Chapter 12 – Friday/Early Saturday, Alternate Reality
It was late, some time after midnight, when the doctor returned and gave Buffy another injection. After that she slept. While she slept, a yellowish gas emerged from the light fitting above her bed. Half an hour later, she was wakened by a visitor. He was tall and slim, with greying dark hair and brown eyes. He was the sort of man you know immediately has a military background. As she lay, still strapped to her bed, he pulled her head off the pillow and snapped a metal collar round her neck.
"In a moment, Miss Summers," he said, "I'm going to release you from your restraints. But first, a little demonstration is in order."
Having said that, he took a small version of the collar she now wore and threw it towards the open door. There was an instant sizzling sound, and the collar fell just inside the doorway. "The collar will not allow you to leave this room. If you attempt to leave, you will find the attempt extremely painful. I'm not sure how many attempts you could survive, the current record is three, I believe."
Having said that, he unstrapped her wrists and ankles, freeing her from the bed. As soon as her limbs were freed, she pounced on him, kicking with every ounce of strength. At least that was the plan. What actually happened was that he caught her wrists in his hands and pushed her back onto the bed roughly. He pointed to a doorway in the corner of the room saying, "There are toilet facilities in there. Someone will bring you breakfast shortly, and afterwards someone will bring you some clean clothes. Mr. Finn has expressed a specific interest in you, and so you will be kept comfortable. He asked me to express his regret at not completing his business with you, but he has been called away."
Buffy couldn't understand what had happened. She'd never met a human who could resist an attack like that – not even Riley when he was all super-pumped by the concoction the Initiative had been giving him – the so-called 'vitamin supplements'. Then she realised. It wasn't him, it was her. Somehow, they'd taken her Slayer strength. And there was only one way she knew that could be done. The Council of Watchers had something that could do it. She'd been dosed with it so they could assess her when she was eighteen.
She spent futile minutes pulling at the collar round her neck. She couldn't even feel a join in the apparently perfect circle.
The morning was no better for Spike. He had slept badly. He never slept well during the night, but he had been keeping human hours lately, so it shouldn't have been a problem. All night long, he had pictured the Slayer, worrying about what Riley was doing with her. He didn't know what he feared most. He was afraid that this Riley was just the same as the one he was familiar with, and that Buffy would decide to be with him. Logically, the other possibility was worse, he knew that. If what he had heard of the Riley of this reality was true, he was bitter and single-minded. The others in the Resistance certainly believed him capable of hurting Buffy. Still, the positive feature of a night spent alternately tossing and turning and then pacing the cavern which seemed to be his quarters, was that he had done some serious thinking. And although he had no answers, he had some questions.
In the morning he was able to find his own way to the meeting room. When he got there, there was no sign of Oz. He did see Jenny – for the first time since he had put his foot in it' with her. Still, Buffy's safety was at stake, so he approached her as she looked at a computer screen where someone was showing her something. He must have approached quietly, because when she turned around and saw him, she jumped. In many ways, it did Spike's demon good to see that some humans still found him an object of fear. On the other hand, frightening the woman wouldn't get him any answers.
"Sorry, pet, didn't mean to startle you." His tone was as conciliatory as possible after a night of frantic worry.
Realising his mood, she relaxed slightly and answered in kind. "I'm fine, don't worry. No more news on Buffy, I'm afraid. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything." This vampire was an enigma to Jenny. She had been told her history. She knew that she had lost a friend in the early days of the Initiative, and that the friend had been a vampire. He was one of a kind, because he had had a soul. She couldn't remember him. Sometimes the knowledge of her past, which had been returned to her by well-meaning friends, was a millstone around her neck. It would almost have been better to have considered herself born the day she was rescued. She knew vampires were normally predators. To them, the human race was just a food supply. Yet she had had one as a friend, and here was another. This one was unsouled, yet he obviously cared about this young woman. His care for her was etched on every muscle in his face. She tried to turn away from him. She had seen too much loss, and didn't want to see his too, but he put out an arm to stop her.
"Thing is, I want to help. But, what's stopping me helping is those electronic gizmos the Initiative uses to sniff out demons. How do they work? Can I do anything to get around them? I can't just hang around here, training your demons to fight. I've got to do something."
She had bristled when he touched her, his hand cold on her arm. She softened a little, but didn't have any hope to offer him. "Sorry, we don't know how they work. We got hold of one, but we couldn't work out what it measures. We just don't have anyone with that sort of expertise."
Spike smiled. "You might just have, at that. No, not me," he quickly proffered, seeing the look on her face. "Remember Buffy's friend Willow?"
"The hacker?" she asked, confused.
"The same. Also good with electronics and I've even seen her whipping up a storm in a chemistry lab. I'll bet she could help."
Jenny looked thoughtful. She was reluctant to involve others in the Resistance. Security was a major problem as it was. "I'll talk to Oz," she replied. "See what he thinks."
Realising that was the best he was going to get, Spike said nothing else. He could always corner Oz later anyway. He headed off to his cavern for some blood. Looking at his rapidly dwindling supply, he realised he was going to have to do something soon anyway. "Still," he thought to himself, "at least the temperature in here is low enough it should last for a few days."
