Chapter 10: The Pack
April 15, 1997 - Tuesday
San Francisco Zoo
Buffy strolled through the zoo, enjoying the way the sun warmed her cheeks on this cool spring day. She walked alone, intent on the zoo map, comparing points on it to the posted signs.
Maybe there was something here they didn't have in Los Angeles.
"Oh, look."
The familiar voice caught her attention and she looked up. Kyle DuFours. Creepy Kyle, Willow called him sometimes. He came toward her, accompanied by the kids he was always with: Rhonda Kelley, Tor Hauer, and Heidi Barrie. Always together, always annoying. Well, she'd just make a point of avoiding them for the rest of the day. Shouldn't be hard — Kyle's shirt was a yellow so bright she'd be able to spot him from a distance. Like, say, Kansas.
"It's Buffy," Kyle said. "And all her friends."
"That's witty," Buffy said. She'd known some kind of obnoxious line was coming. After all, his lips had been starting to move. But she also knew it wasn't over. These guys never let up.
Tor fixed his gaze on her. "Do you ever wonder why nobody cool ever wants to hang out with you?" he asked.
"I'm just thankful," she replied.
"Were you this popular at your old school?" Rhonda asked, getting in on the action. "Before you got kicked out?"
They all resumed walking, almost as one. Rhonda moved past Buffy, nudging her aside with one shoulder. Buffy let it go.
"Careful," Tor told Rhonda as he passed Buffy. He stared at Buffy, turning his head as he went by. "She might beat you up."
They all laughed at that knee-slapper, and then they were gone.
She moved on, stopping to read a display outside the elephant enclosure.
Another voice called out to her. Also familiar, but more friendly. "Hey! Buffy!"
She looked up to see Xander, Willow and Aviva, running toward her. Buffy smiled as she remembered it hadn't been too long ago that Aviva had been a totally different person. The person in front of her no longer wore black, but was dressed much like Buffy herself was.
"You missed it!" Willow said. Enthusiastic. Her usual state of being.
"Missed what?"
"We saw the zebras mating," Xander said. "Thank you, very exciting."
"It looked like the Heimlich. With stripes," Willow added as Aviva rolled her eyes.
"And I missed it," Buffy said, with mock sadness. "Yet, somehow I'll find the courage to live on."
They started walking, headed nowhere in particular. "Where were you?" Willow asked her.
"I was looking at the fishes."
"Was it cool?"
Buffy thought about that for a moment. "It was fishes."
"I'm feeling that you're not in the field trip spirit here," Xander said, as if picking up on her decided lack of excitement.
"Well, it . . . it's nothing." She couldn't quite summon the energy to shrug. "Anyway, we did the same zoo trip at my old school every year. Same old, same old."
"Buffy, this is not just about looking at a bunch of animals," Aviva admitted. "This is about not being in class."
This time, Buffy did smile. Aviva had a point , she supposed. "You know, you're right. Suddenly the animals look shiny and new."
"Gotta have perspective," Xander said.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The chimpanzee enclosure looked like a granite cliff. On a rocky shelf, three chimps — mother, father, and baby — shared lunch. Or, the mother and father did. The young one shrieked and grabbed, but the adults managed to keep their food to themselves.
Lance Lincoln leaned on the rail at the enclosure's edge, spiral notebook open, scribbling down his observations on the chimp family's meal. For him, a field trip wasn't about being away from school, it was about having an opportunity for some good solid insight into primate behavior. He was so involved in his research that he didn't hear the four pairs of footsteps approaching him from behind.
"Lance!"
He turned around. Kyle and his friends, bearing down on him. Swell, he thought. Victim, thy name is Lance.
"How's it going?" Kyle asked. Like we're old buddies or something.
"Hey, Kyle," he replied evenly.
Kyle leaned on the railing next to him, glanced at the chimps. "So this is like a, um, family reunion?"
"No." Well — from an evolutionary perspective, maybe. But to go there with Kyle? He didn't think so.
Kyle went on as if Lance hadn't said anything. "I think it's a family reunion. It's so touching. Doesn't anybody have a camera?" He mimicked whipping one out, snapping a picture.
Lance flashed back to grade school, when his love for reruns of the old TV show "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp" had become common knowledge. Given his name, it would have been hard for him not to be drawn to the show, and it was probably what kick-started his interest in primatology. But the flack he'd taken from schoolmates calling him Lance Link, or Sir Lancelot, had almost driven him away from that calling.
Compared to these bullies, those kids were nothing, he thought.
Rhonda came up behind Lance and started tugging at the hairs on the back of his head. "Hey, does your mom still pick out your lice?" she asked. "Or are you old enough to do that yourself now?"
"Quit it," Lance demanded. He jerked his head away from her.
And in doing so, turned just enough that Tor was able to snatch his notebook from his hand. "Hey! Guys, come on," Lance said, grabbing for the notebook. "I've got all my notes in there!" But Tor held it over his head, out of Lance's reach. Only in the back of his mind, where he catalogued such things, did he vaguely realize that the whole scene duplicated the chimp behavior, with the larger chimps holding food away from the little one. Terrific. I'm the little monkey, he thought.
The group's laughter was interrupted by the voice of Mr. Flutie, Gateway High's principal. "What's going on here?" he asked.
Lance watched him approach. He was no fashion expert, but even he knew Mr. Flutie's plaid sports coat was just wrong. It hung open in front, as if both his belly and his sense of self-importance were too swollen to allow it to button. A shock of dark hair sat atop his head like an afterthought, or a small furry mammal abandoned there by some predator.
"I have had it up to here with you four," Mr. Flutie said. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," Kyle insisted.
Flutie planted himself in front of Kyle. "Did I ask you to speak? Okay, I guess I did. But I want the truth." He looked at Lance. "Lance?"
Tell the truth — or survive? No real contest. "They weren't doing anything. Really," Lance went along.
He even forced a chuckle. "We were just playing around." Like I'd play around with these guys.
And yet, Mr. Flutie bought it. "All right." Mr. Flutie started to go, then stopped, swiveled, and raked a finger like a machine gun across the chests of the four troublemakers. "I'll be watching you," he said, then turned again and headed down the path.
"You," Kyle said, pointing at Lance's face. Lance didn't like the sound of that — or that finger in his eyes. Now what? "Came through big time," Kyle went on.
"Way to go, Lance," Rhonda added, patting him on the arm like an old friend.
"Flutie's been looking for a reason to come down on us," Tor said.
Whew. "It's okay," Lance said, trying not to sound too relieved.
Kyle reached out, gripped Lance's collarbone, somewhere between a pal and a prison warden. "Come on. We're gonna check out the hyena house."
Lance hesitated. "But — I think it's off limits."
"And therein, my friend, lies the fun."
Lance chuckled again, but to him it sounded even less real than the one he'd given Mr. Flutie. He didn't quite know how to extricate himself — that had been a bonding moment of some kind, he figured, and now they were a unit. He went along.
The pathway to the hyena house was blocked off by yellow caution tape, and signs on easels read
"Positively No Admittance." Yet another sign said "Closed." Orange lights flashed on the warning signs.
The meaning was pretty clear, Lance figured. The zoo officials didn't want anyone wandering into the hyena exhibit.
Which, according to Kyle, was the "fun part." Lance couldn't quite figure, but he was willing to go along. After all, they were being nice to him, which was a first. And besides, they had him more or less surrounded. Rhonda lifted the caution tape and they ducked under, headed down the path.
Hyenas, here we come.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Xander, Willow, Aviva and Buffy weren't far behind. They saw Lance go under the tape and disappear down the path. There was something very wrong about this picture, and it was as obvious as Lance's bright red sweater — he would never be part of that crowd.
"What are Kyle and his buds doing with Lance?" Willow asked.
To Xander, the answer was clear. "Playing with him, as the cat plays with the mouse."
"What is it with those guys?" Buffy asked. They stopped at the tape, looking down the path. Lance and the others were gone from sight.
