Old Friends, New Problems

Side story

Just thought it would be nice to take a break from the main story line for a while.

Note: this is probably going to be the last story I'm going to update for a while.

Note #2: This side story is not going to be told from Rem's point of view.

Note #3: This all takes place roughly two years before Team Bee came to Earth.

Rivers woke to darkness and the smell of gasoline and to the copper taste of blood in his mouth. Blinking slowly, Rivers waited for his eyes to adjust enough to the dark so that he could see where he was. It took a few minutes but eventually they adjusted enough that he could tell that he was in a cell of some sort, the walls and ceiling were metal while the floor was (strangely) dirt, there was no window but a corner, next to the dark outline of a door, was the slow, red-blinking light of a security camera. Sitting up, Rivers propped himself up against the wall and touched a hand to his sore left cheek. He winced slightly when his dirt-covered hand made contact with the gash there and dropped his hand into his lap. Looking up at the metal ceiling, Rivers tried to remember just what it had been to land him here in this crude cell with a gashed cheek and a headache that made him feel like he got ran over by Indie's truck - twice. But all he could remember was the sound of a breaking window and crushing metal, a bright flash of light, and the voice of a woman shouting at him. At the thought, the image of a black-haired, violet-eyed woman appeared in his mind.

"Rem..."

The word came out without a second thought. It sounded strange on his lips and he guessed that it was possibly the woman's name.

The woman... Rivers felt like he knew her from somewhere... But where? Work? He shook his head, and cast that thought aside. She didn't look like someone who would be a cop, so it was unlikely that he would know her from work. Could he have seen her off duty? No, he thought to himself, I would have remembered seeing her around town... and she doesn't look like any of Cooper's friends. Rivers couldn't see the vibrant, energetic red-headed detective being friends with someone who looked so serious. So if she wasn't a cop or a friend of Cooper's... then who was she? Rivers pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in frustration. He shouldn't be focusing on trying to figure out who this woman was! Instead he should be thinking of a way out of this cell.

Moving to stand, Rivers groaned and sat back down when the room began to spin suddenly. He must have been hit harder than he originally thought. Closing his eyes Rivers took several deep breaths and waited for the pounding in his head to stop. Nothing made any sense... how did he go from coordinating a series of murders with the FBI to waking up in a cell? The image of the woman - Rem - flashed in his mind, again, but this time it was her standing over a body with a strange-looking silver gun in her hand. Feelings of shock and anger rushed through Rivers, and it was then that he realized that what he was seeing was a memory.

Just what was going on?!

- 72 hours before -

Lights from cameras and patrol cars flashed and the smell of death hung in the air as Rivers stepped out of his car. His partner, Elizabeth Connie "Cooper" Franklynz, practically jumped out of the passenger side of the car and was at his side before he could reprimand her for her VERY undetective-like behavior. Luckily, he was used to the red-head's hyper-ness. Rolling his eyes, Rivers made his way over to where the M.E. was examining a body. The crime scene was in a small park near a fountain.

"What can you tell me, James?" asked Rivers, kneeling down beside the M.E.

"The victim's name is Herbert Crossings, age 34," listed the young M.E., jotting down something on his clipboard.

"Cause of death?"

"Straight shot through the heart by the looks of it, just like all the others, but I'll know more when I get him back to the morgue."

Rivers nodded and stood. Then, "How long has he been dead?"

"Liver temperature would indicate that he's been dead for at least 6 to 8 hours. Now, you might want to collect that partner of yours before she breaks her neck falling out of that tree behind us."

Whipping around, and looking up, Rivers nearly fell over in shock when he saw that James was right. Hanging upside down from a branch about ten feet from the ground was Cooper trying to dislodge something from between two intertwined branches below her. Walking up to the tree, Rivers called up to his partner, "Cooper! Get down from there before you break your neck!"

"Hold on, Rivers!" she shouted back, "There's something strange up here!"

Shaking his head, Rivers crossed his arms and waited for his partner to finish up.

"Excuse me, are you Detective Leonel Rivets?" came a voice behind him.

