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Buffy groaned in frustration as she studied the slightly flattened grass before her. Someone or something had wandered through the dark cemetery fairly recently. She knew from past experience that vampires tended to make an effort to cover their tracks, especially when in Sunnydale. There weren’t too many that wanted to face her. She was fairly certain that this rather obvious trail had been left for her.

She knew she should have waited for Spike before she ran off to rescue her sister, but there just hadn’t been time. These vampires had gone to a large amount of trouble to reach Faith, and she knew it really wouldn’t faze them to kill her sister, bait or not. She was sure he’d be able to figure out where she had gone. He might not figure out right away that Dawn was the reason, but he had been around long enough to know if there was trouble in Sunnydale, Dawn would manage to be right in the middle of it—honeymoon or not.

Her eyes scanned the cemetery taking in the dark shadows hoping not to miss anything that might possibly be lying in wait amongst them. She couldn’t afford to overlook a thing. These vampires were just too good. She exhaled a long, annoyed breath as her eyes settled upon a dark figure just a few feet ahead of her. It was a young man, leaning nonchalantly against one of the many headstones of Sunnydale’s dearly departed. In any other town, she would have been surprised to see someone lounging about the cemetery at such a late hour, but this was Sunnydale. In this town, the cemetery was just as popular a nightspot as the Bronze! Well, she really didn’t have the time to deal with a late night partier, but she would have to get this man out of harm’s way. She had more than enough of a job trying to find her sister and the new Slayer. She really couldn’t be expected to watch over the rest of the town’s populace on top of that little task!

“Um…excuse me?” she asked tentatively tucking Mr. Pointy behind her back as she emerged from behind the tombstone that she had been crouched behind. “You really shouldn’t….” The person slowly turned to face the sound of the soft voice behind him, and Buffy’s voice ground to a halt, her eyes fluttering in recognition and then disbelief.

“Buffy, it’s good to see you again,” the figure greeted with a smile.

“Riley?”





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





“You know, Slayer,” Spike laughed softly as he came down the steps pulling on his coat, “when I find that little Slayer-in-waiting I think I’m going to put her over my knee…No wait. She’d probably like that.”

He knew the present situation really wasn’t any laughing matter, but he couldn’t help himself. After the last few hours, he could be facing Glory for a second time and still be elated. He still couldn’t help but think it was all a dream. He had actually pinched himself once or twice while he had been getting dressed to prove it wasn’t. She had actually come to him, woke up in his arms, and hadn’t denied what had happened. He couldn’t stop playing that scene in his mind…so perfect until the Watcher had interrupted. It didn’t matter though. They’d find the little AWOL Slayer, kill the bad guys like they had always done, but this time it would be different. This time he would have his Slayer to come home to.

Spike paused at the bottom of the steps waiting for the Slayer to join the conversation. Surely, she would have something to say. She would insist that he should take the situation more seriously, but the expected comment didn’t come. He could actually sense that she wasn’t there before he scanned the scene that awaited him at the bottom of the stairway. Quickly, he took in the phone lying on the floor, it’s insistent beeping raging through his head, and the open doorway. She was gone. He knew enough to know that something, more than just a missing Slayer, would cause Buffy to run out of the house without backup. Something had gone terribly wrong, and Buffy had gone out to face it on her own. Quickly, he bent over and scooped the fallen receiver into his cold fingers dialing the number of the Magick Shop. He doubted that the Watcher or the Scoobies would have anymore of a clue what was going on then he did, but he did know if the situation was bad enough for the Slayer to run off half-cocked, he was definitely going to need back up.

“Hello? Buffy?” the Watcher’s voice came through the earpiece his voice filled with hope and worry.

“It’s me,” Spike replied curtly.

“Spike,” Giles acknowledged, “I had hoped that you would be Buffy…”

“Obviously,” Spike told him. He couldn’t help but be impatient. He really didn’t have time for niceties. He needed answers, and he needed them quickly. He wasn’t going to lose Buffy so quickly after their recent epiphany. “Apparently, our little Slayer has decided to go off on the hunt without us.”

“Um, yes,” Giles replied. “I was afraid as much….”

“What’s going on Giles?” Spike demanded. It was so irritating how the man couldn’t just give a person the bad news. It could be Armageddon, and Giles would still be working up to telling you about it.

