Successor (BTVS)

[X] None of this will do enough. Project 314 has to be rushed into operation.


"Once Gardner called her again, Judge Rester got back with the program," Buffy summarized. "The extradition went through and Ethan got shipped off to England this morning."

"And you trust the Watchers with him?" Congressman Gold asked over the radio. "I'm not really in a position to throw stones, but you hear some shadowy stories about them."

"I trust them to keep him contained," Buffy said. "Plus CyberWillow's going to stay in contact."

"I'm still surprised he agreed to that," Willow said. "I mean, I guess he's on our side lately? But free and open, not really his style."

"I suggested that I would be helpful for keeping him relatively cooperative," CyberWillow cut in. "Senior Watcher Travers agreed with my line of reasoning."

"Willow, that was your computer and not you right? It sounded a little -" Gold paused for a second "- distorted."

"She likes to do the echo thing when she talks now," Willow said. "It makes it easier to tell us apart over the radio."

"Can't say it doesn't do that. Just gave me the jitters, is all," Gold explained.

"The effect may leave something to be desired with only a single speaker to work from," CyberWillow said. "Your opinion is useful data."

With the chaos of the previous day mostly behind them, their focus had shifted back into research mode, and Congressman Ward of Ohio's 2nd district was definitely someone they needed to know about. Vanessa's stash understandably hadn't had any blackmail material on him, so it made sense to go to one of his colleagues next.

So Buffy and Willow had called up Ian's uncle (and secret Reptilian) Charles Gold from the safety of the conference room, Information Horizon fully engaged. Gold was paranoid like that. Ian was there too as the person who knew him best, but he was even quieter than usual and looking distinctly uncomfortable. He was probably worried about the topic drifting to his loss in the City Council election; there were a lot of family expectations in that family of demons.

"Thanks?" Gold said after another pause, still sounding a little uncertain. "But back to the subject. What about the bartender guy and his bail?"

"She added a zero to it. 500 Grand." Buffy said. "Her original 50 was a 'typo', obviously." A couple Initiative guys still showed up and paid it, but at least now if he vanishes into thin air he'll be paying our bills for a while."

"Technically, bail on a missing prisoner is exclusively intended for paying a bondsman to recapture them," Ian said quietly.

"Exactly," Buffy nodded. "We make with bonding ourselves, hunt him down, and then we have the money free and clear." Seemed fair enough to her. Ian blinked owlishly.

"With all the stuff we already have on him it'd be easy," Willow said. "Birthdate, social security number, fingerprints, tons of video, there's more than enough for a sympathetic data search."

"I guess I should get in touch if I need anyone looked up in the future," Gold said amicably. "But it sounds like you wrapped it all up? I'm happy to be kept in the loop, but did you actually need me for anything?"

"Yeah, it wasn't Gardner who was really behind this," Buffy said. "Another Congressman pushed him to do it. Nick Ward. Seemed like your area."

"Huh." His voice sounded speculative. "Aaron's always been chummy with him. That part's not surprising, on the face of it."

"He was making a lot of big noise about the Democrats being the cool kids though, and apparently Ward's a Republican?" Buffy asked. "I kind of assumed things were more, umm-"

"Adversarial," Willow suggested.

"Yes. That." Buffy agreed.

"That's the mask that's put on it, but the face beneath isn't so simple," Gold snorted, and Ian shook his head ruefully, as if it was something he'd heard too many times. "To get anything done, deals need to get made all the time, people make acquaintances. Which isn't to say Aaron hasn't maybe been getting a little too chummy. But in itself it's not verboten."

"He mentioned Ward was basically bribing him for favors," Buffy said. "With that appropriations committee thing. That's not how it's supposed to work, right?"

"Most of the government doesn't really work how it's supposed to," Gold answered. "You're living proof of that yourself. But something like this, messing with the justice system, it's at least worse than usual. Not that you could pin it on him."

"I do have the full recording of Congressman Gardner's conversation with Mayor Summers," CyberWillow pointed out.

"And that's not a recording you want getting out either, so its use to you is limited," Gold said.

"We could still splice it and then clean it up a little," Willow suggested eagerly.

"It's not substantial enough, Ward would wiggle his way clean," Gold said. "Plus you've got Gardner in your pocket for now, even if he hates you. A recording of him saying that burns your resource at the very least. At the worst he might lash out, like a wounded animal."

Buffy thought he was too afraid for that, but she had just spent effort getting him under control, and she'd at least implied he'd be safe if he did what she said. Scummy cheater he might be, but she'd made a deal with him and didn't like the idea of breaking it.

Meanwhile, Willow went in a new direction. "I guess I could just look into Ward then and try to find his own mistress, or whatever other gross skeleton he's hiding. It's trickier doing undirected snooping from so far away but it's not impossible."

