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#19
The Magic Shop, Sunnydale:


"You made me come here...with that lie...just because of
some...?" Angel stammered as he watched the assembled
Scooby gang. He felt almost ready to let his anger out,
damn his temper. A bad one, real bad one this was. "This
is not funny, Buffy. Not funny at all. Just because of
some wayward tinman you come and make me leave LA? You
use that...piece of fake news to get me here! Don't you
think I had nothing important to do? Cordelia and Doyle
almost got killed becuase of this!"

Buffy glanced up from the table she sat at and let Angel
see her broken arm and the healing bruises and scratches
she had. "I don't think getting myself almost gutted was
any fun either, Angel," she said. "I'm sorry I lied to
you but that...wasn't to deceive you."

"Oh, it was not?"

"Adam is a cyborg," Riley Finn - Buffy's new friend
and one of the commandos that made up the Initiative -
explained. "As such he is able to access most computer
systems."

Angel just gave him a blank stare. What did it matter
if the Frankenstein-version his masters had let their
scientists make up from various demon parts could do
computers?

"Including public communications," Riley sighed, looking
at Willow. "It all runs over computers. Professor Walsh
was...well, she was fascinated by the idea of a remote
control...I never expected he could listen it on us in
that way."

"He can listen in to our phonecalls?" Angel asked.

"He DID," Buffy answered unhappily. "Or how do you think
he was able to escape our trap? Angel, that...thing had
me almost killed...he almost killed ALL of us."

"Then try again."

"Maybe she hasn't made her point, you old poof," Spike
answered that, glaring at his Sire. "I saw that thing in
action, old boy. And I tell you it was scarier than
most of everything I ever saw."

Spike was...impressed. Angel had to stomach that. "What
was scarier?"

"Accathla. And the Judge, in a way. You now get the
meaning?" Spike rambled as he got up from his seating
position. "Listen, I saw that metal monster do away most
of our vampires and soldiers and all we threw at it did
not make much more than a damn dent into him!" He
reached though his bleached hair and gave a weary sigh.
"Unless you got the fucking Gem of Amarra in your pocket
I would rather run from that thing on sight."

"Have you lost your mind, Spike?" Angel asked, taken
aback. But maybe he had not. Giles was in the hospital,
with a lot of other wounded. Willow had minor burns and
Buffy looked like she had almost died. "You beat it, or
didn't you?"

"We did not," Riley answered extremely unhappily. He
stood besides Buffy and placed a hand on her shoulder,
a subtle gesture. Angel tensed a bit, he still was not
over the Slayer. She seemed not to notice but threw
him a warning look. Great, he had no idea. "Willow has
managed to crack the remote control code and send Adam
away on a previously programmed mission before he...he
was able to finish us."

"I see," Angel stated. "Can't you do it again?"

"Sadly, that is no option anymore. Adam was able to
execute the program and unless we get the main system
code to enter new orders...he's on his own."

"Then get that code."

"We would if we were able to get Professor Walsh to come
back from the dead and tell us," Buffy barked. "Adam had
them all killed - all the scientists who could tell us
how to shut him down or control him. And Walsh was the
only one able to tell about that particular code, ever."

Angel almost expected some snide comment of Xander
Harris about the military paranoia eating them up and
then remembered Xander wasn't there. No, he was hiding
out in LA and doing whatever he and Faith liked to do.
"Can't you get another one?"

"Sure. If we manage to shut the thing down, rip out half
of his brain and build a new one!" Riley spat annoyed.
"Face it, Angel. We have to face that monster in open
battle and destroy it."

Buffy closed her eyes and suppressed a moan of pain as
she moved. Her wounds seemed to be heavier than she
admitted. "And that's going to take all of us put
together. Maybe more than we have."

"Is he that good?"

"He's strong, almost invulnerable and inexhaustible. And
not limited by any sunlight or personal space," Spike
summed it up. "And that wanker got brains, too. What do
you think?"

"Shit," Angel answered frankly, staring at Riley in
an accusing manner. "What were you thinking making that
thing up?"

"Wasn't my idea, really," Riley answered and he seemed
almost sorry, ashamed. "The scientists said they had
control of him. And, up to that attack, they had. It
looked like a great thing...a human almost-tank."

"Placing blame isn't about to help us," Buffy spoke
up again. "Will you help us?"

"Why did you ask me?"

"Because we got a dozen battered soldiers from the
Initiative Adam knows inside out, ten mostly useless
demon hunters from the Council who don't have any weapon
worth mentioning and one Slayer that is not going to be
of much use for a week or two!" Buffy answered annoyed.
"Now you tell me what else I shall do but to ask you?"

