Introduction
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| A New Man | Goodbye Iowa |
“I implore you, Neisa,” prays Willow. “Blessed goddess of chance and fortune, heed my call. Send to me the heart I desire.”
Xander isn’t happy to hear that. He considers Willow doing magic while they are playing poker to be a form of cheating. Willow says she wasn’t doing magic, just praying. She asks for two cards. Xander gives them to her and turns to Anya. Anya wants five cards. Xander explains to her again that the most she can have is four, and that’s only if she has an ace. Anya asks for four cards. Xander wants to see her ace. Anya settles for three.
Anya thinks this is a stupid game. All they win are these silly little disks. She seems to have the biggest pile of chips in front of her though. They have to play for chips since none of them has any money.
Xander expects that to change once his latest venture gets off the ground. He has become the local distributer for Boost Bars. “The natural food bar that provides a nutritional energy boost for active, health-conscious people.” He offers one to Willow.
Willow declines. That sort of thing is usually pretty tasteless, and then it leaves a bad after tastelessness.
Anya wants them to get back to the game. She has three K cards. Willow and Xander fold. Anya rakes in more chips while Xander collects the cards and starts to shuffle them. He wishes that Buffy could have joined them. Three handed poker isn’t too much fun. Willow tells him that Buffy is out with Riley. Her brand spanking new boyfriend.
“Yes,” says Anya. “We’ve enjoyed spanking!”
Xander loses control of the cards and scatters them around the room. As he gathers them up, he tells the others that he still has some questions about the Initiative.
“Well, they do seem to fall in the good-guy camp. I mean, they are anti-demon.” Willow notices the look that Anya gives her for that comment. “But probably pro ex-demon.” Anya is not reassured. She still feels threatened by them.
“And why not?” asks Xander. “There’s still heaps we don’t know about these commandos. What exactly are they up to?”
Tonight a six man Initiative field team is hunting something in the woods. The team leader signals for one of them to check a clump of bushes. There’s the thud of him being hit, and he comes flying back out. Buffy follows him, and quickly disables two more of the team members. She grabs a fourth and swings him around as a shield to block a taser blast from the fifth member of the team. She turns to face the team leader, who is rushing forward to attack her. He’s saved by Walsh calling out “Lights!”
The scene is illuminated by the lights of an Initiative humvee. Riley—the guy who was just about to get pummeled by Buffy—pulls off his mask.
Walsh comes forward to talk to Buffy. “It took the patrol team 42 minutes to track you. And you neutralized them in 28 seconds.”
Buffy tries to tell Professor Walsh she was just lucky.
“I see. Well, still, very impressive.” Walsh walks off. Riley stays with Buffy, grinning like an idiot.
“I was just being modest with the whole lucky thing.” Buffy tells Riley. “You got that, right?”
Riley got that. He’s very happy with the way this little exercise has worked out.
Graham and Forrest pick themselves up off the ground. “Awesome Buffy!” says Graham. Forrest doesn’t say anything. He just snorts at the way Riley is still grinning.
“See? You’re a hit.” Riley puts his arm around Buffy’s shoulder and walks off with her. “Everybody loves you.”
Walsh watches them go. She does not look happy.
Buffy and Willow compare notes over lunch on their previous evenings. According to Riley, Professor Walsh was most impressed with Buffy’s performance. Willow tells her about her quiet night playing poker with Xander and Anya. It was fun, except for the poker and Anya parts of it. She is looking forward to tonight. Buffy just looks blank. “You do remember about tonight, right?”
Buffy manages to remember. “Bronze. The gang. Are you kidding? I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I miss you guys. We haven’t been able to spend that much time together lately.”
Willow understands. Buffy has a new romantic interest in her life. She notices that Buffy has suddenly stopped paying any attention to her. Riley has just walked into the cafeteria. Buffy just sits and watches him, until she notices what he has picked up. “A twinkie? That’s his lunch? Oh, he is so going to be punished!”
“Everyone’s getting spank but me,” complains Willow.
Giles stops by Spike’s new crypt. It is quite spacious, and surprisingly well lit. A very nice place, if you ignore the dirt and cobwebs. Spike isn’t pleased to have a visitor. He tells Giles he should wipe his feet before coming into someone’s home.
