CHAPTER TWELVE:

We go…

Sunnydale, California – September 14, 2004: 1849 PST

Buffy could see and hear the hive of activity taking place in the warehouse as she made her way to the conference room. As she stormed into the room, she saw that Willow, Giles, Xander and Anya were already there waiting for her.

"How's Madison?" Buffy asked. Her face betrayed her worry and fear about Faith and the others. She was also concerned about the unknowns they were facing in this crisis.

"Not good … She's in and out of consciousness right now. She was mumbling something about demons on horseback and a castle." Anya replied.

Giles continued, "She needs better care than we can provide for her here."

Everyone had been not taking much notice when the return portal opened in the training area as everyone had become used to the routine. That complacency quickly evaporated and changed to shock and panic as Madison stumbled out of the portal and collapsed bleeding with an arrow sticking out of her side. Since then Buffy had been organizing the Potentials into a rescue team to go through and look for the rest of Faith's team, but they were lacking information as to what had happened.

"If she goes into a hospital it could be hours or days before we can get any info. We need to know what we are dealing with now!" Buffy said trying to keep her frustration and anger in check.

"Buff … Madison needs a real doctor or a medic and other than the basic first aid we—" Xander said suddenly trailing off as he saw the look in Buffy's eye.

"What?" Xander asked.

"You said Madison needed a doctor or medic … I know someone that can help."

oOoOo

Riley was breaking the speed limit on his drive through Sunnydale to the warehouse.

Riley was concentrating on the drive, but his mind was still fixated on the unexpected phone call he got from Buffy. She hadn't provided much in the way of details other than that there had been some casualties and they needed medical assistance and if Riley could help. He hadn't hesitated and immediately said yes. He was out the door quickly, only pausing long enough to grab one of his team members who had more field medical experience and whatever supplies they had on hand.

"Jesus … Slow down will you! I've felt safer driving through Kabul while being shot at!" the agent sitting in the passenger seat said and who was currently holding on to the dash board for dear life as Riley weaved in and out of traffic at high speed.

"Dave … if Buffy called for help and said they had causalities that means it had to have been pretty bad." Riley replied not taking his eyes off the road.

"That may be boss, but we have to get there alive to be of any use."

Riley ignored the barbs as he kept his focus on his driving. They were speeding rapidly towards the warehouse gate.

A voice suddenly spoke out of the vehicle's OnStar system startling both Riley and the other agent, "I see you approaching Agent Finn … The gate is opening. Head to your right. The loading bay door will be open for you to drive in."

"Jesus Adriana! I almost lost control there." Riley said.

"I think I did…" was all that Dave said looking at Riley with a shocked, scared look on his face.

Riley saw the open gate and didn't hesitate as he drove rapidly onto the warehouse grounds and towards the open loading bay.

oOoOo

Buffy, Giles and Xander were outside the room where Madison was being cared for. Riley and his team member—Dave, were inside trying to treat Madison's injuries. Buffy was wound up and she needed to do something rather than wait around. As she paced back and forth, her thoughts and concerns were for Faith and the other Potentials on her team.

We got complacent … We took things for granted.

Buffy stopped her pacing as the door to the room opened and Riley came out.

"Is she going to be alright?" she asked.

"She's in rough shape—" replied Riley.

"Shouldn't you be in there doing something?" Xander said interrupting him.

"Dave is a better field medic than I am… He's doing everything he can to stabilize her."

Riley turned to Buffy, "So what happened?" he asked.

"We don't know much. Faith and her team went through a portal to look for Michael this morning. Several hours later Madison stumbles through a portal injured. She did mention something about a castle, demons and horses." Buffy replied.

"Is that it?" Riley asked with a worried concerned look on his face.

"It's all we got for now." replied Buffy.

The door to the room opened and the agent named Dave came out. He was wiping his hands with a towel to clean the blood off. Everyone turned to face the agent.

Dave looked at everyone with a grim look on his face, "Okay, I've stabilized her for now … She needs a major blood transfusion and a surgeon. I can make a call and pull in a few markers to get a medi-evac chopper in here in less than 45 minutes and get her to a military hospital … with no questions asked."

"Is she conscious? Did she say anything?" Buffy asked eagerly.

"I thought you might need to talk to her … I've given her something to make her lucid and responsive for now, but she is going to crash hard, so whatever you need to ask … you better do it now." Dave replied.

"Thanks Dave." Riley said.

"All in a day's work boss." Dave said with a grim smile and nod.

