The Ghosts That Haunt Me: An Alias/Buffy Crossover
By: Sam Lincoln
Rating PG-13
Summary: A Rambaldi prophecy sends Sydney to Sunnydale in search of "The Chosen One."
Spoilers: General spoilers for the current seasons of Alias, Buffy and Angel, but nothing specific to any storyline.
Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy and Angel are property of Mutant Enemy. All characters from Alias are property of Bad Robot and Touchstone Television. All characters are used without permission and no infringement is intended.
The Ghosts that Haunt Me: Chapter Three
London
Giles entered his apartment carrying a bag full of groceries.
On his way to the kitchen he noticed that his answering machine
was blinking. He punched the play button and began to put away
his groceries.
"Giles, it's Willow. We need your help with something. What do you know bout a man named Rambaldi?" Giles stopped in shock, his grip on the carton of eggs he was holding slipped and they fell crashing to the floor. "Oh damn," Giles muttered when he saw the mess. Ignoring the seeping mess on the floor he walked back to the answering machine and played the message again.
Once he was sure he understood what Willow had said h picked up his phone and dialed Buffy's number. "Come on Willow pick up the phone," he said to himself.
"Hi, it's Buffy and Dawn, we're not home right now. So leave us a message and we'll get back to you," the recorded voices of the Summers sisters said.
Giles pounded the desk his phone was on in frustration, "Buffy, Willow, whoever, I'm on my way there this moment. Whatever you do, don't try to find the amulet. It's safe where it's hidden. I'll be there as quickly as I can." Giles hung up the phone and ran for the door, his groceries still sitting on the counter, forgotten.
Sunnydale
Dawn, Riley and Xander walked up to the front door of the Summers House. The trio looked far more disheveled than when they had left the house earlier that night. Riley's clothes were ripped and bloodstained. Dawn had an interesting collection of twigs in her hair and walked with a pronounced limp. While Xander carried the smoking remains of Riley's stake launcher and sported a nasty gash on his cheek.
"Well that wasn't so bad," Dawn said, feigning cheerfulness.
"Yeah everything was going so smoothly until this thing went poof, and that only happened, oh yeah, right away," Xander grumbled.
"I told you it was an experimental weapon," Riley replied. "And we took care of the vampires so quit your bellyaching. Now all I want to do is go inside and get some ice on these bumps and bruises." Riley reached out to open the door only to have it swing open as soon as he touched the handle. "This door was closed when we left right?" he asked Dawn and Xander.
Xander nodded, "I remember shutting it."
Riley drew a pistol from a holster clipped to his vest. "Ok, I'll go in first, stay close behind me." Riley eased through the open doorway, his gun at the ready. He motioned for Dawn and Xander to follow him.
"Stay between me and Riley Dawnie," Xander cautioned the girl as they walked into the house. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but it was too quiet for Xander's liking. Anya and Willow would be making far more noise if everything was alright.
The reason for the silence became apparent when they walked into the dining room. Willow and Anya lay on the floor, bound and gagged.
"Check on those two," Riley ordered. "I'll make sure the rest of the house is clear."
While Dawn worked on freeing Willow Xander knelt down and examined Anya. Her hands and feet were tied together with heavy plastic zip-ties and a piece of black duct tape covered her mouth. Her eyes were closed and she did not appear to be conscious.
"Anya?" Xander asked softly. "Hey Ahn, are you there?" He gently shook her, but she did not stir. Xander sighed and slowly eased back a corner of the tape covering her mouth.. With one quick motion he tore the strip of tape off.
The response was instantaneous. Anya's eyes shot open and she started to scream. "That hurt!" she shouted.
Xander clamped a hand over her mouth. "Anya, quiet we don't know if anyone is still in the house, do you understand?"
Anya nodded and Xander let go of her, "That hurt," she hissed, "a lot."
"I'm sorry, but it was the quickest way to see if you were ok."
