[X] Give it back. Even if Faith isn't trustworthy at all, Spike's a much bigger threat. Nobody will be as good a bet as Faith in hand-to-hand with him until Buffy is back.
-[X] Since we're giving it back early, we get the Ring when she beats Spike
Xander didn't like it, but the crazy lady made sense. "Fine. But I want that ring, or whatever it is."
"An invincibility ring seems like it's worth a hell of a lot more than a magic knife to me," Faith complained.
"Do you really think you're gonna just be able to put it on and then god's your uncle?" Xander said. "This is an accessory that a bad guy dug up from a crypt buried under the hellmouth. Remember what happened the last time someone tried one of those on?"
She pursed her lips. Gwendolyn Post had been pretty near and dear to her before the whole backstabbing thing. "OK, so why do you want it so bad then?"
"It's more keeping it away from everyone else. And if there's anything that it's actually useful for, I'm sure our ever growing parade of people with more book-learning than me can figure it out." He was a little worried it was one of those Lachy things Willow and Giles had been talking about lately. Not something he wanted the Initiative getting their hands on, that was for sure.
"Well…" she drew out the word, "I am a girl of simple tastes. But no more of this snitching stuff."
"Yeah, yeah," Xander said. Just knowing how reluctant she was to talk was information enough at this point. "Let's go get the knife, it's in my car."
"The hell! It was just sitting in your car the whole time? I could've just swiped it," she said.
"Nope, because you didn't know it was there," he said. And neither did anyone else. He hadn't even checked it out of the vault officially, just in case. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but with Faith so focused on it and the Initiative so good at finding things out he'd wanted it off the radar.
"You're fuckin' impossible," Faith continued.
"And I pride myself on that," he said.
Even after he'd handed out extra munitions to Warren and Rachel earlier, his trunk was still full of all kinds of supplies; various melee weapons and extra ammo mixed with the usual buildup in any teenager's car to fill out the space around his spare tire. He shoved it all to the side and hoisted the tire up on its edge to grab the knife from its hiding spot, then removed it from the cheap sheathe he'd been keeping it in.
"Now promise me you'll be careful not to put anyone's eye out with this thing." Almost before he'd finished talking, she snatched it out of his hands, her features suddenly surly. "Wow, grabby much?"
She looked conflicted, then sighed. "He said the same thing. You know, back when I got it."
And wasn't it weird to have someone mourning the cheerfully psychotic former mayor. Even weirder since Xander knew he was kind of maybe still sticking around in Buffy's dream sequences. "I guess whatever else the old mayor did he must have really treated his employees right. Did you get dental? Buffy's not giving us dental yet."
And now she was just looking annoyed again. Maybe he shouldn't have opened his mouth. "Do now. Uncle Sam's not a bad sugar daddy."
"That's because he's trying to steal our loot!" Warren said, entering the conversation.
"What?" Xander asked.
"Their cro-magnons are trying to loot our crypt, come on!" Warren turned back around heading to the sinkhole without waiting to see if Xander followed him.
"Can't leave your friends alone for a second, can I?" Xander said to Faith as he started walking.
"This is gonna be a shitshow I gotta see," she said.
Some more of the SDCW had shown up since Spike made his run for it, but Xander had sent them off again to circle the wagons, trusting that the police on site could keep the scene secure. With Spike's face not known to most of their people and his terrifying new ability to walk around during the day they were terribly vulnerable, and he wanted everyone working for the city accounted for and behind thresholds until they got a better handle on what was going on.
The watch house at Crawford street was apparently lived in enough by him and Anya over the summer to be vampire-proof now, but City Hall didn't have that protection. Without a lot of realistic options to defend it against a determined attack by Spike, they'd decided to temporarily close it and consolidate at the watch house (Willow had been cranky about being woken up and immediately told she had to move the whole research operation.) With fall already here and all kinds of fun and terrible dangers around the corner they'd probably have to figure out something permanent to do about City Hall eventually, but there was no time now.
