Old Friends

Ch 4- A Blast from the Recent Past

Buffy was striding, alert through 'The Fields', one of the many, many cemeteries in Sunnydale. Riley strode at her side and they both looked for signs of fresh graves, depending on her 'Slayer-sense' to let her know which ones contained a soon-to-be-newly-risen vampire.

Buffy wasn't altogether happy tonight. And not just because of the name of the place they were in. 'The Fields' were officially known as the 'Strawberry Fields Cemetery'. Although she didn't really care about classic rock, she knew a classic Beatles tune title when she met one and using it for a field of corpses was just tacky in her estimation. She refused to use the cemetery's full name, so it had been reduced to 'The Fields' shortly after she began regular patrols. It seemed like a hundred years ago, now.

Her other source of displeasure was her Slaying companion. Riley had been moody since she picked him up at his apartment forty minutes ago. She knew he'd wanted to have dinner together, but when her mom had gotten home from the gallery she seemed extra, well, Buffy didn't want to use the word bitchy. But if she was going to use a word to describe her mother tonight, that would have been it. Apparently Joyce expected a family dinner tonight and Buffy had barely gotten Riley's name out of her mouth before her mother had thrown a…, well, Buffy didn't want to use the words 'childish fit', but…

So, now instead of a pissed off mother, I get a pissed of boyfriend. Lucky me, she thought.

She looked over toward Riley without turning her head. Yes, still being a child, she sighed under her breath. He was all but marching a little over a foot from her on her right. His jaw was set in what could have been determination, if there was anything to be determined about at the moment. Instead, she concluded he was still being infantile.

Hah! 'Infantile'. I is a college edge-u-mah-cated woman, her mind mused.

As she looked again, she took in his tight shirt and the way his pants seemed too snug around his waist. Her footsteps faltered slightly as she walked.

"Riley? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Why, are you suddenly remembering I'm your boyfriend?"

"Look, I'm sorry about dinner. Jeez, its not my fault mom was in Nazi-mode when she got home."

"Which is fine," Riley fumed, "if it wasn't all the time, anymore. I swear the only time we see each other now is either by accident or…never mind."

"No, finish the thought. Accident or what?"

"I said forget it. Let's just find something for you to beat, alright? Preferably something other than my dick for a change."

"What?" Buffy said, incredulous.

"I'm not just your sex toy, Buffy. You can't just ride me in lieu of staking something!"

"Riley! First off all, I didn't know that having sex with me was such a chore. And second, I'm pretty sure I can go without if it's such a problem for you." Buffy was going to go on with pointing out that he was the one who was always thrusting a hard on in her direction when she came up short. She stared at him, concern on her face.

"Riley, you don't look right. You're, like, swollen and you're sweating buckets."

"It's nothing. Why don't you save your attention for finding us the bad guys. If I need your medical advice, I'll ask for it."

"Okay. Now I know there is something wrong. This is exactly what Xander was talking about, isn't it? Riley, something is going on. You need someone to check this out. You're not acting like yourself."

"You mean I'm not acting like I'm pussy-whipped? You mean I'm not just acquiescing to being treated like your personal whore?"

Buffy reacted as if he had just slapped her. He'd never taken such a nasty tone with her and he sure didn't throw around words like he was saying now.

"What's the matter, Buffy," Riley sneered in her direction. "I thought you liked your men with a little darkness to them."

"I don't know what you are talking about. But something is so wrong here."

"Oh, come on!" Riley sounded incredulous. "Do we have to go down memory lane? Angel…turns into a psycho murderer and you still can't get enough of him. Dracula? Tried to kill Xander, but that didn't stop you from thrusting your neck in his fanged face. How about that dweeb, Parker? Treated you like shit, and you still wanted to get back with him. Maybe that's been my problem all along. I've been way too nice to you. There must be something in being the Slayer that drives you to want to be used and abused by the men in your life."

"I don't know where this is coming from," Buffy said low, getting angry herself. "But this isn't you. You need help."

"Actually," a voice said from behind her, "you both do."

Spinning around, Buffy was confronted by a gang of five vampires, all in game face. As she tried to gauge how much trouble they were in, a grunt sounded from behind her along with the sounds of a body hitting the ground hard.

She spun around again to see Riley on the ground. Atop him a vampire was stretching toward his throat. His arms were pinned under him by the creature's superior strength and its element of surprise. Buffy yelled Riley's name and attacked, kicking the vampire in the face. As the thing rolled off Riley, and before she could turn back toward the other gang, a hand shot from behind a mausoleum. With their argument going on, she hadn't noticed that they'd wandered right into an ambush!

She strained to turn enough to keep her attacker from her neck, only to find the hand was green and clawed. The demon, and it wasn't a vampire, unless he'd gotten moldy, smelled faintly of a leather factory. From her peripheral vision, she knew it was far taller than she and was wearing a silver metal armor thingie on its chest. Turning more forcefully, she froze into inaction as she saw the clawed arm was attached to Adam.

