(O.O)

Riley was not having a good day.

First, he had been kidnapped during his morning jog around campus. Apparently, not many people questioned if you got hit by a tranquilizer by random women around their school.

He hadn't thought it was bad at first, since he had ended up being kidnapped by two beautiful women, one of whom he knew was a student in Prof. Walsh's class, Willow Rosenberg. In fact, he initially thought the situation was some college fun thing done by the students and frat houses.

However, when the crazy old man with the girls showed up. It kind of put off any thoughts that this might be a fake kidnapping done by his college frat and more like a real kidnapping done by a madman.

Seriously, the old man had really looked like he was ready to kill him.

When they arrived at their hideout, he was surprised to see that there were two other men there. Both were dressed in army fatigues and were waiting for them. He immediately recognized one of them as the man Buffy was with the night before.

They had manhandled him into one of the seats and proceeded to tie him up. He knew he could take them all because of his training and because none of them looked armed, so he tried to struggle a little. But the knife the old man suddenly produced looked far too intimidating, especially since it was strategically placed on his nether regions, so he stopped and allowed himself to be tied up.

It was after he was tied up that his day went from bad to worse.

The other woman and the old man then did some weird chanting in front of a candle and it was at that moment he thought that he had been kidnapped by some sort of cult. He had tried to reason with them, but the group ignored him and merely waited for the two to complete whatever prayer they were doing.

When they were done, what followed next was a long round of questioning him about his work at the Initiative. He tried to deny any accusations or stories they constructed about his organization, but for some reason, his mouth did not listen to him and started spilling all military secrets he was not supposed to say. Whatever drug they had used on him was more effective than any truth serum the military used on him during training.

He felt horrible as he realized that he was betraying his country to these people who were either part of a cult or some sort of spies, who were out to get the Initiative and most likely the US government.

Riley thought about escaping when it seemed that the group was done interrogating him. But the ropes binding him were surprisingly strong and he was unable to break them. So he tried to get one of them to help him.

He had tried to talk to Willow, who had been working on something on her laptop, and hoped he could convince her not to do something that she obviously didn't understand.

There was just no way the sweet girl I met and was helping me with Buffy would betray our country. He thought foolishly at the time.

Unfortunately, his assessment of the girl was proven wrong because when she had shown him what she was working on her laptop, he found that she was trying to hack into the Initiative's mainframe. He had still been affected by the drugs they used on him because he started giving her the passwords she needed to get inside their system.

In front of his eyes, he saw the sweet girl download files from their system about their research on the HSTs and switch off the camera feeds in the holding area, where they kept the demons, before explaining to the other three men in the room what she would do while they infiltrated the facility.

At that moment, Riley realized that she wasn't just some innocent girl that was brainwashed to join this group of crazies, but she was most likely the group leader by how she gave them instruction on what to do.

The young soldier felt helpless. This group was planning to release one of the HSTs! Who knows what they planned to do after that. He couldn't hold it anymore and so he yelled at them and called them names and labeled them traitors.

The Initiative was trying to save the world and these stupid people wanted to ruin everything his group was working for. It was just too much for him.

He began to verbally attack his captors. He called Willow a spying bitch, who betrayed his trust. The two young men in military outfits, he labeled them idiots for thinking they could pass as an Initiative soldier. The old man, he called a cradle robbing crackpot and the other young woman, he named her a bitch, since she kept inserting innuendos as she spoke to the old man.

Unfortunately, his insults were ignored by everyone except for the scary old man, who seemed to take his words to heart since he was the only one who threatened to cut his tongue out for what he called his friends.

Riley had been beyond caring at that point. He thought that if he pissed them off they might slip and would give him a chance to escape. However, one of the idiots in fatigues, a brunette male who was a couple of years younger than him, decided to gag him saying that it was for his own good.

He had watched helplessly as the group continued their planning and his eyes widened when they mentioned that they planned to bomb the Initiative. He had struggled in his bindings and tried screaming through the gag. Anything to get his captors' attention and perhaps beg them not to go through with their plans of terrorism.

This behavior only earned him a wack in the head from the old man and a mild scolding from the young brunette man. But that didn't stop him. He kept at it and raged in his chair.

It wasn't until he heard a clicking sound that he stopped. He turned in Willow's direction and was surprised that she was holding a firearm in front of him.

