"Haven't heard anything," Pike said, shaking his head. "Damn, that sucks."

"Yeah," Xander said. "Well, if you guys do hear anything, let us know?"

"First thing," Pike said.

"You ready, Faith?" Xander asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"Where are you gits off to now?" Spike asked.

"Back home," Faith said. "Joyce is cookin' up a storm."

Pike and Spike perked up.

"Cooking?" Pike asked.

Xander looked at Faith. "You had to mention food. Now they're gonna follow us home."

"Well, we wouldn't want to intrude," Pike said.

"Yeah, we would," Spike said. "Is she makin' that thing with the little bits of meat in it?"

Xander looked at Spike, trying to divine what he meant. "Um. . . maybe?"

"That's it, we're comin'," Spike said.

"Fine," said Faith. "But you guys get to eat the kiddy table."

"No problem," Spike said. "'Bit's better company than you lot anyway."

"Whatever," Xander said. "If you're comin' get a move on."

Pike and Spike both swept on their jackets and followed Xander and Faith to Xander's car. Xander pulled out of his parking spot in the cemetery lot and up to the main road. Then paused as two HUMMV's sped past. He looked to Faith and the others in his car.

"Yeah," Faith said. "Riley might be with them."

Xander nodded once and hit the gas, pulling out behind the military vehicles. Pike leaned forward in his seat. "Hey, wait a second," he said.

"What?" Xander asked.

"Just slow down, don't get too close."

"What? Why not?"

"Look at the barrel sticking out of the window," Pike said. "Those pulse rifles are distinctive, and that's not it."

"So?" Xander said, having slowed down despite not being convinced anything was off. Life on the Hellmouth had honed an almost subconscious sense of paranoia and a tendency of listening to words of caution. "Maybe they figured out what killed Forrest and are going after it."

"That doesn't seem like their normal style," Pike said.

"Yeah, but they also don't normally lose one of their commanding officers. Faith, you've spent more time with them. What do you think?"

Faith looked at the vehicle in front of her and shook her head. "Keep back," she said. "Few hundred feet won't matter if they're going for whatever killed Forrest. Something else, might keep us outta trouble."

Xander nodded and slowed down some more as the car lapsed into silence. After a couple of minutes, he spoke up again. "Is it just me, or does this route seem familiar?"

Faith looked up, noticing her surroundings for seemingly the first time. "What?" she asked. "Why are they –"

"Stop at the corner," Pike said. "Faith and I will go around the back.

"Why me?" Faith asked.

"Can't fight humans, luv," Spike said. "Pike'll need some back up. Whelp up there can handle himself in a fight, and me. . . well, at the very least I can hold some of them, if I do it so I'm not hurting them. Buy him some time."

"Right," Pike agreed. "And if we're wrong about what this is, hey, food. If not. . . "

Nobody felt the need to finish the sentence. Faith simply nodded. When Xander rolled to a stop at the corner, Pike and Faith jumped out of his car and ran quickly behind some trees and hopped a fence into someone's backyard.

Xander drove on, and stopped the car again almost immediately. "Why are they stopped there?" he asked nobody in particular. Xander and Spike watched as the soldiers piled out of the two vehicles, did a quick weapons check, and hiked it down the street. When they reached their target, the stopped. One pulled out what looked like binoculars. Then some of them started moving to the back of the house.

"Heat signatures," Spike said. "They're tryin' to figure out who's in there."

Without another word, Xander and Spike got out of the car and started running. They got to the house just as soldiers started busting the windows in. Xander barreled into the first soldier he came to, driving him into the ground. Xander sat up, pulled the man up by his shirt and punched him square in the face, feeling the soldier's nose crack beneath his fist. He dropped the unconscious soldier unceremoniously on the ground and stood as he saw one of the soldiers jump through a window.

Spike ran past Xander and grabbed one of the soldiers by his neck, dragging him along for the run. He pulled up in front of another soldier, grabbed him by the lapel, and jumped on to the roof, dangling both soldiers in the air. Spike smiled when they started yelling.

The soldiers were forced to watch as Xander squared off against their friend. The soldier was quick and strong, and trained well. Xander was quicker, stronger and trained better. The fight was over in less than five seconds.

Xander whirled around to find another enemy.

"Here," Spike yelled, dropping one of the soldiers to the ground. He received a slight shock from his chip.

"Oh, bloody hell," Spike muttered, the shock having forced his demonic features to the surface. "I'm tryin' to do the right thing here."

As Xander dismantled the third soldier, Spike, still restraining the last, jumped to the ground in an effort to forgo any further shocks.

Xander's latest opponent ended up face flat on the ground, his arm twisted in an angle that doesn't happen naturally, and unconscious. Spike was about to release the last soldier when Buffy yelled.

"Xander! They shot Dawn!"