“Um, well, you see, we just got a call from Andrew a moment ago…”

“Andrew,” Spike asked not quite recognizing the name right away. “Dawn’s husband? What does he have to…”

“They returned from the honeymoon early,” Giles explained and Spike’s heart sunk as he put two and two together before the Watcher had a chance to finish. “Apparently, Dawn sensed that something was wrong. A vampire entered the house, and fed off him leaving him barely alive. It took Dawn. I can only guess Andrew was left alive to let Buffy know of Dawn’s abduction…”

“Right,” Spike cut the Watcher short. “She’s bait to get the Slayer out on her own, and it worked.”

“You mean, Buffy’s…”

“What do you think?” Spike sighed. “We really don’t have time to go over the specifics…”

“Yes, yes you’re right,” Giles agreed. “Xander and I will start searching for Dawn, and I will have Willow and Tara start work on a locater spell…”

“Right, and I will work on finding Buffy,” he growled pressing the talk button sharply and tossing the receiver to the floor as he stalked through the open door.





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





“Riley, is it really you?” Buffy asked her voice barely above a whisper. She could see him more clearly now that she was closer, but she still couldn’t believe her eyes. It just couldn’t be. Not after all these years. She had given him up for dead even before they had battled Glory.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he replied just as softly, still smiling.

“But, I…I thought you were…”

“Dead.” Riley finished the statement with a smirk. “Well, I had quite a few close calls. You know how it is when you’re up against demons, but I made it out. It took me a bit, but I came back.”

“To Sunnydale?” Buffy asked. She couldn’t help but wonder why he was there in the first place. He had left thinking she didn’t care enough to come after him. He’d made no attempt to contact her since then.

“I had to see you again, Buffy,” he told her. “It’s been so long. I thought we could talk…”

He wanted to talk. Why hadn’t this happened years ago? She hated to admit it, but she hadn’t really thought of him since her resurrection. Her mind busy with more pressing matters…getting on with her life, taking care of Dawn…Dawn! What was she doing!? She didn’t have time to be standing in the middle of a damp, dark cemetery having a reunion with an ex-boyfriend at the moment.

“I’m sorry Riley,” she told him quickly. “I can’t tell you how unexp…I mean good it is to see you again, but I’ve got to find Dawn…”

“Running away again,” Riley snarled catching her arm in a tight grasp as she attempted to make her way past him. “It’s always something. Someone’s always more important that dealing with poor Riley…”

“Riley, you’re hurting me!” she gasped the feel of his fingers digging into her flesh surprising her. He hadn’t been this strong since…since…the Iniative, the drugs…Was he?

“I’m hurting you!?” Riley howled his mocking laughter hurting her ears. “That’s what it was always about, wasn’t it Slayer?”

Buffy blinked harder. What was wrong with him? She hadn’t pictured that a reunion with Riley would be a walk in the park, but she never had expected him to sound so cold and bitter—not to mention the viselike grip he had on her arm. She was bound to have bruises in the morning. Apparently, Riley had been and still was even angrier with her than she had ever expected, but for the moment he was just going to have to get over it. She couldn’t put off finding Dawn to go over past uglies with him.

“Riley, I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she gasped yanking her arm from his grasp, “but I have to find Dawn…”

“Dawn,” Riley laughed a little too happily, “it was always someone wasn’t it? Dawn, your mother, Spike…”

“That was…”

“What?” he cut her off with a glare, “none of my business. It was never any of my business was it? Good ole Riley always came second every time…Well, Slayer, not this time!”

Buffy stared at the tall man before her in confusion. She knew she had hurt Riley deeply, but she couldn’t believe that she had hurt him this badly. That he would be holding on to that pain after all this time, and what had he meant with that last statement? Buffy had little time to ponder his last statement, her thoughts interrupted by a jolting pain racing up through her right side and overtaking her entire body. Vainly, she fought to hold on to consciousness as she slipped to the ground. The last thing she saw as her eyes slid shut was the happy glaring grin covering Riley’s face and between his thin lips what looked like…what looked like…





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





Spike watched the entrance to the cave for any signs of life. He didn’t like this place and had not returned to it since the Adam incident. Picking up Buffy’s trail in the cemetery had been rather easy, and when he had seen the signs of a struggle near his old crypt he had taken off at a run ignoring the numerous footprints left at the scene that told him he would be far outnumbered when he arrived at his destination. He had crouched outside the cave for nearly an hour waiting for some sign that there was someone inside. Thanks to their so obvious trail he already knew that they were in there, but he wasn’t so completely over come with thoughts of rescuing Buffy that he was going to run into an ambush!

