Shifting Phases

by Nodakskip

Someone else gets a little fury.

Harris residence, Sunnydale

Monday, January 26th 1998

5:34 am

Xander Harris rolled over in his bed and tried several times before he was able to grab the ringing phone. "Hello?"

"It's about damn time you picked up!"

Harris was barely able to understand his upset girlfriend's voice. "C-Cordy?" the male teen asked in surprise as he slowly got up out of the bed. "What the hell are you doing up at…" he checked his clock. "Five-thirty in the morning?"

Xander only got even more confused, however, when he heard his girlfriend yell at someone near her, "Why don't you take a damn picture, you pervert!"

"Ah…Cordelia?"

"Xander," Ms. Chase said forcefully over the phone line. "Don't talk, just listen. Put on some clothes, and get over to the north side of the fairgrounds…by the west entrance! And hurry!" she ordered him.

"What's going on-?" Xander started to ask before she cut him off.

"I said move your ass, Harris!" Cordelia yelled at him, before she hung up the pay phone.

Sunnydale Fairgrounds Parking Lot

Around nine minutes later

Xander got out of his uncle's car that he had 'borrowed' for the occasion and looked around, but other than a few rabbits darting along the fence line he could see no one.

"Xander!" he heard a very familiar female voice hiss at him. "Over here!"

The young man looked around and saw something that shocked him. His brunette girlfriend was hiding behind a dumpster, completely nude.

"What the hell-?" Xander demanded as he ran over, all the while trying not to drool as he saw the Chase girl as naked as the day she was born. "Cor-"

"Don't say my name, damn it!" Cordelia growled at him as she ripped his jacket off and hurriedly put it on. "Now don't just stand there like a big dummy, get me the hell out of here!"

Both teenagers quickly ran over and climbed into the car as Xander headed back to town. All throughout the trip Cordelia didn't say anything, she just crouched down so as to not be seen in her current condition. Only after Xander had gone through the back entrance to her family's mansion did he try again to ask, "Honey, what the hell is going on?"

Cordy just gave him a nasty look. "Quiet! Do you want to wake up my parents so they can find me sneaking into the house wearing nothing but your jacket?" Before he could respond the queen bee of Sunnydale High went off on a rant, "Because that'll be a real fun conversation, you know. Oh Daddy, don't worry - I was just naked with my boyfriend, the one you and mom want me to dump…what? Oh, but he's already seen me naked the few times we've had sex! So what does it matter if he gets an eyeful now?"

"Hey!" Xander stopped her. "Sweetheart, I get that you're pissed, but blaming me is not going to fix this. Now please tell me, what the heck happened to you?"

Cordelia was about to respond in anger again when she saw his look. Part of her hated the fact that they had been dating long enough that her significant other could stop her just with that look. "I don't know what the hell happened, alright? I was feeling tired so I went to bed early last night, and I woke up bare-ass naked in the woods this morning! And if that payphone didn't have a quarter in the change thing, I would have had to call you collect!"

Xander put a reassuring hand on hers, which instantly sent a dizzy rush of hormones through Cordelia's system. "I'm glad you did. And I'd ask if you thought you were sleepwalking…but I already know you don't sleep in the nude."

"Like I've 'slept' whenever you've stayed over?" the cheerleader griped in annoyance, forcing herself not to start something in the car that she was sure she'd later regret. "When I was calling you, I had this smelly bum just looking at me like I was a piece of meat…God damn it, but I really hate this town!"

"You think this is Hellmouth-related?" Harris asked her.

"What else could it be?" she demanded. "I've never woken up naked in the woods before today." Cordelia Chase shook her head as she made a decision. "This tears it, Xander. I don't care what you say…we're leaving this goddamned hellhole the very same day we graduate high school next year. And so help me God, if you try to stop me or even mention your precious Buffy or Willow, I will knock you out, tie you up and stuff you into the trunk of the limo!"

Xander grinned at her a little nervously, for he knew his girlfriend was perfectly serious; the odds were Cordelia would do just that if he didn't want to leave town willingly. "Why don't you go back to bed and just stay home today? Uh, tell your parents you feel sick or something-"

"Hell, no!" Cordelia told him. "Last time I went to bed, I wound up naked in the woods. I…look, I'll sneak in through the exercise room like I always do and head back to my bedroom, then I'll take a shower and meet you at school before class." She reached for the door handle to leave but turned back. "And don't you dare tell Giles or anyone else about this, understand?"

"But if it is Hellmouth-y…Cor, he's the go-to guy for stuff like this," Xander insisted.

"No," Cordelia said just as firmly. "You have a brain, no matter what others think…so check out the books on your own." With that, Ms. Chase looked around; then she got out and headed for the window which she always left unlocked.

Sunnydale High School Quad, Sunnydale

7:25am

Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg walked along together as the first few students started to come to school that morning.

"Nowhere," Willow said to her best friend, a little upset about her almost-boyfriend Daniel 'Oz' Osborne and responding to Buffy's question about how far she'd gotten with him. "I mean, he said he was gonna wait until I was ready, but I'm ready. Honest. I'm good to go here," the female teen said as she held out her hands openly. "This plane is ready for takeoff. The seats and tray tables are in their upright and locked positions!"

Buffy laughed. "Well, I think it's nice that he's not just being an animal like a lot of other guys in this school."

The redheaded girl nodded. "Oh, it is nice. He's great. We have a lot of fun. But I want some smoochies!"

"Have you dropped any hints?" the blonde asked back.

Willow sighed. "Buffy, I've dropped anvils of hints. They're like the anvils Wile E. Coyote gets when he chases the Road Runner, you know? They have ACME painted on them and everything. So you'd think he would have gotten hit with one of them by now!"

"Oh, Willow," Buffy said sadly. "I know it sucks crushing on the one boy at Sunnydale High who wants to take things slowly. But hey, he'll come around. I mean, what guy could resist your wily Willow charms for long?"

"At last count, all of them!" Willow said miserably.

"Well, none of them know a thing," Buffy offered gently. "They all get an 'F' in Willow-101."

Willow sighed, "But I want Oz to get an 'A', and, oh, one of those gold stars with sparkles on them!"

Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale

The same time

"Ah, Xander," Giles said absently as he saw the teen on the railing reading a book. Then he looked confused, "When did you get here? I didn't hear you come in."

Xander looked up from the book he was flipping through. "Gee, Giles, maybe that's 'cause you had your office door closed and the radio going full-blast with that golden oldies station playing 'Bay City Rollers'?"

"Well, yes," Giles said in annoyance, as he came over. "But I, uh…no, never mind. What are you doing here this early?"

"Just, ah…killing time, G-man."

"Don't call me that," Giles said automatically. He then looked under the book to see the title. "Martel's Guide to Nocturnal Demons?"

Xander looked like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. "Ah…well, it's not like you have a TV in here, you know?"

Giles sighed, already leaping to conclusions. "Xander, I very much doubt there are any semi-nude woodcut drawings of women in that particular book which you would care to look at."

Xander shrugged, gratefully playing along. "Any port in a storm though, right?"

Giles just sighed again and went straight back to his office, assuming that the Harris boy was simply a complete and utter lost cause.

Elsewhere in the school

Later that morning

Cordelia was at her locker, deep in thought, when she smelled something approaching; for some reason she had been able to smell things a lot better today. Hell, the smell of the lunchroom had been driving her mad ever since she'd passed by on the way to class.

But those smells were good, and what she smelled coming towards her now was just so rank and overpoweringly awful that she had to fight the urge to dry-heave then and there. On top of the horrible thing she smelled approaching, Cordy could just make out some flower-like scents as well. "Oh God…what is that?"

A moment later, her question was answered as Harmony Kendall came around the corner.

"Cordelia," the buxom blond said cattily as soon as she saw her. "Still wearing decent clothes, huh? I thought for sure by now you would be sporting a cute outfit from the Willow Rosenberg collection. You know how nerds like to dress in matching outfits and all."

Ms. Chase just looked at her former friend in utter contempt. Most days she would just ignore Harmony's attempts to get under her skin. But just the sight of the blond shrew now almost made her blood boil. "What's the matter, Harmony? Did you have a hard shift at the bordello last night and get a little snippy?" Cordelia fired back.

Harmony returned the look, and then some. "Oooh, did I hit a nerve on the former great Cordelia Chase? But honestly, don't get mad at me for calling you out on dating one of Jerry's kids."

Cordelia rolled her eyes at the blond's stupidity. "Jerry Lewis does a telethon for kids with muscular dystrophy, not being nerds, you brain-dead Barbie doll!"

"Whatever," Ms. Kendall said as she rolled her eyes. "How about we talk about something else? Like how much longer you're going to keep seeing that…monkey boy."

"I'm not going to dump Xander just because you say so, Harm," was Cordy's reply. "No matter how many times you bring it up."

"Oh, it's not just me," Harmony smiled. "Your mom and dad are the ones that gave you the deadline. Thank God at least some Chases haven't lost their mind by dating a lowlife loser…" She was cut off as Cordelia suddenly rammed her against the lockers. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Cordelia's face was full of rage. "You insult my boyfriend like that again, and I will make you regret it."

"Let me go, you freak!" Harmony demanded. "What, did Buffy Summers let you into her gang or something…?"

"This has nothing to do with Buffy, so leave her out of it," Cordelia growled. "Now listen carefully. I am sick and tired of taking your crap over my choice of boyfriend, Harmony! I know our social circle may not like Xander either, but there's a reason why they're the 'Cordettes' instead of the 'Harmonettes'. So from now on, you're just gonna shut up and do as you're told."

As she was let go, Harmony looked at her former friend in disgust. "Who the hell do you think you are? I'm Harmony Kendall-"

"You're a hanger-on," Cordelia told her, interrupting. "And I am the Queen of this school. If it wasn't for me, you'd still be wearing cheap knock-off clothes like you did when we were freshmen! I made you, Harmony, and I can unmake you just as easily."

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Principal Snyder," Cordelia said as she moved away from Harmony, annoyed at the interruption. "We're just talking, on account of someone's forgotten their place around here."

"Now look, I will not have any kind of fighting in my…" Snyder started but shut up when Cordelia turned quickly to face him.

"Do you really want to try that with me right now?" Ms. Chase demanded of him, her eyes staring him down as she moved right in front of Snyder. "You want to take out the fact that you look like a Ferengi on all the peons around here, that's fine, but NOT on me!"

Snyder looked at her in shock. "Now look here, young lady-!" he started as he thrust his finger into her shoulder. "I'm the authority figure in this school…"

Cordelia just looked down at the finger being pushed into her shoulder. "Oh my God, are you actually touching me?"

"What?" Snyder stopped mid-rant, yanking his finger away immediately.

"What do you think this is? The Dark Ages, where guys could do anything they wanted to girls and get away with it?" Ms. Chase demanded. "That's assault!" She looked to Harmony in mock horror. "I have just been attacked by the school principal. I am SO traumatized! I should sue the school straightaway!"

"What?" Snyder looked horrified at his worst fear being spoken aloud. He babbled, "No…no, I did nothing of the sort, you have no grounds for-"

"I have got to call my dad's lawyers in LA," Cordelia kept going. "I'm sure Wolfram and Hart can have a guy up here by the end of the day!"

"Wolfram…and Hart?" Snyder paled. He quickly gathered himself up. "There's no need for that! My apologies, Miss Chase, for accidentally touching you…and I'll even put that in writing, if you like. There's, there's no need to make a big deal out of nothing."

Before he quickly left, Snyder looked to Harmony. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he demanded of the blond.

Cordelia had an evil grin on her face, as she watched the short balding man trying not to run back to his office. She knew that the troll's one weakness was not wanting anyone to sue the school, as that would get him fired. But a few weeks ago she'd witnessed her father mention Wolfram and Hart to a few of his partners here in town, and they'd acted the exact same way Snyder just did. Might have to hire them after Xander and I finally ditch this one-Starbucks town.

Cordelia turned back to Harmony. "Oh yeah, I guess Snyder's right; don't you have to get on your knees for Blaine Moll tonight?"

Harmony could only see red as her anger grew, while Cordelia just walked away smiling to herself.

"Intense."

Harmony spun around to find Oz behind her. "All you two need is a swimming pool, and we'd have had a Dynasty moment here," the musician commented sagely.

Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale

A while later

Giles looked very surprised to see Xander back in the library, looking at more books. He was about to say something, when Buffy and Willow came into the Batcave as well.

"Hey, Xander!" the Slayer said, as Harris started and guiltily looked around. "Where have you been all day? We didn't even see you for lunch," Buffy added, indicating Willow beside her.

"Yeah, well, uh, I've been kinda busy today," Harris said rather lamely.

"With Cordelia?" Willow asked, her tone obviously disapproving.

