Briefly, Buffy regrets not asking Roselyn to give her a lift to Spikes cemetery. A thought that is quickly quashed as her feet eat up the distance at an economical run. She pays no mind that she's effortlessly running a 4 minute mile, and she's going to be keeping it up for nearly 15 minutes to get from the suburb that Roselyn lives in into Sunnydale proper, and the cemetery itself.
As she's running, she seriously considers whether she's badly overestimated Takeout… Spike's basic intelligence. Not even the most greedy Corpus ever kept product that might kill them. Even Alad V, and he was more Mad Scientist than Greedy. Of course, that didn't extend to necessarily paying their staff enough to ensure proper containment, or one of their competitors paying for some sabotage, or even just a random Grineer raid, rendering those precautions and safety measures inoperable. Belatedly, she remembers her phone and calls Vhesthine.
"Vhesthine. It's Takeout."
Vhesthine answers, "I'll let Dawn know. Do what you need to do, I have the car and bags at doublemeat."
In the background, Buffy can hear Dawn saying, "Takeout… Takeout… Buffy, don't. Don't kill Spike."
Buffy sighs, and slows down for a few paces, "Let Dawn know that I'm not going there to kill him. I'm going there to get him to destroy the eggs. If he dies…"
Vhesthine's soft voice says, "I'll explain it to her. Go and do what you have to do."
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"Take the shot!" Coco says just before she takes a blow to the ribs that sends her flying with a loud crack. The loud retort of an elephant rifle round being discharged at close range leaves her unable to tell whether her disorientation is from the blow or the gunshot. Drunkenly, she tries to push herself to her feet in case it's not dead.
As Riley walks over and helps her up with his good arm, she relaxes for a moment, "Are you good to go?"
Riley nods, "Yeah, just need help with the splint for my wrist. Damn last resort pistols."
Coco slaps him on the shoulder, "That's why it's a last resort. Come on, lets get that done and see why it stopped at the bottom of a dam of all places."
After a few minutes of carefully searching the monitoring station for the dam, Riley lets out a low whistle, "Well, track and trace worked. But someone got here ahead of us."
Coco joins him in a cool, dark, room inside the dam before shaking her head at the corpses of the monitoring staff. Moving forward, she winces as she starts to check them over. Meanwhile, Riley starts to canvas the room, looking for any eggs.
Coco is about to call Riley to turn one of the corpses over when a sharp whistle pierces the air. Standing up, she makes her way over to what he's looking at and gasps. Kneeling down, she carefully draws her dagger, before plunging it through the quivering egg sac. Now sure it's dead, she carefully cuts it open and looks at it critically. "It was, at the most, an hour away from hatching. Check to see if there's anymore here, and contact the asset. She needs to know what she could be walking into."
She's investigating the neck of one of the corpses when Riley calls over, "There's no answer at her house, or her registered place of work."
"Riley, I hope to god that you at least gave her your number!"
Riley spins around, "No I didn't! You know why? It's because I didn't recognise the person staring out of those eyes! She didn't recognise me either until I said my name! I dated her for nearly a year, and, we-we could have got married if… But no, instead of being happy to see me, she starts accusing me of killing innocent succubae and shoves a pamphlet at me."
Struggling to her feet, Coco makes her way over to Riley and pulls him into a gentle hug, "Riley, it's alright to feel like that. But as your SO you need to tell me before it becomes a problem, not when we're neck deep in shit and about to step off a ledge. Also Riley, as your so, as your wife, I need you to tell me about these things before I find out at the worst possible moment. Now give me the Damned pamphlet and call in backup soldier. Once we have the bagmen coming to look over the corpses, check every single room for any other eggs that were missed. I do not want to die because you couldn't do your job soldier. Do you understand!?"
Riley snaps to attention and throws a salute, "Yes Sir, Ma'am!"
He then takes the pamphlet from the pocket he placed it in and hands it over.
It doesn't take Coco long to flip the pamphlet over and spot the contact details on the back, including a place they could have sent a backup team.
