Part 5: Not What You Think
Chen was entering the information that Lang had given him into the computer when they wheeled him into lab. The creature was out cold, but the doctor still felt a little apprehensive about approaching the vampire. After all, how could one ever really tell when they were out? They didn't breath and one couldn't check the heart rate. They had to simply rely on visual conformation, and that was it.
With a sigh, he finished what he was typing and closed the lap top. Then, he approached the vampire with the two guards.
"How long has he been out?" Chen asked as he began to look over the creature.
"About an hour," the guard said. "Hasn't moved or anything."
"Good," Chen said as he began to look him over. The little man frowned as he said, "Why did you leave the jacket on when you strapped him down? I can't examine him while it's on."
"No one said anything about taking it off, Sir," the other guard protested.
The young doctor rolled his eyes as he stated, "You guy really are a bunch of idiots. Come on, help he out here."
He reached down and undid one of the restraints, and then reached across the body for the other one. When it came undone, Chen felt something wrap around the top of his shirt.
"Hand's off the jacket, mate," a voice said to him before pushing him away.
The man crashed against the lab table, and watched in horror as his suspicions about the creature not truly being out came to life. The two guards fumbled to stop him, but the vampire moved to fast for them. He was off the gurney in less than a second, and then pushed it into the two of them. It knocked both of them to the ground, but the creature grabbed his head in pain as the chip went off in his mind for causing the living harm.
The guards got their feet and were coming after the vampire when a white foam hit them. They yelped in surprise as Chen turned to see Ms Summers standing there hosing them down with a fire extinguisher.
When it stopped, the vampire turned to her and stared in surprise.
"Hello, Cutie," she smiled.
*****
Buffy had been staking out Lang all day, watching everything she did and what she ordered others to do. Earlier that day, she had seen the woman give Chen some orders. Though she didn't know what they were, Buffy had decided that she should investigate.
Things had been pretty quiet for most of the night, and the slayer had almost given up, when she heard something being wheeled to the lab that Chen had been working in. It took less then a second to recognize the creature that was sprawled out on the bed. Just the guy she was looking for.
If she knew him, he was playing possum. Chen and the guards were going to get a nasty little surprise when they tried to do something. Carefully and quietly, she moved down the hall to the lab door and peeked inside.
The doctor was complaining about them not taking off Spike's coat and was now trying to correct the problem. Yeah, big nasty surprise, she thought as her eyes scanned down the hall. But, knowing Spike, he probably was just going to try and get away forgetting about the chip in his head. Her hazel eyes came to rest on what she was looking for, and she pulled the red tube off the wall.
"Hand's off the jacket, mate," she heard Spike say.
Buffy came in the lab just as Spike was clutching his head in pain and the guards were coming after the disobedient prisoner. She pulled the pin and let the white foam wash over the two guards. When it ran out, Spike turned to see who had helped him, and Buffy almost burst into laughter from the look of shock he gave her. Suddenly, she could resist.
"Hello, Cutie," she told him.
The guards had regained their bearings by now and split up, one going after each. Buffy took a step back as the guard came after her with a raised fist.
"NO!" Chen yelled. "Don't hurt her!"
The man hesitated, and that was all she needed. Grabbing hold of the top of the fire extinguisher with both hands, she swung it around and knocked the man across the face. He stumbled to the side, and then fell to the ground unconscious.
"Didn't say I couldn't hurt you," she said to the body.
The other guard had pushed Spike against the wall with blonde facing her. He looked at her for help, and Buffy walked over towards them. The vampire pushed the man as hard as he could which caused him to stumble backwards. Buffy swung the red tube against, knocking him in the back of the head. His body flipped forward, and he landed on the ground in night-night land just like his buddy.
"Do you always have to bring the worst out in people?" she asked him as she let the weapon fall to the ground.
"What can I say, Slayer? It's a gift."
Buffy caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and saw Chen making a break for it. She shot out after him and caught him by the arm before he got too far. Twisting it behind his back, she then slammed his face down onto the lab table that Spike had through him against.
"Speaking of gifts," Spike said eyeing the man as if he were a nice, plump Christmas turkey.
"Down boy," she said to him as she held the doctor. "We can't kill him...yet."
"You can't mean that, Ms Summers!" Chen exclaimed, the fear bleeding though his every word.
Spike bent down to were he was looking the man face to face.
"You obviously haven't dealt with the Slayer very often, so I'm going to tell you this. With that look on her face, she most defiantly means what she says. Now, the last time I saw that look, she sent her poof boyfriend to hell. I don't think she would have any problem sending you there."
The man cringed under her grip and Spike looked up and smiled at her.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"A way off the island," she said flatly.
"That's easier said then done," he told her.
