Smells Like Teen Spirit
Summary: One thing changes on the path back home for Xander. Begins at the Zeppo episode.
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"I told you to leave," Xander said with a sigh, ignoring his remark about the knife.
"I don't obey you, Harris," Jack returned, smiling a sycophantic smile as he did so, idly stroking Willow's throat as he did so. She was quivering from fear in the chair, causing it to shake slightly.
"Touch her and you shall die," Xander snarled, pulling Katie out, earning himself a longing look from Jack.
"Fuck off, Harris," Jack said in return, still smiling, "You don't have the guts."
"I got more guts than you," Xander returned, "I proved as much last time we met."
Jack became uncomfortable at that, but quickly recovered.
"You like the quiet," Jack pulled out his own knife, "Well, you're about to get a lot of it."
Heidi, unnoticed by all, looked around, smelling around her for a long moment, until she smiled as she targeted the smell. She slunk from her place near the cage, settling herself into a corner, and opened her book, searching it for the passage that she had marked earlier.
Jack lunged for Xander, and Xander dodged, allowing Jack to fly out of the circle and into the main hall. Kyle and Greg ran forward, intending on helping Jack in his fight, but a dark figure fell from the sky into their path.
"Sorry," Angel said, punching both of them simultaneously, "We don't let animals stay in the building."
Faith came out from her spot, inwardly wincing at the bad pun, and quickly got behind Willow, cutting her bonds loose.
"It's ok, Red," Faith said comfortably to her, "I'm gonna get you outta here."
As soon as Willow's bonds were loose, the redhead quickly pulled off the ropes and stood up, getting all of them off her body.
"…Thanks," Willow said as she turned to Faith, "I hate being caged."
"No prob," Faith said, grabbing her arm, "But now we gotta-"
She didn't get any farther, though, as Willow grabbed her arm and flipped her onto her back. Faith felt the air rush out of her lungs as she hit the ground hard, then felt Willow land on her chest, forcing more air out of her.
"What," Faith tried to say, only for Willow to grab her throat and squeeze it much harder than she should have been able to.
"You bad girls," Willow said, easily grabbing Faith's arm and pinning it down, "Always strutting your asses in skanky dresses and getting the guy…well," her eyes flashed green, "Guess who just got bad."
Oh shit, Faith thought to herself.
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Jack and Xander got up to their feet quickly, and each stared at the other, Jack crouched down, ready to pounce, and Xander stood slightly straighter, his hand grasping Katie with an ease that did not reach his eyes.
"You're scared," Jack said with a feral grin.
"No shit," Xander said, his voice oddly calm, "But that doesn't mean I won't kill you."
"You forget," Jack said, "I'm already dead!"
Jack lunged, and Xander dodged to the side, but Jack twisted around and made for another attack on his chest, intending on driving the knife home to the heart and ending the battle. Xander managed to deflect the blow with Katie, but in the process was cut along the arm by Jack's knife.
"First blood," Jack taunted.
Xander responded by kicking Jack in the stomach, and he drove both his hands and the hilt of the blade down into Jack's kidneys, bringing him down to the ground. Xander kicked him in the side while he was down for good measure, then dove down, intending on driving the blade into his back.
Jack, however, rolled away, and quickly came back to his feet. He kicked Xander in the gut, forcing the air out of his lungs. Jack went for another stab to the chest, but Xander managed to lift himself away from the blow, causing Jack to overreach and lose balance. Xander aimed a kick for Jack's shin, intending on bringing him down and ending the fight but Jack managed to rebalance himself at the last moment and bring himself down on Xander's leg, stabbing him as he did so.
Xander gave out a pained growl, falling to his back as he did so. Jack got on top of him and pinned him to the ground, ripping out the knife as he did so, and ground the blade into his throat.
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Angel snapped Kyle's neck with the ease and practice of a being who was used to death. He easily tossed him into Greg, sending the possessed undead stumbling away. Angel pressed his advantage and attacked Greg with a furious series of punches, but Greg countered this with punches of his own, one of which caught Angel squarely in the jaw, sending him to the floor. Greg leapt upon him, intending on ripping his head off, but Angel managed to toss him off of him. Both were back to their feet relatively quickly, and Greg went for another tackle, but Angel caught him up and, after a moment's worth of hesitation, sank his fangs into Greg's neck, sucking the dead blood away from him.
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Faith hit the ground with a thud, and Willow was on her again.
"Xander's mine, bitch," Willow snarled at him, "He's mine!"
Faith tried once more to get out of her predicament, but Willow held on tight.
"You gave him up," Faith snarled at her, trying desperately to loosen the redhead's grip, but her strength was more than Faith could maneuver with.
"To get Oz back," Willow snarled, "Xander's mine, and Oz is mine!!"
"You can't have both, bitch," Faith said, and Willow snarled in anger, letting go for just one second, intending on punching her squarely in the face and breaking her nose.