After returning through the dark tunnel, they found Private Miller and a couple other Initiative guys arguing with Rachel. They had some camo-covered duffel bags already loaded up with the riches of the crypt, but there was still tons more to pack away.
"I'm not gonna let you just loot all this stuff for your own pockets! I know how soldiers work," Rachel said.
"That is absolutely not what's going on," Miller tried to explain. "It'd be totally against procedure, and the Initiative is a well-disciplined operation. We're just doing our jobs. Look, I've got all the stuff logged right here!" he waved some official-looking papers at her.
"And what are you doing with it then?" she grabbed the papers, looking them over carefully.
"The Director told us to bring it all in for testing," he said.
"And how are you going to test it, guess and check? None of you know anything about anything and the most magical person on your whole roster is a rogue slayer who failed out of high school!" she screamed.
"Hey, I didn't fail out, I just stopped going," Faith said.
"I've seen your record from Monument High," Rachel said.
"Oh, that High School. Yeah, I guess that's fair," she agreed.
"Professor Walsh's methods are more precise than anything you could manage with some old books and newt eyes," Miller said, now sounding kind of offended. "Sure, we may not have flashy effects like giant amphibians, but we have science on our side."
"Trust me when I say that you don't, because I actually know what I'm talking about," Warren said. "Most of this stuff doesn't even operate within the bounds of the physical universe, I can't even detect half of it with top of the line gear. Your government contract issued trash probably can't even measure the basic tachyon exchanges yet."
"If you can't detect it either then why should you get it?" he asked.
"I'm not saying I should get all of it! But if you don't let the actual professionals stick their newt eyes all over it one of those coins might grow teeth and start burrowing into your insides!" Warren waved his hands wildly, and despite themselves the soldiers all flinched away from the treasure. They weren't too successful because it was everywhere.
Miller didn't take long to regain his composure though, grabbing up another duffel and (rather gingerly) starting to load it up. "Whatever. Orders are orders. If anything goes wrong, Walsh can handle it."
Curses or not, Xander couldn't let them march off with a horde like this, so he tried a different tactic, "You don't have jurisdiction. This is inside Sunnydale city limits."
"It's also inside US borders," Miller responded, not stopping. "We outrank you."
"That's immaterial," Officer Bernie said, climbing up the ladder with more cops behind him. "All of this is evidence. We need to bring it in."
"Evidence of what? Vampires?" Miller scoffed.
"Destruction of government property, public endangerment, underground construction without a permit, resisting arrest, and murder one," Bernie said, not missing a step. "We don't have the perp, we don't have his ID, we don't know who he's working with and we don't know what else he's doing. Do you want to explain to a judge why you're interfering in an ongoing police investigation?"
The small crypt was getting pretty crowded at this point as everyone looked around to see who would blink first.
"You don't have the facilities to hold any of this safely. It might be contaminated with those tachyons or whatever." Miller tried.
"We do," Xander said. "The SDCW can hold it in the vault under the watch house while the investigation is ongoing. We have all the containment necessary for dangerous artifacts already worked out."
"Sounds fine to me," Bernie agreed. "We all work for the same lady after all."
Miller looked significantly at Faith, probably hoping she'd stick her oar in, but she just shrugged back. "Do you wanna keep arguing over the shiny or do our actual jobs and get ready to catch the invincible vampire?"
He ground his teeth, but then dropped the duffel disgustedly, giving up. "Fine, but it's all going into the logs, and then we're sending a requisition in. You can't tie it all up in evidence forever."
"Of course, we'd never leave out any critical paperwork. Isn't that right boys?" Bernie asked. He got nods and grunts of assent from the cops, who restarted the process of packing it all up. One Initiative soldier was left to watch, and everyone else descended from the cramped room back into the tunnel.
They'd just passed the second switchback when Xander got a call and picked up. "What's going on? Did you make me my list and check it twice?"
"How can you even get reception down here?" Miller said disbelievingly.
"More than twice, but we're still missing one," Oz's voice came from the radio.
