"Hey. Please w-wake up."
Willow moaned, "Five more minutes." But it was too bright, and the fluorescent glow on the backs of her eyelids was keeping her up. She wondered if her mom drew the curtains in an attempt to wake her, but then she remembered that she didn't live with her mom anymore.
Her eyes finally fluttered open and the harsh ceiling lights were thankfully blocked by someone kneeling over her—an angel?
"'m I in heaven?" Willow slurred.
"Hell, I think," said the girl, "I-if hell has m-military commandos and h-human experimentation."
"Commandos…" Willow echoed. Then she shot to her feet, remembering. "Buffy!"
But her head felt heavy and blackness danced at the edges of her vision. She toppled over, passing out momentarily, falling into the girl who tried to catch her but only succeeded in breaking her fall with her body.
"C-careful," the girl said, stroking Willow's hair gently. "Th-they probably took a b-bunch of blood. That's what they did to me when I first got here."
It took Willow a while to answer after coming to, "Wha' d'they need my blood for?"
"Tests, I think," the girl said, "A-and we aren't the only ones here. There's… vampires."
Willow blinked deliriously at the ceiling lights, "Are you telling me they are feeding my blood to vampires?"
"Maybe," said the girl, "I assume. They take blood every other day, how many tests could they possibly run?"
"And not even a cookie for my donation. I got a feeling they aren't testing for STDs either," said Willow. She finally sat up, but the other girl kept her arms hovering by her shoulders in case she fell again.
Willow tried to straighten out her thoughts, but she was having a hard time just staying conscious.
The girl must have noticed the way Willow's dazed eyes were drooping because she said, "Don't worry. They wear off soon."
"Hm?"
"The drugs," the girl said, "They wear off soon."
"I've never done drugs in my life," said Willow.
"See, you're confused because of the drugs."
Willow's head lolled and she leaned heavily into the girl, who quickly shook her by the shoulders.
"Stay awake. I-if you pass out again they'll just take you away to do more tests." She turned Willow around to face her, "I'm Tara, by the way."
"That's such a pretty name," said Willow, "You're so pretty."
Tara blushed. She knew that her new friend was just loopy from the drugs and the blood loss, but she was embarrassed and flattered nonetheless.
Willow looked around, sobering up a little and pulling away from Tara, "So this is like a secret military base, huh?"
Tara shrugged, "I guess," she said, "I haven't seen much besides this cell and the other room."
"The other room?" said Willow.
"The one they take you to to do experiments."
Willow shuddered. She stood, slowly, taking time to get her footing this time. She looked around the cell, getting her bearings.
There weren't many bearings to get in this plain white room in a white corridor, though. She decided to let a little magic slip out to help her get the lay of the land.
"Agh-!" she cried, falling into a fetal position and clutching her head in pain, tears welling in her eyes.
"W-what happened?" said Tara, "Did you try to do magick? I'm s-sorry. I should have led with that." She pointed to the bulky metal collar Willow had failed to notice around her neck, "These things won't let us cast."
It was only then that Willow became aware of the cold, heavy metal weighing on her own shoulders, and she realized her neck was encased in the same device.
"What are they?" Willow whimpered, sitting up again and examining the device as best she could, "It doesn't feel magick."
"I th-think it's tech," said Tara, "But there's no way to shut it off. I've tried."
Willow yanked on it a bit, but hissed in pain as she did so. It felt like it was embedded directly into her skin.
"How long have you been here?" said Willow.
"I think a week," said Tara, "But I'm not sure. No windows. Or clocks."
"A week," said Willow, "Have you seen anyone else since you've been here?"
"Not except the guards and the scientists, and sometimes I see them carrying other prisoners past the cell," said Tara, "You're actually the first person I've talked to since I got here, except for lab technicians asking me to float pencils and s-stuff."
"You're a witch."
"Y-yeah. Since I was little."
"You said there's others here. How do you know that?"
"Like I said, I see them carried past the cell sometimes. Sometimes I can hear them in the next room, but the turnover is… high." She frowned, "I've heard the guards talking about other prisoners, too. I think there's entire other cell blocks; this one is for us with mystical powers."