Buffy, Giles, Riley and Dave headed back into the room to see Madison and hopefully get some answers to what had happened.

oOoOo

Kennedy and her team were busy trying to complete their mission unaware of what was happening back home, but she was dealing with her own problems.

They should have been out of here hours earlier, but they arrived late due to one of her team members. They were now having problems with the beacon as one of the wire connections was loose and cutting in and out the power supply. To top it all off, it was late afternoon here and the sun was starting to begin its descent for sunset.

She shuddered as the dank and dreary world they were on was giving her and everyone else the creeps. She was prodding her team to work faster, so that they could finish up and get out of here quicker, before it got dark.

Two of the Potentials were walking around the area doing their sweep to make sure the area was clear. Their names were Dallas and Dana or as they liked to refer to themselves "The Double D's" They had become instant friends ever since they had met when they came to Sunnydale. They had survived the Hellmouth and were having fun with this travel between dimensions.

Dallas had been the reason the team had been delayed in its mission as she'd had too much fun at The Bronze the night before.

"You still look like shit Dallas! Are you feeling any better?" Dana asked laughing.

"I don't know … Is my head still attached?" Dallas said with a crooked smile.

"You've got to learn how to pace yourself. Otherwise this is the result." Dana said jokingly.

The young women kept up the banter as it eased the tension of being in such a creepy place.

They heard Kennedy call in over their com headset.

"How's it look?" Kennedy asked.

Dana replied back, "Everything looks clear … No problems."

"Well keep an eye out. Melissa says she's almost figured out what's wrong with the beacon and should have it up and running soon. As soon as it's up we're heading home … maybe an hour at the most. Copy?" Kennedy said over the com channel.

"Understood." Dana said with a sigh.

"Ick … Another hour here in this place." Dallas with a grimace on her face and a shudder as she looked around the forest.

"Yeah … I've got goose bumps on my goose bumps."

Both women failed to notice that the light mist that floated on the ground was getting thicker and starting to rise…

oOoOo

Buffy was in the conference room, she looked around at Giles, Xander, Willow, Anya, Riley and Dave sitting at the conference table looking at her. Buffy took a deep breath and addressed the group, "From the info that Madison was able to give us. Faith and the rest of her team were captured by a group of demons that were carrying medieval type weapons … swords, crossbows. That isn't a problem because we can outgun them easily. The problem is that Madison thinks that the group was taken into a castle."

Buffy paused for a moment, "… Madison was able to give us the direction to the castle from the portal point, but beyond that we are flying blind. I have twenty Potentials armed and ready to go through the portal—"

Xander interrupted, "Whoa Buffy … It's one thing to defend against Ubervamps coming out of the Hellmouth, but its way different to be talking about storming castles."

"We have to do something to rescue them!" Buffy said letting her frustration get the better of her.

Giles spoke up, "I agree that we must do something, but Xander is correct. This is completely out of our depth and experience … This would be more of a military operation." He looked towards the two agents who both shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

Adriana's hologram appeared, causing only Dave to jump as he had never seen the AI before. She added her input to the discussion, "Giles is correct with his assessment … This type of operation would require either a large force to lay siege and assault the castle or a small special ops team would be used to gain entry to the castle and use surprise and superior firepower to suppress the garrison inside ... neither of which we have."

Buffy heard Adriana's assessment, but she couldn't sit around doing nothing and being helpless. She couldn't bear the thought of Faith and the others having god knows what being done to them … if they were still alive. She pushed that thought away as she looked at the two agents, more specifically she looked at Riley. "Can you help us?" she asked.

Riley saw the look that Buffy gave him and he tried not to sigh. Washington had been somewhat mollified by the information that Adriana had given them, but it had been like giving a crack addict a taste of a brand new and more potent form of crack. The powers in Washington were pushing hard to get more out of the AI. Riley had managed to convince General Gheller and a few others of the threat. Those people were fighting—a losing battle—trying to keep Washington from making a radical and terrible mistake. Some people in Washington thought that they could contain Adriana even after they had tried on several occasions and failed each time. The last time, Adriana had retaliated by encrypting all the data on every NSA server and workstation, locking everyone out, for a week as a warning. Even after that demonstration of her power, there were still some "people" who thought they could overcome the AI and Riley had heard rumors of contingency plans being drawn up to remove the threat posed by Sunnydale. He knew that if he'd heard of those rumors being all the way out here, then Adriana sure as hell would have heard the same chatter too. They didn't realize in Washington how intelligent this AI was—this was beyond anything they thought they could comprehend and how dangerous "she" could be—the NSA incident was a warning shot across their collective bow. Riley shuddered to think the chaos and mayhem that Adriana could cause if she was really pushed or the people here threatened.