Xander exhaled. He knew his girl friend had a serious problem with his girlfriend, and wasn't that rather confusing when he thought about the two femmes that way.

Still, Xander knew Willow felt justified in not giving her blessing to his dating the Chase girl after she'd found out the truth that night, what with all the mean and nasty things Cordelia had said and done to Miss Rosenberg ever since kindergarten.

"So how's Oz? Y'know, I've been meaning to talk to that guy lately," Harris mused, wanting to change the subject.

"Xander, don't you dare even think of giving him the shovel speech, or our friendship is over!" Willow said at once.

"She's right," Buffy said loyally, supporting her best friend. "Xander, you really need to get over this overprotective thing you've developed lately-"

"So does that also include you and your walking corpse of an ex-boyfriend?" Xander asked her in annoyance.

"Xander, I can't believe you sometimes!" Buffy shouted, her heart was still shattered over the fact Angelus had been unleashed a while back during her 17th birthday.

"Xander-" Willow started to say as well.

"No, hang on, lemme see if I got this straight - you two can both snipe all you want about Cordy, but I can't say anything about Angel?" Xander interrupted. "Like the fact that I was right all along about him being bad news just waiting to happen?"

"No, because it's none of your business! Giles, tell him!" Buffy fumed angrily.

The Watcher shook his head, refusing to get involved. He laid down the newspaper on the table. "If we could possibly move onto more relevant matters right now? Several animals were found butchered last night, Buffy. I, I suspect it might well be worth looking into."

"Why?" Xander asked, even as Willow began to look upset over the thought of dead squirrels and fawns and the like. "I mean, if no people were killed. Uh, no people were killed, were they?"

"No, apparently not," Giles admitted. "But still, my instincts are saying this might be, uh, m-more than just your typical Hellmouth activity. And if it is supernatural in nature, soon enough the demon or whatever it is may move onto human targets in order to sate its appetite."

Xander was uncomfortably reminded of his possession by that Hyena spirit last year. "Research time?"

"Yes. Everyone, you know what to do," the British man gestured to the table.

Xander got up from his chair though, to Rupert's surprise. "Strength in numbers, right? I'm gonna go find Cordy, see if she's able to help."

"Great," Willow muttered under her breath, but not enough for Xander to avoid hearing her barbed comment as the male teen went off to find his girlfriend.

"And don't hurry back on my account," Buffy mumbled to herself, still angry and upset over their recent exchange of harsh words regarding Angel.

Elsewhere in Sunnydale High, Sunnydale

2:25 pm

Xander stopped dead in his tracks, as soon as he saw the look on his girlfriend's face after she spotted him. It was almost predatory-like. "Ah, Cor, we need to…"

Without a word, Cordelia grabbed Xander's arm and dragged him towards the door to the basement stairs. "Shut up!" she then ordered him, her emotions completely out of control.

"What-?" Xander demanded as Cordy pushed him down the stairs while she locked the door behind them. "Hold on, just a sec!" Harris said as he was pulled to the small landing a few stairs down. "Cordelia, what are you doing?"

"Looking for some place private, stupid!" Cordy said, before she shoved him against the wall and pinned him between it and her as she kissed him hard. Xander struggled for a moment, but since he was a guy he quickly returned the kiss as the heat began to build up between them.

"I've been getting these weird urges all day…" the young woman said, after she came up for air a while later.

"An urge for your Xander-shaped friend?" Harris asked, unsure.

She gave him a lewd grin, it was almost as if she was acting like an animal in heat. "Oh, you're my Xander-shaped something, all right…"

"Honey, I can't believe I'd ever want to this to stop, but…HEY!" Xander yelled out, as her right hand went right down the front of his pants and into his boxers.

"There you are," Cordelia grinned as she found her prize and Xander looked officially freaked.

Her other hand ripped his shirt open, as the smell of her boyfriend was driving Cordelia wild. "Xander? I am fully aroused right now, and want to have hot, steamy 'Dear Penthouse' sex with you. So whatever you have to say can wait for later, okay?"

Being a male teen Xander could hardly utter anything, especially after she flicked her right thumb a little. "Okay…" was all that Harris could choke out, before he leaned in and kissed her and both of them started tearing off each other's clothes.

About an hour and a half later the two teens were sitting on the landing, very tired. "What…the hell was that?" Xander asked, as his panting slowed down. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but we've never had sex like that before!"

"I'm not really sure," Cordelia answered. "I had this huge rush of hormones, I guess…but still, that was fantastic!"

"Yeah, it was," Harris agreed. "Hey, how do you feel now?"

"More calm…satisfied, and very sore," Miss Chase said with a grin as she grabbed him close and the young couple engaged in a post-coital cuddle.

Neither of them happened to notice the smirking female vampire hidden behind an old boiler, who had witnessed most of the show.

Willy's Alibi Room, Sunnydale

Not long after sunset

Willy the snitch was wiping his bar down when he saw the door open, and he couldn't believe who it was for a moment.

"Kloth?" the snitch/bartender said with a smile. "Haven't seen you here in a long time."

The tall and bulky Kailiff demon nodded as he sat at the bar. "Been visiting my sister in Spain," he told the human. "I tell you, though, Willy…the bars they have over there just sucked beyond words. Nothing can touch your Lekni'a Beer."

"Ah, you're too kind," Willy told his favorite customer as he stooped under the bar to pull out a warm bottle of the demon-made beer.

Kloth looked around the mostly empty bar. "Looks kind of dead around here, Willy," he said as he took the bottle and opened it with his large clawed hand.

Willy nodded as he leaned on the bar. "Something new happened just last night," he said. "Some of my customers are saying it's a werewolf."

"A werewolf?" the large demon grinned. "Now that IS news. Those suckers are pretty rare these days."

"A few vamps came across it last night, according to the gossip," Willy told him. "Only one managed to escape intact, though. Said she thinks it's a girl from either the high school or the community college. But both places have been going since September already, and they've had no transfers for the past few months."

"A newly cursed werewolf?" Kloth grinned even wider. "How'd the vamp know it was a female?"

"Well, it's not like they wear clothes, pal," the bartender replied. "Vamp said it didn't have something…y'know, down south."

"Ahh," Kloth nodded as he took a long gulp of his beer. "Well, I haven't seen a werewolf in a long time, let alone one maybe cursed that far from birth."

"I've only seen one myself," Willy admitted. "Years ago this couple had a baby male, but they only stayed in town a few days. So, is it a big thing to be cursed during your teenage years? Other than the monthly wolf PMS, I mean."

Kloth sat his bottle down on the bar. "Oh, it's a full sensory overload, Willy. Like when a human turns into a vampire, but way sharper. Night vision, way better smelling ability…and if the werewolf is going through puberty, oh boy." He laughed out loud. "I heard tell of one teenage male raping a girl back in the 20's, just 'cause he was so overloaded with hormones. Wasn't pretty, that's for sure."

The demon stopped for a second. "Wait, it happened last night?"

"Yeah," Willy replied. "She was spotted over towards the fairgrounds, why?"

"Last night wasn't the full moon," Kloth told him. "Damn. Guess I owe that bastard father of mine twenty bucks."

"But I thought they only came out during the full moon?" Willy insisted, thinking back to recall if he'd seen the moon last night.

"The legend is that they only transform during a full moon," the demon told him. "But I've heard it said that it's the night before and after as well. It's just that no one usually survives being around one for long, or the wolf vacates the area during the day. I mean, hell, once word gets out, every idiot with a shotgun thinks he can bag himself a were..."

Lovers Lane, Sunnydale

11:45 pm

"You like it when I do that, huh?" Harmony giggled from the passenger seat of the Mustang.

"You could do that to me all night…" Blaine Moll grinned as they kissed again.

"You sure you would last?" Harmony teased after they came up for air.

"Oh, you're damn right I would la-" Blaine started to say, but suddenly yelled as a furry clawed arm punched through the thin roof of the car.

"AIIIEEE!" Harmony screamed as she batted away the clawed arm that was trying to grab her. "No! Get away!"

The ditzy blonde pulled out her can of pepper spray and sprayed it into the ripped hole. An animalistic growing was heard, as the arm disappeared and something jumped off the roof of the car. Both teens instantly screamed again, as a very large dog-like creature landed onto the hood. They froze at the sight of the beast, as it growled at them from the other side of the windshield.

"What is that thing!" Blaine demanded, terrified.

"Who cares?" Harmony yelled. "Go! Go!"

Blaine quickly started the car, hoping the sudden vibrations would scare the animal off, but unfortunately that just made it mad. The leather ceiling then caved in half-way as the werewolf jumped onto the car's roof again.

"Get us OUTTA HERE!" Harmony shouted as she slid down in her seat.

The jock put his vehicle into reverse as he pulled out back onto the road. Luckily the tight turn flung the werewolf off, as Blaine quickly shifted into Drive and floored it out of Lovers Lane.

Harmony could see the whatever-it-was that had attacked get up, and start to chase them. But the creature couldn't keep up with Blaine's sports car, and was quickly lost far behind them.

"What the hell was that thing?" Blaine asked again as he looked officially freaked.

"I don't know," Harmony replied, already beginning to repress the more nightmarish aspects of what had happened. "But my dad knows the chief of police, so I, I'm sure they'll take care of it somehow..."

The creature howled one last time at its lost prey, before moving back into the woods when it stopped. Smelling something close by, something dead and rotten, the wolf growled at a darkened area just off the dirt road. It then looked on in surprise as a human…a dead human, by the smell…walked over calmly to it.

"Ohh, you are just so cute my little wolf doggie!" Drusilla said happily as she clapped her hands. "Did your snack get away? I hate it when that happens, especially the nice and tender ones."

The werewolf moved closer to her, but Drusilla did something that surprised it. Exhibiting utterly no fear, she reached out and started to pet the beast. "The stars sang to me last night, they did, that you had come out of that human shell for the very first time. I just danced and danced at the visions of how powerful you are, but killing little bunnies and deer isn't good enough for you. I'm going to take you home with me, I will, and we'll be a happy family!" she grinned. "Won't that be fun?"

She moved back to the front and looked directly into the wolf's eyes. "Look into my eyes, my little one…look at me, be in me..."

The werewolf was confused at this being's behavior, but nonetheless started to feel more…calm.

"Yes, that's it my dear," Drusilla said as her hypnotic powers calmed the beast to her will. "There's no need to worry, everything will be alright now…"

The outskirts of Sunnydale

Soon after

Gib Cain swore as he checked his watch and pulled his old van off the Interstate-95 before entering the streets of Sunnydale. It been pure luck he had been heading this way, when he'd gotten a tip that a werewolf had been sighted the night before.

Now he had only one and a half nights left to find this wolf and skin it before it returned to human form. He had to skin the damn thing while it still had its fur, then it would always stay fur. If he didn't get the job done before sunup he would have nothing but human skin, and no one wanted to buy that.

Luckily, his contact had filled him in on the layout of this small crap town. The 'Lovers Lane' for the horny teenagers was not that far away, and it gave him enough time to set up a net trap or two.

Abandoned Warehouse Factory, Sunnydale

Tuesday, January 27th 1998

5:35 am

"Dru?" Spike called out, as he wheeled his wheelchair down the ramp. "You down here, luv?" The peroxide-blond vamp was not really worried as, although he knew Drusilla was completely nuts, even she understood that she had to be back indoors before sunrise.

"Come on, Dru!" Spike called out. "It's late and I'm tired…" He stopped his chair dead when he turned the corner. "Well, hello there?"

What had been a fenced-in area for tools back when humans had used the place, was now emptied out save for a few things. A mattress, a bowl filled with water, a large plastic dog chew bone...

And a naked teenage girl sleeping on the mattress.

He moved his chair over to the locked gate and was about to open it, when a loud yell stopped him. "NO! Bad Spike!"

He looked behind him to see Dru coming down the stairs to the upper level. "What?"

"You do not touch my girl," Drusilla said primly.

"Your what?" Spike demanded in sheer incredulity, glancing back at the sleeping brunette but again failing to recognize her.

Before he could get an answer, the girl turned over and slowly woke up. "What the-?" she slowly asked as she looked up.

Then the brunette saw the two vampires, and screamed.

"OY!" Spike yelled as he covered his ears. "Shut up, you stupid trollop!"

The teen girl did so as she quickly got up and looked around, realizing she was stark naked and trying to cover herself up as she backed up to the far wall of the fenced-in cage. "What am I doing here?" she demanded.

Drusilla put her arm around Spike's as they looked at the terrified girl. "Oh, look at her Spike. Isn't she just beautiful?"

The blond vamp just shrugged. "Not a bad set of knockers she's got there, luv, I'll give ya that. But what's she doing here, Dru?"

"I got her last night, the stars sang to me about her they did!"

