Fic: Simple Choices...NC-17 Buffy/Willow (13/?)

["Chris " <elizabethrex1@xxxxxxx>]

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: I borrow heavily from "The I in Team" for this chapter. Big 
alterations ahead for the remainder of S5. Eh, who am I kidding? This 
is really AU now.
A/N: Thanks to the best beta crew: Zigpal and Zenithar. There would 
be no writing without you guys.


Slayer and witch broke apart, staring after the fleeing girl. "Damn 
it. Why is there always something keeping us apart?" Buffy growled. 
Willow didn't respond, remaining frozen. "Will? Hey, what's the 
matter?"

Shaking her head slightly, the redhead tore her eyes away from the 
back door. "Did you see her? Oh, Goddess. We?I just hurt her so much. 
I didn't want to hurt her, Buffy. I didn't," she babbled. Tears 
streaked the freckled cheeks. 

Buffy pulled Willow into her arms, stroking warm hands up and down 
her back. Although a part of her was secretly doing a victory dance, 
she could tell the girl in her arms was devastated. "No matter what, 
somebody's gonna get hurt," she muttered. *Thank God it's not me.* 
When Willow stiffened even more, the Slayer rushed on, "But, the 
important thing is, you, um, we just have to be honest." She pulled 
back, watching Willow for reactions. "If we don't, it'll just be a 
whole lot worse." 

Willow looked incredibly sad. "Yeah. I just hope we have time to talk 
to her, Buff. I mean, with Adam and all?" she trailed off.

"Speaking of Adam, Wills, we need to get inside." Buffy took Willow 
by the hand, leading her toward the house. Before they rejoined the 
gang, the Slayer said firmly, "We'll tell everyone together, how's 
that? We get rid of Adam, make sure Faith isn't going to go evil 
again, and we have a Scooby meeting." She bit her lip. "I know I 
haven't been big with the sharing lately. OK, maybe not ever, but 
this isn't something I want to hide or lie about, Will."

Willow nodded. "No hiding. But I don't think this is the time for our 
big coming out party. Let's get in there and find out what big and 
creepy's up to now. Maybe the computer found something or Giles 
located a spell." She kissed Buffy quickly and then pulled away 
completely, smoothing her rumpled clothing. "Back to business, 
Slayer."

"Business, oh joy," Buffy bitched, following Willow inside. *Some 
days, I so hate this job.* 

The scene inside was tense. A small TV played in the living room 
while Giles and Joyce huddled close to the screen.

"Mom, Giles, what's up?" Buffy asked. Her Slayer hearing picked that 
moment to kick in and she stopped abruptly. "Oh, God, tell me he 
really didn't kill a little kid?" She felt sick, stomach roiling as 
the newscaster cheerfully continued.

"What?" Willow said. She hurried across the room, dropping to sit 
between Giles and Mrs. Summers, peering at the images on the TV. A 
grainy shot of Adam, staring directly into the camera, appeared. In 
his arms was the remains of a child, head blurred out to protect at 
least some privacy. 

Numbly, the Slayer staggered into the room and dropped onto the 
couch. Closing her eyes against the terrible sight, Buffy listened to 
the news bulletin.

"?in Sunnydale. The town is known for its high crime rate and missing 
person's reports, but this is even stranger than usual. A family 
traveling through the small town videotaped what was at first 
believed to be a scene of a movie reportedly being filmed in the 
area. However, the unidentified man shown in the video left the body 
seen in his arms just outside a church. The body?"

"Turn it off," Buffy ordered flatly. Rage pounded behind her eyes, 
and she clenched her fists to keep from lashing out at anyone, 
anything nearby. "Where's Tara?"

Sounding the least bit hesitant, perhaps sensing the emotions his 
charge was barely controlling, Giles answered, "She's in one of the 
bedrooms, resting."

Opening her eyes, Buffy glared at her Watcher. "Get her up. Have her 
undo the sleep spell on Faith. It's time to stop hiding." A cold 
smile twisted her lips. "We're going hunting."

"Buffy, I don't think-" Giles began until a warm hand lightly touched 
his arm. He looked down at Willow. 

"Go ahead, Giles. We'll need the others to help." The redhead smiled 
at him and then turned to Joyce. "Mrs. Summers, could you fix us all 
something to eat and give Xan a call? We're going to need him and 
Anya, too." The two adults did as ordered, leaving Buffy and Willow 
alone.

"I'm not changing my mind," Buffy declared, arms crossed.

Willow simply nodded, gazing at her friend. "So, we just storm the 
Initiative base? Go in with magic blazing and you and Faith kicking 
Marine ass till we find Adam?" She kept her voice level with an 
effort.

Frowning, Buffy nodded. "Sounds about right. He killed someone, 
Wills. Not just any someone, but a little boy, and he's *taunting* us 
with it." Her voice rose as she spoke. 

"I get that, sweetie, but we kinda need a plan." Willow moved slowly 
over and knelt in front of Buffy. "You aren't responsible for that 
boy, Buffy. Dr. Walsh, the Initiative, the Government ? *they* built 
Adam." She stroked the pale face above her. "If we go in like you 
want, we'll lose."

Leaning forward, the Slayer pressed her lips to Willow's hands. "I 
can't let him go on a killing spree. We have to find a way to stop 
him. If we hadn't been holed up here?"

Smiling gently, Willow caressed narrow fingers over Buffy's face. "If 
we hadn't been here, it might have been you he killed, Buffy. We 
can't think like that. We're the Scoobies. We research, we plan, and 
then we execute. It's kept us alive, with one very notable exception, 
for almost three years. You don't just change that kind of pattern on 
a whim, sweetie." She pulled away. "What's really wrong, Buffy? You 
haven't been yourself since last night in the Bronze. I mean, first 
you're all over Riley and Ms. Gung Ho Marine Recruit and the next 
time I see you, it's war with the Initiative."

