"… the woman who grows up with the idea that she is simply to be an amiable animal, to be caressed and coaxed, is invariably a bitterly disappointed woman. A game of chess will cure such a conceit forever. The woman that knows the most, thinks the most, feels the most, is the most. Intellectual affection is the only lasting love. Love that has a game of chess in it can checkmate any man and solve the problem of life." - Charles Dickens

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"The troops you sent out the other day have returned with ten times their numbers in recruits." Maloker growled at Spike's smirk.

"Good, now half of them need to get caught." Spike stood up and walked out the door. "I'll address their questions myself."

"There are over two dozen species out there," Maloker said, following Spike.

"I can use visual aids if I don't know the language." He picked the poster boards he made for this occasion as he passed through the office section of the tunnel. "Mal, you need to calm down. Everything's going better than planned."

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Xander and Faith followed the Colonel around the facility, both making mental notes of its strengths and weaknesses. They were walking through the containment area when the Colonel stopped in front of a specific cell.

"This is Hostile 29. It's been modified with spliced DNA from the deceased Hostile 5. This creature is intent on making the 314 project a reality. We keep it focused on this mission through using what little empathy such a creature is capable of against it."

Faith could tell even from behind that this "hostile" was none other than Willow Rosenberg, and so could Xander. Despite the scars crisscrossing her back, there was the way she held herself that both spies recognized as Willowy. Faith now knew why Xander was here and decided that she'd make Willow a project of hers.

"She looks like she's in a lot of pain," Xander said, trying to hide the full weight of his concern.

"Its pain is of no concern. What is of our concern is containing its power. So long as it remains in the compound, the only magic it can do is what we tell it to do." The Colonel puffed out his chest when Willow turned and growled at him fangs elongated. "See, it's nothing more than an animal."

"What's the procedure for moving the hostiles to the Pit?" Faith asked.

"We'll talk about that in a few minutes." The Colonel pointed to the next cell. "This is Hostile 28, and it's how we keep 29 in check. When the next full moon comes we'll know if we cured it. It seems to think that it's no longer a werewolf now that we've cut off its left hand, but there's no evidence to suggest it's trying to do anything other than trick us into letting it go."

"Why'd you cut off the hand?" Xander asked, averting his eyes away from Oz to keep his cool.

"Because 29 stopped working." The Colonel slid his keycard and walked out the door. Faith and Xander followed. Faith was unaffected by the plight of the demons and witches here, but Xander was nauseated. Once the door was shut behind them the Colonel continued. "We drug their food and once they succumb to the sedatives, a team muzzles and cuffs them before using a stretcher to bring them to the Pit."

The gears in Faith's head were already turning searching for a way to get herself out of this crap assignment. This one tour gave her everything she needed to get there.

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Riley couldn't sleep through the pain in his leg. That Giles character did a good job as a field medic, setting and splinting the break, but they wouldn't even give him an aspirin. Every instinct in his body told him that these were good people pushed to doing bad things for the right reason, but he wouldn't commit treason. Through the haze of pain, he tried to find a way to help them, and help himself while not facing the stockade later. His frailty was so clear that Buffy felt comfortable sleeping during her watch.

His thoughts were interrupted when Xander rushed down the stairs. "Buffy!"

Buffy was instantly awake. "What's going on?"

Xander whispered in her ear at a panicked pace and the longer he went on, the more ashen her face became. When he leaned back, she asked, "Did you see a way to get them out?"

"No. The entire place has cameras watching it and several soldiers watching those feeds. I didn't see many weak points in their security."

"But there were some?" When Xander nodded, Buffy took a breath. "Then we go in with a full on assault."

"There's only three of us, we'll get slaughtered." Xander leaned against a wall. "Though small numbers might be an advantage if we stick to the hallways. We could work it like a bottleneck. There'd be only so many soldiers that could fight us."

"Think we can pull a Judge?" Buffy asked.

"Sure. I'm not a hundred percent, but I remember enough to get through. Wanna play an airhead turned on by guns?"

"Not really, but I will. But I hate guns, they never help."

"There's plenty of other equipment we could use." Xander sighed. "This would be fun if it weren't for…"

"I know." Buffy hugged Xander. "Things will never be the same, but we'll bring them home and help them somehow."

Xander nodded. "I'll go get Giles so he can guard the meathead while we do the grand theft thing."

"We should use Oz's van. You drive."

He nodded again before leaving.

Riley understood enough of that conversation to know they were going to try to storm the Initiative. "You'll fail."

"Didn't ask you." Buffy scowled at him. "You'll get my attention only when you decide to be useful."

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Faith stood in front of Willow's cell, key card in hand. "Hey, Red. Want outta here?"

Willow looked at Faith with new eyes. While most of the soldiers and doctors here had ugly skin, Faith's was flawless. "I want Oz out of here more."

"Tell you what. I can get both of you out of here if you agree to join my side. We could use a witch." Faith waited until Willow nodded before pressing the button to the explosives she set behind the wall of monitors in the control room. With a slide of her card, she opened both their cells. "Follow me, love birds."

They threw on the lab coats Faith tossed to them and followed her through a maze of hallways. The three of them dodged soldiers and slid under doors before they shut. Running down a hall that looked different from the rest, some of the commandos came up behind them. Willow tried to throw up a shield, but her magic still didn't work and a bullet caught Oz in the back of the head the blood and gore splattering both Faith and Willow.

"No!" Willow screamed as her devastation blinded her.

Faith dragged Willow through the last door, pausing for just a moment so Faith could shake her. "We need to make a stealthy retreat. Get it together."

Willow nodded, tears unrelenting as they made their way through the woods and into Spike's lair. When they stopped, Willow's nose flared. "I won't rest until they're all dead."

"Then you want what we want," Faith said as she caught her breath. "Welcome to the party, Red."

Willow looked around at the demons in the cave. "Who's in charge."

"That'd be me." Spike ambled into the anterior part of the cave. "And my partner Faith."

"Did the spying thing. Wasn't much to learn that we didn't already know. But I've got a blueprint in my head, and I got a mega powerful witch on our side." Faith wrapped an arm around Willow's shoulders.

"Don't touch me." Willow stepped away from Faith. "I know what they're working on, and I know what will happen to it. I don't think they realized what they did when they mixed Drusilla into me."

Spike growled, picked up a bowl, and threw it at the cave wall.

"I'm sorry, Spike." Willow ran her hand over his back, keeping an inch of air between her skin and his shirt. "But trust me when I say, they'll pay for what they've taken from us."

Lip curled, Spike turned and studied Willow's scarred face. "Yes, we will."

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Professor Walsh examined Hostile 29's cell. The last book was open and after skimming the content of that spell, Walsh was sure they could convince one of the other witches to do the it. While losing 29 was a setback, it wasn't a total loss.