Shit! They're going to kill me! He thought before the redhead shot him.

He felt a painful sting in his front and when he looked down, he saw a dart protruding on his chest. The redhead had shot him with a tranquilizer, yet again.

Before his vision faded to black, his last thoughts were; I am not having a good day.

(O.O)

Buffy hadn't slept a wink since she had woken up in her little prison.

She wasn't really tired, but she thought that was because she was afraid that she would next wake up on an operating table with someone performing a human dissection on her living body if she fell asleep.

Earlier, she tried different things to look for ways to get out of the cell, but the walls were either made of hard concrete or electrified to prevent escape or breakage. Communicating with other demons was pointless as well, simply because aside from the loose-skinned guy inside the cell in front of her, she simply did not understand the growling language that every monster there seemed to speak with. She tried calling out to the soldiers again but no one came to her anymore.

She was well and truly trapped there and so she was stuck waiting for either her captors to take her out for whatever experiment they set out for her or for her friends to come and rescue her.

She hoped her friends would get her out first though. She didn't want to be a test subject or to have a chip in her head as Spike did.

Of course, on a positive note, if they do put a chip in me, that will just be another thing that Spike and I can relate to each other with and use to get even more closer to each other. Her still drugged-up brain thought.

Thinking of her vampire brought a smile to the Slayer's face. She remembered their kiss and she really liked the idea of doing it again. It simply solidified her desire to have something more than friendship with the said vampire.

They had chemistry. He understood her and her Calling and he could support her as well.

The only downside was that he couldn't fight anymore. That would have added another point for him if could help kill demons by her side.

No matter. Xander doesn't always fight by my side all the time and he still helps me save the world. She thought.

"Plus, Spike is also smart, so he can still help with the research," she reasoned.

She spent a few more minutes contemplating on ways to make the vampire fit in her team and daydreaming of kissing him again, that she failed to notice that there were three soldiers in front of her cell.

"This one," the voice of one of the soldiers pulled her out of her reverie.

She looked up and was surprised to see Riley, her TA, was standing in front of her prison and was dressed as one of her captors.

"Riley?" she asked with a small voice, staring at the man in disbelief.

"The professor wants to learn more about what this one is. We need to prep her for transfer to the pit," her TA said, sending shivers down her spine at how callously he told the other soldier about her fate of becoming a mere experiment.

"Right," the other soldier responded as he stepped in front of some sort of keypad on the corner of her cell's door. The other soldier began typing some kind of code and the lights in her prison slowly dimmed.

Suddenly, she felt electricity surge from the floor to her body.

The Slayer screamed in agony and she dropped to her knees.

Fortunately, the pain did not last long.

She heard Riley and the soldiers talking, before hearing a loud blaring sound followed by a buzzing that indicated that her cell door was opened.

She looked up and saw that Riley was kneeling in front of her.

With the fierceness of an animal, she attacked the man and punched him in the nose as hard as she could.

"Oow!" He cried falling on his back.

She turned her attention to the other soldier and readied to attack when she heard a familiar voice from the other's mouth.

"Please don't hit me, Ms. Buffy!" the other cried using Spike's voice.

Buffy paused mid-punch and stared at the man. Her eyes showed her that it was not her vampire but her Slayer senses signaled that he was really close to her.

"It's a glamour Ms. Willow cast on us so we could enter this facility without issues and also fool people to show us where you were," the soldier or Spike that looked like the soldier explained, "Anyway, we are here to rescue you!"

At those words, Buffy squealed in happiness and hugged the disguised vampire.

She was saved!

"Yeah, he gets a hug while I get a broken nose. Where is the fairness in all this?" Riley, who was still on the floor, said, a hand was on his bleeding nose.

"Xander?" she asked, recognizing the voice.

"Yup," the other responded before he was assisted by the disguised vampire to get on his feet.

Buffy smiled and also reached out to hug the other man who looked so much like her TA.

"You came for me too!" she said, in amazement.

"Of course, I'll come, Buffy," the boy told her and hugged her in return. "How else am I going to make you fall for me if I only sat on my ass?"

The Slayer immediately shoved the boy away from her.

"Ass!" Buffy called him as she glared at him.

Unaffected, Xander merely smiled at her in response.

"I love you too," he said.

Buffy took a step towards him, looking murderous.