“Ah, yes, careless of me,” says Giles. “Tracking mud all over your, uh…mud.”
Spike sits up on the lid of the sarcophagus he was sleeping on. “I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a fixer-upper. Needs a woman’s touch. Care to have a crack at it?”
Giles would enjoy trading jibes with Spike, but that isn’t what he’s there for. He feels that he owes Spike a debt of gratitude for the help Spike gave him with his recent metamorphosis. Spike tells Giles that he is owed a lot more than that. Giles pulls $300 out of his pocket and hands it over. Spike starts to count it.
Giles has a bit of a look around Spike’s place. He tells Spike that he has been thinking about Spike’s affliction, and his recent discovery that he can still fight demons. He realizes Spike may not think so, but he wonders if there might be a higher power at work.
Spike loses count. He wonders what Giles is still hanging around for. “Piss off. This bit of business wraps up any I got with you and your Slayerettes. From here on, I want nothing to do with the lot of you.”
“Your choosing to remain in Sunnydale might make that a little difficult,” says Giles.
“You and yours will just have to show a little restraint is all. Now get out.” Spike starts counting the money again from the beginning. “And I don’t want you crawling back here, knocking on my door, pleading for help the second Teen Witch’s magic goes all wonky or little Xander cuts a new tooth. We’re through. Got it?”
Giles has got it. He opens the door to Spike’s crypt wide, letting in lots of sunlight.
Spike cringes away from the light. “Honeymoon is over.”
Riley wants to know if Buffy thinks she’s ready for this. She doesn’t have to do it right away. Buffy tells him that she’s ready. She wants to. Riley opens a hidden panel beside the mirror and a green light plays over Buffy’s face. The mirror slides aside and the automated elevator voice announces that it has recorded Buffy’s retinal scan. Buffy and Riley get in the elevator and ride it down to the Initiative’s underground headquarters.
When they step out of the elevator Buffy is impressed. It is a lot bigger than she was expecting. Riley had told her it was big, but this is huge. Walsh is waiting for them. She has a visitor’s pass for Buffy, and some reading material to help bring her up to speed.
“I thought I was never going to get homework from you again,” says Buffy.
“You can’t take that home,” says Walsh. “That’s classified material. Highly sensitive. When you’re through reading those pages, you’ll have to eat them.”
Buffy gives Riley a worried look. “She’s joking,” he tells her.
“Don’t worry. Doesn’t happen very often. Shall we?” Walsh starts to lead Buffy on a tour.
The first stop is the Pit. It’s kind of hard to miss it. It’s a large open hole in the middle of the main section that looks like it’s lined with aluminum foil. There are a couple of demons strapped to tables inside it, with various scientists and lab techs working on them. Buffy thinks that the demons look tough. Riley confirms it. It took eight of them to bring them down.
Walsh explains that this is where much of their experimentation is done. She introduces Buffy to one of the scientists working on the demons. Dr. Angleman is the head of their science team. He is a leader in the field of xenomorphic behaviour modification.
“Behaviour modification?” asks Buffy.
“We’ve made significant advances in reconditioning the subterrestrials,” says Walsh. “Bringing them to a point where they no longer pose a threat.”
“So I’ve seen.” Buffy notices the curious looks that Riley and Walsh give her, and realizes that she just slipped them a bit of information that she isn’t quite ready to share. She tries to cover her tracks. “On the Discovery Channel. With gorillas and sharks. They made them all nice. You haven’t seen it?” Walsh seems to need more distracting. “What’s over there?”
Walsh leads them over to a caged off area full of weapons and things. It’s the Initiative’s armoury. She explains that Buffy will have to be checked out on each of the weapons before she will be allowed to use them. She is sure Buffy will pick them up in no time.
Buffy picks up a device off a table.
“Don’t pick that up!” says Walsh.
Buffy quickly puts it back down. “What is it?”
“About $20,000,” says Walsh.
Riley explains that it’s a prototype com-cam which will allow central control to monitor them better while they’re in the field. Soon to become standard issue for all Initiative team members. Walsh adds that it also monitors the wearer’s heart rate, allowing them to evaluate stress levels of the people in the field.