"No," she whispered in shock. And then she was sailing through the air as he tossed her like a rag doll. She heard Riley call her name before slamming headfirst through a vertical gravestone, snapping the granite tablet in half.

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Riley was confused. He didn't seem to be in control of his mouth or his emotions as he shouted at Buffy. They were horrible things; things that he would never even consider saying under normal circumstances. He wanted to apologize, but his mouth just kept moving, trying to cut her down.

It was a relief when interruption had come in the form of a gang of attacking vamps. Before they could properly react, however, Riley had found himself pinned to the ground. Somehow, they'd let themselves be ambushed.

He was pissed at Buffy for that too. Her stupid Slayer powers were supposed to detect vampires!

Once he felt the weight of the thing off of him, he immediately sprang to his feet. He'd grabbed the thing by its filthy and ratty coat and punched it square in the face, knocking it back down.

Riley yanked a stake out of his cargo pants pocket, but hesitated when he'd seen the face of his attacker. It was Dr. Somebody-or-another; one of the Initiative scientists!

He didn't know why, but he immediately felt a jab of fear and spun to warn Buffy. He knew even before seeing him that Adam's animated remains would be here. And he was. He yelled out to Buffy as he saw her fly at least six feet away, slamming hard into a gravestone.

He didn't have time to check her condition. Science-guy was once again on the attack, jumping on his back and grabbing at his face. Riley could only watch helplessly, yelling a warning to Buffy as Adam stalked his way toward where she'd landed. The vampire-scientists nails were raking at his face, and Riley had to re-focus on his own problem in order to save his eyes.

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Buffy pulled her self up from the ground, grimacing with the full body ache of her landing. She used the broken edge of the gravestone to steady herself. When she looked, she found Adam and the five vampires all approaching, looking for Slayer blood.

She spared a quick glance for Riley, but he was already tangled up in his own fight. Backing away, she judged her attack strategy and then charged at the Cyber-demon. As Adam made a grab for her, Buffy jumped and kicked off of his broad chest to land in the thick of the vampire gang.

She flashed in a blur of movement, staking two immediately. As the others tried to grab her, she executed a flurry of punches and kicks. By that time, Adam had rejoined her attackers and Buffy forearmed him to the face twice before he managed to punch her.

She felt the ragged edge of something puncture her abdomen and as Adam withdrew his fist to hit her again, she saw the remains of the Pulgara skewer she'd broken off of him. It was dripping with her blood.

Adam punched forward, aiming for her head. Using her superior flexibility, she was able to dodge under the arm. She swung her fist up into Adam's face, noting its particularly dried and shrunken look. It appeared that the once human flesh had been freeze dried and preserved. The eyes were deeply sunken and didn't appear to allow him any sort of sight. She also noticed that he produced no sounds. No grunts, no taunting, no world-dominating philosophy lessons…nothing. Finally, he moved stiffly; more robotic than humanoid.

Buffy was piecing the puzzle of his return together, and managing to avoid more half-hearted punches when she was tackled by two of the other vampires. She saw Riley racing toward her, apparently having dealt with his attacker, but he was too far away to save her.

The vampires tried to pin her to the ground, holding her in place as Adam came along side them. She watched as he raised his heavy foot above her head. Just before he could smash her skull in with a solid stomp, she managed to shake off one vampire.

Going into a side-roll, the other vampire was yanked with her, still holding her arm. Adam's powerful foot crashed down on the vamp's arm, snapping the bone with ease and causing a cry of pain from it.

Buffy kicked her other 'holder', the one she'd shook off, in the face and then leapt to her feet. Riley joined her and they presented a united front against their foes. As both once again tried to get Adam out of the fight with a series of kicks and punches, the sound of a vampire ashing could be heard.

Buffy glanced over to see Spike in hand to hand with the one remaining vampire. The snapped-arm guy could be seen running for all he was worth, disengaging from the fight. She returned her attention to her own fight just in time to receive a solid blow to the forehead, splitting the skin and causing a rush of blood into her eyes.

As she hit the ground, Riley raked his fingers towards Adam's eyes. Though he connected solidly, the Cyber-demon didn't so much as flinch. Riley was grabbed around the waste and bear-hugged into the metal plating of the demon's body armor. He half-panted/half-groaned as he felt himself lose the ability to draw breath in the big creature's grip.

Behind him, Buffy was grabbing at Adam's arms, trying to get him to loosen his death clinch. From behind her, the sounds of Spike and the last vampire fighting could be heard.

Then without a by-your-leave, Adam let go of Riley. He shoved Buffy to the side and engaged Spike. Grabbing the vampire, he threw him, as he had Buffy. Spike slammed into a mausoleum door and slumped to the ground.

As Buffy tried to come up with another attack plan, Adam grabbed the sole remaining vampire and as she watched, he ran. Carrying the bloodsucker, Adam took off at a run she couldn't hope to match on her best day, never mind when she was beaten up.

She watched with one eye wide and unbelieving, the other sticky with blood running down from her forehead as the bad guys ran away, despite Adam's superior strength.

"Huh?" She said.

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End Ch4