"Hm," said Willow, "So, hypothetically," she started pacing, ignoring her lingering wooziness, "There'd be another cell block for the vampires and the… anyone with super strength." She stopped in front of the glass window and poked it with her finger. She received a sharp electric shock and her finger flew into her mouth.
"Why?" said Tara, "It's mostly demons and bad guys that I've seen. I don't think you wanna meet them."
"My friend, Buffy," said Willow, shaking the pain out of her finger, "She got kidnapped by these goons. That's why I'm here: to rescue her."
"You got captured on purpose?" said Tara
"Yep," said Willow, "Now thinking maybe there was a flaw in my plan. Y'know, getting captured without any powers, weapons, or escape plan. But I've got some friends on the outside who are working their angle too. We'll be out of here, I promise. I'm Willow, by the way. How did you end up here?"
"I was j-just practicing alone in the woods near campus. No one usually finds me there. They must have had some kind of m-magick trackers or something because all of a sudden there were tasers and stuff, and then I was here."
"That sounds like it was really scary," said Willow, "I'm sorry that happened to you."
Tara smiled sadly, "At least I'm not alone now."
"We're gonna get out of here," said Willow, "I promise."
Buffy was spooked from her bored near-sleep by a light thud and a metallic scraping. She opened her eyes to see a small metallic door she hadn't noticed before opening behind her. It was some sort of dumbwaiter, and a styrofoam tray of food was presented to her.
She looked around confused, cautious. But then her stomach growled and she took the food greedily.
"Thank god," she moaned, "I'm starving."
"Don't eat," said Will from behind the wall, "Whatever they give you, blood, food. It's drugged."
"Drugged?"
"And not the fun kind," said Will.
"Why's the food drugged?" said Buffy, frowning at the forbidden meal before her.
"They wait 'til you're out, then they take you to the back for experiments," said Will.
"Who's 'they' anyway?" said Buffy, "What do they want with us?"
"Oh yeah. Right before they start cutting up your insides, they sit you down and explain to you their whole damn angle." Buffy could practically hear his sarcastic eyeroll, "No, luv. I don't know why they're doing this. Seems to me they're afraid of what goes bump in the night and they think if they cut it open they'll prove to themselves it ain't so nasty."
"Are you a thing that goes bump in the night?"
"Aren't you?"
"That's privileged information," said Buffy.
"Privileged? There's a whole team of scientists about to send a probe down all your holes. I don't think there's anything about you's gonna be privileged for long, Annie."
"What about you?" said Buffy, "You a vamp? Demon? Warlock? What's your sitch?"
"Say, we get outta here? I'll tell ya."
"Don't eat the food," said Tara, and Willow stopped mid-scoop of whatever gunk they'd been given to eat, "It's drugged."
"But…" Willow pouted, "I'm hungry."
"I know. And you're weak."
"We gotta eat eventually," Willow whined, "I mean… Food is kinda one of those things. Y'know?"
"I've been trying to eat it really s-slow," said Tara, "It'll still make you loopy, but if I space it out enough I never really pass out. Gives them fewer chances to take us and… I mean, whatever it is they do."
Willow's stomach growled, and she took a small amount of faux-mashed potatoes on her finger, tentatively sticking it in her mouth. She felt desperate for nourishment after her dangerous blood loss, but she wasn't keen on losing consciousness again, and she knew she wasn't going to come up with any semblance of a plan if she was too drugged to think straight. She watched Tara as the other witch ate a few very small bites of food before moving her plate aside. Willow copied her, taking the same amount for herself.
"Take it easy," said Tara, "You're smaller than me. Whatever it is it's strong. L-like demon strong. It'll k-knock you right out."
Willow pouted again and pushed her plate aside before backing up against the wall, closing her eyes with a sigh.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Willow said, "Just tired. And kinda scared. I dunno what I was thinking. Coming in here to rescue Buffy. How'm I supposed to do anything when I can't even eat the food they give me?"
