FIC: Inner Battle (1/?)

["Roman" <imroman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE (Tentative): Inner Battle
AUTHOR: Roman.
E-mail: imroman@xxxxxxxxxx
PAIRING: Buffy/Willow
DISCLAIMER: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I'm
just borrowing them for a little while and I'll retun them as undamaged as
posible. <g>
FEEDBACK : This is my first attempt to write a fic on any fandom so please
be gentle. However if it is your honest opinion that it s*cks, please tell
me. Just remember I have a weak heart <g>.
SPOILERS: Set like 3 or 4 months after Who are you. Adam's still at large.
SUMMARY : Let it be a surprise for now, ok?
DISTRIBUTION: If you want to place this on a website just e-mail me and I'll
say yes.


Chapter 1

Buffy opened the door to find her best friend standing in the middle of
their room, arms crossed, facing her with a look of righteous indignation on
her face that made her appear just too cute for words. The Slayer facial
muscles were torn between showing the contrite face appropriate for the
occasion or the grin that was threathening to appear at the sight her friend
presented.

She opted for contriteness, and Willow found herself struggling to keep the
facade up after seeing her friend make such an adorable pout. The hacker
couldn't help but let a hint of a smile show a little bit. "You know you're
almost two hours late, don't you?"

"I'm sorry Will, but see...there was this huge, like 7 feet tall...uhm...
three headed, goo covered demon that came out of nowhere and wouldn't let me
get out of the library and..."

"Uh, huh."

"Okay, so it only had one head...but the goo made him all slippery and it
took me a long time to kill it and then I had to dump the body and then
clean the mess and change my clothes and.."

Willow closed the distance that separated them and placed her hand on
Buffy's forearm to make her stop her ranting. "It's okay, Buffy. It's not a
big deal. The being late I mean. I was just a little worried." She looked
down, little lines appearing on her forehead. "It's a little hard for me
when you are late from patrol, now more so, with the whole Adam thing and
all."

Buffy placed her hand under the hacker's chin and lifted it upwards so that
she could look her in the eyes. "I know and I'm sorry. I know I promised to
be here by midnight and I seem to be backing off on my promises of lately. I
know you and the rest of the gang worry about me an awful lot." The slayer
answered and give the hand that was on her arm a little squeeze to reasure
her friend. "Why don't we start Studyfest 2000 now that I'm here?. I may be
able to stare down a Fearal demon but just the word *midterm* makes me
shiver." This with an overacted trembling and a much lighter tone, obviously
trying to improve the hacker's mood.

Which seemed to work, she noticed, as Willow smiled and eagerly went to her
desk to collect the material she had prepared specifically for this event.
The Slayer couldn't help but groan a little at the amount of notes and books
her friend had gathered just for tonight's session.

"Gee Will, do we have to go through all that tonight?" Buffy asked, a light
frown on her features.

Willow stared at her.

The slayer resorted to pouting.

The hacker kept staring.

Releasing a sigh, Buffy sat down on her bed. "Okay. Where do we start?"

The hacker smiled.

******

Outside their window, two figures rose from their hiding place and began
walking away, towards the path that would lead them out of Campus. The
taller was walking seemingly deep in thought and his companion, several feet
deficient on the height department, tried hurriedly to keep pace with him.

They kept that way for several minutes, until the tall one raised his head
and then looked down again, this time regarding his smaller companion. "She
is different from the others" Was the comment that came out of his lips in a
deep and throaty rumble.

"You mean her strength? Didn't seem too strong to me." He answered, his
voice raspy and high pichted. "She took a looong time to kill the Bathra
demon we sent to test her and it looked like it was only with luck that she
did"

"No, not luck. A Bathra is a difficult demon to do battle against. All that
goo and stuff..." He looked up again. "What surprised me was that it never
really touched her." His face returned to its earlier thoughtful appereance.
"She was fast, resourceful and she is *very* strong"

"Didn't seem like that to me"

"That's why I say she is different. We'd better return to th..." He was
interrupted by a sound coming from their left side.

They stopped walking and turn to face the direction the sound came from.

A massive figure seemed to emerge from within the shadows the trees and
bushes on the side of the path provided. His body a mix of human and demon
parts put together like a badly assembled toddler's puzzle. He took a step
towards them and asked in a curious but hollow voice. "What is it that you
fear?"

The other two beings look at each other and the smaller one shrugged his
shoulders a little, signaling that he had no idea what the deal was. The
tall one turned then to face Adam and lifted his right hand, palm facing
upwards. Instantly a ball of green fire appeared hovering over it. With a
flick of his wrist the fireball was on its way and in a fraction of a second
the product of the hard work of the Initiative was knocked down to the
ground and engulfed in green flames. There really was no time for Adam's
processors to understand what was happening before he exploded.

The small being just look up to his companion. "*That* was what I call a
freak"

"Yeah. The neirborghood is definitely going rotten"

They resumed their walk leaving behind a black, Adam shaped, ashen spot on
the ground.

TBC