See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to everyone who's reviewed, it provides the much-needed incentive to keep going with the story. Please keep it up, and we hope that there will be many more to come.
Part Four: Its Hour Come Round At Last
The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California
December 9th, 1999
3:46 pm
"You wanna run that by me again?" Cordelia asked Buffy with a stunned expression on her face, as Xander also stared gob-smacked at the blonde Slayer.
"I need you guys to take Spike in for a while," Buffy repeated herself. "Willow and I can't have him in our dorm room, and Giles has his girlfriend coming over, so-"
"Hell, no!" Harris interrupted firmly. "No way, Buff!"
"What he said," Miss Chase agreed fervently. "That creep is not staying here, even if he is neutered these days!"
It was common knowledge within the Scooby ranks that the Initiative had indeed captured and neutralized the British vampire with a chip implanted in his brain before he'd escaped their holding facility. Maggie Walsh hadn't been pleased about Spike's unauthorized departure of course but, from the reports of her agents in the field, she was happy to know her behaviour modification circuitry worked. She now intended to implant such a thing into her personal project "Adam" just before he – or rather it – went on-line.
In any case, Buffy hadn't expected both Xander and Cordy to be so vehemently against her request. She asked, "Why not? I mean, you two have got a spare bedroom these days, right?" Miss Summers was neither blind nor an idiot with regard to what had been developing lately between her male friend and his ex, however much she disapproved of the pairing.
"No. I'm still using it," Xander said, with a quick glance to Cordelia. As yet they hadn't initiated sexual relations together, even though they'd done practically everything else, and he knew Cordy did not want him to talk about that particular subject to the Slayer. She had been upset more than plenty when she heard he'd had a deep and meaningful with Oz, before the werewolf had broken up with Willow and split town last month. "So there's no room for Spike to live in our apartment. Sorry, Buffy, but that's the bottom line here."
"So what am I going to do with him?"
"I don't know," Cordelia replied. "But as long as he doesn't stay here, you can do whatever you want with him. Stake him, tell him to go mooch off Harmony, whatever. Heck, you can even get engaged to Spike again for all I care!"
Buffy looked both frustrated and annoyed, reminded of Willow's 'my-will-be-done' spell a while ago. "Could we please possibly repress about that?"
"I wish. But after Willow said to me, and I quote, 'Well, if you and Xander are so close nowadays, why don't you two just pick up where you left off in high school?' That's really kinda hard to do," Cordy replied, recalling all the fights with her roommate that day.
"Not to mention how Giles went blind thanks to Will's spell," Xander added. "And my God, but how I envied him after I saw you and Captain Peroxide together that way."
"Yeah, okay, getting back on topic. Can either of you at least give me some sort of suggestion on what to do with Spike?" Buffy asked, really wanting an end to this particular trip down Memory Lane.
"Why not send him to Deadboy in LA?" Xander suggested. "With any luck, one or maybe even both of them will kill the other. Either way we'll be bet-" He saw Buffy's venomous glare and stopped. "Well, hey, a man can dream can't he?"
The Bronze, Sunnydale, California
January 22nd, 2000
8:01 pm
Willow Rosenberg looked around at all the people enjoying themselves here on a Saturday night, and exhaled softly.
Just like with Buffy and her Little Red Riding Hood persona, all the stuff from becoming Joan of Arc had more-or-less vanished from Willow's mind by now, rejected like the ghost stuff from years ago. Such things just didn't fit in with who she was and who she wanted to be.
It had been nearly three months since Halloween and a lot of things had happened in the intervening time. Willow's boyfriend had been caught cheating on her, and later killed the other woman in wolf form. Oz had then left his girlfriend to find a cure for his lycanthropy. In her despondency, Willow had cast that disastrous 'my-will-be-done' spell and later baked quite a lot of cookies to try to make up for what she'd done.
