"Hey," Xander said that evening upon entering the mansion.
"Xander," Angel replied, coolly. "How's Dawn?"
Xander pulled a container of pig's blood from a shoulder-satchel he was carrying and handed it to Angel, who eyed it suspiciously.
"There's nothing wrong with it," Xander said, putting it on the table in front of the fireplace and sitting on the couch with his feet up. "I took it straight from Spike's fridge. Dawn's fine. Me and Buffy visited her earlier and, well. . . ," Xander grinned mischievously, "I think the doctors are going to be kind of surprised at how fast she's progressing."
Angel nodded then lifted the lid and sniffed the blood. Smelling no 'additives,' he started drinking.
"Has anybody ever told you that is *really* disgusting?" Xander asked.
"Cordy, a couple times," Angel said, wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand. "I try not to drink too much around her, though."
Xander nodded. "Okay," he said. "Here's the deal. We have – did you call Cordelia, by the way?"
"Yeah," Angel said. "My ear is still ringing."
"I know what you mean," Xander said, leaning back on the couch. "Like, earlier this year, me and Riley are patrolling, and we kind of chase this demon through the sewers for an hour and a half. We find the guy, kill the hell out of him, and then climb out of the sewers in the middle of campus, smelling of sewer and demon goo and looking like hell. So we stop in at Lowell House – the frat house we were at today -- and I take a quick shower. I get home, it's like 4 am, and Buffy's up waiting for me, chews me out for not calling, worrying her. . . "
Xander shook his head. "I mean, I was out fighting evil, and I got dirty. If I had come home smelling bad. . . "
"I know what you mean," Angel said. "Like, Cordy's on this shoot, right? For a commercial? And the director's treating her like a piece of meat, saying 'You have bags under your eyes,' and 'You think you're so hot, but there's a thousand girls just like you who want this spot,' and 'What the hell is that scar? Get some make up, damn it!' So I ask Cordy if she wants me to rip the guy's head off –"
"Because you can," Xander said.
"Exactly. And she starts yelling at me like it's my fault the director's being a jerk."
They both sighed. "Women," they said in unison.
Angel took another sip of the blood.
"Did we just have a bonding moment?" Xander asked, uncomfortably.
Both men shuddered.
"Best not to think of it," Angel said. "So what's the situation?"
Xander laughed. "You know, I love Willow," he said.
Angel looked at Xander oddly.
"Will felt really bad about you being stuck in my trunk today – and by the way sorry about not having any pillows for you – so she did this." Xander reached into his satchel and pulled out a presentation binder, which he slid across the table to Angel.
Angel picked up the binder – complete with a cover page that read 'This Year's Apocalypse' – and flipped through some pages.
"She wrote up a summary?" Angel asked, looking through the pamphlet. "With pictures?"
Angel flipped to the end. "What's this stuff? Who's this guy?"
"That's Adam," Xander said. "He's the monstrosity we've been – well I wouldn't say we've been fighting him, so much as he's been handing us our asses."
"Uranium power supply? Polgaran spike? What the hell?"
"Yeah, and the date on that thing's over a month old," Xander said. "Who knows what upgrades he's had since then? Other than his eyes."
"Eyes?" Angel asked.
"Pike shot his eyes out, so we're pretty sure he's had them replaced. With what, is the question."
"Jesus," Angel said.
"Shouldn't that hurt your mouth?" Xander asked.
Angel looked up from the papers in confusion. "Shouldn't what hurt my mouth?"
"Saying 'Jesus' or 'God' or 'Holy crap' or something. Why doesn't that hurt?"
"Uh. . . they're just words? I don't know. Maybe if I said a prayer it would, but as you might guess, I'm not exactly the praying type," Angel said.
"I know what you mean," said Xander. "In this town? Not a lot to inspire faith."
"I thought that was Riley's department," Angel said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Hey," Xander said, aiming a threatening finger at the vampire. "Bad puns are my job. Don't take my stuff, man."
"You took my girl, why can't I have the puns?"
"Because if we read the books right, she was my girl to begin with," Xander said.
"Well who says the puns aren't mine to begin with? Maybe you were just keeping them warm for me?"
"Christ, I think I liked you better when you were all broody."
Angel flipped a couple more pages of the presentation. "I don't know what any of this means," he said.
"Neither does anybody who's not Willow, or maybe Giles." Xander looked at his watch. "Anyway, planning session time. You in?"
