this chap I have mixed feelings on... I much prefer the next one, but I kinda can't skip this'n...

CHAPTER TWO: Old Friends

"Riley we have to get this woman to a hospital," Buffy commanded, as several soldiers took her wounded charge. Jory was remaining quite. She was quite confused by all of this.

"We have medical facilities set up at our camp," assured Sam, Riley's wife. "She'll get better care there than she could at the hospital here, anyway." That was probably true...

"HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME! I SAID LET GO YOU TIN SOLDIER BASTARD!" The shouts were coming from to the left. Buffy, Sam, Jory and Riley all turned to see Faith, and Crys being dragged towards them, and the military vehicles that waited near by. It was Faith who was shouting.

"They attacked us sir," said the soldier holding Crys, to Riley, "Prevented us from getting the creature before it returned to its master."

"We were trying to kill the fucker!" said Faith, looking as though she were about to put her slayer strength to use, and get away, "Before these lackwits tried to shoot Crys. They let it get away."

"Let them go," Buffy ordered, "They're with me."

The soldiers hesitated a moment too long. Crys was less patient than Faith was. She easily broke free of the soldier's grip, and twisted his arm around, until there came the unsettling popping sound of bones coming out of their sockets. Riley was too perplexed to do anything, as was Sam. The man holding Faith suddenly let go, as if out of fear of the same fate. The man with the now dislocated bones was turning a strange shade of purple, as though holding back screams. Crys let him go, and dusted her hands on her jeans, "When a Slayer wants to be let go, you let her go, buddy."

Riley, still perplexed, looked at both Buffy and Faith, "Explain?"

"Long story," said Buffy, "We'll tell all on the way home, if you don't mind taking us."

Riley looked at his wife, then at the soldier who was being led away by a snickering doctor, (Buffy caught the comment of "third time you've been beaten by a girl. How's it feel?"), then back to Buffy, and the others. "Fine... Sam?"

"You know I'm coming," the brunette replied, "I've been hoping to see Willow again..."

"Oh," said Jory, "Willow's not here... She and Oz left last night. Their wedding was yesterday."

"Oz? I thought he left? "

"Another long story," said Faith, "Like Buffy said, she can tell all on the way home... Not me though... I've got a shower, and a man waiting a few blocks away... I'll be by tomorrow for an info update, B," with that, she walked off down the street, without a second glance back. Buffy shook her head. Faith was Faith.

--------------------

"God, love," said Spike, not even noticing Riley and Sam, who stood a few feet away. The first thing he'd seen had been the bruise which had formerly been her arm, as well was the bruises that covered her shoulders and back, "What th' bloody hell did you fight? A damn tank?" He was showing more concern for her injuries than normal... What was up?

Riley cleared his throat, and Spike abruptly looked his way, "Well, if it isn't Captain Cardboard... Ain't here to drive m' girl off again are you?"

"Down Spike," Buffy cut in, stopping any reply from Riley, "Before we go into the house, let me set few ground rules. There will be driving off, of any kind. There will be no fights, and you two will remain civil to one another, do I make myself clear?" Both nodded, looking at her reproachfully, "Otherwise, I'll stick you both in a room with the next minotaur I find, and let it have all kinds of fun with you."

Jory and Crys snickered, and Sam hid a smile behind one hand. At least Buffy still knew how to keep the men in line. The group entered the main hall of the mansion, and Riley whistled. "Wow... Nice place..."

"Isn't it though?" said a voice from the living room. Dawn. She crossed the distance between her and the group and hugged Riley tightly.

"God you've grown," said the soldier, as Dawn pulled away from him, and waved at his wife.

"Oh, Buffy," Dawn turned to her sister, "Giles says he found out what was up with your dream, and he wants to know if you found any beasties we need to research."

"Already on it," Buffy replied, motioning for her guests to follow her and the others to the library. She opened the library doors, and smiled a bit at both Riley and Sam's gasps when they saw the room. "Welcome to the research department of slayer central."

"Buffy!" said an excited Summer, "Guess what! We found out what your dream was about!"

"I know what it was about, " Buffy replied in a mock-serious tone, "It was about a french cult performing rituals with babies." She moved so the over-excited bookworm could see the visitors, "Summer, this is Riley and Samantha Finn. Riley, Sam, this is our resident mini-Giles, Summer. She's a slayer, but you wouldn't know it from looking at her."

