Summary: The rescue of our favourite former rat.

Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author’s note: Thanks to everyone whose been patiently waiting for me to update. There is a vague reference to season 8 here. Consider yourself warned. Also, and this is very important: I worship at the feet of BTL who betas all my stuff. Without her, my fics would suck.

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Chapter 23: Rescue

Buffy left Dawn in her room at the Hyperion Hotel and trudged down to the basement. As expected, Graham Millar was still tied to his post, watchers and angry vampires circling him. Oh, and then there was Xander, the angriest one of all.

As Buffy approached, the men backed off. Even Spike seemed relieved that they were going to get out of this holding pattern they had been in. And it looked like there was going to be violence.

Buffy liked violence.

The Slayer crouched down in front of the solider and smiled.

“How are you doin’?” she asked.

Graham attempted a smile.

“Well, I could be better,” he said honestly.

“I can understand that. Dawn could be better too. Something went wrong when we had to leave the house that night. Dawn’s been sick ever since. I’m blaming you for the time being,” Buffy explained.

“I never wanted to hurt Dawn, I didn’t know it was her,” he tried to explain.

“That might be true. It might not. And you know I really have no proof of it either way. In fact, I was going to let you go. But then something else happened.”

“Is Dawn okay?” he asked, worried.

“Yes, but this is about Amy. She’s been captured. And we need to get her back, before they turn her into a lab rat. And you are going to help us.”

Buffy stood up. “Get him his clothes,” she ordered the watchers. “He’s coming back to Sunnydale with us.”

“Do you really think that it’s wise to let him roam about freely?” Wesley asked.

“No, of course not. He’s going to be bound,” Buffy explained.

“To whom?” Giles questioned, while the others looked perplexed.

“I haven’t quite decided that yet,” Buffy continued. “It all depends on who is coming with us. Get him dressed.”

By the time that Buffy made it back upstairs, Dawn had made it down to the lobby.

“I’m going,” she simply stated.

“No, you aren’t,” Buffy insisted. “You look like death.”

“You sleep with death, what’s the difference?” Dawn complained.

“Spike isn’t going to fall over due to lack of blood.”

“I just had a transfusion, and Spike just ate, what’s the problem?”

“You aren’t going. And I am wasting time arguing with you,” Buffy concluded, trying to end the argument but Dawn wouldn’t let it go.

“And you are under a mistaken presumption that I’m going to let you just walk out of here with him. Everyone here wants his blood, some more figuratively than literally. Buffy, he didn’t know it was me. I’m still with the believing, he was ignorant.”

“He might be ignorant, but he’s still going to get Amy back. Amy and the military don’t go so well together.”

“Huh?” Dawn asked, confused.

“Future stuff. Ignore the old crone.”

“Right, ignoring, back to you taking me with you.”

“I don’t feel like having to mount yet another rescue mission to save your ass right after this one.”

“You won’t have to. I won’t go anywhere where there isn’t a door I can open. And I’ll remember to close the door this time. Was the house really self cleaning?”

Buffy nodded. “And stop trying to distract me.”

“Stop saying you won’t let me come!”

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Buffy tried to keep her eyes on the road and not in the rear view mirror and at Spike’s Desoto behind her Ford Explorer on the highway between Los Angeles and Sunnydale.

The blacked out windows in the black monstrosity didn’t make it easy for her to glare at the teenager that was happily sitting beside the blond vampire as they all headed out to save Amy. Dawn got her way in too many things, thought Buffy. It was probably ‘cause of the guilt she felt about not being there for her sister when she died. Buffy sighed as she remembered her 123 year past and receiving news about Dawn’s death, drained dry by a vampire.

There were still times that she really missed her old life, the life that Willow pulled her out of last year. Of course she was long dead in that life, living past 100 years old will do that to you. But all the things that she’d done in this new second youth had probably changed everything. There was no guarantee that Dawn would even decide to have a child with Andrew. Graham probably ruined it. Missy Summers-Wells was lost to time. And that was sad.

Graham, who was tied up in the back seat of the Explorer, was being watched by Molly as Buffy drove. Willow was tapping her nails on the armrest on the passenger side door, annoying everyone in the car.

It was a strange convoy that was heading towards the sleepy Californian town. Two powerful witches, three watchers, two vampires, two slayers, a key, a vengeance demon, a Xander, and that soldier guy they had captive. They soldier guy that Buffy still didn’t know what to do about. Dawn didn’t seem to be getting over him very fast.

Oh they’d left Andrew behind. No one wanted to spend any amount of time with him in a car, and plus it was fun revenge to leave him with Cordelia.