Faith, seeing the opportunity, used her loosed grip to shift her weight, switching places with Willow and pinning her to the ground. Faith let loose, sending rights and lefts into Willow, blind with rage. Finally, her senses came back to her, and she stared down at the battered girl below her. Willow's nose appeared to be broken, and her face was a mesh of bruises. She was still conscious, however, and was glaring up at Faith.
"He's mine," Willow growled in pain, "Bitch."
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Heidi saw all these things going on, and she felt fear come up into her body. The vampire had already killed Kyle, and was killing Greg. The other Slayer had pinned down their newly converted redhead, and Jack was about to finish the Alpha off. Either way, it was a loss for her. She was supposed to kill Xander, and Jack would have to be finished, along with the vampire and the Slayer, so that she could continue to roam free. She had no delusions that they would let her live, not with her being dead and her being possessed. It was time to bring in her backup plan.
She looked back down at the book and read quickly, her thoughts focused on Rhonda.
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"You killed my friends," Jack snarled into Xander's face, careful not to cut him just yet, "You killed them for good. My friends! And you took my knife…my Katie from me."
"You like that knife a little too much," Xander whispered, cautious due to the knife.
Jack chuckled and said, "She's too good for your blood to go on her. I'm gonna carve you up and feed you to those jackals, boy, like a big ole turkey on Thanksgiving."
Jack would have continued, but something grabbed him and threw him off of Xander with such force that he landed against the wall, painfully, causing him to see spots for a moment as his vision left him.
"You will not harm him," Rhonda said to him.
"Rhonda," Xander asked.
"Shh," she turned to him, a new confidence in her voice, and she smiled, her eyes flashing green for a moment, "You are Alpha, and I am yours."
"…yay," Xander said quietly, very concerned for her safety.
She smiled again, and turned away from him, intending on dealing with Jack. Instead, the undead man lunged for her, and she was caught off guard just enough for him to be able to embed his blade into her side. He tossed her off of the blade, and turned on Xander. No words were spoken, for Jack simply lunged at him, intending on ending his life. Xander ducked down, barely evading the blade that would have ripped his throat open, and simultaneously lifted Katie up.
Jack landed on the blade, driving it deep into his abdomen, penetrating his liver. Jack had a look of surprise on his ace, the same look of surprise that had come to him when he had first been killed. It was the shock that came from receiving a wound that would undoubtedly lead to death.
"She's yours again, Jack," Xander said, and he drove Katie deeper into him, twisting as he did so.
Jack died quietly, not speaking a word. Xander eased him off of his body, groaning as he let go of Katie, his hands sticky with his blood. He pushed Jack away from him and moved away, his thoughts now on Rhonda.
She was lying on the floor, breathing steadily. He crawled up to her and examined her wound. It looked as thought Jack had merely scraped her side, but he wanted to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.
He saw her out of the corner of his eye look up at him and smile, saying, "My Alpha."
"Shh," Xander said, "We're gonna help you."
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Heidi ran as fast as she could. She had made a fatal mistake in her plan to use Rhonda to end the battle in her favor: she had failed to make certain that Rhonda thought of her as her Alpha, and as a result, when she had had Rhonda repossessed, Rhonda had thrown her lot in with Xander.
She had escaped at the last moment, and had every intention on escaping for good. She had failed in her attempts to take down the Alpha, but that didn't mean that she had to go down with the rest of her pack.
So, she ran.
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Xander sighed to himself, watching as the doctors explained the situation to Angel. It still irked him to have been forced to work with that bastard, but bygones were bygones when it came to keeping his friends safe.
Willow had a broken nose, along with multiple bruises and knife wounds left over from Jack. Rhonda would make a complete recovery, thankfully, but she was forcibly sedated when the paramedics had arrived, as she had been attempting to eat Willow at the time. Thankfully, though, they had the book that they would need to get rid of the possession, but until then, she was a hyena…again.
All his friends were alive and well, thankfully. There was one thing that was bugging him, though.
"Faith," Xander said, and the dark-haired teenager turned to him, coming out of her daze as she did so, "What's wrong?"
"Aside from the fact that I had to beat up Red and was damn near eaten by a possessed bitch, nothin'," Faith said, her voice betraying her discomfort.
"Are you sure," Xander asked, really concerned for her.
"Yeah," Faith said, still too quickly, but Xander eased off, not wanting to agitate her more than the night already had.
Both went back into their respective thoughts as Angel came up to them.
"Buffy's awake," Angel informed them, "But the rest are still asleep. Willow should make a full recovery, as should the other girl, but we need to exorcise the hyena as soon as possible."
"Yeah," Xander said, "Think you can handle it?"
Angel nodded, saying, "I've performed a few exorcisms in my time. I'll perform it tonight, and hopefully it should go alright. If not, I'll let you know."
"Good," Xander said, groaning as he came to his feet, "Willow's awake?"
Angel nodded.
"I'm gonna talk to them for a moment, then go to sleep on the couch," Xander said, turning to Faith as he did so, "You wanna come?"
"…sure."