"You could try, but I'm not sure you're likely to find anything like that," Gold said. "Ward's kinda got a rep as a straightlaced guy."

"Gardner does too," Buffy chuckled a little.

"I didn't say I'm ruling it out," Gold let out a little chuckle of his own. "But you might be better off focusing on the more official side. He's on the House Armed Services Committee too, and that might be what ties him to the Initiative. Or he might just be another patsy in the chain. But if you poked into that, you're more likely to find something you can really use."

"The Initiative has to get its funding from somewhere," Ian added. "Wherever that is, it's probably written down."

"Just not in the official set of books," Gold continued. "I know, because I threw some weight around and checked myself, after I was first informed about your secret little army base. But that shouldn't be an issue for you."

"Maggie's been really anal-retentive about computers, ever since before we even met her," Willow griped. "You don't think she's gotten the whole agency offline?"

"The Initiative is her facility, clearly," Gold said. "But outside that, I'm not sure how much pull a civilian like her would have. Even if she did send advice up the chain, it might've been ignored. Most of the people making these kinds of decisions barely even know what computers are. I barely knew what one was until after our first little visit."

"So if these secret books exist and are even on computer, do you know where they'd be?" Willow asked.

"It matters?" Gold seemed surprised.

"Kind of," Willow tilted her hand back and forth, even though he couldn't see the gesture. "Especially if they aren't directly connected to the internet. I have my ways of getting around it, but some are more awkward than others."

Buffy kind of wondered how Willow had gotten those Chinese files from before, but maybe this was different? It wasn't something to bring up now.

Gold hmmed. "So, if I had to guess anywhere, I'd maybe guess the Pentagon first. Could plausibly be a few other buildings, or maybe some black site who knows where," Gold said.

"Can you get one of my servers inside?" Willow asked. "It doesn't have to be connected to anything, just plugged into the wall. Or even plugged into power in a car outside. Proximity counts."

"So you want me to go all secret agent? Sounds like it could be dangerous! Do I have to dress up all snazzy too?" Gold said.

"You don't have to take the risk if-" Buffy started.

"No, no, I'm just joshing with you, that'll be a breeze," Gold cut in. "Give it to Ian and I'll have it hooked up in a few days, just tell him whenever you need it moved around."

"Great." Buffy was a little disquieted that now they were pretty much spying on the actual US government, but fair was fair. They'd done it to her first.

"You have arrived." CyberWillow finished her directions routine, and everyone piled out of Harmony's Chrysler as she pulled into a spot. As usual, parking was pretty easy in Sunnydale.

She didn't get a ton of use out of her car anymore, especially once Buffy got her motorcycle, but it was ideal for carting the potentials around. At least during nighttime.

Harmony had been briefly interested in the idea of copying Spike's taped-up abomination when it came up in conversation once, but it wouldn't really be practical for her to do her own way less ugly version of it. Fledgelings were just too flammable. They'd had to settle for just padding the trunk and making it a lot cushier to lie down in, in case of emergency (Or in case of 'emergency', which had already happened once last week. It'd definitely been a little cramped.)

"This is in the demon district, isn't it?" Zoe asked. The neighborhood had the run-down look that was half neglect and half a cultivated appearance, for keeping civilians out of the more dangerous area with signals they could understand.

The house they were coming to see was in better condition than most of the surroundings though; the ranch style one-level had a well manicured lawn, even if the tan paint job had seen better days.

"We're right on the edge," Buffy said. "Maybe if we're living around here it'll keep them from backsliding."

"Like a teacher moving into the same neighborhood as all her students. My evil side approves," Harmony said.

"Your evil side approves of policing evil?" Rachel questioned.

"Evil's not a team, it's a lifestyle," Harmony explained sagely. "It's like that thing with the Japanese furniture."

"Wait, what?" Rachel boggled.

"You know, Feng Shui," Harmony said.

"That's actually Chinese Geomancy," Zoe corrected. "And the version people use to arrange their living rooms is kind of bastardized and watered down."

"Whatever, you know what I mean," Harmony waved her hands vaguely and Buffy smirked at the silly cuteness of it. "We're so bad the bad guys are afraid. Like, the bigger bads."

"The more traditional name for that is the 'good guys'," Rachel argued.

"No, it's totally different! Like, look at my hair!" Harmony swooshed her hand through the short style with lowlights she'd had for the past month or so. "This isn't good girl hair."

They'd managed to meander up to the front door, so Buffy knocked, deigning to ignore the bickering over mostly nothing. If she told Harmony she was a good guy she might mope.

None of them had expected a demon to answer the door, but he'd clearly expected them.