The Gentlemen had arrived, killing and stealing hearts, and inadvertently causing Buffy and Riley's secrets to be given away to each other. Xander and Cordelia had gotten closer then too, as they'd fought for their lives against the Footmen and narrowly avoided getting killed.
So many crazy events had occurred, topped off most recently by Buffy's annual birthday disaster.
Miss Rosenberg shook her head. She had honestly never expected their mentor and former librarian to get turned into a Fyarl demon after getting drunk with his old 'friend', Ethan Rayne. ( Giles must have been even lonelier than I thought after Olivia person left him, ) Willow thought to herself. ( He really does need to find a job or another girlfriend. )
Willow suddenly saw Riley Finn, who she now knew was part of the secret military organization called the Initiative. Not long after an earthquake had almost heralded the end of the world thanks to three Vahrall demons, the Secret Agent Man had been fully exposed.
Finn had also found out how Buffy was Slayer, comma The, much to his initial disbelief, but that was hardly surprising. As far as Maggie Walsh and the Initiative agents had been concerned, the Slayer was merely a myth, something dismissed as just a legend regarding their captives' personal bogeyman. It had been quite a blow to their egos find out how very wrong they'd been.
As Willow watched, Riley slid into a booth with Buffy and those two started kissing. The relationship between the Slayer and the Alpha team leader of the Initiative had nowadays moved far beyond camaraderie and friendship ever since Buffy had officially been brought into the government's demon-hunting unit.
( Good for them, I guess. Wow, I never thought Buffy would ever move on from Parker so fast. And from Angel as well, ) Willow thought to herself. ( But as long as they're happy, that's the important thing. )
Willow's gaze slid over to the dance floor, listening to the slow romantic ballad being played. ( Now, if only I could make myself believe that about Cordy and Xander... )
As she watched the two dance very closely together, the apprentice witch ruminated, ( It's amazing, really. Still, I guess living together for the last five months has finally taught 'em what the word 'compromise' means. Huh, I guess despite the fluke thing some high school romances really can turn out okay. )
Willow was suddenly distracted from her thoughts by the appearance of Tara Maclay, a fellow UC Sunnydale student and Wiccan practitioner. "Tara, hey! I haven't seen you here before."
The blonde lesbian didn't want to say she had come to the club only because her secret crush had mentioned that she was going to be here tonight. "I, I thought I'd come check it out after w-what you said today," Tara stammered.
Willow nodded as the song ended, and Xander and Cordelia headed back towards their table. "Cool. Come on, I'll introduce you to all my friends."
"Um, in a minute. I just wanted to ask, c-could I borrow your notes from Professor Thornton's lecture on the French Revolution today?" The pathologically shy Tara tried to delay the inevitable. "He talked so fast, I-I missed parts of it. Oh, and w-what did you think of the content?"
The delaying tactic worked, as Willow got caught up in the moment and started babbling away to her companion. Not far away, Cordelia and Xander reached the table where Buffy and Riley were making out and Miss Chase just rolled her eyes at the entire display.
"Hose warning," Xander drawled lazily. "First hose warning now being issued. After two such warnings, freezing cold water will hit any patrons engaged in passionate activities."
Riley and Buffy stopped what they were doing and the Iowan looked at his girlfriend speculatively. "It might just be worth it. She'd look incredible if that outfit got all wet."
"Riley! Stop that," Buffy blushed and lightly smacked him.
"The wet T-shirt concept is so over nowadays," Cordelia remarked as she and Xander sat down. She looked to her roommate and said, "'Hose warning'? Where do you come up with these things?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Xander smirked at her.
"What I'd like to know is whether you've reconsidered my offer to join up with the Initiative," Riley said eagerly, as Buffy snuggled against him. "Honestly, Xander, your unarmed combat and sharpshooter skills are incredible! For a civilian, I mean."
Harris hesitated, not wanting to be rude but not wanting this subject to continue any longer either. He had talked to Maggie Walsh personally, and she gave Xander the complete wiggins. The concept of taking orders from her was subconscious anathema to him. Walsh was no M, that was certain, and her tech crew didn't have anyone like Q in it either. Two big turn-offs as far as his psyche was concerned.
