Chapter 15: So I Must Go Back to My Room (and make this day complete) -
Thursday September 17, 1998; Sunnydale High School Library, late afternoon.
Heidi's entrance through the main doors drew the attention of everyone as she slid to a halt, panting slightly. Giles rolled his eyes, tossing a pen over his shoulder and remarked, "Oh good lord," to no one in particular with an expression of resignation.
"Heidi?" Xander's eyebrows shot up as he half rose from his chair.
"Incoming, Boss," Heidi gasped out, pointing up to the stacks doors. "Time to move it or lose it."
"Hideyoshi." Xander said. More statement than question, he didn't need Heidi's nod to confirm it. He was already reaching for his school pack and the tranq guns as he got it anyway.
"And company, Xan," she said. "All three, plus Faith and Harmony."
Oz rose smoothly from his seat, picking the bag of spell components from the table. Giles, Jonathan, and Xander stood as well, gathering books and gear together with remarkable alacrity.
"You asked what we do about it?" Xander turned to Tamara and Amy with a wry, mirthless grin. "Running comes to mind." Eying the pair of dart rifles in his hands, he tossed one to Tamara with a raised eyebrow. "Know how to use one of these?"
She caught it out of the air with a startled expression, saying, "What is it?"
"Tranquilizer rifle," Oz stated.
"I'll improvise," she replied as she fell in alongside Amy as the others ran for the main doors ahead of them.
Coming to a brief stop in the cafeteria, Xander hit Giles with a worried look as the others paused near them. Pointing to the doors, Oz outlined an idea with terse phrases and he and Tamara quickly moved a couple of tables to temporarily block them from opening inwards.
"Where to, Giles?" Xander asked.
"Biology classroom," Oz suggested as they finished moving the last table. Pursing his lips, Giles nodded agreement.
"Hide in one of the classrooms near it and lure them in, then crash in on 'em," Xander amended. They fell in behind Giles as he led the way out the back of the cafeteria, heading for the stairs leading from the Quad up to the science classrooms on the third floor.
"Uh... how do we know they'll go there?" Jonathan asked, puffing a bit already from the short run.
"We don't," Giles said, pausing with his hand on the stairwell door handle. "In fact, being unable to locate us at the library, Hideyoshi might expect us to have relocated to the Shop for the nonce and go there."
Heidi grinned at Xander. "They're not going away from here any time soon," she said. "Tor was going to slash Hideyoshi's tires before trying to catch up with us."
"Nasty. Me likes," Xander grinned back approvingly. "Ok, I'm having an idea," he said, "No, wait: I'm having a plan." Everyone looked to him expectantly. Quickly un-slinging his school pack, he dug a pair of the patrol walkie-talkies and ear pieces out, handing one to a startled Jonathan. "You know the school clock tower?" Jonathan nodded, and Xander turned him towards that direction with a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "Good - head up there and call out what they're doing - if they go back to the van or elsewhere. Scoot," he added, giving Jonathan a light push to get him started.
Handing the other set to Heidi, he added, "You up for some more running?"
"Umm... " taking the radio and ear piece, she raised an eyebrow. "What you got in mind, Boss?"
"First, don't call me Boss," Xander said. "Second... " he quickly outlined his idea with a truly malevolent looking grin.
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Listening to a harshly breathing Jonathan pass on Hideyoshi's current location, Heidi shook her head. "Got it. Remind me to kill Harris after this."
"Uh, ok," Jonathan sent back. "Uh, over."
"I heard that," came Xander's voice over the radio's ear piece.
"Meant for you to, Boss," Heidi said in a syrupy tone. "Get ready," she added, clicking off the send button.
Simple plan. Head to the second floor stairwell landing window nearest to wherever Hideyoshi and his pack gathered to plan their next move - in this case, the front stair tower by the side parking lot where Hideoyoshi had left his van. Stand there in the window until someone noticed her and attracted Hideyoshi's attention. Count on Hideyoshi's memory of seeing her and Tor at the edge of the front lot and adding two and two together to come up with them equaling his four sliced tires. And wait, tensely, before bolting so that Hideyoshi and the girls would pursue, but not so long that the viciously fast Faith would run her down. Make sure they saw her before she ducked into the biology lab where - hopefully - Tor would be hiding and waiting.