"Yeah," Angel said. "Only this time, I'm driving."
* * * * *
"All right, we've ruled out a frontal assault," Giles said. "Have we been able to confirm the location of this corridor?"
"Yeah," Buffy said. "Sort of. It's at the back of the base, kind of behind a restricted access corridor."
"How restricted?" Angel asked.
"Way," Buffy said. "Like, big steel doors, code. . . thingy. Maybe other stuff."
"Definitely other stuff," Xander said, entering the newly-rewindowed Summers dining room, with Davis following behind him. "Davis here has agreed to help us, with planning at least."
Angel growled at the man entering the room.
"Down, boy," Faith said in a patronizing tone, bringing a smirk to Xander's face.
"Where's Finn?" Davis asked, skirting to one side of the growling vampire.
Everybody turned to Faith.
"I don't know," she said, her eyebrows creasing with worry. "He hasn't responded to pages or anything."
"Well, we can't afford to wait," Giles said, turning back to Davis. "What do you know about this area of the Initiative?"
"Virtually nothing," Davis said, sitting down at the table. "But this secured corridor you're talking about has lots of safety features. First, yes, it is a big steel door with a secure code entry. But the code changes every twenty five seconds, and only Drs. Angleman and Walsh have the entry keys."
"What about inside the corridor?" Giles asked.
"No idea," Davis said. "I've never been down there."
"What about your guys downstairs?" asked Buffy.
"Nobody's been down there," Davis said. "Like I said, Angleman and Walsh keep it closed off."
"So how are we supposed to get in?" Xander asked.
"Well, getting into the compound itself won't be a problem. As you and Finn showed so easily, we don't have the best security in the world, especially if you've got somebody for the retinal scan."
"Like you," Giles said.
"Right, like me. After that, I don't know how you can get in there. The only thing I could think of would be to shut off power to the whole base, but that would also release the HST's. Maybe there's a way you can open the door from the base computers, but you'd need a hacker to do that, because I sure as hell don't know how."
"Hey guys," Willow said as she and Tara walked into the Summers house. Everybody turned to look at her. Everyone but Davis smiled at her knowingly. "Sorry we're late, I had – why are you guys looking at me like that?"
"How up on your hacking skills are ya, Will?" Xander asked.
"Pretty good," she said, warily. "Why? And what's he doing all not tied up?"
"Lieutenant Davis has agreed to help us out," Giles said. "And we're wondering if you'll be up for hacking into the Initiative computers."
"Oh," Willow said, dropping her bag on the floor and taking a seat at the table with Tara. "Well sure. If I can get to their servers. If they have servers. Do they have servers?"
"It would be easier if you're on site, right?" Davis asked.
"Well, yeah, it should – are we infiltrating the Initiative?" Willow asked.
Various people around the table nodded.
"We don't have to wear fatigues, do we?" she asked.
"I hope not," said Buffy. "Fatigues on me are way Private Benjamin."
"I know what you mean," Faith said. "I tried on Ri's pants this one –"
"Can we please talk about the upcoming assault and *not* the latest in commando fashion?" Giles asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"So where –"Xander started.
"Hey kids, we've got some news," Pike said, as he and Spike rushed into the house. Pike was almost out of breath.
"By all means, come in without knocking," Buffy said.
"Oh, don't be like that, Buffy," Joyce said. "Boys you're welcome here anytime."
"Thanks Joyce," Spike said, smirking at Buffy. "Hey, Peaches."
"Spike," Angel grunted.
"Why do you call him that?" Xander asked Spike, before turning to Angel. "Why does he call you that?"
"You don't want to know," the vampires said in unison, causing Spike to grin and Angel to glare.
"Anyway," Pike said, drawing the attention back to himself, "we were doing a little hunting, and we followed this big guy into some caves. Yada yada yada, he's dead, we're not, and there's a cave entrance to the Initiative."
"What?" Xander asked.
"There's a what?" asked Davis.
"Wait, where?" Buffy asked.
Pike and Spike seemed to notice Davis for the first time. Pike walked up to Davis and punched him square in the face.
"That's for shooting Dawn," Spike growled. "I'd do it myself if I didn't have this damn chip in my head."
"Since when did you become so attached to Dawnie?" Willow asked.
Spike shrugged. "Bit's good to me. Doesn't put on airs, treats me like people. Much like her mother in that respect," he said.