"Was I supposed to let Walsh kill me?" Buffy was incredulous.

"No!" The two squared off. "But you aren't yourself. I've never seen 
you this aggressive. What the hell are you thinking? Run off and 
fight Adam with no plan? We didn't even phase him tonight."

"I'm thinking I want to get rid of him."

Willow threw her hands in the air. "How? How do we do that, Buffy? I 
have nothing from the computer. Adam laughed at my magic and he 
traced Tara. She's not an amateur like me. She's way strong. You tell 
me how we beat him, and I'll back you a hundred percent."
 
"B?" Faith's groggy voice interrupted from the hallway. "We got 
trouble?"

Tearing her eyes away from the quietly determined Willow, Buffy 
looked at her sister Slayer. "Yeah, Faith. Big trouble." She got up 
and helped Faith to the couch. "Sorry you didn't get to sleep. I?I 
don't think I'm up for this on my own, you know?"

Still looking pale and wan, Faith nodded. "Gotcha, B. I'm feeling 
better. Blondie musta got the Slayer healing on line, `cause I can 
tell I'm not aching as much."

Buffy nodded, watching as Giles and Tara reentered the room. Giles 
sat across the small room in the armchair while the blonde witch took 
a position on the floor near his feet.

"OK," Buffy began, voice quiet but intense, "Adam's crossed the line. 
Mom and Giles caught a new report. He killed a little boy and he let 
himself get photographed."

"Nice. Did he sign autographs, too?" Faith inquired. She pushed 
herself into a more upright position. "You got a plan, B?"

Smiling tightly, the blonde Slayer nodded. "I do. It doesn't have the 
Wills stamp of approval, though. We need answers, quick. We need to 
take him out before he has a chance to do anything worse than this 
murder."

"Wh-what did you have in mind?" Tara asked quietly. She sat hunched 
forward, long hair obscuring her face.

Willow answered for Buffy. "Oh, you know, storming the castle, taking 
no prisoners." She waved at her computer. "I've got a small hook into 
the system. So far, it hasn't let me access more than some redundant 
backup programming, but I think I can use it for a backdoor."

Four sets of eyes stared at her.

"Oookay. I'm sensing some confusion," Willow mumbled, thinking 
hard. "I got into the system, but I can only get to pretty useless 
places. Maybe there's a way to use that to build a path into the main 
program. Does that help?"

The eyes looked a little clearer, but no one jumped in to reassure 
her.

"Fine! It's helping, but we need more," she grumbled. "Giles, Tara, 
any magical solutions?

The ex-Watcher cleared his throat. "I'm afraid without more 
information on Adam's construction, the risk is simply too great."

Buffy sprang off the couch and crossed the room. "What risk? The risk 
that that bastard kills again?"

"Buffy!" Willow was shocked at the Slayer's intensity.

"Hey, before you two throw down or whatever, can we get some info on 
why this Adam thing let himself get caught on film?" Faith's eyes 
were half closed, but she watched the scene in front of her 
closely. "I mean, I don't know the whole story, but we met with those 
soldier boys and I thought the dude was super secret. If he's been 
hiding out for so long, why the big show?"

Buffy looked lost. "I don't?what do you mean?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Faith explained, "Come on, B. Use your 
head. The Tin Man's got a great setup. No one knows where he is or 
how to stop him. I mean SunnyD folks are real good at ignoring the 
weird and the fangy. It's like he went out of his way to find this 
guy with a camera. If he's on a killing binge, why not kill the 
cameraman, too?"

"Bloody hell." Giles whipped off his glasses and rubbed tired 
eyes. "That makes far too much sense."

Willow looked up from her laptop. "Yeah, but now I'm kinda wondering, 
too. Why?" She typed some commands on the keyboard. "What does Adam 
have to gain by going public?"

"Dinner's on if anyone's interested," Joyce said quietly. She'd heard 
the last part of the conversation, and watched the Scoobies mull over 
their problems. "Xander and Anya are on the way. He said to tell you 
he'd be careful and make sure they weren't followed."

"Sorry, B, but with the new healing and all, I could eat a horse. Can 
we take a break or talk in the kitchen?" Faith asked. She pushed off 
the couch, standing straighter than before. "I'm on my way, Mrs. S. 
Think this time I might be able to do some damage." She grinned at 
the older woman.

"Wonderful. I can't wait to sneak back out and try to get groceries 
with a lunatic on the loose," Joyce said dryly. Then she 
smiled, "There are sandwiches and chips on the counter. Not very 
exciting, but it should keep you from starving."

Faith's slow progress toward the kitchen heralded a change in venue. 
All the Scoobies trooped into the dark room. A single oil lamp 
illuminated the impressive stack of sandwiches and bags of chips.

Once everyone had munchies, Buffy started up again, though the edge 
had dropped from her voice. "Alright, if we don't go in the front, 
guns blazing, how do we take Adam out?"

"Do we even know where he's holed up?" Faith asked around a mouthful 
of food.

Flushing brightly, Buffy shook her head.

Swallowing, Faith said, "Then it ain't real important how we beat the 
Tin Man. First we gotta find him."

"I can do that," Tara offered. When everyone looked at her, she 
dropped her eyes. "He's already experienced my power signature. We 
can recreate the spell from last night to try and locate him. Once 
he's locked onto me, actively searching, we can lead him where we 
want him."





Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                      --'Choices'

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