Walsh continues the tour. She shows Buffy to the HST containment area.
Walsh concludes the tour. Buffy has noticed a door that Walsh didn’t tell her about. “What’s in there?”
“Research area. Very restricted for security reasons.” It’s Walsh’s turn to try for a distraction. She hands Buffy her security pass, and a beeper. “Lose either one of them, and there’s hell to pay. And down here we mean that literally.”
Willow sits with Tara in a student lounge. Tara shows Willow her Doll’s Eye crystal. Willow has been trying to find one of those for a long time. Tara found it among her grandmother’s things, and offers it to Willow as a gift. Willow declines. It’s much to valuable for her to accept, but she’s willing to try some magic with it with Tara sometime. Tara suggests they can do some that evening. Willow has to refuse. She has a prior engagement with some of her other friends.
“That’s okay,” says Tara. “Another time.”
“Absolutely,” says Willow. “It’s just tonight, it’s kind of a specific crowd. You might feel out of place.”
Tara tries to hide her disappointment. She tells Willow that she has to get to class, and gets up and goes.
Walsh opens the door to the secured area she didn’t show to Buffy, and proceeds to lab 314. Dr. Angleman is waiting for her. He wants to know how the tour went. Walsh isn’t sure. Buffy it too unpredictable. Angleman thinks that letting Buffy in is an unnecessary risk. Walsh concedes the possibility. She asks for a status report on their project. Angleman reports that everything is proceeding as planned.
“That’s what I like to hear.” Walsh looks down at the creature lying on the operating table. It’s a mixture of human, demon, and mechanical parts. “Almost time to wake up, Adam, and take your first look at the world. I know you’re going to make me proud.”
Willow and Anya sit together at a table in the Bronze. Xander returns to them. He has been off trying to pedal Boost Bars to the other patrons. He seems to be his only customer though. Anya is not happy with this. He isn’t paying any attention to her. She doesn’t understand why he bothers.
Xander explains it to Anya: “Sell bars. Make money. Take Anya nice places. Buy pretty things.” Put in those terms Anya understands. She tells him to go sell more. Xander seems to be eating his last sample though. He suggests that he and Anya should go.
Willow isn’t happy to hear that. Buffy hasn’t shown up yet. Xander thinks that since Buffy is an hour late, it’s likely that she isn’t going to show up at all. Willow is sure that Buffy is going to show, and is happy when she sees Buffy come into the Bronze. She is less happy when she notices that Buffy is being followed by Riley, Forrest, Graham, and a couple more Initiative commandos.
They join Willow and the others at the table, and Riley makes introductions. He goes off to get him and Buffy some drinks, while the Initiative guys head over to one of the pool tables. Anya drags Xander away to the opposite side of the dance floor. She doesn’t want to be any closer to the Initiative guys than she has to be.
Buffy explains to Willow that the guys wanted to celebrate her getting into the Initiative. It made it kind of difficult not to invite them.
“Oh, that’s neat about the celebrating,” says Willow. “I just thought this was supposed to be, you know, us. Just the Scooby core, you know? I could’ve invited somebody else if I knew it was an open free-for-all.”
“I’m sorry,” says Buffy. “I had no idea. My total bad. So, who did you want to invite?”
“What?” asks Willow.
“You said you wanted to invite someone.”
“No, not—no one,” says Willow. “I mean, I meant a hypothetical someone, which is to say no one.”
Buffy tells Willow about the tour. She’s in the Initiative. Willow is a little apprehensive about that. She wonders if it’s a good idea. Buffy may be rushing things a bit. She wishes they knew more about what their whole agenda was before Buffy rushed off and enlisted. Especially in light of what Ethan Rayne had to say about them.
Buffy isn’t sure that they should take anything Ethan had to say too seriously, but before she can say anything more her new pager starts to beep. So does Riley’s and every other commando’s in the Bronze. Buffy excuses herself, and they all head for the door.
Buffy attends a briefing in Initiative HQ. Their objective is a Polgara demon which has been detected in the area. Dr. Angleman briefs them on its defenses. When threatened the Polgara demon has bone skewers that jut from its forearms. He tells them it is imperative that they don’t get damaged during the capture. They don’t need to know any more.