"Got her…" Spike started, but then he stopped as he took in the area the girl was locked up in. "Oh, hell no Dru! You are not keeping her here as a bloody pet! You'll stink the place out after she drops dead from starvation, just like that damn parakeet!"

Dru looked like a scolded little girl. "But I promise to feed her and give her some water every day..."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Dru…luv…you've had four bloody birds over the past six months, and you ALWAYS forget to feed them. They smelled something awful before I finally threw 'em out!"

"But she's a powerful one, luv," Dru told him quickly. "She's a wolf, she is."

"A bloody werewolf!" her boyfriend growled, as Cordelia Chase started in shock. "You know how dangerous those things are?" Spike pointed a finger at Drusilla. "This is why you sent Angelus down to the docks to look for them gypsies, idn'it? To give you time to sneak her in here?"

Spike pseudo-sighed as he looked back at the still-shaking nude girl. "No, I'm sorry luv. But either you eat her, or I will."

The female vampire just looked at her childe angrily, as he turned and rolled away. After Spike was gone Dru turned and walked to the cage. "He doesn't understand," she told Cordelia, as she unlocked the door and came in.

Cordelia tried to move back more, but she was fully pressed against the cold stone wall. "Please, let me go?"

Dru came up so that she was right in the cheerleader's face. "This isn't you, is it?" she asked cheerfully. "You're a monster like me, you are. You don't have to fear or shake." Her hand came up and pulled Ms. Chase's away from the wall.

"This…" Drusilla said, indicating Cordy's nude form. "This is just a shell that you sleep in, till the beast comes out to play."

"Noo…" Cordelia managed to get out. "I'm not a…"

Drusilla put her finger on the girl's lips, silencing her. "Hush, sweetie. I know the truth. I know you better than you know yourself, I do. I saw the wolf in you tame your sweet boy in that basement yesterday."

Cordelia's eyes went wide. "You watched us!"

"I watched you dominate him, I did. Bind him to you heart and soul," the vampiress said with a smirk. "Just like I saw you try to kill that nasty blond girl last night. The stars have shown me what a magnificent beast you've become."

"No, damn it!" Cordelia tried to get away before Drusilla's hand whipped up and grabbed her by the neck.

She pinned Miss Chase back against the wall. "Don't fight it, dearie. The humans will run in fear of you, they will! You'll eat them like candy, apart from your precious boy - ooh, that naughty kitten, he's so lucky to have spilled his seed inside you when he shouldn't have. You're going to be so beautiful…so powerful!"

"Nooo," the human whispered out in horror.

"Yes," the vampire said firmly. She then ran her free hand down Cordelia's upper chest and down one breast. "It won't happen straightaway, but it'll come in its own good time. You'll kill. And you'll hunt! And I'll be the one holding your leash, in the end."

Cordelia tried not to freak out at being touched by a vampire like this. But it didn't stop, as Dru's cold dead hand came up and scratched her behind the ear like a dog. "I've got all the time in the world for you to accept it, I do. I've seen your future." She turned and indicated the caged-in area. "One day, you'll come in here gladly to be my li'l doggie."

She looked deep into the girl's eyes. "It will happen, luv. I've seen it."

Then without warning, Dru let go of the girl and moved away. "You can fight it all you want, my pet..." She moved and picked up a plastic bag and tossed it at Cordelia's feet. "But it will come to pass."

Cordelia watched her crazy captor turn her back and walk calmly out of the cage. "You can run away now, though you'll be back."

As soon as the scared female teen heard the heavy door close behind the mad vampiress, Cordelia grabbed the plastic bag. "What the hell?" Inside was a full outfit of clothes and shoes for her to wear.

Harris residence, Sunnydale

Twenty minutes later

Xander paced his room, holding the cordless phone as he tried Cordelia's number again. His rich girlfriend had her own phone line in her room, and he had been trying to get ahold of her ever since dawn.

"Pick up, damn it!" Xander demanded worriedly, though not loud enough to wake up his sure-to-be drunk father a few rooms away.

He had tried to tell Cordelia yesterday his suspicions about her possibly being a werewolf, but the…mind-blowing sex kind of got in the way, and afterwards the girl had not wanted to hear it. And Xander had to admit, he'd been too worn out to press the issue much.

He hung up and was about to hit redial when a tapping was heard at his window. Xander went over and pulled up the blinds to find Cordelia standing outside his window in a loose jogging outfit, and looking like hell.

"Cordy!" Xander called out quietly, the relief evident in his tone.

"Open up!" she demanded from outside.

Xander knew it would make too much noise to get her in via the window with its rusted frame, so he pointed to the left. "Go around the back to the basement door. I'll meet you there…"

The girl nodded and took off for the back of the old home. Xander quickly exited his room to hear the TV going in his parents' bedroom, but he could also hear them snoring. They were still out cold, but he moved silently anyway. Xander made it to the basement and practically jumped down the small steps, and then he ran over to the outside door. As soon as he unlocked it and yanked it open, he was enveloped in a tight hug by his girlfriend.

"Whoa…Cordelia!" Xander said as he closed the door behind her. "You're trembling?" He could hear her crying and sniffling, so he quickly led her over to the old sofa. "What the hell happened?"

Cordelia didn't want to let go. After a little while she spoke up, "You were right…I'm a werewolf."

"You are?" Xander asked as he grabbed a tissue from a box on the end table and gave it to her. "Uh, are you sure? I mean, I know that was one of the things that most likely-"

"Oh, I'm damn sure," Cordy told him, upset. "I learned it from Drusilla herself."

Xander's eyes went wide. "Drusilla? As in Spike's girlfriend, that nutty undead Goth chick?"

"I woke up naked in some kind of cage about twenty minutes ago," the Chase girl confessed to him. "Both of them were there…she told him I was a werewolf, a-a-and she wanted to keep me as a pet!"

"Oh my God," was all Harris could think to say. "Did, did they hurt you?"

"Not physically," Cordelia replied, grabbing his hand more tightly. "Spike told her she couldn't keep a werewolf as a pet and told her to get rid of me…even he thought werewolves are too dangerous…" she trailed off for a second.

"What else, Cor?" Xander gently asked her.

She wiped a tear away. "Drusilla – she just let me go, she even had these tacky clothes ready for me. Said she had visions of me becoming a monster that eats people…and that one day, I would WANT to be her goddamn pet!"

"What? That's crazy!" Xander cupped her chin and made her look back to him. "Cordy, come on, she's nuts…hell, I think Deadboy mentioned once that she talks to her dolls, before he lost it and went psycho-evil. You can't take her word for something like that-"

"I read the books on her," Cordelia said cutting him off. "Yeah she's nuts, but her visions almost always come true. The author said that's why Angel turned her in the first place."

"Okay, well…let's just put that to one side for a second, shall we?" Xander said, thinking the best thing to do would be to get Buffy to kill that undead lunatic as soon as possible, so that her prophecy DIDN'T come true. "After you calm down, we'll go talk to Giles about what's happened."

"NO!" Cordelia said at once, grabbing his arm. "We can't tell him!"

"At this point we kinda have to, Cor," Xander told her. "He knows about this sort of stuff, and we need to make sure-"

"How can you be sure that he won't send Buffy out to kill me?"

For a few moments, it was dead quiet in that basement. "What? Cor, that's crazy - Giles wouldn't send Buffy after you!" Xander shouted, refusing to believe that for a moment.

"It's her job, isn't it?" Cordelia demanded. "To kill the monsters?"

"You're not a monster!" Xander told her quickly, hugging her tight.

"Yeah, well, we both know most of the freshmen and sophomores at Sunnydale High would disagree with that," Ms. Chase said softly into his ear. "And you think I don't know what Buffy and Willow say to you about me, behind my back?"

Letting her go, Xander looked up at the ceiling for a moment trying to figure this out. He hated to admit it, but maybe Cordelia had a point there. "Okay…okay…tonight's the night after the full moon. So we'll lock you up somewhere just before sunset and then…tomorrow we go see Giles, and ONLY Giles, after swearing him to secrecy or something."

"Lock me up?" Cordelia cringed. "You think I'm going to turn into a werewolf again tonight?"

"Yeah," Harris told her honestly. "Most of the books say werewolves only come out during the full moon, but that was last night and it was your second time waking up naked in a strange place. I figure those people who wrote that werewolf-ism takes place the night before and after as well the night of the full moon were right, after all."

"If, if it happens again, Xander - I don't want you anywhere near me," Cordelia told him fearfully. "I don't want to hurt you…"

"You won't."

"You don't know that!" she scolded him. "I don't remember what happens after I turn into that, that THING! I'm not in control, the wolf is…"

"But it's still you inside there!" he stopped her. "I don't think you would hurt me, you'd stop yourself-"

"Like Angel stopped himself after he became Angelus again?" Cordy asked, upset.

Xander just looked at her for a moment, before pulling her back into a hug. God, I really wish she hadn't made that particular comparison, Harris thought to himself, painfully remembering that argument he'd had with Buffy and Willow in the library not so long ago.

Sunnydale High, Sunnydale

A while later

Buffy was sitting on a bench outside the parking lot when Willow came over. "Hey. No sign of Xander yet?" the Slayer asked.

"Nope, I didn't find him inside," the redhead said, shaking her head.

"Haven't seen him out here either," Buffy told her. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Cordelia anywhere around as well, and she's usually here by this time of the morning."

"Well, it's not like they'll show up together…" Willow started but stopped. "'Cause that would mean they were together for, like...the whole night, and, and they couldn't have gotten up to what I THINK they've gotten up to!"

Buffy laughed, knowing what Willow was alluding to. "Come on, Will. I hardly think anything like that is going on-"

"Oh, no?" Willow interrupted as she sat next to her best friend. "Haven't you seen the way Cordy just thrusts her boobs out at him? Or that dirty little wink she often gives him? Plus, Xander's a guy! There's only one thing guys his age – well, apart from Oz maybe – want!"

"Well, yeah," Buffy replied uneasily. "But this is Cordelia Chase we're talking about. Her reputation means everything to her, remember? No way is she just going to have random sex with Xander in a broom closet or whatever."

Willow shook her head, blissfully ignorant regarding what had happened yesterday in that basement landing. "But Buffy, last week Xander confessed to me how they're always making out together! Just how long do you think it'll be before he wants more, assuming they haven't gone all the way yet?"

"Good point," the Slayer replied with a shrug. "Still, I just don't see that happening. You know Xander's luck with girls in the past - the Inca Mummy girl, Ms. French…"

Willow looked at Buffy, completely amazed. "So? What difference will that make, as far as he's concerned? Buffy, come on - you're seriously telling me that you think Xander, OUR Xander, wouldn't have sex with Cordelia if that skanky 'ho decided that she was ready to go that far with him?"

"Um, sure, he'd WANT to," Buffy said to that uncomfortably, honestly not liking to think about Harris that way. "But still, I don't think it'd happen. Not only would Cordelia not want to risk her reputation over the likes of him-"

"Buffy!" Willow interrupted, a hurt look on her face.

"NO! I-I didn't mean it like that!" Buffy said hurriedly, cursing herself for her choice of words. "Look, our little argument yesterday about Angel not withstanding, I like Xander, I think he's a good guy…but thinking of him as a sex machine, o-or Cordelia's Xander-shaped dildo? No way, I just don't see it."

"But-"

"Will, I know that you think of Cordelia as being the Queen of Skankytown or whatever," the Slayer went on, cutting Willow off. "But come on, if Xander ever did manage to score with her…and I'm not saying he will, mind you, but just for the sake of argument let's say he DID ever manage to get past third base or whatever…then it'd be like written all over his face. Remember when Xander finally got his hands on that rare comic book he was looking for over the summer? He couldn't stop smiling for a week!"

"Well, maybe you're right..." Willow started to say uncertainly, but then she stopped when she saw a group form around a car in the lot. "Hey, isn't that Cordy's flock?"

Buffy looked over. "Yeah, I wonder what's got them so peppy. Let's go take a look."

Buffy and Willow walked along the parking lot and stood next to a tree, just off the side by the space where the popular girls were. They saw the Cordettes all gathered around a nice car…one with a large hole ripped through the roof.

"Oh, Blaine's insurance company is gonna have, like, a complete cow when they see this," Harmony said as she examined the hole within the caved-in car roof in dismay, and all the other girls crowded around her to get a look for themselves.

"So what happened?" the black girl named Aura asked.

"I can't even remember most of it, just that some kind of wild dog attacked us last night," Ms. Kendall replied. "Maybe it was a wolf or something, I don't know, but I definitely saw something big and hairy come crashing through the roof! Its claws were like inches from my face!"

"I heard on the radio that some more rabbits were found mutilated this morning," another girl named Gwen spoke up.

"Ewww," the Cordette named Joy said in disgust. "Blood and everything?"

"I'm just glad it didn't kill me and Blaine. It was so awful!" Harmony cried. "I mean, I'm too young and pretty to die!"

