Summary: Certain books have found their way to Sunnydale, pre-Buffy.
Disclaimer: I dun' own nuttin'!
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* * *
The Spirit would scream if it could scream, as it tried to pull away from the six pawns.
The first five had had minor tuggings, rippings, jaggings as it took it's essence back from them, but the sixth...
The Spirit of the Hyena wished that it had never encountered that sixth pawn.
It was caught like a fly in amber, as it felt it's power leech into the sixth, subordinate to the human.
* * *
Xander clutched his forehead as he felt a prime example of a migraine coming on. The black metal lines defining the Tarbaby Rune flared green for a moment. Eventually, they dimmed to a blackish green that was unpleasant to look at for too long.
"God, let me die now," he groaned as he and the other five once-possessed students stumbled out of the stylized hyena head drawn on the floor. "I take it you managed to de-possess us?"
The four bullies ran off quickly, Buffy having disabled the zookeeper who had tried to perform the ceremony on himself at knifepoint.
"Indeed," Giles said. "The Hyena, um, Spirit, seems to have left you."
"Alexander Lavelle Harris," Willow began, "You've got a lot of explaining to do."
"Uh, what?," Xander asked. "I only vaguely remember what happened."
"I can remember," Jesse said, before actually remembering. "Actually, Idontrememberathing."
"You guys ate a pig," Buffy said, always helpful.
"Bacon? Cooked?," Xander inquired.
The Watcher and the two girls shook their heads.
"Oh, my God," Xander panicked. "I ate a pig?! I mean, the whole trichinosis issue aside, yuck!"
"Well, it wasn't really you," Buffy assured them.
"Great," Jesse said. "I ate raw pig but that was cool, it wasn't me."
"Well, I remember I was goin' on the field trip," Xander thought out loud, "and then going down to the Hyena House, and next thing a guy's holding a knife to Wills throat."
"You saved me," Willow said.
"Hey! No one messes with my Willow."
Xander gave the redhead a hug.
Jesse wandered over to Buffy. "I think I've been traumatised by this, I need a hug too to outweigh the horrible memories."
"This is definitely the superior Xander," Buffy said. "And no one besides Jesse comes on this strong."
"Accept no substitutes!," Jesse joked.
* * *
>
Buffy squashed an errant cockroach as it skittered across the table.
"Ewww," she said. "Someone remind me why we're at this roach motel?"
The gang was at the Bronze, taking in the sights of people shaking their booty and the sounds of Carl shaking the dust from the rafters.
"Annual Fumigation Party," Jesse said.
"Hmm?"
"It's an annual tradition," Willow explained. "The closing of the Bronze for a few days to nuke the cockroaches?"
"Oh...," Buffy said, in another world.
"It's a lot of fun," Willow smiled. "Hey, where are you at?"
"I'm... sorry," Buffy apologised. "I was just... thinking about things."
"So, we're talking about a guy?," Willow asked.
Xander groaned, and went off to get a coke. Jesse tagged after him.
"Not exactly a guy," the Slayer sighed. "For us to have a conversation about a guy, there'd have to be a guy for us to have a conversation about. Is that a sentence?"
"I'm willing to volunteer," Jesse said, handing Willow a Mountain Dew can.
"You lack a guy," Willow said, catching on.
"I do, which is fine with me most of the time, but...," Buffy trailed off.
A few tables away, Xander frowned, firing a tiny fireball at a cockroach that got too close to his feet. He hated the papermunching things.
* * *
Xander couldn't believe this.
"He spent the night? In your room? In your bed?," he asked incredulously, referring to Angel.
He was getting kinda sick of the guy. Angel hardly ever said anything helpful and rarely helped do anything.
"Not in my bed, by my bed," Buffy corrected.
"That is so romantic!," Willow exclaimed. "Did you, uh... I mean, did he, uh..."
"Perfect gentleman," Buffy smiled.
"Alas, that ye spurn me so," Jesse mock sighed.
"Buffy," Xander began. "Wake up and smell the seduction! It's the oldest trick in the book."
"What? Saving my life? Being slashed in the ribs?"
The Slayer was getting indignant at Xander's insinuation she couldn't spot a sleaze.
"Duh! I mean, guys'll do anything to impress a girl," Xander explained. "I mean, I once drank an entire gallon of Gatorade without taking a breath."
[Authors Note: that's 4 litres, to all non Imperial countries.]
"It was pretty impressive," Willow allowed. "Although later there was a certain ick factor."
The Watcher returned, books in hand.
"Can we steer this riveting conversation back to the events that happened earlier in the evening?," Giles inquired. "You left the Bronze and were set upon by three unusually virile vampires. Did they look like this?"
He held a book open, showing three vampires.
"Yeah," the Slayer confirmed. "What's with the uniforms?"
"It seems you encountered the Three," Giles thought out loud. "Warrior vampires, very proud and very strong."
Xander rolled his eyes. "That's only according to Johnson. According to Beverly, Ergeth and G'zirrar, they're pussies."
Giles resolutely ignored Xander. He was going to impress that boy one day!
"Uh, o-obviously you're hurting the Master very much. He, he wouldn't send the, the Three for just anyone. We must step up our training with weapons," the Watcher said.
"Buffy, you should stay at my house until these Samurai guys are history," Xander announced.
Jesse punched Xander on the arm. "You're dreaming! She can't sleep on top of books! Buffy, I'm sure my folks won't mind you staying with me. Unlike Xander's old man."
"What?," Buffy asked, nonplussed.
"Ah-ah-ah," Xander said. "Don't worry about Angel, Willow can run to your house and tell him to get out of town fast."
"Angel and Buffy are, are not in any immediate jeopardy," Giles said.
"I know," Xander replied, rolling his eyes. "Don't you know how to have fun?"
* * *
Post-fic comments:
Why is it that the 'democratic' USA uses an Imperial system of measurements, while the rest of the world (including the old British Empire) use a standardised system of measurements known as Metric?