Loop de Loop
Xander blinked and looked around. He was standing in the basement of Sunnydale High. He heard the sounds of something being messily devoured behind him and a glance showed he was standing in front of the boiler room door. Opening the door a crack he saw a werewolf eating a zombie and quickly shut it. Satisfied he knew where and when he was, he started making plans.
Sunnydale was so chaotic that few repeats bore any resemblance to the original loop. After he was awake for any length of time, he could really only make plans based on past events and some future ones that were set up well in advance or far outside range of the changes he'd introduce into the timeline, and he would introduce changes. There was really no way for him not to make changes, already he could feel his body alter from the… spiritual mass he carried with him.
Spiritual mass was a good term for it. After a dozen loops he carried not one primal spirit but a pack, not a single aquatic predator but a school, not a single soldier but a platoon. They say no man is an island, but on the astral plane Xander was a bustling metropolis.
He actually found it easier to deal with all his possessions when they were a multitude rather than a few. Surrounded by others like themselves they seemed content to jockeying for position rather than fight him for control, which made day to day life much easier, but trying to tap them directly for power a lot more complicated. Fortunately their passive enhancement of him was usually enough for whatever he wanted to do.
He actually could feel himself get a little taller as he walked down the hall. Fortunately the overall change was small enough to be overlooked, unless you were carrying his medical chart and a tape measure at the time and he could still pass it off as a late growth spurt. The slightly enlarged canines and second eyelid would be harder to explain, but also required a more thorough examination to find, as did half a dozen other things.
Stepping out the front door of the school he smiled at the sight of sunrise. No matter how many lives he lived the sight of the sun rising always made him smile.
"What are you doing here?!" Cordelia demanded.
Xander ignored her and continued on. In his first life he'd felt enough guilt over their breakup that he'd let her harass him, but a frank look back when he'd reached his thirties the first time cured him of any guilt. Really, he didn't know how Angel put up with them. Teen drama and angst were his new kryptonite; his tolerance hovered right around nil. Given a choice between dealing with the gang talking about their problematic love lives and getting skinned alive… Xander was pretty sure he could regrow his skin. He was grateful they were in their senior year, because end of the world or not, he didn't think he could take more than a couple of months of high school again.
Starting his car he decided to take it over to his uncle Rory's and work on it. He'd fixed this particular car so many times he could do it blindfolded. It'd take most of the day and about five hundred in parts, but he also knew some quick and easy fixes he could use on some of the cars currently in the shop that would make Uncle Rory overlook it.
Pulling into his Uncle's auto shop and wrecking yard, he got to work. His shirt was quickly reduced to the status of rags and his pants weren't much better but he got what he needed done.
Rory came out, half awake and drinking a cup of coffee as Xander started the cars he'd worked on to check his work a couple hours later.
"I swiped a muffler off that junked out Chrysler and raided your hubcap collection," Xander told him. "Also I'm raiding your closet, these clothes are toast."
"Check the closet in my spare room; I stick all my old clothes in there. They should fit you better, since you ain't my size yet," Rory replied easily.
Xander came out not ten minutes later while Rory was filling out the bill for the repaired cars so he could call their owners.
Rory grinned. "I haven't worn that since high school. You look like a proper greaser."
Xander chuckled. "You even had Brylcreem for the hair." Faded Levi's and a while undershirt were topped by a leather jacket and motorcycle boots.
"If you want a part time job, you seem to have some skill as a mechanic," Rory told him.
"Sunday mornings," Xander agreed. "I'll be by."
Rory nodded and lit up a cigarette as Xander drove off.
Xander considered how to play the next few months. He couldn't stand teens and he was going to be surrounded by them. Angel was actually more fun to be around than the students in their group. Hmmm. That actually sparked a thought. Vampire Willow was due for an appearance in a couple of weeks. For a soulless demon she was actually fun, disturbing as hell at times, but fun. He'd need some money and an orb of Thesulah. Meh, he'd just steal Giles', but having a necromantic spell precast and loaded for use was going to cost some serious money.
"Baby steps," Xander muttered as he saw the local theater was playing Grease. Grinning he parked and got out. He'd barely taken three steps when he felt something hit the back of his head and everything went black.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
"I don't think the Hyena would be able to stand the smell of his hair cream," Angel said as Xander slowly regained consciousness.
"And he knows his hair products," Xander said, his mouth feeling like a badger had slept in it. "What happened?"
"You got possessed again, so we had to keep you unconscious until Giles had a chance to gather everything we need to exorcise you!" Buffy quickly explained.
"Who possessed me on the way to watch Grease?" Xander asked.
"That's where I know it from," Angel said suddenly. "That's authentic Brylcreem!"
"Everything is authentic 50's apparel," Xander said testing the ropes he was tied up with.
"You were dressed up for the show," Angel said in understanding, while everyone fell silent.
"Even black leather…" Buffy trailed off.
