Hundreds of miles away, in an abandoned storage facility in downtown Chicago, a hooded form stood hunched over a glowing crystal ball. He watched with glee as the parts of his plan began to come together, the summoning was finally working. There was the tinkle of glass from behind him and he spun instantly; a street kid was staring at him with an expression of sheer terror on her face. It was a look he was used to and actively went out of his way to inspire with his appearance. Some demons tried to fit into society, to 'pass' as human but not he. Standing over seven feet tall there wasn't much chance of his getting lost in any crowd. A whimper came from the girl as she took in the sight of his scaled flaky skin, the open weeping sores and the redness of his eyes. This one had potential. A scurry of movement from behind the girl caught his attention, yes, this definitely had potential. Before the hapless girl could even think about screaming he pointed his arm towards her, hand held out palm facing her and called "Nyumba Ya Sanaa!" There was a flash of greenish light in her eyes and she collapsed to the floor. He smirked a little and glided forward to claim his prize. As he lifted the unconscious girl carefully, her nose twitched a little and his smirk widened. He turned and swept out of the warehouse leaving the now motionless body of the de-souled rabbit unheeded on the floor.




By mutual unspoken agreement, Xander and Kyle stood as one and left the club. As they left, the other customers kept their eyes downcast but the scent of their relief at the boys' departure was strong enough to cause the laugh to begin afresh. Once outside, the laughter died away and they looked at each other warily. It had been a long time since they had been pack mates and a lot had changed in the interim. "Of all the gin joints in all the world..." Xander began, a dangerous tone in his voice. Kyle began laughing again and Xander found himself joining in. It was good to be back in the pack again, but something was missing; the sheer abandonment that he remembered, the 'want, take, have' attitude wasn't there. The pack wasn't complete either - Heidi and Rhonda were missing. Xander remembered that Heidi had ended up in the secure unit of the local psychiatric hospital being force-fed narcotics on an hourly basis. Rhonda hadn't been so lucky, she'd remembered everything and couldn't cope, she'd gone for a walk one night and never returned. Her parents still held out hope that she'd make it home but, in a town like Sunnydale, the chances of a defenceless girl returning from a solo late night walk were slim to zero. Quite how Kyle had coped he didn't know, the boy had left Sunnydale immediately after the inquest into the demise of Principal Flutie and Xander had been grateful for that at the time. But now he was back, and so were the feelings that Xander had suppressed for two years now.

No matter what everyone else thought, there had been a part of the hyena left in him after the transference, some kind of subconscious memory that was just waiting for the right time to resurface. He had learned to use the extra senses he seemed to have developed; the predatory instinct had proven useful more than once. It had always been in the back of his mind, never before controlling him. So why was it doing so now?

Something was tugging at his memory, trying to get his attention but there was a hunger building up in him, distracting him, and he knew if they didn't eat something soon they'd likely denigrate into cannibalism. Having barely escaped that fate last time, Xander wasn't exactly keen to experience it this time around. Luckily, or perhaps not depending on your point of view, the Doublemeat Palace was pretty close by and he suggested it to Kyle who nodded eagerly.

"Do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?" he asked. Xander looked at him with puzzlement on his face, at least that partly answered the question about where he'd been for the past 24 months. "They don't call it a quarter pounder with cheese?" The other man shook his head, "No man, they've got the whole metric system over there. The wouldn't know what the fuck a quarter pounder was." Despite himself, Xander was intrigued.
"Then what do they call it?"
"A Royale with cheese." Strangely enough, now that he knew the answer he found he really didn't care, neither did he want a burger any more. Willing the hunger away he confronted Kyle and demanded to know what he was doing here, and why the hyena spirit seemed to be rising again. Kyle's eyes glazed over and he seemed to be reading from an internal script, "Very soon he will have summoned an army great enough to launch an assault."[3] His voice was distant, unfocused and as Xander watched him he felt the pull as well. Something wanted them in Chicago; someone was building an army and needed them. He couldn't explain how he knew that; he just knew.




Author's Note - part of the orginal challenge was to include at least one line from a film, I went one step further and made all the dialogue from films.