"They're obnoxious," Willow said. "Professionally."
"Every school has 'em," Xander explained. "You start a school, you get desks, some blackboards, and some mean kids."
Buffy started toward the tape. "Yeah, well, I better extract Lance before —"
But Xander raised a hand to her, stopping her in her tracks. "I'll handle it," he offered. "This job doesn't require actual vanquishing or slaying." He ducked under the tape and headed for the hyenas, fully aware that the girls behind him were watching him go.
Buffy wasn't convinced. "You don't think we should follow?"
"Kyle and those guys are jerks, but they're all talk." Willow had lived in San Francisco her whole life and knew the kids better than Buffy. Buffy was inclined to trust her, until Willow added, "Mostly."
"Why don't we —"
Willow agreed with a nod. "Yeah, why don't we —"
Aviva grabbed Willow and Buffy having spotted a zookeeper approaching.
"Whoa, hold it, hold it," he said. What hair he had was blond, long in back but mostly dome-like on top. He had a neat blond beard and glasses, an almost professorial demeanor. His voice was gentle, but firm. "Are you blind, or are you just illiterate? Because hyenas are quick to prey on the weak."
"We were just —" Buffy started.
He cut her off mid-sentence. "You're not going in there. Anyone that does is in a world of trouble."
Willow, always the peacemaker, chimed in. "No, no one's going in there."
"Why is it off limits?" Aviva wondered.
"It's a quarantine. These hyenas just came from Africa. So keep out." His voice indicated that he would accept no response other than obedience. But he raised a single eyebrow, giving his face a slightly friendlier aspect. Then he said something that Buffy found very strange. "Even if they call your name."
"What're you talking about?" she asked.
The zookeeper looked even more like a professor as he launched into lecture mode. "A Masai tribesman once told me that hyenas can understand human speech. They follow humans around by day, learning their names." His voice lowered. Now he sounded like a man telling a ghost story. "At night, when the campfire dies, they call out to the person. And once they separate him" — he snapped his fingers — "the pack devours him."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
There was caution tape at the actual entrance to the hyena enclosure. Kyle just ripped it down as he passed through it, so that he was festooned in it for a moment, yellow against his yellow shirt. It was dark in here, shaded, and cooler than outside. The walls were artificial rock, a man-made cave with cutaways for illuminated displays, and a larger one for the hyenas themselves, up a couple of steps, chest-high bars across the front.
Kyle looked around, turning slowly. "Cool."
"I don't see any hyenas," Lance said. He was having second thoughts now. Fifth or sixth thoughts, really. He was ready to go.
Almost as if on cue, a hyena stepped forward from the gloom of its pen, revealing a dark, almost black muzzle, full of large, pointed teeth. It growled. It didn't sound friendly. Now Lance was more than ready to be gone.
"Okay," he said. "Now we've seen it." He turned to go, but Tor was standing right behind him, blocking his way.
And the others hadn't had enough, it seemed. "It looks cute," Rhonda said.
"I think it looks hungry," Kyle said. He stepped away from the bars. He and Tor grabbed Lance, muscled him up the steps toward the cage.
"Come on, Spot!" Tor growled as they dragged Lance forward. "Suppertime!" They held him in front of the bars — which now seemed considerably shorter and less substantial than they had just a minute ago.
The hyena growled again, deep in its throat. Someone had a hand on the back of Lance's head, pushing his face into the cage. Everyone laughed — except Lance.
"Ow!" he complained. "Stop it! That's not funny!"
Xander heard that last part, and had to agree — despite the raucous laughter coming from the Kyle Brigade, none of it sounded terribly humorous. He leapt up the stairs and into the thick of it, yanking people's arms away from Lance. He shoved Lance out of their reach, down the stairs. When Lance was safely away, Xander found himself eyeball to eyeball with Kyle.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own species?" he asked.
Kyle glared back, not giving an inch. "What, are you gonna get in my face?"
The hyena interrupted the stare-down with another long, low growl. It raised its head into the light again, growling more, and then they were all looking at it. The thing was not lovely, but its eyes held a mesmerizing quality, and the five of them found themselves staring into those eyes.
Barely noticing when the eyes flashed with an eerie green glow.
And, of course, they couldn't see their own eyes. Flashing an answering green.
Nor did they, at this moment, notice the bizarre red design painted on the enclosure's floor. The design on which they all stood. Their attention was riveted on the hyena, growling and moving in its cage.
Lance took advantage of their distraction to make his escape. He started for the exit. Tripped. His notebook slid across the damp floor. He grabbed it up again, hoisted himself to his feet. But the others had heard him fall, were turning — weirdly, turning slowly but in unison — and laughing. Laughing at him, their laughter rising in pitch, becoming almost hysterical.
Xander, who had rescued him, was the last to turn, the only one out of synch, and Lance didn't know what he expected to see on Xander's face but it wasn't what he saw, which was a smile. He wasn't laughing like the others, but the smile — knowing, and without a trace of kindness or real humor — was almost worse.
Lance ran.
The Bronze
Buffy, Aviva and Willow turned away from the pastry counter. Buffy and Aviva each carried a croissant and a soda. Willow settled for a box of raisins.
"I thought Xander would be here by now," Willow said as they threaded their way toward an open table.
"That'd make him on time," Buffy replied. "We couldn't have that."
"Did he seem at all upset on the bus back from the zoo?"
"About what?" Aviva wondered.
"I don't know," Willow said. "He was quiet."
Buffy slid onto a seat at one of the chest-high tables. "I didn't notice anything. But then again, I'm not as hyper-aware of him as, oh, say, for example, you."
"Hyper-aware?" Willow asked, taking the stool across from Buffy's.
"Well," Buffy said. "I'm not constantly monitoring his health, his moods, his blood pressure —"
Willow knew that one. "One-thirty over eighty."
Aviva laughed. "You got it bad."
"He makes my head go tingly. You know what I mean?"
"I dimly recall," Buffy said, gaze cast toward the ceiling.
"But it hasn't happened to you lately?" Aviva asked.
Buffy shrugged. "Not of late."
"But you can cast a love spell, right? So why don't you?" Aviva asked.
"You know the answer to that, Aviva," said Buffy pointedly.
Aviva sighed, she did know the answer. It was one thing her friend's family agreed upon, no personal gain.
"Not even for a dangerous and mysterious older man whose leather jacket you're wearing right now?" Willow asked.
Buffy glanced at the jacket Angel had given her. "It goes with the shoes," she insisted.
"Come on," Willow said, having none of it. "Angel pushes your buttons. You know he does."
"I suppose some girls might think he's good looking," Buffy relented. "If they... have eyes. All right, he's a honey. But he's never around, and when he is all he wants to do is talk about vampires, and I just can't have a relationship —"
Willow interrupted with an excited, "There he is!"
Buffy's head swiveled. "Angel?"
Aviva shook her head smirking at Buffy. "You've got it bad, too."
"Xander!" Willow yelled.
Then Buffy and Aviva saw him too, wending his way through the crowd, wearing a brown flannel shirt over a dark T.A little more somber than his usual look. And he didn't move quite like the Xander—he sauntered, stopping now and again to look at women, smile at women, flirt with women.
Finally, he made his way to their table. "Girls," he said.
"Boy," Buffy replied as she noticed Aviva roll her eyes.
"Sorry I'm late," he went on. "I just forgot we were gonna be here." He looked at Buffy's plate.
"Hungry," he said, tearing off a chunk of Buffy's croissant and shoving it into his mouth.
"Xander, you still want me to help you with geometry tomorrow?" Willow asked. As she spoke, he downed a swallow of Buffy's drink, without a trace of pleasure. "We can work after class."
"Yeah," he said. Then, indicating Buffy's snack, asked, "What is this crap?"
"Well, it was my buttery croissant," Buffy said.