Piece of cake. The grin Heidi smothered was as malevolent as the one Xander had worn while laying out the idea. She stopped, outlined in the landing window, gazing down into the parking lot.
Jonathan's voice came over her ear piece again, the little geek sounding breathless but not quite panicked. "Ok, they found the van and Mr. Hideyoshi looks pissed."
"I see 'em," Heidi acknowledged. "Get ready to move once they come in after me." Jonathan sent back a shaky 'yeah. Over' and Heidi made note to revise her opinion of nerds upwards one of these days. Assuming she lived through this.
She watched the Asian teacher walk around the van, double checking all of the tires. Yup. Still flat, asshole. The restlessly moving Willow spotted her silhouetted in the landing window and jumped up and down frantically, pointing and apparently shrieking with Harmony bobbing and screaming next to her. Hideyoshi followed the redhead's pointing finger and frowned, hopefully recognizing her.
Half turning from the window, Heidi gestured, miming a conversation with someone just outside of view from the parking lot, then pointed inward and up before turning back to look outside. She let her eyes widen fearfully and her mouth fall open as Hideyoshi gave one last glare up at her and strode to the side entrance, the pack of girls falling in around him again. Backing away from the window, she moved to the stairwell railing, counting seconds until she heard footsteps entering the lower landing.
Leaning over the rail, she threw a fast look down and locked eyes briefly with Hideyoshi before letting hers widen visibly and jerking back from the stairwell window. Pounding up the stairs and away, she shouted for an imaginary Xander to move before she yanked open the third floor door, making certain that it shut loudly and unmistakably behind her.
'Emmy material, definitely,' she thought as she pulled to a brief stop at the end of the third floor hall, counting seconds again. 'I need to go into drama in college.'
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Limping double time, Xander made his way across to the SHS entrance nearest the stairs leading up to the science labs, cursing under his breath. Taking a firmer grip on the duffel of slaying tools from Oz's van, he was happy that Oz tended to park in the lot on the opposite side of the building from the library. Opposite side of the building from Hideyoshi's van, currently, too - and the Biology teacher had a longer run to get up to the third floor labs than Xander did.
Thank gods for small favors. Mid-crisis with his girlfriend, best friend, and oldest best friend enthralled, and what Xander wanted most right now was to soak in steaming water and then relax for a month with an ice pack on his hip and a belly full of pain killers. Curled up in a ball and whimpering.
Mentally, he added a possible hairline fracture of the hip to the deep bone bruise he'd already known that vamp had left him with.
The familiar emptiness of the parking lot registered on him, barely, as he made it back to the door. A part of the plan hinged on the Sunnydale High tendency for students and teachers to vaporise immediately after last bell just as soon as humanly possible. Unless you had sports practice, cheerleader practice, or detention - or were a Scooby - no one loitered around the school any longer than they had to. It was as if whatever radiation the Hellmouth put out not only drew in vamps and demons, it also repelled humans who wouldn't admit to realizing that something about the school vicinity gave them a crawly feeling.
It meant that the odds of finding an empty science classroom near the biology lab to hole up in were a lot higher than they might have been at a normal high school. Whatever a 'normal' high school was like - Xander had never seen one. Any teachers still around would be downstairs in the teacher's lounge, not sitting in their classrooms grading papers.
A simple plan, all in all. What was left of the soldier echo in the back of his head approved: simple plans had fewer moving parts to blow up on you. The newly reawakened, grimly smirking hyena leftover didn't care: plans weren't really its thing. It just wanted violence and its mates back. The sarcastic Cordy-voice back there assured him that the simpler the better; the less likely he was to screw it up with innate dweebness. The Xander part reflected that it was the only plan on the table. At least they were all agreed.
'One of these days, I'm going to have to put out chairs and have a board meeting with all the voices in my head,' Xander thought, sourly. 'Maybe we can put on a road show.'
* The fact that the girls were still alive meant that Hideyoshi hadn't yet decided to cut his losses and move on without eliminating his opponents. He'd need muscle for that, and warm bodies.
