"The problem is," Riley started as he, Forrest and Graham got out of the elevator and stepped into the Initiative. "What kind of girl is gonna go out with a guy who's acting all Joe Regular by day and then turns all demon-hunter by night?"
"Maybe a peculiar one?" Graham supplied helpfully.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Riley deadpanned.
"Any time, Captain."
"Hold up," Riley stopped the other two officers as they got close to the main command centre. "Situation?"
"Code purple," Dr Walsh answered. "Suit up. Hostile 17 has escaped."
"What's wrong with him?" Buffy groaned from her seat on Giles' couch. "Doesn't Spike get that this is my town?"
"Well, he's resilient," Giles commented next to her.
"And it's my night off!"
"I'm sure he'd pick another night if he knew you were busy with Teutonic Boy Toy," Xander huffed from his chair.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked sharply.
"Nothin'," Xander shrugged and started sulking.
Giles cleared his throat irritably. "We have to assume that Spike's main target is you, Buffy."
"Fine," Buffy snapped. "He's worn out his welcome. Tonight, I kill him."
"You have a plan?" Giles raised an eyebrow.
"I am the plan," Buffy grinned and stood up. "It worked before – it'll work again. I go alone, no arguments. I'll lead him away from the popular areas and give him what he wants."
In UC Sunnydale's student affairs office Spike leaned back in the swivel chair in satisfaction. In front of him the list of dormitory assignments for Stevenson Hall illuminated the screen. The line "Buffy Summers, 214" was highlighted under the cursor.
"Anything?" Riley asked Graham who was surveying the area with night-vision binoculars.
"Civilian," Graham answered in such a deceptively calm voice that Riley frowned when he reached for the binoculars.
"Damn!" he cursed under his breath when he saw who Graham had meant.
"She's compromising the area," Graham reminded him.
"I know. We gotta clear her out of there. Fast."
"Maybe not," Graham grinned smugly. "Just thinking. If you were Hostile 17, living off the crap we feed 'em, what would you rather eat than that?"
"Use the girl I got a crush on as bait?" Riley asked incredulously.
"I can tag a hostile at 50 yards," Graham commented idly.
"Denied."
"She'd be safe the entire..."
"I said denied, Lieutenant."
"Did you just pull rank on me?" Graham asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Got a problem with that?"
"No, Sir!" Graham snapped smartly. "So, how are we gonna get her out of there?"
Riley pulled out his walkie-talkie. "This is Alpha leader to all surface teams. I'm going in. Over." With that he started divesting himself of all tactical gear.
On the roof of Weisman Hall special unit operative Thompson adjusted the telescopic sight of her sniper rifle. "Talk to me, Jonesy."
"I count six... no, scratch that... eight guys in two men tac teams, all armed with automatic rifles. Shite! One of them is just approaching our target."
"I have the shot. Do I take it?"
"Stand by, Maddie." Jones depressed the tangent of his radio. "Roadrunner to Coyote, come in Coyote. Over."
"Abort mission. Over," came the scratchy transmission in his ear.
"Say again, Coyote. Over," Jones blinked.
"Abort, abort, abort. Acknowledge. Over."
"Mission aborted," Jones confirmed, hiding his frustration. "What the hell, Coyote? Over."
"New orders just in: 'Abort mission. Return to nest.' Standard evac procedure. Over and out." The radio went silent.
"Bloody hell," Madeleine Thompson muttered as she lowered the butt of her rifle onto the rooftop.
"You can say that again," Florian Jones agreed with his counterpart. The Slayer would never know how close she came to be eliminated. "Someone seems to have had a change of heart. Let's pack our gear. We're going home."
"Great Wen, here we come," Maddie grinned as she started carefully disassembling the weapon. "The first pint back home is on me."
Oblivious to all the action centred on her, Buffy sat on the wooden bench with her right hand inside her shoulder bag, holding a stake. "Here, vampy, vampy," she kept muttering to herself. "Here, Spikey, Spikey." She saw a shadow fall on the ground close to the bench and was on her feet in a flash with the stake raised to a strike. It took her only a split-second to recognise the newcomer as someone of the non-vampiric kind, so she smoothly continued the motion of her arm to hide the stake behind her back.
