Chapter 16
A/N: Sorry for the delay, had my end of term exam last week.
A/N: the forward slashes indicate Telepathic communicating.
NID, White Room no. 02
Willow opened her eyes slowly, the first thing she noticed was that she was still on the gurney and that her whole body hurt like hell; she swallowed and gagged at the pain in the neck, she swallowed again, this time carefully. Her head was pounding, the sedative she was still on was numbing the pain a little; unfortunately it was difficult to focus; she knew one thing though- she needed to get off this gurney and out of this damn room.
She struggled in futile attempt to loosen the restraints that were pinning her to the rather hard bed, she stopped after a bit and then tried to concentrate on honing her magic. It was a useless attempt.
"Crap."
The redhead screamed in sudden shock as a torrent of ice-cold water was poured over her, she screwed her eyes up against the shower as the water collided with her face; after the shower ceased she shook her head; drops of the liquid flew off her. She shivered slightly and when she opened her eyes she saw that Doctor Bryce was standing in front of her, glaring.
"I'm going to continue these sessions on you until you start talking," he stated. "And they WON'T be getting any less painful." He flexed his hands suggestively and smirked darkly. "You want to start talking?"
Willow glowered at the man and then asked rhetorically, "What do you think?" she leaned back ever so slightly as he bent towards her.
He smiled, "I think I need to start working on your son, now." Then he grabbed her wrist and gave it a swift twist, his smile widened as he heard the bones snap; he sighed as he saw her hold back a cry of pain. "Poor little Chris, I'll make sure that the pain you're feeling now will be NOTHING compared to what I'm going to do to the boy." He dropped her hand back onto the gurney.
He watched in mild interest as the young woman seemed to concentrate through the pain and the drug, he cocked his head at her mockingly as he listened to her, "If you hurt him, I'll kill you…I'll will, then I'll get your….cronies." she seemed to be loosing her concentration, the drug would be helping there.
"At the risk of sounding cliché…" his cockiness seemed to permeate the room. "…Ooh, I'm really scared." He smirked again, turned his back on her and walked towards the door.
Willow's desperate threats followed him out the room.
Colorado Springs, Airport Terminal
"So, the group consists of three women and two men," noted Jack. "Got it." He pulled back the handle to open the car door on his side and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He looked around at the groups of bustling people moving around the Terminal, he smirked and looked at his team as they stepped up next to him, "Lucky we saw photos of the kids BEFORE we came out here." It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, pretty much impossible.
"You got that right," Sam muttered looking around at the crowds of people hurrying in, out and around the airport terminal.
"'Course I'm right, Carter," said Jack cheekily. "Aren't I always?" he saw his 2IC bite back a grin and gave her a look of fake hurt. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Oooookkaay…." He started scanning the crowds of people running in different and random directions; he knew that the rest of his team was doing the same thing.
A few minutes later Jack was about to split the group up to look for the kids more effectively, they weren't getting anywhere trying to spot them in the hoards of frantically rushing people and flying luggage, when he heard Teal'c shout.
"O'Neill!"
Jack, Sam and Daniel whipped their head around from the directions they had been staring in to look at their alien friend, they followed his gaze and found what they suspected were their targets.
Daniel stepped beside Teal'c as he looked at the group, "That's them, it has to be." Five people, three woman and two men, were walking away from them and the terminal towards the road.
Jack sighed, "C'mon, if our luck plays out maybe we'll only come away with a few bruises. Let's go." They strode towards the group of five as a taxi pulled up on the side of the road after it had been hailed. "Wait a minute!"
The four kids and the older man looked at them first with irritation and then with suspicion; the older guy stepped up as he gave them a chilling look, "What seems to be the problem?"
Jack knew instantly that this was the ex-Watcher, Rupert Giles, they had ran a background check on the gang and had come up with the ex-Watcher's profile; they had dug up some police files on Rupert Giles as an adolescent up to when he was a young man and had found out that he had committed a number of offences namely: robbery and motor vehicle theft. His nickname, as a rebellious youth, had been 'Ripper' as they had found out from the information that the Initiative had put together; and apparently 'Ripper' was as nice as the name sounded.
"You're the ex-Watcher, Rupert Giles, aren't you?" asked Daniel quickly, half hopeful half certain that he already knew the answer to be 'yes'. "I-I'm Daniel Jackson, this is-
Jack's eyes widened, "Whoa, Danny!" Okay, he got that his friend was stressed but alarming their potential allies wasn't the best idea. He looked at the cab driver who was looking at them with vague interest. "Look, pal, you wanna…" he gestured away from himself, his meaning clear.