* The piles of magical, demonology, and mythology books left scattered on the research table in the empty library made certain Hideyoshi would realize they were a threat to him if they weren't eliminated.
* The slashed tires made certain he'd try to eliminate them here if possible, and the near empty school made it seem like a good possibility of doing it without witnesses.
* The earlier incident with Hideyoshi and the girls chasing Xander through the main halls, lunchroom, and Quad made certain that there were too many witnesses linking Hideyoshi to the transformed girls for him to want to just eliminate them and walk off, leaving his van abandoned at the scene of the crime. Hopefully.
* The unexpected addition of Amy, Tamara, and the two former Pack members suddenly gave them enough warm bodies to offset the numbers of Hideyoshi's involuntary allies, and maybe gave them an element of surprise - he'd probably be expecting a group of four to deal with, not eight.
All of this had clicked suddenly when Heidi had mentioned that Tor had prevented Hideyoshi's easy escape. What amazed Xander was that Giles hadn't so much as proposed an objection when Xander had began laying out ideas and assigning parts, merely looked thoughtful, nodded, and offered a few concise suggestions to be incorporated.
As Xander exited the third floor rear stairwell, it struck him that he'd never have even thought of taking command like that before Buffy had run away at the end of the Acathla situation. He'd never have imagined Giles simply nodding and backing him at it, nor Oz for that matter. For the first time it struck him that Faith's simple declaration that they were partners and crew, not sidekicks, had irrevocably altered the Scooby dynamics into something he'd never even imagined.
Heidi's quiet 'I see 'em' followed by Jonathan's acknowledgment came over the ear piece as he pulled open the door to the chem lab they'd selected to group up in. He sent back an equally quiet "Ok, show time," and slipped in to join the others.
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Taking up a balanced, poised stance at the hallway junction, Heidi gulped a deep breath while waiting for the thudding footsteps to round the other corner. She took in at a glance the smashed in lower corner of the window to biology classroom door where Tor had made his entrance, setting the stage.
Faith rounded the corner across from her at the opposite hall junction, skidding slightly on the slick floor and catching her balance with an eerie, fluid grace. Hideyoshi had unsnapped the lead from the collar he'd put on her, evidently trusting in the screams to lead him to the confrontation. Judging from the sounds, Willow and Aura were a short distance behind as Faith spotted Heidi and bounded towards her, face twisting in a feral looking snarl.
Spinning on the ball of her lead foot, Heidi lunged the last few feet for the biology lab, yanking open the door and throwing herself in. Slamming the door shut behind herself, she vaulted a lab table without breaking stride, heading for the back of the room while thinking, 'Oh, this part is just gonna suck rocks.'
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Tossing the duffelbag to Oz, Xander threw a fast glance around at the others. He took in a nervous looking Amy, a pale Tamara, and a grim looking Giles and sent a manic, panicked feeling grin their way. "Ok, show time."
Unzipping the back, Oz pulled out three of the cherry wood bokken, tossing one of them to Xander. Xander snagged it out of the air with an ease that startled him, glancing at the tip before nodding back and reaching out to accept his tranq gun back from Tamara.
"Unsharpened," Oz said. "Don't want to risk hurting the girls more than we have to."
"Minor concussions only. Normal day in the life of a Scooby," Xander agreed. Giles shook his head slightly with a tight smile, one finger marking his place in the grimoire.
"I've certainly endured enough of them in the line of duty," he remarked. They were lined up along the front wall of the chem lab, out of sight of the door if anyone attempted to peer in through the window. Someone would have to step in and deliberately look along the wall to spot them quickly.
"Ok," Xander felt an insane giddiness sweep over him. Looking over at a visibly shaken Tamara, he met her eyes evenly and asked, "Ready?"
Holding the tranquilizer rifle steadily, she glanced down at it and back up. "As I'll ever get," she said, nodding. Cocking her head curiously, she asked, "You guys really do this all the time?"
A pair of matching snickers bubbled up from him and Oz. Xander grinned, saying, "This is a slow week for us, yup." She stared at him, then grinned back, shaking her head.
"I'm never going to see Cordy in the same light again," she said. "Jonathan?"
