(O.O)

Willow was pissed.

Not just because she was still affected by the drug that made her more assertive, controlling, and hot-headed when things did not go her way, but because she never expected her best friend to be the most annoying, pigheaded idiot she had ever met.

She knew Xander Harris was a bit of a slacker. Mostly it was because he was always unmotivated. But after meeting Buffy those traits had slowly disappeared and he always tried his best to help even though he was only human with no powers.

He was the heart of their team. The bravest of them all because despite having no superpowers or any magical talent like her or Giles, he always stepped up to whatever task was given to him and was always the first to volunteer to help Buffy even when he was scared or knew he could die.

That always amazed her about her friend.

The Xander she was staring at right now, however, was none of those things.

The young man in front of her was looking at her defiantly because he did not want to go with her to help Buffy.

She had come into his house after finding and convincing Anya to return to Giles' apartment. For an ex-Vengence demon, she was quite a fighter when she was informed that the soldiers took Buffy and would most likely turn her into a science experiment.

Apparently, helping a fellow female in distress was more fulfilling than finding a man to have her babies. Go figure.

Xander, on the other hand, was not so easy to convince.

She had found him sitting in front of his tv watching a movie he had seen several times in the past while eating junk foods. She had expected his friend to rush to Buffy's aid after she told him that she was captured by the soldiers roaming around the campus as he had in the past. But instead, he merely shrugged at her words and said that he wasn't going.

Willow had spent the entire 30 minutes, since she arrived, explaining that Buffy was their friend and that as such, they needed to help rescue her. However, everything she had said was either ignored or brutally dismissed by the young man.

"Look, Wills, I get it. Buffy got herself captured and there is a chance she could get killed or experimented on as those Aliens did to Travis Walton. But again, what do you want me to do?"

"What I want you to do is to get off your butt and help me save her!" The redhead yelled at her friend.

"How do you expect me to do that? Do you want me to waltz with you guys into this secret government facility and say: hi! You guys took the wrong girl, Buffy isn't really a demon and we want her back? Get real, Rosenberg."

"No, Alexander Lavelle Harris, I expect you to help, because that's what you should do! You help friends that are in need!"

"And again, I ask, Willow, what do you want me to do? How can I help? I don't have superpowers. I'm not a witch or a Watcher with vast knowledge of demon stuff or a vampire that could just kill the bad guys," Xander responded.

"I'm just a regular guy who's working my ass off to buy an apartment so I can get out of my parents' house. I got my own problems, Will. Do you see me coming to you and asking for your or Buffy's help about them? No! Why the heck should I help you guys?"

"Oh, my god! What is wrong with you? I thought cookies only brought out sides of ourselves we don't want others to see. If this is a part of you, Xander, I freaking hate it."

"Oh, grow up, Willow," Harris responded, "I've always been like this. But all you guys ever see is the butt monkey of the group of superheroes, the happy-go-lucky comic relief! The only good thing anyone ever saw me do is to go buy snacks for research time!"

"Xander... That's not true," was the redhead's response to this revelation from her friend.

"Really?" He stared at her in disbelief. "You really think that me buying everyone snacks for research time, getting cursed by those Chumash Indians, and becoming a demon magnet is helpful to everyone?"

"Well-not really for the last two. But-"

"And let's not forget all other incidents in the past that happened: Mantis lady, Incan mummy, Hyena Xander, oh and my personal favorite, Love Spell infected Xander! Can you say that in all those incidents, I was helpful to anyone and not the guy who needed saving?"

"Um-well..."

Xander sighed.

"Face it, Will. I'm not needed. I don't do anything good for this team, so even if I did go with you guys to help Buffy, I can't do anything to help out."

He stared at her with sad eyes as he continued. "It's going to be like you and Buffy attending college, I'm with guys but can't ever relate or help you with anything, so why bother still hanging out?"

Willow went silent after her friend's statement. She never knew Xander felt that way.

The young man, on the other hand, took her silence as acceptance to his argument and simply picked up the remote before hitting play to continue watching the movie.

A few moments later, Willow snapped. She walked towards the TV and pulled the plug.

"Hey! I was watching that!" Harris cried.

"Shut up!" Willow said, turning to face him with a glare. "Watch the show when I'm done. But I need you to listen to what I have to say."

