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Work in Progress. If you like this story, check out my other stories on the Fanfiction Net, Twisting the Hellmouth, and Fonts of Wisdom websites. Other sites please ask before using.
by Marcus L. Rowland
XII
"This is amazing."
Buffy looked out across the gigantic hall, and vaguely realised that there was probably room to put the whole of Sunnydale Mall inside it and still have space left over for the high school and its grounds. Two or three times over, and stacked three or four deep. The distant walls had at least twenty levels of balconies, from what they could see of the nearer side each level was at least twenty feet high.
"Has to be big," said Jay, climbing out and opening the door on Buffy's side, "we get some of our biggest customers through here, the ones that like to go swimming. Some have to disguise themselves as whales or giant squid, that sort of thing."
Tara and Willow joined them, looking nervously at the crowd. About half looked human, as for the rest... well, it was probably just as well that Buffy wasn't carrying much in the way of weapons. "Are you okay with this?" asked Willow, "not feeling the urge to start slaying or anything?"
"I'm cool," said Buffy, but flinched as something with way too many tentacles slurped across the floor towards them, said something to Kay in a language she couldn't understand, then got into the car and drove it off. "And get it waxed!" Kay shouted after it.
"Aliens and valet parking," said Tara. "I hate to sound like Dawn, but this is so cool."
"The deneuralyzer lab is down the far end," said Kay. "Probably easiest to walk, it's only a mile or so and we might have to wait ten minutes for a buggy."
"Suits me," said Willow, "I want to sight-see." The others agreed. Kay pointed towards the far end of the hall and they started walking.
"Do you ever get demons coming through posing as aliens?" asked Buffy. "Or aliens posing as demons? Or alien demons?"
"Our identification procedures are pretty good," said Jay, "I'm not saying it isn't possible, but I think we'd notice. Of course we do get the occasional illegal landing, might be some coming in that way, but I don't think there are many. I'd guess that most of your problems are home-grown."
As they walked the women began to realise that Jay and Kay were the celebrities here. Everyone seemed to know them, and most of the black-clad men and women here seemed to be a little nervous around them. It reminded Buffy of the way she was sometimes treated by people (and nonhumans) who knew who she was. "Something tells me you're kinda senior in this organisation," said Buffy.
"We're field agents," said Jay, "take the point in operations. Only twenty or so active at the moment. There are lots more agents in support roles, of course, or working behind the scenes, but we're at the sharp end. Kay is about the most experienced there is."
"So why did you get stuck with me?" asked Willow.
"Office politics. I think we've annoyed Zed a few times this year, and the original business with your uncle.. sorry, you know what I mean.. was our case. Giving us something routine like this was his way of reminding us to tie off all the loose ends."
"Zed's the boss?" asked Buffy, "and this is routine?"
They dodged around a group of twenty or so kangaroo-like dinosaurs wearing Hawaiian shirts who seemed to be taking a group photo in front of a huge mural map of the Earth. The camera had six lenses and floated by itself in mid-air.
"That's right," said Jay. "The world isn't in danger, nobody's life is at stake, it should have been handled at a much lower level. Not that I'm complaining, it has got kind of interesting. Better stop here a moment."
A transparent container about a hundred feet long by fifty wide and high was descending towards a gigantic trailer parked on the floor ahead. It was full of water, inside floated something that looked like a sea serpent. There was barely room for it in the container.
"What's holding that thing up?" Willow asked nervously.
"Oh, B'urt there uses telekinesis," said Kay. "It's only about ten thousand tons. That's nothing to his species. Best not to get in his way while he's doing it though."
"Holy crap," said Buffy. It landed, and the trailer rolled off towards another entrance. "How come you know him?"
"B'urt had a little run-in with a Japanese whaling ship a couple of years ago, had the devil's own job getting them to apologise to him."
"What was he gonna do if they didn't?"
"Well, he was saying something about destroying Tokyo, but I think he would have settled for the whaling fleet."
"I'd have given him the fleet," said Tara grimly.
"I think he would have wanted the crews too," said Kay
"Oh... okay, not such a good idea then."
"This stuff is amazing," said Willow as they moved on, "but I'm seeing your guys use things that are way beyond the technology we normally have on Earth, like that car. How come?"
"We buy and impound a lot of technology that isn't suitable for general use. Things that could be used to commit an untraceable murder, totally disrupt the economy, that sort of thing. We regulate its release, make sure that nothing too disruptive goes on sale until we're ready for it, the patents pay a lot of our expenses. Velcro, Post-It notes, that sort of thing. Got it a little wrong with cellphones, but we're working on that."
"What about medical technology?" asked Buffy, coming to a stop. "How advanced would that be if you weren't putting the brakes on? Would my mother..." she couldn't finish the sentence.
"There's very little alien medical technology that's suitable for humans," said Kay, "we're just too different. What there is gets released as soon as we're sure it's safe, or have it adapted to human use. CAT scanners, some drugs, silicon implants, liposuction, that sort of thing."
