Smells Like Teen Spirit
Summary: One thing changes on the path back home for Xander. Begins at the Zeppo episode.
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Jack looked outside the window as daylight began to come over the world. He looked around as Julio and Greg began to fight each other, more like wrestle with each other.
"Quit it," Heidi ordered, and the two immediately stopped, staring up at her in subservience and adoration.
"Today's the day," Jack said, turning to Heidi, "You start with cookies, I'll keep an eye on his friends."
"Right," Heidi said, but before they could do anything, someone started pounding on her door.
"Barrie," the voice of her landlord called out, "Your rent's been due for a day, bitch!"
Heidi smiled a sadistic smile at him and said, "You go ahead. I'm gonna get some breakfast."
Jack nodded and he opened the door, revealing a large man dressed in a white wife beater with purple sweatpants and a pair of flip-flops.
"Rent's due, bitch," the man said as he entered the apartment, only for Heidi to grab him and toss him to the floor, where he was promptly surrounded by the other three hyenas.
"I'll see you in a bit," Heidi said, and she leapt onto her former landlord with a snarl, biting deep into his face.
Jack casually walked out the door, closing and locking it as he did so, ignoring the man's screams.
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Xander opened his eyes, wincing in pain as the light assaulted him. He gingerly opened his eyes again, groaning out as his face hurt him.
"Mornin'," a voice to his left said, and he gingerly turned over to see Faith, lying next to him, dressed in nothing but a pair of panties.
"…I'd think this was that dream again, but my face doesn't usually hurt during a dream," Xander said, noticing that his speaking was back to normal.
"You passed out after you took six of my pills," she said, extending her fist to him, "Only two this time, ok!"
"Ooh, gimme," Xander said, swiping the pills from her hand and swallowing them, "…So…you're naked."
"Correction," Faith said, "Half-naked."
"Big difference," Xander said, feeling the pills starting to affect him.
"Looks like the swelling's gone down," Faith said, examining him, "Think you're good for school?"
"…Pretty," Xander said, extending his hand to reach up to the ceiling fan.
"I guess not," Faith chuckled, sitting up as she did so, "I'm gonna go the library and let the Scoobies know what's up, then I'll drop by here and make sure you don't swallow your tongue. Deal?"
"…Wow," Xander said, staring at her, "You're hot!"
Faith laughed at him and said, "Thanks, stud, you're not too bad yourself."
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Rhonda hit the wall in a painful thud, her head swimming as Heidi stood over her, easily carrying several boxes of her cookies.
"You're my secret weapon, sweetie," Heidi said with a devious smirk, "When he betrays me, I want you on my side."
Heidi turned her back on her and walked to the door.
"Remember," she called to her, "The zoo."
Rhonda groaned out in response, but Heidi was long gone by then. A half hour later, Rhonda managed to pick herself up, though she was unsteady as she moved due to what she believed to be a concussion. Groaning to herself, she pulled open her closet and grabbed the bag that she had prepared. She opened up the bag and pulled out a bottle of pills, a capsule version of her cookies, and took one pill, letting it affect her as she put the bottle away.
As she gathered the money she had made and her car keys, she decided which move she was going to make. Heidi wanted her at the zoo…so, she would be at the zoo…only, she would be at the zoo with the Alpha.
She leapt down the stairs with total disregard for her safety, climbed into her vehicle, and made a short list in her head of where she would be able to find Xander Harris.
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Jack watched as Harris's friends one by one filtered into the library at different times throughout the day. He was surprised to see that brunette girl Harris had been with only once, but figured she would be back later that night. He glanced at his watch, noting that there was only a few minutes left in class.
"Hey," he looked up as Heidi dropped down to his level outside the windows, "They there?"
Jack nodded, saying, "They need to leave soon enough. Think this'll be enough?"
"Should be," Heidi said, handing him three boxes of cookies, "Rhonda made them pretty strong, I tried one on the way over."
"Good," Jack said, "And Rhonda…"
"Is dead," Heidi said, seemingly regretful, "She would have been useful in the fight, but we have enough as it is."
"Right," Jack didn't believe her one bit, but went back to watching the library anyway, "We need to get them outta there."
"I'll handle that," Heidi said with a smile.
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Giles sighed to himself as he continued reading. School was so boring when there wasn't an apocalypse going on. Tonight, he and Wesley had agreed, Buffy and Faith would need to take care of Balthazar and end his threat to them. Of course, it had taken God only knew how much effort to convince the prat of Balthazar's continued existence.
He was roused from his thoughts, however, as Oz entered the library.
"Xander here," Oz asked, "We're supposed to have practice tonight."
"I thought his nose was broken," Giles said.
"No reason to not practice," Oz said.
"Point," Giles said, "Well-"
He was interrupted by a loud noise from the back. Turning, he was nearly knocked over as a blonde girl came barreling from the stacks with what he recognized as one of his personal books in her arms.
"Stop her," Giles shouted, and he and Oz took off after her.
Jack snuck in with relative ease. He placed the boxes of cookies on the counter, along with the note, and quickly left the library, leaving almost no trace of his presence.
A few moments later, Buffy and Willow walked into the library.
"I swear, Wills, I don't know anything more about them," Buffy said again.
"But, it's Faith, she's like, your sister or something," Willow said with a hint of jealousy, "You must know something about her and Xander."
"I swear I don't," Buffy lied again, turning to the table as she did so, "Hey, cookies!"
Buffy quickly opened a box of them and dug in, happy for the excuse to not speak. Willow examined the cookies thoughtfully and picked up the note that Jack had left.
"'Thought you'd enjoy the cookies before tonight,'" she read, "'I'll see you later, Xander.'"