Apprentice witch and Slayer gave each other a look when the words 'big' and 'claw' were spoken by the blond cheerleader. "Guess this might be bigger than we thought," Buffy whispered to Willow, who simply nodded.

Several minutes later, Giles looked up from his book to see the female pair quickly enter the library. After seeing the girls' faces, he quickly placed a bookmark in and closed the book. "Is something the matter?" Rupert asked.

"Our problem just went after bigger game," Buffy told him as she took off her backpack.

"A large dog or, or wolf-type creature attacked Harmony and Blaine last night," Willow said as she set her own bag down on the table. "It looks like it ripped though the car's roof to try to get at them. Buffy and I heard Harmony and her crowd talking about it in the lot just now."

"Oh my," Giles said in concern. "Did you happen to hear where those two were when they were attacked?"

"She didn't say," Buffy informed him. "But it's got to be Lovers Lane."

"How can you know that for sure?" the Watcher asked her.

Rolling her eyes, the blond Slayer replied, "Come on, Giles, this is Harmony we're talking about. Her method of popularity is to spread her legs for anyone on a sports team…and Blaine's on two of them."

Willow nodded. "It's kind of the worst kept secret in school."

"Ah…" Rupert sighed as he got up. "Well, that is nearer to town than the fairgrounds. Whatever this thing is, I-I'd say it's definitely moving closer to the human population." He went to his office to grab a map of Sunnydale and the surrounding area, when he stopped and saw his calendar on the office wall.

A monthly calendar with little graphic images of the moon phase spread out every eight days or so.

"Oh no," Giles said, studying the full moon symbol on yesterday's date.

"What?" Willow asked as the two girls looked at him.

Giles looked back at them through the open door. "A large dog or wolf, did you say?"

"Well that's what Harmony said, yeah. Why?" Buffy asked in confusion.

Giles looked at the wall calendar once more before swearing. "Damn it all, it fits. Of course it does! Why didn't I think of it before?"

"Come on, Giles," his Slayer prompted him. "Share with the rest of the class."

The British man came back to the two female teens and laid down the map on the table, spreading it out. "Both last night and the night before, there's been lethal activity that's taken place after sunset."

"Yeah, but doesn't no sun pretty much equal vampire?" Willow wondered.

"In Sunnydale, yes," Giles replied. "Well, at least eight times out of ten." He indicated the large woods covering that side of town. "But animals, no matter whether they're demonic or natural in origin, tend to stay in wooded areas. And according to my calendar, last night was a full moon."

"A werewolf?" Buffy asked, getting it immediately and looking surprised. "I thought they were just, y'know, fairy tales!"

"No," Rupert told her. "They've always existed; it's just that they're very rare at the moment. Most were hunted down and killed during the Middle Ages, but some may have survived. Or maybe they didn't."

"Huh? Uh, how can we have one if they didn't survive?" Willow asked, looking confused.

Giles looked at his two charges. "Lycanthropy is a curse, but a much more powerful one than, say, that which turned Angelus into Angel."

Buffy looked down at the name of her boyfriend. But Giles ignored her and kept going, "A powerful enough mage or wizard could cause the curse to affect a new line of werewolves, and start it all up again. Even though I don't know how the curse would be performed."

"Wait, hold on a sec," Buffy said, thinking over what she knew. "Giles, this can't be a werewolf. 'Cause they only come out during the full moon, and that was last night…not the night before!"

"No, no, it's been speculated in the past that werewolves can also manifest during the two nights surrounding the full moon, as well that night in question," Giles replied. "But again, it's been so long that, uh, werewolves haven't been very high up on the research priority lists for any Council researchers." The man thought for a moment. "Actually, I do have an old friend from the Academy who studied werewolves as part of his thesis…even though I haven't heard from him in quite some time."

Buffy looked over at the wall clock. "Yikes, it's almost time for homeroom. Giles, why don't you see what you can find out - or better yet talk to that old buddy of yours, since I might be fighting this thing tonight?"

"Yes," Rupert agreed. "Contacting Thomas is our best bet, as I rather suspect my books don't contain much on werewolves. I'll see if I can track him down. I want you two, and Xander, and maybe even Cordelia, to come back here during study hall and help me."

Willow got up. "I can look for your friend on the Net, if that'll help."

"I appreciate the thought. But Thomas was always one to like his privacy, and I'm sure he isn't very…'tech savvy', I-I believe you call it," Giles told her.

"Okay," Buffy said as she grabbed her book bag. "Happy hunting…so I can hopefully have happy hunting tonight."

Sunnydale High School Gym, Sunnydale

A few hours later

It was the third period gym class for the combined group of junior and senior year students, who were sitting in clumps on the bleachers within the main gymnasium. All of them had their sweat pants and maroon Sunnydale High T-shirts on, as they listened to the female basketball coach talk.

"The world is changing for the worse these days," the 35-year-old woman told them. "You see it on the news all the time, crime is definitely on the way up in big cities like LA and San Francisco. And as much as we might want to think otherwise, a little town like Sunnydale is not immune to that sort of thing. We get our share of weirdos and crazies around here, just like everywhere else."

"Boy, ain't that the understatement of the year," Buffy muttered to herself as she listened.

The female coach kept going, "Now while we can't stop every nut job out there, the school board has decided to teach you kids some basic self-defense moves. Our hope is that, with such training, you can keep yourselves from becoming a statistic if it ever came down to it."

"Not really worried about getting mugged around here," Willow whispered to Buffy, who was sitting next to her. The Slayer nodded and then suddenly nudged her friend.

With her head, the blond pointed towards the end of the bleachers. Willow looked and saw Xander and Cordelia, dressed in their gym clothes, move in to sit at the end of the bleachers.

The two brunette teens quickly took their seats so as not to be noticed by the coach as being late. Xander looked over and saw Buffy staring at him with a question on her face. He just sent her a shrug back.

"At least we're not too late," Harris whispered to his girlfriend.

Cordelia sighed as she watched the female coach flip the male coach over her shoulder in what was obviously a very choreographed move. "Well, goody, I sure didn't want to miss learning self-defense from people who wear sweat pants all day. Why did we even come in today, I ask you?"

"'Cause we have to keep up appearances," Xander told her. "I can't afford to have Snyder catch me skipping school, y'know."

Cordelia grinned for the first time that day, recalling her previous 'talk' with the principal. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about the troll anymore." She saw Xander's look. "At least not while you're with me, anyway."

"Okay, now let's break up into groups!" the male coach called out. "Find your partner's name by checking the lists over there on the wall!"

The large mass of students checked out who was in who's group. Cordy sighed again when she saw she'd been placed with Larry and other jocks. "I can't believe I'd rather be with the losers right now..."

"It's just for one class," Xander told her. "And I'll be right over there."

Ms Chase looked at the sheet. "With Buffy and Willow…ooh, what a shocker."

The two teens separated with Xander coming over to Buffy, Willow and Oz. "Hey guys, I miss much?" Harris asked his friends.

"A killer algebra class during second period, apparently," Oz said, amused…or as amused as he could look, anyway.

"Where have you and Cordelia been?" Buffy demanded, the sex talk with Willow earlier this morning making an unwelcome appearance in her memory. "In this town - not showing up to school on time is not of the good for those of us who worry, you know."

"Don't sweat it, Buff, it's no big deal," Xander told her, the well-rehearsed lie flowing smoothly from his lips. "Cordy gave me a ride today, and her car ran over a couple of nails on the way to school. We had to wait for roadside assistance," he said very convincingly. "I don't know what company her dad uses, but sheesh - talk about a full-service operation, that guy examined almost everything in the Cordy-mobile!"

"Still, Xander, you couldn't call?" Willow asked him as she and Oz moved into the defensive positions.

"Mr. Chase confiscated Cordy's cell phone recently – and even if he hadn't, do either you or the Buffster have one?" Xander pointed out the obvious, causing both girls to scowl at him.

Not far away, Cordelia watched the other group out of the corner of her eye. As she was getting ready for her own exercises with Larry, Ms. Chase growled low in her throat as she saw Xander get close to Buffy for this stupid self-defense class.

She knew he had to do it, but still - it really pissed her off seeing him that close to the former competition. As Buffy grabbed Xander by the arm, Cordelia felt something within her just about ready to snap.

And then something else got her attention, barely a moment later...

SLAM!

The entire gym class stopped at the noise. "Whoa," Oz said in actual surprise as he looked over in the other group's direction.

Cordelia had slammed Larry over her head onto the unprotected gym floor, and was now twisting his arm as she put her foot on his throat. "Larry, YOU do not touch me THERE!" Cordelia growled out.

Xander quickly ran over and pulled her off him. "Okay, okay, calm down-"

"I will NOT calm down!" Cordelia said loudly. "He actually grabbed my ass! And if you think I'm gonna stand for something like that, you're crazy!"

Buffy watched as the male coach started to help the football player to his feet. "She missed the matt," the Slayer said to her friends.

"Don't think she was aiming for it," Oz said, watching as Larry got up off the hard wooden floor. "Betcha that's got to hurt, too."

The other football players helped take Larry to the bleachers to check him out. "What happened?" Larry eventually asked, shaking his head like a dog to try to clear it.

"You just got wasted by the head cheerleader, dude!" Percy West told him, amazed. He turned around to see Cordelia still ranting at Xander. "Poor bastard…"

Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale

A while later

Buffy, Willow and Oz were sitting around the study table while Giles set up his globe and moon attachment. The Watcher had found out what he could on werewolves, and wanted to brief his charges on the situation.

"Oh, man!" Xander said as he came through the twin doors. "It's like major weird out there right now."

Giles looked up quickly. "There's been a demon-related incident, during the day?"

Xander shook his head as he moved into an empty chair. "No…what I mean is Cordy's being treated like a total rock star by all the girls, and maybe even a few teachers!"

"For flipping Larry flat on his back?" Willow asked, surprised.

Xander nodded. "Apparently, almost everybody was getting sick of his crap lately."

"Then why did no one ever stop him from doing his…well, 'crap' before?" Giles asked, looking confused.

"He's kind on the large side," Oz stated from his seat.

"And not to mention, he's on the football and wrestling teams," Willow added. "So Snyder lets him get away with stuff."

Giles shook his head. "I will never understand letting students get away with mischief merely because they can throw a football properly – or at least what's laughingly called a football in this country, anyway."

"So, you never got beat up by any nasty soccer players back in merrie olde England?" Xander asked him, amused.

A small smile crossed the Watcher's lips. "Back in my day the, ah, jocks as you call them, would be very wise not to attempt such a thing." After a moment, he looked back to the doors. "So, I-I-I take it Miss Chase will not be joining us?"

"That would be a big 'no' there, Giles," Xander shook his head. "Not only is Cordy basking in the glory that's hers almost by divine right, the history of werewolves isn't exactly high on her priority list."

The British man just shrugged. "Well, let's begin then." He touched the metal rod holding the model moon. "As you all know, the moon rotates around the Earth even as the Earth rotates around the sun, a-and we perceive the moon's 'phases' from its position relative to the sun and reflecting its light."

He moved the moon around slowly once before going on. "The, the moon has been hanging over our heads for all of known history, thus like many things in nature it's heavily mentioned in the myths of both early humans and demons. In olden days the moon was even considered a god by some primitive cultures, along with the sun-"

"Can we sorta move this along, Watcher mine? 'Cause right now, I can't believe how I'm actually JEALOUS of Cordelia deciding to skip this little history class," Buffy interrupted.

"Very well," Giles said a little bitterly, mentally grumbling about how American teenagers these days seemed to lack any appreciation of knowledge for its own sake. "Uh, it's never been known how exactly the full moon causes the beast to emerge three nights a month. Some people think it's called forth as part of the various curses that have been used to turn someone into a werewolf - there's even one school of thought which says that particular moon phase was used because a full moon is something that's always happened, ever since the dawn of time."

"Wait…curses?" Xander asked, not having been there for the earlier talk. "As in plural? One curse can be different to another?"

"That's part of the unknown part," Giles told him. "You see, most spells and curses call upon the powers of mythical gods to, to empower them – like what happened last Halloween with Ethan's chaos spell and the Roman god Janus, for example. And for those who worshipped the moon as being a god, they-they could have likewise called on the moon god's power to originally empower the curse. But the curses themselves are considered very dark arts, a-and not even the Council knows how such magicks are performed."

"Wow," Oz commented, amazed at what he was hearing. "Is this sorta thing, like, what you guys typically have meetings about?"

"Actually, the usual monster of the week happens to be vampires; otherwise known as the nasty, pointy, bite-y ones," Xander wisecracked.

"But Giles, didn't you say it might be a new curse this morning?" Willow asked Rupert, ignoring her former crush. "Maybe like what Ms. Calendar's people did, to turn Angelus into Angel?"