Angel swallowed the comment that was worth. "If this
Adam works under daylight we will not be able to stop
him."

"He will not," Riley answered. "If Adam wanted to attack
us he would have done so already. He knows we are no
threat to him right now."

"Then why ask me?"

"We need someone he does not know. Someone who can get
close to him during a fight," Buffy said joylessly. She
gritted her teeth and said that the Initiative gave Adam
all their data on demons and their battle capabilities.
Even her own, sketchy parameters were in his brain. If
they had not made a few wrong assumptions about how fast
she could move she would be dead by now. "You're the
only one who can help to deliver this to his body..."

"This?" Angel asked, looking at the object Buffy had
gestured towards. A yellow disk Willow held up. One for
a computer, that much knew even he. "What is it?"

"A corrupted instruction disk," Willow answered and
said that once Adam uploaded the datafiles on that disc
he was going to selfdestruct. "We have to insert it to
the feed in his chest, as we don't have remote access."

Angel studied the disc. Then the computer Willow had on
a table. And then he looked at the sketch of Adam that
was on the table. Think of a seven foot high mountain
of red and green muscle, a patchwork giant. Armed with
demon strength, long claws which could also become
deadly projectiles, incredibly solid and moving almost
as fast as any human soldier...and a working brain. If
Spike said he had brains it meant he was clever.
"You tried to insert it before?"

"No," Buffy answered.

"We tried to get at his manual off switch on the back,
but that one was damaged. Deliberately," Riley answered.
"He...did not shut down."

"I see," Angel muttered. Jesus, how stupid could one
get? Especially Buffy. "You think this is possible?"

"We have to hold him down while someone inserts this
disk," Riley stated. "We can probably set our weapons so
that they will weaken him for a few seconds after we get
continous weapons fire done - then you and Spike should
be able to hold him down."

Angel rolled his eyes as he sat down and crossed his
legs. "I think I miss Xander."

"What?" Buffy asked, shaken out of her desperation.
"Why do you talk about that now! I failed enough and I
know..."

"He was appearantly the only one with half a mind left
on the group," Angel informed her brutally. If he looked
at what Cordelia and Doyle had dug up after they got
back to the office and phoned him (and he guessed they
could get a lote more once he was back) he could almost
start to wonder how they had managed to survive without
Xander. "Tell me, who came up with that tactics?"

"Angel, Xander was hardly our brains," Willow wailed.
"That are Giles and Buffy."

"No wonder you're in troubles," Angel muttered, earning
dark looks. "That plan you made up is not going to work.
I could tell you a hundred reasons why - and most of all
because Adam is smarter than you."

"He's just as smart as some little child," Riley said
with hurt pride. "Our tests showed exactly..."

"Your tests showed that he was able to fool you. Adam
has his own ideas about what to do - if he didn't have
them he would have wiped you out already," Angel moaned
and began to whip up a plan. "You fucked up with that
one, Mr. Finn. I cannot say how yet but I think it's a
fact that Adam freed himself. He engineered that freak
accident or, probably more likely, he built on only one
original, minor occurence that gave him a chance."

"That's preposterous, he's not...he just is not clever
enough to do that."

"From what I see he's smarter than most of the people
you had at your disposal," Angel chuckled. "Unless we
find out what he is up to and can predict where he will
show up to set an ambush he isn't prepared for he will
escape. Your plan is based around too many critical
assumptions. Things which can go wrong..."

"...will go wrong," Buffy finished lamely and cracked
a short, radiant smile. "They already did. You got any
better idea about how to deliver this disk?"

"Not really," Angel answered. "I need to know everything
you have on him. Not just what you think he is but what
you actually know he is."

"Of course," Riley chocked out, eyes cast down. He had
a hard time at it but he would do it. "Yet why do you
think it will be of much use?"

"Mr. Finn, commandant...what is the reason why you do
not attack an enemy if you are in the position to
easily vanquish him?" Angel asked slowly. He suddenly
got a good idea towards how Faith and Xander were able
to have a that long list of victories. He didn't like it
for a bit but what Cordy said about this club was proof
enough. If Buffy was disinclined to see it, so be it.
Didn't mean he had to go for the same mistakes. "What
are the possible reasons."

"First, my orders don't give me the mandate to do so.
Second, I'm not really in a that superior position but
just look like I am. And third...third would be that I
gain more by letting the enemy alive?" Riley said and
began to pale. "But what does he gain?"

