Kyle was looking through the library's window. "Wiiillooow..."
Willow turned to the cage. "Xander, shut up!"
"Wiiillooow..."
She looked up at the window where the sound was coming from, saw Kyle and startled. Kyle and Heidi kicked in the windows. Willow got up and ran from the library. The pack came in as Xander kicked and pounded at the cage. Kyle managed to bend over the corner of the door. The others started banging at the cage, too.
Willow stopped at the intersection in the hall.
In the library, the pack pulled down the cage door, freeing Xander. They whined and sniffed each other.
Willow ran to a door and tried it, but found it locked.
Xander looked toward the library doors and began tracking Willow. The others followed.
Willow ran to another door on the other side of the hall and found it open. She went in and closed the door behind her. The pack reached the hall intersection and sniffed around for Willow's scent.
Inside the classroom that Willow had gotten into, she hid under the teacher's desh.
In the hall, the pack split up and began searching for Willow. Xander and Heidi came down the hall. He kept sniffing. He looked at the door that Willow went through and went into the classroom with Heidi.
Willow stayed quiet under the desk. Xander looked around and saw nothing. He motioned with his head for them to leave. When Willow heard the door close she came out from under the desk. She looked toward the door, saw Xander and screamed as she jumped back against the window blinds. Xander growled and leapt over the desk at her. She ran around the desk to get away and tipped over a student desk to block Xander's way. He came after her and tripped over the desk. Willow ran out of the door, but was met by Heidi. Buffy came up behind Heidi and hit her on the back with a fire extinguisher, knocking her down and out. Willow came out of the room and went over to Giles and Ms. Calendar. Xander had gotten up and rushed Buffy. She kicked him, and he fell in the hall outside the classroom also. Buffy discarded the extinguisher. The other three pack members appeared at the end of the hall.
"Run!" Ms. Calendar called.
They came running. Giles, Willow, and Ms. Calendar ran back into the classroom, and Buffy followed, closing and locking the door behind her. The pack pounded on the door but couldn't get in and soon left.
"I think they're going," Buffy said.
"They could be faking it," Willow pointed out.
"No, they're hungry. They'll be looking for somebody weak. I'm really sorry, Will. I didn't know they were gonna come after Xander."
Willow was shaken. "It's okay."
"We must lead them back to the zoo if we're going to stop this," Giles stated.
"And before their next meal. Guess that's my job."
"Well, individually they're almost as strong as you," Ms. Calendar replied. "As a group they're..."
"They're tough, but I think they're getting stupider. You guys go to the zoo and I will bring them to you." Buffy left.
A family was coming out of a house.
"I didn't say she looks better than you, I said she looks better," the husband, Mr. Anderson, assured his wife.
"I heard what I heard." She spoke to her son, "Joey, chew! You have to chew or you'll choke!"
They got into their Jeep.
"I don't see why we have to have this conversation every time we see them," Mr. Anderson stated.
"I didn't start it." She put on her seatbelt.
Mr. Anderson looked at the ignition. "Damn. Where are the keys?"
"Huh?"
They heard Joey's name being called from outside and began to look around. Kyle looked down from the Jeep's roof into Joey's window. The mother screamed. Two others climbed onto the hood and slapped the windshield. Xander was at the window opposite Kyle. They all pounded on the car.
"What going on?" Mr. Anderson asked rhetorically. "Hey! Get off! Get off of there!"
Xander broke the window with his elbow.
"Get away!" Joey cried.
Xander growled and reached in for Joey. His mother reached back to try to protect him.
"Joey! Joey! Joey!"
Buffy came running up, grabbed Rhonda and threw her off of the hood to the ground. She climbed to the roof and did an in-to-out crescent kick, knocking Kyle off. She looked down at Xander's feet sticking out of the window.
"Joey!" Mrs. Anderson cried.
"Didn't your mom teach you?"
Xander heard Buffy.
"Don't play with your food."
Xander crawled out and looked up at her. The pack gathered around him and looked ip at her. She straightened up and put her hands on her hips.
"C'mon. You know what you want." She jumped off of the car and started running down the street. The pack gave the chase.
Ms. Calendar, Giles, and Willow arrived at the Hyena House at a run.
"The pathway to the Hyena House. Where's the zookeeper?" Willow asked.
"Uh, he must be inside. I-I'll go in and prepare things. You just warn, uh, us when you hear Buffy and the others approaching," Giles told her. He ran in. Ms. Calendar followed.
Willow turned around to watch and wait.
Buffy was running through a strand of trees. The pack was close behind.
Giles and Ms. Calendar ducked under tape and came into the main area.
"Doctor?" Giles asked.
"Uh... Zookeeper?" Ms. Calendar helped.
They heard a door close and were startled by the zookeeper, who was all made up.
"Oh! Oh, of course, the, uh, Masai ceremonial garb. Yes... Very good. Are you, uh, otherwise prepared for the trans-possession?" Giles asked.
The zookeeper nodded. "Almost.