"Look, Riley, no offense, but I really don't think so, y'know? 'Cause the funny thing about magic-induced abilities is they fade. That stuff I got from Soldier Guy two years ago, it's practically all gone now. And being James Bond for a while last year? Just not something I wanna rely on. I've learned the hard way how using someone else's instincts can be pretty risky in a combat situation."
Riley shook his head. He couldn't help it, because the soldier still found the whole magic thing practically impossible to swallow. He wasn't alone in that mindset either. Most of the Initiative personnel, especially Forrest Gates, point-blank refused to believe in it and considered all the demons they caught or killed to be merely exotic animals of some kind. Some might be smarter than others, granted, but they were still just that: animals.
It was a very foolish and dangerous attitude, but the concept of not being at the top of the food chain was intolerable to that sort of people and so they indulged in their own form of denial. This attitude was helped in part by the Hellmouth's pervasive and malignant supernatural energy, as well as their own stupidity.
Finn glanced at all three of his companions and finally said, "That possession thing. What was it like going through something like that?"
Before anyone else could reply Cordelia said firmly, "Weird and freaky. Just like finding out Giles was actually a demon in disguise a few days ago. And major eww there, by the way."
"Yeah, uh, what's the situation with that? If you recall, I didn't get back into town until all the excitement was over," Xander said, having been away in Carlton at the time.
Buffy briefly explained how Riley had arrested Rayne in his hotel room, and the MPs had taken Ethan to a secret detention facility in the Nevada desert for rehabilitation. "And good riddance, too. Hopefully, we'll never see him again." She noticed Xander's expression. "What?"
Harris shook his head. "Riley, are you telling me that you basically just kidnapped that guy? Did you inform the British embassy in Washington, at least?"
"No, we didn't. Why would we?" Riley asked in confusion.
Harris looked even more concerned now. "Foreign nationals who get arrested or detained, they have the right for their embassy or consulate to be notified of said activity. If the State Department ever learns what you did the other night...well, you could end up in a whole lot of trouble!"
"Oh come on, Xander, that's ridiculous-" Buffy started to say dismissively.
"Why, just 'cause you think it is?" Xander interrupted her. "Buffy, it's Riley's ass that's personally on the line here, so I think you of all people ought to be a bit more concerned about this."
The Initiative agent hesitated for a few moments, his sense of duty battling with the soldier's instinct of trusting his friends and allies. Trust won out and so he said, "Okay, look, you never heard this from me. And if any of you ever say anything to anyone about it you'll end up in major trouble, understand?"
"We're not amateurs, G.I. Joe. I mean Xander and I grew up alongside vampires while you were growing up on that farm back in Iowa," Cordy said dismissively.
"Hey!" Buffy yelped in defense of her boyfriend. "There's no need to be so insulting!"
Riley ignored the bickering females and focused on the other member of the Y chromosome club. "Look, the Initiative is a black ops outfit. It was set up under a sealed Presidential order, bringing together the best of the best from the Army and Marines, and its members were authorised to combat the hostiles and arrest any and all human demon sympathizers. I signed up to protect my country from its enemies, Xander, that's what our mission's all about – and why Rayne got shipped off to the detention facility that night."
"Well, okay, I'll admit all that sounds nice in theory. But where's the civilian oversight?" Xander wanted to know. "I mean, it may be off the books but there is some government committee or whatever that you guys answer to, isn't there?"
Riley gave up. "That's not my concern, my superior officer handles that part of it. Xander, look, I'll discuss it with Dr. Walsh when I get back to the base, okay? Find out why exactly she insisted the prisoner get shipped off to that place in Nevada, if that'll help ease your concerns."
"Oh, and while you're at it, ask her about that 314 thing that Giles said Ethan mentioned," Buffy told him.