"Man, I need some food," Xander said. His voice carried a tinge of anger, as if she'd ordered the pastry just to offend him. "Birds live on this."
But apparently he wasn't too angry to notice the look that passed between Aviva, Buffy and Willow. "What?" he asked with an anxious smile.
"What's up with you?" Aviva asked.
Willow took it more personally. She fiddled nervously with her raisin box. "Is something wrong? Did I do something?"
"What could you possibly do?" Xander asked. "That's crazy talk. I'm just restless."
"Well, we could go to the ice cream place . . ." Willow offered.
Xander raised his head, peering over the crowd, as if looking for something. Or just surveying his territory. He scratched his chest. "I like it here."
And as if the way he'd been acting wasn't bizarre enough, he began to sniff Buffy's hair.
"Okay, now what?" Buffy asked.
"You took a bath," he explained.
"Yeah, I often do. I'm actually known for it."
"That's okay," Xander said.
Slipping into announcer-speak, Buffy said, "And the weird behavior award goes to . . ."
But he wasn't even listening anymore. His attention had become riveted on the door. Buffy, Aviva and Willow turned to see what he was so intent on.
And was instantly sorry they had.
Kyle, Heidi, Tor, and Rhonda. The good-time gang.
"Oh, great," Buffy said. "It's the winged monkeys."
They walked through the Bronze, making a beeline for the table where Xander stood between Willow and Buffy. Xander couldn't look away, couldn't blink, and was only somewhat aware of that fact. His eyes had locked with Kyle's the moment he came through the door, and they stayed locked. Xander and Kyle had never been friends, but now they shared something.
Xander wasn't sure what it was.
But something, definitely.
They reached Aviva, Buffy and Willow's table, each of them looking only at Xander. He acknowledged them wordlessly as they went by, and turned to keep them in sight as they passed.
They stopped at a nearby table — one that was already occupied by a couple of kids. One was a stocky guy in a plaid shirt, the other thinner and familiar-looking, though Xander couldn't place him. Kyle and Rhonda leaned on the big guy's shoulders, and his tablemate silently scooted his chair back and left.
"You know," Kyle said. "I don't understand why you're sitting at our table."
"Yeah," Rhonda added. "Shouldn't you be hovering over the football stadium with 'Goodyear' written on you?"
They all laughed at that, Xander included. He was still laughing when he turned back to the table, and came face-to-face with Buffy's expression, which said she definitely didn't get the joke.
"Kid's fat," he said. What more does she need?
He looked at Willow and saw an expression of dismay.
She didn't get it either.
April 16, 1997 – Wednesday
Gateway High
The next day, Buffy met Giles for their scheduled training session.
Giles wore body armor and heavy, padded boxing gloves. Buffy wore gloves, no armor. But then, she was the one doing the punching and kicking.
She threw a right, a left, spun and came out of the spin with another right, spun again into a kick, then leapt into the air, kicking out with both feet at once into his gloves. Hitting hard, not holding back.
Breathing hard, too.
She advanced on him again, a fireball forming in her hand.
He waved his gloves. "Right," he said eying the fireball. "That's enough training for one day."
"Well, that last roundhouse was kind of sloppy. Sure you don't want to do it again?" Buffy asked.
"No, that's fine. Though I need to remind you not to use your witch powers in our training session. I would rather not become a briquet by accident."
"Sorry," Buffy apologized.
"Run along to class," Giles panted, "while I wait for the feeling to return to my arms."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
As Buffy neared a corner of the hallway, she heard a commotion from the other side. Students shrieked.
And over it all, sounding somewhat strained, the unmistakable voice of Principal Flutie. "Look out!" he cried. "It's gotten loose!"
There were more shrieks. They didn't sound terrified—and it was broad daylight—so her Slayer senses didn't warn her of impending danger, but she was curious. She hurried toward the corner.
"Stop the beast!" Mr. Flutie called.
Then she rounded the corner and saw it, darting straight for her. A tiny pink piglet, running like pork chops were on the school lunch menu. Probably it was trying to get away from the ridiculous outfit someone had dressed it in.
Buffy bent over and snagged the piglet, lifting it into her arms. The poor thing was wearing a tiny Gateway High football helmet with papier-mâché tusks attached at the sides of his snout and had a row of green foam triangles stuck to its back, like a cartoon dinosaur's fins.
Mr. Flutie caught up to them. "Naughty Herbert," he said. "Gave Mr. Flutie quite a scare, didn't he?" He drew himself up, addressing the students crowding the hallway. "Students, I'd like you all to meet Herbert, our new mascot for the Gateway High Razorbacks!" This was met with a smattering of applause.
"He's so cute!" Buffy said.
"He's not cute," Mr. Flutie insisted. "No, he's a fierce Razorback." He pumped his fists into the air, and there was some halfhearted clapping.
Buffy studied the poor, over-accessorized pig. "He doesn't look mean, Mr. Flutie."
"He's mean, he's ready for action." Mr. Flutie indicated Herbert's add-ons. "See, here are the tusks, and . . . a scary . . . razorback." The green fins. Now she got it.
"You're right," Buffy agreed. Sometimes a principal had to be humored. "He is a fine mascot and will engender school spirit."
"Well, he'd better — costs a fortune to feed him." He bent down, spoke directly to Herbert. "Let's get you back in your cage." He reached for the pig, and Herbert let out a squeal. Mr. Flutie backed off, gestured for Buffy to carry the new mascot.
"This way," he said. Buffy led the way, the piglet oinking contentedly in her arms.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow and Xander sat on one of the stone benches scattered around the campus, his geometry textbook open on her lap. He had a notebook and a pencil and was jotting numbers and lines down, but not really catching on. They were a study in contrast — red-haired Willow wearing a bright orange sweater over a patterned skirt, and Xander, dark-haired and eyed, all in shades of black and gray.
"I'm not getting this," Xander said.
"It's simple, really," Willow explained. She didn't understand why his patience seemed to be so short — as in, nonexistent — today. But she was willing to be extra patient with him to make up for it. "See, the bisector of a vertex is the line that divides the angle at that vertex into two equal parts."
"It's like a big blur, all these numbers and angles," he said, not really even listening to her. There's enough going on in my head without filling it up with lame mathematical theory, Xander thought. I know the math I need. How fast, how strong, how mean? Calculations that matter.
"It's the same stuff from last week. You had it down then."
"Why do I need to learn this?" he demanded.
"'Cause otherwise you'll flunk math."
"Explain the part where that's bad."
They'd had this conversation before. "You remember," she said. "You fail math, you flunk out of school, you end up being the guy at the pizza place that sweeps the floor and says, 'Hey, kids, where's the cool parties this weekend?' We've been through this."
As she spoke, Xander rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Do you have a headache?" she asked, concerned. She touched his temple, gently, and he shook her hand away.
"Yeah," he said. "And I think I know what's causing it." He snatched the book off her lap and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. Smiling at his direct hit, he went on. "That's better. It goes right to the source of the pain."
"Xander —"
But he cut her off. Enough is enough, he thought. Even just a little bit of this, that's still enough. No more. "Look, forget it, okay? I don't get it. I won't ever. I don't care." He stood suddenly, throwing his spiral notebook into Willow's lap, and stormed away.
Willow had been friends with Xander a long time, and, frankly, had the hots for him almost as long. She was willing to overlook a lot of less-than-polite behavior from him. Even this will pass, she thought.
"We can finish this another time," she suggested, but he was gone, beyond even hearing her.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Mr. Flutie showed Buffy to a classroom in which a cage was set up for Herbert.
"See, the problem is," he said as they walked, "you kids today have no school spirit. Hold on, let me get his outfit off." He removed Herbert's helmet and foam razorback. "Today it's all gangs and drugs and those movies on Showtime with the nudity." Looking at Buffy, he quickly added, "I don't have cable. I only heard."