Luckily, before she could send another punch at the teen, the vampire intervened.

"Hit him later. We need to get out of here," the vampire said, before directing the Slayer out of her cell.

Once she got out, she noticed that the third soldier, who was with them, was not there and also saw that the lights outside were flickering red. There was a blaring noise that she guessed signaled that something important was happening.

"Where's the other soldier?" She asked the two.

"You mean the one who electrocuted you?" Xander asked as he started walking away from her cell.

She nodded and turned to Spike, who answered.

"We sent him away to check on the cause of the emergency," the vampire said with a smirk.

"And the cause of the emergency is?" she questioned as she continued to walk as fast as the two men.

"Part of our plan was to set up a diversion from another part of the Initiative, that's the name of this organization, by the way," Xander started, "Giles was in charge of setting the diversion, and from the looks of it, he's been successful because no one is coming towards us."

"You just had to jinx us, didn't you?" Spike suddenly said as he stopped walking.

Buffy turned her attention in front of her and her eyes widened at the sight.

Some of the cells that had held demons started opening.

"I told you that the old man would mess up!" Spike yelled at Xander, taking a step back from the demons, who were slowly exiting their prison.

"How the hell do you mess up setting explosives somewhere other than the containment rooms?" Xander asked in a panic.

"Obviously he messed up by putting them in the place that controlled the containment area, particularly the one that controlled the doors for the prisoners!" The vampire shouted as he evaded an attack from a horned demon.

Buffy ignored the argument altogether and started attacking the monsters that were set on hurting her friends.

She aimed a kick on a demon that grabbed Xander's shirt and sent consecutive punches at the same demon. She immediately left the demon and rushed to another one that had its eyes set on her vampire. Grabbing the demon's horn, Buffy flung the beast towards the other demons in front of them.

"They're too many! We need to get out of here!" she said, grabbing the two men and dragging them back towards where her cell had been.

The demons immediately followed in suit.

Some were faster than others and were almost successful in capturing the two men dressed in military uniforms that accompanied the Slayer. Fortunately, Buffy was faster and was quick to hit the demons who would catch her friends.

The trio kept running until they reached a different part of the compound that looked more like the offices of the facility. Spike grabbed hold of his companions just in time to pull them inside a room and protect them from gunfire from the soldiers, who had finally come to check on the escaped prisoners. More gunshots were heard and then there were screams from the soldiers, who were obviously overrun by the demons.

Xander ignored the screams and merely locked the door. Before turning his attention to Spike.

"Okay, this is obviously not the same way you used to get out, but do you think you can still find an exit here?" he asked the vampire.

Spike's attention was already on his surroundings. The room they were in wasn't too big. Mostly it looked like a small office with a big desk that had a computer. There weren't any ventilation shafts that they could shimmy into and escape through. However, he did notice a door in the back of the desk that they could check for an exit.

The vampire walked towards the door that had a label Room 314 but stopped when he heard that the door they came from had been destroyed by a Fyarl. The monster flung Harris over the desk and punched Buffy in the face.

The Slayer tried to fight back, but the bigger demon was obviously winning the fight. The Fyarl grabbed hold of Buffy's head and it was obvious that he planned to crush the Slayer.

Fearing the life of the woman he was beginning to care for, Spike rushed towards the demon with little regard to the possibility of a headache from the chip and delivered a roundhouse kick to the demon's head, sending it flying away from his Slayer.

Spike grabbed his head expecting pain, but was surprised that nothing followed.

"The chip doesn't work on demons!" He said in amazement.

The demon roared as it stood back up and focused its attention on the disguised vampire that attacked it. It charged at him, he merely sidestepped before piercing the beast's back with a 15-inch dagger that the vampire kept on his person.

Two more demons entered the room but they were easily dispatched by the Slayer, who had recovered from the Fyarl's attack, and the vampire's combined strength. When there were no more enemies emerging from the door, Buffy picked up Harris' unconscious body and ordered Spike to lead them to the exit.

The vampire opted to take their group back to the exit they were supposed to have used earlier but took a mental note on the hidden room they had found in the office they were trapped in.

After leaving the small office, they were greeted by the carcasses of demons and soldiers alike. Spike used his enhanced hearing to listen to his surroundings and found that the demons were fighting other soldiers somewhere else in the facility. It was then he was certain that they would not encounter any other officers if they went back to the storage room in the containment area, where they would make their exit.