Buffy needs to know more. Like why they shouldn’t damage the polka thing’s arms. Body parts tend to get damaged in fights, and she wants to know why this creature’s parts are more important than hers. Angleman explains that they really want to study the Polgara demon’s arms. Buffy also wants to know what the Polgara demon is doing there. Knowing what it wants makes it easier to predict its moves. Angleman tells her the demon is non-sentient, just generally destructive.
Walsh points out that the Polgara demon has excellent eyesight however. She thinks maybe Buffy might want to change her clothes. Buffy is wearing a bright orange halter top.
Buffy doesn’t think that the Initiative’s camo gear suits her. She’d look all Private Benjamin in it. This gets a bit of a laugh from the other commandos there. She assures Walsh that her current clothing won’t be a problem, she has patrolled in it lots of times.
Walsh suggests that Buffy hold any further questions until after Angleman is finished. Angleman is done though, so Walsh quickly turns control over to Riley to hand out team assignments.
After Riley has done so Walsh finishes up. “Reminder: this is a zap and trap, people. Capture, not a kill. Any questions?” Buffy’s hand goes up.
Willow knocks on Tara’s door. She tells Tara that her prior engagement fell through, and asks if she still wants to try some spells or something. Tara invites her in.
Buffy, Riley, and the rest of Alpha team patrol through the woods. Buffy doesn’t think that Walsh was too impressed with all her questions. It doesn’t seem to be the way the Initiative does things. Riley tries to reassure her. Walsh has liked Buffy for a long time. She told him so herself. It was just the shock of Buffy asking questions. She didn’t ask nearly that many in class.
Riley doesn’t really want to talk about this now. They are hunting a dangerous hostile, and since he doesn’t have Buffy’s reflexes, he needs to concentrate on that.
Forrest leads Beta team through another patch of woods. He isn’t too happy about his promotion. He doesn’t like that Buffy has displaced him on Alpha team. “Three guesses on what that boy’s thinking with,” he tells Graham.
“Maybe he just wanted to give you a chance to get out from under his shadow,” says Graham. Forrest doesn’t like that much better, but before he can say anything more Graham spots something with his night vision scope.
“Target?” asks Forrest.
“Negative.” Graham hands over the scope.
Forrest takes a look, and sees Spike walking through the woods carrying a bag of groceries. “Hello, Hostile 17.” Graham quickly dispatches two team members to flank Spike.
The two team members come at Spike from opposite directions. One of them tries to toss a net over him, which Spike avoids. He grabs the net and gives it a pull. The commando on the other end doesn’t let go, and ends up getting tossed into the bushes. Spike tosses his bag of groceries at the second, but even that gives him a headache, so he starts to run. Graham gets him in the sights of an air gun and fires a shot. It hits Spike in the back. He staggers, but keeps running.
Forrest orders Graham to report what has happened to Control and Alpha team. Hostile 17 has evaded them, but now they have a tracker in him.
Alpha team gets the call from Graham. One of the team members hands a cell phone to Riley, but tells him the reception isn’t very good.
Riley moves around, trying to find a spot where he can get clearer reception on the cell phone. He moves over near some bushes, and Buffy calls out a warning. The Polgara demon jumps Riley, and knocks him to the ground.
Buffy attacks before the demon can do anything else to Riley. She kicks it in the head a couple of times, driving it away from Riley. Riley gets back to his feet, and extends a retracting baton in his hand. He and Buffy attack the demon together
In Riley’s room, Buffy and Riley embrace, and kiss each other passionately.
Riley beats on the Polgara demon with his baton.
Riley undoes the ties on the back of Buffy’s halter top, and rubs his hands across her bare back.
The Polgara demon knocks Riley away. Buffy attacks it again with a quick series of punches.
Riley pulls off Buffy’s boots.
Other UCSCS commandos join the fight.
Buffy pulls off Riley’s T-shirt.
Riley attacks the Polgara demon with his baton again. The demon punches him, knocking him to the ground.
Buffy kisses her way down Riley’s bare chest.
Buffy attacks the Polgara demon with more punches. The demon extends its bone skewers from its wrists, and slashes at her. Buffy ducks under them. Riley picks himself back up, while Buffy fights the demon.