Joyce thanked him with a nod and a smile.
"I suppose it doesn't matter much to you," Giles said. "But Lieutenant Davis was not actually the man who shot Dawn. He is downstairs. And still unconscious, I might add."
Pike looked at Giles, then at Davis. "You their commander?"
"For this operation I was, yes," Davis said.
Pike nodded. "Then it's his fault."
"I don't quite see –"
"He's right," Davis said. "I am supposed to be in control of my men at all times. Anything that goes wrong is my responsibility, even if it wasn't me who did it."
Davis turned to Joyce. "Ma'am, I would like to apologize for the careless actions that led to your daughter's injury. I know it in no way makes up for what happened, but you do have my sincere apology."
Joyce frowned and nodded. "You're right," she said. "It doesn't make up for it, and if the man who shot my daughter wasn't currently unconscious, he would be in a lot more pain than he currently is."
"I understand," Davis said. "I would have the same reaction; in fact it might not make much difference to me if he was conscious or not."
Joyce nodded at the young man and Giles put his arm around her waist, comforting her.
"About those caves. . . " Xander prompted.
"Right," Pike said. "Well, I guess we chased this thing what, half mile?"
"Half mile," Spike agreed, nodding.
"Deep into the caves. Passed that little computer set up you guys found. . . at least I assume it was the same one. So we kill this guy, I dump like three clips into the guy before Spike shoves him down a chasm. . . which, how far do those things go down? Because this guy kept yelling. . . "
"Deep," Davis said. "Real deep. Anything dropped down there is just gone."
"Okay, well, he's down there, and we're kind of all –"
"We forgot to leave a trail of breadcrumbs," Spike said.
"Right," said Pike. "We look around, trying to find somewhere, and there's all of a sudden this door in the wall. We check it –"
"*I* checked it," Spike interrupted. "Credit where credit's due, mate."
"Anyway," Pike continued. "Inside is like this sterile lab, and some bald, black guy lyin' on a table with his guts all over, and he looks like he's just been transplanted with some demon parts. We were about to go in and see what we could do about dismantling the place, when we hear a voice coming towards the room. So we high-tailed it and here we are."
"Bald black guy?" Faith asked, frowning.
"That sounds like Forrest," Davis said.
"And Riley wasn't allowed to see his body, either," Faith said. "Even though he was supposedly killed by a demon."
"Adam is technically part demon," Xander pointed out.
"You couldn't tell how he died, could you?"
Pike shook his head.
"Didn't have time, mate," Spike said. "Just barely got a look. But I'm pretty sure that it was Adam's voice we heard, though. All mechanical and whatnot."
"Good," Giles said, nodding. "That means we have a way to get access without going through the Initiative. I would prefer we not have to fight our way through a full complement of soldiers, then past a complete holding cell full of demons, in order to tire our selves out for the fight against Adam."
"That would be better," Xander said. "Especially since we still don't have any way to defeat Adam. I mean, brute force hasn't really worked so far."
"We'll have to think of something," Willow said.
"You guys didn't find any spells?" Buffy asked.
"No," said Willow. "Big fat nothing."
Buffy sighed and looked outside. "Okay," she said. "Faith, you wanna hit a patrol?"
"Sure," Faith said, distractedly.
"I suppose the rest of us should head over to the Magic Box and try to find. . . well, anything, I suppose," Giles said.
"Why don't we go do that," Willow said, "and you and Mrs. Summers can go see Dawnie?"
Giles turned to look at Joyce, who had a hopeful look on her face.
"Of course," Giles said. "That sounds fine. We'll see you all in the morning then?"
"What should I do?" Davis asked.
"You're coming with us," Xander said. "Maybe you can think of something we haven't."
* * * * *
"Xander?" Angel said as the research group got out of their cars at the Magic Box.
"I know," Xander replied. "I saw them when we pulled up. You get a count?"
"Nine that I could see."
"Demons?" Tara asked.
"Vampires," Spike said as Willow unlocked the door to the Magic Box.
"And there's ten," said Pike, nodding over his shoulder. Angel glanced behind him and saw one he had missed.
"Right. Ten," Angel said. "That makes what, two and a half each?"
"Only counting you four?" Willow asked, opening the door. "What about the rest of us? We can fight."
"Yeah," Xander said. "Hey, Will, see that shadow over in the alley there?"
"Uh huh," she said.
