Welcome to Your Alternity: Five
by slayerfest
“I said, you forgot your lunch,” Adam repeated.

“Adam, it’s three in the morning,” Riley remarked.

“Yes, it is,” Adam responded.

“So, I don’t need a lunch at three in the morning. Are you operating okay?”

Adam’s eyes looked skyward as he performed the familiar systems check. “Internal clock failure.” Adam’s eyes returned to Riley and he grinned in that creepy non-evil way again. “All other systems operational.”

Riley checked his watch. “Adam, the current time is zero-three-one-seven.”

Adam chimed, “Current time recorded; internal clock operational.” He looked down at the paper bag in his hand. “I shall return your lunch to the refrigerator. Anything else, Riley?”

“You’re not to leave the house anymore.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s all, Adam; you may return to your quarters.”

“Thank you, Riley.” Adam turned on his heel and strode back into the house.

“Good God, that machine is difficult to domesticate,” Riley muttered under his breath. Ever since the SuperBuffy had gone and taken Adam’s powercore to save her beloved Angel, Riley had undertaken the task of making Adam suitable for society; he no longer had free ranging thought, so no longer killed people. He was still hideous, so Riley kept him hidden, but other than that Adam was coming along quite nicely. Riley never had to clean or anything.

But now his thoughts were on Angel. Angel, the stupid ex-vampire, had somehow swung it so that just as Riley got interested in Buffy, Angel became human and therefore terribly vulnerable. Just vulnerable enough so that he got mortally injured and Buffy felt it her responsibility to bring him back from L. A. to Sunnydale to live on a total whim so that she could take extra-special care of him!

Ugh.

And so Riley had asked Buffy out, and she finally sprung it on him that she had this dark, brooding lover locked up in a tower someplace. Then everyone’s voices had been lost and people were getting killed and Riley was so close to getting to the bottom of it, but then Buffy and Angel popped in and started kicking ass. Riley discovered who she was; it would still be a while until he found out who Angel was. Or, used to be.

Buffy was always a good friend, saving him from Adam and the Initiative a couple of times; he became an official Scooby. All in all, Riley was a happy fellow.

But he still loved Buffy. So much. And he’d finally let her know when he’d been on death’s door a few days ago. She’d said nothing. She was there when he’d recovered, but she left shortly thereafter with barely a word to go look after her mother and no doubt have a nice conjugal visit with her precious un-undead Angel.

Riley stopped. He was standing outside Buffy’s house. He stood there, just staring at it, staring at Buffy’s window and considering climbing up the house to see her as he’d planned to do.

But that would be dumb. She didn’t want to see him climbing through her window at all let alone at three-thirty in the morning. Especially since she was avoiding him a little now.

So Riley turned and walked away.

***

Buffy arrived at Angel’s mansion and was not at all surprised to find that, although it was still quite early, Angel was quite awake. He was sitting in a comfy-looking armchair, reading a book. “Good morning,” she said softly.

Angel looked up and smiled. “Hey, beautiful.” She walked over and fell backwards over one arm of the chair. Angel caught her and kissed her passionately. “You’re up early,” he stated as they broke apart.

“Dawn,” she explained.

“Me, too. I’m still not over the whole ‘able to watch the sunrise’ thing.”

“No, I mean… my sister threw a pillow in my face and went on some rant about how she’s the key to something. Anyway, that’s not the issue.”

“Hmm. I wonder what the issue could be, then?” Angel leaned in and kissed Buffy deeply, bringing her in closer to him. Buffy answered the kiss enthusiastically, and then remembered why she was here.

“There actually is an issue,” she whispered, her voice full of regret. Angel recognized the voice as her “let’s get down to buisness” tone and he helped her off him. She sat on the arm of the chair he was sitting on.

“Yeah… there’s something I should probably talk to you about, too. But you go first.”

“Okay. Willow, Oz, Xander, Anya and I went to the Bronze last night. Giles appeared, not seeming to have a big idea as to why he was there.” Buffy left out the part wherein Riley was there, too; she knew that Angel and Riley absolutely loathed each other. “Then Spike appeared, and he looked really confused about it, too. So the band on stage left and a new band came on. There was a really bad noise, and we all left. The weird thing was that no one else left; the place was packed and yet they all sat there, just listening to this terrible noise until it stopped. I tried to find the ‘band’, but they disappeared, and apparently they were vamps.” Buffy stopped and looked down at Angel. “Now Faith’s broken out of jail and attacked Xander and we could use your…” Buffy trailed off as Angel looked up at her and she could see an extremely guilty look on his face. “What? What’s the matter?”

Angel paused a moment before speaking. “You know that thing I mentioned before you started? Well, see, it sort of involves…”

***

The phone rang. When Riley didn’t move from his chair to pick it up, Adam stepped out of the kitchen in the apron he wore for baking cookies and did it for him. “Hello, Finn residence.”

“Hey, Adam, it’s Xander. Is Riley there?”

Adam covered a gigantic hand over the receiver. “It’s Xander,” he told Riley.

