Chapter 3: Out of My Mind
October 17, 2000
Restfield Cemetery
The White Zeo Ranger stood atop a crypt lying in wait. Not far away she could see her sister lying in wait as well.
There was a small beep from her wrist communicator as Buffy's voice came out of it, "I'm sensing something," the Slayer told her.
"Understood," the Power Ranger replied.
Buffy leapt from her hiding spot followed by the White Zeo Ranger, both of them each held the one of the White Zeo Power Stakes in their hands. The White Zeo Ranger took off after her sister as Buffy stalked forward.
"Buffy," the White Zeo Ranger said coming to a stop and looking around the new area of the cemetery. She saw empty graves waiting for coffins and some recently filled.
Buffy nodded as she continued to sense something. She raised the Power Stake in her hand and thrust it toward a fresh plot. Just before the stake hits earth, a pair of arms break through. The stake penetrated his chest and he instantly caught on fire and dusted before he even had a chance to emerge from his grave.
"Good catch," the White Zeo Ranger told her sister just as a nearby grave burst open and a vampire crawled his way out. She instantly saw that the vampire was animalistic; extra-muscley and vicious. She deflected his attack with a series of well-placed kicks, driving the vampire back towards a nearby tomb. She pulled back the Power Stake, preparing to stake him when…
Riley dashed out from behind the tomb, and tackled the vampire.
"Riley!" Buffy yelled in her surprise at her boyfriend.
Riley looked at the duo, he was just as surprised to see them as they were to see him. "Buffy! Dawn! What are you two doing here?" he asked.
"Our job…" Buffy answered as the White Zeo Ranger moved beside her.
"I just thought you two were in the north sector—" he explained looking at the two of them.
The White Zeo Ranger noticed that the vampire Riley had tackled was getting to his feet. "White Ranger Power Sword!" she called out as the stakes disappeared from hers and Buffy's hands to be replaced by her Power Sword.
Riley swung around grabbing the vampire and lifted him off the ground. He hurled him toward the Ranger who swung her sword in an arc aimed for the vampire's neck.
The blade severed the vampire's head from his body just as he caught on fire and exploded into ash.
Another vampire took that moment to erupt from his grave. Buffy charged over, ready. She grabbed her stake from the small of her back and cocked it. She was about to stake him when Spike came between them.
Buffy glanced at Dawn. "Why do we even bother to show up?" she asked her sister.
"No idea," the White Zeo ranger replied.
They watched as Spike kicked and punched the other vampire with erratic zeal.
"What are you doing here, Spike?" the White Zeo Ranger asked the blonde vampire.
"Same reason as you, the Slayer and her cub scout, I'd wager," Spike replied. "Wanted a spot of violence before bedtime." The vampire hit him with an uppercut to his nose. As blood began to drop, he touched his nose and tasted the blood absently.
"Dawn," Buffy said as the White Zeo Ranger tossed her the Power Sword. She kicked Spike out of the way and then swung the sword aiming for the vampire's neck. As the blade decapitated the vampire he burst into flame before exploding to ash.
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger looked at each other then at Spike shaking their heads. "What?" he asked. "I softened 'im up."
"Keep out of our way, Spike," the White Zeo Ranger told the blonde vampire. "I'm not going to take your interference much longer."
Spike rolled his eyes. "So, I should do what with my time?" he asked. "Sit at home knitting cunning sweater sets?"
"Would it keep you out of our way?" Buffy asked.
"They're right," Riley agreed as he stepped between the two women. "You shouldn't be out here when they're patrolling."
Startled, Buffy turned to Riley, about to point out that he shouldn't be here either, but she changed her mind... she doesn't want to say anything in front of Spike.
"Ooh. I saw that," Spike said looking at the three of them. "Looks like neither boy is entirely welcome. Better take him home, Slayer, make him stay there. I got knitting needles he can borrow."
"Spike, I just saw you taste your own nose blood and, you know what, I'm too grossed out to even hear you right now," the White Zeo Ranger told him. "Go home." She turned and followed Buffy and Riley away from him.
"It's blood!" Spike called after them, defensively. "It's what I do!"
Riley put his arms around Buffy. "Hope I didn't get in the way."
"Of course not," Buffy replied.
"It was just that we weren't expecting you," the White Zeo ranger added.
"Also," Buffy told her boyfriend. "you know I don't love the idea of you patrolling alone..."
"I'm not much for bench warming," Riley replied.
"Believe me I understand that," the White Zeo Ranger told him. "Before I became the Pink Zeo Ranger. I looked at them and was like I want to help. Then I was helping civilians escape the monster attacks and the Pink Ranger before me noticed and when she went to step down she told Zordon that she had someone in mind to be her replacement. That was when I was moved off the bench."
"What Dawn is saying," Buffy added looking her boyfriend in the eyes. "You made the squad. You tossed that vamp like he was a...little teeny vamp." She smiled as she kissed him.
"You two want to go again?" he asked. "C'mon. I bet this place is just teeming with aerodynamic vampires."
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger looked around, neither of them sensing anything.
"Nah," Buffy told him shaking her head, "unless we go back and kill Spike just for the fun of it..."
"Tempting," the White Zeo Ranger chuckled. "But no. Want a lift home?"
As Buffy and Riley took the White Zeo Ranger's hands and beamed out, Spike stood watching them his eyes narrow, menacingly. "I will know your blood, Slayer, and that of your new ally. I will make both of your necks my chalice and drink deep," he said as he wiped the blood from his nose on his sleeve. With a petulant toss of his head and a flourish of overcoat, he turned and walked deeper into the cemetery.
October 18, 2000
Sunnydale High School – Temporary Home
Sitting at the black Formica lab table Dawn listened to the teacher.
". . . ancestors were here long before we were. Their progeny will be here long after we are gone. Mr. George Feeny shut the slide projector off as he said, "The simple and ubiquitous ant."
Mr. Feeny stared out at his students through his glasses as he turned the lights on. As expected, about half the students looked like they had just been awakened from a sound sleep. He enjoyed doing slideshows, not for their educational value, but so he could see who was actually paying attention. Naturally, he saw Lynn Brattin was completely alert. To his disappointment, the young woman, Dawn Summers, the new transfer student, wasn't.
Walking down the middle aisle between the two rows of lab tables, he said, "Now, if you read the homework," and he noticed several students squirming at that, "you should know the two ways that ants communicate. Ms. Summers?"
Dawn got the deer-in-headlights look that characterized she had no clue. "Ways that ants communicate . . ." she said, using the classic stall of repeating the question.
Mr. Feeny nodded.
"With other ants . . ." she added, extending the stall.
"From the homework," he repeated, "ants are communicating . . ."
"Touch and smell," Lynn spoke up upon seeing Dawn's hesitation.
Then the bell rang. Before it even finished, the sound of stools scraping linoleum could be heard as students got up and prepared to bolt to their next class. "All right, chapters six through eight by tomorrow, people," he called out over the din, then turned back to Dawn. "Can I see you for a moment?"
After a few moments, the class was empty, except for Mr. Feeny—who had no class to teach this period—and Dawn.
As he gathered up the slides he needed to go through for his next class, he said to her, "I gather distractions are normal in Angel Grove with the constant monster attacks and the constant appearance of the Power Rangers." Mr. Feeny smiled as he cleaned off his glasses with his tie. "You've got a first-rate mind and you can think on your feet. Imagine what you could accomplish if you actually did the—"
"The homework?"
