"Lead the way then, B. I got your back." Faith tossed the eraser onto the small table and stretched. "But we gotta hurry. Red's feeling out of her league, and I ain't good with leavin' her with all the work."
Buffy's eyes threatened to pop out of her head. Really? Faith didn't like Willow doing all the work? They always did that. Slayers and research mixed badly. Biting back a comment, though, she merely dug a couple more daggers from the duffel bag and slipped them under her belt. "Let's go." Without offering an explanation, Buffy trotted out of the room and outside.
The night was still dark. Still quiet. For just an instant, Buffy longed for the old days when there had been something happening on campus at all hours. The feeling faded when they reentered the main building, replaced with a crawling sense of urgency and a need for caution. "I think Snyder may have had cameras installed," she told Faith as they hurried through the pitch-black hallways. "If he did…"
"We can use 'em to spot Walsh's goons," Faith finished. "Nice, B."
Whether the compliment was for Buffy's brilliance or Snyder's sneakiness, Buffy wasn't sure. She felt a brief surge of confidence from just the slim chance Faith appreciated her idea. "We have to pray the explosion didn't damage the equipment, though. Will's a whiz with the computer; I've never seen her rebuild a surveillance network." Of course, if they had enough time, Willow could probably figure it out.
"Fuck, no. You better do more than pray, B. Red's a lost cause with wires and shit. She tried to fix the toaster one day." Faith chuckled. "Remember them towels Mrs. S gave us for the apartment?"
Actually, Buffy had picked them out. It had taken her weeks to find something cute that hadn't been too girly for an apartment Faith would be sharing. "Yeah," she said, sure the punch line of the story wasn't going to be funny.
"Came home from patrol to see flames almost to the ceiling. Bet your mom didn't know how good them things burned." Faith shook her head. "I ain't never lettin' Red near the electrical stuff again."
"We all have one thing we aren't good at," Buffy muttered. She'd discovered the flammable nature of dishtowels, too. Only she hadn't been trying to fix the toaster, just use it. Forcing herself back to business, she told Faith, "I won't ask Will to fix anything, I promise. We've already done enough damage to the building. I was thinking, if the cameras work, she could get them to transmit to her computer or something. Otherwise, this is a bad idea. One of us would have to sit in Snyder's office and monitor the footage."
They were almost to the administration wing. Buffy recognized the empty remnants of the bulletin board display cases and a tattered Razorbacks banner dangling along one wall. "I missed some of the conversation back in the office. What happened? Why was Will so rattled?"
Buffy regretted the question when Faith glared at her and said, "Why the hell do you think, B? You keep actin' like she's supposed to know everything. Red's all outta answers and she fuckin' hates letting you down."
"Oh." Looking away, Buffy pretended to examine the final few feet of hallway. "I… I don't expect her to know all the answers, Faith." Even as she protested, Buffy knew it was a lie. Willow had always been the one person she could trust to tell her how to save the world. Guilt settled like a weight on her chest. "I mean, we've got Tara and Giles working on a magic angle, and if that doesn't work…"
"Don't give me that crap, B." Faith didn't sound angry like she usually did when Willow was a topic of conversation. She sounded tired and worried. "The only reason Red's on the computer and not messin' with the magic is you're hoping to turn Ethan off before the lightning bolts start flying."
"And you're not?" Buffy shot back, stung by the accuracy of Faith's accusation. "You hate it when Willow does magic. You and Giles are always going on and on about how Will doesn't know what she's doing and how dangerous it is. I thought you'd be happy she's not mixing eye of newt and puppy dog tails or whatever."
She wasn't expecting Faith's quiet, "I am," in response.
Why? Buffy had never understood why everyone thought magic was a bad idea. "Why?" She repeated her thought out loud. "I mean… Why? Why are you suddenly Giles' biggest cheerleader on the anti-magic team? I don't get it. Will's magic has saved us more than once!" Biting off anything else, Buffy moved ahead of Faith and wrenched open the mangled door to the main office. Fueled by confusion and frustration, her efforts were a lot more than Buffy needed. The bent metal ripped from the hinges and landed on the floor with a cavernous boom.
The sound seemed to fill the hall and echoed in Buffy's ears. "Nice going, B. Hope to Hell the soldiers ain't outside looking for us. Might as well put a big fucking sign over our heads: Stupid Slayers Here!" Faith pushed Buffy out of the way. "Think you can get your shit together long enough to find these cameras? I wanna go check on Red."
Grinding her teeth together didn't make Buffy feel less stressed. It only gave her a headache and made her want to hit Faith more. She stalked through the dirty and debris-filled office to the door guarding Snyder's old inner sanctum.
She made a special effort not to pull this one completely away from the doorframe.
"If he had cameras, the monitors have to be in here," Buffy said. "He practically lived in here, when he wasn't lurking around some corner eavesdropping on conversations." He'd nearly caught her and Giles discussing Slayer business more than once.
Nodding, Faith slipped into the office behind Buffy. "Creepy little bastard always seemed to know when I was droppin' by for a visit." She moved across the room and began opening cabinet doors. "Only thing is, B… If Snyder had eyes on the school, why didn't he know about the whole vampire thing?"
Buffy didn't know. Worse, she hadn't even considered the option. "Giles spent every waking moment in the library back then. I bet Snyder couldn't get in to install the camera." It was a pathetic excuse for an answer. Unable to meet Faith's gaze, Buffy ducked behind Snyder's battered desk and searched through the few drawers still remaining in their niches.