"Buffy's really lucky to have a friend like you," said Tara, "I don't…" She looked away, "Well, I don't know if a-anyone's looking for me."
"'Will,'" said Buffy, "What's that short for?"
"Don't much matter, does it?" said Will, "Wilson, Wilfred, William. Up to you, Annie."
"Um," Buffy said, "Whatever." But she liked the sound of William, and decided that's what she'd call him in her head anyway.
"Head's up, luv. Here they come."
"Huh?" said Buffy. She stood quickly, "Who they come? And can I fight them?" She looked through the glass to see four armed commandos on their way up the hall. She held her breath as they approached her cell.
They stopped, watched her for a moment. One seemed to snarl at her, and she thought she recognized him from class. They shrugged and kept moving. Buffy watched as they unlocked a cell further down the hall. They dragged out a demon—she wasn't sure what kind, but it was certainly something she might slay on one of her patrols—and slung him over a shoulder as they carried him away.
"Take a good look," said William, "That'll be you pretty soon."
"No it won't. I just won't eat their funny food."
"They'll work around it," said William, "Trust me, I know. If they have to they'll bring tasers, guns, needles. Whatever they need to keep you down long enough for them to do their proddin'."
One commando hung back to shut the cell door, and as he passed by Buffy's cell again she called, "Hey, you! Whatever the hell you're doing, it's majorly unethical. Definitely violating a constitutional right or ten."
"Quiet, Hostile," said the man.
"I don't think you get it," said Buffy, "I'm on your side. I mean, I'm a good guy—if you guys are good. I'm not a demon. I fight demons. And I didn't do anything wrong so—"
"I said shut up!" the man said. He pulled out a taser, and Buffy, uncharacteristic, cowered slightly. After all, she couldn't punch her way out of electric shocks or tranquilizer darts.
"Eat your meal," the man said before marching away.
The lights were dimmed, now. Not off, but dim enough to suggest nighttime even if there were no windows or clocks to prove it.
Willow and Tara were curled up on opposite sides of their cell, trying to get some sleep. Tara couldn't help but to watch Willow, who shivered in the chilled, filtered air.
"Are you cold?" Tara whispered, in case the other witch was sleeping.
"N-n-no," Willow said.
"Are you lying?"
"Okay, well it's a little crisp. Would it kill 'em to g-give us a b-b-blanket?"
"They d-don't see us as people," said Tara, "We're like animals to them. Demons."
"Okay, fine, so I'm an animal. Doesn't mean I'm a penguin. Can't I be a little lizard on a nice sunny rock?"
"You g-get used to it after a while," said Tara. She watched Willow shiver a little longer as they tried to go to sleep again. "Um…"
"Huh?"
"I m-mean," Tara said, "We could p-p-probably…"
"What?" Willow said, sitting up and hugging herself for warmth, "We could probably what?"
"Um," Tara stuttered, "If you're cold, we could sh-share body heat."
"I believe I've got it," said Giles, and Xander looked over his shoulder at the map of Sunnydale, "The spell tracked Willow for a few hours, it looks like she stopped moving around here."
"Hey, that's on campus," said Xander, "No way a bunch of military goons are keeping a dungeon of super-gals locked up in the Biology building and no one noticed."
"Well," said Giles, "This type of locator spell only tells us where Willow is on the map. It doesn't tell us if she's—"
"Underground," Xander said, "So she's in the same place as Buffy. I don't get it—what was the point? We didn't get any new info. Do we just go over there and start digging?"
"We knew where Willow would end up, but what we learned was how she got there," said Giles, drawing a line on the map, "If we follow this path, which I watched her take after she was captured, we'll be able to find the entrance to this lair."
"Well, Watcher-man," said Xander, "What are we waiting for? Let's storm the joint."
"Remember what Willow said," said Giles, "We're not going to be able to take down an entire… Whatever this is on our own. We'd be best off fighting with intel."
"Hey," said Xander, pointing to the map, "This building here. Willow passed through it; I've been to a party there. It's a frat house."
"Well, that could be our first lead," said Giles, "Xander, how would you feel about going undercover?"