"Riley! What are you doing here?" she asked in half surprise, half annoyance.
"Well, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to you after the party," Riley tried to smile charmingly while scoping the area without appearing to be scoping the area. "You left so fast. You know, with your friend... who's a boy."
"What, Xander?" Buffy blinked. "He's not anyone that... I wanna talk about right now." She licked her lips nervously and looked quickly over her shoulder. "You know, I don't want you taking this the wrong way. It's just, um... I need a little alone time now." When Riley showed no intentions of leaving, she repeated the main point to really underline it. "Alone."
"Why?" Riley asked somewhat exasperatedly, fidgeting a little.
"I need space," she answered quickly.
"We're outdoors," Riley reminded her and spread his arms wide to indicate all the space she had.
"Emotionally," she supplemented equally quickly. "I mean... I need space... emotionally."
Riley almost grinded his teeth together in frustration. This was not how a girl like Buffy was supposed to be acting. "You know, there's plenty of space back in your room," he tried once more. "Why don't I take you?" He leaned in to take Buffy's arm. "You wouldn't believe the weirdos..."
"Whoa! Ok," Buffy snapped and took a few steps backwards. "It's a free campus. Who died and made you John Wayne?"
"I'm just trying to help," Riley sighed.
"You think I need help?" Buffy asked, her voice rising half-an-octave. "Believe me, I don't. You know, if you were a real gentleman, then you would just leave." She accentuated her point by sitting back on the bench and pointedly not looking in Riley's direction. "You would go far, far away. Now, shoo!"
"Are you drunk?" Riley half-chuckled at Buffy's antics. He kept flicking his gaze around but here was no-one else around.
"Yes," Buffy snapped and looked up at Riley. "Go and report me... inform campus security."
Close to losing his temper totally, Riley grabbed Buffy's arms and pulled her to her feet. "I'm taking you home."
Buffy made a quick move and got herself free. She drew herself to her full height. "Ever think maybe I'm gonna take you home?" When Riley rolled his eyes, she continued. "What? You think that boys can take care of themselves and girls need help?"
"Yeah." Riley nodded with a frown. That was how the world worked.
"That's so Teutonic," Buffy gaped at Riley's serious face.
"Look, Buffy, as long as you're out here, I'm staying," Riley almost shouted.
Buffy took two steps to bring her almost nose to nose (or nose to chest in their case) with Riley. "Well, as long as you're out here, I'm staying."
Before Riley could come up with a response, they heard a woman's scream in the distance.
"See ya."
"Gotta go."
Both started running in opposite directions.
Riley made his way to where Graham had stayed hidden in record time. The lieutenant held a thermal imager in his hand.
"Tell me we're tracking," Riley snapped, getting back into his tactical gear.
"Getting picture," Graham nodded. "Got it. Single moving target with ambient temperature. Heading west."
"That better be our hostile," Riley muttered and took out his radio. "This is Alpha leader to all surface teams. Hard target sighted. Heading: 2-1 alpha niner. Bravo and Charlie teams, converge at our position. Delta team, you're our backup. Base, I need a lockdown on grid six, stat. Alpha leader out." His face grim, Riley re-holstered the radio. "Let's bag it before this gets ugly."
At Stevenson Hall, Willow lay in her bed eyes half-closed. Joni Mitchell's Blue was playing quietly on the CD player on top of her nightstand. Having smoked one on her way back from Lowell House, she was feeling quite emotional.
Buffy might be over Parker like that, and perhaps even Angel, but the earlier episode when the Dingoes' song started playing made it clear she still wasn't completely over Oz. She sighed and wondered if she ever would be. Was there anyone else for her in the world? 'Please, Goddess. Just send me a sign,' she sent out a heart-felt plea.
Someone knocked on the door.
Willow blinked a few times and then grinned widely. In her current state she was willing to accept a miracle without hesitation. 'Thank you, Goddess!'
"Come in!" she called out eagerly.
Her euphoria lasted only two seconds as the figure who opened the door and stepped inside was definitely not someone Goddess-sent.
"Spike!" she gasped and jumped out of bed.
The bleach-blonde vampire pushed the door lazily shut behind him and took a few additional steps farther into the room.