More passionately, he went on. "When I was your age, we cared about the school's reputation, the team's record, all that stuff." Then, as if he realized what he was saying, he amended himself. "Of course, when I was your age I was surrounded by old guys telling me how much better things were when they were my age." He gave up then, and went in to prepare the cage for Herbert's arrival.
Buffy gave a small laugh. "Yeah," she said, more to Herbert than to Mr. Flutie. For a principal, he isn't always as clueless as he seems, she thought.
She was still standing there holding the pig when Xander entered the hallway through the double doors to the outside. He didn't say anything, just gave her the slightest glance and gave Herbert a prolonged stare as he passed by.
Herbert squealed, terrified, and wriggled in her arms like he wanted to beat his own personal best at the hundred-yard dash. It was all Buffy could do just to hang on to him. He kept squealing and writhing until Xander was long out of sight.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
A sudden storm had rolled over Gateway during the day, unleashing driving rain and booming thunder.
Rain had its pluses and minuses, but one of the big minuses was that P.E. had to be held indoors, in the big old gym. And Coach Herrold, not huge on imagination to begin with, had a limited repertoire of activities that he could think up for indoor workouts, especially once basketball season was over.
"All right, it's raining," he said, marching up and back between the two assembled ranks of P.E. students. He carried a red rubber ball under his arm; others had already been handed out. "All regular gym classes have been postponed. So you know what that means . . . dodgeball." He held his ball up in one big fist, as if to demonstrate to anyone who hadn't caught on yet what a dodgeball looked like. "Now, for those of you who may have forgotten, the rules are as follows: you dodge."
He tossed his ball to Buffy, stepped out of the center, and blew his ever present whistle. The two sides backed away from each other, toward opposite walls, students already eyeing their intended targets.
Coach Herrold blew the whistle again and rubber flew.
"One down," someone said as the first kid was tagged by one of the red balls. More went down quickly, stepping aside to the bench. To survive in dodgeball, you had to be light on your feet, with the reflexes to avoid the flying balls, yet still fast enough to grab any that came your way so you could knock out members of the opposing team. Buffy and Willow had both started with balls, but that only gave the most momentary of advantages.
Some people threw the ball harder than others, though, and Buffy dodged a couple of well-aimed burners that came uncomfortably close. Then Xander wound up for a powerful throw aiming for Willow whose back was turned mostly to Xander. His ball slammed into her shoulder, hard.
The next throw was to Buffy's last teammate, Aviva who was knocked out.
Buffy realized she was alone facing down six opponents.
And not just any six.
Xander, Kyle, Rhonda, Tor, Heidi, and Lance. She faced them for a moment, but then, almost as one, they turned away from her. Looked at Lance Lincoln. Held the look.
Lance returned it, very nervous.
Kyle threw the first ball. Hard, at close range. Lance went down on the wooden gym floor. Kyle scooped up another ball, slammed Lance again. Then they were all throwing balls, pounding Lance into the floor like they wanted to nail him to it.
Buffy ran, across no-man's land and into the middle of it all. She took Lance's hand, hoisted him to his feet and away from the punishing balls. A couple of balls bounced harmlessly now, but no one was throwing any more. They were just looking at Buffy silently. She caught Xander's gaze, stared into his eyes as if hoping to see something there. Some glimmer of the Xander she had known.
But there was nothing. He was a stranger. He turned away, and his new friends followed.
Game over. A satisfactory class session, at least to one person. "God, this game is brutal," Coach Herrold said as they filed out. "I love it."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow waited outside the gym for Xander. She leaned against a bank of lockers, and when he came out he was accompanied by Kyle, Tor, Heidi, and Rhonda. They were all dressed in dark, blacks and browns, almost like a uniform.
"Xander," she said, stepping toward him. "What's wrong with you?"
With a glance back toward his friends, he moved away from them. He took Willow's elbow and drew her to one side. "I guess you've noticed that I've been different around you, lately," he said, his voice low and intimate.
"Yes."
"I think, um . . ." he paused, as if searching for the right words. "I think it's because my feelings for you have been changing."
Her heart skipped a beat. Depending on how he meant that . . .
"Well, we've been friends for such a long time," he went on, "that I feel like I need to tell you something." Willow's heart soared. "I've . . . I've decided to drop geometry. So . . . I won't be needing your math help anymore."
Willow could feel her hope collapsing, her face falling. She struggled to hold it together. "Which means," Xander said, raising his voice so his friends could hear, "I won't have to look at your pasty face again."
He started to laugh then, and the others joined in. The group of them sounded sick to her, laughing so hard at such a mean joke. Willow's heart sank. Her eyes filling with tears, she turned and walked away, barely registering the sight of her best friend Buffy and new friend Aviva standing at Buffy's locker. As she hurried down the corridor the sound of their laughter rang in her ears, like church bells summoning mourners for a funeral.
Buffy slammed her locker as she glanced at Aviva. "I'm willing to excuse Xander for a lot, she said, for Will's sake. But this is too much."
"I haven't known him as long as you or Willow but from what I've seen …" Aviva said as she stared at the boy.
Buffy glanced at her friend and nodded in understanding what Aviva was saying that even she had seen the change in Xander. She stormed up to him followed by Aviva, looked him in the eye. "You gonna say something to us?" she asked.
Xander just started laughing again, the high-pitched, manic laugh that he and his newfound chums seemed to share. They all cracked up, and he joined them. They disappeared down the hall, only their wicked laughter lingering behind them.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
It was a new sensation, strolling the campus like you owned it. Xander liked the way it felt. He felt powerful. He couldn't remember ever having been quite so alive. He stopped, and they stopped with him. As one. Each responsive to the others' slightest signals.
Xander sniffed the air. Picked up a scent. "Dogs," he said.
"Where?" Kyle asked. Xander nodded his head, and then led the way again, toward the campus picnic tables.
At one table, three guys were eating hot dogs and talking music. Xander knew one of them, Adam somebody. He wasn't important enough to have a last name. He wasn't one of the pack.
"You're out of your mind," Adam was saying as they approached. "That's no way to play lead guitar. That's just hunt 'n' peck."
Xander stopped next to the table, and his friends fanned out around it. Adam saw them. "Hey, Xander," he said. "You've seen Wretched Refuse. What do you think of the guy who plays lead?"
The question was too inane to deserve an answer. Xander ignored him, and watched as Heidi and Tor leaned over the table, snatching hot dogs — no bun, just the meat — from two of the guys' plates.
"Hey," Adam protested. "Hey, what are you guys — " Rhonda cut him off. "Shut up."
"You're sharing," Kyle said, voice like ice.
"Friends like to share," Xander added.
Heidi and Tor took big bites of their "shared" dogs.
"Good?" Xander asked.
"It's too well done," Tor said, tossing his dog back onto Adam's tray. Heidi threw hers down as well.
"Hey," Adam said. He sounded offended, as if there was some reason for his existence other than to provide for Xander and his friends. "That is not cool."
But Xander had already caught another scent on the air. His head snapped around, and he started away from Adam and his lunch companions like they weren't even there. The others followed, Kyle stepping up and over the picnic table and scattering lunch trays as he went.
Xander led them into the school building, following his nose. The scent grew stronger as they stalked the halls, headed directly toward their prey. Something weak, something that could be brought down by the pack.
Or rather, the Pack, Xander thought, suddenly realizing that it should be capitalized.
The scent drew them to a classroom. Xander opened the door, and they walked in. There was no one inside, just a cage. And in the cage, a small pink piglet. Succulent, juicy, tempting. Xander knelt beside the cage, looked at the little pig.
"Let's do lunch," he said.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
He could feel everything, every sensation. The sun on his cheek. The slightest breeze flicking his hair.
The sidewalk beneath the balls of his feet. He could smell perfume on a girl all the way across the quad.
He could hear whispered conversations a block away.
But there was no reason to. None of those people meant anything to him. None of them mattered. Only the Pack mattered.