Ms. Calendar noticed the markings on the floor.
Giles followed her gaze. "Oh, right! The, uh, sacred circle. Yes, you'd need that to, um... This would be here when... when the children first came. Why would you..." He sighed, figuring it out. " How
terribly frustrating for you, that a bunch of school children could accomplish what you could not."
"Rupert?" Ms. Calendar whispered. She clutched onto his arm.
"It bothered me. But the power will be mine."
Giles tried getting himself and Ms. Calendar away, but the zookeper hit him in the gut with his staff and again on the back, knocking him out. He hit Ms. Calendar on the head with the staff, and she crumpled to the ground instantly. The zookeeper tossed the staff aside and drug Giles and Ms. Calendar away.
Buffy was still running through the trees.
Outside the Hyena House, Willow heard them coming and and ran in.
"They're almost here! Giles! Ms. Calendar! Giles! Ms. Calendar!" Willow saw the zookeeper. "Where are the hyenas for the trans-possession?"
"They're right here in the feeding area."
Willow ran to see the hyenas, but the zookeeper stopped her.
"Stay back! They haven't been fed."
"Where's Giles?" Willow asked. "Where's Ms. Calendar?"
"They're...laying in wait."
"They're almost here. Shouldn't you bring the hyenas out?"
"When the time is right. I'm gonna need your help." He began binding her wrists.
Buffy came running in. "They're right behind me!"
"That's Buffy! Get ready!"
The zookeeper took Willow and positioned her in front of him. "Here."
"What is this?" Willow asked.
"A predatory act, remember?" He held a knife to her throat.
"Uh, right. You'll pretend to slash my throat and, and put the evil in the hyenas?"
"Something like that."
Willow realized the zookeeper had other intentions. Buffy came running in, but stopped short when she saw Willow being held by the zookeeper.
"Buffy, it's a trap!" Willow warned.
Xander grabbed Buffy from behind and they fall to the floor. The others came in and got on top of her, too.
"YU BA YA SA NA!" The zookeeper chanted.
The pack looked at him, and their eyes all flashed green. Then the zookeeper's eyes flashed green. He turned to Willow and growled. He dropped the knife, gravved her head, and moved in to bite her.
"Willow!" Xander cried. He got up and charged the zookeeper, knocking him down and away from Willow. The pack got off of Buffy. The zookeeper got up and punched Xander. Buffy got up and punched the zookeeper. Kyle and his gang saw the fight and began to crawl away on their butts. The zookeeper charged Buffy, but she knocked him back down. He charged her again, and she tossed him over onto his back. He got up and tried again. Buffy got under him and threw him up and into the hyena pit. He tried to climb out, but was dragged back down by the hyenas. Kyle and company got up and scrambled away. Buffy ran to the pit to see if she could save the zookeeper, but she was too late. She looked away as Xander came over to untie Willow. Giles and Ms. Calendar came out of the back room.
"Uh, did we miss anything?" Giles asked.
At school the next day, Buffy, Willow, and Xander were walking across the quad.
"I heard the vice-principal's taking over till they can find a replacement," Willow informed.
"It shouldn't be too hard to find a new principal. Unless they ask what happened to the last one," Buffy stated.
"Okay, but I had nothing to do with that, right?" Xander asked.
"Oh, right," Buffy answered.
"You only ate the pig," Willow told him.
"I ate a pig? Was it cooked and called bacon or..."
The girls shook their heads.
Xander covered his face. "Oh, my God! I ate a pig? I mean, the whole trichinosis issue aside, yuck!"
"Well, it wasn't really you," Buffy said helpfully.
"Well, I remember I was goin' on the field trip, and then goin' down to the Hyena House, and next thing some guy's holding Willow and he's got a knife," Xander replied.
"You saved my life," Willow told him.
"Hey! Nobody messes with my Willow." He hugged her.
Buffy looked on and smiled. Willow smiled, too.
"This is definitely the superior Xander," Buffy announced. "Accept no substitutes."
"I didn't do anything else, did I, around you guys or anything embarrassing?" Xander asked.
The girls smiled and Buffy considered what to tell him.
She shook her head. "Nah!"
"Not at all."
"C'mon. We're gonna be late." Buffy took Willow's hand and they walked on.
"See you at lunch." Willow told Xander.
"Cool! Oh, hey, goin' vegetarian! Huh?" Xander called after them. He have them two thumbs-up. Willow turned and smiled at him. So did Buffy.
Xander started to head the other way when he was met by Ms. Calendar.
"Rupert and I have been reasearching animal possession, and we hadn't found anything anywhere about memory loss afterwards."
"Did either of you tell them that?" Xander asked.
Ms. Calendar leaned into his ear. "Your secret dies with me."
"Shoot me, stuff me, mount me."
Ms. Calendar patted him on the shoulder.
Xander shook his head and started walking along the balcony. Ms. Calendar leaned on the railing and watched Xander go.
Xander couldn't believe what happened to him.