"Who?"
"Vanessa Waters," he said. "She puts her radio in privacy mode a lot, but we checked at her place too. No dice."
"Catty City Hall Vanessa?" Faith asked.
"I guess Spike works fast," Rachel observed.
"Roughly how worried should we be?" Xander asked with a sense of dread, not answering either of them. Vanessa Waters wasn't just a vulnerable (if not exactly innocent) old lady, but she was also the only member of the city council who'd had her job for more than two weeks.
CyberWillow answered on the same line, "Since I began tracking the status of official radios on July 20th, she has entered privacy mode and remained in it for longer than 12 hours on five separate occasions, ostensibly forgetting to disengage it each time. This prevents me from listening in without an answer first, from estimating her current location, or even from determining if the device is active. She last entered privacy mode at 11:24 PM last night."
"Wait, you track those things?" Faith said. "You've got your own little police state going on these days, don't you guys? I guess I shouldn't be surprised you like poking into everyone's business."
"Which is why there's a privacy mode," Xander said, annoyed at the distraction. Then, back at the radio, "Can we override it this time? It's kind of an emergency."
"Yes, but also no," he almost mistook her for CyberWillow again, but it was the actual Willow this time, newly on the line. Her actual voice was a little scratchier than her creation's at the moment. "I just tried, but it's either blocked by something big or it can't even turn on."
"And we aren't gonna kid ourselves she's just out of batteries," Xander sighed.
CyberWillow interpreted it as a question, "Based on my inventory there is less than a 0.01% chance her battery has degraded that far."
They'd reached the fading daylight at the bottom of the pit now, but he'd wait on climbing back out until this was settled. Private Miller and his men did start to ascend (probably looking to report back), but Faith stayed.
"Patch in Chief Matt please," he said. He deserved to know.
"New development?" He asked picking up. Xander knew he'd already been told about the Spike situation, but obviously not this part yet.
Better to just rip it off like a band-aid. "Your aunt's missing. Radio's off."
There was a pause, but it didn't stretch too long. "Thank you for informing me. I'll put out an APB immediately. Would this Spike have any special reason to take her, some kind of personal vendetta? Or an ah, supernatural reason?"
"I never saw him paling around City Hall last year," Faith said. "I think Wilkins maybe sent a hit squad after him once? I wasn't working for him yet, heard about it secondhand."
"Is he likely to hold a grudge about that?" It seemed like a non sequitur, and there was something in Matt's voice he couldn't quite place.
"I never even heard about it," Xander said. "I doubt Spike even cared. He's always been big on the chaos and the violence. This is just him gunning for us." He was about to ask why it was relevant, but CyberWillow chimed back in.
"Vanessa's radio is transmitting again," and she cut to it immediately.
"-sure this is on?" Spike's accent was clearly audible. "Last time I messed with a police radio there weren't so many bloody buttons on it."
"What do you want this time, Spike? And can I just say, kidnapping an old lady; it's a new low for you," Xander said.
"I'll have you know I haven't hurt a hair on her head," he countered, sounding strangely aggrieved. "Just got her to make sure you lot play fair."
"We're not the ones who went digging for magic rings," he said.
"It's a magic ring?" Warren said. "Like a ring of regeneration? When did we find that out?"
"Oh, and it's so much more honorable to be building murderbots and summoning giant amphibians? You've come a long way from your misadventures in the chemistry lab," Spike complained, ignoring Warren.
"Do any of you ever stop gossiping? Just get to the point," Rachel said.
"Having some more girl trouble, Harris? She sounds spicy." Spike was amused now.
"As if," Rachel said.
"I'm finding myself agreeing with the whole getting to the point thing," Xander said. "Hopefully a wooden one."
"No fun, any of you," Spike tsked. "What I want is a one on one, a traditional duel. Just me and your slayer junior edition."
"You don't have to, dear. I don't have many years left as it is," Vanessa's voice could be heard in the background.