"Should be on his way over as fast as he can," Xander stated. Giles and Amy were conversing in low voices beside a white knuckled Oz, probably discussing magical strategies. Giles nodded abruptly, giving Amy a reassuring grip of the shoulder and turned to Xander and Tamara.
"Do please be careful with that, Ms. St. Marins," he remarked, softly. "A dose calibrated for a slayer or a werewolf will have quite deleterious effects on a normal human."
Her eyes widening at the casual, matter of fact 'werewolf' mention, she nodded seriously. "So it's ok if I shoot Mr. Hideyoshi then."
"Err," Giles looked nonplussed for a moment, then his smile turned slightly vicious. "Quite."
The sound of running feet on school flooring caused everyone to tense, all conversation ceasing. They waited through a brief pause before fainter, more distant running sounds came to them, followed by a fast burst of steps and the biology classroom door slamming open as someone hurled themselves in.
Growling sounds, hooting shrieks, excited yipping noises, and Harmony's insane chattering announced the arrival of Hideoshi and troops. Crashing sounds came from within the biology lab as the rest of the pack neared it, everyone waiting tensely.
Xander leaned carefully against the chem lab doorway, straining to see down the short distance of hallway without exposing any of himself to casual view. Holding his trailing hand with the bokken out behind him, he motioned for everyone to wait as he watched for Hideyoshi to enter the other lab behind the girls.
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Thursday September 17, 1998; Sunnydale High School Biology Classroom 132, late afternoon.
'Oh holy crap- ' Heidi's eyes widened as the door to the biology lab burst inwards, slamming against the wall and hanging crazily from one hinge as Faith burst in. A glittering spray of reinforced safety glass arced across the room as the already broken window pane exploded under her impact.
She hadn't even bothered with the window or knob, apparently just dropping a shoulder and barreling through on sheer momentum and brute strength. Exchanging quick glances with a wide eyed Tor crouching on the other side of the lab from her, Heidi could see her awestruck expression mirrored in his as the dark haired girl came to a graceful halt in the center aisle.
It was one thing to hear about the deceptively small girl casually decking Jack O'Toole and tossing him eight feet onto his ass. It was something else to glimpse evidence that that had been a restrained response on Faith's part...
Not for the first time, Heidi heaped vile imprecations on the head of a certain now deceased zoo keeper. If not for him, she and Tor would still be gleefully stuffing one Xander Harris into lockers, not taking part in his whacked out wannabe hero activities. Instead, the compulsion to follow the Alpha's lead was insanely difficult to resist, especially when there was a hunt in the offing. 'Damned zoo keeper. Why couldn't we have gotten a sensible Alpha?'
Landing atop a lab table with a casually graceful leap, Faith moved from table top to table top, nostrils flaring and flat, opaque eyes questing through the room for the prey she'd chased in here. A low, ominous rumble came from deep within her chest as she made her way to the back of the room.
Willow and Aura came in through the open doorway as Faith crouched on a table top, a thump announcing Willow's landing on another table, and Aura's excited yelping taking on a higher pitch as she slid into the center aisle on the slick floor.
Faith's eyes lit up as she spotted Heidi crouched behind the end table, landing gracefully on the balls of her feet and uncoiling to stalk towards her, her lips curling upwards. The deep rumble turned into a spitting snarl as Tor piled into her from behind, driving her forward as he grappled her around the waist.
An answering snarl ripped from Heidi's chest as she rolled under the table, then came to her feet and launched herself at the smaller girl's knees to help her pack mate. 'Yup, this is really gonna suck... '
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'Holy freaking Hannah!' Xander froze just inside the doorway to the biology lab as swirling chaos unfolded before him. Towards the far end of the room, a maniacally grinning Tor hung onto one of Faith's arms for dear life, his other arm locked through her armpit and reaching behind her in a half nelson. A purplish bruise spread across one side of his face as a frantically twisting and bucking Faith strove to shake him loose. A grim looking Heidi had both arms wrapped around Faith's waist and both legs wrapped around Faith's, doing her best to tie the frenzied and panicked Slayer up. A shrilly yelping Aura danced around the combatants, darting in and out.
It was fairly obvious that the only thing saving Tor and Heidi from dismemberment was the fact that the possessed Faith seemed to have lost all conscious art, relying only on strength and savagery to break loose...