"I think you said so already," Angel answered softly.
"Adam knows you inside out. He also knows that you are
not the complete Initiative - there are others, am I
right?"

"I cannot confirm or deny that. I...honestly don't
know."

"There are others," Buffy rasped out, nodding. "And he
does know. He also knows he has a weakspot they know
about...and they can take him out. Is that your line of
reasoning?"

"I don't think it is exactly a weakspot. Rather, he has
to know he is not completely invulnerable and that,
after he crosses a certain line, he will be faced with
enough resistance to overcome him!" Angel muttered. He
probably also was not that autonomous as they had made
it sound. Angel had not much experience with high
technology but what he knew was that this stuff had a
few basic misassumptions. In the end the clever tools
were always the first to break when they got wet and
dirty. And Adam looked like a very complex tool. "So he
tries to keep you alive and offers a low intensity
conflict. Which keeps the rest of the Initiative out
of his hair."

"What if you are mistaken?" Riley asked.

"We find out," Angel answered. "It's just a theory. But
I guess sooner or later your superiors will notice that
they lost contact with you and reestablish it. Then you
can get the weapons you need to take Adam out."

"But in the meantime lots of people will die!" Willow
squirmed. "We cannot let that happen."

Right, Angel thought. They could not let that happen.
But on the other hand he doubted that Riley and his
demoralized soldier friends would be able to rework all
their equipment so that they could effect much against
Adam. It was just a felling but the way he had said Adam
knew them inside out. He knew the hardware, he knew the
training, he knew how they had worked before. He did not
knew them at all.
It was a lot like the hunter squads of the Council were
operating, they based their actions upon tactics worked
up inside a safe warm room by some old men who had their
assumptions about vampires in general. They were not
wrong but not completely right either. Which was why all
the intelligent vampires defeated the squads on a more
or less regular base. And those who were even worse, who
acted unpredictable like he and Spike and now these new
ones, they ripped them apart.
Fight as thy foe expects and thou shalt die!
A lection Buffy never seemed to have grasped.
Angel remembered the battle at Graduation Day and then
he winced. It had been Xander who made most of the
decisions then - how to apply the demolitions and rig
them, where to position what weapons and how to defeat
the vampires. Buffy had talked a lot and acted like the
Council...she had used the basics of the Council, as she
had been trained to.
"We cannot do anything about it," Angel answered her and
he immidiately felt guilty for it. He studied them and
wished he had a way to do this better than the one idea
he got. "I propose you move your equipment and get into
new locations, then rebuild your force and...evade any
confrontation with Adam."

"Until when?"

"Until you get that reinforcements you need to fight him
effectively. If you want to waste your men it is not my
decision to make, though," Angel said swiftly. "I also
propose you should move your wounded out of town. I have
a friend in LA who could offer you a place to hide them
for a while."

"And if we don't do as told?"

"If you want the poof to finish your infernal machine
you got to do as he commands, mate," Spike chocked a
dry laugh. "Told you he'd not let you treat him like
you get to me."

"Why?" Riley asked, uncertainly. "Why are you different
from him...?"

"Because I do not want to kill and hurt other people,"
Angel answered openly. Only demons and vampires. "And I
did not get my age by being stupid, either."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"Around two and a half centuries," Angel answered. It
was not quite right but technically correct. He did not
bother them with the century he had spent in hell. "I
also doubt I will be of much use by hanging around."

"What?"

"Riley, what is the first way to learn about your
enemy?" Buffy laughed bitterly. "You realize we cannot
do different but to speak directly. No phonecalls."

"Yes. We have to maintain a tight operational security.
We probably can't use a tactical communication network
either."

"Say, that isn't some sort of portable radio?" Angel
asked and as Riley confirmed it the vampire scowled.
Looked at Willow. "Let me guess...this Adam is able to
pinpoint any working radio source, is he?"

"How did you know?"

"It figures," Angel stated. They designed that thing to
go after foot soldiers - and they had almost the same
equipment as the enemy. Which meant...which meant they
had given him everything he needed to beat the living
crap out of them. He also had another idea - even he
knew that a disk was sensitive to influences. And he
had the idea that the weapons the Initiative used
would generate them. Or Adam would, once he saw what
they were up to.
Their little plan could not work.
The only way to feed Adam that data was by tricking
him, making him do the upload himself. Which in turn
depended on feeding him wrong information.
Angel was virtually certain he needed sharp people to
get this Adam issue resolved. People the Scoobies did
not seem to be right now.
He couldn't really blame them.
Buffy stumbled from one fight into the other, Giles
was still a Watcher and they had their new network to
manage. The watchers were old and worn out and that
commandos were too junior and inexperienced. Maybe their
superiors did not want them to know too much if their
mission failed. Or else they were testing them, not the
horror machine.
He could discern that at a later time.
Now was the question where he could get very strong and
sharp allies from to help him execute his plan. As fate
went Cordelia had handed him a good start...now he just
had to make things up.