"Give us five seconds to spread out, then do that cool fire spell, would you?"
"Okay," Willow said.
"And Davis, you get them inside after that and protect them. They get hurt, you get hurt. Got me?" Xander asked as he turned on his shield.
"Yeah," Davis said.
Pike, Spike, Angel and Xander started to spread out into the street, about five feet away from each other. After counting down, Willow targeted the shadow Xander had pointed out and muttered 'incendiere.'
Out from the darkness of the alley, two vampires ran into the street rolling and screaming, on fire, and quickly turning to dust. At that point, all the shadows began to move.
"Oh, uh, wow," Xander said as twelve more vampires emerged from the shadows. "They're really serious about this, aren't they?"
"What, can't handle your three, whelp?" Spike asked.
From his left, a vampire leapt at Xander, who rolled out of the way and grabbed its arm, throwing it to the ground and staking it swiftly.
Another leapt at Angel, who all but mirrored Xander's move exactly.
"If they keep coming at us in ones," Spike said, "this isn't even going to be a challenge."
The remaining ten began to advance.
"Had to open your big mouth, didn't you?" Angel growled.
At once, the battle was entered. Vampires came at the quartet from all directions. The group had their hands full just keeping the vampires away.
Pike was having the most difficulty. Though he had kneecapped two of them before they reached him, without a significant boost in strength he was still equally matched by a single vampire. One vampire plus two hobbling after him was nearly too much.
As the first vampire reached Pike, he punched it across the face with the butt of his pistol. It quickly recovered and struck out at him, scraping across his arm and opening a good sized gash. Pike managed to sidestep the next blow, and raised his gun quickly, attempting to shoot in the face.
Instead, the vampire knocked his gun arm away with considerable force and clawed him across the face, sending him sprawling across the pavement. The vampire ran up and jumped on him, his jaws open. Just as he was about to attach his teeth to Pike's neck, it turned into dust. Pike looked up to see his savior and saw nothing but empty air – and a floating stake. Whipping his head around, he saw Tara and Willow at the doorway, each with hands raised in the direction of floating stakes.
Pike hopped to his feet to look for other opponents, but saw that Willow and Tara had taken everybody by surprise with their flying stakes of death, and only Spike was still fighting.
Angel walked over to where Spike was rolling on the ground with his opponent, waited until Spike had gained the upper hand – meaning he was on top – then picked him up by his collar and allowed one of the flying stakes to impale the vampire on the ground.
"What's the big idea?" Spike asked. "I had 'im right where I wanted him."
"Yeah, and now we've all got him right where we wanted him," Angel said as he shoved Spike towards the Magic Box. "Dead. Let's go."
"You still look tense," Pike said to Xander.
"Yeah," Xander said, his hands still balled into fists. "Got me kinda worked up, you know? Now I got all this energy and nothing to do with it."
"We have research to do," Willow said as she and Tara led the others into the Magic Box.
"That's not gonna wind me down fast enough," Xander said.
"Well, you're telegraphing some of your punches," Angel said. "If you want work on that, I hear you've got a good workout room in the back."
"I am?" Xander asked as he took a quick look at Pike's injuries and healed them as best he could. "There'll be a scar for a couple days, but you'll be fine," he said.
"Thanks," said Pike.
"So?" Angel asked. "Work on it?"
"Sure," Xander said. "But I have one thing to take care of real quick. Hey Wills?"
"Yeah?" Willow asked from behind the main counter where she was retrieving some books.
"Second drawer on the right?"
Willow looked down and opened the indicated drawer, then smiled. She pulled out what was there and tossed it to Xander.
"Thanks," Xander said, catching the object in mid-air. Xander turned and walked over to Tara. "Join me for a minute?"
Tara looked up at him, then to Willow, who nodded. Tara stood and followed Xander into the training room.
"Okay," Xander said as he swung the door shut. "These are Twinkies."
"What's that about?" Pike asked.
"Stick around," Angel said. "You might find out someday."
"What about me?" Spike asked.
"No," Willow and Angel said together, before sharing a knowing smile.
A couple minutes later, Xander and Tara emerged from the back room, Xander smiling and Tara mildly confused.
"You ready Angel?" Xander asked.
"Yeah," Angel said, standing from his chair and following Xander into the back room. "And I'm gonna kick your ass so bad. . . "
Xander laughed and shut the door behind them as the rest of the group sat down to research.