"The homework," he repeated. "I understand you probably have a good excuse for not doing it. Amazingly enough, I don't care. I know you can excel in this class and so I expect no less. Is that clear?"
"Yeah," she said. "Sorry."
U.C. Sunnydale
Students milled about, talking and laughing lightheartedly. Among them were Buffy and Willow.
"You can't possibly be arguing that Marat didn't betray the French revolutionaries. This was the guy who declared the 'Rights of Man', and next thing you know he's killing Girondin like it's going out of style—" Willow told her friend.
Buffy shook her head. "Will. You're totally missing my point. I agree that Marat wasn't a real martyr," she replied. "All I'm saying is, the death in the tub? The neck wound? All that blood? More fangy than knifey, okay? So, Charlotte Corday was no martyr either—"
"Buffy!" Willow cried as she suddenly came to a halt in the middle of the corridor, a shocked expression on her face.
"What?" Buffy said worriedly.
Willow grinned. "Listen to us. We're arguing. We're having a debate about a college lecture," she said excitedly. "I've dreamt of this day since forever," she beamed with pride at her friend. "You're turning into quite the student. Should I be watching my occipital lobe?"
"You're what?" Buffy asked confused.
"Occipital, the lobe at the back of the brain," Willow explained. "Like should I be watching my back? But you know, the back of my brain."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Apparently not. Don't worry Will, you still wear the smarty pants in this family."
"I don't know," Willow countered. "You've been studying really a lot."
"I try," Buffy confused, "but they're already piling on the reading and of course Giles is filling in the little corners of free time with extra training for both Dawn and I. I'm starting to think this working hard is hard work."
"Isn't it crazy like that?" Willow asked with a smile.
"I thought it was going to be more like in the movies," Buffy admitted. "You know, inspirational music and a montage: me sharpening pencils, reading, writing, falling asleep on a big pile of books with my glasses all crooked because in the montage I have glasses. Real life is so slow and it hurts my occipital lobe."
"Poor Buffy's brain," Willow said with a look of sympathy as she patted her friend's head.
"I actually have to head to training right now, want to come with?" Buffy asked.
Willow linked her arm through Buffy's. "I'm in. Maybe we can argue some more about the French Revolution as we walk, huh? Wasn't Robespierre the coolest?"
"Robespierre, are you kidding me?" Buffy asked shocked.
"Just gettin' it going," Willow told her friend.
The Magic Box
"Yeah, blueprints, not a bad idea," Xander told the older man, who was helping him build a set of book shelves. "That and getting straight 'Measure twice, cut once'. You know for the longest time I had it backwards. Messy."
"Well, I must say I'm impressed," Giles replied.
Xander fit the freshly cut board into the shelves. "Carpentry is pretty cool. Did you know that Harrison Ford used to be a carpenter?"
"They say Christ was a carpenter as well," Giles told one of the only other male members of the Scoobies.
"Uh-huh," Xander said completely blasé. "But Harrison Ford!" he said excitedly. "Wouldn't it be cool if I could meet him, and like, talk about carpenter stuff? Particle board and, um, beveling..."
They heard the bell over the door chime and they saw Tara arrange silken pillows in a corner as Anya race across the room with a shrunken monkey head in one hand and a fizzy potion in the other.
"Who put the monkey head near the Styx water?" Anya asked. "Do we want to pick exploded monkey out of our hair?" She put down the fizzing Styx water and pet the monkey's shriveled head, talking to it, "Don't worry little guy. Anya's not going to let that mean water hurt you."
The bell over the door rang again and Giles opened the door, admitting Dawn, Buffy and Willow.
"Trick or treat!" Buffy joked.
"Hello you three, come on in," Giles replied, standing aside to let them pass.
"Thank you, kind proprietor," Willow added as they stepped over the threshold.
"Hey you," Tara said looking at her girlfriend.
"Hey," Willow returned. Her eyes cast an awed gaze around the shop. "Oh, wow, this place looks great. I feel like a witch in a magic shop." She paused to pick up a jar from a nearby table. "Ooh. Are these real newt eyes?"
"No, too rich for my blood, I'm afraid. These are salamander eyes. It's the cataracts which give them their newt-like appearance," Giles told them. "They're really equally effective though. It's just a matter of overcoming snobberies."
"I'm telling you, Giles," Xander began, "you got to set up a blind taste test and prove once and for all that generic amphibian eyeballs are just as good."
"I don't know," Willow remarked. "If you ask me, the newt name still means something."
"You two ready to train?" Giles asked Buffy and Dawn.
"You betcha," Buffy replied. She and Dawn setting down their books.
"Shall we then?" Giles asked.
"We shall then," Dawn replied as Buffy smiled at her.
Together they headed off into the back of the building.
Willow smiled as she took a seat among the silken pillows.
"I just keep thinking how cool it would be if we could get a real psychic to set up here and read fortunes and stuff," Tara told her girlfriend.
"You should do it," Willow replied.
Tara shook her head. "Not me. But but I'd love to, to watch and learn. From someone who's really good, you know?"
"You're really good," Willow persisted. "I'll prove it! she paused holding out his hands. "Here, do mine."
Tara obliged, taking hold of them with her own. "Hmm," she said after a moment.
"What do you see?" Willow asked her.
"Willow hands," Tara replied, smiling.
Willow smiled too, and the realms of the world faded away from their occipital lobes.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy was the first into the back room when she was suddenly blindsided. Dawn reacted on instinct. "It's Morphin' Time!" she started before she noticed who her sister's unseen assailant had been. "Riley?"
"Just keepin' whichever of you came through the door on your toes," Riley told the sisters.
Buffy gave Riley a bewildered smile. "Or off them as it were. What got into...oh my God, look at this place," she said as she and Dawn got their first look at the room.
They saw a punching bag suspended from the ceiling, and a vaulting horse was nestled amongst some mats. Against the far wall stood a set of weights, and some thought had even been given to interior flourishes, with ancient symbols painted on the floor and walls.
The sisters took it all in, their eyes wide with delight. They turned to Giles and Xander, who had followed them in.
"Thank you," Dawn said.
"Thank you so much," Buffy added.
Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them. "It's just a start, you both need a proper space to train, so..."
"We love it," Buffy assured him. She then looked at her sister. "Don't we?"
Dawn nodded.
"So c'mon, let's test this puppy out," Riley told the Slayer and Power Ranger. "Think either of you can take me?" He feigned a few jabs at the sisters. They smiled at him, nonplussed. "What's the matter, you two scared of a little competition?"
The sisters ignored him, examining instead one of the straw dummies. " This must have been so much work."
"I'm the dummy man," Xander replied proudly. "I mean, I ... made the dummy. The thing that you hit that doesn't hit back. That, I made."
"It's great," Dawn affirmed. "It's all great."
"Well, you've both earned it," Giles said, putting his glasses back on. "Truly."
"Thank you, guys, so much," Buffy said giving a grateful look to Giles, Xander and Riley. "You're like our ... fairy godmother and Santa Claus and Q all wrapped up into one. And I mean Q from Bond, not Star Trek. Come on, Dawn, let's go get changed."
"Go on ahead," Dawn said with a smirk. "I'll be changed before…"
"Come on," Buffy said grabbing her sister's arm. "You can't morph for training otherwise how can you learn anything." As the sisters walked out of the room, Buffy swept Riley's leg knocking him off his feet.