They roamed the campus like it was their birthright. Xander reveled in the sidelong glances, the looks of outright fear from those they passed. He was an object of terror, he thought, and it tasted sweet. At one point, they converged on Lance, who cringed and ducked out of their way. They let him go. .. he was beneath real notice.
Finally, something interesting caught his attention. They sat on a low wall on the second floor. Their backs were to him, but that didn't matter. If he hadn't recognized them, he still would have known their voices, their smells. Aviva, Buffy and Willow. He listened.
"I've known him my whole life. We haven't always been close, but . . . he's never . . ." Willow's voice caught. She turned to face Aviva and Buffy, tears rimming her eyes.
"I think something's wrong with him," Buffy said.
"So do I, Willow," Aviva agreed.
"Or maybe there's something wrong with me," Willow countered.
"What are you talking about?" Buffy wondered.
"Come on," Willow said. "He's not picking on either of you. He's ignoring you completely, Aviva. And, Buffy, he's sniffing you a lot."
"You think this has something to do with me?" Buffy asked. Knowing there was only one thing that could mean. She'd known Xander had had a crush on her practically since her first day at Gateway. But that didn't make sense—he'd have to know that being mean to Willow wouldn't get him anywhere with her.
"Of course."
Buffy shook her head. "No," she said firmly. "That still doesn't explain why he's hanging out with the dode patrol." She slid down from the wall. "Something's going on. Something weird." She started past Willow and Aviva.
Aviva turned to watch her go. "What are you going to do?"
Buffy turned to face Aviva and Willow once more. "Gonna talk to Giles."
"Would you like me to call Prue, Piper or Phoebe for you?" Aviva suggested.
"Prue isn't too terribly thrilled with the fact we're still friends," Buffy said with a sigh.
"She'll come around, Buffy," Aviva said. "I don't even have powers anymore so its not like I'm a threat."
"I know."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Xander's taken to teasing the less fortunate?" Giles asked somewhat less than sympathetic.
"Uh-huh," Buffy said.
"There's been a noticeable change in both clothing and demeanor?"
"Yes."
"And spends all his spare time lounging about with imbeciles?" Giles opened a card catalogue drawer, looked into it as if he'd lost something there.
"It's bad, isn't it?"
"It's devastating," Giles agreed. "He's turned into a sixteen-year-old boy." He shut the drawer again. "Of course, you'll have to kill him."
"Giles, I'm serious," Buffy said.
Giles crossed the room to another cabinet. "So am I, except for the part about killing him." He looked at Buffy and stopped, as if realizing that he owed her a more detailed explanation. "Testosterone is the great equalizer; it turns all men into morons," he said. "He will, however, get over it."
"I can't believe that you, of all people, are trying to Scully me," Buffy argued. "There's something supernatural at work." She grabbed some books from on top of the cabinet, shoved them toward Giles. "Get your books! Look stuff up!"
Giles took the books from her hand, replaced them in their proper spot. "Look under what?"
"I don't know," Buffy moaned. "That's your department."
"The evidence you've presented me with is sketchy at best," Giles said. Buffy could feel the argument being lost.
"He scared the pig!" she insisted, with a sudden flailing gesture.
Giles gave her a get-real look.
"Well, he did."
"Buffy, boys can be cruel." Lecturing, now. "They tease, they prey on the weak. It's a natural teen behavior pattern."
"What did you just say?"
"Uh, what?" Giles stammered. "Um, they tease —"
Buffy interrupted him. "They prey on the weak. I heard that somewhere." Then she remembered where, the zookeeper. "Xander has been acting totally wiggy since we went to the zoo. Him and Kyle and all those guys went into the hyena cage . . . Oh God, that laugh —"
"Are you saying Xander's becoming a hyena?" Giles asked. He didn't seem to give her theory much credence, considering some of the things they, Prue, Piper and Phoebe had been through together.
"I don't know," Buffy said. "Or been possessed by one. Not just Xander, all of them."
Giles shook his head, tugging on his still isn't buying it. "Well, I've certainly never heard of — "
Then Willow followed by Aviva charged into the library, clearly upset. "Herbert," she exclaimed. "They found him!"
"The pig?" Buffy asked.
"Dead," Aviva replied. "And also, eaten! I may have technically gone dark because of Kali but even I find it revolting to eat pig raw."
"Eaten... by what?"
"By whom..." Willow answered. "I overheard Principal Flutie talking to the Biology Teacher – some of the teeth marks – were from braces."
"Just a sixteen year old boy, huh?" Buffy asked looking at Giles.
He avoided her glance and headed for the stacks.
"What are you gonna do?" Willow asked him.
"Get my books," he answered. "Look stuff up."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Mr. Flutie found them lounging on a picnic table. Du-Fours, Kelley, Hauer, and Barrie. He knew each of them well, on a personal basis. He was very familiar with their permanent records. These were the kind of kids every principal had nightmares about, the ones who only came to school because they had to and lived to make trouble for the administration. They weren't stupid, but they were aggressively unteachable.
You couldn't motivate them because they only understood power and money, and a high school principal didn't have enough of either.
"You four!" he shouted.
Kyle DuFours looked up lazily. "What?"
He was too angry to beat around the bush. "Oh, don't think I don't know," he said. "Three kids saw you outside Herbert's room. You're busted. Yeah. You're going down."
"How is Herbert?" Rhonda Kelley asked.
"Crunchy," Heidi Barrie responded. The others broke into cackling laughter.
No respect at all. He couldn't take any more. "That's it. My office, right now."
They just sat there, looking at him. The laughter had faded, but he could feel the chilliness of their stares.
"Now!" he demanded.
Kyle got up first, and the others followed his lead. Mr. Flutie marched them ahead of himself, toward the building. "You're gonna have so much detention," he threatened, "your grandchildren'll be staying after school."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy and Aviva sat on the steps leading up to the stacks, a huge folio across their laps. Willow sat at a table, reading one of her own.
Aviva looked up from the book she was reading and looked at Buffy who was looking down at another book. "Is this what you do when its not witch related?"
"Pretty much," Buffy answered with a glance at her friend. "Wow. Apparently Noah rejected hyenas from the Ark because he thought they were an evil, impure mixture of dogs and cats."
"Hyenas aren't well-liked," Willow agreed.
"They do seem to be the shmoes of the animal kingdom," Buffy said. She nudged Aviva and showed her the picture then brought the book down to show Willow as well.
"Why couldn't Xander be possessed by a puppy?" Willow asked. "Or some ducks?"
"That's assuming 'possession' is the right word," Buffy said.
"Oh, I'd say it is," Giles offered. He emerged from another part of the library, yet another book in his hands. "The Masai of the Serengeti have spoken of animal possession for generations. I should have remembered that."
"So how does it work?" Buffy asked.
"Well," he explained, "apparently there's a sect of animal worshippers, known as Primals. They believe that humanity — consciousness, the soul — is a perversion, a dilution of spirit. To them, the animal state is holy. They're able, through transpossession, to draw the spirit of certain animals into themselves."
"And then they start acting like hyenas," Aviva said.
"Only the most predatory animals were of interest to Primals," Giles said glancing at the newest member of the group. "So yes, that would fit."
"So what happens to the person once the spirit is in them?" Buffy asked.
"If it goes unchecked?" Giles said. Instead of answering, he handed Buffy the massive volume he carried.
Buffy looked at the page he showed her, horror creeping over her face as she did. She slammed the book shut, put it down on the table next to Willow, and headed for the door. "I gotta find Xander," she said. She looked at Willow and Aviva. "You guys call Prue, Piper and Phoebe."
Aviva let out a sigh as she stood up and moved into Giles' office and picked up the phone. She dialed the number for the Manor she had been given by Buffy.
"Halliwell residence, Phoebe speaking."
"Phoebe, it's Aviva," Aviva said glad that it had been Phoebe instead of Prue to answer. "Buffy asked that Willow or I call you. It seems Xander is possessed."
