The Pack

(Sunnydale Zoo)

Buffy wandered around, looking at the various animals now and then she, Xander, and Willow were wandering around and enjoying the time away from actual school work. "Don't think of it as just a field trip," Xander explained, "Focus on the fact that you're not at school."

"You're right," Buffy said, "I never realized how amazing the zoo was."

"That's the spirit!" Willow interjected.

The three friends walked further and saw Sunnydale's top of the food chain bullies, a group consisting of two boys Kyle Dufors, the group's leader, Tor Hauer, and two girls Heidi Barrie, and Rhonda Kelley, teasing a loner kid named Lance. Before the Soobies could intervene on Lance's behalf Principal Flutie stepped in asking if there was a problem. Lance for some reason did not snitch on the four bullies, claiming everything was fine. Kyle and the other four were impressed by Lance and decided to welcome him into their group.

Not trusting Kyle and his friends' intentions, Buffy and the others followed them until the four went into a sealed off hyena enclosure. Buffy and Willow were about to follow with Xander, but he stopped them, claiming it would be better for Lance's self-esteem if Xander helped him alone rather than Xander and two girls, "Besides," He added, "They aren't vampires or demons. Just mean kids the type that are issued to every school along with desks and text books."

Xander goes in and Buffy and Willow were about to follow anyway when they were stopped by the zoo keeper, telling them that the hyenas are in quarantine and that there is a myth that hyenas can learn people's names to lure them away and devour them.

Inside the sealed off exhibit Xander stops Kyle and Tor from throwing Lance into the hyena pen. Xander and the four bullies are compelled to look at the hyena. No one noticed the strange symbol drawn on the floor of the exhibit assuming it to be a generic African tribal painting. The hyenas eyes flashed followed soon after by Kyle, Tor, Heidi, Rhonda, and finally Xander's eyes as well. Lance tripped over a bench in his haste to leave and the five others turned to him and laughed.

(The Bronze)

Later that night Willow and Buffy, along with Dawn who was allowed to come along, having been invited by Willow for a girl's night. They were sitting at a table talking and catching up with one another when the topic switched to Willow's crush on Xander, "You should just go for it Will." Buffy said.

"Agreed," Said Dawn.

Willow not wanting to talk too much about this changed the subject, "What about you and Angel? I mean you are wearing his jacket right now." She asked Buffy.

"Well he is cute, but he's almost never around and when he does show up it's all cryptic warnings and fighting vampires."

Xander shows up as their conversation tapers off. He is acting strange, constantly looking around and watching people. He takes food off Buffy's plate without asking then complains about it then he just randomly sniffs Buffy commenting that she took a bath.

"Yeah Xander, people tend to do that on now and then." Dawn said sarcastically while the three of them just stared at him in confusion.

Soon after that Xander saw Kyle, Tor, Heidi, and Rhonda and decided to join them in teasing a group of awkward teens.

"What's up with him?" Angel asks asked as he walked up to their table.

"I dunno," Willow answered, "He's been acting weird ever since we left the zoo."

"You must be Angel." Dawn said offering her hand to shake, "I'm Buffy's sister Dawn."

Angel instinctively shook her hand and there was a sizzling sound accompanied by the slight smell of burnt flesh as Angel jerked his hand back. He looked at Dawn's right hand and saw she wore a ring with a pattern of crosses stamped on it. Dawn was freaked out and Willow instinctively pushed the younger girl behind her while Buffy reached for a stake. Angel held up his hands to show he did not want to fight. "Okay so as I'm sure you're aware now…yes, I'm a vampire. There's a long story, but I'll give you the short version for now, if you wanna hear it that is…" He trailed of looking at the three girls.

Buffy nodded and Angel began his story, "Well about one hundred years ago I killed the favorite daughter of a gypsy tribe, they cursed me by returning my soul. It's not as fun as it sounds, I remember everyone I've killed as a vampire and with my soul returned I actually care. Since then I've been working for the Powers That Be. Recently I was assigned to help the new slayer."

Dawn walked back around from behind Willow and looked up at the tall vampire. She tilted her head slightly to the side. "I like him, I say we let him live for now, especially if he's supposed to help."

"Alright, I agree for now. Would you be willing to meet us at the high school library tomorrow?" Angel nodded at Buffy's question, "Good I'll let Giles know to be there…and do you think we should bring mom too?"

"Yeah, after Hemery she wants to be informed of what's going on, even if she doesn't like it." Dawn answered as she retook her seat adjusting her jacket.

Angel caught a glimpse of a gun and holster when her jacket shifted. He looked at Buffy with a raised eyebrow. "We have special bullets with pieces of ironwood and Dawn is one Helluva good shot. We're also working on some silver-iron alloy bullets for generic demon killing." Buffy explained.

"Yep, bringing slaying into the twenty-first century." Willow added. We've also discovered, courtesy of Xander, that regular bullets with a cross carved on them work for dusting vamps as well. Are you really comfortable with the whole vampire slaying conversation, I mean you being a vampire and all?"

"I admit it makes me a little nervous, but it's a product of the side of the war I'm fighting on now."

(Sunnydale High Library)

"The council, as well as several covens of witches and groups of demon hunters around the world, have vast records as to the devastation caused by the vampires Angelus, the demon with the face of an angel, and his sire Darla, they soon added his childe Drusilla and later her childe, Spike. They were known as "The Scourge of Europe". However around one hundred years ago Angelus disappeared from this group, he rejoined them for a short time during the Boxer Rebellion in China, but his actions were drastically changed the only records of kills attributed to him then were murderers and rapists. Then he disappears again. Now you say the gypsies used the Ritual of Restoration?" Giles asked Angel after his brief history on Angelus. Angel nodded, "Remarkable." Giles continued, "While the text for the ritual still exists it was written in a code that no one has the translation for any longer."