Spike's Crypt
Spike watched the TV show Passions on the television in front of him. "Oh Pacey, you blind idiot!" he said shaking his head in anger. "Can't you see she doesn't love you?"
Suddenly there was a bang at the door, he stood quickly and guiltily turned off the TV. The door flew open as Harmony rushed through it; her hair uncombed and her clothes unkempt. She slammed the door shut, leaning against it, panting.
"Well, well, well. Lookie here," Spike said looking at the other vampire.
"Is it safe?" Harmony asked, wide-eyed. "Has Buffy or that White Zeo Ranger gotten to you yet?" Her eyes sweep the crypt, paranoid, looking for aforementioned duo. "I saw the White Zeo Ranger patrolling just now. She had one of those stakes that instantly light you on fire. She won't give up 'til she or Buffy has killed me to death."
Spike moves closer, his eyes on her heaving chest. "Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger are looking for you?" he asked, dubious.
Harmony nodded. "Of course. That's why I'm on the lam. Didn't you hear? I'm totally their arch-nemesis."
"Is that right," he said in mock seriousness. "I must have missed the memo."
"There was a mem..?" Harmony said clearly impressed. It took a second to realize he was making fun of her. "Oh. Spike. Omigod, this is like a real emergency. I need a hideout so bad. You're my only hope. We're just going to have to rise above our petty differences... Listen Spike, I'm desperate."
"Desperate, are you?" Spike insinuated.
"C'mon Spike, pretty please?" Harmony begged. "I'll do anything."
"Anything will you?" he asked.
"Yeah, I said I'd do anything..." she replied before catching on to what he was wanting. "Oh. You mean will I have sex with you. Well, yeah!"
He smiles at her, lasciviously as she flounced past, plopping into his chair.
"You know from what I've heard that Power Ranger takes after the Slayer. Which means neither of them are the type to give up," Spike told her. "They'll hunt you down day and night, until you're too tired and too hungry to run anymore and then..." He picked up a handful of dust off the floor of the crypt. He then clapped his hands together, making a cloud of dust. "Then that's you."
Harmony winced.
"I think you're going to have to kill them," Spike informed her.
"I tried," Harmony sighed. "It was all hard and stuff. You do it."
"I would love to," Spike said trying to be patient with Harmony. "But I can't. Remember?"
"Oh right," Harmony said remembering the chip in Spike's brain. "Guess it has to be me after all. Can you help with the thinking?"
"Yeah. I s'pose I could do that," Spike said generous."
Riley's Apartment
Riley and Buffy lay side by side beneath the rumpled sheets of his bed, both of them sweaty and flushed.
Buffy turned on her side to face Riley, her expression beatific. "Mmm."
"Yeah," he said.
"That was relaxing..." Buffy admitted as she closed her eyes and let out a contented sigh.
Riley kissed her ear, whispering into it, "You want to relax some more?"
Buffy's eyes opened and she looked at her boyfriend. "Again?! Right away again?"
Riley kissed her neck. "Maybe you're too tired," he replied.
"I have the endurance of ten men," Buffy replied.
"Let's make it women, okay?" he suggested. "Just for the imagery?"
Buffy shrugged. "Whatever. Takes a lot to wear me out," she said as she turned into his arms.
"Oh, I love a challenge," Riley said.
October 19, 2000
Summers Home
Dawn knelt on a kitchen chair pouring sugar-coated cereal into four different bowls. Joyce stood next to her preparing an omelet.
Out of the corner of Joyce's eyes she noticed what Dawn was doing. "Honestly Dawn, just how many bowls of cereal are you planning on eating?" she asked.
"Kind of a ritual with me and dad," Dawn shrugged. "We'd open the box and search for the prize." She dug, arm deep into the cereal box and excavate the tiny prize. Holding it up proudly. "Even though he isn't here to continue the tradition. I still feel."
"Like it's your responsibility to continue it," Joyce said. "Just make sure everything you're not eating goes back in the box."
"Actually, it's all going back, I want eggs," Dawn replied. "I might have some cereal tomorrow." She shrugged. "We'll see."
"Alrighty, one half-omelet coming up," Joyce said as she divvied the omelet onto two plates and carried them towards the table.
"With ketchup if you please," Dawn asked.
As Joyce approaches the table, she stumbled, her eyelids fluttering as if she had something in her eye. She shook her head as if to clear it, bewildered for a moment. And then her body went limp, her arms falling to her sides, sending the plates to the floor. Her eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapsed to the floor. Her body crumpled, her mouth slack.
Dawn immediately brought her wrist communicator to her lips. "Buffy," she said. "Meet me at the hospital. Mom just fainted." She then hurried to the phone and dialed 911.
Sunnydale Memorial
Buffy and Riley charge down the corridor. Through the crowd, Buffy spotted Dawn. She ran to her and embraces her tightly. "How are you?" Buffy asked her sister. "How is Mom?"
"I'm okay," Dawn answered.
"And your mom's doing just fine," said an affable young intern wearing scrubs and a warm smile.
"This is Ben," Dawn said as she introduced the intern. "Ben, this is my sister, Buffy, and her boyfriend, Riley."
Ben extended his hand. "I'm an intern here. I've had the pleasure of hanging out with Dawn here while your mom's been being tested."
Buffy met Dawn's eyes and noticed her sister rolling them. She understood of course, that given Dawn's age that the hospital might be hesitant about leaving her alone. Even though if they knew the truth, they wouldn't need to safeguard her sister.
"So what's going on?" Riley asked. "What happened to Joyce, to Mrs. Summers?"
"She's doing okay now," Ben answered. "The doctors aren't sure exactly what caused the collapse. It could have been just a dizzy spell, low blood sugar, that sort of thing."
"But it's nothing - Big, it's not something bad..." Buffy asked.
"Very unlikely," Ben agreed. "So your mom doesn't have any history of fainting?"
Dawn looked at her sister. Since she hadn't been in Sunnydale more than a couple weeks and hadn't seen Joyce except on visits over the last few years, she hadn't been sure how to answer the doctors questions.
"No, I don't think so. She's usually really healthy," Buffy told him.
"I think they'll be running tests for a few more hours and they'll probably want her to come back in for some follow-up tests in a couple weeks but it doesn't seem like anything too serious," Ben told her.
Buffy looked at Dawn seeing a sigh of relief, which she was sure she echoed. "Oh, thank God. I was really freaking out."
"I think you should be able to take her home in a little bit," Ben told the sisters.
"Well that's definitely good news," Riley told them as Dawn laid her head against his chest. He smiled at her. Sometimes it was easy for him forget that she was fourteen years old, especially when she morphed.
As Dawn leaned against Riley in comfort, she heard his heart beating quite quickly. She looked up at him and frowned.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Riley sat on an examining table as he pulled on his t-shirt. Dawn and Buffy stood by his side, tired and worried.
"I know I'm repeating myself here," said the doctor, "but I don't know how else to convince you. I have never in my thirty-plus years in medicine let a patient with tachycardia this severe leave a hospital—"
"You said you couldn't keep me," Riley reminded the doctor.
The doctor ran her hand through her greying hair, obviously distressed. "Legally, no, I can't force you to do a thing. But with that pulse, believe me I'd get on my knees and beg you if I thought I could change your mind."
"You can't," he said simply. "I'm going home."
"And your friends here can't convince—" the doctor said looking at the sisters.
"I'm going," Riley said before either Buffy or Dawn could reply.