Dialling the number for the Slayer, it rings for 3 rings before a woman picks it up, "Slayer, please hold I'm a tad busy."
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Buffy isn't gentle as she slams into the door to Spikes crypt, the force of her kick shattering the concealed lever with a crash. She doesn't even pause as she void slings down the stairs and kicks the inner door off the hinges, "Takeout! Spike!"
Hearing movement from the back she void slings towards the back.
Spike winces as he hears a crash from the front of the crypt. He looks back at the ladder up to the main crypt and considers if it's worth trying to run the tunnels. Deciding it's unlikely to be the loan shark, he turns back to the baskets of beautiful little kittens that are his ticket to freedom. After checking that they're all there, and the sound of Buffy calling that horrible nickname, he starts to head for the ladder.
As his head appears at the top of the ladder, Buffy's face appears in front of him.
"Hi Spike. Or should I say Doctor."
"Hey. I don't talk about your day job, so don't pry into mine."
"I won't if you can honestly tell me that you aren't trading in anything that could endanger the civilians of the city if it was improperly stored."
"I'll let you know, I always properly store all of my merchandise."
Spike backs away, as Buffy's smile turns vicious, "So you would know the correct storage method for Suvolte demon eggs then."
Spike swallows hard, "I might, if I had any. But I don't."
Buffy lifts her left hand, sparks of void energy dancing over her fingers, "And I might have to kill you if I found out you lied. But, of course, you wouldn't do that to me would you. And if I had a look around down there, I wouldn't find any Suvolte eggs or hatchlings at all."
"Now Buffy, let's not be hasty. There's a good market for them, and it's a harmless enterprise."
"Spike, tell me you at least have a solid door between them and freedom." When Spike says nothing, she shouts "Destroy them! Destroy them all now."
"Buffy, it's my way out of debt, you can't."
Buffy growls, "Spike, they are dangerous enough that work has declared a vacation day. So, either take responsibility for your actions and start destroying those eggs. Or I will just shoot you now and do it myself. Those are your only two options. I will handle any that get past you."
Spike seriously considers attacking Buffy to give him time to run, when the tell-tale flicker of her barrier appears. Most notably, only around her.
As he backs down the stairs, he desperately calls back, "Look, I really thought we had something here. I know I'm just your bit on the side. But there's some real affection there."
Buffy barks a laugh as she renews the barrier, this time around both of them, "Only in your dreams. That's why you're called Takeout. You mean as much to me as Remio's means to Dawn. That's her favourite pizza delivery, if you didn't know." Even as she leans over the hole to keep an eye on anything that might be trying to escape.
While she's cursing the fact the hole seems to descend into a small room with multiple exits, Spike's muffled expletive echoing from one of the exits has her chuckling for a brief moment before he screams. Leaping down into the room, it takes Buffy a moment to orientate to the screams. A task that's made moot when a mouse made of teeth leaps at her from the same direction as the scream.
While she's fending off the attack, her phone rings, distracting her for a second as she marvels that it has signal down here. A blast of void energy tracing a path after the creature accompanies her voice as she answers, "Slayer, please hold, I'm a tad busy."
The voice at the other end calls "We found an egg, the others will hatch in at most an hour."
"Thanks for the warning, but you're 5 minutes too late. Give me a call later and we'll catch up." Her hopes that it was just the one that Spike missed are dashed when another three swiftly follow before she's recovered enough energy to use a void snare.
Drawing her dagger, she steps into the mouth of the corridor to contain the oncoming demons. Choosing to reserve her void energy for healing and capture rather than killing to eliminate the risk they might get past her, she grabs one with her hand, and slices it in half with her dagger.
At the end of five minutes of frantic fighting, where Buffy has to repeatedly choose between corralling the increasingly deadly demonic spawn, killing them, or taking a potentially deadly hit. She passes the remains of several kitten baskets that have been torn open. As she passes into a small dug out cave, she kicks up a cloud of dust, and crouches down while she clears her eyes and nose carefully. When nothing attacks her, she surveys the room and spots some old, ragged blankets dotted haphazardly around the room, with the remains of egg sacs on them. A fallen axe lies beside one. Interspersed between them are large blocks of fishmongers ice, to keep the room cold, but not freezing.