It seemed more like days than hours, but his patience was rewarded as two figures ambled from the mouth of the cave. Each was rather tall and muscular, and both were wearing the dark green uniforms he recognized to belong to the Initiative. Just when you thought you could say goodbye to bad rubbish, he sneered to himself. He thought he’d seen the last of them when good ole Captain Cardboard had flown out of Buffy’s life. It didn’t really matter who they were. The question now was why they had returned to Sunnydale, and what did they want with his Slayer? Actually, he thought to himself, those questions really didn’t matter either. At the moment, he simply wanted to wipe the whole lot out—no matter how big of a migraine the violence might earn him—and get Buffy out of that cave.

Quickly, he jumped from his hiding place in the bushes, game face already in place. A snarl came to his lips, but the biting remark lay dead on his tongue as a familiar jolt of pain raced through his body, and the ground reached up to meet him.





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





“Wakey, wakey,” Spike snarled at the feel of a hand slapping his cheek roughly. His head was throbbing, but the pain in his lower back was nearly excruciating. He attempted to adjust himself into a more comfortable position, but found himself unable to move his arms. Slowly, he picked his chin off his chest and opened his eyes attempting to focus on the bloody wanker he was going to kill for insistently smacking him about the head.

“Enough,” he growled not as fiercely as he had hoped.

From the stonewalls and the dirt floor, he quickly concluded that he was inside the Initiative caves. The bad part of the scenario was that he was being held up by two rather large members of the afore mentioned regime, and another three of the blokes were surrounding him just in case they lost their grip. Off to his left, he could see Leah and the Little Bit both chained to the wall and directly before him he could see Buffy’s small body chained down to what appeared to be a large stone coffin. Judging from the burnt material and the two nasty bruises marring the skin just beneath, he was fairly sure, she had also had a run in with a stun gun. Apparently, the Initiative’s new weapon of choice. He could see another large figure standing before the place where Buffy laid his back to Spike and partially blocking his view of the unconscious Slayer. He knew instinctively that this one had to be the leader, and silently he vowed to himself, would also be the first one to go.

“You’re awake,” the dim figure growled slowly turning to face the vampire. The sight that awaited Spike when the figure turned almost made him fall to his knees again. “I was beginning to think you were going to sleep the entire night away.”

“You!” Spike snarled with instant recognition.

“Me!” the figure laughed mockingly. “Where you expecting someone else?”

“What the hell do you want, boy?” he demanded fighting to free himself of the two soldiers’ grasp, but with no luck. They were a lot stronger than they appeared.

“What do I want?”the other man laughed. “I warned you Spike! If you touched her I’d come back and kill you!”

“So kill me already!” Spike rolled his eyes in boredom then jerked his head in Dawn and Leah’s direction. “What do they have to do with it?”

“Oh, killing you is going to be fun, but I deserve more than that don’t I?” he asked coldly taking a step closer to the captive vampire. “I’m going to beat your old record, my friend, and then I’m going to kill you.”

“You’re going to kill me,” Spike laughed fighting hard to cover up the panic in his voice. “You’re going to take on two Slayers and kill me? Aren’t we feeling pluckish? What makes you think you can do it boy?”

Riley laughed again at Spike’s words causing Spike to wince at the sound of it. He didn’t think he would ever find a sound more annoying.

“Oh. I can do it,” Riley told him softly. “I’m not a little boy anymore.”

Spike’s eyes grew wide as Riley’s face changed, his teeth became longer. “So, the little boys become a man. Gone out and got himself all bumpy. Color me impressed.”

Riley raised his fist prepared to strike, put his arm stopped mid-swing at a weak sound from behind him. “So, my little Slayer has decided to join the party.”

“Spike?” Buffy asked the dark room blinking her eyes furiously trying to focus on anything.

“Sorry, luv,” Riley told her as he leaned over her prone body. “It’s just me.”

“Riley?” Buffy gasped as her sight returned and she tugged at the chains around her wrists. “What happened to you?”

“Oh come now,” Riley hissed into her ear. “You’re the Slayer, you should know.”

“Riley, I’m so sorry,” Buffy replied as realization dawned in her still hazy mind.

“Sorry!?” Riley’s laughter echoed off the stone ceiling. “Sorry? This is the best thing that ever happened to me! I’m powerful again! No more weak little Riley for Buffy to feel sorry for…”

“Spike…”

Spike’s head jerked at the sound of the soft voice in his head. He hadn’t experienced Willow’s magic since…not since before he had left Sunnydale.

“Spike…” the voice repeated insistently. “Where are you? We found Dawn in the Initiative caves.”

“Where do you think?” Spike answered sharply making a conscious effort not to vocalize his reply.