----------
End Chapter 27
"Xander," Angel replied, coolly. "How's Dawn?"
Xander pulled a container of pig's blood from a shoulder-satchel he was carrying and handed it to Angel, who eyed it suspiciously.
"There's nothing wrong with it," Xander said, putting it on the table in front of the fireplace and sitting on the couch with his feet up. "I took it straight from Spike's fridge. Dawn's fine. Me and Buffy visited her earlier and, well. . . ," Xander grinned mischievously, "I think the doctors are going to be kind of surprised at how fast she's progressing."
Angel nodded then lifted the lid and sniffed the blood. Smelling no 'additives,' he started drinking.
"Has anybody ever told you that is *really* disgusting?" Xander asked.
"Cordy, a couple times," Angel said, wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand. "I try not to drink too much around her, though."
Xander nodded. "Okay," he said. "Here's the deal. We have – did you call Cordelia, by the way?"
"Yeah," Angel said. "My ear is still ringing."
"I know what you mean," Xander said, leaning back on the couch. "Like, earlier this year, me and Riley are patrolling, and we kind of chase this demon through the sewers for an hour and a half. We find the guy, kill the hell out of him, and then climb out of the sewers in the middle of campus, smelling of sewer and demon goo and looking like hell. So we stop in at Lowell House – the frat house we were at today -- and I take a quick shower. I get home, it's like 4 am, and Buffy's up waiting for me, chews me out for not calling, worrying her. . . "
Xander shook his head. "I mean, I was out fighting evil, and I got dirty. If I had come home smelling bad. . . "
"I know what you mean," Angel said. "Like, Cordy's on this shoot, right? For a commercial? And the director's treating her like a piece of meat, saying 'You have bags under your eyes,' and 'You think you're so hot, but there's a thousand girls just like you who want this spot,' and 'What the hell is that scar? Get some make up, damn it!' So I ask Cordy if she wants me to rip the guy's head off –"
"Because you can," Xander said.
"Exactly. And she starts yelling at me like it's my fault the director's being a jerk."
They both sighed. "Women," they said in unison.
Angel took another sip of the blood.
"Did we just have a bonding moment?" Xander asked, uncomfortably.
Both men shuddered.
"Best not to think of it," Angel said. "So what's the situation?"
Xander laughed. "You know, I love Willow," he said.
Angel looked at Xander oddly.
"Will felt really bad about you being stuck in my trunk today – and by the way sorry about not having any pillows for you – so she did this." Xander reached into his satchel and pulled out a presentation binder, which he slid across the table to Angel.
Angel picked up the binder – complete with a cover page that read 'This Year's Apocalypse' – and flipped through some pages.
"She wrote up a summary?" Angel asked, looking through the pamphlet. "With pictures?"
Angel flipped to the end. "What's this stuff? Who's this guy?"
"That's Adam," Xander said. "He's the monstrosity we've been – well I wouldn't say we've been fighting him, so much as he's been handing us our asses."
"Uranium power supply? Polgaran spike? What the hell?"
"Yeah, and the date on that thing's over a month old," Xander said. "Who knows what upgrades he's had since then? Other than his eyes."
"Eyes?" Angel asked.
"Pike shot his eyes out, so we're pretty sure he's had them replaced. With what, is the question."
"Jesus," Angel said.
"Shouldn't that hurt your mouth?" Xander asked.
Angel looked up from the papers in confusion. "Shouldn't what hurt my mouth?"
"Saying 'Jesus' or 'God' or 'Holy crap' or something. Why doesn't that hurt?"
"Uh. . . they're just words? I don't know. Maybe if I said a prayer it would, but as you might guess, I'm not exactly the praying type," Angel said.
"I know what you mean," said Xander. "In this town? Not a lot to inspire faith."
"I thought that was Riley's department," Angel said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Hey," Xander said, aiming a threatening finger at the vampire. "Bad puns are my job. Don't take my stuff, man."
"You took my girl, why can't I have the puns?"
"Because if we read the books right, she was my girl to begin with," Xander said.
"Well who says the puns aren't mine to begin with? Maybe you were just keeping them warm for me?"
"Christ, I think I liked you better when you were all broody."
Angel flipped a couple more pages of the presentation. "I don't know what any of this means," he said.
"Neither does anybody who's not Willow, or maybe Giles." Xander looked at his watch. "Anyway, planning session time. You in?"
