Willow sat next to her best female friend at the Bronze, looking at the bemused expression on Buffy's face. Willow had to admit that she should have expected this after the half-week she'd been through. Not only did Joyce and Giles get everything fixed up at school, providing Buffy passed her exams that she skipped out on last spring, but she'd been out patrolling twice, and tonight was her night off. The concept of a night off from patrolling was a new one, and that alone would likely have caused confusion, but the patrols of the two previous nights likely had something to do with her blond friend's state of mind. When Buffy had patrolled before, she'd just wandered around graveyards with whoever felt like walking with her, and it had been a somewhat haphazard affair. No plans, no structure, almost like a social gathering, late at night, in a graveyard. Now either Xander or Oz drove the group out, they wore armor and carried a small arsenal, had radios and cell phones, and actually had a schedule of who was slaying and when. Not to mention back-up. Giles, Xander or Willow would listen in to the radio chatter of those who were out taking care of the Sunnydale night-unlife, and if they were overwhelmed or found a nest, they could rally the rest of the troops and be there to help. That, combined with a tactical plan must have had poor Buffy's head spinning. Willow smiled as she remembered the briefing.
Buffy was surprised to see Oz, Cordelia and Giles sitting in the living room with her mother when she walked downstairs after putting on her armor to patrol. She'd forgotten that the Scoobies were organized now, even after Willow had shown up to help stuff her into her fancy suit, and veto the Slayer running around in three inch heels. Buffy had tried to make her case, but Willow shot her down without a second thought. So, wearing a pair of sensible boots, Buffy walked into the living room followed by a bubbly Willow. Everyone looked up, and Giles cleared his throat.
"Ah, yes, I'm glad y-you're prepared, Buffy. Since you haven't been patrolling with the rest of us since we, well, began to think things through a little more thoroughly, I felt it best to give you an overview of the tactical process we have been working under to best assure the safety not only of ourselves, but also of the good people of our municipality."
Buffy let a small frown grace her face as she turned to Willow with a puzzled look.
"He's gonna tell you how we do things now."
Turning back to Giles with a smile, Buffy nodded her head for him to continue, which he did, with a slightly exasperated look.
"We have divided our forces based upon the roles we fill in a strategic manner, and deploy a full compliment to best overcome the threats we would face without suffering casualties."
Another frown and puzzled look.
"Different people do different stuff, so we set up to make the most of it."
Smile. Nod. Mild exasperation.
"Any patrol that you take part of will consist of a primary attacker, a secondary attacker, and at least one extra supporting individual, to cover all ranges of combat and best prepare for any contingencies that may arise."
This time when Buffy looked over at Willow, there was an audible giggle that was quickly suppressed, and a sigh from a certain tweed-wearing individual who wondered why he was saddled with these hopeless colonials.
"When you patrol there's gonna be you, who makes with the slayage, Xander or Oz who both have armor to watch your back in close and do some minor slayage of their own, and one of me, Giles or Cordy, who will carry the first aid kit and a crossbow, try to stay out of the way, and pick off nasties from a safe-ish distance."
"Why didn't you say that in the first place, Giles?"
This time the laughter was less suppressed, and the Englishman removed his glasses to polish them, muttering dark thoughts of teenagers and their use of language.
"Yes. Quite. Tonight you'll patrol with Oz and Cordelia, tomorrow with Xander and Willow, and on Wednesday, you'll have the evening off with Willow as the rest of us go out. Now, do you have any other questions or inane remarks you wish to make before going forth to complete your sacred duty?" Though his tone was harsh, the sparkle in his eye let them know that Giles was pretending to be put upon to re-establish some of the patterns that Buffy had grown used to before the whole fallout with Angelus and running away for the summer.
Smiling a genuine smile at her Watcher, Buffy shook her head "Nope, no inane-ish comments here. I slay, Oz backs me, and Cordy plays Wilhelmina Tell."
"Actually, I prefer the water gun. And not being referred to as being an overweight German." Cordelia smiled afterwards, taking most of the sting out of her retort.
