Learning Curve
by rebelrsr
Chapter Seventeen
[reviews]
Disclaimer: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and lots of people in expensive suits. I'm not making any money here, just trying to create a happier Buffyverse for my favorite characters.
Spoilers, etc.: I altered the timeline of "The Yoko Factor," "Primeval," and Angel the Series "Sanctuary" with reckless abandon. It's mostly AU from here. Thanks to the best beta crew: Desirata41, Zenithar, and Zigpal I couldn't do it without you.
A/N: Character thoughts are enclosed by **. Flashbacks are enclosed by //.
Archiving: By permission only.
Five heads swiveled at the statement. Tara and an unknown blonde stood in the doorway. Strain marked the older witch's face. Before the gathered Scoobies could reply, she dragged her companion into the room, closing the door behind them. When the door thunked shut, Tara sagged against the other girl, whispering an incantation.
"Whoa!" Xander stumbled back a step when the "blonde" holding Tara morphed into Faith.
The brunette Slayer didn't even glance his way. Picking up a nearly unconscious witch, she carried the older girl to the chair Mrs. Summers had vacated earlier. Settling her bundle in the chair, the Slayer knelt down, peering at the witch. "T? You gonna be OK?"
Nodding slightly, wincing at the stabbing pain the motion caused, Tara said, "I'll be fine, Sweetie. I just need to rest a minute."
The brunette didn't really believe that, but stood and moved to stand behind the seated blonde. Without thinking, she rested her right hand on Tara's left shoulder. Her actions didn't go unnoticed. Green eyes narrowed in anger. Shooting out of her chair, Willow snarled, "You bitch! You've been here less than a day and you've got your hooks into my girlfriend." The red-haired witch began to pull in power. *This time, I'm not going to screw up the language.* As she began the incantation, Tara looked up. The older witch's eyes glowed an eerie blue and a sheet of pure power surrounded Faith.
"I won't let you touch her, Willow." Tara's voice rang with more authority than her former girlfriend had heard from the usually shy woman.
The redhead refused to stand down. She extended her senses, testing the strength of Tara's magic. The shield was strong, but fluctuated as the other woman staved off exhaustion. Watching the shield carefully, Willow began to time the drops in power.
"Stop it, Will." The young witch shifted her focus to the blonde on the bed. Buffy was pale and tears stood in her eyes.
Realizing what she had said, and what she had been preparing to do, Willow released the power and looked at the obviously upset Slayer. "I-" she started to explain, then stopped. "It's just that Faith..." Her words trailed off. Forcing herself to meet her Slayer's hazel eyes, the redhead nearly whispered, "I'm sorry, baby. I'm still letting the red hair take control of my mouth." She leaned down, brushing a quick but thorough kiss on the blonde's lips. "My girlfriend is right here."
Faith shattered the tender scene. "Well, hell, B. Looks like you and me got some serious catching up to do. I spend eight months asleep and wake up to find out you're playing for the home team. Kinda makes me wonder what else you got to tell me." She smirked at the other Slayer. "Gonna have to wait, though. Blondie's got some promises to keep before I'll be available."
Tara looked even more worn out than before. She was listing to one side in the chair, but she roused enough to smack the brunette in the thigh. "Faith!" she protested, blushing brightly.
"Ow, damn it, T." Faith pouted, then noticed Xander smirking from across the room. She straightened and seemed to draw inward. "Ah, X-Man, look-"
The young man held up a hand. "Stop, Faith. Just stop. We both did some stupid things in the name of hormones. Can we just not rehash the whole mess?"
The Rogue Slayer hesitated, but finally nodded her agreement. The teen bounced in place, unable, or unwilling, to make eye contact with the adult members of the gang. Giles knew she was more than likely thinking of running. "Perhaps we could delay the rest of this discussion? I would like to see if Spike's disks have anything useful."
Willow reacted as though poked with an electric cattle prod. "Oh, yeah. Hey, I decrypted the files. Or, well, they decrypted themselves, but I almost had it" After a brief hesitation and a quirky smile, she rattled on. "Adam's got some secret lab in the Initiative, but it didn't say where. The disks had schematics for Adam and a bunch of new hybrid things he's planning on building. There was even a time table of sorts leading to some kind of final phase, but I couldn't find any real information on that, either."
"Hey, Adam mentioned that, the final phase, in the cave. He said since I was there, he would have to move up the completion date." She shrugged slightly. "Could you tell what demons he was planning on using for the construction?" Buffy asked.
"Um, a bunch of different ones. I could pull up the file if you really wanted to check."
Willow sounded hesitant, and Buffy laughed. "It's OK, Will. You don't have to let me touch your laptop. But, do you remember any specific demons? The last time I was down in the Initiative, the containment cells were overflowing. I mean, the cells are supposed to only house two, maybe three demons at a time. There were twice that in each cell. Riley said they were even cutting back on patrols and calling for more troops to help control things." The Slayer frowned in thought. "You know, those demons were too easy to catch. It's like they wanted to be there."
"Good Lord," Giles interjected. "The Trojan Horse."
"Adam's going to attack the Initiative from the inside," the Slayer summed up.
Xander nodded. "Makes sense. Demons versus soldiers — massacre, massacre."
"And Adam has a neat pile of body parts to start assembling his army," Willow joined in. "Diabolical, yet gross."
Xander walked over and sat gingerly on the edge of Buffy's bed. "Was there any information on security measures? Troop strength?" He looked at the redhead. "I can access my soldier memories to help us plan a way in."
"I really wasn't looking at that," the young witch said apologetically. She grabbed her laptop off the floor and opened it. "Hang on. Let me get the file up and we can all take a look." Propping the computer against the Slayer's side she began typing furiously. After a few minutes, diagrams appeared on the screen. Willow gestured for Xander and Giles to move closer. "Here," she said, pointing to one image in particular. "It's the blueprints for the facility."
