Wolves, Slayers and Cages by Frau Hunter Ash

Disclaimer: The characters and show all belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui, and God only knows who else. The X-files characters and show all belong to Chris Carter, Fox and possibly others. No copyright infringement was intended and suing me will not make you any money! The storyline, however, is the sole property of the author. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright notices.

Summary: Everyone tries to deal with Willow’s lycanthropy and things go into crisis when Willow disappears and it looks like the Initiative is involved.

"Scully?" Mulder questioned as his FBI partner and Buffy entered the Summers home that evening.

Scully knew that she looked like a wreck and felt like she had been through one. During her partnership with Mulder she had seen a lot of things and had been tossed around a lot, Scully figured to just add this incident to that list. She was also going to add Sunnydale, California, to her list of 'not to visit ever again' places.

"I'm fine, Mulder," as her partner reached her and lifted her head to one side, taking in the large gauze pad and tape covering one side of her neck and the black eye she was quickly developing.

Giles and Joyce were looking Buffy over as well and discovered that she had a possible sprained wrist and a cut lip.

"Well, it was my fault, really," Scully began as Mulder led her to the sofa and made her sit. "I tried to kill a vampire with my gun instead of the stake Buffy gave me."

"We were jumped by several vampires," Buffy continued as her mom moved back into the kitchen. "I was about to take care of the one with his claws wrapped around Scully's neck when I got hit with one of those psychic flashes from Willow. I moved a second too slow and the vamp got her fangs into Scully's throat."

"Don't worry, not enough to drain her, just cut open her neck," Buffy said calmly. "When I jumped into the action, Scully was knocked aside and hit her head."

"Hey, if it had been you, they'd just walked up and bit you while you were asking them questions about what it was like to be a vampire," Scully teased back.

"Lying down for a bit," Giles answered. "She'll probably think the psychic call you got was part of a nightmare. What did you see?"

"What's becoming the usual, Giles," Buffy said, her eyes filling with tears. "She's scared out of her mind and she's trying to block us from seeing or hearing it but can't help screaming sometimes."

"Your Mom has made spaghetti. Xander and Anya have gone home for awhile as well," Giles answered.

"Any idea what they're doing to Willow, Buffy?" Mulder asked as he helped Scully stand up.

Joyce entered from the kitchen carrying a large bowl of spaghetti and Giles quickly moved around her to help with the dinner.

"Something to screw with her mind is what I got this time," Buffy answered wearily. "Drugs, lights and noise were the overall sensations I got."

Both Mulder and Giles were frowning as Giles moved to place a large bowl of salad on the table and Joyce followed with garlic bread.

"Xander will be so upset he missed my mom's spaghetti," Buffy commented. "Should I wake Tara?"

"Let her sleep as long as she can," Joyce suggested. "Right after dinner and a shower I want you in bed too, young lady."

"You really need to. They don't plan on moving Willow until tomorrow evening, after she's changed and is sedated," Mulder explained, reaching for the garlic bread. "They plan on transferring her and the other hostiles over to the next transport team just after dawn in Las Vegas. Lang…my friend has the location and is sending credentials for Brad, Xander and Joyce by overnight mail."

"Through the service entrance," Giles answered. "Tara, Anya and I will have identification as transport drivers and you and Spike will be hidden inside hollowed out machines."

"Delivery drivers," Joyce corrected the Watcher's terminology from English to American with a smile.

Buffy grinned at the goofy look on Giles' face as he looked at her mom. She still found it a little weird but nice that her Watcher liked her mom and that the feelings were mutual from her mom. Buffy hadn't seen Giles look like that since Jenny Calendar's death. The Slayer liked it.

"Isn't this a little too dangerous? One wrong move and he's in the hands of the Initiative again," Buffy frowned, continuing to eat a hearty dinner. Slaying always made her hungry, and 'frisky,' she thought.

"I agree but he was insistent," Giles explained. "I wouldn't have thought that he'd take such a chance again but he merely said that he was fond of Willow and he remembered what it was like to be down in that…well, I can't use the words he did, in the Center."

"Spike is a vampire. They put a chip inside his head that prevents him from killing or hurting humans. In a way, he's tame," Buffy chipped in.

"I thought you went around killing vampires, not 'taming' them," Scully asked, a little sarcasm in her voice showing through.

"Well, we've met one vampire who didn't take human life because a curse had restored his soul and Spike who can't hurt humans even though he wants to," Giles explained.

"So we go in there, find a computer and put in the disk and get out," Buffy said, bringing the conversation back around to the planning.

