Chapter 16: The Pack Part 3
The zookeeper's office was bigger than Buffy expected. There were diplomas and certificates of honor on the wall, as well as photographs, African masks and weapons, and other memorabilia. In the center of the room he had a light table. Transparencies were laid on top of it, and the light from below shone up through them, making them easier to see.
"...the students and your assistant have been possessed by the hyenas," the zookeeper was saying. His manner was somehow reassuring, his voice level and calm.
"Yes," Giles said.
"Are you sure?"
"We're really, really sure," Buffy replied.
"You don't seem enormously surprised by this," Xander suggested.
"The zoo imported those hyenas from Africa," the zookeeper said. "There was something strange about them from day one. I did some homework. That particular breed is very rare. Totally vicious. Historically, they were worshipped by these guys —"
"The Primals," Giles offered.
"Yeah. Creepy guys. Now they had rituals for taking the hyenas' spirits, but I don't see how that could have happened to your kids."
"We don't know exactly how the ritual works," Giles said. "We know it involves a predatory act and some kind of symbol."
"A predatory act. Of course. That makes sense. Where did you read that?"
Giles seemed to sense a kindred spirit. "Do you have Sherman Jeffries's work on cults and —"
"Guys!" Xander interrupted.
"Sorry," Giles said.
The zookeeper glanced at his watch. "Look, I think we may have enough information so that together we can pull off a reverse transpossession."
"What do we do?" Buffy asked.
"You gotta get those possessed students and Ms. Matthews to the hyena cage right away," he said. "I'll meet you there and we can begin the ritual."
"Well, we can guarantee you Paige," Buffy said. "But the students we don't know where they are."
"I wouldn't worry about that," the zookeeper explained. "After hyenas feed and rest, they will track the missing member of their pack until they find him or her. They should come right to you."
Buffy caught Giles and Xander's glances. "Willow and Dawn," she breathed and then inexplicably she orbed out.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Paige paced in the cage like a caged animal. Dawn and Willow were keeping their distance, watching the hyena video. Paige had made her move, and they had dodged her, and now the keys to the cage were across the room. "Willow ..." she said, "Dawn."
Dawn and Willow glanced over their shoulder at Paige. "I'm not listening." Turned back to the screen. She didn't even want to look at him. Well, that's okay with me. I don't want to look at her either. Just want that key.
"Wil-lowww ..." another voice said, "Daa-wwn."
"Paige, shut up," Willow said.
"Wil-lowww ..." the voice called again, "Daa-wwn."
Dawn and Willow realized that it wasn't Xander that was calling them.
Suddenly the pack came crashing through the library windows. Glass rained onto the floor.
Dawn and Willow leapt from their seats and ran out the door.
"Buffy!" Dawn yelled hoping the Whitelighter portion of her sister would hear her call. She and Willow turned a corner, ran to the first classroom door they saw.
Willow grabbed the knob, locked.
They could hear the sounds from the library, knew the cage had been breached. Knew the pack was on their way.
They crossed the hall to another door. This one opened. They darted inside, shutting the door quietly behind them.
Inside the darkened room, Dawn and Willow threaded their way between the desks, crawled into the footwell of the teacher's desk, and pulled the chair into position in front of them.
They remained crouched under the desk as they heard the door open and soft footfalls, telling them someone was in the room. Then footsteps receding, and the door closing.
Dawn grabbed Willow's hand as Willow moved to move the chair back and she shook her head.
Willow looked at Dawn curiously. Dawn held up two fingers and indicated walking. Then she held up one finger and indicated more walking. Willow nodded in understanding, it was a trap. Two people had entered, one person had left.
"Buffy," Dawn whispered, "please."
Just then Buffy orbed in and smiled at Paige. "Hello, Paige."
Paige gave a little roar and lunged at Buffy, who orbed out and back in behind the teacher's desk. "Dawn, Willow, get to the zoo. Giles and Xander are waiting. We'll be right behind you."
Dawn and Willow got out from under the desk and ran to the window, which opened of its own accord.
"Did you do that?" Willow asked looking at Dawn.
"I … I guess I did," Dawn replied as they climbed out the window. "I just thought about how I wanted to open the window and as I stared at it, it opened. I will have to see if I have the power of telekinesis, later."