Riley finishes removing Buffy’s halter top.
The Polgara slashes at Buffy. She deflects it.
Riley kisses Buffy and caresses her throat. Buffy takes his hand and kisses its finger tips, while he kisses her shoulder.
The demon slashes at Buffy again. She ducks under its attack. Riley picks up his taser, but he can’t shoot. Buffy is too close to the demon.
Buffy lies back in Riley’s bed. Riley kisses her some more.
Buffy dropkicks the demon with both feet. The demon staggers back, and Buffy drops out of Riley’s line of fire. He and another Initiative commando zap it with their tasers.
Buffy rolls over on top of Riley, straddling him. She leans down and kisses him, while he holds her.
The Polgara demon struggles against the net that has been thrown over it. Buffy gives it a final kick in the head. She backs away from it, letting the commandos take over, while she catches her breath. “So?” she asks Riley. “What do you want to do now?”
Buffy and Riley make love in his bed.
A row of monitors in an Initiative HQ surveillance room shows several rooms, including Riley’s. Professor Walsh sits in a chair, watching Buffy and Riley make love.
Xander and Anya are at Giles’ apartment, trying to sell him some Boost Bars. Giles agrees to buy a box, mainly just to get rid of them. Someone starts pounding on the door. Giles moves to answer it, but it bursts open before he gets there, and Spike rushes in. He’s covered by a tarp to protect him from the morning sunshine.
Xander looks at him. “Spike? You may want to give up these morning jogs.”
“Soldier boys are out in force,” says Spike. “I been trying to keep ’em off my scent, run ’em in circles, but they keep coming.”
“And how is this our concern?” asks Giles. “Seeing that you’ve expressed a desire to have nothing more to do with us.”
“All right. What do you want me to say? I need help. And no cheek from you.” Giles makes a lip zipping gesture. “Look, the buggers shot me. In the back.” Spike shrugs his coat off his shoulder and shows Giles the wound in his back.
“Remind me,” says Giles. “Why should I help you?”
“Because you do that,” says Spike. “You’re the goody-good guys. You’re the bloody freaking cavalry.”
“You can come up with a better answer than that. Why should I help you?” Giles asks again.
Spike looks enlightened. “Oh, because I helped you. When you turned into that Fyarl demon. I helped you, didn’t I?”
Spike doesn’t quite get it yet. “And that was out of the ‘evilness of your heart?’” asks Giles.
“Oh, hell no. I made you pay me.” The light finally dawns. “You right bastard.” Spike reaches into his pocket and hands over a wad of money to Giles. “That’s all that’s left. Spent the rest on blood and smokes, which I’ll never see again. Aw, come on. Circle the wagons. Tend to the wounded here. No time for layabouts.”
Buffy wakes up in Riley’s bed. She starts a bit when she doesn’t see him, but she rolls over and Riley is there behind her.1 She gives him a good morning kiss.
An electronic alarm starts to chirp. Buffy tells Riley that it sounds like his robot bird wants to be fed. It’s really a reminder for him to take his vitamins. Buffy finds that amusing. “You’re quite the regimental soldier,” she tells him after he takes his pill.
“I am how they trained me,” says Riley.
“They?” asks Buffy. “Who they?”
“You know, the government. Plucked me out of special-op training for this.”
“What did they tell you it was for?”
“Didn’t. In the military, you learn to follow orders, not ask questions.”
Buffy doesn’t really understand that. She wonders if he isn’t a little curious about what the scientists are doing.
“I know all I need to know. We’re doing good here. Protecting the public. Removing the subterrestrial threat. It’s work worth doing.”
Buffy digests that for a while. “What’s 314?”
Riley gives her a puzzled look, but before he can say anything his phone rings. It’s Professor Walsh. She needs him for something. He gets out of bed and starts to get dressed.
“What is it?” asks Buffy.
“Don’t know.”
“You’re really not one for asking questions, are you?”
Riley smiles at Buffy. “I’ll leave that to you.”
Riley walks through Initiative HQ. He pauses by the door to the secure research area, then goes and peers through its window at the door to room 314.