After fighting a few demon stragglers, the group reached the small storage room. By this time, Harris had already recovered consciousness.

"First, a broken nose, now I think I bruised my back after being thrown by that monster. Am I expecting at least one kiss by the end of this rescue mission?" he said to Buffy as he offered her the rope they had set-upped earlier to help them get up the ventilation shaft.

Buffy merely rolled her eyes. "You wish, loser," she said with a small smile as she climbed the rope.

"Ouch. Maybe we should have left her there a bit longer. I mean, who knows they could do something about her stellar personality," he told the vampire, who he offered the rope next.

Spike sent him an unamused stare before following the Slayer.

Xander merely shrugged. "Tough crowd," before he followed the two.

After navigating through the vents, the group finally got out of the facility, where Willow and Giles were waiting with an umbrella and a thick blanket.

The blanket was immediately wrapped around the vampire who was sizzling under the afternoon sun, and the red-haired witch was quick to use the umbrella to cover the vamp.

"Giles' car is over there!" She pointed towards the classic 1963 Citroën DS.

The group accompanied the vampire to the car.

Once he settled in the passenger seat and underneath more layers of blankets, Giles went to the driver seat.

"We'll meet up at my place," the ex-Watcher said with an evil grin before driving away.

"I don't like that smile," Xander said, as he slowly directed the group to his truck.

"It was probably just a Ripper thing," Willow tried to comfort him, but deep down she shared his apprehension.

Since the arrival of this version of their beloved Watcher, the group of friends had no choice but to be warier of the man's violent tendencies and dark side.

"Willow's right. It's probably nothing. Let's just get out of here," Buffy said as she settled into the passenger seat of Xander's truck.

Once the three were finally inside the vehicle, Xander started the engine, only to jump when he heard a loud bang from the little hole he came from earlier.

The three turned and saw that smoke was coming from the hole. Their attention was once again taken by another explosion, this time it was coming from the direction of one of the Frat houses on campus.

"How much do you want to bet that Ripper is the cause of this?" Xander said, looking amazed at the smoke he was seeing.

"No bet. It's obviously him," Willow said, looking equally interested and horrified at the chaos that was happening around them.

Some students were already outside checking the source of the loud sound. Some were opening gawking and pointing at the fire that was becoming visible.

"Just drive, Xan," Buffy said, ignoring the queasy feeling in her stomach that was caused by the fact her Watcher might have caused this much destruction and had possibly killed the soldiers who captured her and almost experimented on her.

The young man did as he was told and started driving away from the scene of the crime.

"Guess Spike was right. We shouldn't have left Giles in charge of the explosives," Harris commented, earning a glare from the two women.

(O.O)

Willow let out a sigh of relief as she sat down on Giles' couch.

They did it.

They were able to rescue Buffy and no one from their side has died or got shot in the end. Sure, people from the Initiative died, either from the bombing or by the demons that got out but the witch, who was still affected by the drug from the cookies she made, couldn't summon enough strength to think about it at that moment.

She was just too happy that they had all made it back safely.

She turned to the other occupants in the room and she could see that her friends shared the same feelings as she did. Buffy was the most vocal of all of them about how happy she was that they had saved her.

The Slayer focused most of her gratitude towards the shy vampire, who had the grace to credit everyone else's hard work, though.

She really likes him. Willow thought as she watched her friend give the vampire a thank you kiss on the lips. The said kiss slowly turned into a full make-out session as the vampire reciprocated.

She shifted to the other members of the gang to see if anyone had any issue with regards to how their Slayer was acting but aside from Xander, no one minded the two.

Xander glared at the pair who were currently making out in the corner. He was angry since he helped save their friend and yet the vampire was the only one getting some tongue action for the deed. Unable to help it anymore, he voiced his displeasure.

"Seriously, I helped save you too, don't you think I deserve to join in on the fun?" He told the two.

Spike parted his lips and looked at the boy. He had completely forgotten that they were still in the room with the others because of the kissing. So he looked abashed and slightly guilty at what he had done.

Buffy, on the other hand, was irritated. While she was in captivity, what kept her occupied was the thought of those lips being back on her's. Now that she was out of that place, she just wanted to enjoy those said lips, but Xander had to open his big mouth and now, Spike looked like he no longer wanted to kiss her.

