Initiative

The Initiative, formerly known as the Demon Research Initiative, was a secret United States Government agency tasked with the capture and research of demons for military purposes.

Beginnings
The Initiative program was initially established during World War II as the Demon Research Initiative, meant to monitor demon activity and study demon physiology to aid the United States war effort.

In 1943, Mr. Fury, an agent of the DRI, forcibly recruited Angel to recapture a T-Class prototype U-boat which housed the results of the Third Reich's own research on vampires. Angel's mission was a partial success, as the submarine reached U.S. waters but the documents containing the research were destroyed by Spike. As a result, Angel quickly jumped ship and went underground until the end of the war.

In the following decades, the Demon Research Initiative evolved into the Initiative, led by Maggie Walsh and stationed in an elaborate facility underneath the UC Sunnydale campus. Though on the surface they appeared to be simply containing "Hostile Subterrestrials", they were secretly working on the 314 Project, meant to create cybernetically-enhanced human-demon hybrids as super-soldiers. Additionally, many soldiers, most notably Riley Finn, were secretly fed special performance-enhancing drugs, which would threaten Riley's life later.

Sunnydale and Downfall
In late 1999, Buffy Summers and the Scooby Gang first came into contact with Initiative commandos, though, as it was Halloween at the time, they initially dismissed them as people in Halloween costumes. However, when Buffy later came into contact with another commando while on patrol, she began to suspect more was going on.

Buffy's old enemy, Spike, was among the vampires and demons captured by the Initiative, who implanted him with a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to willingly harm or attempt to harm humans without causing him debilitating pain. When Spike escaped the Initiative and attempted to attack Willow Rosenberg, the Initiative went after him and nearly captured both Spike and Willow before Buffy arrived and engaged them in combat, forcing them to retreat and allowing Spike to escape.

Eventually, Buffy discovered that Riley, whom she had developed mutual romantic feelings for, was a member of the Initiative himself, and the other Scoobies soon found out as well while dealing with an encroaching apocalypse.

Buffy eventually joined the Initiative herself, but her excessive questioning of the organization's plans and motives, as well as her influence over Riley, began to unsettle Professor Walsh, who attempted to have her killed in action only to fail. Afterwards, Walsh was murdered by Adam, the first bio-mechanical demonoid created in the 314 Project, who subsequently escaped the facility and set about making an army of similar super-soldiers.

When Willow's werewolf ex-boyfriend Oz returned to town and was captured by the Initiative, Riley, having been torn between the Initiative and the Scooby Gang since Walsh's failed attempt on Buffy's life, finally realized the full extent of the Initiative's corruption and turned his back on them, helping the Scoobies break Oz out of the complex.

Adam quickly began the final stages of his plan, convincing the vampires and demons of Sunnydale to work together, with many of them allowing the Initiative to capture them. Adam's plan was simple: he intended to fill the Initiative facilities with demons and then unleash them on the soldiers by unlocking their cells from Professor Walsh's secret laboratory. Afterward, he and his minions would recover body parts from the slaughter and fashion a new race formed from man, demon, and machine. Knowing that Buffy would be able to even the casualties before being killed herself, Adam recruited Spike to isolate her from her friends, planning to trap her in the facility as well; though Spike briefly succeeded, he soon let too much information about the plot slip during a subsequent encounter with Buffy, and the group reconciled and set about stopping Adam.

To assist him in his plan, Adam created a second biomechanical demonoid from the corpse of the recently slain Forrest Gates and reanimated Professor Walsh and Dr. Angleman as mindless zombies to do so. However, the Scoobies used the powerful enjoining spell to combine their essences and powers within Buffy's body, allowing her to overpower and destroy Adam. Subsequently, the Scoobies, assisted by Spike, who had been double-crossed by Adam, joined with the Initiative's soldiers to stop the demon attacks, saving most of them with only 40% casualties amongst the Initiative.

With this, the government decided to shut down the Initiative for good, and remove any paper trail of its existence, deeming it and its operations a failure.

Legacy
Following the Initiative's closure, the Army maintained operations in hunting demons, incorporating many of the trained Initiative soldiers, including Riley Finn. They hunted down demon nests in the United States, as well as foreign countries. The goals of the Army now aligned closely with those of the Slayer: protecting people from demons and preventing demon threats from spreading.

Years later, the Scoobies would compare the Twilight Group to the Initiative.

Commanders and leaders

 * Mr. Ward: Pentagon Overseeing Committee
 * Maggie Walsh: Professor
 * George Haviland: Colonel
 * McNamara: Colonel
 * Francis Angleman: Doctor
 * Jonathan Levinson: Tactical Consultant, only due to a spell

Agents and soldiers

 * Angel: 1943, Unwillingly
 * Mr. Fury: 1943
 * Adam: While Alive
 * Riley Finn
 * Forrest Gates
 * Graham Miller
 * Stavros
 * Dixon
 * Evan
 * Goodman
 * Willis
 * Buffy Summers: Relieved of Duty/Left

Prisoners

 * Spike
 * Oz
 * Tom
 * Polgara Demon
 * Two "Warrior demons"
 * Hostile Six

Facility locations

 * Room 114
 * Room 314
 * The Armory
 * The Pit
 * The secret lab