"Score," Buffy said, thoroughly enjoying her cookie, "These cookies kick ass!"
"This doesn't look like Xander's handwriting," Willow muttered.
"Well, I did break his nose," Buffy reminded her, "Faith gave him some pills for the pain, so he probably just had her pick up the cookies as a way to say 'no hard feelings.' He probably was barely able to write the note."
"Point," Willow agreed, taking one of the cookies for herself, "Damn, that's a good cookie."
"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed, surprised at her language.
"Well, it is," Willow said.
At that moment, Giles and Oz came back inside, with Giles obviously in an irate mood.
"I can't believe you let her get away with my book," Giles said to Oz.
"If I do recall, I wasn't the only one chasing her," Oz reminded him.
"What happened," Buffy asked, not too concerned but curious.
"Some trifling bint of a woman came into my library, invaded my stacks, and took one of my books," Giles was positively livid.
"Which one," Willow asked calmly, not put off by his anger at all.
"Oh, um, one of the books on trans-possession," Giles said, "Makes me wonder what exactly she's up to."
"You're way too tense Giles," Buffy said in a mellow voice, "Have a cookie!"
"They've yummy in my tummy," Willow said giddily.
"Oh, um, where'd they come from," Giles said as he took one from her, biting into it, "Oh, my…this is a wonderful cookie!"
"Yeah, Xander brought them by," Willow exclaimed, "Or had Faith bring them by, I dunno…I love Faith!"
"What," Oz asked, surprised.
"Well, I mean, if she brought these cookies, she can't be that bad," Willow said.
Oz nodded, going along with her, and took one of the cookies in his hand and bit into it.
"…Wow," Oz said with an expression of happiness, "That's some cookie."
"Indeed," Giles said, feeling calmer by the cookie, "I must admit, I was a bit too concerned about the book. I doubt she'll be able to do any real harm with it."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed as she sat down, eyes half closed as she ate her tenth cookie.
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Faith glanced at her watch again as she stared at the warehouse from a nearby alley.
"C'mon, B, where the Hell are you," she whispered.
Her sister Slayer was forty minutes late, and Faith was beginning to get antsy. She had made sure that Xander was ok at her motel room, making sure to take her pills with her, and had made her way to the warehouse where Buffy had found Balthazar. The plan was to hit them tonight, but that plan was going down the drain fast.
"Screw this, I'm goin' in," Faith said, her anger getting the best of her.
"Faith," she jumped up and hefted her stake, only to pause as she saw who it was.
"Damn it, Fang," Faith said in anger, "Do you want to wind up in a dust buster!?"
"What's going on," Angel asked, ignoring her question, "Where's Buffy?"
"Dunno, B's flaked on me," Faith explained, "We're supposed to hit Jabba the Hutt tonight, but she's a no-show."
"That's not like her," Angel said, his forehead creasing in thought, "We gotta go check on her."
"You can do that, me, I'm goin' to take care of business," Faith said, stalking forward.
"Faith, no, you can't do this alone," Angel objected, grabbing her by her arm.
Faith reacted by grabbing his arm and flipping him to his back, then squatted down before him with her stake to his chest.
"Listen up, vamp," Faith snarled at him, "I ain't B, I don't let no vampire touch me, understand? Now, I'm goin' in there, with or without you. So, either you gimme a hand or I might die! Comprende?"
"…Comprende," Angel said up to her, and she let him up, "Fine…you take that side, I'll go in through the other."
"Sounds like a plan," Faith said as she stalked away from him, "I'll see you on the other side."
Angel stared after her for a long moment before shaking his head and walking away.
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Heidi flipped through the pages of the book she had stolen, hoping that it was here. She paused, examining a passage that she thought might have what she needed. After quickly scanning it, however, she determined that it was of no help to her.
"Heidi," she looked up as Kyle came up behind her, a longing look on his face, "Jack called."
"One minute," she snarled at him, and Kyle backed away in fear and subservience.
Cackling to herself, Heidi went back to the book. She flipped several more pages until she came across an interesting passage. Smiling to herself, she committed it to her memory.
When it came time, she would come out ahead…for once.
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"Tonight," Wilkins said, circling around the seated Mr. Trick, not unlike a shark, "Is a very important night. Tonight is the beginning of the Hundred Days, where I am effectively immortal."
Wilkins laid his hands on Trick's shoulders, causing the vampire to noticeably tense up.
"Nothing," he said, "Must interfere with tonight. Tonight, you shall go to them and kill them all…understand?"
"Yes, Sir," Trick said.
"Good," Wilkins said with his chipper attitude returning, standing up away from him, "Get to it, then."
"Right away, Sir," Trick said, standing up and practically running from the office.
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Jack and Heidi strolled into the library, side-by-side, with Kyle, Julio, and Greg behind them, each with shark-like smiles on their faces. They were the smiles of predators who had cornered their prey, cats who had found the mouse hole, knowing that it was only a little longer before they were fed.
"Take her," Jack pointed to the redheaded girl, and Julio grabbed her up, cradling her in his arms.
"And just what, pray tell, is going on here," the five turned around, facing the front of the library.
Trick was standing there, with four vampires behind him, each of them dressed up in suits.
"None of your business, vampire," Heidi snarled at him in her animalistic voice.
"You must be O'Toole," Trick said, ignoring her, causing her to growl in anger.
"And you must be dead," Jack said, and the five animals closed in together as Julio unceremoniously dropped Willow to the ground.
"There's no reason for violence," Trick said, even as his boys lined up beside him, obviously preparing for a fight, "We're all reasonable monsters, here. There's no reason we can't be civil."
"Beg to differ, vamp," Jack snarled, and he withdrew his knife.