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Buffy tiredly pulls out her phone and calls Dawn once she's finished accounting for every egg sac in the room, comparing them to the corpses outside. A task made more difficult by her used of the void blast.
"Buffy!"
Buffy sighs heavily in relief, "It's done Dawn, all of the eggs Spike had have been destroyed."
"What about Spike?"
"Dawn, can we talk about this at home?"
"I want to know about Spike!"
"I know you do Honey, I just don't want to tell you over the phone. It's something I should share in person."
"He's dead, isn't he."
"Dawn…"
"How could you… How could you?"
"Dawn… Dawn…"
"Buffy, it's Vhesthine. I'll get her home."
As the call disconnects, Buffy sinks to her knees and cries. An unknown amount of time later, a pair of comforting arms curl around her back while she recognises Dawn's feet walking around in shocked silence. Confused, she looks up to see Dawn's slack mouthed expression and, over her shoulder, Vhesthine's concerned expression.
Confused, Buffy looks around, "Why am I like this? I shouldn't be like this."
Vhesthine croons into her ear, "Shh, it's ok. It's your human side coming out."
"But, but, I'm Tenno. Tenno are…"
"Also human. Your people forgot that, but you can't afford to forget that. You no longer have the technology that set you apart from the rest of your species."
Dawn turns around with a lost and horrified expression, "Buffy… This is… What happened?"
Buffy slowly looks around the egg storage area with dead, tear filled, eyes, "Containment. This is what the result of containment looks like. I knowingly sent Spike to his death because he couldn't have handled containment. I think he was using that axe when he died. If I'd have been here instead, I'd have died too, then he would when he tried to contain them. Assuming he didn't run. It's like praxis 4 all over again. People died because of the decisions I made to act as containment because nobody else was equipped to handle that."
Dawn collapses to the floor, "But your shield. That could have saved him."
Buffy shakes her head, "It only protects from the direction you're looking at. Same as the void snare, it has a limited range, and if I missed even one, containment would have failed."
Dawn hits Buffy, "There must have been something… anything you could have done."
As Dawn devolves into grief and anger filled hitting and ranting, Buffy just kneels there and takes it until Vhesthine's had enough and forcefully feeds Dawn a little essence to help level out her emotions.
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"How's she doing?" Is that the voice from the phone?
"Physically, well she's always fine. Mentally, I've given her some essence. But this is the first time she's faced something like this since… and it's been compounded with all the other times she's had to do the same thing." That's Vhesthine, and no it's not, I just can't switch off my emotions and deal with it properly.
"It can't be worse than when she killed Angel." Anya?
"Anya, this isn't the same thing. We were all there with her when she had to do that. This time she was alone." Understanding from Xander? When did that happen?
"Yes, Lt Finn is going to face disciplinary action for failing to report potential intelligence. If he had, we'd have at least had some assets in the area to provide backup." It's that phone voice again.
Would that have changed things?
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Buffy points at a faceless operative, "You, go with Spike and help him with the eggs. Watch each other's backs and stay alive. The rest of you are on Secondary containment. I'm on primary containment."
Later, she makes her way into the room less beaten up, and with an operative for backup while the others scour the crypt for any stragglers. There she looks down at the pile of dust and the barely recognisable body of the operative she sent to assist.
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No, it wouldn't. It would just increase the number of people she got killed getting the job done.
"Can't she just get up? This is supposed to be her birthday party after all. And let's face it, we've all caused our own share of death and mayhem. Isn't that right Halfrek?" Anya again.
"Indeed, such is the plight due to all those who abuse children." That must be Halfrek, "In fact, there are many here who are calling out for help."
Buffy's eyes flick open, and she pushes herself out of bed. Staggering slightly, as her head swims a little from getting up so fast, she makes her way to her bedroom door oblivious to the fact she's naked, "Halfrek, you need to read my pamphlet. No Killing, eating, enslaving, hurting, or kidnapping of civilians. Or you face me, and I will kill you."
