The entity, that consisted of the souls of four remarkable people contained in the body of a Slayer, recited the spell that would make the uranium power core of the construct known as Adam disappear. After the spell was completed, the Slayer, Buffy Summers, released the assisting Souls of her friends and her mentor back into their original bodies. With that release of energy, Buffy Summers crashed to the floor. The released Souls flew out past the secret lab, designed to create an army of Cyborgs just like Adam; past the blood soaked body of Riley Finn, slain by they Cyborg created from his friend Forrest. Faster than imaginable, at the speed of consciousness, the Souls flew down the corridor, drawn back to their true bodies. As the Souls returned to their place, Alexander Harris, Willow Rosenberg and Rupert Giles slumped in their seated position, only to be disturbed a second later by three consecutive bangs.
"Sorry." Tara commented shyly as she lowered the big shotgun, its barrel smoking slightly from the spent rounds.
"Thanks, Tara." Xander said as he saw the big hairy dead demon.
'I wonder if that is the same one that chased Cordy that Halloween?' he thought idly, before he rose to his feet and took the shotgun from Tara.
Tara willingly let the large weapon go, and stepped from behind the box barricade they had set up. Buffy rejoined the group from behind the hidden door.
"Riley's dead." She announced numbly.
"Oh Buffy." Willow said, moving to comfort her friend.
"Later Willow. We have to move. We got Adam, but Forrest escaped." Buffy said.
"Gear up." Xander grinned as he spoke.
Buffy grabbed a large sword from their equipment and, after a pause, one of the pistols they had brought. Willow and Giles loaded up with crossbows, and stakes; Giles also had a decent axe.
Tara pulled her two pistols out of their shoulder holster and nodded that she was ready to go. Xander had given her those pistols, mk23 Socom's, and trained her in their use, and the clips were currently Dutch loaded with triple blessed sliver slugs, high explosive rounds and tracer rounds. The pistols were engraved with several Wiccan symbols of protection with crosses located on the triggers and the grips to prevent Vampires and minor demons using them against the group. With her magic, the pistols were the only weapons that she carried, although she vividly remembered the months of aching wrists she had endured as Xander had trained her up through smaller guns.
"If you go strait to the big ones, you'll break your wrists." He had told her.
Xander also had 2 Socom's in hip holsters and he was holding the large SPAS12 shotgun as he looked out of the smallish lab into the rest of the Initiative.
"Shit." He exclaimed, slinging the shotgun over his shoulder by its strap, it clinking against the axe he had in a shoulder harness.
Xander pulled open the duffle bag he had brought and pulled out an M-16.
"Things have gone south. I'll take lead, Tara take drag. Buffy you cover her. We need to get the fuck out of here and get some support." Xander said, letting Soldier Boy come to the fore.
"Like who?" Buffy asked.
"We'll call Jack. He gave me his number." Xander replied, before ducking out the door.
"Great, another Xander." Giles muttered as he followed the younger man out the door.
"Fall Back!!!!" Xander shouted over the noise of the battle as he fired into demons and vampires, trying to get the soldiers out of the battle zone.
Only a few of the soldiers followed the retreating Scooby Gang to an exit, which they managed to pry open. Only Graham, who Buffy recognised from Riley's Dorm, and two other initiative soldiers made it out of the under ground base. When they had reached the top of the shaft, Xander dropped down two grenades, temporality sealing off the exit.
The Scooby Gang and the Initiative Survivors quickly left Stevenson House and Xander ran to the nearest public phone.
"I need to speak with Colonel Jack O'Neill or Major Sam Carter. It's urgent." Xander said into the phone. "Fine, just tell O'Neill that Paladin called, and we have a Damien Blue Alpha Three Situation. Call confirm on W3."
Xander hung up the phone and moved back to the group.
"We need to get to Giles' place ASAP."
"Sorry to interrupt, sir, but we have an urgent message for Colonel O'Neill." An Airman said as he cautiously entered the briefing room.
"What is it, son?" General Hammond asked.
"Colonel, someone named Paladin called, he said there was a Damien Blue Alpha Three Situation and to" the airman paused to check his slip of paper, "Call confirm on W3."
"Holly Shit." Daniel muttered.
"Indeed." Teal'c added.
"Colonel, what's that mean." Hammond asked.
"Sunnydale's gone south, sir." Jack replied. "Permission to make a call?"
"Granted." Hammond said just as Jack finished
"This is Bill Winters for KBLA News with this late breaking story. The small town of Sunnydale, California has been ordered evacuated and cordoned off by The President. Recent construction efforts have uncovered an unusual stockpile of suspicious barrels that were reported to the authorities. Subsequently, a Satellite overflight detected what appears to geological evidence of a large cavity under the town. When a routine flight out of the Sunnydale Army base detected traces of chemical and biological agents in the vicinity, a team was sent to investigate.