"Possibly. But after consulting the books, I-I have been learning more towards 'no' rather than 'yes' with regards to that," Giles replied. "While that curse could be done today, that particular witch would have to be very powerful. A-and the Council would almost certainly have them on their radar."

Buffy looked sad. "Well, I know Angel was the exact opposite of Angelus…stuffing a soul into a vampire couldn't be that easy."

"True," Giles said to that uncomfortably. "But, err, I think we should focus back on what we know concerning werewolves."

"Like where to find some silver bullets?" the Slayer asked.

Xander quickly turned to face Miss Summers, as he was VERY concerned about the threat potential to his girlfriend. "Whoa there, Buff. I mean this thing doesn't have to be killed, does it? I mean, uh, so far no one's been hurt-"

"That we know of," Willow said, interrupting him.

Buffy nodded with her female friend. "Plus, last night it tried very hard to get Harmony and Blaine...it wanted to kill them, if you wanna believe what Harmony was saying."

"There is that," Giles said to the group. "But I, I think we should try to avoid killing the werewolf tonight."

"Why?" Buffy looked confused, not noticing Xander's look of relief.

"Because apart from three nights a month, werewolves are human, Buffy. This, this is the first full moon during which it's shown up around here, which means that the werewolf could be newly cursed somehow and not yet know what it is. The wolf-man, o-or wolf-woman…"

Xander looked up quickly at that statement.

"…could be completely innocent of any wrong-doing. So I-I suggest we use a tranquilizer rifle tonight, capture it and then find out what kind of person we're dealing with in the morning," Giles finished up.

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Okay then, tonight we gotta bring this sucker back alive."

Miller's Woods, Sunnydale

Just before sunset

Despite the sun not having quite set yet, it was already dark around here thanks to the thick forest of trees and beneath the full moon, there were several cars parked with various couples making out. On the prowl, Giles walked by one of the cars holding his flashlight in front of him. Buffy met up with him and gestured at him to come close.

Giles asked quietly, "Seen anything yet?"

"Yes! And you won't believe what I saw. Brittany Podell was making out with Owen Stadeel, but he's dating Barrett Williams. If she ever found out..." Buffy trailed off after Giles sent her an exasperated look. "No, um, no, no sign of any werewolf. How about you?"

Giles shook his head. "Uh, the same. I thought perhaps we might, um...knock on a few windows, ask if anyone has seen anything."

This time, it was Buffy who gave him that look of exasperation. "Giles? Look around you. No one's seen a darn thing."

Rupert quickly got it, trying to hide a look of embarrassment. "Oh, yes. No, of-of-of course not..."

Buffy moved towards the thicker forest that separated the town from the road. "Any word from your old friend?"

"Yes, actually," Giles replied as he followed her into the dark woods. "I only spoke to Thomas for a few moments, but he said he'd be on the next available flight out to California. Luckily, he was in Canada, a-a-and not all the way over in England."

"He's going to miss all the fun tonight then," Buffy said as she looked around with her flashlight. Suddenly, she heard a noise like a latch releasing and yelped to find herself being pulled up in a net trap.

Below her a male hunter pointed his scoped, double-barreled flintlock up at her and pulled back the hammer. "Gotcha!" Then he squinted towards his catch, "What the hell?"

Buffy yelled for her Watcher, "Giles! Giles!"

The faithful British librarian tried to reach her at once. "Buffy!" Then Giles saw the man with the gun, and immediately raised his arms. "Whoa!"

Cain pointed the flintlock at Giles. "Hands are good right about there."

"Who, who are you? And what are you doing here?" Giles demanded.

"The name's Gib Cain. And I'm the one with the gun, which means I'm the one who gets to do the interviewing," Cain replied, not wavering his aim in the slightest.

Buffy had had just about enough of being netted like a forest animal. "Ahem. Hey, before we get all chummy here, how about we do something about me being in this net thing?"

Cain exhaled, lowered the flintlock and leaned it against a boulder. He then pulled out his buck knife and cut the rope holding up the net. It fell, and Buffy hit the ground fairly hard.

Giles reached down to untangle the net. "You alright, Buffy?"

"Yeah," Buffy groaned as she got up.

Cain finally got a clear view of the Chosen One, and turned to Giles in surprise. "Gotta say, I'm impressed."

"Excuse me?" the Watcher asked, confused.

"Well, y'know, it's good to get the fruit while it's fresh," Cain smirked.

Giles instantly growled, "You'd be wise to take that back immediately."

Cain shrugged, "Hey, what a man your age and a girl of hers are doing all alone in Lovers Lane isn't my busi-"

Giles made a move toward Cain, but Buffy held him back with her Slayer strength. "Okay, hey, enough, repulsive brain. It's not what you think." She darted a look at Giles, who simply nodded. "We're hunting werewolves."

Cain burst out into laughter, and an embarrassed Buffy added, "Okay, it's funny if you don't believe in werewolves."

But to their surprise Cain said, "No, it's funny thinking about you two actually catching one. I mean, this guy looks like he's auditioning to be a librarian, and, you, well, you're a girl."

Giles said icily, "I assure you she's quite capable."

"Uh-huh." Cain turned his attention to Buffy. "Lemme ask you something, sweetheart. Exactly how many of these animals have you taken out?" He then held out his necklace for her to see, "I tore a tooth from the mouth of every werewolf that I've ever killed. This next one will bring the total to an even dozen."

"So you're just gonna kill it?" Buffy demanded, unable to believe her ears.

"Well, see, that's the thing. Their pelts fetch a pretty penny in Sri Lanka, and it's a little hard to skin 'em when they're alive," Cain shrugged.

"Y-you hunt werewolves, f-for sport?" Giles demanded.

"No, no, I'm in it purely for the money," Cain told him.

"And it doesn't bother you that a werewolf is a person twenty-eight days out of the month?" Buffy sent Cain a look of disgust.

"That's why I only hunt 'em the other three," Cain said cheerfully, as he bent down and started to gather up his net. "Okay, I'd really love to stay and chat, but I'm on a tight schedule. Any idea where else the boys and girls like to get together around here?"

Looking disgusted Buffy asked, "You're looking for a party?"

"No, but the werewolf is. They're suckers for that whole sexual heat thing. Sense it miles away. Since this little doggie ain't here, I'm guessing he or she found another place." Cain got up, having collected his net.

"Sorry. Wish I could help you," Buffy said, not looking sorry at all.

"But you don't know squat?" Cain shook his head as he left. "Gee, what a surprise..."

Sunnydale High, Sunnydale

The same time

On the roof of the building, Drusilla – wearing a cloak and hood and gloves, to protect herself from the last rays of the deadly disappearing sun – watched what was going on in the library through the skylight.

Dru knew what would happen here tonight, she had foreseen it - just as she had foreseen what Cordelia had become after getting bitten by that snot-nose little brat during a recent shopping binge, and how the female werewolf would 'claim' the kitten for herself in the basement.

Avoiding the ire of both Spike and Angelus – one because she had let Cordelia go this morning against his orders, and the other for sending him off on a wild goose chase to the docks last night – Dru had come here to the high school, after a quick trip to UC Sunnydale five miles away.

Down below, Cordelia reluctantly entered the library. "Xander?"

"Coast is clear, don't worry. Honey, you better hurry, it's almost sunset – so please, get in the book cage," Xander told her hurriedly.

Nodding, Cordelia stepped inside and watched as Xander locked the door behind her. Harris then said, "Uh – you better get out of those clothes too, right? No point in you shredding that outfit when the big event happens."

Looking slightly disgusted, the Chase girl got rid of her clothes and shoes. "Here, take 'em," she said, as Xander briefly unlocked the cage and then locked it again.

"Cordy, you're a real trooper," Xander grinned at her, his mood was always improved by the sight of his girl without a stitch of clothing on her. "I betcha Willow would never be able to do this…"

"Willow? What's she got to do with any of this?" Cordelia asked jealously, she knew that the bond her boyfriend shared with his red-haired best friend was not something to simply be dismissed. And that despite her attraction to the guy named Oz, a great deal of Willow's heart still belonged to Xander.

"Not what you're thinking!" Harris quickly informed her. "I just mean you're-"

Before he could finish Cordy groaned, her eyes widening. "Xander? What's…happening…?"

Xander watched in wide-eyed amazement as Cordelia hunched over, fur starting to emerge out of her front and back. Her irises had gone black, her ears were pointy and elongated and a pair of fangs was visible within her mouth. Backing away, Harris said, "Cordelia-?"

In a matter of moments, the transformation was complete. Where there had once stood a busty brunette teenage girl, now there was only an animal – a snarling, slobbering furry thing with a huge snout and razor-sharp teeth. He could only guess what was going on inside the mind of this new creature.

Mold.

The werewolf smelled it right away; she stood to her full height and saw that she was locked in some kind of cage. She angrily slammed against it trying to get out, but the door held. Taking a look at her surroundings the beast saw books, lots of them…and the musty old smells were almost enough to drive her crazy.

But then she caught a whiff of a new smell…one that smelled very good, one that she knew instinctively.

MATE!

Looking over to the far side the werewolf saw a male human standing there, watching her in amazement. Her hormones kicked in as she tried to go to him…and again was stopped by the cage. She roared and then stared intently at the Mate. In the darkened area the werewolf saw a gold-ish sheen to his eyes, as he started to walk slowly towards her.

She could smell his scent fully, and knew there was something more than human in him. She tried to place the scent when the Mate suddenly stopped and shook his head, as if trying to clear it. He then backed up, looking surprised.

"What was that?" Xander demanded to himself as he backed up. For some reason, he'd felt drawn to the Cordelia-wolf in the cage. He wracked his brain and could come up with only one thing to explain it. The Hyena? Oh God, please tell me that's not what it was. I do NOT want to eat another pig!

Xander was then pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the library doors opening up. Glancing back, he was shocked again. A short blond girl slowly came in, wearing only a very revealing piece of lingerie. "Who the hell are you?" Harris demanded.

The blonde bimbo sashayed her way towards him. "Name's Bridgett," she said, as she looked Xander over when she got near him. "My sire sent me in here to have some fun with you. She didn't say anything about that…thing, though." The blonde pointed to the caged werewolf.

"Your sire?" Harris asked as he backed up slowly, recalling when he'd first heard that word – back when, despite Angel still being all soul-having, Deadboy had offered him to Spike as a free meal. "That would make you…"

"A vampire? Yeah," the young woman nodded. She then smiled. "Still, I think you're cute!"

"What?" Xander asked nervously, as he was backed all the way to the edge of the library table.

The blond giggled as she came up next to him. "Oh, don't worry baby. My sire just wants me to screw your brains out, not eat you."

That caused Xander to stop short in disbelief. Sunnydale's finest male demon magnet then demanded, "WHAT?"

"Yeah. Don't fight it, baby, just go with the flow," Bridgett told him as she ran a hand up his arm. This instantly caused the Cordelia-wolf in the cage to go wild. The bimbo laughed, "Never done it with a werewolf in the room before."

Xander pulled back. "And you're not going to!"

"Oooh, you're going to fight me?" The female vampire grinned. "Kinky!"

So saying, Bridgett shoved the male teen back onto the table and held him down as she ripped open his shirt. Before Xander could do anything, Bridgett bent down and gave him a long kiss. She could hear the beast in the cage going completely nuts, as the female vampire's cold dead tongue explored the warm interior of Xander's mouth.

When their lips separated, the undead woman smiled down at Xander. "Trust me, baby, once you've had a vampire you won't ever want to go back. Just wait till you see what I can do, especially when I don't have to breathe!"

"Big no there!" Harris gulped nervously, as he tried to keep struggling. But she held him down firmly.

"Never had a guy fight it before…" Another howl stopped her mid-sentence. "Hey, can you do something about that stupid mutt? I don't mind it watching, but it can shut up any time now!"

Xander was able to turn his head and saw the top of the cage door starting to bend and snap loose. The hinges were looking ready to break off. "Uh, lady, I think you should let me go right now."

"Why?" Then the female vampire jumped off the table and moved back as she watched the werewolf slam against the door. "Like, oh-my-God!"

With one more powerful lunge the cage door broke at the hinges, letting the werewolf jump out and growl loudly at the vampire. The undead blond tried to make a break for it, but the Cordelia-wolf jumped and tackled her perfectly.

Xander watched in shock as the two supernatural beings fell behind the book check-out counter. He didn't dare go over there, not wanting to get caught up in what sounded like the ultimate chick fight from hell.

The female vampire made as if to get up, grasping the other end of the counter trying to pull herself free. A lot of her hair was missing and a huge set of claw marks over her right side had shredded her outfit, exposing a breast.

"Help me!" Bridgett pleaded to Xander, before the Cordelia-wolf stood up behind her.