As everyone else gasps at her appearance, Halfrek just looks at her, "Why? I am just a Justice demon, fulfilling wishes."
Buffy stalks forward, "Who gets to decide which wishes to fulfil? Who gets to decide how they're fulfilled? I read up on Vengeance demons when I found out Anya used to be one, and the answer to both of those is you. Don't try to pretty it up in your mind, it is vengeance plain and simple."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I've been there. I've been used as a tool of vengeance, and as a tool of justice. And, you know what? Vengeance never leaves the system a better place. Sometimes justice is fast enough that it does."
Halfrek sneers, "You? A slip of a human who can't be more than 20, thinks they've seen what it means to impart justice for those who can't get justice for themselves."
"Try 700 years of lived experience bitch. I have seen things that you cannot comprehend. Cruelty on a scale that you just cannot comprehend. I have been used as a weapon, as a tool, and as a free agent. What about you? What have you experienced?"
"I was a whipping girl, my parents were servants and they allowed me to be used by the Lords daughter as her surrogate and 'playmate'. When she was bad, I was punished. When she was ill, I was examined. When she was angry, I was her target. And I got them, I got them all. And since then, I've helped countless children get their own."
"I heard you speak of three victims in that story, what of the other two. Did they get 'justice'?"
Halfrek sneers, "Who? My parents who let it happen? They died with the rest."
"You poor, deluded, ignorant little girl. I was used in an illegal experiment, had my mind wiped and was turned into a weapon with literally no choice about what was right and what was wrong. But the Lotus rescued us and tried to care for us, and taught us the best she could. And we tried to be better. We failed too many times, especially in the beginning, as she was never Human, and we didn't remember being human. But we learnt from our mistakes and tried to make the system a better place. You have the power to grant justice for those children, to pick which wish to grant, and how to grant it. Yet you leave the world a worse place than before."
Halfrek steps into Buffy's space, "You call me deluded and ignorant, and then show your own ignorance in turn. Do you really think we choose which wishes to grant? We are compelled to seek out their wish, and grant it."
"What if Dawn was the same lonely girl she was when I got here? And she wished people wouldn't leave her alone?"
Halfrek snorts, "Simple, trap you all in the house with her."
"That's not justice, that's vengeance. That just leaves dead bodies. You could have made it so that they feel her loneliness and abandonment. Then when she feels less lonely and abandoned, so do they."
"Ha, as if it's always that easy. What about a child that's starved and wishes their abusers were dead?"
Buffy shrugs, "Stop them from being able to get any nutrition from food, or drop their starved bodied outside a hospital. Not much you can do with that wish except try to make things better for the child. But you've made your point, and I will check the wording of your wishes before passing judgement. But you need to promise to think about how you can use the wish to make their lives better while you're in Sunnydale."
Halfrek steps back in surprise, "What? Just like that?"
Buffy shrugs, "Yes, just like that. I get that demons don't always get to control what they do. I'm not going to hold you any more responsible for a wish like that, than I would a demon that was summoned to kill someone. What I will do is hold you responsible for what you do that is inside your control."
Incredulously, Halfrek asks, "Really? And what about demons that need to kill on a regular basis in order to maintain their sanity?"
Buffy shrugs again, "As long as it's not too frequently, I can accommodate that. Probably roll it into the fight club I need to set up."
Halfrek looks around at the other people crowded in the hallway, "Is she for real?"
Vhesthine nods, "She is, it's why she's my girlfriend."
The phone girl doesn't even look up from the notes she's been rapidly scribbling down on a notebook she got from somewhere.
Anya and Xander look at each other and shrug, with Xander saying, "I don't know. But she punished me instead of killing Sweet. Best thing that's ever happened to me after meeting Anya."
Buffy looks over at Vhesthine, "How's Dawn?"
Vhesthine looks down, "She's in her bedroom, she hasn't come out since last night. Janice is in there with her at the moment."
Buffy pulls her into a hug, "Did anyone stay with her?"
Vhesthine nods, "Tara did."