"I want the place destroyed, Giles," Buffy said firmly, her eyes flashing angrily.

"I realize that," the Watcher nodded again. "Just after we send word to Agents Mulder and Scully that we are out of there and that they have Willow, I'm going to call the Center and phone in a bomb threat."

"So that the place can be evacuated before those computers overload several systems, including the power supplies. After that virus destroys the computers the insides of the Center will explode," Giles explained.

"What about the 'hostiles' they have down there?" Buffy asked. "I'm not into rescuing demons that I'm usually trying to kill, but what if some are like Willow and aren't bad guys?"

"Well, they're anticipating action from Agent Mulder by Monday and are transferring all their hostiles with Willow," Giles continued as they ate. "They're hoping that if Mulder forces his way in with official clearance that he'll only find scientific testing equipment and such, no vampires, werewolves or demons."

"I think we should change the plan slightly," Buffy said, catching everyone's attention. "I think Scully should go with us into the Center and I think Tara should be with my Mom and Xander when they get Willow back."

"Why?" Mulder asked before anyone else could. "Scully and I are a team, we know what the other one thinks and we trust each other with our lives."

"I know and I wouldn't suggest it normally but I think either me or Tara needs to be there when you get Willow out and I'm the logical choice to go into the Center," Buffy reasoned. "I can fight my way out of there if I need to, I've been in there before and know my way around somewhat."

"Why is it so important for one of you to be with Willow other than the girlfriend thing?" Joyce asked and wasn't surprised when Buffy blushed.

"You haven't seen and heard what Willow is gong through, Mom," Buffy said softly. "I keep getting flashes. They tortured her body and now they're working on her mind. She's breaking down and may not recognize anyone except Tara or me. We can use the connection with have her to reach her, I hope."

"Oh mushy stuff!" Buffy exclaimed and Mulder nearly choked on a mouth full of spaghetti.

Tara mumbled something that might have been English in a coherent moment but Buffy couldn't tell for sure. The Slayer smiled and climbed out of her clothes, leaving on just her t-shirt and crawled into bed with the blonde witch.

Tara smiled in her half sleep and wrapped her arm around Buffy and drew the other blonde closer to her. Buffy let her tense muscles begin to relax as Tara's warmth spread over her and encompassed her. The Slayer decided that snuggling with someone was much much better than sleeping alone.

"Its okay, Buffy," Tara mumbled and gently stroked Buffy's hair. "We'll get her back."

"I love you both so much," Buffy said softly, letting her emotions overcome her.

"Try and sleep, my love," Tara urged. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow. Pretending everything is normal tomorrow while everyone else plans."

"Because murder still means a long term in prison and that wouldn't be good," Tara reminded her girlfriend.

"Oh, okay, then I won't kill him yet," Buffy said softly as she began to drift into sleep.

"Mulder, this is insane!" Scully protested over their coffee and breakfast at a diner near their hotel.

"I agree, tell me a better plan and I'll jump at it," Mulder countered. "How do you suggest that we get Willow out of the hands of a secret government organization that no one will acknowledge exists?"

"Court orders, SWAT raids," Scully suggested. "We are talking about a young woman who is being held against her will. They can be charged with kidnapping, probably torture, medical experimentation and who knows what else."

"That would take time, we have no evidence a court would believe and Willow will be gone before we could even get a search warrant," Mulder complained.

"I know but I promised to help whenever I could," Mulder explained with a small smile.

"What is it about Willow that drew you in?" Scully asked, the curiosity apparent in her voice and on her face.

"She's intelligent, curious about everything, a bit scientific but open to the paranormal," he grinned. "She's also a redhead, green eyes and is cute."

"Would I say that? That might ruin our professional relationship and our cool exterior personas," Mulder grinned.

"Right, I agree," Scully smirked back. After a moment Scully returned to the original conversation. "How do you plan on getting Willow and the others back to Sunnydale, won't some of them need special handling?"

"Langley and the others ordered one of the busses the Initiative uses for transport in for repairs in Las Vegas," Mulder explained with a smile. "We simply pick up the bus and transport Willow and the others back to Sunnydale."

"Giles and Xander are installing iron rings and chains in the cell they have for Willow, we'll lock everyone up overnight," Mulder continued. "Saturday morning a friend of theirs is coming in from Los Angeles to take the hostiles away. He apparently has a lot contact among the demons, vampires and others in Los Angeles and can find them safe shelter."

"This just gets more bizarre by the minute," Scully complained. "I'm actually discussing what to do with demons, vampires and werewolves so they'll be safe from the government."

