FF: Purgatory: Chapter One

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Title: Purgatory 
Chapter: One/? 
Rating: PG-16 
Pairing: Willow/Buffy, Willow/Tara 
Spoilers: Everything and Anything 
Timeline: Before Adam came along. 
Beta Readers: Scotty ' the fox ' Welles 

Summary: The initiative becomes more than a mysterious force fighting
evil. 

Disclaimer: Not mine...yet. 

<><><><><><><> 
PROLOGUE 
<><><><><><><> 

She chanted softly, her hand glowing dangerously in the face of the
vampire. It was a new spell, one she had never tried before; she
considered the risk of failure at that moment but disregarded from her
mind. She needed to try it out, and right now was the perfect time. 

A bright blob of light burst from her hand, reminding her of that X-Man
that she used to like so much, Jubilee. The vampire screamed as the
light enveloped him, turning him to dust within seconds. She smiled
with relief and pride, humming to herself happily as she resumed her
walk away from the deserted college courtyard. 

She paused as her heightened senses alerted her to the presence of
someone else. Turning slowly, she scanned the tree lines, searching
for whoever it was. Her hands moved a few inches from her sides, palms
faced outward, and felt the subtle shift in her eyes as the power
surged through her body. "Who's there?" 

The tall bulk stepped into the moonlight. 

She relaxed, letting her guard down. "Why are you wearing that? Is it
a costume or something? Or maybe one of those sorority initiation
thingies?" She tilted her head to the side as she studied the army
fatigues the other man was wearing. "Those don't do anything for you. 
Oh goddess, I just channeled Cordy." 

She groaned softly; she loved the other woman dearly, and ever since
she'd left the two of them had become close friends. Sometimes
spending hours on the Internet just chatting, but she seriously did not
want to end up talking like her. 'No offense, Cordy.' 

The tall man moved towards her in long strides, his hand reaching
around to his belt for something. She snapped her attention back to
him in time to see the taser in his hand. 

"Ril...!" She groaned as the dense electrical charge ran through her
body, sending her into the darkness... 

<><><><><><><> 
Chapter One 
<><><><><><><> 

A white light blinded her closed eyes as she drifted back to
consciousness. Her head pounded in a steady, painful thumping, while
her body simply ached. Voices surrounded her, talking over her as
though she was a specimen. Pain pierced through her body suddenly,
forcing her eyes to snap open in hopes of finding and stopping the
source of it. 

Her eyes locked onto the dark eyes of one of her professors, a silent
scream fighting against her throat as she caught sight of what was
causing her so much pain. "...no..." 

Walsh ignored her strangled whisper, continuing to talk as though she
wasn't human. "Hostile Number 63 is awake and responding to stimuli. 
DNA tests have already been started in order to determine the type of
demon we are dealing with. Further tests are needed to figure out the
full range of abilities and stamina." 

"...not...demon..." 

"Lieutenant, you may proceed with the tests." 

She closed her eyes against the pure white room. The sterile surgical
steel tools reminded her too much of what she imagined a space ship was
like. Grinding her teeth together, she waited for the pain to begin. 


<><><><><><><> 


"Where is she?" 

Tara swallowed hard at the steel in Buffy's eyes; everyone was beyond
worried, and they weren't handling it well. She couldn't blame them,
seeing as Willow had been missing for twenty-four hours already, with
no clues as to where she was. 

Everyone had a role in the Scoobies. Xander was the one everyone
depended on to keep things light and keep them sane. Buffy was the one
who led everyone, and the main fighter. Anya was the one with twelve
hundred years of knowledge that always unintentionally gave them some
sort of edge over whatever baddie they were currently fighting. Giles
was the parent figure, who protected everyone from whatever horrors
made it harder on them. And Willow... 

Willow was the magic expert, the one everyone went to when they had a
problem, the one that held them together with a quiet strength that she
didn't seem to know she had. She was the best friend, their
foundation, the lover, the researcher. Now, they were missing a key
player in their lives, and were unsure how to proceed. In fact, the
only thing they'd managed to agree on so far was that they were going
to rip whoever had taken Willow from limb to limb and then feed them to
Spike. 

Buffy spun around, eyes blazing dangerously. "Has anyone seen Spike?" 

"Fangless ran out earlier with his tail between his legs." 

The blonde Slayer narrowed her eyes, causing Xander to back away
hurriedly. "If I find out that Spike had anything to do with this,
then he's going to learn that Angelus isn't the only one capable of
torture." 

<><><><><><><> 

He stepped into the musty bookstore, his eyes and senses automatically
searching for any threat to him, finding only the ancient woman busily
skittering around the store. He inhaled the smell of mothballs, and
broken-in leather. Books that had been considered extinct were bound
on ceiling high bookshelves. 

Her plump legs moved rapidly as she waddled toward him. "William, what
brings you to my humble abode this fine morning?" 

A slight blush colored his cheeks, a task that was almost impossible
for a vampire. "I need information on a...friend." 