As Xander turned quickly to the last soldier, he heard a very distinctive growl. He watched as Spike vamped out and picked the soldier up over his head.

"Nobody touches the 'bit!" Spike yelled. He held the man directly in front of him, vamped out and punched him in the face with a satisfying *thwack*. Both Spike and the soldier fell to the ground, the soldier unconscious and Spike clutching his forehead and cursing a blue streak. Xander jumped inside through a window.

* * * * *

Pike was in awe. He knew Slayers were good. He knew Slayers were fast. But *damn.* In the previous twelve seconds, three fully trained, heavily armed soldiers had been taken completely out of the fight. He had watched perched upon the fence in the back yard, eyes wide and jaw fully slacked, as Faith dropped into the Summers' backyard and sprinted. She leveled the first soldier with a stiff-armed clothesline that caused him to, once airborne, perform a two hundred seventy degree flip and land solidly on his back, his head slamming into the ground with no small amount of force.

And wow, was she hot when she got going.

Pike watched, further amazed, as Faith, without slowing down, ran to the next soldier. She ripped the gun from his hands and swung it around, impacting it with the backside of his head and knocking him out, probably with a concussion. Pike realized it was considered bad for somebody with a concussion to be unconscious, but he found it hard to care.

He also found himself on the verge of drooling.

Faith slowed, then, for a moment, and cracked the rifle over her knee, breaking it into two distinct pieces. The two remaining soldiers – one had smashed in the kitchen door and then fallen down with a knife in his stomach – quickly reacted to Faith's presence by swinging their guns around to her. The first Faith dealt with by hurling the barrel of the now disassembled gun into his leg, causing him to drop to the ground, screaming in pain.

Pike smiled. The fourth and final soldier was lined up on Faith. He knew, and she knew, that she wasn't fast enough to dodge bullets. But Pike knew that neither was the soldier. Pulling his pistol, Pike lined up on the soldier and shot him once – in the elbow. The soldier screamed. Faith took pity on both conscious soldiers and knocked them out. With a little more force than was, strictly speaking, necessary.

It was then they heard Buffy yell. "Xander! They shot Dawn!"

Pike and Faith exchanged a look and ran inside.

* * * * *

"Set her down," Pike said as Buffy quickly cleared the dining room table. "And somebody call an ambulance!"

Willow was almost instantly on the phone.

Pike lifted Dawn's shirt above her stomach to get a good look at the wound.

"Should I – " Xander started.

"No," said Pike, grabbing one of the cloth napkins from the table. "Closing the wound could make it worse, make it harder to work on. We can't deal with this, we need a doctor."

"Come on," Buffy said, taking Xander's arm. "You should check on Giles."

Pike leaned over Dawn, who was crying.

"Shh," Pike said comfortingly. "I need you to listen to me for a second, okay, Dawn?"

Dawn managed to nod through her tears. Spike stumbled into the house still holding onto his head. He swayed his way into the kitchen, where Tara provided him with water and aspirin.

"Oh, you're a godsend," he said, still clutching at his head. "I get this chip out, I'll be sure to make it quick for you."

Tara smiled. . . a little confused, but took the statement as the closest the vampire would get to gratitude.

Back in the dining room, wounds were being attended to.

"I'm going to have to put some pressure on this wound, okay?" Pike said. "And it's going to hurt some, but I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?"

Dawn nodded, and Pike pressed the napkin down on her wound. Dawn winced in pain, but did not scream. Slowly she adjusted to the pressure.

"Joyce," Pike said, still smiling at Dawn, "I need you to keep pressure on the wound, okay?"

Joyce nodded mutely and took Pike's spot at her daughter's side.

Pike nodded at her, and grabbed everyone not currently bleeding, tending the wounded, or on the phone.

"Okay, we need to gather up the soldiers up front, before the ambulance gets here," he said. "Buff, you got any rope? I figure we toss them in the basement, tie 'em up and ignore them for a while."

The group quickly got to work hauling soldiers into the basement, and by the time they heard sirens approaching Spike was hauling the last of the unconscious bodies into the basement. Pike and Faith had found keys and were currently hiding the two HUMMV's the soldiers had been driving.

An ambulance screeched to a halt in the street in front of 1630 Revello Drive and two paramedics hopped out and made their way inside. Giles had by this time made his way into the dining room and was comforting Joyce. Xander had taken over holding pressure to Dawn's wound, actively reminding himself not to use his healing powers.

The paramedics rushed in, and one of them went towards Giles.

"No," Giles said, nodding at Dawn, "see to her. I'm fine."

"What happened?" asked the lead paramedic as he took over from Xander

"Some gang shot the place up," Xander said. "Then they ran off. Didn't really get a look at them."

The paramedics worked on Dawn for a minute before one of them went back outside to get the mobile gurney, and the remaining one took a cursory look over Giles.

