, but Forest's little comments had made him angry. Knowing Riley was in trouble for doing the right thing made him angry. And if he was good at anything, it was channeling anger and he was using it. He was using it to talk and he was using it to fight, because he was not going to lose a mental battle with a half formed werewolf that thought it could take him over! "This...world...is...fluid." He grunted out as the blackness slowed down slightly, not covering as much ground as quickly.

"Is that supposed to mean something?"

Tobias decided to do something incredibly drastic, but he needed this damn wolf under control. "It...means...you're...stagnant." With a mental pull, Tobias drew on the full power of his Avatar Spirit. Normally this would be followed by an explosion of air from the sudden power boost, both because his control and range would be absurdly high now and for dramatics, but this time it was much more subtle. Instead of a blast of air, he used the extra power to instantly grab and subdue the werewolf instincts inside him. They were still struggling to gain dominance, but now they were pinned underneath his power. The pain also subdued enough to be manageable as in the real world, the black transformation stopped entirely and started receding quickly towards his right shoulder. He sighed in relief and got to all fours. "You're stagnant, and ridge, and closed minded."

Oz was watching with wide eyes as Tobias got to his feet. What he was seeing wasn't possible. He had searched around the world for a way to control his inner werewolf. He had found one, but it required herbs, meditation and chants to stay in control at certain times. The teen he had just met yesterday clearly had not done any of those things, yet the transformation was rapidly reversing towards where he had bitten him earlier until he looked entirely normal from his left profile. He tilted his head back and took a breath.

"You have a very set idea of what should and shouldn't be done. What crosses a line and what doesn't. And you don't like me because I'm different. Newsflash." Tobias tilted his head. The right side of his face was still black and opening his eyes showed the eye was the same color, but his left eye was glowing brightly with white-blue light. He unleashed a hint of killing intent at Forest as he snarled. "I'm flexible because the world is flexible. It changes second to second, minute to minute, day to day." He faced him fully, the curious dichotomy between the pitch black wolf eye and his Avatar Spirit eye ensnaring everyone who looked at them. "Ridge morals and rules are good in certain situations, otherwise you need to be ready to bend. To adapt. I didn't fit in here because I didn't want to fit in. Frankly, I only joined to keep an eye in your group and see what kind of damage you were doing, and low and behold, Adam got loose not long after. So, in the end, your opinion of myself cannot possibly be lower than my opinion of you." He glared at Forest. "And for the record, I didn't care much for you either, but if you had showed you were at least open to being civil with me, I would have extended the same courtesy. Since you didn't but instead proved to be a dick, I kindly request you fuck off Forest, and leave us to our relatively peaceful solitude. Now." He let out just enough killing intent that the man would decide to leave without a word.

Now that he thought about, he'd really been abusing this particular skill in the past twelve hours to get people to do what he wanted. Not that he really cared, it was just an observation. It worked anyways, as Forest gave a glare but held his tongue as he turned and walked away. After the door closed behind him, the teen grunted as he forced the rest of the werewolf transformation to pull back to his shoulder. For some reason making his body go back to its original form wasn't nearly as painful. Maybe it's because he was doing it under his own will. His body could want to return to its default state. Or it was a stroke of luck and he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Tobias." He looked at Oz, noticing easily the ginger looked uneasy and shocked. "How are you…"

He didn't finish the sentence but didn't need to. "It's about forty percent willpower, fifty percent the source of my abilities and the last ten percent is whatever good luck I still have that this is working at all." Tobias frowned and slowly drew back in his full power, only to hiss as the mental conflict between the werewolf got stronger again. His black skin started to return from the bite mark. 'I could use a little help here.'

'I don't think it likes me. In fact, I get the distinct impression it hates me.' Black Wolf noted.

'It's a smart werewolf than. Now help me keep this damn thing under control.'

'Fine. I don't like the mutt being on my territory anyways.' The psychotic personality said distastefully before adding his own mental strength to the mix, relieving the stress on Tobias. Curious of what it looked like, he briefly entered his mindscape.

He found himself standing near the center of it again, the boulder holding/shielding his Avatar Spirit nearby. Next to it was his copy, standing in front of a cage made of a black material that seemed...dense, somehow. Inside was a mass of roiling black mist that couldn't pass between the gap in the bars, despite pressing at the walls. It also seemed to have no door. He thought he saw the glimpse of coal black eyes in the cloud that looked at him before disappearing back into the cloud. It slammed on the bars, making them rattle and Tobias feel a flare of pain but both quickly settled down.

"Isn't that zero dwarf star alloy?" Tobias asked as stopped next to his evil half.

"Densest material in our universe. Seemed appropriate to put the dog in a kennel that he can't get out of. Don't need him tearing up the place and shitting everywhere."