Buffy smiled at Paige. "Paige, you know what you want. See if you can catch me." She ran for the door out into the corridor surprising the rest of the pack. Behind her as she ran down the corridor and out the doors of the school, she heard their awful hyena laughter. And the unmistakable sounds of them giving chase.
They were coming.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
When Dawn and Willow reached the zoo they found Xander and Giles waiting outside the hyena enclosure.
"Where's the zookeeper?" Dawn asked, winded.
"He's inside," Giles said. "Are they on their way?"
"Yes," Willow replied.
"I'll go in and prepare things. You three just warn us when you hear Buffy and the others approaching," Giles said as he headed down the pathway, and was swallowed by the dark.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Surrounding the zoo grounds, there was a wide swath of thick vegetation. Buffy ran through it, shoving aside huge hanging leaves, dodging tree trunks. She was making good time. The pack was making better time, judging by the leaves and underbrush crashing behind her.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Giles walked down the pathway. It was quiet inside, and dark, and a bit rank. There was more tape across the entryway. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expecting, but he knew one thing. This wasn't it.
"Doctor . . .?" he tried. "Zookeeper — ?"
A scuffling sound caught his attention and he turned. The zookeeper had come in behind him, from another entrance, possibly.
Only he wasn't dressed like any zookeeper Giles had ever seen.
"Oh, of course," he said. "You're in the Masai ceremonial garb. Are you otherwise prepared for the transpossession?"
The zookeeper stepped into the glow from lights inside the hyena enclosure. His face was painted blue and white, in a bizarre pattern that Giles half-recognized from the texts he'd pored over in the last few hours. A robe, of a fabric that exactly matched the blue of his face, covered his body, and beneath that he wore some kind of tights. At one ankle and one wrist he wore bone bracelets. He carried a big stick, a staff or club of some kind, which he tossed from hand to hand.
The whole ensemble was more than a little disquieting.
"Almost," the man said.
Giles noticed the strange red markings on the floor. "Right," he said. "The sacred circle. You'd need that to . . ." He was suddenly confused. "Well, this would be here when the children first came. Why would you . . ."
It dawned on him, all at once. He gave a small laugh, and turned to face the fright-masked zookeeper. "How terribly frustrating for you," Giles said, "that a bunch of schoolchildren could accomplish what you could not."
The zookeeper held his gaze. "It bothered me," he said, matter of factly. "But the power will be mine."
Giles knew, finally, that the man was beyond hope of reasoning. He needed to get away, to warn Willow and Buffy before it was too late. He started to bolt.
But the zookeeper was faster. He stepped in, swinging the club one-handed into Giles's stomach. Giles doubled over, and the blue man whipped the club around, brought it down on the back of Giles's head.
Giles went down, unconscious on the floor amid the strange symbols painted there.
The zookeeper didn't waste any time. He grabbed the Giles' ankles and dragged him out of sight.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
They were closer than ever. Buffy could hear them breathing, behind her. Not even panting with the exertion, which, she had to admit, was getting to be a bit of a strain on her.
What was worse, was, they were laughing.
That hysterical half-insane, high-pitched hyena laughter.
Ever closer.
She ran harder.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn, Xander and Willow heard the crashing as they came nearer. It had to be Buffy — not like anyone else would be doing the jogging-for-health thing in the middle of the night in a closed zoo.
"Go, Willow," Dawn said. "We'll wait until their inside and then come in behind them, trapping them there."
Willow nodded and she ran down the walk to the hyena house. "They're almost here!" she called. "Giles ... ?" No answer. "Giles?"
No Giles, either. The only one there was the zookeeper, and he looked weird, all in blue with his face painted. "Where are the hyenas for the transpossession?" she asked him.
He cocked a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to the cage. "They're right here, in the feeding area. Stay clear," he warned. "They haven't been fed."
"Where's Giles?"
"He's lying in wait."
"They're almost here," Willow said, fighting hard to keep the panic from her voice. "Shouldn't you bring the hyenas out?"
The zookeeper picked up a long strip of leather. "When the time is right," he said. He grabbed Willow's wrists, started wrapping the leather around them. "I'm gonna need your help."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy wasn't quite to the hyena house, and if even Paige or one of the possessed kids had the presence of mind to make a leap, they could probably catch her. She'd wrestled Paige. She knew how strong they were. If they brought her down, as a pack, they'd take her.