"Which one of us is going to Las Vegas and which one of us is staying here for the commando raid?" the red-haired agent asked.

"I like watching things explode?" he grinned. "And you can throw technical or scientific terms at them and sound like a scientific type."

Scully laughed, after all they had been through lately, and it was good to see Mulder smiling and confident.

"Either sedate her on nights of the full moon and lock her away, or just lock her away and watch over her," Mulder shrugged. "They kept the boyfriend Oz out of trouble for months that way."

"Are we sure that the Initiative is so terrible? Couldn't they be working for a cure?"

"Not likely, we haven't come across too many benevolent secret government groups, have we?" he pointed out. "The orders about insemination cinched it for me. They want to take an unwilling young woman and impregnate her so she can breed little werewolves for them."

"Besides giving me some better fantasies than some of my books?" he asked with a grin. "I think the bond is genuine. You haven't met Willow or seen the three of them interact together. It's like watching a moving triangle in action. They each have strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other."

"It is unusual if it works, I haven't seen many three ways work for long," Scully commented.

The day was an unusual one for the Scooby Gang but to any outsider it appeared like any other Friday in Sunnydale. Willow Rosenberg was out of school, an unheard of event; Buffy and Tara appeared concerned and told everyone that she was ill at home; Giles was seen at the art gallery owned by Joyce Summers; Anya was working at the Magic Box; Xander was patrolling the mall, saving shoppers from shoplifters and kids skateboarding inside; and Mulder and Scully were seen looking over police files on Missing Person's cases.

"Excellent," she commented as Riley Finn looked on. "They know we have her and the Federal Agents are hoping to get enough evidence to move against us before resorting to ambushing the transfer Sunday morning."

"I still don't like it, Buffy should have attacked the Center that very first night," Riley growled.

"I agree, it was totally out of character for her," Walsh responded. "We would have underestimated her and the others if we hadn't gotten that report about the ambush Sunday."

"No, I don't believe so," Walsh said thoughtfully. "They know tonight is the full moon and that it would be highly unlikely for us to transport Hostiles on a full moon."

"You know the rules, unless we can show she's a danger to the Initiative, we can't justify bringing her in. She didn't test positive for vampirism or lycanthropy," Walsh snapped. "Unless she attacks the Center, we can't do a thing to her. We haven't even seen evidence that they plan to go to the press with this."

"She's stronger than I had thought originally, given her background of being a 'geek' most of her life," Walsh said, calling up a file on her computer and pointing to several places on the screen. "She has changed involuntarily yet, even with the mental stimuli. I'm hoping that we'll be able to force a change after the next three nights of the full moon."

"Breaking down," Walsh commented. "If we had longer, she'd be easily managed after two weeks."

"That's not practical or logical," Walsh snapped at the young commando. "You're letting your personal life cloud your judgment. That is no longer Willow Rosenberg, close personal friend to the Slayer, which is Hostile 52. Her past relationship with Buffy Summers can be used to our advantage if the Slayer moves against us but only then, Riley."

"Yes, Professor," Riley responded. "Video cameras are set, sensors in place to monitor heart rate and body changes. You know when she changes she's going to break that cast and maybe injure her hand. How does that fit into your plan for her future?"

"Well, I still don't believe she could make it through Shock Troop training, so that hand won't matter with the drug research the main lab wants to do on werewolves."

"Oh that'll come first," Walsh explained. "After she has a couple of offspring, then they'll really intensify the drug testing on her."

"Yes, we discovered some interesting paranoia, she's terrified of frogs," Walsh managed to smile.

Riley grinned. "So frog sounds, light sensation on the body combined with some mind altering drug?"

"You know that's beyond your clearance for now," Walsh lost her smile. "Just be patient, Finn. You'll soon have access to everything. The superiors still question your judgment after bringing Buffy Summers in."

"Don't glare, Finn," Walsh scolded. "You made a lapse in judgment and it set you back a few months, it happens."

Riley moved to an observation window above one of the testing areas and tried to resist grinning at the sight of a hysterical Willow cowering in the corner. It wouldn't do to let the others see him getting emotional about a Hostile.

Riley thought once more what a stroke of genius it had been to paralyze the girl's vocal cords; it saved all of them from listening to her scream and prevented her from working magick. Not that he believed in magick, he reflected. He just figured that she was telekinetic and used her voice to focus her mind.

He checked one of the technician's notes, ignoring Willow banging her head against the wall below them.

Buffy restless paced back and forth in Giles' living room as her Watcher sat in a chair, watching her with a tranquilizer gun in his hand. Tara sat in a chair slightly behind him.