"Okay, I guess you have to be careful."
"We do. There have been some near-misses and a couple we plain got wrong, drugs and therapies that did more harm than good. And when we're happy they still have to get past the FDA. I can't promise you that we couldn't have helped your mother, there might be something in the pipeline that could have cured her, but that's one we can't afford to mess up on. Not far to go now, when you're ready."
"Okay." The group started moving again.
Warren dodged down an alley to avoid the eighth black van he'd seen since leaving the ATM and wondered what the hell he'd done to bring down this much heat. He needed to get further out of town, that was for sure. By now Jonathan or Andrew must have given away the base, so that was out. So was his parents house, they must have that staked out too. Maybe.. maybe the best defence was a good offense. He started to walk towards Buffy's house.
"This is the latest model," said Kay, "supposed to be much better than earlier designs."
"Well," said Buffy, "as electric chairs go it looks reasonably comfortable."
"Thanks for that image," said Willow, sitting strapped to the black leatherette chair at the heart of the hugely complicated machine. "I was trying to think of it as Cerebro or something, now you spoiled it."
"Nobody's forcing you to do this," said Jay, "but the doctors seem to think it's safe if you don't try to resist it."
"What'll happen if I do?"
"It might cause more harm than good, maybe damage more of your memory."
"Would it help if Willow was in a trance?" asked Tara.
"The more relaxed she is the better."
"Okay.. Trust me, baby?"
"Always. It's me that can't be trusted."
"Sure you can't. Okay, just give me a second..." she rummaged in her bag, and pulled out a small incense burner on a cord and a vial of colourless fluid, and lit the incense. "Now close your eyes and count down slowly from twenty."
"Twenty." Tara dabbed her finger-tip into the vial and delicately touched it to Willow's left eyelid.
"Nineteen." Tara gently touched the other eye.
"Eighteen." Tara began to swing the burner over Willow's head.
"Seventeen." A spiral trail of glowing smoke streamed down, and seemed to snake towards Willow's nostrils.
"Sixteen."
Tara said "Somnos."
"Fifeee...." Willow trailed off into silence.
Tara kissed Willow's forehead, and whispered something in her ear, then stepped away. "She was already worn out, not much sleep the last couple of nights, she'll stay like this until I wake her."
"Okay," said Jay, "Ladies, we'll have to do this from the control room, you really don't want to be in here when that machine is running."
"Is Willow really safe?" asked Buffy.
"She is. We aren't."
"Okay, let's go to the control room."
Warren went to the door and knocked. Everyone ought to be out, he'd give it a minute then pick the lock. If anyone was in he had the gun.
There was a rattle, and the door opened. April looked out, saw him, and said "Warren, it's you."
"Yeah baby. Over-ride Kitty Fantastico."
She smiled. "Yes master, what do you desire?"
"YES!!! I knew that bitch wouldn't think of changing the code again." He walked in, April closed the door behind him. "Okay, baby, where is everyone?"
"Buffy, Tara, and Willow have gone out with two men, Dawn has gone to school."
"Excellent. Okay, baby, I think you'd better keep me entertained until everyone comes home, I've got some unfinished business with those bitches."
"Oh Warren, I know a great game we can play," April said, moving forward to take his hands in hers.
"Yeah, baby, what's it called?"
"It's called 'Guess my new over-ride code', asshole!"
Suddenly April wasn't smiling, and her grip was getting very strong.
They stood in the observation room next to the deneuralyzer chamber, watching the chair through a thick glass window. Willow sat in the chair while strange pieces of machinery the size of refrigerators whirled around her in an intricate dance. "It's looking good," said the technician operating the machine, looking at a complex computer display; by his side a tentacled alien of a different type to the parking valet held up a small slate and pen, writing "located memory block, patient resting calmly. Looking good. Push the button, Kay?"
"Sure," said Kay, "Push the button, M'ax."
The machine began to whine like the USS Enterprise going into warp drive, and lines of data began to flow down the screen. "What the hell?" said the human technician.
There was a sudden thud, and the machinery seemed to fly apart. Huge chunks of metal flew apart, thudding into the chamber walls and the window with explosive force. The glass cracked, and Buffy screamed "Get down!", grabbed Tara and Kay and pulled them down behind one of the control panels. The technicians ducked behind another. There was another loud bang, and shards of metal and glass rained across the control room, gradually tinkling to silence. Once the noise had stopped they picked themselves up and stared into the deneuralyzer chamber.
The chamber was strewn with shards of broken machinery, twisted metal and circuit boards, pieces of crystal and shattered plastic. All that was left was the chair. Floating two feet above it was Willow, her eyes and hair jet black, seemingly supported by flickers of dark lightning. She jerked as though suddenly electrocuted and screamed "Tara!"
To Be Continued