"Yeah," Angel said. "Only this time, I'm driving."
* * * * *
"All right, we've ruled out a frontal assault," Giles said. "Have we been able to confirm the location of this corridor?"
"Yeah," Buffy said. "Sort of. It's at the back of the base, kind of behind a restricted access corridor."
"How restricted?" Angel asked.
"Way," Buffy said. "Like, big steel doors, code. . . thingy. Maybe other stuff."
"Definitely other stuff," Xander said, entering the newly-rewindowed Summers dining room, with Davis following behind him. "Davis here has agreed to help us, with planning at least."
Angel growled at the man entering the room.
"Down, boy," Faith said in a patronizing tone, bringing a smirk to Xander's face.
"Where's Finn?" Davis asked, skirting to one side of the growling vampire.
Everybody turned to Faith.
"I don't know," she said, her eyebrows creasing with worry. "He hasn't responded to pages or anything."
"Well, we can't afford to wait," Giles said, turning back to Davis. "What do you know about this area of the Initiative?"
"Virtually nothing," Davis said, sitting down at the table. "But this secured corridor you're talking about has lots of safety features. First, yes, it is a big steel door with a secure code entry. But the code changes every twenty five seconds, and only Drs. Angleman and Walsh have the entry keys."
"What about inside the corridor?" Giles asked.
"No idea," Davis said. "I've never been down there."
"What about your guys downstairs?" asked Buffy.
"Nobody's been down there," Davis said. "Like I said, Angleman and Walsh keep it closed off."
"So how are we supposed to get in?" Xander asked.
"Well, getting into the compound itself won't be a problem. As you and Finn showed so easily, we don't have the best security in the world, especially if you've got somebody for the retinal scan."
"Like you," Giles said.
"Right, like me. After that, I don't know how you can get in there. The only thing I could think of would be to shut off power to the whole base, but that would also release the HST's. Maybe there's a way you can open the door from the base computers, but you'd need a hacker to do that, because I sure as hell don't know how."
"Hey guys," Willow said as she and Tara walked into the Summers house. Everybody turned to look at her. Everyone but Davis smiled at her knowingly. "Sorry we're late, I had – why are you guys looking at me like that?"
"How up on your hacking skills are ya, Will?" Xander asked.
"Pretty good," she said, warily. "Why? And what's he doing all not tied up?"
"Lieutenant Davis has agreed to help us out," Giles said. "And we're wondering if you'll be up for hacking into the Initiative computers."
"Oh," Willow said, dropping her bag on the floor and taking a seat at the table with Tara. "Well sure. If I can get to their servers. If they have servers. Do they have servers?"
"It would be easier if you're on site, right?" Davis asked.
"Well, yeah, it should – are we infiltrating the Initiative?" Willow asked.
Various people around the table nodded.
"We don't have to wear fatigues, do we?" she asked.
"I hope not," said Buffy. "Fatigues on me are way Private Benjamin."
"I know what you mean," Faith said. "I tried on Ri's pants this one –"
"Can we please talk about the upcoming assault and *not* the latest in commando fashion?" Giles asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"So where –"Xander started.
"Hey kids, we've got some news," Pike said, as he and Spike rushed into the house. Pike was almost out of breath.
"By all means, come in without knocking," Buffy said.
"Oh, don't be like that, Buffy," Joyce said. "Boys you're welcome here anytime."
"Thanks Joyce," Spike said, smirking at Buffy. "Hey, Peaches."
"Spike," Angel grunted.
"Why do you call him that?" Xander asked Spike, before turning to Angel. "Why does he call you that?"
"You don't want to know," the vampires said in unison, causing Spike to grin and Angel to glare.
"Anyway," Pike said, drawing the attention back to himself, "we were doing a little hunting, and we followed this big guy into some caves. Yada yada yada, he's dead, we're not, and there's a cave entrance to the Initiative."
"What?" Xander asked.
"There's a what?" asked Davis.
"Wait, where?" Buffy asked.
Pike and Spike seemed to notice Davis for the first time. Pike walked up to Davis and punched him square in the face.
"That's for shooting Dawn," Spike growled. "I'd do it myself if I didn't have this damn chip in my head."
"Since when did you become so attached to Dawnie?" Willow asked.
Spike shrugged. "Bit's good to me. Doesn't put on airs, treats me like people. Much like her mother in that respect," he said.