"We have to be sure, Buffy," Giles said patiently. "Just another hour and the moon will be well into the sky and we'll know for certain Willow's spell work completely and you're not infected."

"And she didn't change on the two nights after Willow did the spell," Tara added.

"Oh alright, just stay away from any Initiative squads tonight, they may use any excuse to kidnap you," Giles growled.

"I'll be back early, I just gotta work off some of this energy," Buffy explained as she leaned down and kissed Tara lightly on the lips.

A half hour later and Buffy met Xander and Anya at the gates of one of the many cemeteries in Sunnydale.

"Yeah, we can pretend that each one we take out is Riley and Walsh," Xander grinned back.

"I'm hurt," a voice called out and the Scooby Gang members turned with stakes ready, Xander with his other hand on a pistol in his belt.

"Riley," Buffy growled as they took in the sight of Riley with his commando platoon. "Checking to see that I'm not all furry like?"

"You were wrong about a lot of things," Buffy growled. "Get out of here, Riley. You aren't on my 'favorite' list right now."

"I swear if you hurt her…" Xander beginning to threaten and draw his pistol but the platoon was ready and pointed their pistols at the Slayer and her friends.

"If we have her, you don't think we'd turn a Hostile loose without neutralizing them somehow?" Riley demanded. "We haven't found a way to do that with werewolves yet."

"Go back and play your 'war games,' Riley," Buffy said wearily. "You are less entertaining than the vampires out here."

"Goodnight, Buffy," Riley grinned. "Enjoy the thought of Willow changing into a werewolf somewhere and you can't help her."

Buffy growled and turned back to the cemetery, vampires were going to pay this night.

"Hey, Buff," Xander said, catching up with the angry Slayer, Anya right behind him. "I got a question. Willow is changing into a werewolf tonight, right? Pretty traumatic and stuff. How come you haven't wigged with that connection thing you've got with her?"

"Tara and I have been working on my shields so those psychic flashes don't cripple me when I'm out Slaying," Buffy explained. "I get flashes but they aren't overwhelming."

"Willow changed into a werewolf when the moon came up," Buffy said impatiently. "It was scary and extremely painful for her before the Wolf took over her mind. Any more questions? No? Good, let's slay!"

The three moved further into the graveyard for several minutes and then Buffy stopped the small group.

"Okay, Xander," she said. "They didn't follow us. Hotfoot it back to Giles' place, Scully is waiting with the car for you. The rented plane is set, right?"

"Yup, ready to go, the pilot is standing by," Xander nodded seriously. "After seeing me with you and Scully and Brad at the police station this late in the evening, they won't expect us to be in Las Vegas at dawn."

The testing had finally let up and inner instincts told Willow that it was sunset. She had no idea how long she had been in the Center but the witch knew the moon was about to rise and, with it, her wolf.

Willow remembered endless nights was watching Oz change into a werewolf and sitting through the long hours with him, trying to keep the beast calm and everyone else safe. She particularly remembered the screams of pain as he changed in the evening and then at dawn.

The witch felt restless and caged. Willow knew they were watching her from the one way mirror window set high in the wall. The cell was specially built for werewolves, no furniture, no fixtures, seamless metal door frame, metal door with no handle, metal covered walls. A special feature was the low ceiling made out of iron grates. This protected the observation window and kept the werewolf from reaching any part of the ceiling with the numerous cameras and sensors.

Willow began to pace restless and wondered why they were sedating her yet. Oz claimed he never remembered the change and the intense pain he went through; Willow was hoping for at least that much. Giles had been planning on sedating her to spare her the horrors of the first real change to a werewolf.

Once again the witch stood in front of the door and concentrated, trying to force her mind to compensate for not having a voice, to bend the lock to her will. A look of surprise crossed her face and Willow pulled back with a frown.

Why was she trying to get out at this point? She asked herself. She was about to change into a werewolf, being locked up was the best thing for the rest of the night. Even if she didn't like what the Initiative was doing to her and the other Hostiles, she didn't want the werewolf loose in the building. She might kill someone and they would be forced to sedate her or kill her.

Willow suddenly whimpered as stomach cramps doubled her over. She gasped with the sudden shooting pain through her entire body and fell to her knees on the cold metal floor. She pulled her body into a curled position, trying to block out the pain and resist what was happening.

Willow could hear the cameras moving and tracking her as her hand pulled at her clothes, the feel of the cloth felt like sandpaper against her skin. She looked down and saw the faint reddish hairs on her arms growing darker and thickening, becoming longer.