“I’ll take it,” Riley said as he took the phone from Adam. “Hey, Xander, what’s up? Something about last night?”

“Actually, we’ve kindof put that on hold for a while. You remember Faith, from the time she was Buffy?”

“Oh, yeah. Not likely to forget that one soon.” Faith had once taken over Buffy’s body; Faith had cornered Riley in the Bronze as Buffy and had said some highly… interesting things to him. “What about her?”

“Well, she’s back. In her own body this time… well, so far… but we need some help. You up for it?”

Riley hesitated. “I am. But, more out of curiosity than anything, will Angel be on the search?”

“Regretfully,” Xander said. One of the reasons Riley and Xander were good friends is because of their mutual dislike for Angel. The difference was that Riley didn’t try to hide how much he hated the ex-vamp.

Riley sighed. “All right. Where are we meeting?”

***

Ten minutes later, Buffy, Angel, Riley and Xander stood amongst the splinters littering Xander’s floor. None of them looked very happy with each other.

“Okay,” said Buffy. “Should we alert Willow and Giles?”

“I think Giles should know, at least. Doesn’t Will have some kind of study group, anyway?”

“Oh, yeah… and Oz is out of town doing band-like things. Well, let’s leave a message on her machine anyway, just so she knows. I don’t think we should waste any time… Riley, you have a cell phone, right? Can I use it while we walk?”

“Sure,” Riley said as he handed the device to Buffy.

“Thanks. I think that we should pair off and spread out. Better chance of finding Faith that way. Xander, you and Riley go north; Angel and I will cover the south. We’ll meet back here in two hours, with Faith or not.”

“Works for me,” Riley said happily.

“Hey,” Xander said, and then stopped.

“Hmm?”

“Wait, I’m trying to remember…” Xander stopped speaking aloud but his lips continued to move as though he was trying to talk himself into remembering something. “Oh! If anyone sees Anya, can you let me know? She’s been… she wasn’t here when I woke up this morning. Usually she wakes me up before she leaves, but…”

“We’ll send her to you, Xand,” Buffy reassured him. “All right. It’s currently…” Buffy checked her watch, “…quarter to eight. Let’s make it until ten; we’ll be back here then unless you call… well, me. Riley’s cell. Call me if you catch her, if you see her, or if you need to come back for whatever reason. Lastly, be wary; she’s dangerous. If you feel even for a second that there’s any chance either of you will get hurt, run.

“Okay, gang. Let’s head out.”

Xander grinned at Buffy after her inspirational speech and thought back to when they were in high school and Xander lived for these things. Buffy in command was one of the highlights of Xander’s day. He hadn’t heard one of those in a while. He was still smiling as he followed Riley out the door, leaving Angel and Buffy to follow.

As they stepped out into the sun, Angel and Buffy set south, the latter of the two dialing up Giles’ number as she went. She let it ring about eight times before taking a mental note of how weird that was and dialing up Willow’s number. The machine clicked on and Buffy left a short message telling Willow about the Faith escapade and that they’d probably be at Giles’ by the time she got the message. Buffy hung up the phone and pocketed it. “After the great Faith search, I’d like to drop by Giles’,” Buffy mentioned casually to Angel. “He’s not picking up his phone; I’d like to make sure Faith hasn’t gotten to him.”

“Buffy…” Angel began.

“Let’s just not, okay? Not now. We have bigger things to worry about.”

“Yes, we do. And yet you’re still bitter about it.”

“You can’t just do that to a person!”

“He’s not a person.”

“Then you never used to be a person, either. If it doesn’t matter that you sent Spike to a hell dimension, then it probably shouldn’t matter that I sent you to a hell dimension either.”

“He was trying to kill me, Buffy. With an axe. He was crazed. He claimed he loved you. If you think I’m just going to stand there and get decapitated while listening to how someday he’s going to sweep you off your feet and away from me, then you’re mistaken.”

“Right, Angel, and what exactly was he going to do? Be in pain you to death?”

“He really didn’t look like he cared about the pain right then. I love you too much to let him try and take you away. The best solution at the time was to send him to hell, one of the things I still know how to do without your assistance.”

“Aw, how sweet. My boyfriend will send someone to hell for my sake! How noble!”

“Look, just cut it out, all right? There’s nothing that can be done now.” He paused, considering whether or not to say it, and then decided he would. “Besides, if he’s of any use at all, he’ll find his own way back in a few months.”

Buffy didn’t respond.

Faith took advantage of the fact that Buffy and Angel were bickering to take the opportunity to sneak past the road behind them. She’d just come from the dorm room that Red shared with the wolf to delete that message; the perfect opportunity to give B exactly what was coming to her. Faith looked up and saw Buffy standing right in front of her, looking smug. She turned and was blocked by Angel behind her.

“It seems we were convincing, honey,” Buffy quipped from behind her.

“It looks that way, doesn’t it, sweetie?” Angel responded, smirking. He punched the rogue slayer and watched as she fell in an unconscious heap at his feet.

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