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Giles had no idea what had made the door of his cell
open when noone came in, but as soon as the first
screams reached his ears he jumped out and began to
run. He was just in time to slip into an abandoned
office as he saw Buffy, followed by half a dozen or
more demons and vampires. He watched through a half
closed door as two technicians stumbled on the group
and he heard Buffy purr evil comments to them as she
began to tortute them to death. In utter dread the
former Watcher saw his Slayer as she ripped the guts
out of a man before draining the screaming wreck of
a man. The other one had to suffer more and was torn
apart in the literal sense.
Scared as never before in all his live he waited
breathlessly until they passed him, then he left the
office and ran. He had no idea where he was running
to but through some streak of luck he found a flight
of stairs that led him upstairs. Through even more
luck he managed to reachan exit and had only to face
three vampires. Luckily they were implanted so he
had nothing to fear from them - they just screamed
and he used an improvised stake to dust them if
they didn't run off fast enough.
He got out and never was more glad to see the dark
night above Sunnydale. His mood wasn't any better
as he saw that he wasn't exactly out of danger yet.
Far from it, actually.
He knew he had to get away and notify the Council,
they simply HAD to know what happened. Maybe they
knew, had any idea what could be done. Maybe.
He knew he did not.



Graham was in hell - and it was about to get worse. He
had no clear idea how he had ended in there, but he
suspected this monster had done something to him before.
Something that made him a puppet for it as it took over
his body. Relentlessly it pulled out any piece of data
and knowledge it needed to fool his comrades at the
Initiative - and Graham could just observe as that
entity named Xander, that monster that had been one of
the friends of Summers and killed his beloved Forrest,
went about his business. Killed the alarm system, set
the monsters free and invited the others in, watched
the destruction of the base.
He watched in utter horror as the monster that had been
commandant Riley Finn's girlfriend appeared before him.
And then he learnt they had a way to beat the implant.
He watched in more horror as Xander walked his body to
the professor's office and raped her to death. He felt
every scratch and bounce and heard every scream.
And he felt her die as well, but the monster just went
on with raping the corpse. Gave him a kick.
Graham would have cired if he could. He did not buy
the crap about him being in hell for eternity, not a
second, but he could see the catastrophe Xander was
about to cause. The Initiative...the safety of all the
human beings out there, he was a threat to all of it.
And then came the next act and Graham finally was
allowed to scream. Xander appeared before the assembled
monsters in the garage of the Initiative base, where
fires began to ravage everything. Buffy was there, with
a hammer and nails. Xander made his body step forward
and took position on the wall, was moved in position by
some of the monsters. He was there, upside down.
And he grinned at Buffy's loving smile as she drove the
first nail through his flesh. Graham got a shock at
feeling the steel nail penetrate his flesh and then she
continued. Until he was crucified to the wall with his
head down and so many wounds he could never move away.
Someone smeared a message at the wall, with blood.
Graham had no idea what it was, all he felt was Xander
leaving. He regained control of his body. But it was of
no more use but to feel pain and more pain.
He flet his tears run down his forehead as well as his
blood. He could not move a limb. He could just hang
there and scream and wait to DIE...after the victorious
mob of monsters moved out into the night.
*

Riley Finn still had no clear idea what was happening.
He thought he had and he had paid for it dearly. Very
dearly. He'd trusted Hostile Seventeen to lure the
enemies in a big enegagement and give the Initiative
a chance to finally destroy them all.
That first part had worked rather well as the enemy
gathered in Sunnydale UC. There were some big fires and
a few dozen dead so far, but then his squads moved in
and in the pitched battle which ensued they won. They
had heavy losses but they won.
People ran screaming and more buildings burnt down,
some monsters escaped. Most were destroyed and Riley
felt satisfaction at that. And then everything shot to
hell in a matter of moments.
Suddenly there were new hotiles and enemies at their
backs, using captured firearms and beforehands placed
bombs. Suddenly half his people were dead and what was
just a great victory before turned into defeat. It was
the bloodiest defeat Riley had ever faced.
They had used up most of their ammo already and they
were weakened and spent. Whoever had organized that
ambush he gave shit about the lives of his own men.
Well, what did you expect from a servent of hell or
whatever, as Buffy claimed the Hostiles were? Certainly
nothing else but the most barbaric behavior. But, evil
and disgusting as it may be, the plan still worked.
He had gathered what was left of his immidiate command
and claled for a full retreat. He'd lost about seventy
percent of his men then, and now there was only one in
ten left who came out of the UC-battle alive.
At least they destroyed the bodies of their fallen
comrades so they would not among those who rose again.
There were some former soldiers among the enemy now.
Riley knew his men were deeply scared and almost broken,
he knew he was. And then the shock when they returned
home - to what was left of the Initiative HQ.
It was in ruins, fires blazing. Equipment was smashed
everywhere and dead bodies littered the corridors. And
outside the civil authorities got notified.
The worst was to see the message on the wall and the
crucified body of Graham, his new second in command,
on the wall. Left to die slowly. They took him down
and gave first aid, he probably would make it. They
didn't do any real damge, just this nasty and painfull
wounds. Crucification.
Riley had nearly emptied his stomach at the sight of
the poor man. God, what had they DONE to him? And that
message! An attempt to turn the knive in the wound.
"Three Strikes, beefstick = out, B&X rule!" he repeated
what was written on the wall.
Yes, Riley thought, he had lost. This time. He lost the
first campaign. But there would be others.

"Commandant?" one of the man, the next ranking officer
asked. "What are we supposed to do...now?"

Daybreak was approaching fast. And with daybreak would
come the firefighters. And the coverup orders came into
play. "Look around for any supplies we can use yet,
soldier!" Riley grunted with a flat voice. "Then get
ready to move out, we retreat." And he would activate
the self destruct system so that noone can come and
claim anything was going on down here. "They beat the
crap out of us, this time."

"Sir...we...we cannot..run!"

"No," Riley said. "We WILL come back, soldier!" That
was a promise, a real fact. He had a good idea that the
beings leading the Hostiles would not stop at this. It
was only the beginning. He would have to make his
superiors see that and act on it. Even if he had to kill
those who spoke against it, there was no way around.
Damn the money, this was about survival now.
Half the town was dead, half of Sunnydale UC was burned
down and there was a mass panic around. And not much
left but damning evidence against THEM!

Half an hour later, as the first rays of the sun were
touching the horizons, a lone figure in a heavy cloak
came along. The soldiers guarding the perimeter line
got him at once and brought him to Riley who just came
back from setting the detonators.
It was Hostile Seventeen.
"Hello there," Riley said. "You can't believe how much
I wanted to see you again!" His grin was deadly cold.

"Hey, mate, the bloody arses tricked me," Seventeen
drawled in his strange accent. He looked worn and a
bit ragged. "I got otta zsere barely ah-live, mate!"
He looked pretty paniced and whined about that now
they all were after him, Harris said it was all his
fault and had placed him in there...

Riley thought about it. He even believed the Hostile,
Harris had known. And he had played him for a complete
fool. Well, noone should say he could not learn!
Riley was not interested in hearing what this traitor
had to say. He was babbling something about Harris
seeling out on all of them - yeah, well, he did that.
Didn't look like the Hostiles would mind it that much.
Riley took out his service pistole, chambered a round
and shot Seventeen into the heart at point blank range.
The wooden round pierced the dead heart and dusted the
creature in a moment. Not even the cloak reamined.
"Never again," Riley declared, not caring to explain
what he meant. The soldiers just looked a bit pleased.
"Squad, saddle up, we ride out!"
Next stop would be a regular army base.
And then...well, that would remain to be seen.