“Lose your way, Agent?” asks Professor Walsh. Riley quickly turns to face her. Walsh tells Riley that she wants him to take over command of Beta team in their hunt for Hostile 17. She has told them to wait for him. She doesn’t want any more slip ups. “Riley, make me proud.”
Riley heads out, and Walsh proceeds to lab 314. Dr. Angleman is just finishing up removing the Polgara demon’s left arm.
“I think we’ve got a situation,” says Walsh.
“The Slayer?” asks Angleman.
Walsh confirms that. Buffy has somehow learned about their project, and she is getting to have too much influence over Riley—over Agent Finn. It is time to move to their contingency scenario.
Angleman thinks that’s too bad, and Finn will take it hard. That’s another reason Walsh thinks it’s best if they act quickly.
Giles operates on Spike with Xander and Anya holding flashlights to better illuminate the wound. Whatever is embedded in Spike’s back doesn’t seem to be a bullet, and it’s too deep to be a tranquilizer, plus Spike isn’t very tranquil. It seems to be some sort of electronic device.
Giles sends Anya to the kitchen to get his bottle on cognac. Spike doesn’t think that this is a good time for Giles to get snockered, but Giles tells him that the cognac is for him. He wants Spike anesthetized. This is going to take a while.
Xander realizes they don’t have a lot of time. The device must be some sort of homing beacon. That’s how the Initiative guys keep finding Spike. They have to get it out before they get visitors.
Buffy arrives back at her room, and discovers that Willow isn’t there. She also notices that Willow’s bed hasn’t been slept in. Willow arrives just after her. She has the doll’s eye crystal with her. She notices that Buffy wasn’t in last night either. Buffy apologises for bailing at the Bronze, but before they can talk any more Buffy’s pager starts to beep again. Buffy has to go.
The phone rings just after Buffy leaves. It’s Giles. Willow asks if he wants her to try and catch Buffy, but it’s really Willow that Giles is looking for.
Walsh tells Buffy that she has a small reconnaissance job she wants Buffy to do. She thinks it’s a waste of the Slayer’s talents, but all her boys are busy doing something else. Buffy doesn’t mind. She’s up for some action.
Walsh doubts if Buffy will see any action on this one. Their scanners have picked up a class three subterrestrial in the sewers. She points out the location on a map. This sort of demon is a minimal threat. Sometimes turns out to be a raccoon. She hands Buffy one of their taser rifles.
“Wow. You’re not crazy about raccoons, huh?” asks Buffy.
“We always take precautions.” Walsh also hands Buffy the com-cam. She just wants Buffy to get a visual confirmation on this thing. She doesn’t want Buffy taking any chances.
“That’s okay. Danger’s my birthright.” Buffy tells Walsh that there are a few things about the Initiative that she isn’t clear on. Walsh promises to have a talk with her after she gets back.
Spike has pretty much passed out while Giles operates. Willow has joined them, and is performing a spell. Giles explains to Xander that if it works, Willow’s spell should ionize the atmosphere inside his house, blocking the tracker’s signal, and buying them some time.
Willow completes the spell. There is an electric blue flash, and all Giles’ light bulbs explode. “Did it work?” asks Willow. “Did the atmosphere ionize?”
Giles looks around. Everyone’s hair is standing up on end. “I’d venture yes.”
Riley has joined Beta team in the woods when they lose the signal. Their last bearing on it put it in a populated area, so Riley calls a halt for them to change into civilian clothes before they proceed.
Buffy reaches the indicated spot in the sewers. She hears something moving in the darkness ahead of her. She calls in to Professor Walsh to tell her that her possible HST is a definite. She sees two of them coming towards her. They are carrying battle axes. She recognises them. They are the demons she saw Dr. Angleman working on in the Pit.
Buffy raises the taser rifle and fires, but it shorts out in her hands and shocks her. A metal gate slams shut behind her. She is trapped in the sewer without weapons, facing two large armed demons.
Buffy fights with the two demons in the sewers.
Professor Walsh watches the picture transmitted by the com-cam on a monitor in Initiative HQ, calmly sipping a cup of coffee. She sees Buffy holding off one of the demon’s axes, and then something else hits her in the side of the head. The com-cam’s pickup falls to the floor, and the heart rate monitor flatlines. Walsh can see no motion, and doesn’t hear any sound. She nervously glances around to make sure no one else has seen what she has been watching.