"You'll be okay," he said. "Probably give you some blood, maybe keep you overnight for observation. We only have room for one more in the ambulance, so either you can ride with us. . . "

"No," Giles said. "Joyce will go with you. Somebody else can take me."

The paramedic nodded, and when the other man returned with the gurney, they got Dawn onto it and, with Joyce, drove away to the hospital as two police cruisers pulled up followed very quickly by Riley.

"What happened?" Riley asked as he came up to the house.

"I think we'll ask the questions, son," the officer said. Everyone turned to glare at him.

"A gang came by and shot up the place," Xander said to both Riley and the cop. "None of us got a good look at them. They drove dark colored sedans with tinted windows. They drove off towards Main Street, and we thought it was a better idea to tend the people who had been shot than to chase them."

"Did you –" the officer started.

"No," Xander said. "We didn't get their license plate numbers."

"You keep saying we. . . " the officer said.

"Girls in the kitchen, cleaning up," he said.

"Oh," said the officer, ignoring the fact that they were disrupting a crime scene. He heard the word 'gangs' and basically tuned out the rest. He'd been in Sunnydale for a while. "Okay, well, I think we have everything we need. We'll call you."

Xander nodded his head and the officer collected his partners and left.

"So what really happened?" Riley asked.

Xander shook his head. "Come with me," he said. Xander led Riley through the kitchen, where Willow and Tara actually were cleaning up the blood, and into the basement where Spike and Buffy stood watch over the soldiers, Buffy shooting angry glares their way the whole time. Riley was quickly convinced that she only refrained from hitting them because they were already unconscious.

"What the hell?" Riley said.

"That's pretty much what we're wondering," Buffy said angrily. "What the hell are these bastards thinking?"

"I don't know what to say," Riley said sitting down hard on the stairs.

"Well, none of us thinks you knew about this," Xander said, his calm voice denying his actual state of mind. "But, can you think of anything that might have set it off? Something that happened today, or recently, that would cause the Initiative to want to kill us? Because, as often as our deaths are wanted, we. . . well, we have *some* experience with our allies turning on us, but not *that* much."

Riley sat in thought for a minute. "No," he said. "I can't think of anything."

"You didn't do anything, or talk to anyone or know of anything that happened. . . " Buffy supplied.

Riley shook his head. "No, I haven't really spent much time with them recently. I mean, really the only person I talked to—" Riley cut off.

"Who?" Xander growled, his voice dropping a whole octave.

Riley took a deep breath and an angry, determined expression sprouted on his face. "Forrest," Riley said. "I told Forrest about all the stuff going on with Adam."

Xander rubbed his face with one hand then sat down. "Giles has been convinced from the beginning that the Initiative was behind Adam. If they were, and Forrest told Walsh –"

"Then she'd do what she had to in order to protect the secret. Including killing all of you, and Forrest. Especially if she's crazy enough to build Adam in the first place," Riley said.

"You think she killed Forrest?" Buffy asked.

Riley blew out a breath. "I don't know. But he was dead less than half an hour after I left there, and they wouldn't let me see his body."

"Your boss is crazy, mate," Spike said, pulling a cigarette out of his pack. Buffy grabbed the cigarette and snapped it in half. "Hey!"

"Not in my house," Buffy said.

"Okay," said Xander shaking his head. "We can't do anything about these sons of bitches right now. Giles needs to get to the hospital. Riley, can you –"

"Yeah," he said. "Of course."

"I'm going, too," Buffy said. "Mom and Dawn. . . "

"Yeah," Riley said again. "Of course."

"I'll take the Ikes out and we'll do a quick sweep," Xander said.

"We will?" Spike asked.

"Yes, unless you like floating on the wind."

"Right. Quick sweep it is."

The group went upstairs, but Xander held Buffy back a little.

"You okay?" he asked, pulling her close to him.

Buffy took a deep breath and released it, then leaned into his chest. "I don't know," she said. "It's not really. . . real, yet. Ask me again in a few hours."

Xander smiled down at her, and she reached up and pulled him into a kiss. "Love you, baby," she said.

"Love you too, Buffy. Always."

The two shared an intimate smile for a moment, then headed back upstairs to join the others, running into Faith and Pike as they were coming back from hiding the soldier's vehicles.

"Hey, you're okay," Riley said, pulling Faith into a hug. Spike rolled his eyes and Pike, recently enamored of Faith, enjoyed the sight of Faith stretching up to hug her boyfriend..

"Yeah," Faith said. "Where you headed?"

"Hospital," Riley said. "Taking Giles and Buffy."

Faith looked over to where Buffy was helping Giles into Riley's car. "Want company?" she asked.

"Love some," Riley said. He turned back to Xander. "What are you gonna do with the guys?"

Xander shook his head. "Keep them unconscious until we can deal with 'em."

Riley nodded. "If you need help. . . "

"We'll call," Xander said.