"Well you could have tried pinching my nose shut or something first."
"Maybe, but that wouldn't have been as satisfying for me," Xander said with a smile.
"Well it felt like you took off half my face. Next time don't pull the tape off, let me."
"Ok, you put yourself back together, I'm going to check on Willow." Xander turned and saw that Dawn had chosen a more gentler route waking up Willow. "How' she doing?" He asked Dawn.
Dawn reached out and slowly pulled back the tape covering Willow's mouth. "I'll be fine," the redhead gasped.
"Uhm, Xander, I hate to be a pest, but when were you planning on untying us?" Anya demanded.
"Keep your shirt on, I was getting to that." Xander reached into his pocket and withdrew a Swiss Army knife. He cut through the bonds holding Anya and Willow with ease.
"It's about time," Anya groused as she rubbed her wrists in an attempt to restore the circulation to her hands.
Riley walked into the room, his pistol was holstered. "The house is clear," he declared.
"Let me get you two some water," Dawn offered before walking into the kitchen.
The four adults sat down around the table. "So what exactly happened?" Riley asked.
"I don't know," Willow said, "One minute we were researching and the next the front door bursts open and these guys dressed like commandos come charging in. They must have hit us with tranquilizers or something."
"Commandos huh?" Xander asked as he glanced meaningfully at Riley.
"Hey, don't look at me, the Initiative is out of the bad guy business. We deal strictly with demons these days."
"What about this Sydney person? She's a spy and she works for a nefarious shadowy organization," Anya pointed out. She wanted to shift the conversation away from talking about demons.
"Anya, she works for the CIA," Riley objected.
"I know, that's my point. She's probably a triple agent and she tipped off the people the CIA thinks she's betraying because she's really betraying the CIA. You can't trust a turncoat. If a person's willing to change sides once they're willing to do so again."
"You're just being paranoid Anya. I've seen Agent Bristow's file. She's not doing this for money. She wants to bring SD-6 to justice. Still, I hope Buffy and Sydney are alright."
Buffy and Sydney slowly backed up against the closed door as the demon advanced on them. "What the hell is that thing?" Sydney demanded, she was trying to fit the monstrosity before her into some semblance of her former understanding on the world, and failing miserably.
"It's a demon," Buffy replied. "and it's blocking the only way out."
"Oh, ok then." Sydney aimed her pistol at the demon's head.
"Trust me, that never..." Buffy started to say as Sydney fired off several rounds. The bullets struck the demon square in the head and it fell down in a heap. "...works. Why don't they ever do that for me?" She asked rhetorically.
Sydney shrugged, "I guess I'm just cool like that."
They walked out of the room, stepping over the body of the demon as they went. "Well, I can still kick your ass, and don't forget it."
"Feeling inadequate much?" Sydney asked, a bemused smile on her face."
"No, it's just you've got your cool toys and all I have is raw strength, I like to remind myself of that."
"But isn't that inadequacy?"
"Not when it means that I'm better than you," Buffy said with a sly smile.
Sydney chuckled, "Keep on telling yourself that and it still won't be true."
"Oooh, you want to try and back that up?"
Sydney looked around the cramped tunnel they were in. "Uh maybe later. How do we get our of here?"
"What you don't have some sort of GPS gizmo to help us out?"
"Sorry, when I left the motel tonight I wasn't planning on doing any spelunking." Sydney paused, she thought she heard something. "What was that?" she asked. Buffy.
"What was what?"
"I thought I heard something, it sounded like it was scraping against the floor."
"Like scales?" Buffy asked with dread apparent in her voice.
"Yeah," Sydney hesitantly replied.
The two women turned around and saw the formerly dead demon writing on the ground. To their amazement it picked itself up off the ground. The wounds in its head knit together before their eyes.
"Ok, I've been in spots like this before," Buffy said, "and I know what to do."
"What's that?"
"Run!" Buffy shouted before she sprinted down the tunnel.