Shrieking, a bristling Willow bounced from lab table to lab table, pelting everyone with whatever came to hand. On a different table, nearer to the front, Cordelia stood hunched forward over her bent knees, head cocking from side to side and making those eerie chok-chok-choking sounds. Harmony occupied a front table, head bobbing gleefully as she shrieked out odd bits of phrases.
Hideyoshi stood in the center of the lab's main aisle, near the front, watching the conflict intently. While Xander stood gaping in shock, Faith managed to bring an arm up and back, grabbing Tor by the hair as she bent forward, and peeled him off like a limpet. Tor slammed onto his back with a thud and a whoosh of violently expelled breath.
The frozen moment shattered as Giles firmly shoved Xander forward and in to one side with a muttered, "Move, please," so he and the others could enter.
Snarling, Faith reached down and casually ripped Heidi loose from her legs and waist and slung her rolling up towards the front down the aisle as Tor attempted to roll groggily to his feet. Xander had a brief impression of Giles coming to a halt, finger still marking his place in his grimoire and his jaw hanging uncharacteristically open as the librarian took in the scene. Oz, Tamara, and Amy swept in to either side of him as the Brit uttered a shocked "Good lord!"
Then Hideyoshi turned at Giles exclamation, spotting them, and chaos reformed into new patterns.
His paralysis melted away, and Xander threw himself forward desperately at the older man, aiming to bring the butt of the tranquilizer rifle up between Hideyoshi's legs in a movement that some recess of his memory supplied a distinct visual of someone - him and not-him - performing in the distant past.
It didn't work: turning, Hideyoshi caught the buttstroke on the outside of one thigh, and casually gripped Xander by collar and sleeve and sent him cartwheeling into Heidi as she scrambled onto her feet. Both of them went down in a tangle of limbs, Xander's mind remarking with a surreal calmness, 'Great - Nightgaunts and Durslar beasts, and we're going to get our collective asses kicked by a small Asian gentleman. That's just so very Kung-fu movie matinee... '
Gripping it by the edge, Faith casually ripped one of the heavy lab tables from its moorings, upending it to fall over with a crash onto another one as she stalked towards the pair of them. Willow screeched and abandoned her perch just before the flung table impacted on it, landing on her knuckles and the balls of her feet with her lips peeled back. Aura lunched herself at the still groggy Tor, savage, high pitched growls coming out of her.
Wide eyed, Xander and Heidi hastily scrambled apart before the oncoming Slayer, Heidi rolling one direction as Xander threw himself the other way, grimly clutching the dart rifle like Linus with his security blanket. As he rolled to his feet, Xander's eyes caught Cordelia's and locked there for an endless moment and he sent her a desperate, visual plea to stay out of the battle and unharmed. He had a brief flash of seeing something behind that opaque gaze as his girlfriend gave a birdlike cock of her head - some almost flash of the girl trapped inside - before he desperately threw himself rolling again to evade Faith's lunging grasp. Bringing up the dart rifle, he squeezed the trigger only to see the dart go wide into the upper wall as Faith pounced the hapless Heidi, lunging under his aim.
Nearer the front, a gleeful Harmony launched herself from a tabletop and crashed into Giles as he started to read his incantation. Elbows akimbo, the Brit staggered backward, fighting for balance, as Harmony ineffectually swiped at him with her head in an attempt to carve chunks from him with the beak she didn't possess. Tamara slipped carefully down the aisle nearest the front wall, tranq gun at port arms while she searched for a clear shot through the melee, occasionally ducking Willow-missiles.
Going for the over-the-tables route, Oz jumped up onto a lab bench while watching Hideyoshi carefully with slitted eyes. Willow threw a small equipment rack at him before launching herself across the aisle between tables and he merely turned slightly, taking the impact on one shoulder with a grunt. She threw herself at him, bristling, teeth bared. With a certain brutal economy of motion, he brought the blunt end of the bokken up into her diaphragm and whipped the other one down on the back of Willow's head with a sharp 'thok!' sound, his eyes never leaving Hideyoshi.