She was close, though. Maybe Giles, Xander, Dawn and Willow could do something. "They're right behind me!" she called as she ran up the walkway toward the enclosure.
As Paige and the others passed the spot they had hid, Dawn and Xander came out and followed them from a distance, heading too for the enclosure.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"That's Buffy! Get ready!" Willow said.
The zookeeper had tied her wrists tightly together with his strap. Now he pulled something from beneath the flowing blue robe he wore — a long knife with a very shiny blade.
"Here," he said, like he was giving her a present.
"What is this?"
"The predatory act, remember?" he replied. He moved behind her, holding her in one arm and bringing the knife to her throat.
"Oh, right," Willow said. Talking was hard with the blade pressed against her skin. "You'll pretend to slash my throat and put the evil in the hyenas?"
He looked her in the eyes, but there was nothing reassuring in his voice. "Something like that."
It was clear now that he wasn't kidding. Nor was he on their side.
Buffy burst into the hyena house. There was a strange-looking, blue-garbed man holding a knife to Willow's neck. And Willow's hands were tied. There was no sign of Giles, Dawn or Xander. Just to make things more complicated, Willow shouted, "Buffy! It's a trap!"
Buffy stopped in her tracks.
Which, come to think of it, might not have been the best idea, since the pack was still running full speed behind her.
Paige plowed into Buffy, throwing one arm around her midriff and driving her to the ground. Then the others were on her, hands tearing at her, teeth gnashing hungrily.
Dawn and Xander came running in and Dawn looked at the pile. "It's a trap," Willow told them."
"Nyumba Ya Sanaa!" the zookeeper called. Everybody looked at him. Except Buffy, who, because the pack wasn't looking at her, looked at them.
Their eyes, after all, were glowing green. It was the kind of thing that caught your attention.
All of them — Kyle, Heidi, Tor, Rhonda — eyes flashing like traffic lights saying go. She risked a glance at the zookeeper, and his eyes flashed the same weird glow, as if in response to them.
And she suddenly understood what it meant. This whole thing had been a setup. Somehow the hyena spirit had accidentally gone into Xander and the rest, when this guy actually wanted it for himself. So he'd arranged for everyone to be brought back here when he was ready.
Now the hyena was out of the kids, and concentrated in one man. Who wanted it there.
He was going to be trouble.
As if forgetting how to use tools, the zookeeper dropped his knife, grabbing Willow's head between his hands. He roared like a wild beast. He leaned toward her, baring his teeth like he meant to rip into her flesh.
"Willow!" It was Paige. Sounding like herself. She looked down at her charge. "I can't orb."
Buffy nodded in understanding and orbed out and back in grabbing Willow and then orbed out again. She orbed back in next to Dawn and Xander. She then spun toward the zookeeper, she ran at him and launched a kick at the zookeeper's painted jaw. She connected, hard, and he fell back. In a second he was up again, and charging her. She stopped him for a moment with a left, and when he attacked again, she grabbed his robes and used his own momentum to throw him over her shoulder and down onto the hard stone floor.
He was powerful, though. Most men would have been out cold, but he jumped up and came back for more with an animal-like growl.
"Dawn," Buffy yelled. "Your turn."
Dawn nodded in understand and she squinted at the zookeeper and he went flying away from Buffy up and over into the hyena pit.
He screamed.
He reappeared again a moment later, trying to haul himself out by the bars of the cage. But there was a ferocious growling behind him. He screamed again, in pain this time more than fear, and was dragged down from the bars.
He was out of sight, but the growling continued. And even worse, crunching, gnawing, gnashing of teeth.
Buffy caught a glimpse of Kyle and his friends as they ran out of the hyena house, horrified. She didn't blame them.
Dawn moved beside her sister and looked inside the pit, instantly she was sorry she had. "Sorry," she said softly. She looked at Buffy. "I just meant to throw him back away from you. New power, its going to take time to control."
"I know," Buffy whispered as she turned and saw Xander untying Willow's hands.
A door opened, and Giles staggered into the room. He put a hand to his glasses, trying to gain his balance. "Uh," he said. "Did I miss anything?"