#20
Dave's bar, dungeon level:


Faith stood at the wall and raised her blood whip.
"Please tell me you're not willing to talk even now,"
she purred. "I start to enjoy this so much...no, don't
waste your breath talking." She bowed to licke off
some of his blood, kissed his forehead and bit into it.
"I want to hear your screams. They make me...ah, they
make me feel so great."

The prisoner spat blood at her and his eyes were wide
with fear. He was healing, so it didn't do much to
spray salt on his open wounds. But Faith had done it
nevertheless. She had an array of more toys on display,
a hammer and some packs of nails among them.
As she started he had just remained silent.
Then he had cursed her, screamed threats. What he'd
do to her once he got out of this dungeon. If she had
thought he ever would maybe she would have gotten
concerned. She had spent six hours with making him
suffer and now she got closer to making him live agony.
He was a wreck, a complete psychical wreck.
"Please...stop...I talk, I talk," he said. "Please
mistress..."

"Spoilsport!" she said and slapped him, smashing the jaw
again. "You're not supposed to talk yet! Be a man, you
worm! I want to hear you screams for some more hours!"
In truth, Faith was that bored by this and started to
feel sick for herself. Her demon was riding a high as
much as she got from draining him a few times.
Very practical, really. An endless supply of blood and
great fun. If he were not an expert warrior who was so
deadly she could not afford the slightest mistake.
"I once had a real man who lasted for a full week before
I broke him...now that was a real man. You're not worth
to eat his shit, you no-good filthy scum!"

Faith turned away and looked at him with her best and
worst psychotic grin. Then she moved and slowly stuck
her fangs into his jugular again. Felt him weep as she
drained him further, one hand wandering around his
body and touching the hard muscles. She drained him to
the point of near-death before turning away and then
went to fetch Xander.

Half an hour later they listened to their prisoner talk
about his secrets. The Game, Immortals and the prize.
The rules and the tricks of the trade, Quickenings and
what they were like.
He claimed to be born in southern france almost five
hundred years ago and have served kings and dukes and
even popes since. Faith listened to his rundown of his
life and she believed him.
Bugger, she thought, a people who just didn't saty dead
unless their heads got cut off. And Xander was one of
them - one who had died. Cordelia was one who still was
waiting for her First Death.
He had thought Xander was one of their kinds, an older
one since he stayed in the shadows and had people get
really scared of him. He never met vampires and he had
never believed into magic as well.
Judging from how he handed Harmony he didn't need to
hide himself. He was a lot more dangerous than most of
the undead Faith had ever met or faced.
After all he could walk the day, go where he wanted to
and wasn't scared of crosses or holy water. And to cut
off a head she needed more than a wooden stake, a lot
more. And a whole species of these beings.
Thousands, running around out there.
Passing themselves as humans.
And why would they not be noticed for all that time?
Funny, of course! They hid. They didn't expect any
other beings to be immortal and powerful, they just knew
them and mortal humans...right.
She could see Xander's face harden.
As far as Faith was concerned this explained how he got
to his powers. It also helped to give Faith a whole new
dimension on her problems with Cordelia Chase.
Not just had he saved her life - and it was crap that he
didn't want Angel to know, he would have no fear of the
man. He still had strong feelings for her.
Deeper than he was aware of, as it seemed.
Faith tried to imagine Cordelia as a real rival for her
man. With Cordy being Immortal she could not even be
certain to outlast her rival, they were equals then.
And if she should decide to war for his attentions...
Bugger, why couldn't things be easy? Why couldn't that
frenchie whack off her head when he had the chance to!

"Now what?" she asked.

Xanders answer was a move of his finger over the throat
and a conspirational look at her. One without humor.

"What did I ask for," Faith grinned evilly. frenchie got
the ball but was, right now, not in any condition to
worry. He may even have longed for the end of the long
torment.