“You found her? Is Buffy with you?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Oh, yeah, the gang’s all here…”

“So why don’t you bring her home?” Willow asked her tone quickly taking on a worried note.

“Little problem there, Red,” he informed her, “Seems we had a little welcoming army waiting for us.”

“What are you talking about?” Willow asked still not understanding.

“It looks like we’ve been revisited by the Initiative,” Spike informed the witch, “and they’ve had an encounter of the vampire kind…”

“Are you sure?” Willow asked still not believing what she was hearing.

“I think I know a vamp when I see one, Red,” he rolled his eyes in frustration, “and Captain Cardboard is back with revenge in mind.”

“Riley’s back?! Spike are you sure?”

“Red,” he growled impatiently.

“Sorry,” Will answered quickly, “It’s just that Riley a vampire…”

“Red!”

“Yeah, sorry,” she apologized again. “Do you think you can take them?”
Spike forced himself not to moan in frustration. “If I could take them, don’t you think I would have already! It’s not like we’re here for a bleedin’ tea party!”

“Okay—testy!” Willow sighed. “I’ll have Xander and Giles there as quickly as they can get there. In the mean time, let’s see if Tara and I can’t even the odds a bit.”

“Well, make it bloody quick!” Spike told her returning his attention to Riley who was now pacing the length of the cave filling his captives in on his plan with great relish.

“I never thought it would be this easy!” he snickered. “The infamous Buffy Summers taken down by a little stun gun! But wait Spike; you’re going to appreciate this part. I’m going to kill not one but two Slayers tonight! Gonna beat you’re old record, my boy!”

“You know it never pays to brag,” he glared at the younger vampire.. “So you want to kill a Slayer or two, what does the Niblet have to do with it?"

“Oh, that’s the best part,” he told Spike gleefully. “Before I kill Buffy. I was thinking maybe I’d turn her. You know, give her a little taste of the power she was denying me…”

“Yeah, yeah, get on with it!”

“Well, she’ll have to feed, of course…”

“I won’t let you hurt her…”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he told Spike happily. “I won’t let Buffy kill her. She’s going to be mine. Right after I burry a stake right through Buffy’s cold little heart. If I can’t have one of the Summers girls, there’s always the younger model…”

“Will…pick up the pace a bit!” He thought and then said aloud. “And what makes you think the Slayer won’t kick your ass the second you let her loose?”

“You know what it’s like,” Riley told him softly. “That first time you wake up, the hunger…that blinding need…”

“You know I won’t let that happen!” Spike cried violently trashing against the hands that held him.

“You really don’t have a choice!” Riley spat back angrily.

Suddenly, a blinding light filled the cave, and Spike could feel his arms released as the vampires holding and surrounding him flew through the air hitting the walls of the cave. Quickly, Spike sprang into action pulling a stake from his duster—momentarily surprised that they hadn’t bothered to search him.

“What the hell!” Riley screamed in anger.

“You forgot about the witches!” Spike informed him his leg flying through the air and his boot making a satisfied thud against the cheek of one of the vampires who had managed to struggle weakly to his feet. “And now it’s your turn!”

Spike advance on Riley who looked at his now unconscious minions with a look of helplessness. Slowly, Riley backed away from the furious vampire his hands raised in a vain attempt to block the stake in the older vampire’s hand.

“We could talk about this…” Riley pleaded.

“That’s what I hate about fledgling vampires,” Spike growled as he continued his advance. “All talk!”

“Come on!” Riley begged his back now pressed against the stone, which Buffy rested on. “We have two Slayers. We could kill them…”

“Sorry, mate,” Spike growled the point of the stake in his hand pressed tightly against Riley’s chest. “I don’t kill Slayers anymore.” With that, the shocked expression on Riley’s face faded away to dust.

“If you don’t mind,” Buffy looked up at Spike with a thankful look in her eyes. “I’d like to be up now.”

“I don’t know, luv,” Spike smiled playfully twirling the stake about in his hand. “I kind of like you this way…”

“I’m sure you do!” Buffy rolled her eyes but a smile played about her lips. “But I think we should take care of our little unconscious friends before we have yet another siege on our hands.”

“Is there something I’m missing here?” Dawn called out from her position against the wall.

“You’re not missing a thing,” Buffy informed her as Spike pulled at the chains about her wrist breaking them lose, “and remind me when we get home, you are so grounded!”

“That’s not fair!” Dawn whines playfully. “I’m a married woman now!”







The End

**Yes, this was the super-quick rushed ending. I am planning a re-write, but I want to finish my other two unfinished fics firt. So stay tuned! Thanks for reading!





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