The doctor sighed. "All right then. But you're leaving against my recommendation." She turned and exited the room as Riley slipped off the exam table and started tucking in his shirt.
"What is going on?" Buffy asked. "Riley, what are you doing? What if you have a heart attack?"
"I have to agree with Buffy, Riley," Dawn added. "You are not only my sister's boyfriend. But since I revealed that I was the White Zeo Ranger, you have become a good friend. A friend I don't want to lose."
Riley put one hand on Buffy's should and the other on Dawn's, commandingly. "Listen to me, both of you. Calm down."
"Us calm down?" Buffy said shocked at the order. "We're not the ones with a pulse of 150."
"My heart's different than either of yours," Riley told the sisters. "It works differently now. But it's okay."
"Riley, you're just as a human as I am," Dawn told the former army officer. "You could still have a heart attack—"
"Dawn's right," Buffy agreed with her sister.
"I'm a human who was used as a lab rat for months—" Riley told the sisters as the door opened and Joyce walked in.
"Hi," she said.
Buffy and Dawn rushed over to the mother and wrapped their arms around her. "How are you?" they asked in unison.
"Embarrassed mostly," Joyce replied. "I'm sorry for putting you both through all this. But no more tests, so you can take this pin cushion home."
Riley moved to the door, quick as a wink, holding it open for Joyce and the sisters. "Let's get out of here," he said.
Summers Home
Buffy, Willow, and Dawn all attend to Joyce as she lays on the couch, a blanket covering and a bowl of soup next to her.
"What about the crossword?" Willow asked. "Some say feed a cold, I say puzzle it."
Joyce smiled. "No thanks, Willow."
"Dad always gave me chicken fingers with mustard when I was sick," Dawn said.
"I know," Joyce replied. "He told me. I can make us some later."
"No. Uh-uh," Buffy ordered. "You stay here on the couch today."
"Buffy's right," Dawn agreed.
Joyce looked at her daughters. "I feel silly lying here like a lump."
"You could make a game out of it," Willow suggested, trying to be helpful. "A very quiet game... about being a lump."
Joyce shook her head. "But I feel fine. Honestly, I'm more concerned about Riley than I am about me."
"Mom, you shouldn't even be thinking about that," Buffy told her mother. "He's not worried, so I don't think we should be."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow lay on Buffy's bed watching as her elder friend paced. In a chair next to her sat Dawn. "I don't get what he's thinking," Buffy said. "Why isn't he worried?"
"That's been my question since we found out," Dawn admitted.
"Maybe he knows his body can handle it," Willow suggested looking between the sisters. "He is in really good shape."
"Nobody's body can handle a heart attack," Buffy countered.
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm trying too hard to make it okay," Willow admitted.
"I just keep coming back to the Initiative," Buffy admitted with a sigh.
"That's that covert bunch you told me worked for last year?" Dawn asked as Buffy and Willow nodded. "We have to do something, Buffy."
"I know, Dawnie," Buffy sighed. "I just have no idea how."
"Call the Initiative," Willow suggested. "If they know what's wrong with him, they have to help."
"Yeah but call them how?" Buffy asked. "A: The Initiative doesn't exist anymore and secondly, they never claimed to exist in the first place." She sighed. "It's so unfair! It's like, Big Brother can spy on you all the time, but when you actually have something to say, no one will listen."
"I could see if Zordon and Alpha could try and find them," Dawn offered. "I don't know how easy it would be though. The Power Chamber isn't really hooked up to the internet per say."
"Well there has to be some way of finding them," Willow said.
"I think I know potentially another way," Dawn suggested. "I could morph and visit the President as the White Zeo Ranger. Maybe I can get him to reveal where the secret government monster hunters are. Or…" She smiled as she stood up. "It's Morphin' Time!" she called out. "Zeo Ranger Six White!"
When the morphing sequence was complete, they watched as the White Zeo Ranger disappear in beam of light as she teleported out of the room.
"Okay, that's unfair," Buffy groaned. "I wish I knew exactly what she thought of just then."
Riley's Apartment
The White Zeo Ranger appeared in the middle of Riley's living room. She wasn't sure if the Initiative people would have cameras, it was why she had morphed. But she was sure they had ways of listening though. She picked up the phone and put it to her ear, hearing an odd clicking sound. She smiled from behind her helmet at the realization that the phone was tapped.
"I am the White Zeo Ranger," she said speaking into the phone. "Riley Finn needs help, immediately. I am talking medical attention; his pulse rate is at 150. He is human after all, a pulse rate that high could kill him. So, I suggest you find some way of helping him."
Basketball Court
Riley and three other guys were playing an all-out game of two on two. He stole the ball, driving up to the basket hard, slamming it home.
Then he saw two of his old buddies, Graham Miller and Thomas Brattin, from his Initiative days. They stood on the other side of the fence alongside two other guys.
"I'm out," Riley told the guys he had been playing with. He turned and walked over to Graham, Thomas and the two agents. "Graham…Thomas."
"Riley," Graham said. "Can we talk? You know Thomas and this is Agent Goodman and Agent Brown."
The agents nod at Riley as he ignored them. He looked pointedly at his friends. "So, talk."
"We got word from the White Zeo Ranger," Thomas said.
"Dawn," Riley muttered to himself.
"What's going on, man?" Graham asked. "We got to get this taken care of. We got to get you into an operating room."
"Very convincing," Riley retorted. "Makes me completely want to put myself under government control. Please take me to where you can make me unconscious and naked."
"You think we'd pull something on you?" Thomas asked.
"You two are still in," Riley countered. "I'm out. I don't know what orders you're following."
"Look Riley," Thomas told his friend. "We know Walsh pumped all those chemicals and crap into us. You and I got more than anyone. She messed us up bad."
"And now the government is knocking themselves out to kiss it and make it better," Riley retorted.
"Riley. We're telling you, you need help. We're not saying it to trick you—" Graham told their friend.
"Look, maybe you two even believe it—" Riley countered.
"I know it," Thomas said. "I went through it. I was all patched up after the fight, then I got it too. I nearly died, Riley. I nearly left Barb without a husband and Lynn without a father. You don't want this."
"And you're sure you got the fix for it?" Riley asked as it began to sink in.
"Yeah. We got a guy, a doctor," Graham said. "He's going to take care of you and we're going to him now."
Riley nodded several times, thinking, as the two agents stepped in closer.
"We're not giving you a choice," Graham finished.
Riley nodded, seemingly resigned. "I guess you're not." In a flash, he threw a punch at Graham, catching him square in the jaw.
A shocked Graham stumbled back.
Thomas stepped forward as Riley shook his head. "Don't think about it, Tom. Think of Barbara and Lynn," Riley told the man.
Thomas reluctantly nodded as Agents Goodman and Brown tackle Riley, trying to subdue him. But Riley's much stronger than they are. He knocked them away and took off. Sprinting onto the street and out of sight.
"Why didn't you stop him?" Graham said looking at Thomas.
"He's right," Thomas said with a sigh. "I have a wife and daughter to think about, Graham. I've been career military all my life. What they did to us, wasn't right. But what we were trying to do to him just now isn't right either." He looked at his friend and sighed. "I understand why Riley left. And I think it might be time I followed his path."
Rooftop
Thomas looked at the White Zeo Ranger and sighed. "You must be a good friend."
"One of the best," the White Zeo Ranger replied. "He is one of the few here in Sunnydale that I trusted my identity to. "So, in that regards are you going to tell me exactly what's wrong with him?"