"Well I knew that," Sydney muttered as she followed Buffy down the hall. The demon howled and ran after them. "Any idea where we're going?" Sydney shouted to Buffy.
"None," Buffy replied, "but it's away from that thing."
They continued down the tunnel, their flashlights lit the room with a weird, bobbing illumination. Sydney thought that the tunnel was starting to slope up, but she was not sure. She was so focused on the floor in front of her that she failed to noticed that Buffy had stopped running and the two women collided.
"Watch where you're going," Buffy protested as she stood up.
"Well sorry, but you did stop right in front of me," Sydney pointed out. "Speaking of which, why did you stop?"
"Fork in the road," Buffy replied as she pointed at a pair of tunnels.
"Great, which way?"
A roar from down the tunnel showed that the demon was still in pursuit. Buffy looked back and for the between the two tunnels as she weighed her options. She nodded to herself when she made her decision. "You go that way," she ordered Sydney. "I go the other way. It can't chase both of us."
Sydney frowned, she did not like the plan, but she couldn't see anything that made more sense. "It'll have to be it," she grudgingly admitted to Buffy.
"What, no protests? The guys always want to come with me."
"Like you said, it can't chase both of us."
"Finally, somebody gets it," Buffy exclaimed and then realized that she was talking to herself. Sydney had already started to run down one of the tunnels. "Wow, decisive lady," Buffy observed. Another shriek from behind her cause Buffy to run towards the other tunnel.
The tunnel Sydney was running down suddenly turned to the left and Sydney took the opportunity to catch her breath. She turned off her flashlight and stood stock still in the dark. After a few minutes of intent listening Sydney did not hear any sounds of pursuit. She slowly looked around the corner and only saw the inky black of the tunnel.
"I hope Buffy can outrun that thing," she thought to herself. Sydney debated the wisdom of backtracking and trying to help Buffy. She sighed and started to walk back towards the fork. "I might not be much help, but I'm the reason Buffy is in this mess and I have to try to do something."
Buffy sprinted down the hallway, she could hear the demon behind her and it sounded like it was gaining ground. As she ran Buffy looked around for anything that might give her an advantage, but she only saw bare rock.
"Maybe splitting up wasn't such a bright idea. Sydney has the gun," Buffy thought. "Then again, when have I ever needed a gun?"
The tunnel was definitely slopping upwards now and gave Buffy hope that she would reach the surface soon. The tunnel curved ahead of her and when she reached the corner she saw that her way was blocked by a door.
"Of course there's a door here," Buffy muttered to herself, "and it's probably locked." She came to a stop in front of the door and tried the handle. It was in fact locked. Buffy then saw a circular indentation in the middle of the door. "It's worth a shot," she said as she placed the amulet into the indentation.
There was a great cracking sound and the door swung open. Buffy dove through the opening, grabbing the amulet as she went. Without stopping to see where she was, Buffy started to shut the heavy door behind her to trap the demon.
Unfortunately the demon had caught up to her and it slammed against the door. The force of the impact was great enough to send Buffy flying backwards.
As she picked herself up off the ground Buffy took quick stock of her situation. She and her opponent were in one of Sunnydale's many crypts. "Too confined," Buffy thought, "I've got to get out of here."
The demon leapt at Buffy again, but this time she met the attack with a well-placed kick. The demon fell crashing back and smashed into the sarcophagus, shattering the stone coffin into a million pieces.
Buffy seized the opening and ran for the exit. She burst out of the crypt and started to run towards her house. She knew that if she was going to stay in one piece she was going to need weapons.
The demon emerged from the crypt and resumed its pursuit of Buffy. It closed the distance between it and the slayer and once again lunged for Buffy. This time it was successful and the two combatants fell to the ground in a tangled heap. The beast hissed and snapped at Buffy who tried to punch and kick her way out of the pile.