Riley and Faith took off, leaving Xander, Pike and Spike standing in front of the house.

"So, take that sweep, now?" Spike asked, lighting up a cigarette and offering one to Pike.

"In a minute," Xander said. "Got something I need to do first."

Pike and Spike stood in the yard as Xander walked back towards the house. The two of them were discussing the events of the night. And Faith's ass.

"Hey," Xander said.

"Hey, Xander," Willow said, cheerily, without looking up.

"Hey," he said again. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," Willow said as Tara nodded, smiling wanly at him.

"Hey," Xander said, taking Willow's elbow in his hand. "Are you okay?"

Willow sniffled, and turned to Xander, teary-eyed. "No," she said, smiling despite her tears. "I'm not okay. People, people who-who we worked with, who we considered allies, came here to kill us. They shot Dawn, and they shot Giles, so no, Xander, I am not okay, okay? This is not okay."

Xander pulled Willow into a hug, holding the young woman tightly as she cried. Tara looked on sympathetically, until Xander waved her over, and she joined the embrace.

"Shhh," Xander said. "It's gonna be all right. Dawnie and Giles are going to be fine."

"Xander, they tried to kill us," she said again, quieter this time.

"I know, sweetie," he said. "I know. But they're not going to get the chance again. I promise. Okay?" Xander kissed Willow gently on the forehead, and released her from the embrace.

Willow pulled back and wiped her eyes, leaning into Tara.

"Me and the Ikes are going to take a quick sweep," Xander said. "Do you guys wanna join?"

Willow shook her head. "I just. . . I'm going to finish cleaning up here and then go back."

Xander nodded. "Tara?" he asked.

Tara looked up, somewhat surprised at being offered the choice separately from Willow. "O-oh, um. . . no," she said. "I'll. . . I'll go with Willow."

Xander nodded, and smiled at the young Wicca. "Take care of her," he said. "And yourself, too."

Tara smiled and nodded back at him.

"Okay," Xander said, reaching into his pocket. "Take my car. I don't want you guys out on the street alone tonight." Willow opened her mouth to protest.

"I know," Xander said, "you guys can take care of yourselves. Please? For my peace of mind?"

Willow sighed and took the keys he held out. "But you call me when you get in, okay? I want to know you're all right, as well."

"Sure," Xander said, smiling at her. "Love you, Wills."

"Love you too, Xan."

Xander looked around the room, shook his head and left.

* * * * *

The chase was on. Xander saw a demon about to attack a group of teenagers. When Pike shot it, the demon turned and ran. Xander wasn't about to let this one go.

Xander, Pike and Spike chased it through the cemetery, out to the street where it jumped down a manhole. The group quickly followed.

"Ahh, back to the sewers. You White Hats really know all the great spots, you know?" Spike said.

"Yeah," said Pike. "I mean, I'm all for killing demons, but these sewers aren't exactly fun."

"They're not supposed to be fun," Xander said. "They're sewers. They smell. It's like their job."

Spike snorted.

"What?" Xander asked.

"Jobs. I figure its people doing their jobs that put the Niblet and Rupert in the hospital," Spike said.

"Walsh must have told them we were working against them, or. . . or something. They had to have been following orders," Xander said.

"Not them," said Pike. "Faith's guy, Riley."

Xander stopped walking and looked at Pike. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"Riley, man," Pike said. "I figure it's his fault."

"And just how do you come to that genius-level conclusion?" Xander asked.

"Simple," said Pike. "He hadn't mouthed off, we wouldn't be in this situation. He knows we think his group's behind it, and tells a guy who's his direct superior what's going on. He hadn't done that, Walsh wouldn't know what was going on, and Giles and Dawn wouldn't be where they are. It's pretty clear."

Xander fixed an intense stare on Pike.

"Riley is in the military," he said. "You don't just withhold information like that from your superiors. Riley felt that what he did was the right thing."

"Yeah, well," Pike said, "all I'm saying is that if he wasn't such a fucking boy scout, your friends wouldn't be in the hospital right now."

"Let's get something clear right now," Xander said, shoving Pike against the wall of the sewer and holding him there. "The reason Dawn and Giles are in the hospital is because some crazy bitch with too much power wanted more of it, and thought killing us was the way to get it. Riley is not the bad guy here. He is a good man who made a bad decision. If you can't tell the difference, then I really have to wonder what the *fuck* you're doing here."

Xander released Pike and stalked off down the sewer. Pike stood there for a minute with Spike. Spike opened his mouth to talk.

"Not one god damn word," said Pike, who then stalked off down the sewer himself.

Spike watched his friend walk away, then lit a cigarette. "Now that's entertainment," he chuckled to himself before heading off after the others. When they found the demon, there was going to be a fight, and he didn't want to miss seeing the action. Because he was pretty sure there would be none left for him.

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End Chapter 23