"Grrr! Why don't you go back to whatever cave you came from and leave me alone with Spike?" Buffy told him.

"Yeah, and let him enjoy Buffy kissage without me? No way. I'd rather sit here watching you two make out while I imagine myself in his position," he told her.

"Xander!" Willow cried, looking horrified at her friend's sudden disgusting honesty.

He turned to the redhead. "What?! I want some kisses too. Is that so bad of me?"

"You're gross, Harris," Buffy told.

Xander merely shrugged. "Don't diss my lips until you try it." He leered at her.

"Ugh! You're hopeless," Buffy said, rolling her eyes, "And I'm not interested."

Xander shrugged the insult away. "Whatever. A day will come when you'll realize that you need a real man in your life. But I'll probably be happily married to someone who may look like you but loves me."

Willow could not believe her ears. This was another part of her best friend that she never knew. He still had a crush on Buffy, and from what she was seeing, he didn't care that she didn't like him back at all. He didn't even comment about Buffy's obvious desire to be with Spike, considering he was always vocal about their friend's history of dating someone of the undead variety.

She was about to comment more about her disapproval of her friend's behavior but Anya interrupted her.

"So what are you all planning to do with our prisoner?" she asked everyone.

"Prisoner?" Buffy asked.

Right, she still doesn't know about Riley. Willow thought.

"Leave him to me and I swear no one will find his body," Ripper said, horrifying everyone in the room.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Spike said, "Good Lord man, I'm the soulless demon here. Why are you scarier than me?"

"Everyone of us is scarier than you, Giles Jr.," Xander told the vampire.

Sensing that another argument was going to erupt, Willow interjected, "We should just let him go. After all, we have all the information we need on the Initiative, and Giles-er Ripper said he can use it to shut them down permanently."

"But he knows too much!" Ripper said, "We need to shut him up before he tells everyone about us!"

"No!" The witch yelled at him. "I think enough blood has been spilled and I'm sure that if we were our normal selves, we'd all be freaking out about that. We don't need to do anything else to Riley."

"Riley?" Buffy parroted. She was still in the dark on the man they were holding captive in the bathroom.

"He's one of the soldier boys, pet," Spike explained. "I recognized his scent last night and since we needed someone to ask questions about the facility so we could save you, we took him this morning and did a truth spell on him."

Buffy hummed in understanding before giving the vampire a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Okay, we have Riley with us, who we kidnapped and put a spell on, and the best plan we have to get rid of him is to let him go and just tell his superiors about us?" Buffy asked the group.

Ripper tried to answer, "Actually, I still think the best plan is to kil-"

"Dude, just cut it out about the killing spree! Willow's right, you killed enough soldiers already," Xander cut him off.

Willow didn't let the image of Giles' sticking his tongue out to Xander distract her from the problem that Buffy was currently pointing out to her.

"Okay. Maybe it's not a good idea to just let him go when he knows all our faces and what we did to the Initiative. But we can't just kill him, Buffy!" the redhead said.

Buffy shook her head before she added. "I am not suggesting that we kill him, Will. I'm just saying that we should consider some sort of spell to make him forget about us."

"Oooh! I know the perfect spell to make him forget. We just need some Lethe's bramble and white crystal and we can totally make him forget this entire day!" The witch announced enthusiastically.

"Good idea, Ms. Buffy!" Spike commented, before turning to the redhead. "But Ms. Willow, we already talked about you doing spells. I think it would be best if we let Mr. Giles or Ms. Anya do the spell again instead. This is just so we can get a guarantee that there are no problems that will happen in the future."

Feeling put out, the witch reluctantly agreed. She had already received a very thorough talking to by Spike the night before about Magic and Consequences. She was not willing to go through that conversation again.

"Maybe instead of the forgetting spell, you can help me create the drink to help bring us back to our normal selves?" Spike said, giving the young woman a friendly and inviting smile.

Willow returned the smile and agreed to it as well.

"So it's decided. While Giles and Anya do the spell. Spike and Willow make the drink to turn us back to our usual selves," Buffy summed up everything.

"That just leaves me and Buffster alone to make out with each other," Xander piped.

"Eww!" was the Slayer's only response.

TBC

(O.O)