"How much do you know about the Initiative?" Thomas asked.
"Some, not all," she replied.
"They performed experiments on us," Thomas explained. "As a result he has hyper-adrenal overload and a bunch of stuff that sounds even worse than that and it all means he's way stronger than he ought to be and feeling no pain. His heart can't take it. Even before your call through Riley's phone. Graham had been at him for weeks about it. I was only brought in after your call. You see I went through exactly what he is going through now. I almost died leaving my wife without a husband and my daughter without a father."
"What can be done?" the White Zeo Ranger asked.
"There's a specialist waiting at Sunnydale General, fourth floor, neurology. Get Riley there, because if you don't..." Thomas told her.
"I'll have one less person who knows who I am, one less friend," she replied as Thomas nodded. "I'll find him."
"I'll go tell the doc there's a hold up." Thomas told her as the White Zeo Ranger started to walk away. "And Ranger?"
The White Zeo Ranger turned back to face him. "If you tell me to hurry, I'm going to kick your ass." With that she disappeared in a beam of light as she teleports away.
Magic Box
The White Zeo Ranger stood several hours later in the middle of the store with Buffy giving the lowdown of the situation to Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara.
"Poor Riley," Willow sympathized.
"Could he simply have gone back to his apartment?" Giles asked.
"I beamed to his apartment after leaving the meeting with the Initiative guy," the White Zeo Ranger replied. "He wasn't there."
"That was when Dawn came and got me and filled me in," Buffy added. "I checked the library and the gym. He wasn't at either. He's gone somewhere where he doesn't want to be found."
"And given that Dawn is a Power Ranger is actually hard to do," Anya said.
"Exactly," the White Zeo Ranger replied. "I've got Zordon and Alpha on it. But their in Angel Grove, so they can only do so much from their end. Eventually they'll find him, but the question is will it be in time."
"Maybe he just needs some time alone," Xander said awkwardly. "Like I had this friend once who really liked this girl and he got worried that maybe she didn't like him back and maybe that made him act like a total jerk and maybe Riley reminds me of this friend."
"What are you talking about?" Willow asked looking at her friend.
"Then again, maybe not," Xander said. "Maybe he just wants attention."
"Well, here's a hot tip then: You want attention, be there so people can give it to you," Buffy countered.
"I care about you Xander," Anya told her boyfriend.
"Thanks," Xander said clearly bewildered.
"Don't be insecure," she added.
"Thanks, I won't," he replied.
"'Cause I also have this 'friend' and I have it on good authority that she really likes that guy, your 'friend'. And by the by, my 'friend'—" Anya said.
"Enough," the White Zeo Ranger told the couple.
"Dawn's right," Buffy agreed. "Riley's in real danger here. Anya, Xander, Dawn and I want you guys to check the docks."
"Ayi, Ayi," Xander agreed.
"Tara and I can scope out the burnt out school," Willow suggested. "He hid there before, maybe it feels homey or something."
"Homey. You know what else might be homey in a sort of dank, unpleasant, mostly evil way?" Buffy said. "The Initiative caves. But I don't know them too well..."
"We do have an associate who knows those caves like the back of his melanin-deprived hand," Giles told both the Slayer and the Ranger.
Buffy glanced at her sister and groaned. "Oh, I so don't want to deal with Spike right now. Guy's really starting to bug me in that special, I'd like to shove something wooden through his heart kind of way."
"Maybe I should go see him alone then," the Ranger offered.
"No that's alright, Dawn," Buffy said looking at her sister. "I'll go with you."
Spike's Crypt
"Okay, is it bigger than a bread box?" Spike asked resigned as he sat across from Harmony.
"No..." Harmony replied delightedly. "Four left."
"So, it's smaller than a bread box?" he asked.
Harmony clapped with excitement. "No! Only three."
"Harmony," Spike said with seething calm. "Is it a sodding bread box?"
"Yes! Omigod, someone's blondie bear's a twenty questions genius!" Harmony said excitedly.
There was a band at the door as Buffy kicked the door open.
Harmony went pale. "They've found me," she said as she leapt into an open coffin. Spike sits atop it, crossing his legs just as the White Zeo Ranger and Buffy entered the crypt.
"We've got a proposition for you," Buffy said as she and the Ranger both noticed a mannequin in the corner, partly hidden behind something. They can't quite figure out what it is. They started to take a closer look as Spike stepped into their lines of sight.
"Funny, 'cause I've got a proposition for the two of you," he told them. "What about knocking? It seems only fair considering we vamps can't enter your flat without an invite that you could at least—"
"White Zeo Power Sword!" the White Zeo Ranger called out as the Power Sword beamed into her hands. "You have a choice, Spike. I can kill you now. Or…"
"Or," Buffy said as she pulled out a wad of cash and spread it out before his eyes. "Riley's sick with some Initiative thing and he's gone missing. I think he might be in the caves. If you find him and take him to the fourth floor of the hospital, you get the money."
"Oh dear, the enormous hall monitor is sick? Tell me, is he going to die?" Spike asked.
The White Zeo Ranger took a mock swing at Spike's neck, missing him by mere inches. "He's not the only one who can die, Spike."
"Hey, I'm just saying, if this is really important to you, then I think I ought to get half now," Spike asked.
Buffy stared him down, a look of pure disgust on her face. "Fine." She ripped the bills in half then handed half of them to him.
Sunnydale Memorial
Thomas and Graham nodded at the armed Guard standing outside the neurological surgery room as they walked inside.
Dr. Overheiser, a small and nervous older man, glanced up from his fastidiously arranged surgical tools. "Any word?"
"Nothing," Graham replied. "But don't worry; they've got to be here any minute now."
The doctor nodded, expressionless. Thomas and Graham noticed the lack of joy. "That's soon enough, right?" Thomas asked. "I mean, if we bring him in now?"
"I'll be honest," the doctor replied. "I'm not sure it's soon enough if you brought him in yesterday."
Graham and Thomas looked at each other absorbing that choice bit of information.
Suddenly there was a bang outside the door. Graham moved to open it. "Finally," he said.
Graham opened the door. Outside Harmony held up the limp guard by his scalp. Quickly, she thrusts the Guard's unconscious skull at Graham. Their head came together with a horrible crack and the guard and Graham fall to the ground unconscious.
Harmony walked into the room with Spike close behind. They strut over the fallen bodies Natural Born Killers-style.
Spike tossed Harmony a nasty-looking crossbow which she pointed at Thomas and the doctor. He gestured towards the open door. "You got yourself a new patient, Doc."
U.C. Sunnydale Medical Building
Spike, Thomas, Dr. Overheiser and Harmony, her crossbow aimed at the doctor and Thomas, enter at the back of the lecture hall-like classroom and made their way down the steps toward the operating area.
"Look, you don't understand," the doctor said nervously. "This is a complicated neurological procedure. And I—I've never performed it before.
Spike threw open the door and they enter the operating theater. He gleefully hopped up on the table and eyed the Doctor, who hung back with Thomas. "Little performance anxiety, eh? Butterflies in the old belly?" he asked the doctor. Then he turned toward Harmony. "Harm, do us a favor. Shoot the nasty butterflies for the good doctor."
Harmony aimed the crossbow at the doctor's gut. The doctor and Thomas moved in to the operating table.
"There you go, Doc. Not so complicated. Just do whatever those Initiative lab monkeys did, only backwards," Spike told the doctor.
