To Cross The River Styx
by Chazzman
Chap 2
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"No mom. We're fine," Buffy said into the phone. "Just as well we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year anyway, what with the Indian vengeance spirit trying to kill us. No, I told dad I'm gonna be too busy putting up flyers. Mom. Mom, please. Angel says he has a contact with the LA cops who might be able to help. Mom, Sunnydale cops aren't looking for her. They've probably written her off all ready. No. No. OK. All right. Yes. Yes. Uh-huh. I love you too, mom. Be careful. Bye."
Buffy hung up the phone, sighed and looked across her dorm room to the empty bed. Ten days had gone by and there had been no sign of the redhead or the mysterious commandos who had whisked her away in the middle of the night. "Where are you Wills?" A tear traced a path down her cheek and she started to sniff. "Oh god, Willow. Please be OK."
She bent down to pick up the new box of flyers with Willow's photo on them. A description of her kidnapping had been included although nothing aside from the clothing could be said about the men who had abducted her. Willow's Mom and Dad had come by and delivered them just that morning. They had been heading out of town, planning on working their way though the cities north of Sunnydale, posting as many flyers as they could. Sunnydale had all ready been covered with so many flyers that no matter where you turned, you would always find yourself looking at a photo of the missing Willow Rosenberg. Buffy had told them she could take some south towards LA, make a day trip. Meanwhile, Giles, Xander and Anya were hunting through the City Archives to try to determine if Spike's tale of a secret underground lab on campus had any merit.
It was funny, but for the first time that Buffy could remember, Sheila had hugged her. She had even managed to call Buffy by her correct name. Ira had stoically stood in the doorway while Sheila had small talked with Buffy. After they had left, Buffy realized he had been staring at the photo on her nightstand of Willow, Xander and herself. She knew it was tearing the both of them up, inside. People really didn't realize how much they could take someone's presence for granted until that person was gone.
She knew she had. There was a horrible emptiness within her heart because of her missing friend, and it was over-shadowed by the fear that Willow might not be coming back.
"Are you ready?"
She looked up to see Angel waiting at her door. "Yeah, I guess." She followed him out to his car. She didn't want to go, but after her beating of Spike last night when he had let slip that the commandos had been after him when they had grabbed Willow, she had agreed to Giles suggestion that she get out of Sunnydale for the remainder of the weekend. Go to LA. Talk with Angel's contact on the police force there. Pass out flyers. Keep busy. Stave off the nasty thoughts about what might be happening to Willow...
Unseen by either the vampire or the slayer, Willow followed them to the car and sat down in the back seat. She didn't know why but she felt safe only when she was in the presence of the blonde slayer. It wasn't like anything could hurt her. Heck, even the Native American Vengeance spirits had not noticed her, much less been able to harm her. "Besides, she said to herself. "I am all ready dead. That's about as harmed as one could be. Right." Still, she felt...uneasy when she was too far from Buffy.
Willow had concluded that maybe she was supposed to be some sort of guardian angel for Buffy, at least until she could come up with a better explanation for what was going on. For some reason the idea of being a guardian angel to her best friend, filled her with a warm feeling that swept aside her depression over being dead. Somehow, she was going to see to it that Buffy found a little happiness.
"I may be down but I'm not out of the game," Willow had said to herself with determination. She just wished she could actually do something to help Buffy like move things or yell a warning or anything.
****
"It was an accident," Prof. Walsh declared emphatically.
"Be that as it may," replied the white-haired official, "it has drawn the public eye towards your activities. Activities, which have yet to provide any significant end results which would justify the means. If the public were to find out about Project 314 before we had any positive results, I shudder to think of the outrage."
A second official, this one a man with jet black hair, spoke, "We hardly need remind you doctor of the uproar that resulted recently over the *idea* of cloning a human."
Walsh tried to counter, "Not too long ago people were upset over using a baboons heart to save a child-"
"We are not talking about using animal organs to save lives," the woman official stated. "We are talking about the grafting of demon and human flesh. Building your very own 'Frankenstein's Monster', which is exactly what that thing in there looks like."
"Adam was build to fight the demonic threat-" Walsh tried to move the argument back to her area of expertise.
The dark-haired official cut her off. "Adam is a potential public relations nightmare. Not to mention the fallout that could result should the secondary projects ever come to light, before congress. No, having to explain why we have been giving drugs to US soldiers and implanting them with control chips...I would hate to think what the conspiracy theorists would do with this."
The woman jumped in. "Two words. Oklahoma City."
The white-haired official spoke again. "All this is beside the point as these are simply 'what if's'. The current problem is how do we explain why a student in her dorm room, on a university campus was killed by undercover US Army troops. Her parents are not likely to drop their pursuit for justice by a "friendly fire" statement, and before you ask, hiding the body and proceeding as if nothing happened is not going to be sufficient. The public is all ready looking for the 'mysterious commandos' who kidnapped a student. Unless you have a better proposal, Project 314 died when that girl did."
Prof. Walsh sat silent for a moment. It was all falling apart and they were so close. She couldn't let them end the project now. It was time to play her ace card. "The problem I'm hearing from you is the media attention. If this goes public, a lot of careers are over; mine, the soldiers involved, and possibly yours and some of your colleagues. Supposed that we could return the girl and they don't find out that she was killed..."
*****
End Chap 2