"Come in, come in! Make my nest your own!" It was a vulture-headed demon, with a long neck and feathery claws in place of hands. The cheap suit he was wearing was different from the robes she'd seen him in before, but Buffy was pretty sure this was the same one from the big pre-election rally. Anya had mentioned his name later on, it was-

"Walgo!" Harmony greeted him with a smile and a jump, her argument forgotten. "I didn't know you owned this place! It's so upscale."

As they walked in, it was clear the inside was a lot nicer than the outside. It was already furnished, and everything was clean and even kind of expensive-looking. There may have even been Feng Shui involved.

"One of my very best properties, for the very best of clientele," he boasted.

Buffy nodded, not quite sure how to respond. This was the first place Cynthia had put on the list, and she hoped there hadn't been some liberal interpretation about the price range she wanted. It wasn't like she couldn't spend the money, exactly. But she kind of wanted to avoid feeling frivolous.

Oblivious to her hesitation, Walgo started a tour of the building, his vulture beak bobbing as he walked. "I've talked with Ms. Danvers and It should be everything you're looking for. We entered in the parlor you can keep dressed up for guests, then you've got your common area here, and if you come this way there's the dining room. There's a full kitchen, four bedrooms, two baths, yard space out back-"

"The rooms are downstairs?" Zoe said, looking suspiciously at the layout.

"Of course, of course, let me show you down there." He pulled out a key and unlocked a heavy door that led to the basement. Buffy noticed the deadbolt had keyholes on both sides.

Rachel stopped behind them, staring at the door. "This is a vamp nest, isn't it?"

The blunt declaration took Walgo a little off-guard, and he flapped his arms to maintain his balance on the stairs as his thin neck pivoted back to look at them. "Ah, well, I'm not sure I'd say that exactly. Not as such. I've rented to all kinds, in the past. There certainly aren't any vampires here now, aside from our friend here." He indicated Harmony and attempted to smile.

"I mean, this setup is kind of convenient for me," Harmony said. "So many places are mega-inconsiderate of people who don't tan well. Or at all."

"That's not the point!" Rachel said. "So what if it's useful for you right now. You didn't even exist a year ago. How many vampire gangs do you think he's rented this place out to? How many people have died here?"

Walgo cringed and stuttered, looking back and forth between Buffy and Rachel, "Well, ah, those questions are sure questions one could ask. I'm not sure I could really provide-"

"Are there gonna be bloodstains all over?" Zoe said.

"I always make sure to have those bleached out after every occupancy," Walgo said automatically. Then his eyes widened, maybe realizing his canned response wasn't the best here.

"Are you renting to other vampires now? Anywhere other than here?" Buffy asked. She suspected she knew the answer already, but it'd be nice to confirm it while he was spooked.

"No, none at all," he replied fast.

"How long's this place been empty?" She continued.

"Since June," he said. At her calm, enquiring expression, he continued, "It was to some of Digby's henches. But none of the bad sort since then! Anywhere! Cross my primaries! Your girl set me straight right after that, I'm no fool like Teeth was!" She wasn't sure why he was talking about elections, but it was good to hear Harmony was riding herd on the demon element.

"Walgo's been helpful," Harmony said. "Xander knows him too."

She nodded. "Great. Then I think we're fine." She gave Rachel a glance, and the girl still had a bit of a look on her face, but she didn't seem particularly rebellious. As long as there really aren't any bloodstains, I mean."

"Absolutely not! Not even out on the sewer access," Walgo got right back to boasting and turned back to leading them down the stairs.

It really was a pretty nice place, especially the basement area. There was one bigger room for her and Harmony, plus three more for Rachel, Zoe, and a guest. The downstairs had a bathroom and a mini-fridge too, plus the sewer access, which could be barred shut and was an even heavier door than the one to the basement had been.

"So do you like it?" Walgo said eagerly at the end. "I've got some other places I could show you if you don't, but I'm not sure if they'd be to your taste, exactly."

"Most of them are slums," Harmony said bluntly.

"Well, I wouldn't say that exactly, but I wouldn't argue with your girl either," Walgo allowed.

"It's pretty great," Zoe said. Rachel looked at her grumpily, a little betrayed. "Well, I mean it is, come on. We were expecting to get shoved in some closet on Crawford street."

He still hadn't mentioned the asking price, and Buffy was concerned. Despite one of the two levels being underground, this was bigger and nicer than her mom's place even. "So, what's the rent for it?" She tried to sound confident and unworried.

"Well, seein' as it's gone empty for a while, and the target demographic has fled the coop, your pal Walgo can make you a deal." He paused for just a second, and something about his manner made Buffy realize he was still spooked himself, even with the vampire conversation behind him. "Let's call it six fifty."

She fought to restrain her surprise. That was ludicrously low for a furnished place this big, even in Sunnydale, even in this neighborhood. It wasn't like all demons were broke, the prices at Willy's spoke to that. But he did look nervous. She trusted her gut. "My budget was looking more like five hundred."