As they entered the town limits, Graham finally spoke up, directing Buffy to drive out past the industrial part of town, where the abandoned buildings and warehouses cut off abruptly and the desert started.

Buffy parked the car and opened the driver side door, looking behind her at the convoy of cars that had pulled off the road behind her Ford Explorer. Xander, Nate, Wesley, and Giles exited from the car that had been following Spike’s Desoto, speaking in hushed voices.

“Do you think that it is a good idea to park here?” asked Wesley. “Likely they’d have surveillance in the area.”

Buffy shrugged. “Could be. But don’t we want them to come out and get us?”

“That is the plan, yes,” Giles responded, hesitantly.

“Just let me in there, then Amy and I’ll get out. This is me, being positive,” Buffy commented in a happy cheery voice.

There was a slammed car door behind the Slayer.

“And this is my refusing to stay in that car anymore!” Dawn shouted. “How did you <I>ever</I> think that Angel was your true love? He’s annoying and brooding, and patronising!”

Buffy shrugged again. “Love is blind. Aren’t you glad I’m not marrying him?”

“Let me count the ways.” Dawn stretched out her arms as they stood on the pavement. “I think Spike’s going to snap soon.”

“Then I think Tara should exit the car post haste,” Wesley commented.

The door to the Desoto slammed again, this time revealing an irritated blond witch.

“That solves that problem.”

Everyone turned to look at Tara who was standing, clenched fists at her side, trying to reign in her anger. She smiled at the group when she realised that she was being watched. Buffy waved at the witch with a smile on her face, sympathy for her friend paramount in her mind. Poor Tara for losing two out of three games of rock, paper, scissors to Willow. One witch per car that was going to be hidden. Xander could pretty much kiss his car goodbye.

With a sigh, Tara opened the door to the Desoto and entered the car again.

There was a puff of smoke, as Anya appeared in their midst. She stood with her hands on her hips for a moment, then took in her surroundings.

“I thought you had decided to stay in the car?” Giles asked his girlfriend.

“I got bored. Plus, the military guys won’t show up if no one uses their power. Willow and Tara don’t know how to, Dawn’s been told not to, and Buffy is all discretionary. I’m the only one who has no qualms about using what D’Hoffryn gave me.”

“Well with the way you are monologuing, they should be here soon,” Xander noted.

As if on cue, the alley they were standing in was filled with soldiers clad in black.

“Ooh, look here they are!” noted Dawn excitedly.

“And this was why I didn’t want you coming!” moaned Buffy, pushing Dawn towards the car and the closed driver side door.

Dawn opened the door as one soldier yelled to freeze, and she was gone into another dimension before he could finish his threat. Buffy breathed a small sigh of relief.

Buffy put up her hands.

“Remember the plan,” Nate whispered to her as he raised his own hands.

“Everyone down on the ground!” yelled the soldier again.

Cautiously, Buffy lowered herself to the ground, figuring that she’d been wearing the same clothes for what felt like weeks, a little more dirt couldn’t make her feel dirtier.

“It occurs to me,” said Anya as she lowered herself to the ground, “that they only want the females. Maybe they want to breed with us to make superior human beings?”

“This is me, basking in the comfort of that comment,” responded Xander.

“You worry too much,” answered the vengeance demon. “Amy will get vengeance. You have my promise.”

“Nothing gross, or overly dead?” Buffy begged.

“Gah, fine!” Anya answered. “I don’t like working within limits. I like to be creative.”

“Be creative within your limits, Anya,” suggested Giles.

The soldiers were right behind them now, their guns pointed at the backs of the six people lying on the ground. The field commander pointed to the door of the Black Desoto, where Dawn had disappeared, and where Tara, Spike and Angel were hiding.

To the average observer, the Desoto was empty. Tara had done her job.

Another solider tucked and rolled towards Buffy’s Explorer, his moves bringing a smile to Buffy’s face.

“Riley used to do that,” observed Xander in memory.

Buffy refrained from commenting, afraid that a certain vampire would hear whatever she had to say regarding her former boyfriend. Even if it had been over a hundred years since the last time she thought of Riley Finn romantically, Spike had a tendency towards jealousy.

The solider opened the door and pointed his gun at the interior of the car, the apparently empty interior of the car. Willow had done her job too. The red head, Molly, and Graham had all been successfully cloaked.

“No one there, Captain!” was the shouted response.

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Dawn opened her bedroom door and was at once confronted with the overwhelming smell of rotting food coming from down stairs. She nearly gagged.

This had to be why Buffy let me come in the end, complained Dawn to herself. She knew I’d be coming home when I portalled away. She wants me to clean up!

Dawn kicked the wall before heading downstairs, plugging her nose on the way.