"Now I remember why animals don't like you." After a second, the silver eyed hybrid snapped his fingers, making the cage ripple and vanish. It wasn't gone. He could still feel the wolf lurking, trying to break out, but he didn't want to have to look at it. As the saying went, out of sight, out of mind.

"I don't like them." He said with a scowl.

"Good for you. Keep an eye on it."

Exiting his mindscape, Tobias opened his eyes. Oz had barely moved, which made sense. Time moved much faster in his mental landscape if he wanted it to, as fast as the speed of thought. The two minutes he just spent there was mean seconds here. He slowly powered down, bit by bit, until finally the light from his eyes wasn't bouncing off the glass wall anymore. He groaned as he rolled his neck and limbs. The transformation to half human and back left them stiff.

"What was that?" Oz asked.

Tobias grunted and sat on an air cushion in the middle of his cell. "Something unique entirely to me. A few others, but primarily me." He said vaguely. Another stab of pain came from his shoulder and the black came back before vanishing. "It's just a patch though." He added as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Can you teach it to others?" Oz asked intensely,

Tobias shook his head. "I'm sorry Oz, but this isn't something you can teach. It's something I was born with." The two lapsed into silence, neither one willing or wanting to talk anymore

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Buffy was familiar with time passing slowly. She had been anxious plenty of times, normally before a big battle or apocalypse. Pent up energy crackling under her skin that left her jumpy and restless, but unable to do anything as they waited. This was worse.

Kazehana and Yahan weren't screaming anymore, but they were still twisting and whimpering in pain. Maya and Justin were holding their parents hands, and based on the occasional grimace, the grip was painfully tight, but they never once said anything or pulled away. The others were awkwardly standing or sitting, not sure what they could do. This had been going for nearly seven minutes now.

"The transformation doesn't take this long." Willow said heavily, looking at them with sad eyes.

"Dad's likely fighting it. He's not the kind of guy who takes this kind of thing laying down." Maya said. She sounded normal, but there was something off in her voice. A weight of experience and age that didn't belong in someone who looked so young.

"That would take extraordinary willpower to fight it for this long." Giles noted.

"At our point in his timeline, Dad has fought gods, monsters, mind control abilities, possessing spirits, universal forces and powers wielded by mortal beings. If anybody has willpower and a drive to win, it's our Father and family." Justin responded. "A werewolf isn't going to push him around without one hell of a fight."

Like he had just flipped a switch, both full blooded Sekirei went limp, panting heavily as they lay on the shadow tables. "Oh, that sucked." Yahan croaked.

"A lot." Kazehana groaned in agreement. "You can let us up now." She said, looking at Justin. The restraints retreated and let them both sit up as Maya and Justin helped. "Oh, I have a headache from Hell itself." She said, holding her head. The hangovers she got when she used to drink too much had nothing on this.

"I hear that." Yahan said, rubbing her temples.

"So he's done? Or he's alright?" Xander asked.

"We can't tell." Kazehana said, gingerly getting to her feet. "Tobias blocked us off now. I'm not even sure he knows he's doing it. Before he did he was angry. But," she frowned. "The pain, it lessened before he did." She wasn't sure what it meant, but she held out hope it had been a sign of things getting better. She took a few experimental steps. Other than some soreness and a little fatigue, she felt she could walk without help.

"Let's go get him and Oz back." Yahan said after she did the same, as well as rolling his neck.

"Ok, I'm all for storming the castle, but are you even ok to walk?" Xander asked. "That looked...bad." He finished lamely, not sure what else to say.

"Not to mention that if the Initiative noticed Tobias's condition, they may be more alert than we planned to be." Giles pointed out.

"We are not staying here." Kazehana said firmly. Her muscles might ache and her head was pounding, but this was as set in stone as the fact the Earth moved around the Sun, that time moved forwards, that the multiverse existed. "We are getting Tobias back tonight, and we are going with." Yahan nodded, looking just as determined and unyielding.

"Besides which, we're just following the rules." Maya stated in an off handed manner.

"Though I didn't expect us to arrive at three so damn fast." Justin grunted.

"What rules?" Buffy asked, blinking in confusion.

"Someone Dad knows had four rules when it came to robberies and break-ins." Maya explained. "Rule one. Make the plan."

"Rule two. Follow the plan." Justin continued.

"Rule three. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Though like Justin said, we didn't think it'd go off the rails that fast. Regardless, basic principle is the same. Get in through the tunnel, find Dad and Oz, get out."

"Uh, question." Anya said, raising her hand. "You said four rules. What's the last one?"

"Oh, that's easy. Last rule is throw away the plan." Justin replied.

In another universe, a thief whose weapon of choice was a cold gun sneezed while he and a scarlet speedster were planning to steal alien technology from a government building.

"So." Maya clapped her hands together. "Let's go get our friends back."