"But this is a medical school, not a proper operating facility," the doctor replied. "And these instruments—"
Spike picked up a scalpel, held it up near the Doctor's throat to examine it. "They look pointy enough," he said tossing it back onto the tray. "They'll do." He slid himself up the operating table and lay back.
"You're not listening," the doctor told the vampire. "That chip is deeply imbedded in your cerebral cortex. Removing it could leave you a vegetable."
Spike propped himself up on his elbows and glared at the doctor. "Not going to happen, mate. See, I've got faith in the survival instincts," he said. "You see I need you, but not your friend. Being a doctor, I would think you wouldn't want to see him die."
The doctor looked at Harmony, who was sitting up on a counter, the crossbow aimed directly at Thomas.
"Yeah, you'll have me up and killing before the night's over," Spike said as the doctor and Thomas both looked at him nervously. "Don't worry, Doc. You do me right, and nothing bad'll happen to y—"
Just then, Harmony accidentally lets loose an arrow that whizzed by Thomas' head, missing him by inches, and lodged in the wall behind him. Spike, the doctor and Thomas all turned to look at Harmony, who looked chagrined.
"Oops. String was slippy," she told them as Spike rolled his eyes.
Initiative Caves
The White Zeo Ranger's helmet sent out a beam of light from two little flashlights that were part of the helmet.
"That's really useful," Buffy said.
"Well even Power Rangers have been known to go into dark places in Angel Grove, so…" the Ranger said.
Buffy nodded as she turned her attention back to finding her boyfriend. "Riley!" she called out as the name echoed throughout the dark tunnel.
"Riley!" the White Zeo Ranger called out.
"Riley, answer us!" Buffy called before looking at her sister. "Please..." she added.
"Yeah I have to second that please," the White Zeo Ranger told her sister. "He maybe your boyfriend. But like the rest of our friends, he too has become a friend."
Just then, they heard the sound of pebbles and dirt hitting the cave floor. They moved ahead and turns a corner to find Riley, his back to them, facing the cave wall. "Riley?" they said.
Riley slowly turned to look at them. They saw he was damp with sweat and breathing hard. Frustrated, he balled up his fist, turned and punched the wall as more pebbles and debris fall to the cave floor. "You know this doesn't even hurt," he told them.
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger moved to him and looked at his fist and saw that it was bleeding. "Your hand is bleeding," Buffy said.
"Don't feel a thing," Riley told them as he pulled back his fist again to strike the wall.
Buffy caught his hand, stopping him. She glanced at her sister wishing she could see Dawn's face behind the helmet. She was sure Dawn felt just as she and Riley each felt, hurting and upset. "This stops now," she told him as she looked back at him. "We're beaming you to a doctor."
"The one from the government you mean?" Riley asked. "Like the ones who did this to me in the first place?"
"I talked to your friend, Riley. The one who called himself Thomas, after your run-in," the White Zeo Ranger told her friend. "Power Down!" Buffy and Riley watched with a flash of light as the Ranger morphed back into Dawn. "He explained what's happening. That he had gone through it too and almost died, leaving his wife and child behind. He doesn't want that for you, Riley. He said the doctor's the only one who understands what's wrong with you. That he's the only one who can help you."
"What's wrong with me?" he asked looking at his girlfriend and his teenage best friend. "I'm more powerful than I've ever been. Most people would kill to feel this way."
"But the feeling's going to kill you," Buffy countered. "Your body wasn't built for this kind
of stress—"
"I can handle it," he said hard. "This is my deal. Both of you just back off."
Dawn and Buffy glanced at each other, stung by his words. They do as he asked and backed off.
"What is this?" Dawn asked. "What's happening to you?"
Riley can't even look at the sisters. "I go back, let the government get whimsical with my innards again, they could do anything they...best case scenario, they turn me into Joe Normal. Just another guy."
"And that's not enough for you?" Buffy asked.
Riley for the first time looked at only Buffy as he addressed her, "It's not enough for you."
"Hunh?" Dawn said confused.
"When did—why would you say that?" Buffy asked clearly as confused as her sister.
"Come on. Your last boyfriend wasn't exactly a civilian," Riley informed her.
Buffy, appalled, shook her head. "That's what this is about? You're going to die over some macho pissing contest?"
"It's not about him. It's about us," Riley told his girlfriend. "You're getting stronger every day, more powerful...And I can't touch you. Every day you're just a little further out of my reach."
Dawn looked at her sister and saw that Riley's words had hurt her. She looked back at the ex-army officer. "According to who?" she said in obvious need to defend Buffy from the accusation.
"You want to touch me?" Buffy asked motioning toward her sister that she's got this. "I'm right here. I'm not the one running away."
"Not yet," Riley replied.
"So, you've got it all figured out," Buffy countered. "I'm bailing because you're not in the super club?"
"It's human nature—" Riley informed Buffy. "After all look at what happened to Dawn. She's in the super club now as you call it."
"Don't psyche 101 me!" Buffy growled. "Not now. Not after - after everything...Nobody's ever known me the way you do, Riley. Not even Dawn, who you are right is as super powered as I am now thanks to her Ranger powers. Nobody. I've opened myself up to you in a way that—God, you're just sitting back thinking it doesn't mean anything to me?"
"I never said that—" Riley started.
"Well it obviously doesn't mean anything to you!" Buffy told him getting more and more upset. She felt her sister's arm go around her in comfort. "Do you think so little of me—"
"Buffy—" he tried again.
"No!" Buffy interrupted before he could get a word out. "Do you think I've spent the last eight months with you because you've got super powers? If that's what I wanted I'd be dating Spike."
Dawn reached up with free hand and wiped a tear from her sister's face. She looked at Riley. "Look…my sister…even I can she needs you."
"Dawn's right," Buffy added. "I need you. I need...to have you with me, healthy and, and...but if you want to throw everything away because you don't trust me, then...then I'm still going to have Dawn beam you to the doctor."
Riley took everything in as he looked at the sisters. Saw their concern. "Take me to him," he sid.
Buffy looked at Riley, clearly relieved, but still worried. She looked at Dawn. "We have to hurry."
Dawn nodded in agreement. "It's Morphin' Time! Zeo Ranger Six White!"
As they watched the morphing sequence morph Dawn into the White Zeo Ranger, Riley whispered to his girlfriend, "Loving you is the scariest thing I've ever done, Buffy."
Buffy looked at him, not sure how to take that. She looked at him with tender concern as she briefly touched his face. "I don't know why," she said as the White Zeo Ranger held out her hands to them both. "We'd better go. The doctor said we didn't have much time."
Riley nodded as he and Buffy took the Ranger's hands and the beamed out.
U.C. Sunnydale Medical Center
The doctor was bent over Spike performing surgery on Spike's head behind a jury-rigged divider. Harmony cames over, crossbow by her side, next to the doctor. "I read in a magazine that some women think a man's real sex organ is his brain," she told the doctor as he peered into Spike's cranium. "Uch. No contest. I mean, look at it. It's so pink and wriggly looking. Can I touch it?"
Spike's eyes snapped open. "No!" he and the doctor shouted in unison.
"Omigod!" Harmony was clearly started to know that Spike was awake. "You're awake?"
"Local anesthetic," the doctor answered.
"Wow," Harmony said looking at the other vampire. "Spikey! How does it feel?"
"Like someone's cutting into my brain with a knife, you silly bint!" Spike retorted.