"Thanks, Aviva. I will call Prue and Piper."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy found the classroom to which she'd delivered Herbert before. The door was open. Inside, the cage Mr. Flutie had bought for Herbert was bent and twisted apart; the heavy wire looked as if animals had been at it. In a way . . .
They are strong, she said to herself, moving around the wreckage. The floor, she realized, was littered with straw from the cage — and something else. She bent over, picked one up. It was almost eight inches long, a little bigger around than her finger. Broken at the end, as if something had snapped it — or bit it, maybe in search of marrow.
"Pig bones," she said. She put it back in the mess on the floor and stood to leave. There was nothing more to learn here. She turned . . .
And there he was, right behind her. His face held a malicious grin.
"Xander."
He didn't speak, just took a step closer to her. She sidestepped, to go around him, but he moved to block her. Obviously he wasn't going to just let her pass, so she tried another approach.
"This is ridiculous," she said. "We need to talk — " Only instead of talking, she leapt at him, hands at his shoulders, driving him backward. He went down, and she landed on his chest, driving him into the floor.
He just laughed. "I've been waiting for you to jump my bones," he said.
Xander growled an animalistic snarl and heaved, catching Buffy by surprise with a strength she didn't know he had. He bucked her off of him and spun her over, so that she was on her back, looking up into his face. He pinned her wrists to the tiled floor.
"Get off of me!"
"Is that what you really want?" he asked. She tried to hurl him off, but he was strong—even for her, the Charmed Slayer. She gave an extra push, testing herself, really, to see if she was holding back because he was Xander, a friend. "We both know what you really want," he went on. "You want danger, don't you? You like your men dangerous."
"You're in trouble, Xander," Buffy tried. "You are infected with some hyena thing. It's like a demonic possession — "
Xander ignored her, cutting her off as if she hadn't even spoken. "Dangerous and mean, right? Like Angel, your mystery guy. Well, guess who just got mean? Do you know how long I've waited? Until you'd stop pretending that we aren't attracted —" As he spoke, he released one wrist, caressed her blond hair gently with his hand. The way a lover would.
Buffy took full advantage of his distraction. With the help of her free hand, she was able to throw him off her and scramble to her feet. He stood, and came toward her again, barely even breaking stride in his sentence.
"Until Willow stops kidding herself that I could settle with anyone but you —"
"I don't wanna hurt you, Xander," Buffy said, backing away from his relentless advance. But it was bluff, and she knew it. She couldn't bring herself to really hurt Xander. She just hoped he wouldn't realize that.
He didn't. He lunged, slamming her backward into a vending machine. Someone's long-lost change clinked down into the coin return.
"Now do you wanna hurt me?" Xander asked. "C'mon, Slayer — I like it when you're scared." She struggled against him but he held her tight, sniffing the air around her. "The more I scare you, the better you smell."
Then Xander stopped talking, forced his head in between Buffy's jaw and shoulders, and began to savagely kiss her neck. It was at that moment that Xander went flying away from Buffy as propelled by an unseen force.
Buffy turned and saw Prue, Piper and Phoebe step up next to her as Xander landed hard against a pile a bricks.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
School had long since let out, and darkness had descended. Aviva and Willow sat in the shadowed library, at one of the computer workstations Giles had reluctantly agreed to allow. On the screen before them was video footage of a pack of hyenas. They were terrifying to watch as they savagely tore at their prey, a wildebeest they had brought down. "When Kali made me temporarily a witch, I thought it would be all fun and games. But as I learned from Buffy, Piper, Phoebe and Prue it's not all fun and games. This is just driving it home."
"I know how you feel," Willow said glancing at her newest friend. "When I first learned that Buffy was the Charmed Slayer I was like I want to help. But there have been things since that have made me cringe. Don't get me wrong I still want to help though."
The door opened and Buffy, followed by Prue, Piper and Phoebe, entered, dragging a Xander behind her. "Hurry up!" Buffy called to Aviva and Willow. "We've gotta lock him up somehow, before he comes to."
"Omigod, Xander — what happened?" Willow asked looking at her best friend lying on the floor.
"I telekinetically pulled him off Buffy," Prue reluctantly admitted. "He landed on a pile of bricks and was knocked unconcious.
There was a locking book cage in the library, for rarer books and manuscripts and some of Giles's occult tomes that he didn't want to fall into the hands of the wrong. Buffy headed for the cage, Willow alongside, looking for signs of damage on Xander. He was out cold, but she couldn't see any signs of impact.
"Oh," Willow said, horrified. "The hyena in him didn't —"
"No. No, but it's safe to say that in his animal state, his idea of wooing somebody doesn't include a Yanni CD and a bottle of Chianti." Buffy came out of the cage, closed the door behind her, turned the key. She jingled the keys in her hand as she crossed to a desk. "There, that oughta hold him."
"Where's Rupert?" Prue asked.
"He got a call to some teacher's meeting," Willow told her. "What are we going to do?" she asked. "I mean, how do we get Xander back?"
"I think this requires teamwork," Prue said. Phoebe you, Willow and …" She looked Aviva and then at Buffy.
"Prue, she's my friend, besides she doesn't have powers," Buffy said. "She's trying to make up for what happened with Kali."
"I've turned over a new leaf," Aviva added.
Prue looked at Aviva and then nodded. "The Phoebe you, Willow and Aviva will see what you can find out about turning Xander and the others back. Buffy, Piper and I will search for the others."
Giles walked in just then. "The rest of the pack were spotted outside Herbert the mascot's cage. They were sent to the principal's office."
"Good. That'll show 'em," Willow said. The look on Giles's face wasn't reassuring. "Did it show 'em?"
"They didn't hurt him, did they?" Buffy asked.
"They, uh, ate him."
Willow sank into a chair.
"They ate the principal Flutie?" Phoebe said.
"Ate him up?" Willow added.
"The official theory is that wild dogs got into his office somehow," Giles said. "There was no one at the scene."
Willow found the bright spot —A tiny one, but bright just the same, she thought. Hoped. "But Xander didn't — he was with you," she said to Buffy.
"Oh," Giles said, seeing the unconscious boy in the cage for the first time. "Well, that's a small mercy."
"Any ideas on reversing the possession?" Prue asked.
"I'm afraid I still don't have all the pieces," Giles replied. "Accounts of the Primals and their methods are a bit thin on the ground. There is some talk of a predatory act, but the exact ritual is . . ." He shook his head, and picked up one of his massive books. He flipped to a certain page, and continued. "The 'Malleus Maleficarum' deals with the particulars of demonic possession, which may apply."
He put the book down on the table, flipping a few more pages. "Yes, one should be able to transfer the spirits to another human —"
"Oh, thanks, great," Buffy interrupted. "Any volunteers?"
"Oh," he said, his voice small. "Good point."
Buffy went on. "What we need to do is put the hyena back in the hyena."
"But, until we know more —" Giles began.
Buffy was onto something, an idea. "Betcha that zookeeper can help us. Maybe he didn't quarantine those hyenas 'cause they were sick."
Giles seemed to catch on. "We should talk to him."
Propelled by her own enthusiasm, Buffy started for the door, then stopped again. "Oh, wait," she said. "Somebody's gotta watch Xander."
"Agreed," Prue said. "Piper, you stay with Willow and Aviva. Your freeze might be the only the only thing that can keep him here when he regains consciousness."
"Sometimes I hate this freezing power," admitted Piper.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Willow, Aviva, Piper."
It was Xander's voice, from the cage. Willow paused the hyena video the three of them were watching.
"How are you feeling?" Piper asked turning to face Xander.
He tossed them a wry grin. "Like somebody threw me into a pile of bricks." He looked around the cage, registering where he was for the first time. "What am I doing here?"
"You're . . . resting," Willow said awkwardly. She was about to walk toward the cage when Piper grabbed her arm holding her back.
Xander rose, hooking the cage screen with his fingers. "You guys got me locked up now?"
"You are possessed," said Aviva.