They went to a derelict warehouse that night. And then
she got to see what happened after the katana severed
his head from the body attached. Next there was an eery
moment of calm - Faith wondered if he had told them
bogus, she almost wnated it to be so. And then there
were the sparks. White lightning crawling around, out of
the dead man. Destroying what it touched. Earth was
burnt, stone cracked, metal scorched...and the lights
exploded. Some high voltage was at work there.
Faith was impressed as the old glass window exploded, so
far as there still was something to explode. And Xander
did a good deal of screaming as wave after wave of
lightning crashed into him.
Looked like it hurt. A lot.
But there also was something about his eyes...Faith was
cuyrious. what did he see, feel? It seemed like there
was something he..liked? No, it wasn't liking. A deep,
dark, twisted form of hunger. Most like she had when she
got off on a kill.
Not that good, not that good at all.
He was on his knees and ready to pass out the next
instant after the spectacle was over. The place was a
bit on fire, rather devastated. If that went up inside
of an enclosed room...or something with very flamable
stuff stored...would make a big bad bang.

"Yucky," Faith said as she came to pick him up. "You
okay?"

"Been better," he croaked and shook his head clear.
The expression of pain vanished. "God, my head's gonna
fucking kill me...!"

"Tylenol moment?" Faith asked.

"I wish," he rasped back. Made a fist so hard his nails
duck into the palm. Faith smelled the blood. "I have it
in there...demon's going crazy...all that memeories!"

"Memories?" she wondered. The frenchie said there was
only a transfer of power and some confusion stuff.

"His...and whatever he could take in from...others,"
Xander answered her question. "That shithead had no
idea...take me home."

He couldn't drive. He could barely stand. And he even
passed out under way. For most of the night and the next
day he lay motionless. The only reason Faith had to know
he wasn't dead was a soft almost-heartbeat at times. And
then he woke and shook in the thralls of a nightmare at
some minutes.
She fed him blood every few hours.
It seemed to help him as he came to wake after dusk.
Still complained about a headache and much confusion.
"You know your own name?"

"Yeah, I'm Henri Harris," he said with the sort of grin
that said he was making fun of her. but the tone...it
was a french accent! "Seriously, F, it was close...that
bastard had me almost possessed, if that's the right
word. I...what the me is in there...was almost eaten up
by him. If not for my demon ripping him apart...creepy.
Definitely creepy."

Faith, who had passed the time with doing this and that
while she sat by his bed, nodded again. He looked bad.
If a vampire could look bad. And the accent might not be
so strong anymore but was still there, something was. An
undertone that wasn't him. "You're not well yet?"

"F, this thing ripped my insides apart, almost wio! If
he had been just a bit more powerful, another century
of live or more of a fascination for...mental exercises,
and I wouldn't have woken up at all! Or at least not as
myself," Xander spat. Very pissed and annoyed. He told
her with a wide eyed stare that his demon was so
exhausted now he could barely transform. He would need
time to recover, a lot of time. "The good thing is, I
will. I just know I will. And I got...a lot of what he
was."

"What do you mean?"

"Memories, of times and places far away and long ago.
Dead people. And the skills he picked up," he answered
wide-eyed. "I think I could learn to speak fluently in
god knows, how many? a dozen languages! If I just lived
there for a while..." He grimaced. "I never liked to
have that sort of stuff in my head. That soldier was
creepy enough but that one's a picnic in the park to
this."

Faith studied his expression worried. He didn't come
apart in front of her, or did he? "Anything I can do?"

"Be there for me, get me some more blood...and a bit of
other action," he answered. The last comment made with a
distinct leer at her cleavage that Faith commented with
a grin of her own. That was her Xander. "And keep me
from doing that again in less than a century or two."

"As you wish, X-man," she answered as she moved up.
Blood, sex and then rest in his arms. Sounded like a
way to pass the night and day to her.
Now, if just that darn do-gooders and the rest of the
world could leave them alone for the time being.
"Lemme spoil you rotten, brat."

"I am shocked," Xander joked. "I'm a brat?"

"No. That is too nice for ya, oh my childe," she
gloated while she moved. He really was hungry. Ate up
half of the blood in the fridge before he lost that
weakness of the overwhelming hunger. Or the demon was.
Whatever, Faith decided that if she had to do it again
she would give him much more before.
And as for action, after he ate he was so full of it
that he fell into a deep sleep. Which meant he was much
worse off than she thought - vampires almost never fell
into that sort of resting until they were damn near the
edge. Faith got very, very worried.
Especially after she got words from Harmony that Angel
was asking peculiar questions near them. She was too
scared of him to leave the club, so Faith had her sit
guard on her man.
And feed him, if he awoke again. She ordered another
load of blood brought in, two just to be safe. And she
scared the holy living crap out of Harmony to make sure
she didn't leave his side.
Then she got to do what should have been done a while
ago already...