College Girl (Book Four, BTVS)

chapter 14 - Goodbye, Iowa

Buffy and I were explaining to Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Spike.

"So, Maggie sends us down into the sewers with those blasto guns and the next thing we know know, it's raining monsters," Buffy told us.

"Hallelujah," Xander told us.

"And then this gate slams down behind us, and we--we try to use the guns," I told them.

"You're saying that Maggie Walsh set you up?" Giles asked.

"That's exactly what we're saying," I answered. "She sent us on a one way recon."

"Got to hand it to you two," Spike told us. "You do have bleeding tragic taste in men. I've got a cousin married to a regurgitating frolopses demon that's got better instincts than you."

"What does taste in men have to do with this?" I asked.

"You think soldier boys were out knitting booties for your future offspring while Maggie was stringing you up?" Spike asked.

Xander, Anya, Giles and Willow remained silent.

"You guys think they had something to do with this?" Buffy asked.

"Probably not, but, um, we'd be remiss if we didn't think of all the possibilities," Giles told us.

I nodded. "Right. Remiss."

"No," Buffy told us. "No. Maggie made sure that all of the commandos were out on a job, nowhere around when she sent us on this very special 'Make the Slayers dead' assignment. Plus, Riley? He seems like he wouldn't tell a little white lie, let alone a whole bunch of big dirty ones."

"That's why they call it the secret forces, Buff, 'cause they kinda keep the whole lying thing to themselves," Xander told her.

"All I know is that Maggie has it in for us, which means the Initiative has it in for us," I told them.

"I'm guessing the mad scientist isn't too keen on the fact that the entire Scooby gang knows that the Initiative is up to no good," Willow told us.

"Which brings us back to the not-safe-for-any-of-us concept," I told them.

"What could have happened to make Professor Walsh want to kill you?" Giles asked.

"I don't know," I told them. "Uh, she wasn't keen on the fact that we were asking a lot of questions. That's for sure."

"So you were getting too close to something," Anya told us.

"Clearly," Giles told us. "Although, one can only imagine what she'd be so desperate to hide."

      ••••   

Buffy opened the weapons trunk, pulling out to battle axes. "Okay, everybody grab a weapon. We've gotta move."

I took one of the axes.

"And storm the Initiative?" Xander asked. "Yeah, let's take on those suckers."

Buffy handed Anya a bat, Xander an ax. "I was thinking more that we'd hide."

"Oh, thank God," Xander told us.

"I think perhaps we should talk about this," Giles told us.

"We need to relocate someplace we're less likely to be found," Buffy told us. "We need to come up with a plan."

"We could go to my place," Willow told us.

"The Initiative guys know how close we are," I told her. "They'll automatically check the places that you hang out. Xander, what about your basement? The guys haven't seen us together that much, and there's enough room."