"We're trying to help you," Willow admitted.
"I know there's something wrong with me," he sighed. "I think it's getting worse. I can't just stand around waiting for Prue to telekinetically throw me into something to knock me out again. I want you all to help me."
"We are helping you," Piper said.
"You three are doing what you're told."
"Buffy, Phoebe and Prue are trying to help you too, you know that," Willow countered. "Or, Xander does."
"Yeah the Charmed Ones and the Charmed Slayer are so selfless, always thinking of us. Well, if I'm so dangerous, how come Prue, Phoebe and Buffy left you three with me?" Xander's voice was low and warm.
"For this," Piper said as she raised her hands and froze Xander.
"How long will that last, Piper?" asked Aviva.
"Not very long unfortunately," Piper sighed.
San Francisco Zoo
The zookeeper's office was big. He seemed to know his stuff. There were diplomas and certificates of honor on the wall, as well as photographs, African masks and weapons, and other memorabilia. In the center of the room he had a light table. Transparencies were laid on top of it, and the light from below shone up through them, making them easier to see.
". . . the students have been possessed by the hyenas," the zookeeper was saying. His manner was somehow reassuring, his voice level and calm.
"Yes," Giles said.
"Are you sure?"
"We're sure," Prue replied.
"You don't seem enormously surprised by this," Phoebe suggested.
"The zoo imported those hyenas from Africa," the zookeeper said. "There was something strange about them from day one. I did some homework. That particular breed is very rare. Totally vicious. Historically, they were worshipped by these guys —"
"The Primals," Giles offered.
"Yeah. Creepy guys. Now they had rituals for taking the hyenas' spirits, but I don't see how that could have happened to your kids."
"We don't know exactly how the ritual works," Giles said. "We know it involves a predatory act and some kind of symbol."
"A predatory act. Of course. That makes sense. Where did you read that?"
Giles seemed to sense a kindred spirit. "Do you have Sherman Jeffries's work on cults and —"
"Maybe you should share reading lists later," Phoebe interrupted.
The zookeeper glanced at his watch. "Look, I think we may have enough information so that together we can pull off a reverse transpossession."
"What do we do?" Buffy asked.
"You gotta get those possessed students to the hyena cage right away," he said. "I'll meet you there and we can begin the ritual."
"Well, we can guarantee you one of them," Buffy said. "But there're four more and we don't know where they are."
"I wouldn't worry about that," the zookeeper explained. "After hyenas feed and rest, they will track the missing member of their pack until they find him. They should come right to you."
Buffy caught Prue, Phoebe and Giles's glances. "Willow, Piper and Aviva," she breathed.
Gateway High
Xander, having unfroze, paced in the cage. Piper, Aviva and Willow were keeping their distance.
"Should we think of freezing him again?" Aviva asked looking at Piper.
"If he says something I will think about it then," Piper said as she looked at her cousin's friend.
"Willow . . ." Xander said. "Aviva … Piper …"
Piper shook her head as she motioned at Xander with her hands freezing him again.
It was then they heard another voice, soft, taunting. "Wil-lowww . . ." it said. "Avi-vaaa … Pi-perrr."
The Pack.
"We have a problem," Piper said.
"How many can you freeze?" Aviva asked.
"At one time, I don't know," Piper said. "Run."
Piper, Aviva and Willow ran. They turned a corner, ran to the first classroom door they saw.
Aviva grabbed the knob. "I wish Buffy was here now, it's locked."
They could hear the sounds from the library, knew the cage had been breached.
Willow crossed the hall to another door. This one opened. She, Piper and Aviva darted inside, shutting the door quietly behind them.
Inside the darkened room, they threaded the way between the desks. "Both of you, underneath the teacher's desk."
"What about you?" Willow asked suddenly worried for Piper.
"I will try and keep them busy," answered Piper.
Willow glanced at Aviva who reluctantly nodded and they into the footwell of the teacher's desk, and pulled the chair into position in front of them.
At the intersection, the Pack split up. Kyle, Rhonda, and Tor each went in different directions. Heidi followed Xander.
He smelled the air.
If there was one thing he knew, after all these years, it was Willow's scent.
That door.
Heidi sniffed, maybe catching it too.
Xander opened the door and spotted Piper standing in the middle of the classroom waiting. He held up immediately knowing full well what Piper's power was. It was a trap.
Totally focused on Piper, they didn't even see Buffy swing a fire extinguisher at Heidi's head. The metal made a satisfying clang against her skull, and she crumpled.
Xander turned and charged Buffy, who brought the fire extinguisher up again. But it was a feint. He dodged the extinguisher, and she kicked out, catching him in the chest, knocking him backward.
But there was a noise in the hallway, at the intersection. The other three members of Xander's pack, converging there. They saw Phoebe, Buffy, Piper, Prue, Aviva, Willow, and Giles. Charged.
"Run," Giles shouted.
They dashed into another classroom, and Buffy slammed the door shut. She held the knob.
On the other side, she could feel them yanking it, trying to turn it. They pounded on the heavy wooden door, growling angrily.
After a few moments of that, the barrage stopped and she heard their footsteps moving away.
"I think they're going," she said.
"They could be faking it," Willow suggested.
"I have to agree, they are likely laying a trap," said Prue.
"I know," Buffy said with a sigh. "But what are we going to do? We can't stay in here all night. Especially when we have limited time to turn them back. Prue, Piper, I think we should go for a run. Get their attention and lead them back to the zoo. Phoebe, Giles, Willow, Aviva you guys should head straight there."
Streets of San Francisco
Visiting friends was supposed to be fun, Rich Anderson believed. But they were barely out the door before Melissa started in on him.
"I didn't say she looked better than you," he insisted. "I said she looked better."
"I heard what I heard," Melissa said. She stopped on the walk, looked down at her son shoving a Twinkie into his mouth. "Joey, chew," she said. "You have to chew or you'll choke."
Little Joey nodded.
They all got into the sport-utility vehicle, pulling their doors shut behind themselves. He couldn't wait to get home. Maybe by then she'd have moved on.
"I don't see why we have to have this conversation every time we see them," he said.
"I didn't start it," Melissa answered.
Rich patted his pockets. "Damn," he said. "Where are the keys?"
"Huh?" she asked.
And then, as they sat there in the suddenly quiet car, they heard it — a soft, feminine voice, calling.
"Jo-eeey . . . Jo-eeey . . ."
The Andersons looked at each other, the fight was that? Who was that?
Suddenly a head appeared outside Joey's window — looking down, from on top of the car. The head roared, and then there were more of them. They were all over the car, banging on it with fists, growling at them through the windows. Rich clicked the locks shut — just in time, since they were grabbing at the door handles.
There were four of them, he thought, but there could have been more. It was dark, and they were moving, banging on the car here and then just as suddenly pressing their faces against the glass there.
Shaking the big SUV, and roaring like wild beasts. Melissa was screaming, and in the back, Joey seemed petrified.
"Hey!" Rich shouted. "What's going on?"
Surely someone will call the cops, he thought. All we have to do is wait here with the doors locked, until —
One of them smashed through the back passenger window. Next to Joey. Arms reached in, grabbed for the boy. He held on to his mother.
"Joey!" Melissa screamed.
The car was rocking badly now. It was like a nightmare. More windows were broken, and hands reached at them from every direction.
The Andersons held each other, panic-stricken.
Buffy, Prue and Piper had finally found them as they jumped into the fray, they could barely tell which was which, especially since they'd all taken to dressing in the same dark colors. Buffy grabbed the girl threw her to the ground. Prue telekentically sent one of the boys flying.
Piper she jumped to the top of the vehicle. Kyle met her up there. She kicked him in the jaw and he sailed off.
Through the smashed-in sunroof, Piper saw Xander, half in and half out of a window. "Buffy!" she called out.
"Didn't your Mom teach you?" Buffy asked turning toward Xander. "Don't play with your food!"
