Never Come Back

Chapter 5

Buffy woke and narrowed her eyes against the harsh lighting. Once she grew accustomed she saw the gas start to leak from the vents. Spike sat up and at first , was stunned to find Buffy beside him. He looked up at the vent and growled loudly. Buffy immediately buried her head under the covers in a bid to stop herself inhaling the yellow mist.

"Doesn't do any good pet, it will still work" Spike managed to growl out before he succumbed to the sleeping gas.Buffy wasn't far behind him.
Maggie hit the extract button on the wall outside the cell and once she was satisfied, she walked into the cell and towards the two sleeping figures. She looked over her shoulder at Riley and then nodded to the cot.

"Bring them both. Make sure you tie them down tight, I'll be in the usual operating room" She left Riley in the cell to do as he was instructed while she went to operating room six to prepare for the vampires.She wheeled a trolley between the two tables and then wheeled over a laptop that sat on another trolley. One she was satisfied, she looked at her watch and tapped her fingers impatiently on the stainless steel table in front of her.The door swung open and Riley bought in the unconscious slayer first. He deposited her on a table and then left to retrieve Spike without a word.

Maggie stripped Buffy and then strapped her down to the table. She saw the now healed to a scar bite that Spike had inflicted on Buffy only hours ago and frowned at how rapidly she had healed. Maggie marked it down on the laptop and then went back to her study. Riley came in with Spike and he strapped him down as instructed. He stood and stared at the naked girl that Walsh was working on, He grimaced as his boss cut into her arm repeatedly and at different depths. She turned back to the laptop and recorded the acts that she had just carried out. Once she turned back to Buffy she fixed the electrodes to her at various points on her body. A steady heart beat was heard and Riley frowned.How on earth was Buffy a vampire and how the hell did she still have a heart beat?
As if she were reading his mind, Maggie turned to him.

"Your wondering how I managed t turn her and maintain a heartbeat? Simple answer is firstly, I only gave her enough of hostile 17's blood to cause a shift in her genetic make up, secondly, as a slayer, her blood and body can fight off an infection from most demon blood.Only if she is given enough of his blood at the moment her heart stops, will a true change occur as it normally would .It's truly fascinating, as you can see. She has enhanced powers as a slayer but by introducing vampire blood to hers, I have increased them and have given her abilities beyond those she had before"

"You said her blood can fight off infection by a demon, will she revert back?"
"No, had I of used a lesser beast than hostile 17 it might have been a possibility but his strain is strong, possibly the strongest. From my studies and from the genetic strain of his blood, I found that he is a descendant from the Order of Aurelius.I know that means nothing to you but it is a great honour for me. The Order of Aurelius were vampire royalty at one time, to have one such member under my charge is well..."

"If what you say is true, and he is a member of this clan, then won't the other members come looking for him?"Riley looked nervous , yet he stood rigid.

" I very much doubt it. Hostile 17 came to Sunnydale alone and there have been no sightings of the rest of the clan.Angelus was here a few years ago, but has since left and Spikes sire is somewhere in South America, as for the others, they're dust.So, he won't be missed and we will not have to defend ourselves against them."

Riley relaxed and stared at the pale face of the vampire that he was stood beside.

"What are you hoping to learn from him that you can't from the usual vampires that we bring in?"

Maggie looked up at Riley and folded her arms across her chest. She kept most of her research to herself as she knew that most of it was unorthodox , but here was a soldier that seemed to have the same hunger for knowledge as she did. Deciding that it would be good to have someone by her side, she sighed and began to explain her agenda with him.

Spike felt the pull back to consciousness and could hear voices, albeit fuzzy and clouded by the last effects of the drug.He laid perfectly still and focused on what was being said. He recognized the voices as the guard and the female that had done the chipectomy. His demon wanted to rage back at her and it took all of Spikes will power to stop himself .He laid and took in all the information that she was giving the guard.

"If we have been successful and if Ms Summers has become the HST that I hoped and if she passes the tests that I will perform on her today, then I can go ahead and implant a chip that will allow us to control her.This will allow us to send her in to areas too dangerous or remote for a human retrieval team and with her enhanced speed and strength, she should be able to complete missions faster than humans too.True , she is or was a slayer and that might have had some effect on the transformation, but as we have recently found out, as one dies, another is called.If we need more , we can capture another slayer and repeat the process"

Spike baulked at what he was hearing. The insane bitch was talking about kidnapping and turning more slayers. So he was evil, true but he didn't want this. Seeing what they had done to Buffy and what they were going to put the girl through had just made him determined to get her out of there and sooner rather than later.He needed a plan, a good one, not one of his usual schemes that always backfired on him. His mind spun as he went over idea after idea and ran all the possible scenarios and outcomes through. He would need to talk to Buffy once they were back in their cell and he hoped that she wouldn't have the other chip by then. He felt his connection with Buffy deepen and knew that she was waking. The conversation between Maggie and the guard ended as they heard her groan. Spike stirred on his gurney and looked across at the slayer. He could feel her pain through the bond they shared and winced as Maggie poked at the deeper wounds that she inflicted upon Buffy earlier.

His snarl reverberated in the sterile room and drew the attention to him. Maggie smiled wickedly at him and held up a device.Spike looked at it briefly before she pressed the button, sending volts of power through his head, making Spike arch his back from the gurney and yell out.He morphed and growled out in pain and frustration. He turned to the professor and leaned forward ,trying to snap and her.The behaviour modification chip fired and sent the pain through his head and rendered him unconscious again. Maggie turned the device off and placed it beside him on the trolley. Riley stood with his back against the wall, trying to reign in his fear.

Maggie once again centered her focus on Buffy and now that she was awake, she would at least get the feedback she needed. Riley moved closer to the two woman, taking a path that put as much distance between the volatile vampire and himself as he could, not trusting the fact that he seemed to be out of it.

"Now then Ms Summers,all interruptions have been dealt with and you have my undivided attention, be a good girl and let me know when it hurts"

The amused and sadistic smile on the womans face caused Buffy to cringe back away from her,not that it did any good. Buffys face altered to that of her demon and her growls of warning went unnoticed. Maggie poured the holy water onto Buffys naked stomach and turned back to her laptop to record the lack of reaction. Buffy watched as the crucifix was then lowered onto the same patch of exposed skin. After several attempts with different weapons that were deadly or just dangerous to vampires, and getting no reactions, Maggie determined that Buffy was in fact the 'indestructible' vampire that she had thought she would be. The only test that she needed to carry out now was to see if Buffy would dust if placed in direct sunlight. Maggie looked at her watch and cursed the fact that it was past sundown.

Spike watched as Maggie carried out the tests, feeling the trigger mechanism that she had used on him earlier, Spike watched as both Riley and Maggie concentrated on Buffy, and then slipped the unit into his rear pocket in his jeans. Hoping that they were too distracted to notice it was missing before he had a chance to destroy it.

Maggie finally shut down the laptop and gave Buffy the same sedative that she had used to knock her out, she then gave Spike the same . Once they were asleep , Maggie told Riley to once again, put them in the same cell. Tonight she would watch them again and hoped to learn more about vampire relationships.

Riley wheeled the gurneys back into the room and placed them both on the cots. He threw Buffys clothing onto the floor and retreated from the room. He slid his I.D card through and stood watching as the glass door closed. After a few minutes, boredom set in and he headed back to the control room.