"Will, I already told you, I'm not go-"

"I said shut it," Willow ordered, silencing the young man.

The redhead took a deep breath before continuing.

"Xander, you're my best friend," she started, "And until today, I've been so absorbed in all my stuff that I never noticed all the things that'd been bothering you. I've been so focused on school and Oz and my magic that I stopped being a friend to you."

She paused and stared at her friend with a sad expression.

"But I want you to know that I never thought you were useless or unhelpful or any of those things you thought of yourself. In fact, I always envied how simple you viewed life and how easy it is for you to look on the better side of things."

She slowly approached her friend, before sitting beside him on the bed.

"Sure, there were times that you needed saving since monsters seem to prefer you. But I remember a bunch of times that you helped save our lives as well. You were always so brave and loyal. And I always loved that you could crack a joke at the most horrible times because I know that you just want to lighten the mood and lift everyone's spirit."

The redhead sent him a gentle smile. "What I'm trying to say is, I think you're important. I mean, I wouldn't be here if I thought otherwise," she said.

"But what am I going to do, Will?" Xander asked, still having doubts about himself.

"I don't know. But you're Xander. And if there is someone in the Scoobies who would provide the craziest but useful ideas to save Buffy, that would be you," she answered.

The young man sighed.

"Alright. I'll come," he finally said.

"Yehey!" His friend exclaimed and hugged him at the same time.

Xander extracted himself from her embrace before giving her a stern look.

"I'm coming, but I better not see Giles and Anya still eating each other's faces off. That was just disgusting and I assure you, it will be a sure way to make me forget any crazy useful ideas you may need to rescue Buffy."

"Don't worry about them, Xan. We already broke their lovefest earlier this evening and I am certain Spike wouldn't let them do it again."

"Spike, the guy who's still affected by the cannacookie you made?" He gave her a dubious look. "You sure that Giles Jr, all by himself, can stop Anya and Giles from boinking on the couch and altogether forgetting about rescuing Buffy?"

Willow paused and thought back on the scenario her friend is giving her.

Her eyes widened.

"You're right. We better go rescue him first."

(O.O)

Spike's head hurt.

And it wasn't because of the chip. He hadn't hit or attacked anyone. However, he was close to doing so.

He and Mr. Giles arrived at the man's apartment and were surprised to find that Willow had been able to find Anya and get her to come back with no issues.

The real issue happened when Mr. Giles-er Ripper started conversing with Anya. The ex-demon had mentioned that she was not able to find a suitable partner during the few hours she was away from the group. To which Ripper responded seductively that no one was as suitable as him in terms of a sexual partner. The two had then started a heated argument on why they should or shouldn't have sex with each other, to which Spike had tried to stop but ended up being shut down by both humans.

That's why he was having a headache. Anya was currently discussing the pros of having children with the older gentleman and was quite explicit in her description of the pleasures of coitus in the process of making them.

My god! This woman has no filter whatsoever! Spike thought in horror as she described her Top 20 sexual positions to ensure pregnancy.

The ex-Watcher looked intrigued and the vampire could definitely smell that the man was aroused at the woman's vivid descriptions. It was obvious that the old man was slowly getting convinced by the younger woman. What made it worse was because the vampire knew the man only wanted the sex part in the deal and was not concerned about the fact that he was being prepositioned to father her children.

"Ms. Anya, can we instead focus on the issue at hand instead of enumerating to Mr. Giles how many positions you know to make babies?" Spike finally said, interrupting the woman's explanation of number 15.

"Are you asking me to change the subject?" The young woman asked, looking directly at the vampire.

"Yes. Yes, I am indeed trying to change the subject and get us to return to finding ways to save Buffy," was Spike's response.

"Well, I did give you my suggestion earlier and you shut me down," Ripper said.

"For the last time! We are not blowing up the military facility where they are keeping Ms. Buffy!" Spike yelled.

"Why not? It's the perfect plan, plus we get to see things explode. That should get it through those soldier boys not to kidnap my Slayer."

This earned the man a glare from the vampire.

"We are not blowing them up because Buffy is still with them," Spike growled at the man. "She'll end up being blown up along with the soldiers if we go with your plan!"

"Oh," was the ex-Watcher's only comeback. "Then I'm out of ideas."

