FiC: To Cross the River Styx (2/?)

["Parise, Charles" <charles.parise@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: To Cross the River Styx (2/?)
AUTHOR: Chazzman
E-MAIL: charles.parise@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They all
belong to Joss and the WB network. Please don't sue. 
SPOILERS: Open season on Season 4. 
SUMMERY: I'm re-inventing season 4, 'Pangs' has just concluded.
RATED: PG
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask me, please...
FEEDBACK: Is very welcome.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you again to all the wonderful people who have sent me
feedback saying they are interested in seeing more. I am trying to do these
chapters fast, but I don't have a beta reader right now so please forgive
the errors. In fact if you see some and let me know, I would appriciate it.



To Cross the River Styx

Chap 2


"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 should 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..."

**** 


TBC...