With great effort Buffy grabbed the demon's arms and held them firm. Then using every once of strength she had Buffy planted both her feet against the demon and kicked. As the demon spun over Buffy she pulled hard on its arms. With a satisfying ripping sound the demon's arms were left behind as it flew through the air.
"Don't feel too bad," Buffy told the demon as she stood up and walked over to where it lay. "I've just got a disarming personality." The demon howled in response, and Buffy watched in amazement as two small arms sprouted out of the stumps. "I hate demons that regenerate," Buffy whined. She drove the demon's detached arms into its stomach. "here, have you arms back," Buffy told the demon. She looked around and saw a shovel lying next to a fresh grave. She grabbed the shovel and spun it like a quarter-staff. "Ok scale-boy, let's dance."
The rejuvenated demon charged Buffy and the two fought a running battle through the cemetery. "Well, you're strong enough," Buffy told the demon as she blocked its attack. "But strong isn't always enough." She reached down and hooked the demon's foot with the blade of the shovel. A quick tug brought the demon down and before it could recover Buffy drove the shovel down onto the demon's neck, separating its head from the rest of its body.
"Regenerate that," Buffy told the twitching corpse. She speared the severed head with the shovel, splitting it in two. Buffy tossed the shovel aside and walked towards the entrance of the cemetery.
"I wonder if Sydney made it out of those tunnels yet," Buffy wondered. "I'll drop the amulet off at home and then go look for her."
Buffy's thoughts were interrupted by a squad of soldiers appearing from hiding places in the graveyard. Buffy stared at the men wearing unmarked black fatigues and carrying an assortment of firearms.
"Put your hands on your head," One of the soldiers ordered Buffy.
Buffy sighed, "Look guys, I'm really not in the mood for this. Can we play tomorrow?"
"If you do as we tell you, no harm will come to you."
"Fine, if you really want to go, we'll go." Buffy leapt at the closet soldier, knocking him down. A second soldier ran over to assist his fallen comrade. Buffy felled the oncoming soldier with a round house kick to the face. "That's two," Buffy told the soldiers, "Who's next?"
She heard a small puffing sound and ducked. A small dart buried itself into the tree behind her. "You guys are trying to tranquilize me?" she asked in disbelief. Buffy pulled the dart out of the tree and threw it at the man who had tried to shoot her. The dart caught him in the neck and he fell to the ground.
Buffy turned to face the rest of the squad when she felt something prick her. She looked down and saw a dart sticking out of her arm. "Alright," she demanded. "Who did that?" She broke a branch off from a nearby tree and used it like a club on the soldiers who were advancing on her with stun batons.
The drugs coursing through her veins were slowing her down though, and one of the soldiers got in a lucky hit. Buffy cried out in pain as several thousands volts shot through her. She turned and took out the soldier with a tremendous blow.
"Ok, what do you guys think about calling this a draw? I'm in favor," Buffy said, realizing that retreat was her best option. She tossed the branch at the remaining soldiers and she ran for the entrance of the cemetery.
As she ran she felt another prick and saw that she had been hit again. The world swayed, but Buffy managed to stay on her feet. Unfortunately for Buffy the drugs were now seriously affecting her performance. She felt herself slowing down and barely felt the next dart hit. She tripped over an exposed tree root and struggled to get up, but could not find the strength. By the time she managed to roll herself over the soldiers were on her. Buffy was not able to defend herself form the soldier's beatings. Mercifully her world went black after the first few hits.
Sydney carefully crept out of the tunnel and into the crypt. She noticed the smashed tomb. "Buffy must have come this way," she reasoned.
Sydney walked out of the crypt, alert for any sign of danger. She knelt down and examined the soft earth. "She went this way," she told no one in particular.
She followed the tracks until she came to a pair of green, scaly arm. "Oh ew," she commented when she saw that the arms were coated in green ichor. "Buffy sure can take hold of a fight."