Buffy lifts Vhesthine's chin and gives her a long exchange, "Vhesti, you did nothing wrong. I shouldn't be falling apart like this."
Phone girl shouts, "That's bullshit. I've seen the carnage down there. You held containment with only a knife, and what? Spells? I'm not surprised you fell apart. You're human, and the amount of magic you must have used would have knocked anyone senseless unless they were used to it. And you're showing none of the signs of regular magical overuse."
Buffy turns to the girl, "And you are?"
"Major Sam Finn of the UN PN task force, Riley's wife and SO… Senior Officer."
"Sam, I'm not human, and I didn't use magic. Anyway, why are you here?"
Vhesthine puts her hand on Buffy's shoulder, "Buffy, she's right. In the ways that matter right now, you are human. What you are is on top of that. Why don't you talk to Dawn and I'll explain things to Sam. Ok?"
Buffy nods sullenly, before opening the door to Dawn's room.
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Janice turns around when she sees Dawn's puffy eyes first light up, and then her expression closes down. She can't help the gasp she makes when she sees Dawn's older sister standing naked by the door as it clicks closed.
Dawn grabs a pillow and throws it at Buffy, "Go away, I don't want to talk to you."
Buffy deftly catches the pillow before walking forward and using it to cushion her knees as she kneels beside the bed, "No, I don't imagine you do. But you need to at least listen to what I have to say."
Janice blushes as she looks at Buffy, "Um, I can go if you want Mrs Summers."
Buffy turns to Janice, "Call me Buffy, and no, stay. You live in this city too." Turning back to Dawn she says gently, "Dawn. Despite what you may think, and what I probably said last night. I did not personally kill Spike. I was tempted, and I got him killed. But he died trying to do the right thing. What do you think would have happened if I went in there myself?"
"You'd have kicked ass, and destroyed them all before they could escape."
Buffy looks down, "That's what I thought. Dawn, even if I had an Igris… A Flame Thrower, I couldn't have guaranteed being able to destroy all of them before some got past me. Someone needed to handle containment, as that was the more important job compared to initial elimination."
Janice's voice quavers, "Um, Mrs Summers. What are you talking about?"
Buffy closes her eyes for a moment as she draws on her memories as Buffy Summers to find something Janice may understand, "Janice, do you know what Locust's are?"
Janice nods, "They're the insects that come in plagues and eat all the crops."
Buffy nods, "Imagine a demon like that, except it is as tall as your father, and thinks anything organic is food. Fortunately it can't fly, but it does have claws and large teeth. They also mature in as little as a couple of months, and will lay lots of eggs as soon as they can find a secure place to store them. That's what was in Sunnydale, and the eggs were in Spikes home."
"Demons?"
"Janice, you were almost killed by a vampire on Halloween, are other demons really that much of a stretch?"
Janice shakes her head, "No, the hospital said I was just lightheaded from the drugs they slipped me before…"
Janice trails off as Buffy pulls the void around her, and turns invisible, "Any other questions? I could ask Vhesthine to show you, her wings."
Slightly hysterically Janice asks, "Dawn, what happened to Mrs Summers?"
In a slightly exasperated tone, Dawn huffs, "Buffy, stop that, you're freaking my friend out."
Buffy reappears with a slight, sad, smile, "At least you're annoyed at me for a different reason. Yes Janice, demons exist. From the sociable to the animalistic. This was one of the latter. If even one had escaped, it would have kept killing until something killed it. If that took too long, it would lay eggs, and then they'd been dozens more killing until something killed them.
"Dawn, how many times have you managed to accidentally hit me during training?"
Dawn looks down at the mattress and mumbles something.
Gently Buffy says, "Dawn, I didn't hear that."
Dawn looks up again, "I thought you were clear of the target, I didn't mean to shoot you."
Buffy nods, "I know, and I should have taught you better. But I've never taught anyone like this before, so I didn't. But the point is, I can't be aware of everything around me. I'm well trained enough that it can seem like I am sometimes. But one lucky hit and, that's it, I'm dead. Do you understand?"