"Insurmountable evidence has now come to light that former Mayor, Richard Wilkins the Third, missing and presumed dead since the gas explosion during last year's Sunnydale High's Graduation, was using the cave systems and storage depots, built superfluously to town construction ventures, as storage for chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and there is circumstantial evidence that the former Mayor was selling these weapons on to Middle East countries and terrorist organisations. This is Bill winter reporting for KBLA News."
The 2 large Chinook choppers came swiftly down, one after the other into one of the few parks in the almost totally abandoned Sunnydale. The soldiers aboard cleanly and efficiently disembarked as if this was a hostile LZ, with the choppers lifting as soon as they were empty. The leader of the soldiers, a Captain, along with his top kick Sargent and one of the Platoon Lieutenants approached the three figures who were awaiting them.
"Captain. I'm Paladin." The young man who stood to the front said. "Welcome to Hell."
On the young man's left was an older gentleman with slightly greying hair, dressed in denim jeans, a white t-shirt and boots; he looked quite dangerous, but in a bookish kind of way. He had an old colt revolver at his left hip, a rapier sword at his right and a large battle axe strapped to his back. the young woman on Paladin's right had a slightly loose white blouse and a long earth brown skirt that ended at her ankles but was loose enough for free movement. At each hip she had an elaborately decorated mk23 Socom pistol and a few small pouches but was otherwise unarmed. The young man himself was dressed in black cargo pants, a black t-shirt and boots, with plain a Socom at each hip, a combat knife attached to each thigh, an M-16 in his hands and a Scottish Claymore strapped to his back.
"What are your orders, Sir?" Captain Whitmore asked.
Whitmore's briefing had been simple. Follow Paladin's orders. And that had come strait from the CIC.
"Call me Xander." Paladin said. "This is Giles and Tara. What I need are two squads to follow Giles and secure one of the last access areas, also take two Platoons strait down that road to help General Bradley to secure the perimeter. The rest of your men need to start roving patrols through the town. Work in pairs with every other soldier wearing thermals. If it don't look human, or a human shows no body heat, drop it and call for backup. And human who passes the thermal should be sent to General Bradley's location."
"Rodger, Sir. Second and Fourth squads, First Platoon. Follow Giles, obey his orders. Third and Fifth Platoon's head for the General's position. The rest of you, break up by squad. Evens use thermals, search pattern Gamma six." Captain Whitmore ordered.
The Company efficiently broke up to their assigned tasks, and Xander noted that Whitmore headed for the General's post.
'Smart officer. Wants to get as much Intel as possible.' Xander thought with a slight grin.
"Time to make the rounds?" Tara asked.
"Yes." Xander replied. "What's the timetable?"
"This was the last lot of arrivals. The evacuation of the town should be finished by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon they're brining in the containment explosives for the School and the access ports. Day after tomorrow we begin the military withdrawal the containment explosives will be detonated. Friday will see the withdrawal complete and Friday afternoon they will drop the fuel-air-bomb." Tara recited from memory.
"So long Sunnydale. And good riddance." Xander said as he walked off to start the rounds.
General Hammond emerged from his office into the Briefing Room where SG1 waited.
"What did they say?" Daniel asked, impatiently.
"General Bradley reports that everything is going well. Paladin and his team have been setting up the troops effectively. Apparently they had the whole operation planed out before Bradley even got there, and convinced him to follow their scenario." Hammond reported.
"How are Paladin and his team?" Jack asked.
"General Bradley says they are fine. Apparently Oz left of his own volition several months ago and a new member, Tara has joined the team. Bradley did express concern about their mental health though." Hammond said.
"Why?" Sam asked.
"Well they want to blow up the rubble of the old school." Hammond related.
Sam, Jack and Daniel broke out laughing.
"Is something funny?"
"Yes, Sir." Jack said between laughs.
"Would someone care to explain why?" Hammond said, confused.
"Those ruins are the location of the Hellmouth, General Hammond." Teal'c said.
Hammond started laughing long with the SG1.
"Now I get why they were so adamant." Hammond said.
"Not everyone gets to blow up their High School, let alone twice." Jack said.
"Indeed."
"Sorry Danny, you gotta work on your Teal'c Impression." Jack said.
"Plus the eyebrow thing." Sam added.
"Indeed." Teal'c added, causing Sam, Jack and Hammond to laugh harder.
The small room was filled with medical equipment, and the steady beep of a heart monitor. The figure on the bed looked asleep, except for all the wires and tubes attached to her body. As an evacuee from the doomed town of Sunnydale, she had been moved to this small room in a LA hospital and basically forgotten, listed as a Jane Doe, due to the inability to get all the medical files out of the hospital during the evacuation. A figure slipped into the room and looked down at the sleeping form. He quietly moved forward, knelt down and brushed a dark lock of hair out of the woman's face.
"I know you'll wake up soon. I'll be back by then, I promise." The male figure said, as he stood to leave. "You'll have a chance at redemption, just like me. I sware it, Faith."
With that, the Vampire with a Soul left the forgotten room of the Dark Slayer. And the heart monitor continued its steady rhythm, beeping on in the forgotten darkness.