Willow's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she slid limply to the floor between lab tables. Tor managed to get both feet up between himself and the snarling Aura and shoved her away violently to crash into the biology lab's rear side wall with a thud, sliding down it as he got shakily to his feet.
With a sigh, and a slight eye roll, Giles brought a knee up into Harmony's side - rather more gently than he could have - and shoved her squawking away to land on her rear with a startled thump. He backed away and began reading in a loud, clear voice as Hideyoshi's eyes narrowed. Jonathan appeared in the lab's doorway, wild eyed and panting heavily.
Crossing his hands over his wrists in an oddly precise gesture, the Biology teacher worked his fingers in a jerking movement. Amy's clear voice rang out over the melee, chanting.
"Hecate, Daughter of Pheraia, Phosphoros, grant us surcease -" her voice rising, sparkling, coiled energy swirled around the chanting Amy. "By thy Strophalos' power drag this warlock into Hypnos' embrace!" Thrusting her arms outward, the energy coils leapt the short distance from Amy to the teacher, enveloping him as he made an abortive warding gesture. There was an almost simultaneous pulse of some sort, felt by nearly everyone.
Hideyoshi staggered slightly, his eyelids drooping, but not before the weird pulse swept outwards from him across the room. With an abrupt shake of his head, Hideyoshi's eyes cleared and his head whipped around to fix Amy with a vicious glare.
Gold light flashed in the eyes of the animalistic Faith, Harmony, and Cordelia. Tor's eyes flashed gold-green as he lunged towards Faith from behind, a shrill cackling laugh coming from deep in his throat. A matching laugh came from Heidi's lips as her eyes flashed green-golden as well, and she threw herself forward. Cordelia took flight from the top of a table - not literally, but it almost looked that way to Xander as he glimpsed her from the corner of his eye - to land huddled between lab tables, 'kok! kok!'ing in alarm.
Xander wasn't aware of the equally visible flash of green-gold light that flashed briefly across his own eyes. A red black haze swept through his mind, conscious thoughts receding as a wave of almost sensual fury rippled through him, threatening to drag him under. He felt his lips peel back from his teeth and an answering cackling laugh ripped from his throat as horror ran in circles gibbering at the back of his mind.
Just for a moment - a brief moment - Xander shoved back against the furious tide sweeping him under, grappling desperately with the temptation to just give in. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the effects of the pulse from Hideyoshi's effect coursed through him, almost submerging him in a haze of dimly remembered - and much repressed - emotion. An image of Faith casually tossing people and furnishings aside like kindling stuttered across his mind's eye, mingled with strobe-like snapshots from their earlier fight...
He wasn't strong enough for this, nor even close to durable enough. Faith-normal was a viciously dangrous fighter, almost primal and uncontrolled. Faith-possessed was an almost elemental force, far beyond vicious. How do you stop a force of nature? How could he stop a force of nature? How could he protect her?
He'd gotten away before because Faith hadn't been trying to hurt him. That wasn't the case here: there was nothing playful or amorous in those flat, predator's eyes. Just irritation at the way they were tying her up and harrying her.
How do you stop a force of nature? Become the beast... he felt something ancient stir inside of him, demanding passage.
Watching the creature that Hideyoshi had turned Faith into lunge towards him, something within him just... broke and stepped aside. Only a single thought coursed through him; 'This has to end. Stop this, please.'
Something as viciously feral as the possessed Slayer stood up on its hind legs, shaking off a year and a half of chains like cobwebs, and surged forward smirking to swallow him up. 'With pleasure,' rippled through his brain along with a fresh wave of nauseatingly sensual strength. Followed by what he hoped was his own mind screaming, 'Mate! Pack! Don't hurt!'
Xander Harris faded as the tug became an overwhelming surge, unaware whether his panicked shout had registered. The entire world slid crisply into focus, his mind locking into together with the remnants of his previous possession and something else, something clinical and precise that he couldn't identify. Throwing his head back, the manic laughter that came out chilled what was left of his awareness.
As what had recently been Xander brought his head down with a vicious smirk, he was unaware that all eyes in the room seemed drawn to him, aware only that Tor and Heidi leapt back from Faith, circling slightly, their grins matching his own. Faith paused, leaned back and hissed at him like an exploding boiler. Even Hideyoshi and Amy broke off their counterpointing chants to spare him startled glances. His entire posture was different, everything about him subtly changed. When he moved it was with a fluid grace that was alien to the gawky teenager...
