"Can't stay, but I thought I would bring you something to help ward off sleep monsters." Xander handed Buffy whatever crazy name the largest sugar caffeine possible was called.

Buffy sipped the coffee. "Oh, mocha just the way I like it." Thoughts of Willow clouded her mind once again. "Willow's going to be so upset about missing classes."

Xander almost laughed as he walked up the stairs. "If they wanted to torture her they've already succeeded. I doubt she's thinking of anything else right now."

Riley shook his head. If their friends were Initiative captives then school was the last thing on this Willow's mind. But he let them find comfort while they could.

Maggie drank her black coffee as she watched the monitor for Hostile 29. With Hostile 5's special talents in her, Walsh expected this one would finally bridge the gap they'd been stuck on for years.

The Colonel passed by talking to the Lieutenant about the new arrivals. "They're both Majors, and one's a dame, but the word is that she's to be on the front line, fighting with the boys. The other is a seasoned clean cut soldier. Both of them have the highest clearance ratings I've seen short of having a bird on their collars, so we should get them up to date first thing."

The two men walked into the greeting room to see that the two new recruits knew each other and were talking amicably. "Never thought I'd see you in the military, geek boy."

"Well, I have more training than most, and I'll have you know that I love military movies and can quote Patton from memory."

Faith and Xander smirked at each other, silent communication that they would do everything they could to find out why the other was there. And they would do whatever they could to mess each other up. If it weren't for the camera, Faith would have killed him already.

Spike had his feet up on the table as he waited for the timer to go off, telling him that the bleach could be rinsed off. If he weren't a vampire in love with pain, he'd never have gotten past the second bleaching. It burned, blistered and occasionally made him bleed. But with the pain tolerance he had, this was as close as he could get to the feeling of how his mother scrubbed his scalp with her nails when she washed it. She'd rub and scratch his head until it tingled.

Maloker ambled into Spike's room, choosing to forget once more that knocking was a thing. Spike didn't bat an eye at the intrusion. "I don't understand what this offending odor from your hair has to do with bringing back my brethren."

"It's an image thing. You exude the right aesthetic and confidence, and people will follow you."

"I don't want people to follow me. I want them to crawl at my feet," Maloker growled.

"Tomato, tomahto." When Maloker didn't get it, Spike rolled his eyes. "Same difference. We can get people to crawl at our feet willingly if we can make it seem like they're getting something out of it. You never give them more than hope. The world will fall at your feet if you give them hope but never pay out."

"Make this happen."

"Working on it, mate." Spike's timer went off and he bounced to his feet, head tingling the way he liked. "This step is just about complete."

"I don't understand this infernal time." Maloker growled again and left Spike's room.

"So the movies are all wrong?" Buffy said as boredom took over. "No serial numbers, just socials? Considering identity theft, I'd think that's a dangerous thing to do."

No comment from the prisoner.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were some naive farm boy. Or well I'm still guessing farming's in there somewhere. And I have to say if you signed up to capture and kill innocent people because you think supernatural equals evil, I'd say naive still applies. So I will stick with my original assessment."

Still no comment.

"I'm bored. Let's fight." She got up and dialed the combination into the lock, letting her into his cage and locking it behind her.

"I won't hit a girl," Riley said.

"So he can speak. Let's put a little wager on it then. If I win, you tell me what I need to know. If you win, I'll let you go." Her mischievous smile belied her anger.

"And you'll honor that?"

"Yep. I'll even do it with my eyes closed." Buffy did as she said.

He stood up and circled her. Once he'd done that once he doubled back a third before making a move. Riley brought his arm down to grab her shoulder and wound up in her grip. She spun around turning his arm with her so that his back faced her, and he had to double over to avoid dislocating his shoulder.

"I could break your shoulder from this position, but I'll be super nice and let you try again."

She let him go with a shove, and he wasted no time before spinning and kicking her in the chest. But it didn't land, and he ended up kicking the concrete wall with a scream as his tibia splintered. A chunk stuck through his pant leg as blood pooled under him.

"Say that looks bad." Buffy knelt down next to him. "Now tell me what I want to know, and I'll get you to the hospital."

He breathed through his nose as he clamped his mouth shut.

"Fine. Be like that." She turned and shouted. "Giles! Some help here!"

"I'd say you were being especially cruel, but then again this man can save our friends and yet he choses not to, making him worth less than sun in a library." Giles entered the cage. "I have half a mind to leave him like this, but since we don't want him dead, I'll do what I can."

Buffy left Giles to care for Major Finn. When she got outside, she gasped for air as she silently wept. She had become what she fought, a monster. And she'd do it again. With Willow in danger, Buffy would cross that line and then the next until she got her friend back safe.

Another text and another dead end had Willow near tears. If she wanted to save Oz, she needed to figure this out. The sounds of demons whimpering, growling, and banging the walls leaked through her concentration, sending her into a rage like she'd never experienced.

Naked and growling in fury with fangs but no bumps, Willow threw the useless book at the electrified glass wall. It caught fire and landed in the corner. She moved the other books to the other side of her cage, keeping them safe from the flames, but then she ignored the fire and went back to researching. The tile floor cracked under the heat, but the fire didn't spread.