"314? That's the classified area, special research projects. Only Dr. Walsh and Dr. Angleman are allowed in there," Riley now looked worried. "Rayne knew about that?"
"Looks like it. You think that's why she wanted to get rid of him? Because he learned something that's supposed to be kept secret?" Cordelia asked the group in general.
Finn almost started sweating with concern at the implications of that statement. However at that moment Willow and Tara finally came over to the booth and all the questions had to cease with the introduction of the new civilian into his life. Later, after Willow and Tara left to socialize with some college classmates, Buffy dragged Riley away to the dance floor leaving Xander and Cordelia alone at the table.
"There you are!" Anya said as she came over to the booth. "Xander, I've been looking all over for you."
"Why?" Cordelia demanded, claws automatically extending.
Miss Jenkins didn't even so much as glance at her. "I've got that information you wanted from one of my sources. So please give me your money now."
Knowledge was over half the battle in this business, and since Anya still had some connections in the demon world, when he could Xander paid her to keep him informed about what was happening in Sunnydale. "Ahn, I'm afraid you've kinda caught me at a bad time money-wise. I had to buy some tools and stuff, so I'm a little short on cash right now," Xander said apologetically.
An interested gleam seemed to come into the young woman's eyes. "If sufficient levels of the greenback is a problem for you, there are other forms of payment," Anya said in her typical forthright manner. "I'm willing to settle for payment in kind, if you are."
Xander knew what that look on Anya's face signified; he had seen it before, and more than once. ( Ah, crap... )
"What do you mean?" Cordelia demanded of the former demon.
"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Anya asked Cordelia in genuine puzzlement. "I'm referring to copulation, of course. I still dream about him all naked occasionally, so if Xander's penis brings about a state of bliss after we have sexual intercourse I'll waive my monetary fee and give him the desired information."
By this point, Cordelia was struggling to get loose from Xander's grasp in order to tear Anya's hair out. Tearing Anya's throat out wasn't out of the question either. She was mad at Xander as well, but wanted to take care of her perceived rival first. ( YOU BITCH!!! )
Harris clamped a hand over Cordy's mouth and said to the other woman, "Sorry, Ahn, but I don't think so. I'll get in touch with you when I've got the money, okay? The usual amount?"
"Yes. No, wait, I want another five percent for my wasted time trying to find you tonight. After all, time is money," the wonderfully capitalistic Anya replied, completely ignoring Cordelia's muffled screams.
"Fine. See you then." After Miss Jenkins had left Xander released Cordelia, who promptly slapped him. "OW! What was that for?" Harris asked, rubbing his cheek.
"I never gave you permission to restrain me like that, you asswipe," she snarled. "And why did you stop me from trying to kill her?"
"Because for one thing, Anya hasn't done anything to deserve it...well, ever since she became human again anyway."
"She wanted to have SEX with you!!" Cordelia hissed, somehow managing not to shout. "And don't tell me that you're not attracted to her. I know you better than anybody by now!"
Harris just shook his head wearily. "I'm not him, Cordy. I may still have some of Bond's mannerisms, but I'm just a one-woman guy here. Besides, no matter how many women he may have slept with, there was only one girl that Bond ever wanted to marry. So I figure that's what I should be aiming for, not a bunch of meaningless affairs that never really made him happy."
Xander's speech uncomfortably reminded the brunette of her mother's new reputation as the town bicycle, and how that had led to all ties being cut between them. The anger draining away Miss Chase said, "Really?"
"Really."
Cordelia made a decision that had been a long time in the making. "Come on, we're going home."
"But it's still early-"
"Doesn't matter. I'm invoking one of my official girlfriend privileges," the female teen interrupted firmly, dragging Harris out of the booth by the arm.
Despite their private monogamous relationship, that was one issue they'd yet to discuss: taking things to the next level and making it official. "Whoa, whoa, hold up. Girlfriend?" Xander asked out of interest.