The driver looked at him and then at the group that had waved him over, "You getting in or not."
Dawn stepped up to Jack, glaring at him, "Where's Willow and Chris?"
"Gee, I'd love to tell you really, I would," He said wryly. "But I'm not always Mr. Know-it, ya know." He heard the young blonde woman apologizing quickly to the cab before the high-pitched sound of screeching tyres made his ears hurt.
Then before he knew it the twenty-something young woman was pushed to the side and he found himself on the receiving end of the Slayer, Buffy Summers' glare; his team tensed as she growled, "Tell me where they are, now. Before I-
"Oh, for crying out loud," snapped Jack in frustration. "We're on the same damn side."
Teal'c nodded slowly, "We are, in fact, ALSO looking for WillowRosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg." His declaration resulted in him getting strange looks from the gang.
The dark-haired man smirked, "Quite a mouthful there."
The Jaffa just looked at the younger man steadily, the gaze was enough to send weaker men running for cover but the guy stared right back stonily; the groups watched the stare-down with a little interest, until the ex-vengeance demon of the group moved closer to Dawn while looking at the large man hungrily- of course, those who knew Anya already knew what she was going to say.
"That guy is huge! I wonder how big his peni-"
"Anya!" cried Xander finally looking away from Teal'c. "Honey, now's not the time." He looked back at the big guy and saw that he had one eyebrow raised in…astonishment? Amusement? Who knew?
He and Sam just stared at the ex-demon, eyebrows raised incredulously while Daniel seemed to get more and more agitated; Giles was glaring at the leader of the four while Buffy took a more direct approach and shoved him into a, fortunately for him, parked car, "Whoa, look kid I told you we're not-
"Where the hell are they!?" she snarled, her nose was centimeters from his own; fist raised ready to swing. "You'd better start talking fast or I'll-
"No, no, god NO!" Daniel screamed incensed. "We don't know ANYTHING, why the HELL would we walk up to you if we did!? Jack and Teal'c aren't lying, we're trying to help Willow and Chris out as much as you are."
Jack looked at the archaeologist, he needed to calm the guy down; he was too far close to snapping, he felt the blonde's grip loosen and glanced at her. She was looking at Daniel with a cold look on her face and he hoped that she wouldn't rile him up.
They were starting to attract a lot of attention from passersby, and unlike the residents Sunnydale these guys weren't likely to rationalize and forget what might happen; he certainly didn't want the NID and that bastard Kinsey to know that they were going to attempt a rescue very soon.
"You say you want to help us? How do you expect us to believe that?" She smirked at the archaeologist slightly. "C'mon, you military-types should know better than that."
"I'm not military," said Daniel pointedly. "Just because you happened to have a run-in with ONE part of the military, doesn't mean that the whole branch is the same!"
He had a good point there. Jack vaguely noticed that the young man and his girlfriend was talking to Teal'c; the woman was grinning at the big guy in a rather suggestive manner while the man seemed to be threatening him with bodily harm; though how he would manage that was a mystery to Jack. Teal'c would cream the younger and smaller man in a heartbeat.
He also saw that his 2IC was arguing rather heatedly with Giles, the guy looked close to taking a swing at her. He knew that Carter could take care of herself but he really didn't like the 'Ripper' guy, he was described as being a little psychopathic. Still, whether he wanted to help or not, it didn't look like he would get out of the blondie's freakishly-strong grip any time soon.
Surprisingly, at least to him, Buffy released her grip on his lapels and backed away from him slightly, still watching the bespectacled man, "You're not military?"
"No."
He tensed as the blonde grinned sardonically, "You're not military! Let's be best pals!"
Jack cringed inwardly, "Crap." Danny was NOT in the mood to be messed with. Just as Daniel was about to start yelling again he heard the youngest person say something that made his blood cool.
"Buffy! Teal'c's not human!"
"Aw, shit," he groaned, just when things couldn't get any worse.
NID
Agent Duncan Grey set his face into a mask of indifference as he walked through the halls of the NID base, he wondered how Serena, Chris and his mom were doing, were they out yet? Then again the base was pretty guarded, could they get out of the base without being detected? Maybe, if Serena was anything it was resourceful…if a little impressionable, okay a lot impressionable. But she was bright and she could get the boy and his mom out if she was given a good chance; he hoped they were given that chance.
If not, well, it wasn't the end of the world- there was another way to make it easier to get them out without being seen and caught and he was just about to make it happen.
The brown-haired man walked into the elevator and hit the button for one of the lower floors, he waited as the mechanical box rattled down past a couple of floors before slowing to a lurching stop that made his insides bounce; the doors slid open and he walked out calmly.