Joyce thanked him with a nod and a smile.
"I suppose it doesn't matter much to you," Giles said. "But Lieutenant Davis was not actually the man who shot Dawn. He is downstairs. And still unconscious, I might add."
Pike looked at Giles, then at Davis. "You their commander?"
"For this operation I was, yes," Davis said.
Pike nodded. "Then it's his fault."
"I don't quite see –"
"He's right," Davis said. "I am supposed to be in control of my men at all times. Anything that goes wrong is my responsibility, even if it wasn't me who did it."
Davis turned to Joyce. "Ma'am, I would like to apologize for the careless actions that led to your daughter's injury. I know it in no way makes up for what happened, but you do have my sincere apology."
Joyce frowned and nodded. "You're right," she said. "It doesn't make up for it, and if the man who shot my daughter wasn't currently unconscious, he would be in a lot more pain than he currently is."
"I understand," Davis said. "I would have the same reaction; in fact it might not make much difference to me if he was conscious or not."
Joyce nodded at the young man and Giles put his arm around her waist, comforting her.
"About those caves. . . " Xander prompted.
"Right," Pike said. "Well, I guess we chased this thing what, half mile?"
"Half mile," Spike agreed, nodding.
"Deep into the caves. Passed that little computer set up you guys found. . . at least I assume it was the same one. So we kill this guy, I dump like three clips into the guy before Spike shoves him down a chasm. . . which, how far do those things go down? Because this guy kept yelling. . . "
"Deep," Davis said. "Real deep. Anything dropped down there is just gone."
"Okay, well, he's down there, and we're kind of all –"
"We forgot to leave a trail of breadcrumbs," Spike said.
"Right," said Pike. "We look around, trying to find somewhere, and there's all of a sudden this door in the wall. We check it –"
"*I* checked it," Spike interrupted. "Credit where credit's due, mate."
"Anyway," Pike continued. "Inside is like this sterile lab, and some bald, black guy lyin' on a table with his guts all over, and he looks like he's just been transplanted with some demon parts. We were about to go in and see what we could do about dismantling the place, when we hear a voice coming towards the room. So we high-tailed it and here we are."
"Bald black guy?" Faith asked, frowning.
"That sounds like Forrest," Davis said.
"And Riley wasn't allowed to see his body, either," Faith said. "Even though he was supposedly killed by a demon."
"Adam is technically part demon," Xander pointed out.
"You couldn't tell how he died, could you?"
Pike shook his head.
"Didn't have time, mate," Spike said. "Just barely got a look. But I'm pretty sure that it was Adam's voice we heard, though. All mechanical and whatnot."
"Good," Giles said, nodding. "That means we have a way to get access without going through the Initiative. I would prefer we not have to fight our way through a full complement of soldiers, then past a complete holding cell full of demons, in order to tire our selves out for the fight against Adam."
"That would be better," Xander said. "Especially since we still don't have any way to defeat Adam. I mean, brute force hasn't really worked so far."
"We'll have to think of something," Willow said.
"You guys didn't find any spells?" Buffy asked.
"No," said Willow. "Big fat nothing."
Buffy sighed and looked outside. "Okay," she said. "Faith, you wanna hit a patrol?"
"Sure," Faith said, distractedly.
"I suppose the rest of us should head over to the Magic Box and try to find. . . well, anything, I suppose," Giles said.
"Why don't we go do that," Willow said, "and you and Mrs. Summers can go see Dawnie?"
Giles turned to look at Joyce, who had a hopeful look on her face.
"Of course," Giles said. "That sounds fine. We'll see you all in the morning then?"
"What should I do?" Davis asked.
"You're coming with us," Xander said. "Maybe you can think of something we haven't."
* * * * *
"Xander?" Angel said as the research group got out of their cars at the Magic Box.
"I know," Xander replied. "I saw them when we pulled up. You get a count?"
"Nine that I could see."
"Demons?" Tara asked.
"Vampires," Spike said as Willow unlocked the door to the Magic Box.
"And there's ten," said Pike, nodding over his shoulder. Angel glanced behind him and saw one he had missed.
"Right. Ten," Angel said. "That makes what, two and a half each?"
"Only counting you four?" Willow asked, opening the door. "What about the rest of us? We can fight."
"Yeah," Xander said. "Hey, Will, see that shadow over in the alley there?"
"Uh huh," she said.