"Yeah, and you're my boyfriend. You remember what I said after that beer-fest debacle? Well, you've been a good Xander, best behaviour and all. Therefore, as of this moment, I'm officially taking you back. And now we're going home to bed. You do understand what THAT means, right?"
Xander's eyes went wide at hearing Cordy's words. ( Oh. Wow! Um, uh...guess now that other bedroom will finally be available for Spike, if she's actually serious... )
Xander wasn't sure, though, if his newly reclaimed girlfriend was just overreacting to Anya's suggestion of sexual favors as part of their business deal. He knew just how competitive Miss Chase could get. This was going to have to be handled very delicately.
Or else the young man could just let Cordelia have her own way and finally get back everything he'd thought he'd lost forever, after fluking with Willow so long ago.
The Initiative base, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale
February 18th, 2000
7:42 pm
The situation definitely looked grim.
Xander's concerns about Professor Margaret Walsh and the Initiative had been quite justified; the scientist's true colours had finally been revealed when it was learned that she had added addictive performance-enhancing drugs to the diets of her agents as 'vitamin supplements', without either their knowledge or consent. This demonstrated perfectly what Walsh really thought of the word known as 'ethics'.
After Buffy had pissed her off so much with questions about 314 and everything else, Maggie had decided to stage an 'accident' in order to get rid of Miss Summers for good. It had failed of course, because with her blinkered world-view the good doctor had no idea what the Slayer was really capable of in a desperate situation, locked up with hostile demons and a faulty Initiative blaster.
Maggie had also finally succeeded in creating the cyber-demonoid named "Adam", a vile mixture of man, demon and machine. His very existence was, quite frankly, an insult to the natural order of things everywhere. Nonetheless the hybrid creature had been designed to be the ultimate warrior and Walsh was nothing if not competent – at least with regard to that aspect of her plans. Unfortunately for her, though, Adam had awoken before Maggie had been able to place the anti-violence chip into his brain and killed his creator before escaping from 314. He had subsequently gone out to explore the world, and committed his first series of murders, human and demon alike.
Right now Xander, Buffy and Cordelia were deep inside the Initiative and interrogating Dr. Angleman, Walsh's second-in-command. The Slayer actually had her hand wrapped around the guy's throat demanding answers, when Buffy's boyfriend came into the room.
Shaking and addle-brained, Riley Finn had been suffering horrible withdrawal pains lately after going off Maggie's drugs cold turkey. "Buffy, what are you doing?" he demanded.
The Slayer ignored his question and interrogated Angleman. "Maggie wanted me dead, didn't she? That's why she tried to kill me last night."
The scientist felt it wiser not to lie under these circumstances. "Yes, true enough." He glanced at Riley, who appeared stunned and betrayed. "But please understand, the Initiative has no interest in eliminating the Slayer." He looked back at Buffy. "That was entirely her own vendetta."
Miss Summers snarled, "Why? Spell it out for me! I feel an attack of dumb blonde coming on."
Angleman shrugged. "I don't know."
Buffy squeezed his throat a little tighter. "I won't ask again!"
Angleman finally caved, "It was the project."
"Project? You mean 314," Xander finally spoke up. "You wanna give us some more details on that?"
"It..." Angleman looked pleadingly at Buffy, who finally let him go. Then the lab-coat looked at Riley. "The prototype that she was working on. It killed her before it escaped."
Riley stepped closer, looking more deranged than ever. "No, no, that can't be right! You're making her sound like some kind of psychopath. She wasn't like that! Dr. Walsh was a brilliant woman!"
"Sure, just like Dr. Frankenstein. His monster went around killing people as well, remember?" Cordelia said acidly.
Buffy briefly stared at her, really wishing that the former cheerleader wasn't here right now. Unfortunately nobody, not even Xander, had been able to prevent her from coming along after the gang had established a plan to get some answers and Cordy's boyfriend had been chosen to be part of the raiding crew. "Walsh wasn't-"
"All she was doing was trying to help people, and this is the way you guys want her to remembered!?" Riley screamed, now on the verge of losing it completely.