Summer sniffed indignantly, "Just because I prefer research to mindless violence, doesn't mean I'm a 'mini-Giles'... Nice to meet both of you."

Giles soon joined them, "Buffy, there you are... It seems that we have a slight problem on our hands-.. Oh, Riley. Good lord, what are you doing here?"

"We're here, tracking the demons who've been killing women here... Buffy killed one, saved the latest victim. The other got away."

"Oh dear lord... There were two? They're desperate..."

"Okay, who's desperate?" Buffy interjected, curious, "Giles, you said you knew who was behind this."

Giles turned and headed for the second level of the library, digging through books, until he pulled out one that was several inches thick, and on the cover was the symbol the leader of the french guys'd had on his robes. "They're called La Fleur de la Mort," said Giles, "The Flower of Death."

Spike scoffed, "Those crackpots? I've heard of 'em... Old news, sorry chaps. I'll be outside if you find anythin' interestin'." He turned to leave the room, since he didn't like hearing information over again, unless it was hearing Buffy say she loved him. Speaking of which... He stopped near Buffy on his way out, leaned down, with a quick glare at Riley, and caught the slayer's lips in a kiss, that was originally intended to be a quick one. Both slayer, and not-vamp, however, seemed to both refuse to pull away from the other, and their lips stayed pressed together until Giles finally cleared his throat, making them remember where they were.

"I love you, Slayer," Spike growled, as though he hadn't heard Giles.

"Love you," Buffy replied.

Spike left without another word, earning a chuckle from Jory, a snicker from Crys, and a mumbled "next time get a room," from Summer. Riley was pointedly looking at the floor, and Sam wore an amused expression. Giles simply looked mildly annoyed. "Back to the cult bent on the destruction of the earth... They need a half-demon child, in order to perform a ritual that would bring about, not the end of the world, but the end of the human race... It would be a slow process, but it would, in fifty, sixty, maybe seventy years, have made the human race extinct. "

"Boy, some apocalypse," Jory muttered to herself.

Giles looked at her, "Do you want children, Jory Evans? Grandchildren? If they succeed in performing this ritual, then every newborn on earth would die, instantaneously, and any children born after would be dead. So yes, it would be a long while until the end of mankind, but I assure you it would be the end, never the less."

"So why the minotaurs?" Sam questioned.

"I know why... " Jory said, "I could understand what they were saying, those men, and I was able to fill in the blanks. The leader said not to let the minotaur kill the woman, that they needed a half-breed... Another agreed, saying there was less than a year until the eclipse... When they yanked the thing away from her, the leader said to take her, and that if she'd conceived, they'd know soon... When Buffy interrupted, he told the others to leave the woman, they'd get what they wanted..."

"So they have the things rape women, in hopes they'll get a child out of it, but the monsters are a little hard to control, and they kill all the women..." said Riley, "I don't get it... Why not vamp a baby... not that that idea is any more appealing, but it would make more sense..."

"Because," said Giles, "They need something that's alive... and if you look at it from a technical standpoint, a vampire isn't really a half-breed at all... It's a demon living in a human shell, but they're not truly merged... oh and Buffy, your dream? They said that the Flower of Death would destroy you."

"Yeah I had gathered that," Buffy replied, "and Flower of Death? How lame is that? I tell ya, these cults have really got to find better names. "

"You gotta admit, it sounds cool in french, though... But the D.A. is cooler." Dawn said from the back of the room. Everyone looked at her for a moment and she shrugged, "God do you people EVER read? D.A... Dumbledor's Army... Sheesh... Bunch of illiterate... I'm going to bed..." With no further ado she left, and Buffy was reminded of Corrine.

"Giles, is Cory in bed already?"

"Yes... I had Nancy put her to bed earlier... She was refusing to go to sleep until you got home, though. Even Spike didn't manage to get her to sleep."

"Cory?" Riley asked, confused.

"My daughter," Buffy replied, enjoying the look of shock on the soldier's face, "Adopted, of course... She's a slayer too. We found her when she was six. "

Both Riley and Sam's radio suddenly started emitting voices, "Agent R. Finn, Agent S. Finn... Second mark is secured. Repeat, second mark is secure. Return to base for orders." Riley sighed, "That's us... " he said.

"You have to leave?" Buffy asked, knowing the answer.

Riley nodded, "Yeah... There were only two of those things, so we've stopped 'em for now..."