"W-what do you want?" Willow squeaked. "A-a spell? I can do that." When Spike didn't pay her any attention and turned in the direction of Buffy's half of the room, she sprinted for the door.
The vampire was much too fast for her and grabbed her easily. He threw her against the nightstand.
"I'll give you a choice," Spike drawled almost jovially and took a step closer to Willow. "Now, I'm gonna kill you. No choice in that." He took another step. "But... I can let you stay dead... or... bring you back, to be like me." He vamped out to accentuate his point.
"I-I'll scream," Willow promised him.
"Bonus," Spike grinned and leaned in closer on the redhead's neck.
True to her promise, Willow let out a high-pitched scream, which was unfortunately cut short as Spike slapped his hand over her mouth. With his other hand he turned the volume on the CD player way up. Then he pushed Willow onto the bed. In a flash he had straddled her waist and quickly overpowered her through superior strength. He grinned widely as he dove for her neck.
But before his incisors had even penetrated the redhead's skin, a terrible pain burst inside Spike's head. He howled like a wounded wolf and threw himself back. He fell to the floor, grabbing his head in both hands.
On the bed Willow's chest was heaving as she brought her shaking hand to her neck. There was only the half-healed scar left by Harmony under her scarf. On the floor the platinum-haired vampire was twitching like he had been tased.
Willow was still too much out of her mind and too much in shock to seize the opportunity to escape so she just crawled backwards on the bed until she was half-leaning against the headboard. While she was still gathering her bearings, Spike jumped back to his feet and lunged at her again. Before she could even get her mouth open to scream, the vampire let out another painful howl and dropped to his knees by the bed with his head lying next to Willow's knee on the bed.
"Is it... is it me?" Willow asked quietly.
"What are you talking about?" Spike groaned.
"You didn't want to bite me," she reminded the vampire. "You came looking for Buffy and I just happened to be around."
"No, that's not..."
"Look, I know I'm not the kind of girl vamps like to sink their teeth into. Well, ok, Harmony did, but..." She blinked a few times. Was there something in what she had just said? She was still half-way to Lalaland, so she couldn't make the thought follow through to its logical conclusion.
"Don't be ridiculous," Spike surprisingly soothed her. He managed to get himself up to sit on the foot of the bed. "I'd bite you in a heartbeat."
"Ummm... right. We could wait a half-an-hour and try again, you know?"
When Spike just hung his head low and cradled it in his hands, Willow grabbed the lamp on her nightstand and brought it down on his head with all the force she could muster. When the vampire collapsed with an "ow!", she jumped up and rushed for the door.
She couldn't get it open. Her hands were still shaking and Spike had switched on the locking mechanism.
Just as Riley rushed in through the front doors of Stevenson Hall, the lights went out in the whole building. "Move!" he barked at the two students who were making out in the stairway to the upper floor. On the second floor they encountered several other residents who were roughly pushed aside. In less than 15 seconds from entry they were at the door behind which their thermal camera had shown their target to be located. In the dimness of the corridor, he never paid attention to the room number.
"Forrest," he commanded but the other marine had already assembled the telescopic axe and was aiming it at the lock of the door. The door blasted open inwards and then a red and orange cannonball hit him, Forrest and Graham hard enough to send them sprawling to the floor. One of his teammates left standing raised his rifle but Riley had managed to get a glimpse of the escaping person. "No, hold your fire!" he shouted. The marine in question hesitated for a second which was enough for a blonde apparition in a long black duster emerging from the room to attack him.
Spike spun the gun-wielding soldier around and threw him at a wall. Vamping out he lunged for his throat. "It's on me!" the marine screamed before a terrible pain in Spike's head nearly made him black out. In the split second when he was disoriented, a bag was thrown over his head and his wrists were bound together behind his back.
"Bag and tag it. We're gone," Riley commanded.
"The civilian," Forrest reminded him. "Could have turned."
"Leave her," Riley made the decision.
"We can't neglect quarantine!"