From there on the trail was easy to find, all Sydney had to do was follow the trail of green blood. Sydney surveyed the damage to the surrounding area. "Wow, this was quite a fight."
The trail came to an end when Sydney came to the decapitated corpse of the demon. She whistled in admiration. "The girl knows how to use her garden tools," she observed after she saw the shovel, its blade green with blood.
"Buffy," Sydney called out, "are you here?"
"Sorry girlie," a gruff voice said, "the Slayer can't help you now."
Sydney spun around and for the second time that night came face to face with a vampire. This vampire was dressed in a letterman's jacket and blue jeans. "Isn't it a little late for you to be out?" She asked derisively.
"I was planning on turning you and making you my love slave..." the youthful-looking vampire paused, "ok, I'm still going to do that, but you'll regret saying that."
"Believe me I'm sure I won't," Sydney replied. The vampire snarled and charged. This time Sydney was ready for the vampire's superior strength and speed and used that to her own advantage. Instead of taking the fight to the vampire she focused on defense, and blocked all of the vampire's blows. She let herself be driven back towards the shovel and when the tool was at her feet she kicked it up to her hands. "Ok, you had your shot, now it's my turn." She swung the shovel at the vampire and hit him square in the face with the shovel's blade. Sydney followed that up with a series of blows that forced the vampire to its knees.
"Say goodnight Gracie," Sydney instructed the vampire before twirling the shovel and ramming the handle through its chest.
"Aww man, now I'll never get to score," the vampire moaned before exploding into a cloud of dust.
"Well, that wasn't so hard," Sydney congratulated herself. "I'd better get back to Buffy's house before anything else jumps me." Sydney snapped off the blade of the shovel with a tick then hefted her makeshift staff. "This is Buffy's town, I'm sure she can take care of herself." Sydney started to run down a path following a sign that pointed in the direction of the exit.
The Scoobies were seated around the Summers' dining room table discussing the commando raid when they heard a knock on the front door.
"Stay here," Riley instructed the group. He stood and walked towards the door, drawing his gun as he went. He opened the door a fraction and peered outside. "Who's there?" He demanded.
"It's me, Sydney Bristow," Sydney told Riley.
"Is Buffy with you?" Riley asked as he opened the door.
"No, we got separated."
"Where's Buffy?" Xander demanded as the rest of the group entered the hallway.
"I don't know, we got split up."
"Why don't you start from the beginning," Willow said. "Did you find the amulet?"
"Yes, but Buffy has it. This monster attacked us and Buffy said we should split up to get away from it. It chased her and not me."
"And so you just came running back here and left Buffy out there with a demon on her tail?" Xander asked indignantly.
"As soon as I was sure it wasn't chasing me I backtracked to help Buffy," Sydney coolly replied. "But she didn't need my help. I found the demon's corpse when I was looking for her. I got jumped by another vampire so I figured my safest bet would be to come back here and wait for Buffy. It made more sense than running around a town I barely know. Plus I figured that Buffy would beat me back here."
"A likely story, what about the commandos? I bet you offed Buffy the moment she had her back turned!" Anya exclaimed.
"What commandos?"
"The commandos that broke in here, knocked out Willow and me and then ran off. Don't deny you didn't know that."
"But I didn't," Sydney insisted. "I'm on your side here." Before Sydney could say anything else in her defense her cell phone rang. "Look, I have to answer this. I had nothing to do with any commandos, ok?" She answered her phone. "This is Bristow."
"Sydney," Sloane cheerfully said. "I have good news, you can come home."
"What? But what about the objective?"
"We received additional intelligence while you were in the field. I dispatched a team and both packages are now en route."
"Both?" Sydney asked for clarification.
"Both," Sloane confirmed.
"Ok, I have a few things I need to finish up here. Will the packages be at work tomorrow?"
"That they will."
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." Sydney snapped her phone shut. "SD-6 has Buffy and the amulet." She told the group, she figured they had a right to know.