"Then make it easier," she bit back as she pulled up on his arm slightly.
He grunted in pain as he began to think. Spike smirked his approval of her method, but she chose to ignore it.
"Okay, okay," Chen said. "The dock on the south side of the island has a boat that is suppose to be used in emergences. But you'll never make it there. The others will pick you up before you even get out the building."
Buffy frowned. She knew he was right. What they needed was a distraction.
Spike, seeming to read her thoughts, began to look around the lab. He jimmied open one of the cabinets, and found it full of chemicals. He picked up one of the bottles and then turned to Chen.
"Is this stuff flammable?"
"Yes, but-"
Spike opened the bottle and began to pour it on the lab tables and everything else. Buffy looked around for a moment, knowing that she had to get the two guards out of there before they became bad guy flambé. She spotted what she could use, and let Chen's arm go.
"Stay," she said as if she were commanding a dog.
He coward away from her, as she bent down and picked up one of the guards and placed him on the gurney they had used to bring Spike in on. She then put the other up on top of him and strapped them down. The little blonde pushed the bed out into the hall, then shoved it with all her might down the hall to safety. When she returned, she grabbed Chen's wrist and waited for Spike to finish.
He had thoroughly soaked the lab in the chemicals, and grabbed one of the lighters out of the cabniets when he felt he was finished.
"Ready to blow this place, Love?"
"Light her up, Sparky," she told him heading out the door.
"Right," he said before she disappeared out the door.
Buffy got to the end of the hall with the doctor and waited for a moment. A second later she saw a red glow coming from the lab, and then Spike running towards them. He was yelling at her to go, and the two started to run with him right behind. They had no more then turned the corner when a large explosion rang through the hall followed by thick black smoke. A bell began to scream as the sprinklers went off and soaked the trio.
There was mass confusion as doctors and nurses ran about the place trying to figure out what was going on. None of them had timed to worry about the Slayer and strange blonde hair man that were fleeing from the scene with Chen.
When they had made it out and were heading to the beach when another explosion rang out from the building. Buffy stopped for a moment and looked back at the place they had just been. Must of been another chemical cabinet was the only thing she could assume.
"Come on, Slayer!" Spike yelled as he pulled on her arm slightly to make her come.
She began to run after him, dragging the doctor along with them.
"You know you won't get that far even if you do make it to land," Chen said as they dragged him along the moon light beach. "We'll have people looking for you everywhere."
"Sounds like a challenge to me," Spike said. "And I love a challenge."
"And you know what she'll do to you when she catches you, Ms Summers?" he went on. "She'll keep you so drugged up that you won't know night from day and you won't ever see that baby."
"Baby?" she heard Spike say.
"Shut up," the blonde bit at the doctor.
"Yeah, Lang will fix it to where you won't even know you're pregnant," he went on. "And the kid, hum. If they let it live long enough to understand what's going on, she'll tell it that its mother was a whore who got herself knocked up and didn't even care enough about the child to get off the drugs that she was hooked to."
Buffy stopped and spun around to where he was facing her. Then, she slugged him as hard as she could. The man hammered into the sand, as she continued on down the beach.
"Hold up, pet," Spike said making her stop again.
He reached into the mans pocket and pulled out a wallet. The vampire held it in front of him for a moment to show her what he had retrieved, then said, "Might need this."
"Whatever," she said moving on.
He jogged up to her side, then asked, "What's this about you being pregnant?"
Buffy bit the bottom of her lip. She could tell him it's Riley's, and why would he ever doubt that? Vampire's aren't suppose to be able to have children, after all. She would have never thought that it was his expect for the fact she was positive that she wasn't pregnant when she got there, and she was after that one night they were together. Something else that she was sure that Lang had something to do with because that would have never naturally occurred in a million years. Magic of some sort had to be involved, she thought.
She opened her mouth to lie to him about it being Riley's but found herself saying, "Later. Right now we have to get out of here."
"Couldn't agree more," he said as he walked up on the dock with her close behind.
They walked down to where they housed the boats, and found a guard sitting at main way. He moved to stop them, but Spike simply pushed him and the man fell into the water. When he came to the surface, he was yelling at them to stop, but neither one of them cared.
Buffy grabbed the keys and a map off the desk at the man station and followed Spike to the boat that was gassed up and ready to go at the end of the dock.
Well, apparently Lang was wrong. Sometimes people do get off of the island without her knowledge, she thought to herself as the two sped away into the ocean night.
*****
Xander walked into the Magic Box in a numb daze. They were gone. His two best friends in the whole world were gone.
They were both so much stronger then him, how could he be the only one left? That was the question of the day.
