S4 AU. Oz has already broken up with Willow, but the Scoobies haven't seen Spike since "Lovers Walk". Buffy knows Riley, but they haven't gotten all lovey-dovey or anything.

"God," Buffy moaned, rolling onto her side for comfort but only finding cold tile beneath her, "I feel like I was hit by a…—" She opened her eyes to blurry white, thinking back: "—bunch of commandos?"

She sighed and flexed her muscles to make sure everything was still working: sore, she decided, but working. Her next order of business would be to sit up. That seemed a little tougher because, she noticed now, her head was swimming—at odds with gravity. She felt nauseous and weak, and wholly unwilling to leave unconsciousness behind to deal with whatever mess she was in this time.

But she was the Slayer. And, wherever she was, she had to escape, and she wasn't going to be able to do that lying down.

So she heaved herself into an upright position, head lolling as she scooted towards a wall to lean on and she braced herself against a wave of nausea.

It was a familiar wooziness, and Buffy quickly deduced that she'd lost a massive amount of blood. But, upon checking herself over—for stab wounds or bullet holes, for itty bitty puncture marks in her neck—she couldn't find any serious injuries.

She took a deep breath and leaned her head against the wall, trying to get her thoughts together. But after a moment she was falling asleep. As her head dipped, she jolted awake again.

"What's wrong with me?" she moaned.

"Good drugs, ain't they?" came a man's English accent from behind the wall she leaned on, "Yeah, they pumped us all chock full when we first got here. Won't last long."

"What is this place?" Buffy asked. She finally forced her vision to focus and looked around her cell, which was white and sterile with one glass wall that looked out into an equally sanitized hallway.

"You're askin' me," said the man, "Why don't you let me know when you find out?"

"Some help you are," said Buffy, "What's your name?"

"Round here?" said the man, "It's Hostile 17."

"Wait, what?" said Willow, "Buffy was what by military whats?"

"Kidnapped. Goons," said Xander, out of breath, "I couldn't do anything, I—"

"Xander," said Giles, putting a hand on the young man's shoulder and guiding him to the couch, "Just calm down. Breathe. Or, at least, tell us what happened before you pass out."

"I was—" Xander gasped, "Me and Buffy were walking—I was walking her back to her dorm—"

" You were walking her?" said Willow.

"Okay, well maybe I wanted some Slayer protection while I wandered back to mom's basement in the middle of the night, alright? Anyway," Xander said, "We were walking across campus and… Well, there's this vamp, right? And Buff slays it easy-peasy. But then, all of a sudden, there were these guys. Black masks, commando getups. Came outta nowhere! Anyway, they attacked us, and I guess I got knocked out and when I woke up, well—"

"Buffy was gone," Willow guessed. "Any idea where they took her?"

"No," said Xander, "I'm sorry. I… I tried to fight but—"

"It's not your fault, Xander," said Willow quickly.

"All we can do now is try to find her," said Giles. "This isn't the first time we've seen these, erm, commandos. Is it?"

"We saw them around on Halloween," said Xander, "But we figured they were just guys in costumes."

"Or maybe they forgot the date?" Willow goofed. Then she frowned, "I can try a locator spell."

"Um, yes," said Giles, "Perhaps that would be a good idea. What do you need?"

"Just something of Buffy's, I'll stop by the dorm. And a map."

"So what do you do for fun around here?" said the woman with whom he now shared a wall, his last neighbor having apparently perished some days before.

"Just sit around till it's time for Jekyll and Frankenstein and whoever else they've got back there to see what makes you tick," said Spike.

"I'm pretty ticked off right now, I can tell them that," said the girl. "What do you mean 'makes me tick'?"

"I mean, don't be surprised if you've got some pretty new scars next time you wake up," said Spike.

"Hey," said the girl suddenly, "You sound kinda familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

Uh-oh. That wouldn't do—whoever this woman was, he couldn't let word get out, even in here, that Spike , William the Bloody, was locked up in some cage. It would wreak havoc on his already ice-thin reputation.

He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again his accent was softer, milder; more posh. Lamer, Spike thought—the one he'd had back when he was human, but it would do to disguise him for now from anyone who might recognize him. "I doubt it," he said, "I'm a nobody. Maybe you've just got other English friends."

That made Buffy wonder if Giles and her friends were already looking for her, and how soon they'd find her.

"I betcha someone at Willy's knows something," said Xander, "I mean, a new demon in town is one thing. But commandos? Would definitely catch some eyes. Or fangs."

"The locator spell said Buffy's… beneath us," said Willow, "So unless we wanna get a shovel and start digging, we better figure out where the entrance to this secret underground lair is. Luckily, Willy's patrons are kinda the experts on secret underground lairs."

They entered the bar, and tough-as-nails demon types all turned to look at them. Willow waved with a timid smile as she followed Xander up to the bar.

"Willy my man," said Xander, "We want info."

"Info?" said Willy, "Listen, I don't know nothing."

