"Cordelia." Duncan snapped. "Move out of the way!"
"It's Xander!" She yelled back. She turned and faced Xander. "You're not going to hurt me, are you? You were protecting me. I don't how this happened, but we'll figure it, I promise. Right now you need to calm down."
"Cordelia! He's dangerous in this state. He could hurt you!"
A growl came from Xander as he glared at Duncan.
"You just put a lid on it right the heck now, Fur Boy!" Xander dipped his head and looked at her. "I'm waiting, Doofus! Turn back." And with a sigh, Xander returned to normal.
"What the Hell was that?!" He yelled.
"I don't know." Duncan said. "It was real, not an illusion. I've never seen anything like it. You didn't look like a werewolf. At least not a real one, like Oz. Maybe like something out of a movie. We need Cassandra to check you."
"She's done several diagnostics, why didn't she see this?" Xander asked.
"I don't know that either, maybe it was dormant. What happened anyway?"
"We were attacked by vampires." Xander told him. "Five of them, they said they'd been paid to get me out of the way. Maybe an immortal found out I was a hunter in Sunnydale and wanted to test me before challenging me."
"If so, he found out more then he expected. Come on, let's get inside." Duncan said.
Cordelia slipped her hand in Xander's and the two of them followed Duncan inside.
"I need to get to changed." Xander said. "My clothes are a mess."
"I'll call Cassandra. It shouldn't take her long to get here from the hotel she's staying at. By the time you're done, she should be here."
Xander and Cordelia headed to their apartment.
"That was so scary, what is going on?" Xander was definitely freaked.
"I don't know, but like I said, we'll figure it out."
"You're awfully calm." Xander pointed out.
"One of us needs to be right now. I'll have a meltdown later, right now we need to concentrate on you."
"I was afraid, Cordy. That vampire had you. I just wanted to keep them from hurting you."
"I know, whatever it was didn't happen until I screamed." After Xander had finished cleaning up and changing clothes they headed back downstairs. Cassandra was arriving just as they did.
"Tell me what happened from your perspective." She told Xander.
"We had just gotten back from the movie and were getting out of the car. Five vampires, witty banter and threats. I pulled out my ax and attacked them. I yelled at Cordy to run and get Duncan. She kicked one of the vampires and pulled out a cross and stuck it in his face. When he pulled back, she ran for the dojo, she didn't make it, I'd dealt with two of the vampires, when I heard her scream my name. I felt something in me, it just moved through me and I transformed."
"What did it feel it like, I get that it was scary, Xander, but I need to understand what the process felt like and physical feelings, did it burn or feel gross."
"It didn't hurt or burn and it didn't feel gross, it just felt it was apart of me. Is it a demon?"
"From your description, I would say no. Demons are so much not a part of us, so different from us that everything in us rebels against them. It would not have felt like it was apart of you if it was. Duncan says Cordelia told you to turn back and you did. If it was a demon you wouldn't have been able to, it would have fought for control. You allowed yourself to transform and you had control over turning back."
"But what did I turn into? Duncan said I didn't look like a werewolf."
"Cordelia describe what Xander looked like."
"Well he could still walk on two legs, Oz's knees bend backwards when he transforms, Xander's didn't. He was a little furry, but not hairy. Like half an inch of hair. His ears grew and went pointy. He teeth got a little longer but not crazy looking. He had a ridge running down his back with what looked like stiff hair sticking up from it."
"A ridge down my back?" Xander asked. He went over to Duncan's computer and typed something into the search engine. "Like this?" He asked, showing her a picture.
"Yeah, kind of like that, that's an ugly looking animal. What is it?"
"A hyena. What I was possessed by in High School."
"A hyena? I need to scan you again, Xander. I have a feeling it's going to be different then it was before."
"Duncan thought it might have been dormant." Xander said as Cassandra did a diagnostic on him.
"I think he was right and it's not dormant anymore. And it is apart of you, you can learn to control it, but it's never going away. I need to know about the ritual you got caught up in. There are different methods of transpossession."
"Well a zookeeper who was Primal Mage - ."
"Primal Mage!" Cassandra exclaimed. "They worship the animal state, they believe souls are a corruption and want to destroy theirs and replace it with an animal spirit."
"Yeah, that's what Giles found out when he was researching it. I was the Alpha and I had more control then the others did. I could still kind of talk, when they were reduced to animal grunts."
"There's another form of transpossession that invokes a totemic entity to make a person stronger." Cassandra said. "But that wouldn't be used by a Primal Mage. I think part of the spirit remained with you. It became apart you and then manifested. The spirit itself isn't evil. From our perspective, what this zookeeper was trying to do with the spirits was evil. Hyenas aren't well thought of by humans, but they're really no different then any other animal."
"It didn't feel evil, the spirit I mean. I was freaked while I was locked up in my own head and if it had succeeded in mating with Buffy while it was in me, I'd have hated myself forever, but it didn't feel like it was evil. So I think I understand what you're saying. It didn't know that what it was doing was wrong from our perspective."
"Exactly. This is as much apart of you as being immortal is."
"Something else for me to get use to."
"Well, you're not alone, Doofus. You've got me." Cordelia smiled at me.
"Lucky me."