Unfortunately, the explosion that had killed the Mayor had done a number on Snyder's possessions. Heat had warped the wood and melted what Buffy assumed had once been pens. The files shoved haphazardly into the desk were singed and the words were faded or yellowed. The pieces of the past were interesting – and completely useless. "I've got nothing. I guess I was wrong. Snyder must have gotten his tips from the Psychic Hotline."
"Nah. Red says that's all a lie," Faith said.
Snorting, Buffy dropped into the desk chair and cradled her head in her hands. What the hell where they going to do? "You believe Willow? What did she say to convince you? Didn't the fifty gold rings the 'psychic' wore in the commercial clue you in?" The verbal jibe lacked bite. Buffy was too preoccupied for real scorn. Her mind whirled as she considered their situation. They had no cameras. They had no way to magically beat Ethan. They had nothing.
"Ain't just that, B." A cabinet door creaked across the room, and Buffy winced as the sound made her head pound harder. "I found Snyder's stash. Got more TVs than Walmart. No wonder the little fuck knew so much."
"You found them?" Buffy's head came up so fast her neck cracked. "They work?" No way. They never had luck that good.
The flickering images on the row of small screens mocked Buffy's disbelief. "Most of 'em are good, B. Dark since there ain't a lot of light but I got eyes on the locker room and that theater room or whatever you was gonna put us up in." Faith turned and flashed her trademark smirk. "Wonder what ol' Snyder did with those tapes?"
"Don't!" Buffy warned, one hand rising in a clear signal for Faith to stop. "Don't even go there. I so don't need images of Snyder watching people in the sound booth." Her mind finally processed the words. Snyder. Watching the tapes. In his office. In his chair. The chair Buffy was using. Springing out of the desk chair, Buffy scrubbed both hands over the butt of her jeans. "Can you see any of the outside of the school?" Mental images of Riley, covered in camo and creeping up on them, helped Buffy push Snyder's sick taste in movies away.
Moving closer, she peered over Faith's shoulder. Cafeteria. Locker room. Sound booth. Buffy mentally ticked off most of the major hangouts in the school. That left six screens. "Yes! Who knew I'd ever want to thank Snyder the Troll for anything?" Each of the remaining screens showed grainy footage of the quad, the back of the main building, the area beneath the bleachers in the football stadium, and the fire exits used by the smokers. "Let's go tell the gang."
It was quiet after Buffy and Faith left. Too quiet. Tara stared intently at the table. Buffy had said she should talk with Giles about magic. She would – if she only knew what to say.
"Ethan and I were mates when we were both rebellious youths, my dear. Buffy is correct that I may have more insight into his mind than anyone," Giles said softly, interrupting Tara's silent quandary. "I do not believe she has considered the fact that our current situation is outside any of my previous experiences."
"I th-think Buffy is c-completely aware of that, Mis-ster Giles." Tara looked up; she had to. This was important. "All of th-this is new. Soldiers. G-guns. Eth-Ethan." The stakes were so high. They had to find a way to stay alive.
And that's where Tara floundered.
How did they survive? Giles might seem anti-magic to Buffy and Willow. Tara understood his hesitance, though. Ethan represented everything her mother had warned her about. His power was incredible; his evil terrifying. Throw in the computer chip controlling his actions, and Ethan was the embodiment of magical misuse. "We need a w-way to shut Ethan off," Tara said softly, repeating Buffy's earlier comment.
Tara's voice wasn't soft enough. "I'm looking! This isn't as easy as Buffy thinks," Willow snapped. The flickering candlelight and the glow from her computer cast her face in shifting patterns of shadow; it was still enough to show Willow's frustrated expression. "Why can't we just blow him up or something? Or…Or pull the chip out with a spell? I saw something in one of your books, Giles. A spell to remove a person's heart. I bet it would work if we changed the words."
"No." For once, there was no lack of confidence or a trace of a stutter as Tara replied. "That's black magic, Willow."
Willow's eyes rose from behind the laptop. "Yeah, but it isn't like we'd be doing it all the time. It's only once, and…"
Tara raised her hand without conscious thought. "Once, twice, a hundred times. The number d-doesn't matter. It's wrong." She could feel everyone in the room staring. Staring and waiting for a better solution than Willow's spell. Unfortunately for them all, Tara didn't have anything else to offer.
"Are you sure there is nothing in the Professor's files, Willow?" Giles asked. Straightening in his chair, he gestured to the paperwork on the table. "From what you've printed, it seems she is very detailed in her notes. Whatever her true purpose with Ethan, Professor Walsh is a successful researcher. She would not embark on such an important project without documentation."
"I know, Giles," Willow mumbled through a sudden yawn. "It's like she wrote – or typed, since it's on computer – everything she ever did or thought. Except when it came to Ethan. There's a black hole of information on him. I've been hacking files all over that lab we found. You wouldn't believe some of the things they've been up to."
Yet nothing on Ethan. It didn't make sense. Tara frowned and looked across the room at their captives. Walsh stared back with a superior smirk. She was obviously convinced they were fighting a lost cause. That thought kept Tara from dropping her gaze. Walsh wasn't going to win. They simply had to think outside the box. "W-Willow, what other proj-jects did you find?" If they didn't have what it took to beat Ethan, maybe Walsh had inadvertently created something else they could use. Or she'd have to look into Willow's suggestion for magical solutions…