'The I in Team' Story Code '4ABB13' by David Fury

Buffy is training with Maggie and the Initiative, and in less than one minute has disabled Riley’s entire squad. The next morning, Willow tries to tell Buffy that her friends are feeling left out and ignored, and reminds her that they are all meeting at ‘The Bronze’ later in the evening. Giles visits Spike to pay him the money for helping him when he was a demon. Meanwhile, Maggie takes Buffy underground to the Initiative, where Buffy is dumbfounded by the sheer size of the installation; Maggie then gives her a pager to inform her of any missions. After Buffy leaves with Riley, Maggie enters room ‘314’, where Doctor Angleman is working on their secret project: a hideous living weapon made out of various demon and human body parts, and which they have christened ‘Adam’. Tara gives Willow a gift, but is disappointed to hear that Willow is unable to see her later as she is meeting Xander and Buffy. Later, at ‘The Bronze’, Xander, Anya and Willow wait for Buffy, but are upset when she arrives with Riley and his commando friends. They begin to discuss how Buffy should slow down with the Initiative, and how they need to find out what ‘314’ is, when the commandos’ and Buffy’s pagers go off. During the subsequent debriefing, Maggie and Doctor Angleman tell Buffy and the commandos they are hunting a Polgara demon, and instruct them to bring back its arms unharmed, a decision that prompts a series of questions from Buffy. Riley splits the team into two groups for the hunt; the team led by Forrest runs into Spike, and they manage to shoot a tracer into this back. The Polgara demon attacks Riley, but Buffy is able to distract it enough so that the others can stun the creature. Stimulated by the battle, Riley and Buffy spend the night together; but unknown to them, Maggie has hidden cameras in Riley’s room, and is now watching and listening to their every intimate act. The next morning, Buffy begins to ask Riley if he knows anything about ‘314’ when Maggie calls him down to the Initiative; once there, Riley sees the door marked ‘314’, but Maggie interrupts him before he can see anything. She orders him to recapture Spike, and once Riley has left on his mission, informs Doctor Angleman that Buffy is aware of ‘314’. Spike arrives at Giles’, begging him and the Scoobies to help him; when Xander recognises the tracer they realise that the Initiative cannot be far away. After Buffy leaves to answer a summons by Maggie, Giles calls Willow for her help; the young witch casts an ionising spell around Spike which disrupts the signal. Meanwhile, Maggie sends Buffy on a reconnaissance mission, and equips her with a gun and a camera headset; Buffy goes to the sewers as directed, but once there, finds herself surrounded by two demons which she saw previously at the Initiative - and finds that her gun does not work. At Giles’s, the gang manages to pull the tracer out of Spike, which Xander then flushes down the toilet. Buffy engages the demons in combat, while a dispassionate Maggie watches events through her camera; when the view from the camera suggests that Buffy is lying on the ground, and no heartbeat is sensed, Maggie believes that the demons have killed her. However, Buffy manages to kill both of the demons. When Riley returns to the Initiative Maggie tells him that Buffy has been killed by demons; but the monitors suddenly show Buffy picking up the camera, and, speaking into the mic, the Slayer tells Maggie that she clearly had to idea what she is capable of, and that she is coming for her. Realising Maggie’s deception, Riley leaves. While everyone is still at Giles’ Spike vows to stay in Sunnydale until something can be done about his chip; Buffy arrives, and tells everyone that the Initiative is not what it seems. In the ‘314’ Laboratory, a furious Maggie paces around Adam, venting her anger about Buffy - when suddenly the spike from the Polgara demon slices through her chest, killing her. Dying, she looks up and sees Adam standing behind her, and as her lifeless body drops to the ground, Adam affectionately looks at her, and says “Mommy”…

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), James Marsters (Spike), Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Amber Benson (Tara), George Hertzberg (Adam), Leonard Roberts (Forest Gates), Bailey Chase (Graham Miller), Jack Stehlin (Doctor Angleman), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Lindsay Crouse (Professor Maggie Walsh), Neil Daly (Mason)
Directed by James A. Contner

TX (US): 8th February 2000
TX (UK - Sky One): 31st March 2000
TX (UK - BBC): 18th January 2001

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Riley, Anya and Tara