"You set her up!" Xander shouted as he lunged at Sydney.
Riley got in between Xander and Sydney and caught hold of the other man. "Xander, stand down. Do you think Agent Bristow would tells us that if she had set Buffy up? What happened Agent Bristow?" Riley asked in a voice that suggested his mood was not that different from Xander's.
"That was my boss at SD-6 on the phone. He claims to have received information and that he sent a strike team to act on that information. Those were probably your commandos," she told Anya. "They must have found Buffy and overpowered her."
"So where is she?" Dawn asked. "We have to rescue her."
"There's nothing you can do. Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to make sure she gets out safe."
"that's not good enough," Xander said darkly. "We are going to rescue Buffy, with or without your help.'
"Agent Finn, tell them, there's nothing they can do," Sydney asked, looking for backup.
Riley shook his head, "Sorry Agent Bristow, when they make up their minds there's no stopping them, and I can't say I blame them."
Sydney sighed, "Alright fine, I'll talk this over with my control agent, but I doubt he'll let civilians take part in an operation."
"Don't kid yourself Agent Bristow, there won't be an operation. The Agency isn't ready to take on SD-6 and they don't want to endanger your position," Riley said.
"So what's your suggestion?"
"Use these people, they know what they're doing, more or less. They don't have any ties to the CIA and they have a good reason to mount a rescue attempt."
"I'll still have to clear it with Vaughn," Sydney insisted. "You have to realize," she told the group, "what you're talking about doing is practically impossible, even for a trained team of agents."
"Buffy would do the same for us," Willow replied. "Now tell us where they're taking Buffy before I stop asking nicely. Trust me, you don't want to answer my questions when I don't ask nicely." Willow's eyes flashed black as she spoke.
Sydney gulped, "She's going to SD-6 headquarters in Los Angeles."
"Los Angeles," Willow repeated. "Good, we have friends in LA."
"Road trip?" Xander asked.
"Road trip," Willow confirmed. "Anya, you stay here and look after Dawn."
"Oh I don't think so," Dawn protested. "I'm going to help my sister."
Willow grasped Dawn by her shoulders, "Dawnie, this is serious stuff, you can help Buffy the most by being here when she comes back, ok?" She hugged the younger girl.
"I still want to go," Dawn pouted.
"They'll never get anywhere near Buffy," Sydney confided to Riley. "I just signed their death warrants."
"But you still are going to tell them what they want to hear," Riley replied.
Sydney stared at the Scoobies, "I had a friend who was in a similar jam once."
"And what did you do?"
"I went in on an unauthorized mission and got him out," Sydney admitted. "I guess I sympathized with them more than I knew."
"Don't worry, Willow's a lot more powerful than she looks, and Xander has a way of surviving. They'll do alright," Riley assured Sydney.
"I hope you're right Agent Finn, I hope you're right."
Los Angeles
Consciousness stole slowly back to Buffy. She tried to move and was jolted fully awake when she could not. She frantically glanced around and saw that she was shackled to a steel bed in the middle of a sterile-looking room. She strained against the restraints, but they did not budge.
Buffy heard a door open and she looked up to see an older man wearing a suit walk into the room, he was accompanied by several a pair of overly muscular men also wearing suits, and several individuals wearing lab coats . "Ah, hello Ms. Summers. I'm glad to see you're awake," he said in a clipped voice. Buffy carefully studied the man's face, taking in the lines that creased it, and the two smalls eyes that intently stared at her. "My name is...well that's unimportant isn't it? What is important is what you know about the Amulet of Rambaldus."
"Go to hell," Buffy rasped.
"No my dear, I won't be anytime soon, but you'll soon feel like you have if you do not tell me what I want to know." The door behind the man swung shut, blocking out Buffy's screams.
To Be Continued
Author's Notes
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's had kind (and unkind)
words to say. Keep reading the fun is just starting.