"And this cult won't be able to find more of their little pets without us knowing, so no worries.." Sam reassured everyone in the room. "Tell Willow congratulations, would you?"

Buffy nodded, "Sure will."

"Hey listen," said Riley, "I'll send some help your way... mutual friends... I think they'd be a bit better equipped to handle a cult, than the trainees you've got here."

"Most likely," both Giles and Summer agreed.

Buffy watched as Riley and Sam left. She'd been hoping they'd be able to stay for awhile... even with all the slayers here, they still needed help, and who better than Riley Finn, and all his military buddies? After all, if they could track down the cult, they could just kill them off without worrying about it further. And furthermore... Mutual friends? Who was he talking about? But he was right... The trainees weren't ready for dealing with an apocalypse... Sure, she'd dealt with a few apocalypses, when she was their age, but she'd died. No guarantee these girls would. After all, none of them would have a very determined Xander doing CPR on them. The only ones she trusted to help her were Jory, Crys, and Summer. So, all the newbies were being left out of this crisis.

"I'm going to bed," Buffy told Giles, "I'll help hit the books tomorrow."

-----------------

Giles however wasn't going to wait for Buffy, before he and Summer started their research. Both Jory and Crys left soon after Buffy did. Jory, to her room, and Crys, to the dorm. As Giles read through his books, with Summer occasionally finding something in the others, he began to find details about the eclipse that the cult had been talking about. It only took place once every couple hundred years. Come on, give me an exact date, dammit! Giles thought, frustrated. He couldn't find anything other than that it would take place in a little less than a year, and that didn't do them much good. From what he could gather, the date was hidden somewhere in the book, by a code of some sort. That meant he'd have to get Eason and Dawn on it tomorrow... They were the top code-crackers in the place, when they could stop making moon eyes at one another for more than five minutes... If they kept up at that rate, there'd be another wedding being planned soon enough.

He continued to read, and found journal entries, near the end, that detailed on past attempts at the ritual... La Fleur de la Mort hadn't started using minotaurs until the last eclipse, apparently, when a half-breed had not been found. Also, they'd only retrieved a half-breed once, in all the years they'd been trying.. The child of a slayer. Said slayer had only foiled their attempts, shortly before dying. Curious about this, Giles headed for one of the many computers in the library. He may have preferred books, but he had to admit, the computers were faster, if you knew exactly what you were looking for, which he did.

He found the slayer, from four-hundred years before, in the scans of the watchers journals. She had been called at only twelve, and had died at eighteen. There was no record of her child, after her death, other than a vague mention of it needing to be dealt with. Giles, knowing the old watchers' council's way of speaking, knew 'dealt with' meant being killed. They always had taken extreme measures, to make sure everything fit perfectly into their views. Certainly, a half-demon child from a slayer wouldn't have fit into those views... even a normal child wouldn't have. It didn't name what demon, however, which more than slightly irked Giles. After all, they had to know what demons to be keeping a look-out for. Damned journals... They never provide enough details when it's needed.

He'd have to make sure all of his charges provided detailed journals, as the ones looking out for the other slayer teams were doing. Speaking of teams, he had a pair to send off, the next day. Annie, and Jane. The two had become fast friends, and were fully trained, by then, and ready to leave. He was sending them to Lokkett, Texas, a town with a high rate of paranormal activity. No hellmouth, demons just liked it. Kind of like L.A. Several times, there had been slayers-in-training who'd talked of wanting to go to Los Angeles, all of which had been told no. That was Angel's territory, and the slayers stayed away from it..

While Giles didn't agree with Angel, and his friends running an evil law firm, he had to admit, they were doing a good job there. But still, after the events several years before, and with the running of Wolfram and Hart, he felt it best if the slayers and watchers steered clear of L.A. Just in case. There hadn't been much contact with Angel, really, other than a few calls. Once to tell them of his taking over Wolfram and Hart, another to tell them of an impending apocalypse, and a third to say the apocalypse had been stopped. That had been six months ago. No word since, though, which probably meant that everything was normal, there.

But then, normal for Angel's group was probably about as normal as it was for the slayers... Monsters every day of the week, cults, world crisis. The list went on.

"Summer, I do believe it's time we turn in," Giles finally said, noting the yawns that the girl was trying to hide.

"C'mon, Giles," Summer replied, tucking her curly hair behind her ears, "Just a little more? I found more of their journals, and records."