Turning, Rivers met the gaze of dark-haired man with green eyes. The man radiated authority, which gave Rivers the impression that this man was most likely FBI or something. "Yes, that's me."

"My name is Agent Kane, I'm with the FBI," The man reached into his pocket and presented his badge.

"What can I do for you, Agent Kane?"

"My team and I were called in by your chief to help you solve the recent string of murders."

The corner of Rivers' mouth pulled up into a smirk. "So the chief finally put aside his pride and called in for help?" The smirk vanished and was instantly replaced with a sharp frown. "About time..."

If it had been up to Rivers, he would have called in the FBI four bodies ago, but the Chief of Police was too stubborn to admit that they had a serial killer in their town. Rivers guessed that it was the killing of Mr. Jeremiah, a local dentist and friend of the mayor, that finally got the chief to cave in and call. Rivers was so engulfed in his thoughts, he didn't see the strange purple car, or its driver, pulling to a stop on the other side of the park.

...

Later that night, as he was driving home, Rivers felt like he was being follow but whenever he looked into his rearview he saw nothing there. When he drove down the short length of forest road the feeling momentarily disappeared until he left the cover of the trees, again. Looking into his rearview once again, Rivers saw the exact same amount of nothingness as he did before. Pulling up in his drive way, Rivers looked around carefully as he climbed out of his car and walked into the house, locking his car door remotely. After he quickly stepped into his house, the watchful feeling disappeared and Rivers mentally sighed in relief, then turned to lock his door.

Big mistake, because the minute he turned his back something was pressed to the back of his head, a gun (though the end of the barrel felt strangely smooth). Slowly, Rivers attempted to get his gun from its holster on his hip but his captor must've seen what he was up to and slammed the butt of the gun against his head, sending Rivers crashing to the ground in a heap. When he pushed himself onto his side, Rivers found himself staring down the barrel of the gun.

"That was very rude, Detective Rivets."

Rivers' eyes drifted from the gun to the one holding it: a woman. She was pale, and had long, black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail on top of her head, and was wearing sunglasses - which struck him as strange since the only thing that was on was the lamp by the front door (Rivers guessed that he probably forgot to turn it off when he left that morning).

"What do you want?"

A corner of the woman's lips curled upward into a small smirk. "Humans - always so curious," she hummed, "Don't worry, detective, I'm not here to kill you."

Rivers raised a brow. "Then what are you doing here? Who are you?" He asked.

The woman sighed and stood, but kept her gun trained at Rivers' head. "Who I am is not important, detective - I'm just here trying to repay an old debt. And since you haven't been paying attention my previous warnings, I decided that it was time to take a more direct approach."

"That was you?!"

For a week, Rivers received several letters from an anonymous sender telling him to stay off the case. Originally, Rivers thought that they were just a prank but then the letters began to state that if he didn't get of the case, people close to him would get hurt. After that, Rivers had taken all the letters he had received and showed them to his chief and had taken the liberty to phoning his mother and younger sister to find someplace safe to stay until the case was solved.

The woman nodded. "Yes, it was. Now, listen," she said sharply. There was a small moment of silence before she spoke again, "You are in way over your head, get off the case and leave it to the more expendable humans to deal with."

Rivers frowned sharply and narrowed his eyes. "Why do you care? Are you the one killing these innocent people?"

The woman's face suddenly went neutral and her grip on the gun tightened a fraction, and Rivers was sure that she was going to shoot him right then and there.

"Those humans were far from innocent, detective," she said coldly, "And, no, I'm not the one who killed them. Nor do I care whether you heed my words or not. Like I said, I'm just trying to repay an old debt."

"What debt?"

"Someone saved my life and I'm returning the favor by trying to save yours, it's as simple as that."

Rivers opened his mouth to say more but a sudden series of familiar clicks shut him up. His attention shot down to the gun still pointed at him. Glowing, ice-blue lines lit up the sides of the gun and a slight humming sound began to emanate from it as well. Rivers looked up at the woman then back to the gun. She just stared at him, face neutral.

"I'll be in touch, detective."

Before Rivers could say anything, there was a brief sensation of pain and the feeling of being shocked. Then everything went black.

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter in this side story.

Please review! :)