"Holy God!" Harris recoiled as the vamp's head was ripped clean away from her body.

The Cordelia-wolf ignored the falling dust of the vampire and fixed its gaze on him. Xander quickly got up. "Cordy…calm down! Uh, uh, you know I didn't do anything…" He stumbled backwards into one of the chairs and fell down on to the tile floor. "Damn it!"

Werewolf Cordy jumped over the counter and stalked over to him. She was growling the whole time, too.

"Cordy…honey, it's me…Xander…" Harris stopped as the werewolf's snout came within inches of his face. He could feel the beast's hot breath as he tried not to panic. "Please, don't eat me?"

If you had asked him later, Xander would have admitted that what happened next would have been the very last thing he'd ever thought would happen. His girlfriend-turned-werewolf lifted her right hind leg…and started to urinate on him.

"HEY! What the hell-!" Xander shouted in disbelief and disgust as he covered his nose. But the female werewolf just sniffed him once more before leaping towards the doors, her territory safely marked.

"Cordy!" Harris called as his werewolf girlfriend ran out the double doors. He was about to go after her, when yet another female vampire made her presence known.

Glass and wooden shards rained down mere inches from him, as Drusilla jumped down through the skylight above. Now with the sun completely down, the female vampire threw off her heavy covers. Then she just stood there, dressed in a twisted black version of a dress. "Hullo, kitten."

"Drusilla?" Xander asked in a scared voice, as the last time he had seen this psycho was at the mall just after the Judge had been blown up – and Dru had acted completely insane then, before running off into the night. "What, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, of course. And my li'l doggie," Drusilla gestured over to the book cage. "I knew you'd bring her here, I saw it. Oh, and did you like my little present just now? That strumpet was ever so naughty when I first met her, she was, but I promised her you'd be ever so much fun once she woke up as my newest baby girl…"

Xander instantly got it. "You sent that vamp in here, didn't you? To get Cordy pissed off?"

Drusilla didn't deny it. "I just wanted to show her how freeing it can be to deal with things that make you angry."

Xander shook his head, recalling what his girlfriend had said in his basement this morning. "You're not going to turn Cordelia into some sorta monster, lady. I won't let that happen – I'll kill you myself before I ever let you do that!"

Drusilla giggled, not the least bit concerned by the white knight's death threat. "Oh, don't worry little kitten. Whatever I do, she'll always still want you at her side, the daddy to her cute little puppies." She clapped her hands as she suddenly got an idea. "Oh...what if I have her bite you, and then you can both be my little doggies!"

Xander shook his head as he backed away towards the exit. "You're insane!"

Dru watched the human run out of the library, trying to catch up to his girlfriend. She then looked down at the floor and sniffed at the urine. "Maybe she should be an outside doggy for awhile…till I get her house-trained just right. Or else Daddy and my precious Spike will be ever so cross at me, they will..."

The Bronze, Sunnydale

Not that much later

Willow Rosenberg was sitting by herself on a couch, wondering whether Buffy was going to show up soon and what the heck Xander was up to this evening. Then she quickly squelched that line of thought, as she definitely did NOT want to know what her oldest friend was up to tonight – given that it most likely involved Cordelia Chase in some form or another, and that conversation with Buffy near the parking lot this morning had failed to convince her that no mattress mambo action was taking place between those two.

"Willow, what a surprise to see you here," Harmony's oily voice intruded upon her consciousness. "And all alone, too – where are your two loser friends? No, wait, let me guess – Buffy's having fun with her street gang, and Xander's having sex with Cordelia, right?"

Willow almost gave in to her impulse to cry, when she suddenly sensed a new presence next to her. "Hey. I'd like some alone time with Willow, if you get my meaning," her almost-boyfriend Oz said to Ms. Kendall calmly.

Harmony scoffed, "Her? Oz, why on earth would you ever want to-?"

"Harmony? Leave. Now," Oz said in his typical monosyllabic way, and his coolness factor made the blonde cheerleader scowl and flounce off. The bass guitarist then turned to the redhead and said, "You okay?"

"I am now," Willow smiled and gestured for her Oz to sit down, which he did. Willow suddenly entered nervousness mode for some reason, "Well. Here we are."

"Yep. Here we are," Oz agreed solemnly.

"I had a good time at the movies earlier this week!" Willow said, unable to think of anything else to say and not wanting this to segue into uncomfortable silence territory. "It was the most fun I've had in ages, and-and I..."

"You're panicking," Oz noted serenely.

"What? I-" was all that Willow managed to say, before she suddenly found Oz kissing her.

Caught off-guard and wide-eyed, Willow didn't even struggle as Oz put to good use his hard-earned knowledge of giving a girl a kiss that she'll remember, a kiss that let Willow know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that for those few moments she was his entire world. After the initial shock, Willow's eyes closed and she let herself relax and begin to return the kiss.

"Wow," Willow finally breathed, once Oz removed his lips from hers. "What was that?"

"Me panicking," Oz replied, nonetheless still looking as cool as a cucumber.

"You..." Willow said, still in la-la land over that kiss. "That was you panicking?"

"You ought to see me when I'm terrified," Oz said noncommittally.

Willow shook her head. "Oz..." she trailed off for a moment. "Uh, not that I'm complaining – really, I'm not! But what gives? I thought you wanted to take things slowly?"

"I spoke with your friend Buffy. She told me about the whole anvil thing, and about me getting a gold star with sparkles in all things Willow-101, and…y'know, I figured we were both ready, you weren't trying to make your friend Xander jealous anymore." Oz suddenly frowned. "Was I wrong about that?"

Willow made a decision which had been roughly two months in the making, ever since she and Oz had first met. "Xander who?" She then grabbed Oz and yanked him back into a deep, soul-searing liplock, surprising the musician just as much as he had surprised her moments before.

After many long, heavenly moments they broke apart, both breathing heavily. "Now that was something kinda unexpected," Oz commented, trying to get his breath back.

"Did, did I do it wrong? Oh God, I did didn't I? I knew it, I knew that was a bad idea..." Willow started to babble.

"No, that was perfect. YOU were perfect," Oz hastily corrected her.

"It was? I was?" Willow looked astonished, then highly pleased. "So, so does that mean we're, y'know, officially together now?"

"Together?" Oz raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Willow suddenly looked flustered all over again. "As in…"

"Yeah. As in," Oz agreed. Before they started making with the smoochies all over again.

Suddenly Werewolf Cordy dropped down from above onto the table in front of them. Willow and Oz stopped kissing as they stared at the animal in disbelief, before Oz dragged his screaming girlfriend away from the snarling wolf. Panic set in all throughout the Bronze, and the werewolf just stood there for a moment at a half-crouch, looking almost confused by all the shrieking and the noise of the fleeing teenagers.

Outside in the alley, Giles and Buffy finally came rolling up in his decrepit old Citroen as the Bronze patrons fled for their lives. Giles took in the scene and said, "It looks as though your hunch about where the werewolf would go, w-was right."

Buffy nodded, "Who could resist Sunnydale's own house of hormones?"

She opened the car door and got out. Seeing her, Willow arrived on the scene with Oz in tow and the redhead shouted, "The werewolf, it's in there!"

Buffy instantly made a dash for the club door just as it was about to be shut by the bouncer. "Coming through!"

She rushed through the door, just as it slammed shut with a thud. Cautiously, Buffy then slowly stepped into the main area of the Bronze and looked around. The place had been trashed by the panicked people. Tables and chairs were lying everywhere, spilled drinks splattered all over the floor.

Okay, someone's gonna have a massive clean-up to do later on… the Slayer thought to herself as she walked towards the rear of the club.

Buffy saw a shadow behind a bead curtain and headed towards it. As she walked, the Slayer took off her backpack and pulled out a length of chain. Wrapping the chain around her wrist, Buffy abruptly changed direction and headed to the stage area. Slowly, she stepped out onto the stage. After she passed the drums the werewolf bounded out from behind the stage curtains, snarling.

CRAP! Buffy spun around to face Werewolf Cordy and dropped her backpack. She quickly threw the chain out, and it wrapped itself perfectly around the werewolf's neck.

But Werewolf Cordy wasn't about to put up with that! She began to struggle wildly and yanked at the chain, howling as she pulled Buffy into and over the drums. The chain fell from the werewolf's neck, and Werewolf Cordy instantly made a dash for the closest window.

CRASH! The glass splintered and flew everywhere as the female werewolf came charging through and out into the alley. Shaking her head, the Cordelia-wolf then took a quick look both ways and loped away from the nightclub.

Outside the Bronze, Sunnydale

A while later

Oz and Willow were standing outside the teen hangout, with the young man wrapping his arms around his girlfriend tightly. "Gotta say, hanging out with you is never boring."

"Uh, thanks," Willow replied uncertainly, not sure how her boyfriend meant that. "I should say thanks, right?"

"Up to you," Oz responded in his own Yoda-like way.

"I mean, my life isn't always like this…" Willow started to say.

"Neither is mine," Oz nodded. "Still, I wouldn't have it any other way. I kinda like it that life is spontaneous, whenever you're around."

"Spontaneous-?" Willow asked, before Oz kissed her again and she quickly forgot they had ever been talking.

Within the club, the Bronze employees were back and straightening things up in order for the place to resume business as soon as possible. Oddly enough, this wasn't the most unusual thing to take place within the club lately, and the Bronze's owners were more concerned about their profit margins than worrying about decreased attendance by their regular patrons.

Grumbling to herself, Buffy put her chain back into her backpack as she heard an unwelcome voice say to her: "You let it get away."

Buffy turned to face Cain with a scowl, "I didn't LET it do anything. I had the chain around its neck-"

"Chain? What were you gonna do, take it for a walk?" Cain demanded in disbelief.

"I was going to lock it up," Buffy tried not to lose her temper around this jerk.

"That's beautiful," Cain sneered as he approached her. "Y'know, this is what happens when a woman tries to do a man's job."

Buffy got up and put on the backpack as Giles came up behind Cain. The Watcher said, "Now, you look here, Mr. Cain. This girl risked her life trying to capture a beast that you haven't as yet even been able to find!"

"Uh-huh. And Daddy's doing such a great job carrying her bag of milk bones," Cain said to him dismissively. He then returned his attention to Buffy, "You know, sis, if that thing out there harms anyone, it's going to be on your pretty little head. I hope you can live with that."

Buffy easily stared him down as she replied, "I live with that every day."

As he turned and left Cain shook his head, "First they tell me I can't hunt an elephant for its ivory. Now I've gotta deal with People for the Ethical Treatment of Werewolves..."

"Pillock! Right, let's move out," Giles said as Buffy followed him right behind. Only for them to run smack-dab into Xander not far outside the club entrance.

"Giles? Buff? Thank God I found you guys!" Harris said, huffing and puffing.

"Xander? What is it, we're rather busy right now..." Giles started to say impatiently. Then he wrinkled his nose, staring at the male teen's clothes. "Good Lord, what is that smell?"

"Uh, I got urinated on," Xander admitted in shame.

"Ewww! Xander," Buffy looked completely disgusted.

"Never mind that now, look - I came to tell you about the werewolf. It's Cordy!" Xander blurted out.

"WHAT?" Willow's voice sounded shocked as Xander turned around to face her and Oz.

"Definitely wasn't expecting to hear that," Oz commented.

"Yeah, it's a whole big thing – oh, and Giles? The library is kinda trashed right now," Xander said apologetically to the British man.

Giles looked very annoyed. "Are you telling me that you attempted to lock up the werewolf – err, Cordelia – within MY library for the evening, and she ESCAPED?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Xander nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't mention anything before, but, but Cordy kinda made me promise not to."

"Of all the irresponsible – oh, wait, so THAT'S why you were looking at those books concerning nocturnal demons yesterday!" Giles almost had an epiphany of sorts.

"Yeah, and funny thing – after Werewolf Cordy escaped? She could have killed me, but she didn't," Harris said, sounding surprised about that himself. "Though she did leave me with a parting gift." He motioned to the stain on his pants.

"We are very much going to have a conversation about this later," Giles told him.

"Yeah, sure, like tomorrow," Xander said urgently. "After we capture Cordelia."

Miller's Woods, Sunnydale

Wednesday, January 28th 1998

5:30 am

Thanks to the gray pre-dawn light in the sky, Xander knew that it would be sunrise soon and his girlfriend would resume human form. But once she did that, then what?

I betcha that we'll have to leave town in order to find a cure for her, or a way to deal with all this…assuming she doesn't decide it's over between us now, like her parents…oh my God! Cordy's parents! I completely forgot about them! What the hell are we gonna tell 'em, if they start asking the wrong questions? Xander asked himself in a panic as he walked alongside Giles.

"I still can't believe this," Willow said to Oz and Buffy in sheer disbelief, as they walked along not far away. "CORDELIA was the werewolf all along?"

