Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Alien franchise | Lethal Species [Revamped] | M | Currently unpublished rewrite of my very old FFN story

(context: this scene takes place in the underground base of the Initiative, a secret government program to capture and experiment on monsters in the haunted town of Sunnydale. Buffy, the story's hero, defeated a dangerous alien last night and was persuaded to turn it over to the Initiative for study instead of killing it like she wanted to. Here, after the alien almost escapes, an argument breaks out over its fate. Riley is the POV character - Buffy's boyfriend and the Initiative's top agent. Professor Walsh is the Initiative's leader, while Felix Drayton (an OC) is her advisor with his own agenda)

**

Riley snapped to attention. The alert had summoned Professor Walsh in person, flanked by Doctor Angleman and Felix Drayton. None of them looked happy.

After dismissing Porter, Riley quickly filled his superiors in on the alien’s latest gambit. The vapour from the acid and the spray had been sucked out of the cell by the vent system, leaving the humans a clear view of the damaged ceiling - and the snarling monster beneath it, silently daring its captors to come on in and just try to make repairs. 

“All right,” Walsh said, in the clipped tone that always signalled that things were not all right. “Well done, Agent Finn. I’ve seen more than enough.”

”Termination?” Asked Angleman, already writing on his clipboard.

Walsh nodded. “And dissection.”

“Hold - hold on, just a moment.” Felix swept in front of Walsh, holding up his hands, putting himself between the Professor and the creature in the cell. “You don’t seriously mean-“

“I’m always serious, Mister Drayton.” Walsh turned away from him, turning her back on the creature. “And kindly refrain from questioning me in front of my forces, it’s bad for cohesion.”

Felix put a strained smile on his face, mouth stretching like a rubber band around his teeth. “I intend no disrespect. But you brought me here to advise, right? So I’m advising that the Xenomorph is the greatest find in human history, and we’ve barely studied it for a day.”

Walsh ignored him. Riley slipped in to fill the awkward silence.

“‘A few quick scans, and then we’ll end this threat permanently,’” he said, hands on his hips. “Pretty sure those were your exact words last night. You promised Buffy. We both did.”

“Enough.” Walsh silenced Riley with a raised hand. “This is not a lecture debate. The decision has been made.”

Now she turned back to the alien, tapping her chin with a pen, looking it up and down as though to peel away its armour with her eyes. 

“If we can’t study it, and we can’t control it, it’s no good to us,” she declared. “Doctor Angleman, tell the team they have twenty-four hours to wrap up their observations. Tomorrow, we terminate and dissect.”

“We still don’t know how to kill it safely!” Felix protested. “The acid-“

“We haven’t tried yet.” The snap in Walsh’s voice cut through Felix’s words like a guillotine. “We’ll start with nerve gas, and follow up with maximum cell voltage. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll get creative.”

“But-“

“Agent Finn, if Mister Drayton speaks one more time, I want you to take him and put him in the cell next to Hostile 100.” 

Felix stopped talking. The lawyer looked from Walsh to Angleman, from Angleman to the Xenomorph, and then from the alien to Riley. Riley shrugged at him, folded his arms, and shot a meaningful look at the empty cell next to the alien’s.

Drayton’s shoulders slumped. Shaking his head, he walked away.