"I see," Xander said calmly, not having been expecting this, but deciding to use it to help cover for the changes they were sure to notice in his behavior. "So, because I was dressed in costume to see a show, you knocked me over the head, kidnapped me and kept me drugged all day."
"Well you were prowling around the school this morning!" Cordelia exclaimed.
"I was stopping a group of zombies from setting off a bomb in the boiler room, since you guys didn't want to listen when I told you about it."
"Oz stopped the bomb," Willow said loyally.
"No, Oz ate Jack, after I got him to disarm the bomb that he set, by convincing him I was crazy enough to let it kill us both," Xander explained.
"That does fill in a few holes," Wesley admitted.
"You should have been at home like I told you to," Buffy said.
"Notice how everyone is jumping to agree?" Xander asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, I knew that was stupid as soon as I said it," Buffy admitted.
"Now, would someone mind untying me and getting me some aspirin?" Xander asked.
"We've already got everything ready for the depossession spell," Willow pointed out.
"Good, we'll cast it on Buffy and see if your nose pops out of her ass," Xander said dryly.
Cordelia coughed to cover up a laugh.
"What?!" Willow began but Xander interrupted her before she could get going. "Quiet! You have probably given me a concussion and have kept me drugged and bound all day and now your excuse to cast spells on me against my will is 'we already have the ingredients?!' This is just some faint hope that something happens so you can justify another ham-handed idea of Buffy's. If anyone here needs it cast on them it's you, because I have no idea who the hell you are, but it's no one I recognize and your head is buried so far up Buffy's ass it probably does count as possession!"
Cordelia fell over laughing.
"Now someone untie me and get me something for my headache, because I guarantee Stockholm Syndrome isn't going to kick in fast enough to make me forgive this shit!"
Angel untied him and Xander stood up and stretched before rubbing his temples. "I gotta use the can."
"See?" Willow offered lamely.
"See what?" Cordelia asked, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Xander wouldn't do that!" Willow said firmly.
"You've done nothing but take Buffy's side over his in the past few years," Cordelia said. "Harmony doesn't follow me so slavishly."
"She's been right," Willow tried to defend herself.
Buffy winced recalling some of the stupid decisions she'd made despite opposition.
"From Xander's point of view everything he said is true and between the pain in his head and your insistence on casting magic on him I'd say his patience is at an end," Wesley guessed.
"Except for being angry he seems like himself," Giles offered. "And his anger is understandable."
"Thank you," Xander said, catching what Giles said as he entered the library. "Do you have any aspirin?"
"Yes, but all I have to drink it with is tea," Giles warned.
"If it quiets the hammering in my skull, I'd bathe in it," Xander said as Giles brought out a tea trolley.
A couple of minutes later saw Xander and the two Brits drinking tea while Angel watched with a touch of envy.
"I'm sure Giles can spare another cup," Xander told him.
"I can't drink, vampire," Angel reminded him.
"But Spike did," Xander said. "So there's got to be more to it."
"Spike had several human habits that made no sense to me," Angel replied.
"But you could conceivably drink tea?" Xander asked. "There isn't going to be any holy reaction?"
"No, it's just tea," Angel agreed.
"It's hardly just tea," Giles disagreed. "I get this shipped in special from Somerset."
"Here, here," Wesley agreed lifting his cup.
"OK, maybe around these two," Angel admitted with an almost unnoticeable grin.
"I'm just curious what vampires can't do versus what they don't do because it's a human habit or they were told they couldn't," Xander said with a shrug. "Hate to find out I thought someone was human only to find out vamps also like to chew bubbilicious."
Angel coughed covering up a laugh. "I'll let you know."
"Thanks, and would you escort me back to my car? It's a bit late for me to be walking around with a head injury by myself."
"And you're asking Angel?" Cordelia asked finding it a bit suspicious despite recent events because of how vocal he was against anything to do with the vamp until now.
"I don't see him looking for excuses to knock me out to prove Buffy 'right'. Call me paranoid but I'm not feeling too charitable right now and I've trusted Angel before, I just bitched during it."
"I'll walk you over there," Angel agreed.
Xander finished his tea. "Thanks Giles, this was actually a lot better than I was expecting."
"Not a problem, sorry for the mix up," Giles replied.
"We might want to invest in something that glows when someone is possessed or influenced though," Xander admitted. "Hyenas, ghosts, egg babies."
"I'll look into it," Giles promised as they left.
As the two walked down the stairs, Angel asked, "Why did you steal the orb of Thesulah?"
"I'm going to find a necromancer to preload a soul curse on it," Xander replied truthfully.
"Good," Angel said. After a minute he had to ask, "Head so far up Buffy's ass it counts as possession?"
"I've known Willow since forever, but I don't even recognize that sycophant," Xander said.
"Oh," Angel said in understanding.
"I once had two true friends, one was turned by your sire giving me a hatred of vampires in general and your bloodline in particular, and the other crawled up Buffy's ass and died. Maybe I'm overstating it, but I don't think so. My true friend would never have just blown me off when I came to her with life or death information."
Typing by: The last Primarch!