"Yeah," Oz commented, holding Willow's hand like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Makes me wonder why I never even suspected," Buffy mused. "Queen Bitch turns into a REAL bitch."

Xander came up behind the Slayer and, without a word, smacked her hard over the head.

"OW!" Buffy snapped out, rubbing her head in annoyance. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Harris didn't even bother to look at her. "If you seriously have to ask me that, Buffy, then you really are a complete blond!" He quickly went to scout ahead, hoping his leftover army skills could help him track his girlfriend down.

As they watched Xander go out of earshot, Willow and Oz came up beside the Slayer. "So, what are we going to do about Xander?" Willow asked her best friend. "I figure, we're going to have to provide a shoulder for him to cry on after he dumps Cordelia, right?"

"Huh? What? Xander's dumping Cordelia? When did this happen?" Miss Summers asked in confusion as she kept looking at where her guy friend had gone, deep down she was still smarting about the whole 'complete blond' thing.

"Well, I don't know, but-but it is going to happen, don't you think? I mean, what kind of life could they possibly have together now?" Willow asked. "Xander's not safe with Cordelia anymore, I mean, wh-what if she bites him when they – you know?"

"What about true love?" Oz asked as they walked. "Granted, this is one heck of a big obstacle, but you never know till…"

Buffy shook her head, stopping him. "Sorry, Oz. But Xander and Cordy really aren't Romeo and Juliet here, in any sense of the term."

"Which might be considered of the good," the boy replied. "'Cause they both died at the end of the story."

"HEY!"

The three teens and Giles ran to catch up to the yelling Xander. They found him in a small clearing, with Harris standing between Cain and a crouching Werewolf Cordy.

"Get the hell out of the way, you idiot!" Cain demanded as he kept his rifle pointed at Xander.

"No way, asshole!" Harris said firmly. "That's my girlfriend you're aiming at, and you are not going to touch her!"

"Your girlfriend?" Cain asked in disbelief. "Kid, you're nuts - that thing is a killing machine, pure and simple, and it's going to keep on killing till someone manages to get it put down!"

During the talk the Cordelia-wolf just watched the exchange curiously, ready for anything. However, she did move a little farther back when the others came into the clearing. No one knew why she wasn't attempting to kill the humans present, but the Watcher suspected Xander might have something to do with it when he noticed the werewolf's gaze was firmly centered on her human mate.

"Mr. Cain, lower your weapon this instant!" Giles then demanded.

The werewolf hunter looked at the large group. "Okay, what exactly is this supposed to be? An intervention on why I shouldn't shoot that damn thing?"

"Xander, get out of there!" Willow demanded.

"Not moving one inch here," Xander repeated to the entire group. "I'm not letting him get a clear shot."

Cain just laughed. "Kid, I got a question for ya - what's to stop me from blowing you away and then shooting your 'girlfriend'?"

Xander looked him right in the eyes. "Maybe the fact that you have a stupid old flintlock rifle that takes several seconds to reload, and my friends here are gonna be witness to the fact that you decided to commit murder-one?"

"That's it!" Buffy said as she stormed up to Cain and kneed him in the groin. The older man doubled over in pain from the hit.

"Ugggghhhh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" Cain wheezed as he dropped his gun and fell to his knees. "Kid, how did you hit me that HARD!"

"Ouch," Oz said from the sidelines, as he winced in sympathetic pain after seeing the groin strike.

Xander rushed over and grabbed Cain's rifle. "This ends now." He pointed the weapon back at its owner.

"Xander?" Buffy demanded in horror. "What the hell are you DOING!"

Harris looked back to his still-crouching wolf of girlfriend, then back to Cain. "Haven't you figured it out yet, Buff? It doesn't matter if he doesn't kill Cordelia tonight. This guy'll just wait around for a month and then try again – and again, and again, until he finally gets lucky. And don't try to tell me that I'm being paranoid!"

Giles stepped up closer. "Xander, I-I-I understand how you're feeling…but for heaven's sake, boy, you mustn't do this. You said it yourself just now, murder is murder."

"He's right," Buffy quickly added. "Believe me, Xander, that's one line you don't want to cross. Remember Ted? When I thought I'd killed a human, I…look, Cain may be scum but he's still a human being. If you do this, you'll be no better than him!"

"I guess then we're just gonna have to agree to disagree, Buff. And remember what you told me while we were looking for Cordelia all night, Giles?" Xander demanded. "This guy kills werewolves, and not to save lives like he bitches about. He does it for money. Far as I'm concerned, I'd be shooting a serial killer – which, by the way, is something I can easily live with."

"I'm no killer, boy!" Cain growled from his place on the ground.

"Yeah? And yet I'm kinda doubting the werewolves that you got all those teeth from would agree with you on that one," Xander told him firmly.

"Xander, please don't do this!" Willow shouted. "He's not worth it!"

"Willow, if I do nothing, then I'm putting Cordelia's life in danger," Xander responded, not even looking at the redhead. "And that is NOT an option. See, I know how you think that what Cordy and I have together is just a phase or hormones or whatever - but for once in your life, Will? You are one hundred percent wrong about something." His finger started to curl around the trigger.

"NO!" Buffy said and made a grab for the rifle. The two friends started to struggle for control of the weapon. "Let it go, Xander!"

"Let her have it, Xander, please!" Willow called even as she was stopped by Oz from rushing into the line of fire.

The Watcher started to quickly load his own rifle with a few tranquilizer darts, after seeing how the Cordelia-wolf was reacting to the struggle between Slayer and Slayerette.

While everyone was distracted watching Buffy and Xander, Cain pulled out his large hunting knife from his boot. He didn't want to have to go through the boy, but he wouldn't get his pay if he didn't bag the wolf before the sun came up. So as soon as Xander's back was turned, the hunter threw the knife at his target.

"ARRRRGGGGH!" Xander cried out as the buck knife slammed into his upper back.

The rifle was instantly forgotten, and it fell to the ground as Buffy tried to help her friend. Cain moved as fast as he could to grab the flintlock and shoot. But he would never be faster than a crouching werewolf who'd just witnessed her mate get hurt.

"RUUUURRR!"

"AGGGHHHH!" Cain screamed as Werewolf Cordy attacked him, her fangs and claws ripping at his body. "Someone, help me!"

Giles fired his darts as fast as he could to stop the Cordelia-wolf, but it was too late. Buffy pulled the now-unconscious werewolf off the man to find his throat had been ripped open. Willow saw it too, and threw herself back into Oz's arms to shield herself from the sight.

Buffy checked the man's wrist just to be sure. She looked up at her Watcher and silently shook her head.

Xander ignored them and the bleeding from his wound as he crawled over and turned over the knocked-out creature on her back. He whispered her name several times, before falling unconscious.

At that moment, the entire group watched in awe as the sun came up, and the deadly beast slowly morphed back into the fully naked Cordelia Chase.

Room 213, Sunnydale General Hospital

A few hours later

"Ohhh," Xander moaned from within the bed as he woke up. "What hit me?"

Cordelia instantly came over from her spot by the window. "It's about time you woke up!" she scolded him. As soon as she was in range she smacked him over the head, although lightly.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" Harris demanded from his bed.

"For almost worrying me to death, of course!" Ms. Chase told him. Then without warning she leaned in and kissed him full on the lips, and she didn't come up for air until she had to. "And that was for saving my life just before dawn."

Cordelia took Xander's hand in hers as she sat in the chair next to the bed. "Giles told me what you did…well, almost did anyway."

Xander sighed, still slightly annoyed by the slap. "Well, I didn't think there was much of a choice at the time."

"I know," Ms. Chase told him warmly. "Though Willow is dead sure you would have chickened out at the last moment."

"No, I wouldn't have," Harris mumbled as he felt a stab of pain from the stitches in his back. "Oooh, big ouchies. What do you remember?"

"Pretty much nothing," Xander's girlfriend told him. "Giles said it was as if my conscious brain shut off or something like that. All I know is what the others have told me, after I woke up next to that dead guy."

Xander had suspected as much. "Just be glad you didn't kill me like you did that vampire."

"Huh? What? Vampire?" Cordy asked, confused.

Xander nodded. "Drusilla sent some blond bimbo fledgling to try to have sex with me in the library…and it pissed you off a lot! Well, wolf-you, anyway."

"So I killed a vampire?" Ms. Chase asked, looking shocked. "That's something I never thought I…hey, wait a minute, did you say Drusilla?"

"She showed up after you…ran out of the library," Xander told her the truth selectively out of a well-honed sense of self-preservation. "She set it up so the wolf-you would get pissed off, and take out Little Miss I-Wanna-Get-Laid." He saw her face fall. "Cordy, listen to me…you are not going to turn into some monster like Insane-o Girl thinks you will! I told you, I won't let it happen."

"I know, but what if..." Cordy said weakly.

"No, no what-ifs and/or buts about it. Honey, I am sticking to you like glue until Graduation next year, and then we're outta Sunnydale to somewhere she won't ever find us. Hopefully Buffy will have dusted Loony Girl by then, but if not – I'm not taking any chances where your safety's concerned," Xander declared passionately.

Cordelia felt a load lifting from her heart, it was like the sun coming out after a terrible thunderstorm. Without even thinking she leaned across from her chair and kissed Xander again, pulling away only when the stitches in his back caused him to moan and hiss in pain.

"Ah, Mr. Harris. I see you're awake," a male voice said from the open doorway.

"Yes he is," Cordelia said, immediately putting on a false face so as if to make everything look normal. "Xander, this is Doctor Nyguen."

"Hey, doc?" Xander asked from the bed. "Any idea on how soon I can get out of here? Not that I don't love the smell of disinfectant and the wonderful backless gowns…"

"It'll be a few days at least," the Vietnamese doctor told him. "The surgery went as well as could be expected, but I want to make sure you don't get any sort of post-op infection…that knife we pulled out of you was very dirty, unfortunately."

"Yeah," Xander sighed. "About that-"

Cordelia quickly stopped him. "It's okay, Xander. I already told the police all about that gang and how they attacked us."

"Gang…right," Harris ad-libbed, looking at her oddly.

"Yes," Cordelia prodded him. "The gang that was high on PCP whose party we accidently crashed in the woods, remember?"

Xander nodded. "Oh yeah, that gang…that damn gang just gets away with too much in this town!"

"Well, the Sunnydale PD have set up roadblocks around the city limits and who knows, maybe they'll get lucky and finally catch them," the doctor said cluelessly before he picked up Xander's chart. "Now, Mr. Harris, I want to check how your wound is doing, so please turn over…"

Student Lounge, Sunnydale High School

An hour later

"Hey, good news!" Buffy said as she sat next to Willow. "Giles told me that Cordy called, and she said that Xander woke up a while ago."

"Oh thank God!" the redhead said in relief. "That was too close! You heard what that ER nurse said, Buff, that knife was just inches away from an artery…"

Buffy nodded. "I guess he was lucky." Then she got a contemplative look on her face.

"What?" Willow asked.

"It's just – Xander was actually willing to kill for Cordelia, Willow. I never once thought he'd do something like that," Ms. Summers mused. "I mean yeah, I remember how he threatened to kill me if the vampires hurt you last year – but Cordelia? Maybe Oz was right – maybe Xander really does love her nowadays."

"Maybe," Willow said softly, not wanting to admit that in the slightest but unable to argue with her best friend's logic either.

The Slayer sighed. "Can't help but feel kinda guilty about all this, Will."

"Why?" Willow asked, honestly confused. "You stopped Xander from making a huge mistake in shooting and killing that guy!"

"I know," Buffy said uncomfortably. "But he shouldn't have been hurt at all in the first place. I just hate it that knowing me…gets you guys into trouble all the time."

"Buffy, we've had this conversation before," Willow told her firmly. "This is Sunnydale…so, so we would have been involved in this sorta stuff whether you were here or not! The only difference being that whole denial thing, which on the Hellmouth can get you killed!"

"I guess so," Buffy sighed again. "But geez, I just wish we could have a week or so off from all of this sort of crap. Is that too much to ask?"

Willow saw how her friend was still in a depressed state of mind, so she leaned in and said, "Okay, major topic change? I made out with Oz for over twenty minutes last night."

"Go you, Willow!" the Slayer smiled, cheering up immediately.

"And get this," Willow added. "Oz wants ME to pick out which color his hair will be next!"

Abandoned Warehouse Factory, Sunnydale

The same time

Angelus was in a bad mood, no doubt about it. He glared at Spike as he roared, "You mean not only have I been wasting all my time at the docks lately, that bimbo cheerleader friend of Buffy's is a freaking werewolf now?"

"'Fraid so, mate," Spike pseudo-sighed in his chair, rubbing the scarring on his face. "Some of your newer fledglings are starting to get pretty nervous of her, already."