"Tomorrow, Summer. The books aren't going anywhere."

She sighed, "Fine... But I'm getting up early."

------------------

Dawn lie awake in bed, unable to sleep. Sleep was something she got little of, lately. She had no idea why, she just had a bad feeling...Like something bad was going to happen, soon. Maybe feelings like that came from being a glowing ball of immortal mystical energy, for thousands of years. She wondered, briefly, what it had been like, since she had no memories, before becoming human. Even knowing she had only existed for a few years, she still had memories of nineteen years with her mother, and sister... It was a strange concept, to have the memories, yet to know it never happened. At least all of her memories of her new friends were real.

Sighing, Dawn rolled over on to her stomach, and tapped random beats on the wall, to entertain herself. If she hadn't been sure that Buffy'd still be awake, she might have gone to Eason's room. Not that her sister didn't know what was going on... It was Spike that worried Dawn, and if Buffy was awake, so was he, and he was the over-protective parent-type. She loved the bleached not-vamp to death, but damn, did he have to be so dratted paranoid?

There was that feeling again... that something bad was about to happen. Too bad she couldn't get exact times from these feelings.

But maybe she didn't have to, for right then came startled yells from down the hall. Dawn rolled over, threw back her covers, and ran from her room, to see just what the hell was happening. Xander was standing outside his room, as was AnnMarie, using what appeared to be Xander's comforter to cover herself. Were she not wondering what was going on, Dawn might have laughed at that one. Other people were coming out of their rooms, as well, and listening to the distinct sounds of a fight.

-------------------

Buffy had been lying in bed, minding her own business, trying to get to sleep. After all, she had to work later that morning. She'd gotten a job as the highschool councelor, in town, and tomorrow, Monday, she had to go back. Robin worked at the school, as well, though as a teacher, not as principal. And then, those french freaks'd had the audacity to just flash themselves into her room, (hm, simple teleportation spells... you'd think they'd be a bit fancier.) , and start attacking her.

Poor Spike shot out of bed, like all hell was breaking loose, and maybe it was. What struck Buffy as odd was that they were trying to avoid hitting her. Oh, they hit Spike, with no hesitation, but not once did they hit her. Instead, they were trying to get ahold of her, and drag her to their leader, whom was staying firmly in the corner of the room, another teleportation spell, ready to be cast. It seemed as though they had prepared for someone to be with Buffy... If they had, they'd have bought more than three people, leader not included. Those three were handled rather easily, due much to fact that they weren't very skilled fighters. It was clear they generally used their pets for the dirty work. The leader, realizing he wasn't going to be joined on the way home, cast his spell, before Spike, or Buffy could get to him, and disappeared with a flash of light.

-------------------

Later that morning, once Giles had been dragged out of bed, and Faith and Robin had been convinced to get up early, and come join the rest of the scoobies, the group sat in the living room, discussing things. Eason and Dawn were in the library, trying to find a more exact date on the eclipse.

"I don't get it," Faith said, "You said they needed a half-breed baby?"- Spike visibly paled at that, but no one seemed to notice- "No offense, B, but why in the hell would they need you?"

"That's what confuses me," said Giles, "And the way that Jory said they reacted when Buffy saved that girl, is odd as well. Maybe they're just trying to prevent a repeat of the one time they actually aquired a child... A slayer stopped them. Maybe they've learned from past mistakes. "

"Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to get me out of the way," Buffy replied with a nod, feeling sick again. "But you'd think they'd do a bit of research, before just attacking... They were SO not ready for there to be two people beating their asses... But they didn't hit me. They tried to drag me off, but they didn't hit me, it was like they needed me, alive, and unhurt."

"I know why," said Spike, quietly. Everyone turned his way. His tone of voice worried Buffy. The expression on his face worried her even more. She didn't say anything, however, since he seemed to have something to say. He seemed to be chewing on the inside of his cheek, nervously. Spike nervous? This definitely wasn't good. When she finally got tired of waiting, Buffy spoke up.

"Well, why?"

Spike twitched at the sound of her voice, and looked at her, "It ain't you they're after, Buffy," he said, "It's th' Little Bit you're gonna have..."

------------------

Well, you all knew it was coming :p

Oh, and sorry for not having Riley around longer... But I think you all might enjoy the help he's gonna send, a bit more than Riley himself.