"Well, since we can't think of anything yet, why don't we return to our conversation," Anya suggested excitedly, "Because I still have a couple of good points why the corkscrew is among the best way to have sex to get babies! "

"Good Lord, just dust me now!" Spike said, looking heavenward.

It was at that exact moment that Xander and Willow walked into the apartment.

"Oh thank God, you're both back! Please tell me you two have a plan to save Buffy!" The vampire approached them, looking desperate.

"We just got here, Spike. We haven't started planning anything yet," Willow said.

"Then please think of something, because if you don't, those two might do the horizontal tango instead of helping us." The vampire pointed at the pair on the couch.

"At least they haven't done anything yet," Xander said, with a tolerant smile.

"Right. That's because they spent the last hour traumatizing me about sex positions and babies," vampire exclaimed.

"Can you even traumatize a vampire?" Ripper asked, staring at the blond vamp.

Spike glared at the ex-Watcher.

"Angelus traumatized me, but he never came close to what you two did. At least back when I was him and the rest of the Scourge, I could join in on providing trauma to others. With you two, I can't even leave the room without fear of coming back and seeing your naked behind again."

The old man smirked at the vampire's words.

"I'll have you know that I have a very well-rounded bottom," he told the vampire, "It's impossible that you won't like it."

"Giles!" Willow screamed, not liking the conversation.

Xander merely laughed, finding the entire situation funny.

"Don't laugh at him!" The witch told her oldest friend.

"I'm not laughing at Giles. I'm laughing at virgin McVamp over there." He pointed at Spike. "Seriously, what happened to the lewd vampire who said he'd have a go at me during the whole Syphilis situation."

"I never said I would touch you at any point during that fiasco!" Spike yelled.

"Yeah, but you stared at me like I was your next meal the entire time!" Xander said.

"That was because I was really hungry and wanted to actually eat you, you berk! I did not want to have sex with you!"

This only made Xander laugh harder.

"Man, your face is so priceless! I bet that if vampires could blush, you'd be red as a tomato!"

Spike looked like he wanted to throttle the boy. Only the fear of the chip firing had stopped him from attacking. Instead of giving him a response though, he turned to Willow and implored.

"Can you start the planning part of this rescue mission? I fear that any longer and I will not care about the chip and would simply risk the headache just so I can kick these two idiots in the butt."

"Um-right."

(O.O)

Willow was finally able to get her friends to settle down for the meeting. Normally, Giles was in charge of starting Scooby meetings. He'd always give a brief explanation of what had happened and what they needed to do.

However, since Giles was still affected by her cookies and Buffy was taken by the soldiers, she opted to take the lead.

"Okay. As we all know, Buffy was taken by the soldiers who have been running around town capturing demons and doing experiments on them."

Some of the members of the group nodded in agreement.

"Obviously, they most likely mistakenly thought that she was a demon when she attacked them to protect Spike."

The vampire flinched at this.

"But, we need to get her out of there as soon as possible since who knows what they'll do to her if they keep her there too long. So, does anyone have any ideas how to do it?" Willow asked the group.

The silence that followed was deafening. They had no idea how to deal with these soldiers. Much less, did they have any idea how to rescue their Slayer. Willow felt that she should have expected this.

Their group was used to fighting demons. Not humans. Humans that were not only capable of capturing demons and Slayers but were also most likely armed and ready to kill any of them if they simply tried to invade their facility to rescue their Slayer.

"Well, this sucks," Xander stated, "We save the world lots of times but our downfall ends up being the humans we protect. Guess Buffy's screwed."

"Xander," the witch chided, "We need to exchange ideas. Not comment on the obvious."

"Want ideas? Then how about we learn as much as we can about these soldier boys." He turned to Spike. "Hey, Giles Jr, how long were you in there before you got yourself out?"

Startled by the sudden question, Spike stammered the answer, "A-a-a week, ma-maybe two at most... A-also, please don't call me that!"

Xander smiled. That statement was so Giles-like it nearly made him burst into laughter again.

"Not a chance," he responded to the vampire's last request, before donning a serious expression, "Anyway, can you tell us anything else about the time you were there? Any patrol patterns from the soldiers? Layouts of their lair? Even how you got yourself out? The more you can give us the better chance we have of forming an actual plan to save Buffster."

Spike was surprised at the boy's sudden maturity. He knew the cookie brought out sides of themselves that they didn't want others to see. He just hadn't expected that the boy's hidden self was not the immature hormonal brat he acted like when they first got affected by the cookie.