Xander lunged into Faith in a full on charge, bokken and tranq gun laying forgotten in the aisle, his dropped shoulder impacting Faith in the sternum and tossing her back against the edge of a lab table. Tor and Heidi followed up, each charging in to pin Faith as best they could, laughing all the while. A flailing elbow caught Tor in the forehead, splitting skin, as he snagged one of her arms. White teeth snapped and gold-brown eyes blazed at him as Xander leaned into her prone form. Faith's teeth seemed viciously sharp and her lips drew back in an inhuman snarl as she hissed into his face. Xander leaned in to meet her, his smile one of sadistic glee as he laughed into her snarl. Unlike her own seemingly glazed eyes, Xander's were green-gold and malevolently self-aware.
Still by the doorway, catching his breath hurriedly after his run, a wide-eyed Jonathan took everything in as a gold-green light flashed in Oz's eyes as well. The guitarist crouched waiting, bowstring taut, for Giles' incantation to finish. Oz's faded denim shirt sleeves and the seams at the back split, long reddish hair peeking through the tears. Lips peeled back from suddenly long canine teeth, and sideburns bristled as a sudden, five day growth of reddish beard crept over his jawline. Fur sprouted from knuckles clenched white around the grips of the two bokken.
A sharp 'phut!' came from one side and Tor staggered, his eyes glazing over. His grip on Faith's left arm fell away as he staggered backwards. Cursing, Tamara frantically worked at sliding open the breech of the dart rifle to reload as Faith brought her knee up into Heidi's stomach, the blonde girl's breath driving out of her in a startled 'whulff!' as Xander drove in harder against the semi-pinned Slayer. Faith brought her free arm around, fingers crooked like claws to slash at Xander, but he bobbed to the side almost on pure instinct, her wild strike missing his head by centimeters. Before she brought it around in a backhanded strike, he lunged in, grabbing her wrist with his right hand, his left forearm jamming her forearm and elbow up across her own collarbone and throat, pinning it temporarily. He leaned in, just a hairsbreadth distance away from her face, his peeled back lips almost touching hers.
"Aww. Poor kitty have an oopsie?" Xander taunted in a gravelly voice, his expression gleeful. "That's so disappointing."
Hideyoshi brought his hands up, fingers crooking in an arcane gesture as he stared at Amy. Amy's eyes went black momentarily, her lips moving inaudibly as her fingers crooked in return. A sicky yellow glow surrounded Hideyoshi's hands, and turning slightly - without warning he flung it as a bolt of greenish-yellow light at the sonorously intoning Giles, rather than at Amy...
Coruscating blue-white light flared in a curved pattern where it struck, stopping feet from the chanting librarian, before it arced across from him to merge into the swirling motes of energy surrounding Amy.
Amy smirked, raising a sardonic eyebrow over one ebony eye as Hideyoshi's expression took on a foul mien. Giles' voice rose and held, ending on a harsh note along with his incantation and there was a sudden, brilliant white flash centered on Hideyoshi's wrists. Taking in a deep gulp of air, Jonathan threw himself from the doorway, rushing head down between the tables at the Biology teacher.
Bristling, a feral looking Oz dove from his table top at Hideyoshi, both bokken swirling in one of the attack patterns Faith had been teaching them. Jonathan hastily stutter-stepped, pausing at the edges of the sudden mini-melee, not wanting to get clipped by one of those heavy sticks. Hideyoshi leaned back, one hand coming up to deflect the wrist and sending an overhead strike harmlessly to one side. His other came up to deflect a strike that suddenly wasn't there - the feint flowling naturally from a head-strike into a low, upward attack the drove the tip up and in just below the teacher's sternum. Pale greenish energy flared at the impact as whatever protections Hideyoshi had on himself blunted the attack, but it was enough to briefly stun and drive the wind from him. 'Briefly' was enough: Oz simply let go of both sticks and grappled for Hideyoshi's sleeves: sharp nailed fingers ripping at the teacher's wrists while a low rumbling sound grumbled out of his chest. There was a tearing sound and Oz dove under a lab table as Hideyoshi brought a knee up sharply. Hideyoshi side stepped smoothly, pushing almost gently against Jonathan's shoulder as he rushed in at the teacher, then grasping Jonathan by collar and one wrist and using his momentum to turn him about.
