Some time later…

Ow…pain in the head…ow!… make that shooting pain in the head, Buffy thought as she groped her way to full consciousness. Her next thought was: ahhh! Or it would have been if she had been able to think that articulately.

Buffy thrashed around in her watery surroundings. Her gaze wildly shot up, down, around, eyes wide and frightened. She tried screaming but something was in her mouth, so her cries came out garbled and muffled by the water. Her heart raced, threatening to beat itself right out of her chest. She felt herself begin to gag and run out of air. Her vision began to turn black.

From deep inside, she heard – no… felt – the crisp, cool voice of Giles, telling her to calm down, focus on her surroundings, evaluate the situation. She would be okay, if she would just calm herself.

She concentrated on the act of breathing. Then she realized that she could breath because she had a mouthpiece in her mouth, similar to the kind you use in scuba diving. Here was her source of oxygen. So, she hadn't been tossed, unconscious, into some body of water to drown. No, Buffy said to herself, as she gathered a clearer picture of her predicament, something a lot less pleasant than that.

She was completely encased in a cylindrical glass tank filled with what seemed to be some kind of watery substance. The top of the tank was shut tight with large bolts. Her clothes had been removed and she was in a wetsuit, although it wasn't as thick as a normal wetsuit. Man, whoever had stripped her naked was going to have to suffer the pain big-time. Fortunately, for escape purposes, she wasn't restrained in any way, so she had the use of her arms and legs.

The best way to get out of this thing would be to somehow break the glass. Obviously. But beating her fists against it probably wasn't the most effective approach. Unless…

She realized that the mouthpiece left a faint metallic tang in her mouth, so she took a deep breath, removed the mouthpiece, and inspected it. Ah. The base of it, below the rubbery part that went in her mouth, looked like it was made of metal. Metal, you see, was hard. Metal she could use. Taking another breath from the mouthpiece, she got a firm grip on it and starting banging on the glass walls of the tank with mouthpiece. After a time, she heard a small, satisfying chink as the metal chipped away at the glass. She gave it another good whomp.

Chink!

Now she could just make out a small stream of liquid escaping from the pinprick hole she had made. After another hit from the mouthpiece, a crack began to form. Now, to put that Slayer strength to good use. Sticking the mouthpiece back in her mouth, Buffy moved back as far as she could, then brought up her right leg. She kicked at the glass, using her heel. Yes! The crack got bigger. She kicked again… and again… and…

The glass shattered.

Glass shards spilled out onto the floor, along with a large gush of liquid from her tank. No longer buoyed by the liquid, Buffy dropped to the floor of the tank.

Oh. Ow. Ow!

Now that she was free from her watery torture chamber, she could concentrate more fully on her pained head. All the banging and sharp movements didn't seem to have helped. At least the bottom of her foot wasn't cut from the glass. Pure luck, that.

Buffy slowly got up, then gingerly stepped down onto a relatively glass-free section of the floor. She was in a large room, with a long row of water tanks just like the one she had been in. The tanks were lit from inside, as hers must've been though she hadn't realized it at the time. The room was dark so the light from the tanks cast a faint, greenish glow on the walls. The last tank in the row contained a floating form—

Oh, God! Leon!

She ran over to Leon's tank. He was still unconscious. Quickly looking around the room, she spied a fire extinguisher secured to the wall. Racing over to it, she wrenched it off the wall and ran back to the tank.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The fire extinguisher worked a lot quicker than her mouthpiece had. Within a minute, the glass shattered, releasing the liquid from the tank, and leaving Leon on the floor in a heap. He still hadn't come-to.

Buffy knelt beside him. Removed the mouthpiece from his mouth. Gave his cheek a couple of quick slaps. "Leon, c'mon. Gotta wake up, Leon. Leon! Leon!"

Leon's eyelids fluttered.

"…Hunh…?"

"That's it, Leon. Come on back. You have to wake up if we're going to get out of here." She didn't add that it would be a good idea to get out, like, now, before more people came to hit them on the head. "How are you feeling? Can I help you stand?"

Leon's gaze was unfocused. He murmured a weak noise of assent. Buffy put her arm around his chest, under his shoulders, and helped him to stand.

"…Where…?"

"We were attacked from behind. We're still in the Umbrella lab. Now, let's go. Start walking, Leon. I'll help you."

She was so intent on helping Leon to walk that she was startled when the lights in the room came on. She whipped her head up. Beside her, Leon snapped his eyes shut at the sudden, harsh light.

At the other end of the room stood the blond man – complete with trademark sunglasses – that she had seen with Gary the other night. He was wearing a lab coat that had some brownish stains on it. Gary himself was standing slightly behind him, looking mightily pissed off and mightily readily to kick their asses. Behind them were about ten men, all dressed in black uniforms, who seemed to be of the thug/operative/soldier variety, as all of their attention was focused on the blond man, waiting for instructions. The men looked… odd… to Buffy, although she couldn't really put her finger on why. Something about their eyes…

The blond man spoke. "Your recovery was much quicker than I had anticipated. You both must be of strong stock. Unfortunately, though, you'll have to get back into the enzyme stabilization tanks until the amplification process is complete. Please don't resist; I wouldn't want you to be damaged after all the work I've put in."

Leon tensed beside her. "Oh, God, you didn't…you didn't…"

He was clearly freaked by something Blondie had said. She whispered, "What's he talking about?"

"He infected us."

"What?"

"The virus! He infected us with the goddamn T-Virus!"