"I do wonder if Buffy would kiss or sleep with me if we successfully save her from the soldiers?" the young man asked out loud, earning a slap on the back of his head from the redhead, who earlier looked really proud at him.

"Idiot," Ripper commented.

Spike nodded in agreement. He changed his assessment of the boy in his head. He was still a hormonal brat but was layered with a bit of maturity that his original self lacked.

Choosing to ignore that last comment from the young man, Spike answered.

"There were no patrol patterns in the holding area of their facility. At least, not one that I noticed. They did have cameras around the place so that's most likely the reason why there were no guards. However, I did notice that they did their experiments in the afternoon, nearing sundown."

"How'd you notice that?" Willow asked out of curiosity.

It wasn't Spike who answered though.

"Demons, particularly vampires, have an internal body clock that allows them to sense the sun when it rises or falls. It's how they know when they should wake from sleep in the evening so they can hunt for food," Anya answered.

"Interesting," Willow said, before turning to face Spike and urging him to continue.

"As for how I got out," the vampire continued, "Another vampire gave me the idea. The soldiers like to starve their vamps before giving them compromised blood. I merely waited for lunchtime, which was a couple of hours after sunrise. They usually dropped these bags of blood from a chute in the ceiling. The blood packs have some sort of tranquilizer property that renders a vamp unconscious."

Spike tried to ignore the discomfort he felt as he remembered the first time he drank the packed blood from the soldiers. He had no idea back then that it was drugged and when he learned about it from the other vamp, he knew that the soldiers already had had their way with him.

He ignored such feelings at the time because he had focused more on getting out of the place. However, as he was recalling the events, he couldn't help but feel anger at himself because he knew that had he not drank the blood, those soldiers would not have had the chance to put the chip in his head.

Spike shook the thoughts away, and continued, "I merely pretended to drink the blood pack and laid on the floor and waited for the right time to make my escape."

"So, how long did you wait?" Willow asked.

"Long. But I was patient. After a few hours, a couple of men entered my cell and carried my body to a gurney. I wasted no time and disabled the two the moment I got out of the room. I busted out another vamp from the cell next to mine and we made our escape."

This earned a surprised look from the group. Spike saved another vampire. Their surprise was short-lived because Spike shared the fate of the other vamp.

"We nearly got cornered and so I threw the other vamp at the awaiting soldiers before running to the opposite side and went inside one of the rooms with a vent. I climbed the vent and after a few hours of crawling in the ceiling, I finally was able to get out of there. I found myself just outside an air shaft a few meters from Ms. Buffy and Ms. Willow's campus."

"So how long was it from your escape to the time you entered Will's dorm room?" Xander asked.

"Several hours. I think it was around 5-6 hours from my escape that I finally went to Ms. Buffy and Ms. Willow's room. I'm sure you remember what happened next." He gave Willow an apologetic look.

Willow merely smiled and accepted the silent apology, before taking over.

"So that's all you can share on the matter of the soldier boys?" She asked gently, not wanting to sound that she was not grateful that the vampire shared his experience, "That's not much for us to form a plan on. But thank you, Spike, for shar-"

"What do you mean it wasn't much for us to form a plan on. Spike gave us great juicy details about these guys," Harris said surprising not just Willow but also the said vampire.

"You sure?" Ripper asked.

"Yeah. I mean, from what Spike said, we know they did experiments in the afternoon, which means Buffy still has time before they start cutting her open and we now have a deadline on when we need to get her out of there. Aside from that, we also have a location on a possible entry point for us to get inside their facility. All we need now is a plan on what we do once we're inside the place and how we can avoid those pesky cameras."

"Wow, Xander, you thought of all that from what Spike said?" Anya said, amazement evident in her voice.

The boy shrugged off the compliment.

"It's not a full plan yet but, yeah. I did."

"See?! I knew you'd be useful, Xan!" Willow stated excitedly. She was really happy that her friend was helping and hopeful that this would change the stupid idea he had that he was useless to their group.

She was still reeling from the information that her best friend felt that way. But now, she hoped this would change his mind on such a horrible notion of his self-worth.

Again, Xander chose to ignore the statement and opted to focus on the plan that was slowly forming.