"Can someone fill me in on what happened?" Paige wondered.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The next day was one of those bright, sunny days when it really becomes clear that summer is just around the corner. Buffy, Paige, Dawn, Willow, and Xander walked across the quad. Buffy was enjoying the sunshine, and enjoying being with Paige.
"I heard the vice principal is taking over until they can find a replacement," Willow said.
"It shouldn't be hard to find a new principal," Buffy said. "Unless they ask what happened to the last one."
"Okay, but I had nothing to do with that, right?" Paige asked for the millionth time.
"Right," Dawn agreed.
They started up an outside staircase. "You only ate the pig," Xander added.
"I ate a pig?" Paige asked. "It was cooked, right?" She put her hand to her forehead, in obvious dismay.
"Well, it wasn't really you," Buffy assured Paige.
"Well, I remember going on the field trip, and then orbing into the hyena house," Paige said. "Next thing some guy's holding Willow and he's got a knife. I didn't do anything else, did I? Around you guys? Anything embarrassing?"
"Naah," Buffy assured Paige.
"Not at all," Dawn added.
Buffy looked to her sister and her friends. "Come on," she said. "We're gonna be late." She looked to Paige. "See you at lunch."
Paige smiled as she watched them walk away. She was pretty sure they had bought it.
Good.
It felt great to be herself again. Right now at this moment Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Xander did not need to know that there had been no memory loss. That she remembered everything. They would find that out the first time they themselves were ever possessed or nearly transformed into a demon. She turned and walked a few steps — straight toward Giles, who was coming right for her, looking crisp in a fresh suit and tie.
"I've been reading up on my animal possession," Giles said, "and I cannot find anything anywhere about memory loss afterward."
"There isn't any. My sister's and I have either been nearly transformed into demons or possessed by them at one time or another, there is no memory loss. That said you didn't tell them that?" Paige asked as she motioned toward her charges, Willow and Xander.
Giles leaned close to Paige's ear. "Your secret dies with me," he said.
"Good," Paige said. "Eventually they will find themselves either possessed or nearly transformed and realized why I lied. Some things are best left forgotten."
"Paige," Giles said, "I've been wondering. While you were possessed you kind of zeroed in Buffy and we know you have been interested in her and she you, romantically."
"You're wondering how it all started," Paige said as Giles nodded. "It started when I found out I was Buffy and Dawn's Whitelighter. My sister, Phoebe, as you know has the power of premonition like Buffy. She has supposedly received multiple premonitions showing me giving things to Buffy. The Carolingian cross Buffy now wears, the jacket I gave her and the dinner last week. I'm not a hundred percent sure if she is forcing her premonitions and is using them to meddle in my life or she is receiving them from an outside source."
"What source would likely give them to her?" Giles said.
"Probably the Elders or maybe the Angels of Destiny," Paige replied. "I don't know."
"Can you ask?" Giles wondered. "It might put to rest the questions everyone has."
Paige nodded. "I'll try," she said as she looked around. She noticed they were alone as she orbed out.
She orbed onto one of the support columns of the Golden Gate Bridge. "I need to talk to one of you," she said as she looked toward the heavens.
A second later a Whitelighter she recognized as Kyle Brody orbed in, in front of her. "Hello, Paige," he said.
"Kyle," Paige said surprised to see him here. "I thought one of the Elders …"
"They know," Kyle said. "And they know why you're here. It's about Buffy and yourself. The Elders have been giving Phoebe her visions. A seer saw into the future of yours and Buffy's lives. She told her Whitelighter and he told the Elders what she had seen. In Buffy's life she sacrifices herself over and over again and in the end she winds up alone, no love in her life. In this life hers and Dawn's powers would have remained bound; they would have been oblivious to their magical destinies."
"As I said the seer also saw your life. You would have gotten married within the next year and a half. While you would have loved him, like we loved each other. It would not have been true love; it would have been a case of settling. So the Elders went to the Angels of Destiny, pleaded with them to know what would happen if the two of you were to get together. The Angels told them that while they cannot interfere in freewill, they had foreseen such an outcome and that the two of you are soulmates. For all you have accomplished so far, Paige, and for what Buffy will accomplish in the years to come. You two are each other's reward; the Elders gave you to Buffy as her Whitelighter in the hopes that the two of you would find love with each other."