"Nah, don't you worry girl. I got this." Faith spoke up. "What's the when and where?" She glanced down at her knife again, a smile on her face.
"Restfield, the east side of it by the rise. You've got an hour," he said. "And if anyone gets any funny ideas, I've got your bigshot city councilor hidden away with a couple of my minions. I see any funny business and shout the word, and then she'll be sleeping in the ground."
The radio emitted a click, and then CyberWillow was talking again, "I believe he pulled the battery back out. However, that was enough time for me to triangulate the location of the radio. Crossreferencing with my maps, it is clearly within the Hawley mausoleum, which is situated roughly where Spike desires to fight."
"Can we get her out?" Chief Matt had been quiet during the hostage demand, but he was still listening in.
"The crypt is connected to the underground network, or at least was as of the last time my maps were updated," CyberWillow said.
"You guys don't need to chance it," Faith said. "It's gonna be real simple. I'll just beat the shit out of him and that'll be that."
"Faith, are you sure?" Agent Finn was descending down into the pit where they were all talking. "I didn't hear all of that, but it doesn't sound smart. We still don't understand what his new capabilities are. Maybe Professor Walsh can come up with an idea, if we give her some time."
"Not a lot of that if we want to save Vanessa. And I can't say I ever liked her much, but that was mostly because she nagged a lot when we did anything evil. Being reformed now and all," Faith drawled that part out, giving Xander and his allies a smug look, "saving her seems like the thing to do."
"I am uncertain if it will be so easy," CyberWillow continued. "I've been working with Giles, and I believe we have narrowed down the identity of Spike's magic ring."
"Antioch Volume Three: the Gem of Amara is said to reside in the valley of the sun," Giles continued, patched into the growing conversation. "It's supposed to be something like a vampiric holy grail. Ordinarily that wouldn't have been enough to be certain, but some of Wilkins' less savory texts also mention it more explicitly. They confirm it prevents death by sunlight or staking, and also that it's set into a ring."
"And it only works for vampires?" Faith asked, making amused eyes at Xander. He could see why; she was probably happy she'd traded something 'useless' for the knife.
"On that, all sources agree," Giles confirmed. "But I would be very wary of underestimating its power, even if the breadth of effect is limited. From the description of your battle we can guess it might confer complete immunity to physical or even supernatural injury."
"You just let me take care of that, English," Faith said. "Worst comes to worst I can just cut off his finger."
"I'll wish you luck on that, despite our history," Giles said.
"You guys aren't thinking this through," Rachel said. "Even if Spike doesn't plan on backstabbing you, and trust me, he probably does, who's to say how safe this Vanessa is going to be once the fight starts? Minions aren't known for their restraint. Sure, let Faith distract him if she wants, but we should sneak in through the tunnels to rescue her at the same time."
"Except when they see us coming, they'll kill the hostage anyway," Warren said condescendingly.
"So we'll just be quiet then! He said it himself, he just has minions guarding her," Rachel was confident.
"I have to agree with her," Agent Finn said. "We wargamed this in training, the chances you take letting things be are always worse. I know we've… had our differences lately, but I'd be willing to lead an expedition to rescue the councilmember, and I'm sure I can convince Professor Walsh to provide any other assistance you need with this."
"He's not wrong about the official word on hostage situations," Chief Matt chimed in over the radio again. "But I'll warn that wasn't written with a lot of the relevant facts here in mind. I'm as worried about my aunt as anyone is, but we should let the experts decide how to handle this."
Vote: So experts, what do we do? Voting is by plan. You should address if you want to send an underground team to rescue Vanessa and who should be on that team. Also if you want to have support ready to help Faith in defiance of Spike's demands, and how far away they should be. Also all the timing of when people should do what, and any other details that seem helpful or relevant. It's 5:35 PM now and full dark is at 7:30 PM.
[] Drusilla's Plan
-[] Let Faith and Spike fight to the death alone.
-[] Put some drugs in Faith's water first to make sure she loses.
-[] Rachel will be a much more exciting slayer anyway.