"Sure, sure!" Walgo agreed instantly. "I just need to get someone in the place really, keep the cuckoos at bay you know.

"We can move in today?" Harmony asked.

"Of course," he nodded, his neck making an exaggeratedly large motion.

"Yay!" she cheered and then jumped onto Buffy for a second in a hug.
CORRUPT
"Did you hear that?" Buffy snapped her head around as she plopped Harm back down, trying to find the source as her hammer materialized. She had a nasty feeling about this.



"Hear what?" Harmony asked, as Walgo scrambled backwards and the potentials looked around surprised.

It had been what, behind that wall? And maybe downwards a little?

"I knew there was going to be something wrong with this place!" Rachel crowed.

Buffy narrowed her eyes. The feel of this reminded her of Dracula, but different. More god stuff. "No, it's not here. I think it was farther away." She'd gotten turned around in this basement, what direction was that exactly?

Her radio rang, and she answered it in a flash. "What's wrong?"

"I've lost my spiderweb coverage on campus. I don't know why." CyberWillow's voice cracked a little as it echoed, almost as if she was on the verge of tears.

All of UC Sunnydale, gone? She started running up the stairs, back outside. "Were any of our people there? Did it get everything? The dorms?" She prayed Willow was already at Crawford Street. They'd been going to do another Spider sacrifice tonight.

"No," she didn't elaborate for a long second, still sounding eerily shaken for her unflappable computer self. "I don't believe the actual space was affected. Everything is still there. But I can barely see."

"You mean you lost the cameras?"

"I still," long pause again. "I still have everything we've hardwired. I can see the supercomputer, it's safe. But it hurts. Everything hurts. I'm not supposed to hurt."

Some kind of attack then, on CyberWillow directly. She immediately suspected Maggie, but that didn't make sense. This was a magic thing. Probably a god thing.

"It's only UC Sunnydale? You still have the cameras everywhere else?"

"Yes. I think, it's as if they're gone in a circle? Some are going in and out, on the edges. It's extremely distressing. I'm distressed."

"Did you hear something right before it happened? Like a word?" Buffy stopped at the Chrysler, realizing she didn't have a key and that campus was a little far to run to.

"Yes. I- maybe?" CyberWillow didn't elaborate.

"Are you talking to Willow? Does she know what's happening?" Buffy asked.

"Yes. I'll patch…" CyberWillow trailed off.

"Willow? CyberWillow?" Buffy said after another beat. She noticed the others coming out the door, Harmony already bobbling her car key around as she got it out.

"Hi Buffy," Willow sounded less panicked than CyberWillow. "I've got CyberWillow running internal error analysis diagnostics now, it might help with the nasty feedback she's getting. I have no idea what happened. I don't think the ritual could've just run out of power, all our calculations said once a week was a totally safe timetable."

"I heard a Word, right before it happened" Buffy repeated. "Capital W."

"Like Dracula, or-" Willow started.

"Yeah, or," Buffy said vaguely, getting into the car with the potentials jumping in back. Better not to blow open the whole entire successor goddess thing to those two right now.

"That's the kind of bad news they use to bring in the TV ratings," Willow said.

"Definitely." She thought for a second. "CyberWillow heard it too, sort of. Did anyone else?"

"I didn't. Should I feel left out?" she said.

"Big no. It was the kind of creepy that creeps. It said 'CORRUPT.'" She looked around the car, addressing the people actually there. "We should get to campus. None of you heard a peep?"

They shared a glance with each other, and Zoe talked first. "Nothing, you just jumped out of nowhere. Did Willow just say this was something about Dracula?"

Buffy knew the whole 'Seduce' Word stuff had been kept out of the official reports. "It's a slayer sense thing," she vagued. "This isn't him, but it could be a big threat."

"It's attacking the Initiative?" Rachel asked. Buffy hadn't actually thought of that, but it made sense. If it was farther underground than the basement and on campus, it was definitely down there. So either it was them, or they were its lunch. She wasn't sure which she was more afraid of.

"So are we charging in, all cavalry-like?" Harmony sounded excited.

Vote: Clock's ticking. What do you do? Stunt team members and/or approaches.

[] Break into the Initiative. Buffy rounds up a team quickly to charge down into the Initiative, without announcing she's coming. If she can manage to surprise whatever this is, that'll be a huge advantage.

[] Gather information carefully. Instead of busting in right away, Buffy has the spellcasters try to find out what's going on covertly, without risking anyone underground.

[] Call Maggie Walsh to find out what's going on, or maybe warn her something big's happening. Neither her or Buffy has broken the radio silence that's held between them since the blow-up, but this is more important. Even if being the one to crack first feels a little like losing.