"Oh?" 

He nodded, smiling at the sight of her eyeing him over her
silver-framed reading spectacles. "Yes, ma'am. She disappeared last
night, and nobody seems to know anything about it." 

"I see, and was this friend a demon?" 

He found himself being shepherded to a chair. "No ma'am. A witch." 

"Hmm. And what is this friend's name?" 

"Willow Rosenburg." 

"Then let's see what we can find out." 


<><><><><><><> 


She paced across the apartment once more, barely dodging Riley as he
entered the room. His boyish smile made her tension increase instead
of elevating it. All day she'd been getting a weird vibe off of him,
and that was leaving her edgy. "Well?" she demanded.

He sat on the couch and pulled her down next to him. "Nothing. No one
saw anything last night." 

Again, the vibes were making it hard not to back away from her lover. 
Unable to stay still any longer, she got back to her feet. 

"I'm sure that she's..." 

"Bloody hell, Slayer, I've been looking all over for you!" a new voice
interjected before Riley could answer.

"Is it time for your walk already?" She studied the vampire, her
'Spidey-Sense' going off dangerously. 

For once there was no superior sarcasm. The vampire that was staring
her down knew something, something bad enough that it made him seem
almost human. "We need to talk." He glanced over at Riley. "Alone." 

She nodded her consent, starting for the back bedroom. 

Riley bristled, resenting Spike's intrusion. "I don't think you
should." 

She ignored Riley, unwilling to deal with him right then. Instead she
glanced over her shoulder at Spike and snapped, "Are you coming or
not?" Her gaze locked onto her lover as he moved to stop him, his
entire body tensed and ready to spring at anytime. "Riley, can you go
back to the dorm and get the bag I left in your room? Please?" 

The bigger man clenched his fists, looking from Spike to her to the
door, but after a tense moment he left. 

Once alone, the vampire wasted no time. "It was the Initiative." 

Her legs went numb, unable to grasp the words that scared her the most.
After Spike had escaped he'd given a complete description of what they
did to him, the experiments...no, the torture that they said was
experiments in the name of science. "Why? She's not a demon." 

"No, but she is a witch." 

"Oh god..." 


<><><><><><><> 


Pain. Blinding, numbing, piercing pain. Engulfing, consuming,
all-encompassing pain. Body, mind, heart, and soul ached, screamed,
protested, and paralyzed her. Movement was impossible, talking
improbable, thinking a black hole. 

She remembered. Every incision, every cut that they used to dissect
her body, her needle and pin prick, every electrical probe they stuck
into her muscles. She had pleaded, cried for some sort of painkiller
or anesthesia. The man she'd known as a kind soul had simply blinked
at her. 'Demon's don't get any.' 

'But I'm not a demon!' She didn't know if she'd said it out loud or
not, the pain too much to do much of anything. She'd screamed at
first, screamed to show them how human she was, screamed until Walsh
had glared at her, screamed until her voice was nothing but a raspy
breath that refused to work anymore. 

She swallowed with the dried cotton throat as she tried the strength of
the straps holding her to the table again. Why were they doing this? 
She had never hurt anyone, at least not human. So why had they
captured her like some criminal...? 

"Look," a quiet female voice was saying off to one side.

She pried her swollen, bruised eyes open to see what Walsh was going on
about. She could barely make out the computer, but nothing else. 

"Her DNA is almost completely human..." 

A male voice cut into her mumbles. "Almost?" 

"Watch. The last ten ladders are different. I've never seen anything
like this before." 

Willow let her eyes slip back shut, filing the information away for
later, much later. As in
'when-I-get-out-of-here-and-kick-some-solider-ass' later. 


<><><><><><><> 


"Then let's go get her." 

Giles looked over his glasses at Xander, knowing exactly what he was
feeling but common sense holding him back. "I'm afraid that's not a
practical idea." 

"Why not?" 

"Do you have any idea how many soldiers hanging around in there? Hell,
we'd need Red's help just to get past the security systems." 

Spike crushed his cigarette into the ashtray and scowled at it. 
"Great, so we're just going to leave her in there and let them do
god-knows-what to her?" 

Xander's face turned into a dark cloud as he glared at everybody. "If
it was one of us in there she'd already have us out, no matter how
dangerous." 

"That isn't what I was saying, chubs." He shook his head in disgust. 
"Hell, you're as bad as the bloody poof." 

"Why you...!" 

Buffy finally looked up from the corner where she'd been standing
silently for the last half-hour. "What did you mean?" 

Spike smiled grimly and lit another cigarette, letting a long trail of
smoke out of his mouth. "If we can't go to the source, then we bring
the source to us..." 

<><><><><><><> 



" I signed the release waiver, 
so feel free to put things in my slot anytime."

- Charles Angels.

Odo: Madam Ambassodor, I'm not like you.
Every sixteen hours I revert to a liqiud.

Lwaxana Troi: I can swim.

- DS9: The Forsaken.

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