Buffy had been the slayer, the Chosen One. They knew from the start that she didn't have a whole life to look forward to like them, but they always thought she would be different. She would be the slayer that would eventually just died of old age, in bed, in Palm Beach, surrounded by chubby, happy grandchildren. She was going to be the slayer that would become a ledge among believers and none. But, she had fooled them. She, as it seems, turned out to be just another slayer who finally got into a battle she couldn't win.
Then there was Willow. She could have just walked away from all this just like him a million times or more, but chose to stay because it was the right thing to do. Even after Buffy's death they could have left, but didn't because they couldn't let this Glory woman win.
They didn't know what she was, or what this key that she was looking for was either, but they just knew they couldn't let her get it. If it had been important enough to where only Buffy knew about it, they it must do something really bad. So, she had stayed, fought, and now she was gone to the shadow world, whatever that is.
When they called Giles with the news in England, he had been as devastated as Xander could ever be. The man had tried to explain it to him, but the young man just didn't understand what a place between heaven and hell was. Was it purgatory? Was it bad? It had to be if they sent Glory there, but he just didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore.
Joyce was coming down for the service that Anya suggested they give for the witch. The two might not have gotten along very well, or any, but she knew how much she meant to Xander, and she loved him. It would do him good to see Buffy's mom and kid sister again. They had been gone for over four months now, and he did miss them. They were the closest thing that he had to her now, and, with Willow being gone, he would really need them.
Anya went around the counter, opened the cash register, and began to count the money inside.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he walked over to her.
"Counting," she said flipping through the bills. "Money makes it better."
Xander smiled slightly. That was the closet the woman had come to actually saying that she missed Willow or felt bad for what happened to her.
He watched her for a long while as she counted. He hadn't known Anya as long as Will or Buffy. In fact, the only reason he had meet her in the first place was because she had come to take vengeance out against him. Many people wouldn't think this would the basis for a good relationship, and, at first, he had whole heartedly agreed.
What he and Anya were supposed to have was nothing but a physical relationship with no emotional attachments. So why did he feel like if something happened to her, he would absolutely die?
Somewhere along the way, though he didn't know when or how, he had fallen in love with the ex demon. She was honest, happy, a bit clueless at times, not to mention selfish, but she tried. And he loved her more then anything.
"Marry me," he heard himself blurt out.
The young woman stopped what she was doing and looked up at the man that was leaning on the counter.
"What?"
For a moment, Xander panicked.
What had made him just say that?! Why would he just say that? After loosing Willow just a few days ago, he's here asking Anya to marry him? How tacky is that?
"I shouldn't have asked like this," he said ducking his head away. "I'm-I'm sorry."
"Did you mean it? Or do you just happy sex?" she asked ignoring his last statement.
He thought about it for a moment.
Did he really mean it? Did he really want to spend the rest of his life with this woman? Did he want her to have his children? Did he want to fight with her about what college they would go to? Did he want share grandchildren with her? Did he want go bold and fat with her? The question all echoed the same answer.
"Yeah, I meant it," he said lowly. "I want to marry you."
A large smile crossed her face.
"Then yes. I will marry you."
*****
Lang moved through the charred remains of the lab, cursing to herself under her breath. She had given Chen one simple assignment to examine the vampire, and this is what happens. How could he have been so stupid? She was going to kill him when they found him.
The cell-phone at her side rang, and the woman swallowed hard. That would be her boss, and he would be furious at this new development. Slowly, she reached down and answered the little black phone.
"Lang."
"Dr. Lang," a man said in a very proper tone. "I just received the most interesting fax that you can perhaps shed some light on."
The doctor panicked for a moment. She had heard about the things he had done to people who had failed him before.
"Sir-"
"Quiet," he bit at her. "Now, could you please tell me how you could aloud the two most important prisoners I've ever allowed you to have to escape off a supposal inescapable island?"
Lang bit the bottom of her lip.
"I assigned Chen to examine the vampire and-"
"You weren't with him? Did I not tell you to always be there when dealing with either the Slayer or the vampire?"
"Yes, Sir. I just became to confident I suppose."
"Go on," he said evenly.
"He wasn't out, and was making his own escape attempt when Ms Summers came in and began to help him. They took out two guards, and disappeared with Chen after setting fire to his lab."
The phone was silent for a moment. Lang could just see him sitting there, deciding what her punishment should be.
"When Dr Chen is found, I want him taken care of, is that understood," he finally said.
"Yes, Sir."
"I will send our men out to locate the two missing persons. They shouldn't have gotten that far. Consider your self fortunate, Dr. But the next time you mess something like this up so bad, the Council will be forced to use more drastic measures."
"I understand, Sir," she said once more before she hung up the phone on her boss, Quinton Travers.
*****