He passed only a few guards on the floor, he was relieved to find that no one was guarding the main power box like they were usually supposed to; he supposed that they had no reason to as the only suspects were locked up and they didn't expect any disloyalties from their own soldiers, "Should be more careful," he muttered to himself as he used his stolen key to gain access to the wires; he ripped into the wires and then pulled the two levers down at the same time.
The halls went dark as the power shut down; the soldier almost shook from the adrenaline that was racing through his veins as he hoped that his superiors hadn't had a chance to install the back-up power. He shouldn't think they had because the complex had only been up for a few months, so hopefully not.
The halls remained dark as he ran back the way he'd came, after a minutes of running around he grabbed a door to a storage room and shot inside; he needed to wait, the elevators weren't working obviously so he had to wait and hopefully someone, preferably Serena, would come a get him.
Until then he had to keep a low profile while everything went to hell above him.
White Room
The tears on Chris's face had dried on his face since he'd stopped crying, his face was still flushed; eyes still swollen, wet and red; nose red and runny and chest rising and falling unevenly as he whimpered and gasped occasionally from his earlier bout of crying. He sniffled and looked at his surroundings; the brightness of the room now had a lesser effect on his eyes as they had adjusted.
He looked to his left and saw that the dark-haired woman that had pulled the needle from his wrist was still looking at him, she was facing away from the huge mirror with an conflicted look on her face; the boy watched in trepidation as she walked up to him steadily. After a few seconds she quietly asked him, "You feeling more awake now?"
Actually, Chris was able to concentrate better; he nodded slightly and was about to say something but before he could everything went dark, he didn't like the dark and now hated even more that usual after the NID had taken him, "Why is everything dark?!" he strained against the straps that pinned him to the bed.
"Stay calm," ordered Serena warily. She listened to the clattering footfalls of the scientists behind the two-way mirror as they made their way out of the room. She knew that they could no longer see into the room that she and Chris were in because both room were now darker.
They had their window of opportunity.
She snatched up a scalpel and grabbed the straps binding Chris; the boy cringed back in fear. A force propelled her backwards into the wall; she slid down it as she fought to breathe after the air was expelled from her lungs.
Chris felt hope as he realized that he could use magic again; his attention was caught when he heard the lady talk to him. "Chris, for god's sakes, I'm trying to help."
"You were?" he looked at the sharp object that was still in her hand. "You were trying to hurt me."
"I wasn't, I was going to cut the straps," she argued. "We've got to get out NOW, or not at all. And Grey's still waiting for us."
"Who's Grey?" he asked.
"He's working on helping you and your mom out as much as I am," she explained carefully. "We need to find him, find your mom and then get out; preferably alive."
The boy nodded slowly, "So, you're not going to hurt me?"
"No, I'm trying to help you."
The boy smiled at her brightly, "And my mommy, too?"
She nodded.
Five minutes later Chris was freed from the restraints they worked on getting the door opened, which proved to be harder than she'd anticipated; she kicked the padded door angrily, "Shit."
The redhead's eyes went wide, "What's a 'shit'?"
"Nothing you should know," she said over her shoulder as she looked at the door. Despite the way her step-dad her brought her up, she didn't think that swearing at kids was appropriate. And neither was hurting them, not like he'd hurt her, she'd never hurt a kid like that.
"Are you trying to open the door?" he asked, eyes wide. "I can open it, my mommy taught me how."
Lucky kid, she nodded and said, "Okay, then." She stood back at a safe distance, not wanting to get hit with anything unexpected- like a flying door.
Chris closed his eyes in a bid to concentrate better, his breathing slowed and the room was filled with complete silence as the minutes went by. He opened his eyes suddenly and stared at the door, and then he squinted his eyes.
The door creaked and groaned in its frame but didn't move, he huffed, "Why won' it open?"
"Concentrate on it harder," ordered Serena impatiently, it was taking longer than she'd first thought it would. "Those guys might still be hurting your mom, you NEED to try harder."
Chris's eyes brimmed with tears, "Okay." He wished his mommy was here, what if he never got the door open? What if they never got out? He'd never see her again. He really, really hoped she was okay.
White Room no. 02
/I wish mommy was here, what if I never get the door open? What if we never get out? I'll never see mommy again./
Willow snorted wryly, "Great….now I'm hearing voices." As if being here in this boring room wasn't enough, still at least the room wasn't blinding her anymore; the room had gone dark around ten minutes ago, maybe more. Well, how should she know how much time had passed? She was just trying to ignore the pain in her wrist.