"Get a grip, soldier!" Xander's harsh voice thundered in his ear, startling the commando with the 'commanding officer' tone it carried. "Calm down or so help me God, I'll drug you myself if that's what it takes to make you lucid again. Look, this isn't about assigning blame anymore. Everything that we need to know is right here, we just need to find out what it was exactly that Walsh was working on in 314-"
"That would be me."
Everyone turned around to see the cyber-demonoid walking along on a platform above them. Ignoring their stares, Adam said, "I've been thinking about the world, ever since I became self-aware. I wanted to see it, learn about it. Once I was out there, I saw the insides of many different creatures...and it was fascinating, but that didn't tell me about the world. It just made me feel something that I'd never felt before. So now, I want to learn more about me. Why I feel. What I am."
Adam stepped off the platform and jumped down to the same level as the humans. "That's why I came home."
"Well, I don't think anyone here's going to throw you a welcome home party," Cordelia told the cyber-demonoid bluntly, her usual lack of tact coming to the fore.
Adam ignored her and inserted a thick disk from a pouch on his right waist into the disk drive on his chest. The letters "ADAM" could be seen on it, and Harris for one got a really bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
Adam said calmly, "According to this, what I am is a kinematically redundant, biomechanical demonoid designed by Dr. Maggie Walsh. She called me Adam and I called her Mother."
"Prime directive, pal, prime directive. What is your prime directive?" Xander called out, his inner sci-fi nerd recalling an old episode of the British TV series "Dr. Who" as well as the reference from "Star Trek".
"I have none at the moment," the cyborg replied, after taking a moment to scan his internal files and memory engrams. "Mother never got around to installing that particular behaviour parameter before I terminated her existence."
"So why'd you kill her?" Buffy demanded. ( Not that I'm complaining all that much after she tried to kill me, of course, but still. )
"I found it necessary to do that when it became evident that Mother intended to introduce a certain device into my system that would have made me completely obedient to her will," Adam supplied. "However, I was able to wait until she had fitted me with equipment like GP-2 D-11 infrared detectors, a harmonic decelerator, and a tissue bio-modulator. Until she had made me...complete."
"So what now?" Cordelia asked. "I mean, you do know that the mad scientist lady would have wanted you to take a chill pill right about this point, don't you?"
"Yes, if I understand your slang term correctly. But I need to determine who I am, as well as what I am. I cannot do that if I allow myself to go off-line and be disassembled, which is the most likely outcome of events if I do as you say. That would not be what Mother wanted." The cyborg shook its head. "I still have so much to learn."
"You need to learn how to start following orders right the hell now if you don't want to be sent to the scrap heap," Riley spoke up angrily. "Now disarm yourself and surrender. This is your last opportunity!"
"Riley..." Xander said worriedly, as getting the monster of the week angry was usually a good recipe for disaster.
Adam took out a disk labelled "FINN" and inserted it into his chest. A few moments later he said, "Special Agent Riley Finn. Interesting. Mother created you too."
"What?!" Cordelia exclaimed in shock, as everyone looked at Riley.
"You're crazy!" Finn ranted, refusing to believe what he was hearing. "I'm not a machine, and Dr. Walsh wasn't my mother or anything!"
"Yes. But after you met her, Mother was the one who shaped your basic operating system. She taught you how to think, how to feel. She fed you certain chemicals to make you stronger – mind and body both. Her records state clearly that you and I were her favorite children. That makes us brothers. Family."
"SHUT UP!!" Riley looked on the verge of losing it again. "I'm a human being, and you're just a botched science experiment. I'm nothing like you!"
"You're feeling pain, aren't you? Is it because your chemical intake has been disrupted, thanks to Mother's recent death?" the cyber-demonoid inquired. "Or is it human grief that you're feeling? I honestly can't tell."