Dawn nods sadly, "I know, but Spike's dead."
Buffy nods sadly, "I know he is, and I'm sorry. But I was the only person there that could reasonably hold containment if something went wrong. And, to borrow an American phrase, you always hope to god that nothing is going to go wrong. Can you imagine what could have happened if Spike and I had gone in together, and one of us was killed?"
Dawn shakes her head vehemently, "I don't want to."
Buffy nods, "And I hope you never have to. I hope you're never in a position where you have to find out either. Dawn, it's ok to grieve Spike, he was your friend and he helped take care of you while I was gone. It's also ok to blame me for my decisions. Lotus knows, I do. But don't accuse me of not making the best decisions I could at the time with the information I had. I knew that if the eggs hatched, whoever was in there would almost certainly die. But Spike can't use void snare, or void beam. He can't heal himself and others, and he can't pull the void around him. So if I died, it would take me a few minutes to get back to the crypt. At which point, Spike will have either died or fled. Either way, we'd have an unknown number of demons making their way into Sunnydale. So I placed myself as containment, where I couldn't be caught by surprise as eggs hatched in my blind spot. If everything went well, he'd have killed all of them. They didn't, but I think he got five before they started hatching."
"But you could have been closer."
Buffy nods gravely, "I know. I know that now. But that was the first time I've been in that part of his home. I had no idea what it was like down there. Only the fact that there seemed to only be one way out. But again, if I had time to scout properly, Spike would have had time to kill them all. As it stands, we still got lucky that the cave his ladder went into was also the chokepoint for the whole cave system."
Dawn starts to cry, "I hate you, I hate you." While Janice looks embarrassed on her behalf.
As Buffy pulls Dawn down into a hug, Janice asks, "Was that true?"
Buffy nods, "It was, I think she needs someone her own age she can talk about shit like this with."
"Why me?"
Buffy smiles, "You're her best friend. Before Buffy Summers moved here, she didn't have anyone to talk to, and it almost drove her crazy. But Willow and Xander made friends with her, and then the others joined over time. It made it easier for her to handle everything."
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As Buffy comes downstairs a short while later, Vhesthine hands her a glass of fruit juice, "How are you doing?"
Buffy smiles, "I'm f…" before her shoulders sag slightly, "I don't know. It's not supposed to be like this."
Vhesthine kisses Buffy on the cheek, "We can talk about what you're feeling later. You should go and mingle before the uninitiated freak out."
Buffy looks confused, "Huh?"
Vhesthine smiles, and indicates the dining area, "Tara brought a couple of new friends. Anya and Xander invited a friend, presumably one that might sway you from me considering the photo's of Angel and Riley in the photo album. Willow brought a friend, though she at least seems to be a little familiar with this side of life. A demon called Clem turned up with a bottle of wine saying Spike invited him, but he can't find Spike. He seems nervous. Then there's Roselyn and her partner. Finally, you've got Riley, Sam, and Halfrek."
Buffy nods, "So, not too many people then." Under her breath she mutters, "You can do this Buffy, you've been around this many people before."
As she steps away from towards the lounge Vhesthine, Riley catches her elbow, and she decks him. The lounge goes quiet, until Tazin laughs from the couch, "That was a good punch. He should know better than to approach a demon like her unannounced."
Roselyn slaps Tazin's leg, "Buffy's not a demon."
Tazin shakes his head, "She sure fights like one though."
From the floor Riley rubs his jaw, "I guess I was asking for that. I just wanted to ask if we could debrief you."
Buffy nods as she activates squad regen, "Tomorrow. Where's Sam?"
"I think she's cornered Halfrek, Anya, and Xander somewhere. She said something about new intel on different species of demon when she took my notepad."
Buffy nods, before going to say hello to all the people she already knows. That done, she steels herself, and heads through to the kitchen where Willow and Tara are entertaining most of the other guests.
Backing out back into the study, she grabs a handful of pamphlets, and walks back in before spilling them across the table. It's her birthday party, and she'll be damned if she's going to hide herself or her friends just because there are people who are ignorant of that side of things.