"You know what it means that he can't hurt any living thing?" Harmony asked looking back at the doctor. "It means he can't even pick flowers."
"What?" Spike said startled by the accusation. "Yes, I can."
"Please be quiet," Thomas advised the vampire. "The doctor needs his concentration or your boyfriend could wind up a vegetable."
Harmony glanced at Thomas before turning her attention back to the doctor. "Is it supposed to be doing that?" she asked pointing.
"Please!" the doctor cried. "For God's sake, please be quiet."
"Listen, buster, I don't see a crossbow in your hands, okay?" Harmony told him angrily.
"Harmony, if your incessant prattling bollixes up this operation, I'm going to personally yank out your pink and wriggly tongue!" Spike countered.
Harmony pouted as the doctor and Thomas glanced at her, unnerved. "What are you two looking at?" she asked.
The doctor turned his attention back to Spike's brain.
Sunnydale Memorial
The White Zeo Ranger, Buffy and Riley beam into the surgery room where they were supposed to meet the doctor. They found the guard sprawled on the floor unconscious.
"Uh-oh," Buffy said as she knelt down, checking that the Guard's still alive.
The White Zeo Ranger moved across the room when her helmet's sensors picked up the sounds of groaning. She found Graham struggling to consciousness, trying to push himself up. Riley and Buffy join them.
"Graham?" Riley said as he held two fingers in front of Graham, checking for a concussion. "How many fingers?"
Graham shook his head, clearing it. "Seventeen."
The White Zeo Ranger, Buffy and Riley shared a look that said that isn't good. "Hostile seventeen. And a blonde girl..."
Buffy glanced at her sister. "Spike and Harmony. Together again."
As the White Zeo Ranger helped Graham to his feet, he looked around. "Where's Dr. Overheiser and Thomas?"
"Dawn?" Buffy said as she looked around.
"The helmet sensors aren't picking up anyone else," the White Zeo Ranger replied.
"They must've taken them. What do they—" Buffy started before realization set in. "Spike's chip. They're going to force the doctor to remove the chip and took this Thomas as a hostage to insure…" She then noticed that Riley staggering, leaning on an examination table. "Riley?"
"Riley?" the White Zeo Ranger said moving next to her friend. Her helmet's sensors detecting his breathing. She looked at her sister. "His breathing is extremely shallow and quick."
Buffy moved toward her boyfriend as he held up his hand stopping her. "I'm okay...okay," he told her as he consciously inhaled deeply, slowing his breathing.
Graham pulled the White Zeo Ranger next to him and Buffy and whispered into their ears. "We're running out of time. We don't find the medic soon, he's not going to make it."
Buffy shot Graham a sharp, desperate look. Then she looked at her sister then back at Graham. "Okay...Brain surgery on Spike, they'll need a medical facility, equipment, for that, right?" she asked.
Graham nodded. "Big hospital."
"No," the White Zeo Ranger said. "They wouldn't do it here. Too risky."
"She's right," Buffy agreed. "We should split up. Graham, get on the pipe or the horn or whatever you guys get on and check out local doctor's offices, animal hospitals..."
Graham nodded as he headed toward the door. He stopped when he heard Riley's voice, "Graham. About before. Sorry."
"Forget it. Apologize later, when Thomas is there to hear it too. If you're not dead," Graham told his friend as he hurried out of the room.
"Dawn," Buffy said looking at her sister.
"I'm already on it," the White Zeo Ranger replied as she brought her wrist communicator to her mouth. "Zordon, I need a list of potential sites where someone could get brain surgery done. And I am not talking just hospitals, I am talking any medical facility."
"We're on it, Dawn," Zordon replied.
"And when we find the right location, Zordon, we're going to need immediate transport," the Ranger told her mentor. "Riley's life depends on it."
Buffy moved over to her boyfriend. "You're not going to die," she told him.
Riley smiled at Buffy, weakly. "Bet you say that to all the boys," he told her.
The White Zeo Ranger and Buffy each took one of his arms as they start out.
"Not all," Buffy said obviously growing annoyed. "I know one peroxide pest whose number's up."
"Ditto," the White Zeo Ranger added. "When we get our hands-on Spike, his neck is going to be meeting my Power Sword."
U.C. Sunnydale
"...bathe in the Slayer's blood. I'm going to dive into it, swim in it, do the bloody backstroke," Spike said as the doctor continued to operate on him meticulously. Next to him, Harmony, cigarette in hand, leaned over Spike's brain, oblivious to the smoke she's blowing into it.
"I see it, Spikey! I can see the chip," she said. "It's nestled in there like a pretty little Easter egg with your brain all around it like that green plastic grassy stuff, only this is more of a beige—"
The doctor straightened and looked at Harmony. "Would you please put out that cigarette? It's really not allowed."
"Oh yeah, sez who?" Harmony asked trying to sound tough.
The doctor pointed to a sign posted on the wall behind him: a cigarette icon encircled and slashed through with red.
Upon seeing it, Harmony reacted immediately. "Oh God, sorry! Didn't see the sign," she said as she crossed the room and extinguished her cigarette.
"The chip's out," the doctor said in faint surprise. He looked at Thomas who nodded seeing what the doctor had actually done. "I didn't think I could... but it just... It's out." He dropped something small and metallic-sounding into a surgical dish.
"Yeah?" Spike asked.
Harmony clapped her hands in glee. "Yay! Yay for Spike!"
"Right, then. Stitch me up, Doc. Got places to go. And slayers and Power Rangers to kill," Spike said with a smirk.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Spike sat on the operating table several minutes later as the doctor stitched up the back of Spike's scalp with a needle and thread. He growled as he opened one eye and peeked at the doctor. "Listen to me, my stomach's growling, I'm so starved. I'm afraid I'm going to have to have me a little snack."
The doctor and Thomas blanched knowing exactly Spike meant one or even both of them.
Thomas let out a sigh. This was why he had been thinking of getting out, resigning his commission.
"Oh, don't worry..." Spike said noting the doctor and Thomas's looks. "I won't fill up on the bread, I'll still have plenty of room for the main course."
They heard a ringing sound fill the room as the White Zeo Ranger, Buffy and Riley materialized out of the transport beam.
"Slayer!" Spike yelled. "White Zeo Ranger!"
"White Zeo Power Stakes!" the White Zeo Ranger called out as the Power Stakes was beamed into her hands. She tossed one of the stakes to Buffy as they and Riley squared off with Harmony and Spike.
Harmony and Spike's faces transform into their vampiric visage as they growled at the trio menacingly.
The doctor tried to slink off. Without taking her eyes off Spike, Buffy reached out and grabbed his arm and flung him into a corner. "Stay here," she told him. "We're going to need you."
The doctor cowered in the corner, nodding meekly.
"Buffy," Spike said. "I swear I was just thinking of you and your new playmate. I wanted to tell you both the great news. My head's all clear now. No more bug-zapper in my noggin."
"That means we get to kill you," the White Zeo Rangers said as she glared at the vampires.
"You get to try..." Spike retorted.
Suddenly Harmony's finger slipped, releasing an arrow that imbedded itself in Riley's leg. He didn't even flinch, as he was obviously immune to the pain.
Riley sprung on Harmony and began to fight with her hand to hand. He's much stronger than her but his condition was taking its toll. His face dripped with sweat and each punch he threw exhausted him further.
"I will take Spike," the White Zeo Ranger told her sister. "Help Riley."