Both patrol nights had gone well. They only encountered four vampires all night on Monday, two singles and a pair, and Buffy managed to prove to herself that she still had the moves. Cordy did manage to hose down the undead, leaving them vulnerable to Buffy's counter-attack, and Oz tied up the one he faced with no apparent effort, staying on the defensive until Buffy finished her vampire off and snuck in a staking. After they were done, they piled into his van and Oz drove the girls home, after calling Giles to let him know they were fine. Tuesday's patrol found the original Scoobies together again, and although they ran into a group of six vampires, they still came through unharmed, thanks to Xander's quick trigger finger on his paintball gun, and Willow's strategic use of her holy water-pistol. Normally Buffy would have been stressing out over her friends patrolling without her, but after seeing how well they worked together with the new toys, she was actually able to relax and kind of enjoy herself at the Bronze. She still had a few things on her mind that stopped her from being in the moment, however.
Willow decided to try and snap her friend out of her funk "Buffy, if you don't stop staring at the wall, I'll start tickling you."
"Mm-hm, ok Will."
Shrugging, the redhead followed up on her promise, which lead to a yelp from the diminutive blond. "Willow! Why did you do that?"
"I told you I would if you didn't snap out of it, and you didn't object, so…"
"Willow! That is totally unfair! And unreasonable! And…un-something else! You know I hate being tickled!"
"It got your attention, didn't it?"
Buffy looked over at Willow and sighed. She really should have been paying attention to her friend and enjoying herself. She suddenly felt guilty, and let it show on her face.
"Oh Buffy, don't take it like that. Just, y'know, share. That's what best friends are for, right?"
The Slayer tried a smile "Thanks Will. I just feel, I don't know, overwhelmed. I'm still trying to cope with last spring, and I get back here, hoping to find something normal that I'm used to, and you've all got these plans, and these new strategies, and, well, I guess I feel lost, like you don't need me."
"Oh Buffy, that's not it at all. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. We made all of these plans and stuff because of you, to help you, not to get rid of you. Joyce and Xander really pushed to get you backup, and get training and gear so we could be effective." Willow drew her friend into a brief hug before continuing. "But that's not all, is it? Something else is bothering you. Come on, spill."
Buffy sighed. She knew she had to talk about it, but she wasn't comfortable bringing this up. She also knew that Willow was not about to let her go on this point.
"It's…Xander. I was fine with everything until I patrolled with him…
After patrol on Monday, Buffy thought she knew what to expect. Oz had been even quieter than usual, a by-product of the meditation he needed to hold onto his werewolf abilities and not lose control, and when it came to a fight he demonstrated speed and strength enough to hold off a vampire without any sign of strain, and fought defensively to keep the wolf in check, so she expected the same from Xander. And initially, it had been as she expected. She and Willow had been chatting as friends do, with Xander interjecting the occasional comment when Xander suddenly stopped and held up his hand, leveling his paintball gun. The three of them slowly advanced to see six vampires tossing a crypt, apparently looking for something. Buffy tensed up, feeling the Slayer spirit awake inside her at the sight of her mortal enemies. She could hear Willow call Giles and inform him of the situation when Xander spoke in low tones.
"We can take them. Wills and I will hose them down, I'll drop the gun and Buffy and I will close and take them while stunned, as Willow keeps them off balance with her water gun."
Buffy looked at her Xander-shaped friend, about to admonish him for being careless, but stopped when she saw his eyes. They glowed yellow, as they had when the primal spirit had possessed him, and the expression on his face was not hatred or eagerness. It was the readiness of a predator, a look she knew she wore as well. Shaking off a shiver, she took a deep breath to calm herself, and nodded. Two guns came up, and the soft puff of compressed CO2 was accompanied by the hiss of moving liquid as two different methods of holy water delivery were put into use. Screams of agony came from their targets as Xander dropped his gun and he and Buffy charged into the fray. Buffy staked two in as many breaths and fell into a defensive stance to face off the rest when she saw Xander.