"Anyone else has ideas?"

"We could create a distraction and blow up something in the facility?" Giles suggested.

Spike sent him a glare. "What is it with you and blowing things up?"

"What's with you and your adversity to a few explosions?" the ex-Watcher countered.

"Not a bad idea," Xander said, interrupting the two, "But it's not going to be easy to blow something up inside the place when we don't have Buffy's exact location. We need that before we could start planning any controlled explosions."

Anya then perked up and turned to Willow.

"Maybe you could hack their system and find out where they're keeping Buffy?" she suggested.

The witch was surprised at the idea that the ex-demon shared. Hacking the soldier's system wasn't something she considered.

"That's a great idea! I'm just angry that I didn't think of it," Willow admitted.

Huh? Did I just say that out loud? She thought. This stupid drug is making me unnecessarily honest here.

"You had other things on your mind, Ms. Willow. I mean you had to babysit the altered versions of ourselves after all. In normal situations, you would not have missed something that important," Spike told her.

Willow smiled at the vampire, who tried to comfort her. Despite her earlier reservations on Buffy's willingness to start a relationship with the blonde, she was slowly seeing what Spike had meant about having him around for Buffy. He was unusually perceptive and quite considerate. If this part of him remained even when they got rid of the effects of the drug, Buffy would have someone who she could rely on and support her with her Slayer duties.

The witch was considering just leaving Spike as he was. He was now kinder and much easier to deal with, than when he was his normal evil self.

Maybe I should consider letting him stay this way. Buffy liked this version of him. Maybe she'd let me keep Spike like this.

"So can you do it, Will?" Xander asked, pulling her out of her musing.

"Uh, yeah. I'm certain I'm skilled enough to take on their system," Willow said confidently. "Just give me a few hours at least. This is a secret government organization after all. There's a good chance they might be more difficult to hack than the local PD or City Morgue."

"Well, if you can, try to focus your hacking skills on getting access to their camera feeds. That way we can get a layout of their facility and resolve the camera issue at the same time," Xander told her.

"While Red is working on that, we should also plan a way to try to capture one of those soldier boys so we can torture them for more information about the place!" Ripper excitedly suggested.

"We have all the information we need to rescue Buffy, why do we need to capture one of those guys for new information?" Willow asked, looking horrified at Giles' suggestion.

The ex-Watcher gave her a disappointed look.

"These blokes are ignorant enough to kidnap a Slayer. Aside from that, they obviously can't tell the difference between harmless demons and dangerous ones. Who knows what other experiments they're doing down there." Giles explained.

"They should be shut down. Taking one of them and getting information from them about the organization will give us something to use to stop them for good."

"How are you going to use such information to close this organization?"

The old man smirked at the witch's innocent question.

"I have my ways, Willow. Trust me. Just get me something to use and this military group will be gone by the end of the week."

Willow was taken aback by the evil smile that graced the ex-Watcher's face. Xander, on the other hand, considered the man's words and adjusted their plan.

"Okay. So aside from rescuing Buffy, we need to bring back one of the soldiers for us to interrogate," the young man tried to summarize.

"Torture," Ripper interrupted, "Interrogation is merely asking someone nicely. We need the information from these bastards and since they're soldiers, we need to torture them to get it. Don't worry. I'll volunteer for the task."

The old man's words silenced the group once more. They had not expected their respectable mentor and ex-librarian to have such a dark personality.

"Just so it's out there, I should point out to everyone that though I'm supposed to be the soulless vampire in this group," Spike suddenly said, raising his hand as he did so, "I refuse to participate in any acts of torture on a human because not only will it cause a gigantic headache but I am not into torture like Angelus was."

"Wimp," Ripper said.

"No! He's not a wimp! I mean, no! We are not torturing some humans, regardless of our need for information! A simple truth spell would be better than hurting some random guy!" the young witch said, glaring at Giles for even making such a suggestion.

The older man pouted.

"Party pooper," he mumbled.

Xander took it as his cue to continue discussing their plan.

As the night went on, the group was able to create a fool-proof plan to save their Slayer, capture a soldier and remove the secret government organization from their town. Their only concern was the execution of the said plan. Everything had to be perfect for it to work.

Everyone simply hoped that nothing bad would happen to cause them to fail.

Dammit, they'd just jinxed themselves.

TBC

(O.O)