/I really, really hope she's okay/
She frowned, trying to concentrate, was that Chris? It kinda sounded like him. It would be easier to find out if she could just concentrate more, stupid sedative. Strangely enough she was starting to feel a little less funky, though. Vaguely, though, she could feel her magic simmer a little. "Maybe it's responding to the voice," she muttered to herself.
/My magic's not as good as mommy's, it's not fair! WHY isn't it!?./
She smiled at the slightly petulant tone of the voice; wait 'magic'? Maybe…it might be Chris. It sounded like him.
/Mommy said one time that she could put some of her power into me, that would work! No, she might be asleep. If I had more magic I could save mommy, we'd never have go back here ever again!/
"I could do that….need to get my magic to do what I want it to do, if only I could concentrate," she mumbled to herself. But maybe she didn't need to concentrate THAT much, she just needed to do what she did when she and her friends were fighting that…that ADAM thing. Only she wouldn't use her essence, just a little magic.
She wouldn't know unless she tried.
White Room
Chris sobbed and stamped his foot on the ground, "Why won't it work?!" he sniffled and attempted to start concentrating again, unfortunately he found himself unable to calm down enough to do so.
He gave up and looked behind him; he saw that the lady, Serena, was glaring at the door furiously as if she were willing the door to open. Which wouldn't happened, she wasn't a witch like he was.
Just then the lock on the door clinked open, he gasped in horror and fear, "No! Don't come in here!" he ran to the door and started pushing it with all of his strength, but the door crashed open sending him falling backwards onto his butt. He felt Serena lift him up by his underarms to help him to stand again, he latched onto her hand in fright as 'Dr. Meanie', as he'd named him, stood their looking at Serena with shock then at Chris with fear and anger.
"What the hell are you doing, Agent!?" he shouted incensed, he studied the boy as if looking to see whether a rabid dog had been completely tranquilized or not. "If you've been helping him all along, disobeying my orders…you can kiss your career goodbye!"
"Looks like I'm going in for the final smooch, then," snapped the agent glaring at the man. "I won't lose any sleep over it, trust me." Chris's grasp on her hand tightened in anxiety.
Chris gulped, stiffened and then gave 'Dr. Meanie' his best glare, "Where's my mommy?"
He sneered at the four-year-old, "Somewhere you'll never see her again, little boy."
"You better tell me where she is now!" he yelled, eyes brimming with tear again. "Or I'll make you sorry!" When all the man did was smile at him as if he were a stupid dog he threw himself forwards into the man's stomach, rebounded on him and started kicking the man's shins. "Tell me!"
"Chris!" yelled Serena.
Doctor Bryce caught a fistful of his red hair and yanked harshly upwards, the action elicited a cry of pain and when he opened his eyes he found himself looking straight into the end of a gun.
"What're you gonna do!?" the anger and fear in Serena's voice was audible. "Shoot a kid! Are you crazy?!"
Well, Chris definitely thought this guy was crazy; they wouldn't be in this room if he weren't. He grabbed the wrist of the hand holding his hair and started struggling, but stopped soon after as it only made his scalp hurt worse.
"Just get that gun away from him," she pleaded. "He's just a little kid!"
Doctor Bryce glared at her, "He is a powerful weapon, nothing more. If he can't be used by us he'll be disposed of."
"You're fucking insane," she spat angrily. "Just give me the kid."
Those new words she kept saying sounded bad, the fleeting thought ran through his aching head. He should ask his mommy about them…when he found her.
The doctor sighed in disappointment, "I can see that we've lost you to these…creatures. Our superiors have been notified of the power failure, and I've been told to terminate the experiment if anything goes wrong."
Serena glared at him, "The people above your superiors will wonder about this project. How will you explain all this?"
Chris almost jumped out of his skin when the loud noise of a bullet being released assaulted his ears, he cried out and started struggling again. The hand released him and he fell back, he backed away from the man who was looking behind him at something.
He turned around to run back to Serena when his eyes landed on something that made his eyes widen and his entire body stiffen, then he felt the cool, hard end of the gun pressed against his head.
He didn't pay attention to that, he only looked at the unmoving body of his helper; the dark red liquid running down from her forehead and onto the floor; the splatter of red on the wall behind her. His ears were ringing loudly, an aftereffect of the gunshot, while he felt cold and numb.
His eyes darkened, he felt suddenly powerful- like he could do anything he wanted, he also felt the one person he knew could really help him: his mom. He needed to find her, quickly. But he didn't know where she was; he needed to find Grey first, HE would probably know where his mommy was.
Chris turned around, eyes dark brown in colour, and sent Doctor Bryce sailing through the air, out the door and along the hall until he smacked into a wall and fell to the floor. He didn't get back up again.
Good.