Buffy was still standing, shocked, against the wall when the panel beside the door beeped. She snapped out of it in time to run out of the cave and hide in the bushes. A young woman in a lab coat left the cave staring intently at a clipboard. She followed a narrow path back to the campus.
Buffy made her own way back and walked to Giles's place. She hoped Willow had done her job better than she had and was waiting for Buffy to get back. She hoped they weren't all mad at her for not coming back last night.
She walked through the front door and greeted by the funny smells that only magic could bring together. Willow was sitting on the couch but jumped up when Buffy came in. Buffy noticed a second person who she thought she'd seen before but wasn't certain.
"Buffy! Where were you?" Willow asked. "Giles has-"
Giles came down the short hallway and into the living room. "Where have you been?"
"I was-" Buffy began.
"Don't lie to me! I've already talked to your mother and to Xander. Willow said she didn't see you all night."
Willow's eyes grew wide realizing she'd saved her own skin by giving Buffy no way to hide. "That's because," interrupted Willow as Buffy began to speak. "I was with Tara all night. We were up all night looking for the spell and I just sort of crashed at her place." Tara nodded. "Buffy could have been tucked up in our dorm all night and I wouldn't have noticed." She nodded at Buffy. Buffy nodded back with a 'thank you' in her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Giles asked.
Buffy didn't let her answer. "She's right! I was in our dorm last. Spike was a no show so I just headed on to bed. I didn't think Willow would find the spell for a while so I didn't think it mattered."
Giles sighed. "You should have called."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Right well. I assumed you were with Spike just now."
Buffy's eyes widened. "Why do you assume that? I could have been with anyone really, not just Spike." She touched the side of her face where his hand had been as if it had left a mark.
"So you didn't find a way into the Initiative?" Giles asked confused by her behavior.
"Oh, uh. Yeah we did. It's in this cave just off campus."
"The secret government monster hunters set up their super secret base at Sunnydale U?" Willow asked.
"Looks like. I even saw this scientist woman come out of it, but it had this key pad to open the door. We'll need a code or a card to get in."
"Well for the spell, we'll need DNA from the person you want to change into. A hair or a finger nail or saliva. You could probably get their key card from them."
Buffy nodded. "Looks like we'll have to stake the place out until someone comes outside. We'll knock 'em out and get you the hairs so you can do the spell."
"You'll want to grab costumes too and their badge. The spell won't do that for you," Willow said.
"I'll go and call Xander. The two of you can get the last of what's necessary," Giles said and walked past Buffy to the phone.
"Oh, Buffy," Willow said after a nudge from Tara. "This is Tara. Tara this is Buffy."
"Hi," Tara said with a shy smiled.
"Hi." Buffy smiled back. "So, you do magic."
Tara nodded. "Me and W-willow have been p-practicing together."
"She's really good," Willow said. "She taught me all these spells I'd never even thought of before."
Tara blushed. "I'm not that good. I mean... not as good as you."
Giles set the phone down and spoke to Buffy. "Xander says he'll meet you at the university."
"Thanks. I'll try to make this quick."
By the time anyone comes out of the Initiative, Buffy's legs are cramped. She sick and tired of kneeling behind the same stupid bush and it's almost worth it to just walk up and bang on the door. Xander has been keeping a running whispered monologue that doesn't really make a lot of sense to Buffy.
"One man is all that stands between-" he says from behind his binoculars.
"Xander, shut up," Buffy says feeling both mentally and physically exhausted.
"Sorry. Do you think they've closed up shop? I mean it is getting pretty late."
"I don't know. Would be nice if we had some intel." Buffy thought sadly of Riley and how he could have helped in this situation.
"Someone's coming!" Xander hissed ducking down behind the bush as two Initiative workers (a scientist and a man decked out in camo) came out of the cave talking urgently.
Buffy waited until they were right in front of the bush before springing out with a very well executed front flip (thank you very much) and landed right in front of them. She kicked the commando in the side of the head and he fell unconscious. The scientist hadn't yet processed the situation giving Buffy an opportunity to knock her out with her own clipboard.
Xander came out from behind the bush and helped her drag the unconscious bodies to their hiding place. They took their badges, key cards, and the pristine white lab coat. Buffy plucked a few hairs from each of their heads and stuck them into the prepared zip-lock bags. They hurried back Giles's house to get the job done before the pair woke up and alerted the entire facility.
Back at command central, Buffy offered up the hairs to Tara who finished setting everything up. She sat on the carpet next to Willow in front of an old magic book.
"You guys ready?" Willow asked torn between excitement and nervousness.
"As we'll ever be," Buffy said.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Xander nervously eyed the array of crushed leaves that looked like a culinary accident.
"Positive," Willow said. She grabbed Tara's hand and started to chant. Buffy wished, not for the first time, that she'd taken high school Latin rather than French.
The words faded away as a sort of ringing sound filled her ears. Her vision blurred and her nose and throat burned like she'd inhaled chlorine. It stopped suddenly, in fact, everything stopped. For a single second there was nothing at all; sound, sensation, or otherwise. She opened her eyes and everything looked... different. She was still standing in Giles's living room. Willow and Tara were still sitting on the floor at her feet. The shelves were still full of books. Giles still stood trying not to look concerned to her left. But the angle was wrong. Like she was standing on a stool. She looked at Xander on her right and remembered what it was she'd just experienced as she was met with unfamiliar brown eyes. The man beside her was taller than Xander. He was also broader with lighter hair.