"Ok Rupert, that's all well and good, but can we trust that what he says is true and be sure that he isn't part of the Master's schemes?" Joyce asked still not trusting of the two century old vampire.

"Well I could try a spell to ascertain the status of his soul. It won't be difficult and I have all the ingredients here. Would you be willing to sit through that Angel? If you're worried it isn't painful."

"Yeah and if your soul isn't as intact as you say, you won't even have to fight Buffy." Dawn said from the other side of the room, checking the magazine of her 9mm Beretta Px4 Storm sub compact.

"Oh Dawn don't tease Angel like that, it's nicer for him if he doesn't know what could be coming. You're just making him nervous." Joyce said adding to the teasing.

"Dawn isn't the only one to watch out for. If I were you I'd try to stay on my mom's good side too. She's like Robin Hood, but with a bow." Buffy said and the others just stared at her strangely and Willow actually did a facepalm.

Giles performed the spell and found Angel's soul to be in the state he claimed it to be.

That Monday Xander and his new group of friends were acting strange, at least Xander was, the other four weren't acting much different, but they all stuck together like a pack. Picking on other kids, including Willow, the only one they seemed to try and avoid pissing off was Buffy. Word got out that the five of them were seen outside the room where the school's mascot Herbert was kept. His cage had been torn open and he had been ripped apart and eaten.

In the library the rest of the gang, minus Joyce and Dawn, were researching what could be wrong with Xander when Buffy and Willow remembered what the zoo keeper had said about the hyena enclosure. Giles soon found a reference to animal trans-possession among tribes in Africa.

Principal Flutie called Kyle, Tor, Heidi, and Rhonda to his office for what happened to Herbert. He was found a short time later, the official report was that he'd been eaten by wild dogs, which had somehow gotten into his office. In the meantime Buffy had confronted Xander and fought him before knocking him out with a desk. She and Giles locked him in the book cage in the library and left Willow, Joyce, and Dawn to watch him while she and Giles went to compare notes with the zoo keeper.

Due to the fact that the people they were dealing with were human Joyce and Dawn had taken a trip to the storage facility and picked up some of Hanks non-lethal equipment. There were rubber bullets for a 9mm handgun, several beanbag shotgun rounds, two working police style tazers. On top of that Giles had a tranquilizer gun. Dawn gave Joyce and Willow each a shotgun with beanbag rounds and a tazer while she loaded her handgun with the rubber bullets and took the tranquilizer gun.

While Buffy and Giles were out the rest of the pack came looking for Xander and broke in through the exterior windows of the library leaving Joyce and the girls with no choice but to run leaving the shotguns and the tranq gun behind. They hid in a classroom, but the hyena people found them. Willow tried to use her tazer, but her hands were shaking enough to throw off her aim. Joyce was unable to fire hers without hitting Dawn, who fired two shots at the pack members coming in the classroom. Each shot hit it's mark and drove Tor and Heidi out of the room with a non-lethal shot to the chest, it hurt, but wouldn't kill them.

At that point Buffy reappeared in the school and used herself as bait to lure the pack to the zoo telling her mom, Willow, and Dawn to meet her there. The trio followed Buffy's order and all climbed into Joyce's Jeep. When Buffy got to the hyena enclosure she saw the zoo keeper sporting some sort of strange face paint and holding a knife to Willow's throat. She was so surprised that she stopped suddenly, causing the pack to crash into her and they all tumbled to the ground in a heap.

The zoo keeper recited an incantation and the pack members' eyes flashed followed by the zoo keeper's. He then raised the knife the kill Willow, Xander saw he was too far away to help and unknowingly grabbed onto a piece of the fleeing hyena spirit, causing him to retain some of it's speed and strength. He rose from the ground and shoved the possessed man away from his best friend, knocking the zoo keeper into the cage with the actual hyenas where he was torn apart.

Back at school the next day Buffy and Willow were relaying events to Xander as he claimed to have no memory of what he did while possessed.

The girls walked off to class and Giles came up to Xander, "I don't remember memory loss as being a side effect of trans-possession." Said the watcher.

"Yeah, but it's bad enough they know what I did. If they think that I don't remember then I'm hoping it'll be easier for them to forget." Replied the teen, "Giles I am worried about one thing. When the zoo keeper performed the ritual and was about to kill Willow, I felt myself reaching for the hyena spirit as it was leaving. I knew I wouldn't make it in time on my own and Buffy was at the bottom of our dog pile. It worked I saved Willow, but I can feel part of the hyena still in me, not enough for it to take control, but I figured I shouldn't try and keep this secret. Is it possible that I only kept enough to retain some heightened traits and instincts, or is it something we need to worry about?"

Giles put his hand on the worried young man's shoulder, "I honestly don't know Xander. The books I have don't say anything about this and I daren't ask the Council, but if you like I am friends with a coven of witches, I could ask them to send an aura reader. She would be the best to ascertain the state of your…selfness."

"I am all for that Giles, thanks. And is it asking too much if we keep this between us for now?"

"Your secrets safe with me my boy, but if all is well we should tell the others. Your new skills would be a great asset, both to you as an individual as well as to our team in the fight."

"Sounds good to me, but lets cross that bridge when we get to it. So on a change of subject…Angel's a vampire, but fights for good because he has a soul?"