Willow had been worried since she had passed her information to the Resistance. She was worried for her own safety, but she was also worried about what was going on in her town. She'd had an idea during the night, and approached someone after class next day. Jack was a bit of an oddity. He was clever – but always seemed remote. She'd heard that he had an unusual after-school job – at the local hospital. He cleaned in the mortuary. It was one of the main reasons other students avoided him. Willow tried to get him chatting by using the method that always seemed to work. She asked for help on some chemistry. Willow didn't really need help, but it seemed a good place to start. Once they started to talk, Jack actually seemed quite friendly. She had told Xander what she was planning and he was sitting on the other side of the room sulking. He didn't want her involved with any of this, and he certainly didn't want her chatting up someone else. The conversation moved from Chemistry to his job. Willow expressed an interest she didn't really feel in seeing round the place. To her delight, Jack offered to sneak her in later that afternoon. They agreed she would come to the hospital half an hour after his shift started – at 5 o'clock.
Spike's training session was cut short that afternoon. He had broken a few bones – not his own. He was like a coiled spring. His demon was raging to be let loose on whatever was threatening Buffy. He returned to the meeting room and paced around there. At least he was on the spot if some news came in.
Riley had had a mixed day. They had wiped out a few remaining pockets of demons in Sunnydale. He was frustrated, because there weren't many of them and they hadn't put up much of a fight. They also didn't have any information on Spike. He was quite sure of that. They'd all have told him anything before they died. His methods of interrogation had improved immensely of late. "Maybe," he realised, "I need to reconsider. If I can't find Spike but he's around somewhere, he must have hooked up with the resistance. And if he has, Buffy must know something. Unless she's already learned her lesson and left him. But no, she'd never have compared me unfavourably with him if they weren't still together." That memory still rankled with him. The unfairness of it made his blood boil.
Still, he thought, there were still a few hours of light left, and what he had in mind for the Slayer was more appropriate for the night. He widened the search area to include further outside Sunnydale and hoped they would find something.
It was six-thirty when the call came in. Spike's sensitive hearing allowed him to home into the call immediately. He rushed to the person taking the call just in time to see them end it. "Who wanted to speak to Buffy?" he growled, his aggression only barely under control
"I..it was someone called Willow. I have to get Oz – it might be important."
As soon as the small demon had gone to find Oz, Spike picked up the phone and did a last number redial. It failed. He was about to lose control completely, when Oz appeared, smiling that little smile of his and taking the phone from the vampire's hand.
"Spike, I'll talk to her. I've been trying to get her all day anyway."
When she answered, she wanted to speak to Buffy. Again she was told that Buffy was unavailable. "It's just, I've done some more research. I checked the morgue numbers of some of the supposed demon kills. Then I got a friend to let me in to have a look. Thing is, all the bodies I looked at – they weren't demon kills – not unless demons have started opening people up and then stitching them back together again. I'm not an expert at anatomy, but my guess is they've been used for organ transplants – the stitch lines suggest heart, lungs and kidneys are gone."
Oz had been silent throughout. He had known Willow slightly at school even though she had been a year younger. Now he was silent in admiration. She had found the key to the whole operation – she must be right. Breaking the silence, he said, "Willow, I really appreciate this. Your information is very important. But, there is one other thing you may be able to help with. I have a piece of electronic equipment. It's supposed to sniff out demons, but we need to know how it works. Can you help?"
Willow was obviously nervous. "I..I might. Where is it?"
"Can I come and bring it to you? I'll need to know where you live."
"Y..yes," she replied, "I'll tell you. But, I'd rather Buffy came. Can you send her please?"
"Sorry, I can't. You see, Buffy was taken by the Initiative. I'm sorry,"
An hour later, Oz pulled up outside the University dormitory where Willow lived. When she came down, she took him to a lab, which she had permission to use out of hours. She worked feverishly, connecting various parts of the device's circuit board to a variety of output devices. After two hours, she had her answer. "When they say it sniffs them out, they're right. Looking at what's been set up, it collects a complex organic molecule. There's still some in the collector. I can do a chemical analysis, but from its complexity, I'd guess you're looking at some sort of pheromone. I'll get the ok to use the chemistry lab tomorrow and find out."
Oz was pleased, but knew tomorrow might not be soon enough. He had already heard that the main sniffer vans' were getting close to the caves. He hoped that the rock surrounding their hideout would mask the scent, but he couldn't be sure. "Can't you do something tonight? I'm afraid tomorrow would be too late."
"I..I suppose," Willow stuttered uncertainly.
Following Willow's instructions, Oz broke into the Chemistry building. She made for a lab and started to work. Oz helped when he could, but the science was above his head. He watched in amazement as Willow performed procedure after procedure. By about 4am, she had some news.
"I've done what I can. A full analysis of this would take weeks. But I know which chemical groups trigger the detector. If we can find something with the same groups, something harmless, we could maybe fool the detectors. We can't hide the true signal. Pheromones are always present – there's no way to get rid of them completely. What we might be able to do, is give them so many false positives, that they lose faith in the detectors. How does that sound?"
Oz smiled at the red-haired woman in front of him. She was absolutely amazing. He didn't know how he'd gone through High School without really getting to know her.
"That sounds ideal – but is there something we can use?
"Let me see," she said, heading for the bookshelf in the corner.
Two hours of intensive research later, she had found three chemicals which fit the bill in terms of their interaction with the detector. One she ruled out because if was considered carcinogenic. The second was ruled out because it was really hard to synthesise, and would cost a fortune to buy. On the third, she hit jackpot. It was harmless, and it was a standard laboratory reagent. There would be gallons of the stuff in the chemical store, and parts per million in the atmosphere would be enough to trigger the detector. With one last spot of breaking and entering, Willow and Oz left the building and loaded their booty into Oz's van.