Willow screamed silently as she heard her bones beginning to snap. The hacker closed her eyes, knowing her body was now breaking its self apart and reforming into a larger and scarier shape.

Instead of a scream, it now would have been a howl as her jaw dislocated and elongated. She wondered how long she would remain aware as her teeth grew into deadly fangs. She could actually feel her ears changing.

Buffy resisted giggling at the sight of Giles and Mulder in delivery uniforms but Anya wasn't as successful and earned a glare from the Englishman as he straightened out his baseball cap in his head.

"I'm supposed to bloody well stay inside this infernal device for how long?" he demanded.

"Hey, I only do coffins when I'm hiding from hunters and Slayers," he snapped back.

"You think I would have learned not to volunteer for anything with Cromwell," he muttered.

Giles merely shook his head and removed a screwdriver from his toolbelt and quickly undid several screws on the front of the machine, revealing the hollow inside to the vampire.

"What, no reading material?" Spike quipped and Giles rolled his eyes and moved to open the other one.

"Are you sure that they won't recognize you?" Anya asked Mulder as he put on his baseball cap.

"Yes, that's why if you push the buttons, the machines actually feed out a test page," Mulder explained. "We get the machines inside and open the crates. The machines can be opened from the inside but not the outside without removing the screws. We drop the machines and get out of there and wait for you guys to get out."

"I agree, so be prepared for anything to go wrong," Buffy advised. "I'll share one machine with Anya."

"As if!" Spike growled. "Oh bloody hell, now I'm talking like the rest of you morons. I need a new life!"

"Or is that a new death? I can help you with that," Buffy taunted and Spike raised a fist threateningly.

"Enough!" Giles snapped. "There are a couple of sleeping bags over by the wall. We have four hours until we need to leave, I suggest we get some sleep."

"Mine either but Giles is right," Buffy shrugged and moved to grab one of the bags from the far wall of the rented warehouse containing their delivery truck and the good that might get them inside the Center. Buffy touched the disk in her jacket pocket once more, reassuring herself that it was there.

Even if they didn't get Willow back, the Initiative was going to pay by having all of their records wiped out.

Buffy shut out Anya's complaining, Spikes' taunting of Giles, and Mulder's frequent telephone calls and unrolled the sleeping bag and quickly laid down, rolling her jacket up for a pillow.

///I miss you too. The flight is going well. I hate small planes./// Tara answered.

///We will./// Tara said reassuringly in her mind and Buffy felt the connection drift away as her focus slipped.

"Hostile #52 barely conscious," a voice said farway in Buffy's mind. She tried to not let her mind or body jerk in surprise as she realized she was connecting with Willow again and could hear was what happening around the witch.

"Cast broken, hand possibly damaged again, as anticipated," the first voice added.

"You sure Walsh knows what she's doing?" the second voice asked. "We don't normally transport Hostiles in Hostile mode."

"I don't ask questions, I just take the huge bonus they give me for working here. Let them give me glowing recommendations in my service record and I get out of here and the service in three months," the first one answered.

"Okay, just make sure those shackles and restraints are tight," the second one urged.

"Oh yeah, no question about that one!" the first agreed. "I saw one werewolf Hostile get loose once. Just got an arm loose while on a gurney, but it was enough. He ripped one tech's arms right out of the socket and started hitting anyone who got close to him with the tech's arm."

"That's why you do things the right way the first time and you'll get out of here okay," the first one advised. "Never take short cuts in this job and always check everything twice. Hey, take note of this: Hostile #52 regaining voice at 0200 hours. Very harsh but unlike the previous growls."

"The advanced ones can, sort of," the first one answered. "Walsh doesn't want this one to regain her speech for some reason. The Hostile is scheduled to have her vocal cords permanently cut when she hits Area 51."

"Wow, you know, after working here, I give thanks every single day I'm simply human," the second one commented.

Buffy felt someone lightly shaking her and looked up into Giles' concerned face.

"I heard the guards around Willow," she responded, keeping her voice low as she looked over and saw Anya asleep in a sleeping bag, Spike playing solitaire across the room on the floor and Mulder dozing in a chair. "They're moving her now to a plane."

"She's in full werewolf form and broke her cast," Buffy continued, wiping away a fresh set of tears. "She may have injured her hand again. They also plan on cutting her vocal cords when she gets to Area 51."

"Oh God," Giles exclaimed wearily and sat down against the wall. He drew Buffy into his arms and she let her tears flow freely as her Watcher held her until she fell asleep again.

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Wolves, Slayers and Cages

By Frau Hunter Ash

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