Both men peered at the tiny screen. "If I were in charge, I'd put guard posts here, here, and here." Xander pointed at locations inside the underground base. "It's tactically sound. Of course, without troop numbers, it's only an educated guess."
"Willow, dear, how do you know there's a lab behind Room 314?" Giles asked. He gestured vaguely at the laptop. "These plans don't show any such facility."
The girl grinned at the older man. "Sure it does, Giles. You just have to know what to look for. See these blue and yellow lines?" She indicated the lines with a slender finger. "They're air ducts and conduits all running into there — right behind 314."
Sounding faintly irritated, Giles said, "That doesn't explain-"
Willow cut him off. "Why would you have electricity and filtered air running to nowhere? There's a lab back there."
Tara watched the gathered Scoobies in bemusement. She understood, finally, why Willow had been so sure they would find a solution to the Adam problem. The four core members of the gang worked seamlessly, integrating their various skills and expertise. They were oblivious to the three remaining people in the hospital room.
Straightening a bit from her position against Faith's leg, the witch glanced at Joyce Summers. The older blonde watched the strategy session in confusion. It was obvious she had little experience with the process. Opening her senses slightly, Tara saw that the eldest Summers was anxious about the coming fight, but her concern was for the Scoobies rather than herself.
Frowning, she relaxed back against the brunette again and smiled when she felt a hand stroke her hair. The brief contact allowed the blonde to sense Faith's aura without having to look. Despite the restless energy the girl had tightly caged, there was very little resentment at her exclusion from the planning. She was, Tara realized, waiting for the Scoobies to tell her what to do. It was an uncomfortable realization. Tara had been a part of the Scoobies for only a short period, but the gang had listened to her suggestions regarding Adam and, in fact, had actively sought her magical expertise. The younger Slayer did not have even that level of acceptance from the four figures examining the computer screen.
She remained silent for a few more minutes as the Scoobies began exchanging ideas on how to get into the secret lab. "Um, guys?" She asked hesitantly. No one actually moved from their positions around the computer, but Buffy and Giles did glance in her direction. "If A-Adam has this ev-evil p-plan, why would he want B-Buffy there?"
"That's an easy one, Blondie," Faith said. "He figured B would even the kill ratio. Gotta have enough demon parts to match with the human ones."
Xander agreed. "Yeah, I think Faith's right. But, that brings up another big question." He looked at Buffy. "With all this information we've got, I'm wondering...Adam's not worried you're going to kill, say, him?"
The blonde Slayer dropped her eyes. Finally, she admitted, "No, he's really not."
The assembled gang absorbed that information in silence. Xander stood and moved to lean against the wall. "Does anyone else miss the Mayor, I just wanna be a big snake?"
No one answered his question, but Tara felt the Slayer behind her stiffen. Through the contact she maintained with the younger girl, the witch felt a sharp stab of pain and grief at the query. Feigning greater weakness, she leaned heavily into the brunette's leg, going so far as to wrap a hand around her jeans-clad pillow.
The sorrow she sensed was quickly replaced by concern. "T? You OK down there?" the girl asked.
"Just tired," Tara answered truthfully. Turning her eyes back to the bed-ridden Slayer, she asked, "Shouldn't we warn the Initiative?"
"They're not going to listen to me," Buffy exclaimed.
"Riley?" Willow questioned.
Xander shook his head. "Don't think so, Will. Remember? It looked like Riley cleared out when we were at the high school."
"Hey, B? Maybe I'm way off here, but, wouldn't the Initiative know there was a lab in their base?"
"You'd think so, but Professor Walsh played by her own twisted set of rules. If they knew about the cyborg assembly line, I don't think they'd have caught all those demons," the blonde Slayer answered.
"OK, then, when do we go in?" the brunette asked. She didn't sound exactly eager, but she was obviously ready to end the planning session.
"Well, I need to gather the supplies," Giles said. "And," he looked at both witches, "I daresay Tara and Willow could use a bit of rest before the casting the spell."
"Mom and I need to see about getting me out of here," Buffy added. When everyone looked at her in shock, she raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sitting here while the rest of you go after Adam. I may not be up to kicking his ass the way I want, but I should be fine for regular demon killing."
Joyce disagreed. "Buffy, the doctor said you would be fine if you took it easy."
"Remember earlier you said you understood that I couldn't quit? Well, I'm the — " she looked at Faith, "a Slayer, and we don't sit on the sidelines. Find a way to get me out, or I'll grab some clothes and walk out without their approval."
The little speech didn't go over well with the elder Summers, but she gave her assent reluctantly. "Fine. I'll see what I can do." She looked at Giles. "Rupert, we'll need to switch vehicles. Take the Jeep and the rest of the children to my house. I'll follow later with Buffy in yours."
"Of course, Joyce," the ex-Watcher agreed. "I'll go to my apartment after they are all settled for the items we'll need."
Tara added, "Then you need to come back to the Summers' house, too, Mr. Giles. I think it would be best for all of us to stay together, in case Adam decides to eliminate any possibility of a threat."
"Good. Let's get going, then." Buffy was a force to be reckoned with now the decisions had been made. "Tara, are you going to be able to disguise Faith on the way out?"
The blonde witch never had a chance to respond. "Hey, B, don't worry about it. I'll just keep my head down. Ain't like the Sunnydale PD is real good at their jobs."
"No, Faith, we can't take that risk," the older Slayer said.
"I can do it." The gang looked at Willow in surprise. For her part, the redhead looked directly at her ex-girlfriend. "Just tell me which spell to use and I'll get us out of here."