By the time she got down to the first floor of the house she couldn’t take it any more and stepped out onto the front porch of her house, gulping down clean air. There was no way that Dawn knew she would be able to handle the smell. Different scenarios started to play in her brain. Perhaps she could hire someone?

Dawn sat down on the porch swing for a moment, collecting her thoughts. Just how would she pay for a cleaning service? Well, how would she pay for it without using her own money? A teenager saving up for college had to take these things into consideration. Of course a teenager saving up for a new leather jacket also had the same considerations.

I really hope everything is going okay, Dawn noted to herself.

Dawn stood up from the swing, prepared to go back into the house once again; this time to search out Buffy’s credit cards. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something she hadn’t noticed before. There was a large leather bag sitting on the corner of the porch. There was no telling just how long it had been there.

Dawn moved towards it, crouching down on her knees to open the bag. It smelled old and museum like. Maybe it was one of Nate’s bags that he accidentally left on the porch the day he arrived? With a shrug, Dawn decided against opening it, she really didn’t want to face the wrath of Nate, though to be honest, she didn’t have any idea what form his wrath would be like. Nate was an enigma. Whatever possessed Buffy to marry him in an alternate timeline? She stood up, grabbing the handle of the bag and headed back into the house.

The smell is really terrible.

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Buffy loved when her plans worked. They so rarely did. If anything, the worst that was happening to the watchers and Xander was a grim interrogation and maybe a few kicks to the ribs. She couldn’t believe the fact that she’d let them convince her to get caught. Wasn’t her and Anya enough?

Buffy wondered if, like many of her plans, this one was going to suck. She probably could have found a way to use Graham to better advantage, other than making him give directions. Still there was the issue that Dawn ‘more than liked him.’ And if that wasn’t a reason not to use Graham in a dangerous capacity, she really didn’t know of one. Graham on the other hand was safely sitting with Willow and Molly, probably listening to the Sunnydale pop station on the Explorer’s radio. It seemed so far removed from where Buffy was right now, walking down a long white corridor, men in combat boots following her. Also it was really cold.

“Ouch,” Buffy spat, as one of the soldiers pushed her forward with the point of his gun.

“There is much to be said for your hospitality,” Anya complained beside her.

The soldiers weren’t exactly talkative.

“If you weren’t going to carry on the conversation, you could have at least piped in some music into the hallways,” Buffy commented.

“Shut up!” barked one of the men behind Anya.

“Ooh! He speaks!” Anya commented.

At last they reached a cell and without a moment’s hesitation, Buffy and Anya were thrust in.

Immediately Anya commented on her rough treatment.

“Why exactly are we doing this again?” Anya asked, “I could be someplace much more enjoyable. Arashamahar is nice this time of year.”

“Dawn told me it was dark 24/7,” Buffy responded. “That can’t be good for the complexion.”

“On the contrary, the natives don’t suffer from skin cancer.”

“What about the oppression from their vengeance demon overlords?” Buffy retorted.

“There is that…” Anya admitted.

The two girls lapsed into silence.

“I thought the plan was to get Amy out, not sit in a cell,” Anya said, breaking the silence.

“I’m waiting until we aren’t being watched. Of course now that I’ve said that we’re going to be must see TV. That’s right you stupid military morons! I know you are watching me.”

“It would be funny if it wasn’t true. Maybe some sort of distraction?” Anya offered.

“Or to hell with that plan?”

“Yeah, okay,” Anya agreed. In a flash and a waft of smoke, Buffy and Anya teleported out of the cell, and into Amy’s, which seemed to be located in another part of the facility. The moment they appeared, alarms sounded and lights flashed.

“Oh, thank the goddess!” Amy whispered, from her position lying on the floor of her cell, her eyes closing with pain.

Buffy cringed at the sight of the former rat. Cuts, bruises and burns marked Amy’s naked skin. The witch made no effort to cover her modesty. It was obvious that she no longer had the energy to.

“Xander’s not going to like this!” Anya remarked.

“The hell with Xander,” Amy continued to moan. “I don’t like it, get me out.”

Buffy shrugged. “Okay, because we were planning to decorate before we left,” she joked.

Amy attempted to laugh but it hurt too much. As carefully as she could, the Slayer picked up Amy and put her over her shoulder, causing the witch to groan in pain.

“We’ll deal with the internal bleeding when we get home,” Buffy noted. “And I want to get this over with before I run out of steam.”

There was a flash and more smoke, and, just as the soldiers arrived to point their inadequate weapons, the three women vanished.

Of course, a few of the men in uniform recalled later that they distinctly saw two of the three flip them the bird before vanishing.

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Tbc..