He'd avoided pulling a stake, and was swinging an axe with a fair amount of skill and ruthlessness. One vampire was on the ground, cut hip to shoulder, a second clutching his torn leg, and Xander was squared off against a third, having just caught a punch on his shoulder. Rather than roll away from it, he let out a forceful yip, and slammed the vampire in the face with his axe. Several times, until it finally turned to ash. Willow's yell broke Buffy out of her trance, and she finished off the three wounded, including the one that had almost melted under Willow's constant water gun attacks. She looked over at Xander, who was visibly struggling to rein himself in until Willow came over and placed her hand on his shoulder, speaking quietly to him. He immediately relaxed, took a few deep breaths, and rolled his injured shoulder, making sure he didn't have more than a bruise. He smiled, and look back at Buffy, his eyes back to their normal chocolate brown.
"…when he lost control like that, it scared me. I don't want my Xander-shaped friend to become one of the creatures that killed principal Flutie, and, and tried to, to…" Buffy trailed off, unable to talk about the time Xander, possessed by the primal spirit, tried to rape her. She had pushed it from her mind, and had decided that the creature that had tried to assault her that night wearing her friends face wasn't Xander, using the same rational that she had later used against Angelus when she fought him as he tried to awaken Alcatha.
Willow took a few moments to follow Buffy's train of thought, and remembered her experiences with the primal possessed Xander, and how he had made her feel weak and useless. She hugged Buffy again, and looked for the words she needed to explain how they could let him try and call up the primal spirit that had caused so much pain.
"Buffy, you know I'm research girl, right? And that I always make sure that I know what I'm doing when it comes to my friends' safety? Well, after Oz found the meditations that helped him get his wolf under control, and Xander heard about it, I talked with Giles and we decided that it was too dangerous to let him do something like that, considering what had happened last time, but we also knew that trying to stop Xander when he was determined to do something was impossible. So we looked for an alternative. And eventually we decided to re-do the ritual to bind a primal spirit to him."
"What? Willow, what were you thinking? After all the damage that happened the last time, you went and invited one in? Have you and Giles lost your minds?"
"Buffy, Buffy, sssshhhh, it's ok, just, give me a-a second, and I-I can explain, really! I know i-it sounds bad, but we, we did think about that. One of the first things I did was read up on hyenas, and it turns out that the behavior Xander and the rest of them showed wasn't hyena-like at all."
"Um, I'm pretty sure it was. Hanging around in a pack, aggression, laughing, eating live animals, sounds right to me."
"It sounds right because that's what we think of when we think of hyenas. The zookeeper had corrupted the ritual, and instead of binding hyena spirits to them, he'd bound the modern concept of hyenas to them. So since everyone thinks that hyenas are aggressive pack scavengers who laugh constantly, that's how they acted. But real hyenas aren't like that, so to undo the damage, we re-did the ritual, on a lower scale, giving him some of the strengths and characteristics of real hyenas, and blocking out any possible side effects of the corrupted ritual. He still needs to use the meditation to call it up and control it, but he's not dangerous to us."
"How can you be sure, Willow? He almost lost control last night! I don't want to have to fight Xander! Not after…"
Willow could tell that Buffy was on the verge of tears, worried that she would have to kill her best male friend just as she'd had to kill her lover, and brought her close to calm her.
"I-it's ok Buffy. I promise. Research girl, remember? All the reading I did on hyenas told me that we'd be perfectly safe. They're strongly social animals, and so even if he lost control, he'd never attack any of us, because he'll see us as pack. A-and as for the, um, other thing? That's not going to happen either. It turns out hyenas are matriarchal, and the strongest female runs the pack. If he does get lost in the primal spirit, he'll try for your attention, but he'll also do what you say. That's how I calmed him down. His primal spirit obeys women who are pack. A-and since there are more girls than boys in the Scoobies, it just made sense to give him the traits of an animal that will, um, will listen to us."
"So, the real reason that the primal spirits caused all the problems last year were because the stupid zookeeper didn't know what he was doing?"