All this went through Riley's mind as he saw Buffy look at him and he turned and looked at Dave. His fellow agent was up to date on all the intel and briefings and he was in agreement with Riley's assessment to not wake the sleeping dragon—him seeing Adriana in person for the first time only convinced him more that Riley was correct in his threat assessment. Dave had heard the rumors about the history between Buffy and Riley, but he hadn't seen his team leader giving the Slayer—especially an ex-girlfriend—special treatment … so far.

Dave saw the look in his team leader's face and took his cue from him as he shrugged his shoulders and answered Buffy's question, "I can say that 'officially' Washington would be concerned and would take the matter under advisement and would be open to consulting on potential scenario situations and operational plans."

Buffy looked a little confused at the government double-speak, but she picked up on Dave's tone as well as seeing the looks on Giles and Xander's faces.

"And 'unofficially'?" Buffy asked dreading to hear the real answer.

Dave sighed, "I know what your group has been through and I admire what you've done … beating back hordes from hell and such, but you pissed off a lot of people in Washington and they would like nothing better than to see you left dangling in the wind … at least for the moment as payback. They would probably try and use this situation to exploit to get more information and data from your AI. Either way don't expect a quick response."

Buffy grimaced as she recalled how she and the others had responded to the government when Riley showed up here. A part of her would probably want to get even if she was in the same position, but lives were at stake … lives she felt responsible for.

She looked at Riley, "Is that your position?" Buffy asked.

Riley met her stare, "Officially yes …"

Buffy was starting to feel like the rug was being pulled out from underneath her.

Riley continued, "Unless I was invited 'unofficially' to supervise and witness a field exercise by your group that so happened to be in a different dimension." he said with a smile coming to his face.

I could kiss you, Buffy thought, but quickly pushed the thought away as it started to open up old memories and feelings and Riley was a married man.

Dave saw where Riley was going, "Pretty weak boss … They'll probably crucify you for going off the reservation on this one." Dave paused and a smile came to his face, "… But for me I don't know nothing as I will be unavailable for the next few hours transporting a special patient for medical care."

Riley picked up on what his teammate was doing for him, "Thanks Dave." he said.

"Da nada boss…"

Buffy let out a sigh of relief and actually had a good feeling now that Riley was going to come with her and the rest of her group.

"Okay … Riley and I will lead our group through the portal. We will scout the castle and if an opportunity presents itself … We move in and rescue Faith and her team." she said.

Dave and Riley exchanged worried glances as they could see Buffy's inexperience in military operations show through. Their military experience told them that impromptu and improvised plans rarely ended well in military operations—an operation like this required detailed information and planning of which there was neither. But they both saw the look of determination and stubbornness in her eyes. Riley was more than familiar that when Buffy was determined about something she would usually end up doing it.

"Boss … I got to go and get the patient ready for transport. The chopper will be here in less than 10 ..." Dave said as he stood up. He added to everyone in the room before leaving, "Good luck and good hunting."

Everyone watched as the agent left the room to prep Madison for medical evacuation.

Buffy looked at Riley and could read the concern on his face. She sighed as she realized that maybe she was overreaching with what she wanted to do, but what choice did she have as they didn't have a lot of time or allies to call upon. "Okay, so Riley and I will lead the Potentials through. We'll gather more info on whom we are dealing with and go from there ... We may get the chance to rescue the others. It should be night time there, so we can move quickly and quietly without hopefully attracting any attention."

Xander spoke up, "If you're going Buff … then I'm coming along."

Buffy shook her head, "No … I want you and Giles to stay here and keep a lid on things. If we need more people or if we get in trouble, you're our only backup."

Xander and Giles exchanged concerned looks. Much like Riley, neither of them liked the plan, but they could see that Buffy was determined to go ahead. They kept their concerns to themselves. They would be there to backup Buffy when she needed them as they always had.

"What about Kennedy and her team? Don't you want to wait until they're back to add them to your group?" Willow asked filled with concern about her friend going into danger.

"They left late and they could be gone for several more hours. The longer we wait the less chance we have of getting Faith and the rest of her team back alive." Buffy said.

Buffy looked around the table once more. She knew that her plan was weak, but she was right in that time was running against them. She could see the looks of concern and worry on everyone's faces, but they said nothing to dissuade her from going ahead.

"We go with what we've got." Buffy said to end the meeting.