Amy began another chant, her fingers writhing as Hideyoshi rushed Jonathan forward, twisting his trapped wrist up behind him. At the end of a short rush, the teacher released the flailing Jonathan and sent him crashing head first into the onrushing Giles. A dazed looking Willow crawled up to her feet, pulling herself up to huddle atop one of the tables.
Faith brought an elbow back sharply into the drugged, fumbling Tor, driving the air from his lungs and doubling him over. She brought her leg up, her knee glancing off of Xander's hip but fortunately not impacting with all of her terrible strength. Her other arm still free, a rippling snarl broke from Faith's lips as she reached up a clawed hand only to be met with Xander's descending grip on her off wrist as he desperately leaned into her trapped forearm. Even with the advantage of reach and leverage, Faith's far superior strength forced him back an inch at a time. 'We're not winning this way,' he realized. 'We can't win this way.'
His own eyes equally feral, Xander released both grips and caught Faith by the biceps, shaking her furiously as she stomped down at a rolling Heidi. Heidi fell back, snarling a curse as the edge of Faith's Harley boot clipped her head. Desperately, Xander shoved the swirling wildness back down into the recesses of his mind where he'd been keeping it locked away, asserting a kind of wispy control over himself.
"Faith!" Xander shouted, boring into her opaque gaze with his own eyes. "Faith! Snap out of it, Faith." His fingers bit into her arms cruelly, with all of the desperate strength still coursing through him.
Faith's wide, shocked eyes came up to his, clearing momentarily. The corners of her lips curled up, and a desperate whining sound came out of her throat. Bringing her own arms up between them, she grasped him by the jacket front, pulling him in. Inhaling deeply, a low rumble came out of her and her eyes lit up. She nuzzled along his jawline with a purring groan, her breath whuffling in his ear.
Amy's voice rose, chanting, "Goddess Hecate, work thy will," Swirling energy surrounded her and she thrust her hands out as the chant finished, "Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!" - the power of the spell leaping from her hands and enveloping Hideyoshi. Staggering slightly, Hideyoshi's eyes narrowed and the energy dissipated.
His eyes half closing, Xander leaned into the nuzzle, an intoxicating rush of Faith-scent and near savage lust pouring through him...
"Xander! Move out of the damned way!" Tamara's voice cut across the bizarre embrace and he shook his head, shoving Faith back with all of his remaining, desperate strength and dodging aside. There was another loud 'phut!' sound and Faith staggered backwards, and her eyes widened, then glazed over slightly. She jerked, shaking her head dazedly as Heidi stood on shaky legs, one fist drawn back.
With a heave, muscles bunching in his shoulder and forearm, Oz lifted the corner of the overturned lab table above Hideyoshi's cufflinks as Heidi brought her fist down sharply across Faith's jaw with the full weight of her back, shoulder, and arm behind it. Faith slumped bonelessly as Oz let the heavy table fall, crushing the cufflinks. Xander caught Faith as she fell, easing her to the ground while giving Heidi a reproachful glare.
There came an almost blinding flash of golden light from under the table edge, and Oz staggered back, blinking. Heidi stepped away cradling her hand, bumping into Xander.
Her eyes narrowing and turning to black pools in her face, Amy raised her hands again with crooked fingers, chanting:
"Hecate, Queen of all Witches: I beseech thee!
Ghost Queen and Pathkeeper,
Let thy will flow through me,
Cthonian and Prytania, hear my call -
Before thy daughter let the unclean creature sprawl!"
Energy swirled between them again, deeper in intensity this time, and enveloped Hideyoshi as he brought his hands up in a warding gesture. The energy disappeared with an abrupt flash, and the Biology teacher's clothes settled to the floor in a disheveled heap.
After a moment, the pile of clothing twitched, twitched again, and a small furry form slipped out of one of the jacket sleeves and scurried beneath one of the lab tables.
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