Angelus learned on the wall, calming down. "Huh. Funny, I don't think I've ever killed a werewolf before..."

"Piece of advice, Peaches - don't mention that plan to Dru," Spike warned him. "She thinks she can house-train the stupid bint and make her into some sorta pet." He rolled his chair over to the table, picked up an object and tossed it to the other vampire.

Angelus caught it and turned it around. He found himself looking at a large dog collar with the name "Princess" stenciled on a brass heart hanging from it. He growled, "Of all the – I really DID drive her crazy, didn't I? Where is Drusilla, anyway?"

"Basement," Spike gestured behind him with his thumb. "Can't you hear her bloody singing down there?"

As a matter of fact, Angelus could hear Drusilla's mad ramblings about the lamb and the blackberry patch, but he ignored them for now. "Yeah. But never mind, I can't afford to waste my time on that stuck-up cheerleader bitch; there's too much left to be done in order to break Buffy properly. I'm thinking, maybe turning one of her classmates and sending them after her…"

Spike rolled his eyes. "Oy, but you're like a broken record mate! Just kill her or turn her, already…personally, I'm sick of all your ponce-y mind games." He pointed to the collar. "You already messed Dru up so bad she thinks she can tame a bloody werewolf!"

Angelus pushed off the wall, a feral grin on his face as he tossed the dog collar aside. "Spike, Spike, Spike. You simply don't have any sense of…artistry," Angelus told the peroxide-blond vampire before he headed towards his own chambers.

"Sod your frickin' artistry, ya big poof," Spike muttered, turning around and wheeling himself away. "And bloody well sod you too, just as soon as I get out of this damn chair!"

Sunnydale High School Library, Sunnydale

Later that night

The two white men and one black woman looked over as the double doors opened up. "Ah, Cordelia, good. I'm glad you were able to come," Giles said politely.

The brunette nodded. "Oz is on lookout duty, and Willow's doing this thing of trying to put protective wards on Xander's room…" Cordelia suddenly trailed off as she looked sharply at the young black woman. With a low growl that surprised even her, Ms. Chase demanded, "And who are you?"

The other girl smiled as Giles exhaled and handed his friend Thomas some money. "Here," Rupert grumbled.

"Told you she'd pick up on it," Thomas grinned.

"Pick up on what?" Cordelia again demanded as she was on high alert, almost like DEFCON 2 territory. It was as if she sensed danger, but couldn't figure out from where.

"Me," the black girl told her with a slight British accent. "My name's Ginny, and I guess you could call me lab rat to Thomas here."

Giles moved in between the two girls. "Yes, Cordelia, like she said - this is Ginny. She was originally born in England, but now lives in the Canadian Rockies. A-and like yourself, she is also a werewolf."

"So that's why…" Ms. Chase started but was cut off.

"We can sense each other fairly easily," Ginny told her. "But you just popped your full moon cherry, so you still have a lot to learn."

"My full moon WHAT!" Cordelia growled before she turned to Giles. "I thought you said that werewolves were as rare as heck these days?"

"They are," Thomas told her. "But Ginny here is from a family of werewolves."

"Been one since birth," the English girl said proudly.

Cordelia looked at her oddly. "You sound as if you actually LIKE being an unstoppable killing machine?"

"That's not what being a werewolf is about," Ginny told her in annoyance. She looked to her traveling companion and Giles. "We girls have some things to talk about in private. So why don't you two go get that Calendar woman and do what you have to do?"

"Calendar woman?" Giles asked, concerned. He knew who Ginny was referring to, even if right now he didn't want to.

"It's all right, old chap," Thomas told him. "We checked up on all the members of your little group during the flight. And Jenny Calendar is the only professional magic user you know on a first-name basis around here, correct?"

"Well, yes…" Giles stammered out. "But, but why exactly do we need her for anything?"

"Oh for God's sake, Giles - grow a spine, already!" Cordelia told the Englishman rudely. "I mean, everyone knows how Ms. Calendar never confided in you that she was here to spy on Angel until she had to, but you never told her about that Egg-on demon 'til you had to, either. It's like, both of you kept secrets or what?"

"It's not that simple-" Giles told her coldly.

"Yes it is," Cordy said quickly, cutting him off. "Buffy is still pissed at Ms. Calendar for obvious reasons, sure, but lemme ask you this – who else practically hates her? No one, that's who. Not me, not Oz, not Willow and certainly not Xander. I mean, do you hate her? So she didn't tell you the truth out of loyalty to her family – big whoop! Besides, Ms. Calendar didn't know that Buffy screwing her undead boyfriend would end the curse-"

"WHAT?" Thomas demanded in shock, looking just as concerned as Ginny. "Rupert…what the bloody hell is going on in this town?"

Giles gave Cordelia a hard glance before taking his friend by the arm. "Come on, then…I'll try to explain after you tell me what exactly we need Jenny for."

Both young women watched the British men leave before Cordy went over and sat at the table. "Okay, spill. What DOES he need Ms. Calendar for?"

"A protection spell for your boyfriend," Ginny told her, deciding to ignore the whole Jenny Calendar thing for now. "Just in case you ever bite him…the spell will see to it that he won't go all furry like us."

Cordelia looked up sharply at that. "Could that help me-"

"No," Ginny told her bluntly as she sat across from the Chase girl. "The spell can only guard against you sinking your teeth into your paramour. And if someone else were to bite him…"

"He'd end up just like me as well," the Chase girl sighed. "Is there ANY good side to this total crap-fest?"

"Plenty," Ginny told her. "Once you have enough experience to control it, once you can remember what happens whenever you're the wolf, you can accomplish good instead of evil. See, yes it is a 'curse', but only if you let it be one."

Seeing the skeptical look on Cordy's face Ginny said, "Let's start with the basics then. How's your sense of smell?"

"Oh, completely on overdrive!" Ms. Chase admitted. "I knew what they were making for lunch before I even went near the cafeteria." She thought for a second. "Hey, I do have a question. Back on Monday, I smelled something way horrible before an ex-friend of mine dropped by to try and make fun of me. Is that, like, normal?"

Ginny nodded. "Do you really hate her?"

"Deep down I've hated Harmony for years, but always had to play it like we were best friends."

Ginny leaned back in her seat. "It's just like with food. When you smell stuff you like, it smells good…but when you hate it, it smells horrible. Most people you'll meet won't have that much of a smell to them, really. But the ones you really love or hate, they DO make a lasting impression."

The black girl suddenly grinned. "You must have noticed your boyfriend's scent by now, right?"

Cordelia shook her head. "Not really. He's been in the hospital all day, and he smells like, well, a hospital."

"Right, but after he's out of there, trust me - you'll be able to smell him from very far away," Ginny informed her.

"Really?" Cordelia rapidly unleashed a classic Chase megawatt smile.

Ginny nodded. "You'll be able to read him like a book on smell alone, after a few months. At least, if I could so should you."

Cordelia thought about that. "Will…will I ever try to eat him?" she asked, a little afraid to know the answer.

"Personally, I doubt it," the British girl told her with a shrug. "There's a much better chance of you eating that girl you hate. Wolves mate for life, so as a rule they don't eat their mates – if things go that far between you, of course."

"Mate?" Cordelia asked hesitantly, not wanting to tell Ginny details regarding her sex life.

"That's what the wolf-you will see him as," Ginny replied. "Actually, if I were you - I'd be more worried about trying to mount him instead."

"Ewww. Gross!" Cordelia looked ill at the thought of her humping her boyfriend's leg or something like that.

Sunnydale High School Gym, Sunnydale

Friday, February 6th 1998

10:55 am

Another student held the door open for them as Cordelia - wearing her yellow and maroon cheerleader uniform - pushed her boyfriend along in his wheelchair.

The thing was Harris had been let out of the hospital after his parents had refused to pay for his care, given their lack of insurance and all. Tony showing up semi-drunk at the hospital to take his son home hadn't won him any popularity contests either; and after one of Cordy's well-practiced arguments with her parents, the Chase parents had paid for Xander's medical care.

After all - it was the least they could do, according to Cordelia, since Xander had saved her from a knife-wielding gang member.

The two elder Chases had been very hesitant concerning the next request from their only daughter, though. She had demanded that Xander be allowed to stay in the guest room at their mansion while he recuperated. Only after they saw Xander's dad in action did they agree to that, given how they were actually starting to warm up to the male teen.

Though Mr. Chase did make it his personal mission to make sure nothing happened between his daughter and the young man after the lights went out. He had sent his baby girl back to her room a few times, much to her unhappiness and sexual frustration.

Now in truth, Xander really didn't need the wheelchair, but until the knife wound had mostly healed his girlfriend would not let him out of it to do anything. She claimed it was to help keep his back from moving too much. Though the male teen figured it was more her trying to keep him from Slaying with Buffy, Willow and Oz at nights.

For their part, both Slayer and witch were amazed at the amount of care and time Ms. Chase had invested in personally taking care of Xander. Buffy guessed it kept her from freaking out about her new lifestyle which had been forced on her, whilst Willow wasn't so sure that there wasn't another motive they weren't seeing yet.

"Cor…listen, I can just wait in the library," Xander said as she pushed him over to the varsity cheerleader practice. "I'm sure Giles needs a hand with…something or other!"

Cordelia gave her boyfriend a dazzling smile. "Why look at old books when you can watch your amazingly hot girlfriend and her fellow cheerleaders practice?"

"Well, it's not just that – you know how Buffy's been in a bit of a funk, ever since Giles and Ms. Calendar decided to kiss and make up after that protection spell done on yours truly. I figure Will could use some help in making the Buffster believe that the G-man didn't decide to stab her in the back, or whatever."

"Yeah, but not yet," Cordelia shook her head as she placed Xander's wheelchair near the bleachers. "Besides, I want for you to see something."

"Yeah? What?" Xander looked at her quizzically.

"Oh, it's a surprise!" Cordy told him with an evil grin as she went over to her squad.

Not long afterwards, the last member of the varsity cheerleading squad showed her face. And it was a very angry face at that. "What the hell is this supposed to be, Cordelia!" Harmony demanded as she waved a piece of paper around. "You think you can just kick me off the team?"

"I'm not kicking you off the team," Cordelia said innocently.

Harmony thrust the paper towards her. "Then why does this say I should turn in my uniform?"

"Because you won't be needing it anymore," Ms. Chase told her. "You're right; I can't kick you off the team…only Coach Carson can do that." She then gave the blond girl a cold look. "But as team captain, I DO have permission to assign everyone's positions."

As the other girls watched cautiously, Harmony looked at her former friend with utter contempt. "So what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Cordelia shrugged. "Well, someone has to do it, and we don't have time to…train anyone new with the routines."

"Do what?" Harmony demanded.

Cordelia indicated three large boxes on the first row of the bleachers. "Look for yourself."

Harmony sent her another nasty look before she went over to the bleachers, opened the first box and looked inside. A look of horror instantly came over Ms. Kendall's face, her natural southern California tan transforming into a pale, ghostly expression of shock.

"No goddamn way!" Harmony yelled at her team captain.

Cordelia folded her arms. "So you're not going to do it?" she asked, enjoying the most fun she'd had in ages. "I mean, that would give me reason to talk to Coach-"

"I am NOT going to put that on!" Harmony said firmly, cutting Cordelia off. "And you can't force me to do it! The team would be a member short if I did!"

"No, actually, I got Julie Giersch to take over your old spot."

"Julie Giersch?" the blond junior ranted. "But she's just a sophomore!"

"The best sophomore cheerleader in the entire school, according to Coach Carson. But whatever, it's still my call," Cordelia said smugly as she moved in and pulled a large item out of the first box. All the other varsity cheerleaders then started laughing, as Cordy jammed a large Sunnydale High mascot pig head over the blond girl's head.

"That looks great on you, Harmony," Cordy said smarmily as she looked at the big fake pig eyes. "You'll make the most perfect Razorbacks mascot ever!"

Harmony reached up and yanked the large pig head off. "You…" she fumed. "You won't get away with this!"

Cordelia leaned in towards the blond and spoke low so only she could hear. "Please, Harmony…I just beg you to try something. See, recently I forgot how I was the queen bitch around here and let you push me around…but now that's over!"

Ms. Chase then turned back to the other girls. "Okay, people, let's get warmed up. Julie should be here any moment…" Cordelia turned back to a red-faced Harmony when she added. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot – the yearbook nerds should be here soon to take the new team photo. Harmony…that means wearing the full costume, so hurry up and get on with it."

As Harmony started glaring daggers at Cordelia's back, the other girls spread out to do some stretching exercises. Aura looked to her friend Blue and whispered, "I am SO glad we didn't take sides between those two!"

"Yeah, and I am never pissing off Cordelia again." Blue stated firmly as she watched the head cheerleader go over and give her amazed boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.