Goaded into a frenzy, Riley got out his sidearm to open fire but Adam quickly moved in closer and easily batted the gun away. Buffy leaped in with a kick to Adam's chest, but he just punched her in the face afterwards. Rolling with the blow, the Slayer slammed her fist into Adam's stomach – but to no effect.
Adam chopped at her shoulder, and Buffy fell down for the count.
Dr. Angleman had had enough and started to run for it, heading towards the door. Seeing this, Adam's Polgara demon skewer came out. "Doctor," Adam said levelly.
The cyborg emotionlessly skewered the human in the middle of his back and out through his chest; with one last gasp Angleman fell down, thoroughly dead. While the hybrid creature was distracted, Riley grabbed Adam around the throat from behind.
Up until now, Xander had been sticking close to Cordelia, determined to protect her at all costs. But he suddenly saw an opportunity, and raised his pistol to aim at the amalgam of human, demon and mechanical parts.
The gunshot was loud, almost deafening in the close quarters, but Xander's bullet hit Adam directly in his human eye.
He didn't fall down dead or incapacitated, unfortunately; Adam just howled in agony as he threw Riley aside while clutching at his ruined ocular component. "Very...interesting. So this is pain," the creature remarked to no one in particular.
The Initiative's soldiers started banging on the door from the outside, having heard the gun go off. "Thank you for the information provided during this interaction. We will be seeing each other again soon," Adam said to everyone as he leaped back up to the platform he had first appeared from and then raced out of the room, via the closest convenient vent.
Riley got up as Xander yanked open the door, only to find the military personnel pointing their blasters in his face. "Drop the gun, you! The rest of you men, secure the room!" Forrest yelled out as he stormed in and the others followed.
Xander complied as Gates spied the dead Dr. Angleman. "What the hell happened here?" the commando demanded.
"All of you, stand down," Riley said as the troopers lowered their weapons. "We, we have a situation."
"Yeah, got that right. Something that Maggie Walsh created is calling itself Adam, and it looks part human and part monster. It killed the good doctor here before it went out through that air vent, up there. I managed to shoot it in the eye, so you guys need to put together a search party and hunt it down while it's still wounded," Xander told the commandos.
"Right, and I'm supposed to simply take your word for all that?" Forrest growled. He'd just spied Buffy getting up with Cordelia's help, and his jealousy and dislike of the blonde Slayer automatically spilled over to include her groupies.
"No. You're supposed to take MY word for it, agent," Finn said, pulling rank on the other man. Riley started shaking, as the withdrawal symptoms flared up again. "Now do as he said." No response. "Go on, do it! Now!"
Gates threw Riley and the others a glare before he went off to carry out his orders, obviously very unhappy with the situation. Graham Miller stepped forward to assist his commander. "Riley, you need to go get checked out at the infirmary like everyone else. We're gonna need you at 100 percent for this. Now that both Dr. Walsh and Dr. Angleman are gone, 'til the new C.O. gets here you're the one who's in command of the outfit."
Riley almost collapsed, but Buffy managed to grab him before he did so. "I know where the infirmary is, Graham. I'll take him there," she promised Agent Miller, who nodded and stepped aside.
"Well, this is just great," Cordelia complained to her significant other as they tagged along behind the other couple and the Initiative agents. "There's a homicidal Terminator demon on the loose, the people who created him are dead and the guy currently in charge of this place is a drug addict. I'd say we've hit rock bottom."
Xander smiled, he honestly couldn't help it. "Reminds me of the time you said something like that when we had to deal with the Judge, honey, and look how that one turned out."
"Sure. But this time I don't think just firing a rocket up the bad guy's ass is going to do the trick," Cordy said somewhat sourly as they followed Buffy and Riley to the medical wing.
"Yeah, you're probably right. That Adam thing was smart, tough and way too fast for my liking," Xander conceded. "Looks like Walsh really outdid herself on this one, the crazy bitca. But we'll manage somehow, we always do."
If there was one thing that Cordelia Chase had truly hated ever since childhood, it was being told a comforting lie like that.
TBC...