Beta team walks down a suburban sidewalk. The signal from the tracker is still pretty weak, but they’re getting close. Forrest estimates they’re within two blocks of it.
The ionizing spell is wearing off. Everyone’s hair has flattened out when Giles finally manages to get the tracker out of Spike’s back. Giles hands it off to Xander who runs down Giles’ back hallway with it.
Forrest gets a definite bearing on the signal. They start to move toward it when he notices that it’s moving. It is coming toward them quickly. Graham is surprised that it could be moving that fast in broad daylight.
Forrest calls off the range. It drops quickly, to within a few meters of them and then starts to head away again. They all look around in confusion, wondering how it could have done so without them seeing anything. Then Riley notices a manhole cover, and realizes that the tracker must have been flushed. They’ve lost Hostile 17 again.
The com-cam headset lies on the ground—the wire to its microphone disconnected—while Buffy fights the two demons. Buffy manages to swing one of their axes around into the belly of the second demon, killing it. She wrestles the axe away from the surviving demon. It knocks the axe away from her into a puddle of sewer water, and knocks Buffy down. She lands beside the still sparking taser rifle.
The demon goes into the puddle to retrieve its axe. Buffy picks up the taser and tosses it into the puddle with the demon, and electrocutes it.
Riley returns to Initiative HQ to report that Hostile 17 has evaded them again. Walsh isn’t concerned about that. She has much worse news for Riley. It’s about Buffy.
“Two of our hostiles broke free and escaped into the tunnels,” says Professor Walsh. “She went after them on her own. She’s dead, Riley.” Riley is shocked. “I did everything I could to stop her. I told her to wait for a backup team. She kept insisting she didn’t need any team, she could handle it by herself. I’m so, so sorry.”
“I don’t understand,” says Riley. “How could this happen?”
“I know what she meant to you,” says Walsh. “She was a very, very special girl. I didn’t understand at first, but she had something. I don’t know, maybe—maybe I could’ve stopped her. It’s hard not to blame myself.”
Riley has stopped listening to her. He has seen motion on the monitor behind Professor Walsh. He sees Buffy pick up the com-cam and fiddle with its wiring. She sets it down on something so its video camera picks up her face.
“Professor Walsh?” Buffy’s voice comes through the speakers. “That simple little recon you sent me on wasn’t a raccoon.” Walsh turns around, real shock replacing the feigned shock she had been showing Riley. “Turns out it was me trapped in the sewers with a faulty weapon and two of your pet demons. If you think that’s enough to kill me, you really don’t know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say you’re going to find out.” Buffy picks up the com-cam and drops it. The picture dissolves into static.
Riley doesn’t say anything. He just turns his back on Walsh and starts to walk away. Walsh calls after him and orders him to stop, but Riley keeps on walking.
Giles takes off his rubber gloves while Spike gets dressed. Giles thinks it would be a very good idea if Spike got out of town.
Spike doesn’t plan on going anywhere until he gets whatever was done to him fixed.
“Spike,” says Giles. “Lord knows why I’m telling you this. It’s for your own good. As long as the Initiative is in operation, it’s not safe for you here.”
“No,” says Buffy from the door. “It’s not safe for any of us.”
Professor Walsh enters lab 314. “So, all right, fine. If she wants a fight, we’ll give her one, won’t we, Adam? I’ve worked too long. Too long to let some little bitch threaten this project, threaten me. She has no idea who she’s dealing with.”
Walsh picks up a bone saw off a nearby bench and moves it to its proper place on a shelf. “Once she’s gone, Riley will come around. He’ll understand. It was for the greater good. He’ll see that. And if he doesn’t… Well, first things first. Remove the complication. And when she least expects it—”
Something stabs Maggie through the back. She looks over her shoulder and sees Adam standing behind her. “Adam!”
Adam pulls the Polgara demon bone skewer out of Professor Walsh, and she falls to the floor. “Mommy!”
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Polgara demon | The Initiative’s labs | Dissected |
| Two unnamed demons | The sewers | Axed and electrocuted by Buffy |
| Maggie Walsh | The Initiative’s lab 314 | Skewered by Adam |