Buffy nodded as she rushed over to her boyfriend. "Riley, be careful. Your heart!" she told him.
The Power Ranger and Spike circled each other warily; two fighters waiting for the moment to attack.
"So is the Slayer and the boy scout your sidekicks?" he asked the Ranger. "That's too cute. You know, you should think about getting one of those motorbikes with the little sidecars. Could be precious." He looked at Buffy and Riley as they fought Harmony. "Look at 'im go." For a split-second, he was distracted by Buffy and Riley.
The White Zeo Ranger took advantage of his distraction and gave Spike a taste of a left hook followed by a right uppercut.
Spike staggered back, chuckling, unfazed. He leapt onto the operating table and loomed above the Ranger, snarling. "At long last." And then he sprung, falling on the White Zeo Ranger, pinning her down. He ripped the helmet off to reveal Dawn's face. He smirked. "Oh how precious, a little nibblet." He leaned down and was about to plunge his fangs into her neck when... "Aah!" he screamed in agony, clutching at his head.
The White Zeo Ranger decked him with a couple of quick punches, sending him into the corner with the doctor.
Buffy and Riley continued going at it with Harmony. Buffy noticed her boyfriend was wet with sweat. Riley was about to swing at Harmony when he suddenly staggered back and collapsed to the floor.
"Dawn!" Buffy screamed looking toward her sister.
"Riley!" the White Zeo Ranger said grabbing her helmet and racing over to Buffy and Riley. She saw that Riley's eyes were staring straight ahead unseeing. She slapped her helmet back on her head and activated the sensors in it. "He's alive," she said.
Spike went over to the receptacle where the chip was supposedly placed. He tipped the contents into his hand. "A penny," he said.
"Well the good doctor told you he couldn't take it out," Thomas said deadpan. He looked toward the doctor. "Help, Riley." He turned his at back to Spike and hit the vampire hard.
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger lift Riley onto the operating table as the doctor rushed to their side.
Thomas glared at the vampires. "Take your bimbo and go. You get only this one chance. Your no threat and your lady friend is as dumb as a bag of rocks." He turned and hurried over to Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger.
October 20, 2000
Buffy watched from beside the White Zeo Ranger, Thomas and Graham, who had finally joined them shortly after the surgery had begun. As the doctor finished, they saw Riley's bare torso was bandaged, as was his leg where the arrow gouged him. He looked exhausted, pale with dark circles under his eyes. But there was a calm look in his eye. The operation had been a success.
The doctor gestured with his head for Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger to come over. "He wants you both." He turned back to his patient. "There. All patched up."
Riley swung his legs around and sat up. Moving gingerly, he winced. Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger moved to him. The three of them look at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
Then Buffy moved closer - put a tentative hand to Riley's chest. "How's it going in there?" she asked.
"Good. Back to normal," Riley answered.
Buffy moved her ear to his chest and listened. She looked at her sister and smiled. "Yeah."
With one hand Riley touched Buffy's head and held her to him. He took the White Zeo Ranger's gloved hand and squeezed it. "Thank you," he whispered looking at the Power Ranger, who nodded.
The White Zeo Ranger smiled from behind her helmet. "I'll be outside when your ready for me to drop you off at home, Buffy."
Buffy nodded as she closed her eyes, taking comfort in the reassuring sound of Riley's steady heartbeat. As the White Zeo Ranger walked out of the operating room, she was joined by Thomas.
Buffy pulled back as she continued to hold his hand. "And see? I'm still touchable."
Riley smiled. "Give me a week or so to heal and I'll take full advantage of that fact."
"Are you going to be okay?" she asked with concern. "Because Dawn and I should really go check on my mom."
"Go. I'll be fine," he told her as he kissed her tenderly.
"I'll talk to you later," Buffy said as she walked toward the doors.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"You did a good thing," Thomas said as he looked at the Power Ranger.
"It's what we do," the White Zeo Ranger replied.
"It's more than that for you though," Thomas replied. "You care for him."
"Not like Buffy does, but yes," she replied.
"He knows who you are doesn't he?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"He does," she told the army officer. "Only a handful of people in Sunnydale do. All of them are either friends of family."
It was then that Buffy stepped out into the corridor. "I'm ready," she told her sister.
The White Zeo Ranger moved over beside Buffy and took her hand they disappeared in a beam of light.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Riley and Graham made their way slowly down the long corridor. Graham slapped Riley on the back, not too hard, but hard enough to make Riley, in his weakened condition, grimace. "It hurts, huh?"
Riley nodded. "Yeah."
"Pain's your friend. Pain tells you you're alive," Graham told his friend.
"Well, then I am very alive," Riley replied. "And my good buddy pain should feel free to stop reminding me any ol' time now."
Graham sighed. "You had me scared. It's a good thing Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger found you when they did, man, because you were just about to detonate big time. I got to say, they're both pretty impressive.
Riley smiled proudly as he nodded. "You know, they really are."
"But you realize you don't belong here, right?" Graham said conversationally. "This town. I mean, you're nothing here."
"Is that what you told Tom?" Riley asked.
"Tom knows it's true, just as you do," Graham replied. "The only difference is for Tom there is something for him here. After all he has a family, it's already hard on him anytime he has to pack his family up. But you, there's nothing for you here."
"I'm like Tom," Riley answered. "I have something here…Buffy."
"Right. Okay," Graham replied. "There's her. You used to have a mission, now you're what? The mission's boyfriend? The mission's true-love?" he said as Riley looked away. "That's the other difference. Tom's mission was always his family. He only joined the Initiative to safeguard his family. With you she doesn't need you to safeguard her. Especially when she herself is super-powered and she has super-powered allies." He looked pointedly at Riley. "You belong with us."
October 21, 2000
Sunnydale High School – Temporary Home
"We'll be working on scenes in pairs!"
Dawn had always wanted to take drama. When she was ten, she had a phase much like Buffy's Dorothy Hamill phase, where she had wanted to be an actress. She had always enjoyed the ins and outs of the theater and she most definitely did enjoy acting.
"Please pair up! Since we have an even number of students, only two to a group," the teacher declared.
It was at least a minute before Dawn was paired with anyone, after all she was the new girl in school. It had been Lynn Brattin that had taken pity on her and paired with Dawn.
The teacher let them choose their scenes from the multitude of scene books that inhabited the classroom. Lynn picked one without even reading it, Dawn had no problem with the selection it was one of her favorites after all. They reported it to the teacher. She was taken aback at first, then bore a smile. She nodded as she wrote down the scene. It would not be until they actually read through the scene that they understood her reaction.
The rest of their class time was devoted to start memorizing the scene. Lynn and Dawn did a cold-reading of it, bypassing the stage directions, but still taking note of them. It was at the end that Dawn's face went red and she knew why the teacher had been smiling.
"Wow!" said Dawn as she looked toward Erin. "We have to kiss?"
Lynn giggled. "Who would have ever thought Romeo and Juliet would be played by lesbians."
Dawn's eyes went wide. She knew of course she was gay, had for the last year and half. The only person she had told had been her father, who had been supportive. She had yet to come out to either Joyce or Buffy.
"I take it you're not out of the closet," Lynn said noting the expression on the other girl's face.
Dawn let out a sigh as she nodded. "My dad knows," she replied. "But I have yet to tell my friends, let alone my mom or my big sister." She looked at the other girl. "How …"
"How did I figure it out?" Lynn replied as she smiled. "Let's just say I can read emotions."