Buffy looked down at her, well, her borrowed body. Her skin was lighter, her hair was an unextraordinary brown, and the end of her nose was more noticeable than she was used to.
"Buffy? Xander?" Willow asked looking up at them. Her eyes were both nervous and hopeful.
"Are you alright?" Giles asked reaching a hand out as though he thought to help, but stopped before he touched her.
"I-" Buffy pressed a hand to the throat that wasn't as soft as her own as a voice that was higher than her's came out of it. "I'm fine."
"This is weird," said an unfamiliar voice that was grittier and less pleasant than Xander's.
Willow clapped her hands and smiled. "We did it!" Tara smiled as well. "So, here's the deal. The spell could last up to twelve hours-"
"Twelve hours!" Xander shouted in the voice that wasn't his. "I don't want to be like this for twelve hours. I mean look at me... I'm all-"
"Macho?" Buffy offered.
"Or it could last a couple of minutes. It all depends on how well we did our job. That's what I wanted Tara here for. I thought with the both us it's less likely to go ka blewy mid operation."
"Ka blewy? Great." Xander wasn't pleased by the possibly bad outcome, but decided to costume up anyway.
Buffy pulled on the lab coat as Giles eyed her uncomfortably. "What?" Buffy asked.
Giles cleaned his glasses. "You look, well, different. I don't like it." He put his glasses back on. "Do be careful, Buffy."
"We'll be fine. In and out. No one will even notice us," Buffy assured him.
"Unless the spell goes ka blewy. Is no one else worried about this?" Xander said.
"We'll be fine, Xander. Let's go."
Buffy led the way out the door. As the door swung shut behind Xander, the others exchanged nervous looks. Giles poured himself a drink.
They snuck back to the Initiative cave. They made sure it was empty before the went to the door. Buffy swiped her card and the little green light flashed.
"Vocal identification required," the machine said.
"Uh, open sesame?" Buffy tried.
"Vocal identification accepted."
Buffy tried to look reassuringly at Xander, but she just felt nervous. Walking into a lair full of vampires is one thing, but walking into a fortress full of secret agents is a whole new game.
They made it to the end of the hall without seeing anyone, but weren't sure to go when they reached the end. "We need to find where they keep the information on their major projects," Buffy said.
"Well," Xander pointed to his left. "There's an awful lot of noise down that way."
"That's probably where the keep the 'hostiles'. We should go the other way. There's got to be labs and offices."
They went to the right. They found several basic supply closets filled everything from duct tape to sharpies. A door at the end required a key card. Buffy swiped her card and it opened. On the other side were several tables with empty beakers and a computer.
Buffy pursued the file cabinet but it was filled with papers on projects that she didn't understand. Xander went to the computer.
"Any idea what the access code might be?" he asked.
"I'm guessing it's not one two three four. Try your key card maybe there's a scanner," Buffy said.
Xander found a card scanner on the side of the computer. He swiped his card and the screen flashed red.
"Access restricted," said the female voice of the computer.
"No good," Xander said.
"Try mine." Buffy swiped her own card and got the same message.
"What do we do now?"
Buffy spied a case full of computer disks. "We'll we could take those to Willow."
Xander picked up the disks. "It might not be what we need. But we don't exactly know our way around this place."
"We should go before someone sees us. I think we've been lucky so far."
"Agreed."
They made their way back to the door and outside not seeing a single soldier on the way. Walking back to Giles's place Willow's spell started to fade.
"That was too easy," Xander said in his own voice.
"I think you're right."
"Oh, look." Xander smiled. "You're all blonde again."
"You're all short again," Buffy joked.
"Oh, ha ha. I better get back home before Anya starts planning my funeral."
"She stays with you now?"
"She says she prefers her own place, but she spends an awful lot of time eating all my snacks and hogging the blankets anyway."
"Yeah well, at least you have a blanket hog. The closest I've got is Mr. Gordo."
Xander patted her shoulder sympathetically. "See ya round, Buff."
"Bye, Xander."
They parted ways and Buffy brooded all the way to Giles's. She walked through the door and found Giles sitting alone at his desk.
"Where's Willow?" she asked.
"She and Tara were tired so they went home. How did it go?"
"We found these." Buffy showed him the disks. "I was hoping Willow could get something off of them."
"Good, good." Giles nodded.
"How much have you had to drink?"
"I... well, I." He held up the near empty bottle of whiskey. "Had to restock after Spike..." He grew uncomfortably silent.
Buffy sighed. "I realize everything hasn't exactly been okay between us, but I got over it. What you did... it was unforgivable. But I understand. I don't want this tension anymore. I want to trust you again."
"You can."
"I thought about it a lot. I can't trust you where Spike is concerned. But with anything else, you're still my Watcher and I trust you."
Giles's eyes teared up. Buffy hugged him. Everything damaged between them felt suddenly repaired.