While the two commandos were debating, Spike managed to twist his hands around forcefully enough to snap the bindings around his wrists and get his head out of the bag. He tried to push the soldiers in his path to freedom aside as non-violently as possible but then he was tackled from behind and thrust against the wall next to a fire extinguisher. He smashed the protective glass to pieces and grabbed the steel cylinder from its holdings. He smashed it against his captor's head ('Ow!') and then brought it around to shield himself when he saw another of those blasted soldiers raise a taser gun at him.
The projectiles hit the extinguisher dead centre, making it explode in his hands and start rapidly filling the narrow corridor with a thick smoke. In the mayhem Willow started to crawl away but someone shouted, "Stop her!" and she was grabbed by the arm from behind.
"She's contained," Forrest confirmed.
"I don't think so," a new voice, a female one, announced. An incredibly strong hand grabbed Forrest's shoulder and then he went flying. He hit the floor 12 feet down the corridor and slid on the carpet for six more.
In the confusion Buffy pushed Willow back into their room and closed the door behind the redhead. Ducking on instinct she narrowly missed a kick aimed at her head. Rolling to the side she swept the legs off the attacker. She followed through the roll back to her feet and engaged the next masked soldier. A left-right combo dropped him before he could even raise his hands.
In the chaos Spike decided that it might be beneficial to his further existence to make himself scarce in the battlefield.
"Hostile escaping!" Riley shouted to the two remaining men still on their feet and engaged the person who had joined the fight himself.
Not wasting any time, Spike ran the length of the corridor and dove through the large window at the end of it. Upon landing, he started staggering away as quickly as his somewhat wobbly legs could carry.
Inside, Riley found out quickly to his dismay that his opponent had the upper hand. He was being constantly kept in defence by quick and incredibly powerful hits and kicks. Weighing the situation quickly, he made an on-the-spot tactical decision that might get him into trouble later.
"Abort!" he shouted the command and started backing away. His opponent stayed in a fighting stance but didn't follow him as he retreated further into the smoke. His team followed him back into the stairway. He ordered the power to be restored and then they were out of the building, finally able to breathe in fresh air.
Within the lights returned in less than half-a-minute, illuminating the slowly dissipating smoke cloud. Buffy saw Willow re-emerge from their room to the corridor holding her neck and quickly ushered the redhead back inside.
Sometime later down in the Initiative Dr Walsh was far from happy.
"I'm sure you'll understand if I seem far from happy," she addressed Riley, Graham and Forrest. "Call me old-fashioned but I like results. This so-called report reads like a child's riddle book." She threw the report in question on a table. "Captain Finn, tell me something good. The implant?"
"It works," Riley answered. "Hostile 17 can't harm any living creature, in any way, without intense neurological pain. He can't feed, can't hardly even hit any more. We'll bag it."
"Yes, you will," Walsh stated flatly. "Dismissed."
The next morning Riley was walking in the direction of the library when he spotted a certain petite blonde ahead of him. He hurried his steps and quickly caught up with her. Still feeling a bit self-conscious in Buffy's presence, he licked his lips nervously. "Hi, Buffy. Ummm... listen, I'm sorry about last night."
"No," Buffy shook her head. "I was rude. I just... felt like being alone. Sometimes it's nice to be out by yourself at night."
"I hear that," Riley agreed. "Gotta be careful, though. Lots of... strange people out there."
"Oh, yeah," Buffy grinned.
"How's Willow doing?" Riley asked with real concern.
"Ok. Of course, that stupid fraternity prank on our dorm didn't help any."
"That's right," he nodded carefully. "I forgot you guys live in Stevenson."
"You knew that?" Buffy raised an eyebrow.
"Well," Riley grimaced. "Willow and I were... I thought she might be able to help me on a project."
"Really? That work out for ya?"
"Don't know yet," Riley shrugged.
"Ummm... last night, at the party. You wanted to tell me something?"
Riley suddenly found out it was getting hard to draw breath. "Oh, yeah. Very important stuff," he managed to get out of his mouth in a rush. "I don't remember any of it. But you would have been fascinated, possibly even moved." When Buffy just looked back at him, he felt the beginnings of an uncomfortable silence start to descend on them. "Did Willow tell you I like cheese?" he blurted out.
Buffy looked back at him for a long time with an unreadable look on her face. "You're a little peculiar," she shook her head finally.
"I can live with that," Riley grinned widely.
Side by side they continued their journey to the library.