"Give us five seconds to spread out, then do that cool fire spell, would you?"
"Okay," Willow said.
"And Davis, you get them inside after that and protect them. They get hurt, you get hurt. Got me?" Xander asked as he turned on his shield.
"Yeah," Davis said.
Pike, Spike, Angel and Xander started to spread out into the street, about five feet away from each other. After counting down, Willow targeted the shadow Xander had pointed out and muttered 'incendiere.'
Out from the darkness of the alley, two vampires ran into the street rolling and screaming, on fire, and quickly turning to dust. At that point, all the shadows began to move.
"Oh, uh, wow," Xander said as twelve more vampires emerged from the shadows. "They're really serious about this, aren't they?"
"What, can't handle your three, whelp?" Spike asked.
From his left, a vampire leapt at Xander, who rolled out of the way and grabbed its arm, throwing it to the ground and staking it swiftly.
Another leapt at Angel, who all but mirrored Xander's move exactly.
"If they keep coming at us in ones," Spike said, "this isn't even going to be a challenge."
The remaining ten began to advance.
"Had to open your big mouth, didn't you?" Angel growled.
At once, the battle was entered. Vampires came at the quartet from all directions. The group had their hands full just keeping the vampires away.
Pike was having the most difficulty. Though he had kneecapped two of them before they reached him, without a significant boost in strength he was still equally matched by a single vampire. One vampire plus two hobbling after him was nearly too much.
As the first vampire reached Pike, he punched it across the face with the butt of his pistol. It quickly recovered and struck out at him, scraping across his arm and opening a good sized gash. Pike managed to sidestep the next blow, and raised his gun quickly, attempting to shoot in the face.
Instead, the vampire knocked his gun arm away with considerable force and clawed him across the face, sending him sprawling across the pavement. The vampire ran up and jumped on him, his jaws open. Just as he was about to attach his teeth to Pike's neck, it turned into dust. Pike looked up to see his savior and saw nothing but empty air – and a floating stake. Whipping his head around, he saw Tara and Willow at the doorway, each with hands raised in the direction of floating stakes.
Pike hopped to his feet to look for other opponents, but saw that Willow and Tara had taken everybody by surprise with their flying stakes of death, and only Spike was still fighting.
Angel walked over to where Spike was rolling on the ground with his opponent, waited until Spike had gained the upper hand – meaning he was on top – then picked him up by his collar and allowed one of the flying stakes to impale the vampire on the ground.
"What's the big idea?" Spike asked. "I had 'im right where I wanted him."
"Yeah, and now we've all got him right where we wanted him," Angel said as he shoved Spike towards the Magic Box. "Dead. Let's go."
"You still look tense," Pike said to Xander.
"Yeah," Xander said, his hands still balled into fists. "Got me kinda worked up, you know? Now I got all this energy and nothing to do with it."
"We have research to do," Willow said as she and Tara led the others into the Magic Box.
"That's not gonna wind me down fast enough," Xander said.
"Well, you're telegraphing some of your punches," Angel said. "If you want work on that, I hear you've got a good workout room in the back."
"I am?" Xander asked as he took a quick look at Pike's injuries and healed them as best he could. "There'll be a scar for a couple days, but you'll be fine," he said.
"Thanks," said Pike.
"So?" Angel asked. "Work on it?"
"Sure," Xander said. "But I have one thing to take care of real quick. Hey Wills?"
"Yeah?" Willow asked from behind the main counter where she was retrieving some books.
"Second drawer on the right?"
Willow looked down and opened the indicated drawer, then smiled. She pulled out what was there and tossed it to Xander.
"Thanks," Xander said, catching the object in mid-air. Xander turned and walked over to Tara. "Join me for a minute?"
Tara looked up at him, then to Willow, who nodded. Tara stood and followed Xander into the training room.
"Okay," Xander said as he swung the door shut. "These are Twinkies."
"What's that about?" Pike asked.
"Stick around," Angel said. "You might find out someday."
"What about me?" Spike asked.
"No," Willow and Angel said together, before sharing a knowing smile.
A couple minutes later, Xander and Tara emerged from the back room, Xander smiling and Tara mildly confused.
"You ready Angel?" Xander asked.
"Yeah," Angel said, standing from his chair and following Xander into the back room. "And I'm gonna kick your ass so bad. . . "
Xander laughed and shut the door behind them as the rest of the group sat down to research.
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End Chapter 27