"Well, having a pack of hyenas roaming around town wouldn't have been fun, as they are wild animals, but if the ritual had been done properly, then they would have been stealing pets and breaking into butchers', not attacking people. And we didn't give him the full possession this time, because, well, possession bad."
"Yes, possession bad. You're sure he'll be ok?" Buffy looked at her best female friend a little tentatively, hoping for more re-assurance. She wasn't sure how she felt about putting her friends on the front lines, but realized that she really had no choice. They had put this together, raised the money, bought the armor and the weapons, trained, and spent hours figuring out schedules and maps to protect people, not just the ignorant masses of Sunnydale, but her, and each other. If she told them to stop, they'd keep patrolling and fighting, but do it without her, putting everyone in more danger.
"Yes, Buffy, Xander will be fine. He's a-a little, um, intense when he fights, but he's still our Xander-shaped friend, still brings the doughnuts to meetings, and still watches funny movies with me when I'm feeling down. He-he's, well, just more focused."
"Xander watches funny movies with you to cheer you up? What does Oz do then?" Buffy managed a wry grin to go with her question, and was rewarded with a tomato-red Willow. "Or should I not ask?"
Willow stuttered for a few seconds, still blushing furiously, as she tried to find an appropriate change of topic to stop the teasing.
"Oh! Oz! Um, Oz still needs three nights every month off, for the full moon. He can't go patrolling then."
"Wait, I thought you said he had this nifty meditation and spell thing that gave him control over the change?"
"He does! You saw him, he didn't go furry or anything in the fights, right? But it's not perfect. He can channel some of the strengths of a wolf, or prevent a change, but he can't do both at once. A-and, um, too much of strong emotions, like fear or anger, things you find in a fight, can break his control on the full moon."
Buffy was about to comment about the strong emotions when she saw the door open, and looked up to see her friends walking through the door. She smiled and waved them over, her brows wrinkling when she didn't see Giles. Xander and Oz both looked stockier than normal, a side effect of the armor, and Cordelia looked peeved to arrive in her less-than-trendy slaying outfit. As Oz grabbed a round of drinks, Xander collapsed next to the Slayer and the redhead.
"The valorous heroes return triumphant! Or at least your slay-buddies are here after a boring night of walking around in the dark for a few hours. We could have phoned this one in, not a peep from the fangy bunch tonight. Giles asked to be dropped off at home to be spared the 'horrendous noise you lot call music', but says hi, or something similar, but more British."
Buffy smiled, and accepted a diet cola from Oz as he returned. All of her friends were here, and safe.
"Looks like you spoke too soon, dumbass. Eyes up, look at the skank with the fashion reject on the dance floor."
At Cordelia's comment, everyone turned and looked to see a brunette knockout wearing tight, revealing clothing tearing up the dance floor with a man who seemed to be convinced that polyester and bell-bottoms were still hip. A slap from Cordy pulled Xander's eyes back into his face, and he tried to wipe the drool off his jaw subtly, failing, of course. Before anyone could approach her and warn her off, she was heading to the door with the likely vampire, and out of the club.
"Well, looks like I get to stretch my muscles anyhow tonight. Let's go."
Buffy led the Scoobies out after the brunette, hoping that they would be in time. As they cleared the back door, they heard sounds of fighting, and rushed out to find…the brunette tossing the vampire against a wall like a handball. She looked over at the obviously stunned Scoobies and smiled.
"It's ok, I got it." she said, backhanding the undead. "You're, ah, Buffy, right?" The vampire, trying to sneak up on the new girl was rewarded with a reverse head-butt, knocking him back again. "I'm Faith."
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say there's a new Slayer in town." The laconic guitarist stated, as Faith continued to toss the vampire around the alley. She threw the vampire to the ground again, and turned to Buffy, snatching the stake from her hand saying, "can I borrow that?" Seconds later, the undead was dust, and Faith handed the stake back to the blond Slayer.
"Thanks B, couldn't have done it without you."
AN: the information I've included on hyenas is accurate (they really weren't portrayed terribly well on the show), as, like Willow, I am research girl. Or something like it.
Happy New Year, y'all.