"You tell us what we wanna know," said Xander, "Or else—" He slammed his hand down on the bar in a threatening manner, but then hissed in pain and shook his bruised hand, "Ow, ow, ow."

"Listen, Willy," said Willow, "We're trying to help Buffy. Have you heard anything about these commandos walking around?"

"Guys in military getups?" said Willy, "Oh yeah. Talk of the town right now. Apparently, these guys are goin' around kidnapping my customers."

"They're kidnapping demons?" said Willow.

"And not just demons," said Willy, "Underworld has it, they are after anyone with a little power. Vampires, werewolves, witches. You name it."

"Anyone know where they're holed up?" said Xander.

"If they did, I don't think we'd still be seeing these guys creeping around. Nah, they must have a real solid operation going if no one's found 'em yet. Look, that's all I know. But listen: This is my clientele they're snatching. You find 'em and stop 'em, alright? I hear anything else, I'll let you know."

"Here goes," said Buffy, finally feeling strong enough to actually try and find a way out of here.

She stood facing the glass wall, fists at the ready. She charged, punching the window with all her might—

—and then screamed, yelping in electric pain as she was shocked by the surface.

"Yeah," said Hostile 17 from the other side of the wall, "It does that. You're not getting out, I've tried everything."

"That's not gonna stop me," Buffy huffed. "I'm tougher than I look."

"Well, I dunno how you look, luv. Say, what's your name?"

"It's—" Buffy stopped herself. There weren't a lot of Buffys in Sunnydale and she wasn't about to out herself to this stranger, who might have some connection to the demon underworld himself, "Anne. You got a name other than Hostile 17?"

"Will," said the man.

Buffy frowned, "My best friend's name is Will. She's probably looking for me right now."

"Well, best of luck to her," said Will, "I've been here days and looks to me the only way to get in here is to get captured."

"Willow, this is a terrible plan," said Giles.

"You got a better idea?" said Willow. "Look. Xander said these guys had all kinds of sensors with them, there's no way we'd be able to follow 'em back to their base without getting caught. But if you guys are able to track me while they take me down there, we might stand a chance."

"I don't like the whole part where you get kidnapped, Will," said Xander.

"Well someone's gotta do it," said Willow, "And no offense, but if what Willy said is true and they are looking for people with power, I'm the only one they're gonna be interested in."

"What if your locator spell fails once you're already captured?" said Giles, "Then it will have all been for nothing."

"It won't," said Willow, "I promise. It'll last at least three hours, which should be plenty of time for you to figure out where they took me."

"And then what?" said Xander, "We don't exactly have the resources to attack some sort of military base even if we figure out where it is."

"You'll have information. Information I'm sure they won't want getting out. These guys probably have day-jobs. Figure out who they are and do the interrogation thing," said Willow, "Plus, I'll be in there too, maybe I can start making moves from the inside. If I can find Buffy, I betcha the two of us will have enough firepower to do a bit of damage."

"Willow," said Giles, "I think you are vastly overestimating your strength. If Buffy is unable to escape, you won't have any better luck."

"I've been practicing a lot, Giles," said Willow, "I've got some magical aces up my sleeves, I promise. Listen, for all we know Buffy could be hurt, or worse. We gotta do something and we gotta do it now."

"This is where we ran into them last time," said Xander, "I remember anything about the military, they're probably gonna hit this spot again on their patrol. You sure you wanna do this, Will?"

"Sure as water is wet," said Willow, "They didn't kill you, right? And from what we can tell, they're human. So they're probably not gonna kill me, at least not right away. All we need is enough time for you guys to find out where they took us and break us out."

"Yeah, that last part is what I'm worried about, but we'll try. You sure that locator spell is all set?"

"Yep," said Willow, "Giles is at home with the map. He'll take notes, and if anything does go wrong he should be able to hold the spell up on his own."

They heard a rustling in the bushes. "That's them," said Xander. "Good luck, Wills"

"You too," Willow nodded, "Go hide!"

Xander scrambled behind a tree and waited, anxious.

"Well!" Willow announced loudly, pacing around the clearing, "I guess I will just cast a spell now! With magic!"

The men shuffling through the foliage didn't seem to notice her.

"I said," Willow cleared her throat, "I guess I'll just do some evil supernatural black magic now!"

The group of four commandos stopped as they came into the clearing. They stared at her for a moment.

"Ignis!" Willow cried, a little ball of fire appearing in her hand.

Then all hell broke loose. Xander watched from his hiding spot as the men started shouting: "Hostile detected! Bag and tag. Take her alive."

"Oh no!" Willow said, a little sarcastic, "You caught me! Oh well, I guess—"

Now the fear started to set in, but she couldn't react to it before she was tased to the floor.

"H-hey!" she stuttered, "I was t-trying to surrender!"

"Quiet," said one of the men as he held her too hard against the ground, "We've heard it all before. You're just gonna take a little nap, alright?"

A frustrated groan was all Willow could muster before a prick in her shoulder introduced her to blissful unconsciousness.