Xander slid from the car, facing Buffy as Piper and Prue moved to flank her. The others backed flanked him.
"Come on," Buffy said. "You know what you want." She, Prue, Piper turned and ran.
"I hope this works," Piper said.
"Trust me, Piper," Buffy said glancing at her cousin.
Behind them, they heard the awful hyena laughter. And finally the unmistakable sounds of pursuit.
San Francisco Zoo
The zoo was dark and quiet when they arrived. The zookeeper had left Giles and Phoebe's names at the front gate, and the one guard on duty looked too sleepy, or otherwise uninspired, to quiz them too much on their errand. He'd tried to hand them a map showing how to get to the zookeeper's office, but Willow had told the man they'd been there before and knew how to find it. The guard said something about how dark the paths were, but she showed him the big flashlight she'd carried with her from Giles's car. The guard stopped talking.
Of course, the zookeeper's office wasn't their real destination.
The hyenas were.
Within a couple of minutes, they were there.
"The pathway to the hyena pit," Willow said, winded. "Where's the zookeeper?"
"He must be inside," Giles said, ducking under the yellow tape. "I'll go in and prepare things. Phoebe you, Aviva and Willow should take up spots out here. Warn us when you hear Prue, Piper and Buffy approaching with Xander and the others. Then the follow them in cutting off their escape, hopefully till the ritual is complete."
"Sounds like a plan," agreed Phoebe.
Giles went down the pathway, and was swallowed by the dark. Willow gripped her flashlight a little tighter. "Is this normal?" asked Aviva.
"Sometimes," Willow admitted. "The life of being a Charmed Slayerette."
"I think we can do better for a nickname for the group," Aviva said with a roll of her eyes.
Phoebe smiled as she looked at Willow and Aviva. "What about Scoobies?" she suggested.
Willow and Aviva looked at each other and nodded at the suggestion, it did sound better.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Surrounding the zoo grounds, there was a wide swath of thick vegetation. Prue, Piper and Buffy ran through it, shoving aside huge hanging leaves, dodging tree trunks.
They were making good time. Xander and the others behind them were making better, judging by the leaves and underbrush crashing behind them. Buffy glance at Prue and Piper. "I hope we can keep our lead," she whispered. "At least we get them to the hyena pit."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Giles walked down the pathway. It was quiet inside, and dark, and a bit rank. There was more tape across the entryway. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expecting, but he knew one thing. This wasn't it.
"Doctor . . .?" he tried. "Zookeeper — ?"
A scuffling sound caught his attention and he turned. The zookeeper had come in behind him, from another entrance, possibly.
Only he wasn't dressed like any zookeeper Giles had ever seen.
"Oh, of course," he said. "You're in the Masai ceremonial garb. Are you otherwise prepared for the transpossession?"
The zookeeper stepped into the glow from lights inside the hyena enclosure. His face was painted blue and white, in a bizarre pattern that Giles half-recognized from the texts he'd pored over in the last few hours. A robe, of a fabric that exactly matched the blue of his face, covered his body, and beneath that he wore some kind of tights. At one ankle and one wrist he wore bone bracelets. He carried a big stick, a staff or club of some kind, which he tossed from hand to hand.
The whole ensemble was more than a little disquieting.
"Almost," the man said.
Giles noticed the strange red markings on the floor. "Right," he said. "The sacred circle. You'd need that to . . ." He was suddenly confused. "Well, this would be here when the children first came. Why would you . . ."
It dawned on him, all at once. He gave a small laugh, and turned to face the fright-masked zookeeper. "How terribly frustrating for you," Giles said, "that a bunch of schoolchildren could accomplish what you could not."
The zookeeper held his gaze. "It bothered me," he said, matter of factly. "But the power will be mine."
Giles knew, finally, that the man was beyond hope of reasoning. He needed to get away, to warn Prue, Piper, Phoebe, Aviva, Willow and Buffy before it was too late. He started to bolt.
But the zookeeper was faster. He stepped in, swinging the club one-handed into Giles's stomach. Giles doubled over, and the blue man whipped the club around, brought it down on the back of Giles's head.
Giles went down, unconscious on the floor amid the strange symbols painted there.
The zookeeper didn't waste any time. He grabbed the librarian's ankles and dragged him out of sight.
His plans were coming to a head — the last thing he needed was a spare corpse on what was to be the stage for the greatest moment of his life.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
They were closer than ever. Buffy, Prue and Piper could hear them breathing, behind them. Not even panting with the exertion.
What was worse, was, they were laughing.
That hysterical half-insane, high-pitched hyena laughter.
Ever closer.
Prue, Piper and Buffy ran harder.
Phoebe heard the crashing as they came nearer. "Willow," she called out. "Go warn, Giles!"
Willow nodded as she passed under the tape and ran down the walk to the hyena house.
"Aviva, after they pass we'll come in behind them," Phoebe said as she looked toward Aviva who nodded.
"Not that I'm not glad Kali is gone and all," Aviva said. "But I kind of wish I had a power right now."
"I hear you," Phoebe said. "I've been taking martial arts to offset for lack of an active power. I could teach you a few things if you like."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"They're almost here!" Willow called. "Giles . . . ?" No answer. "Giles?"
The only one person Willow saw was the zookeeper, and he looked weird, all in blue with his face painted. But Willow was used to weird-looking creatures — at least this guy was human. "Where are the hyenas for the transpossession?" she asked him.
He cocked a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to the cage. "They're right here, in the feeding area. Stay clear," he warned. "They haven't been fed."
"Where's Giles?"
"He's laying in wait."
"They're almost here," Willow said, fighting hard to keep the panic from her voice. "Shouldn't you bring the hyenas out?"
The zookeeper picked up a long strip of leather. "When the time is right," he said. He grabbed Willow's wrists, started wrapping the leather around them. "I'm gonna need your help."
Prue, Piper and Buffy burst through the yellow tape. "They're right behind us!" Buffy called.
That's Buffy! Get ready!" Willow said.
The zookeeper had tied her wrists tightly together with his strap. Now he pulled something from beneath the flowing blue robe he wore — a long knife with a very shiny blade.
"Here," he said, like he was giving her a present.
"What is this?"
"The predatory act, remember?" he replied. He moved behind her, holding her in one arm and bringing the knife to her throat.
"Oh, right," Willow said. Talking was hard with the blade pressed against her skin. "You'll pretend to slash my throat and put the evil in the hyenas?"
He looked her in the eyes, but there was nothing reassuring in his voice. "Something like that."
It was clear now that he wasn't kidding. Nor was he on their side.
Prue, Piper and Buffy burst into the hyena house. There was a strange-looking, blue-garbed man holding a knife to Willow's neck. And Willow's hands were tied. There was no sign of Giles, Phoebe or Aviva. Just to make things more complicated, Willow shouted, "Buffy! Prue! Piper! It's a trap!"
Prue, Piper and Buffy stopped in their tracks.
Which, come to think of it, might not have been the best idea, since the pack was still running full speed behind them.
They plowed into them, driving the three of them to the ground. Hands tearing at them, teeth gnashing hungrily.
"Nyumba Ya Sanaa!"the zookeeper called as Aviva and Phoebe came running in.
Everybody looked at him. Except Prue, Buffy and Piper who, because the pack wasn't looking at them, looked at the pack.
Their eyes, after all, were glowing green. It was the kind of thing that caught your attention.
All of them — Kyle, Heidi, Tor, Rhonda — eyes flashing like traffic lights saying go. They risked a glance at the zookeeper, and his eyes flashed the same weird glow, as if in response to them.
And Prue, Piper and Buffy suddenly understood what it meant. This whole thing had been a setup. Somehow the hyena spirit had accidentally gone into Xander and the rest, when this guy actually wanted it for himself. So he'd arranged for everyone to be brought back here when he was ready.
Now the hyena was out of the kids, and concentrated in one man. Who wanted it there.
He was going to be trouble.
As if forgetting how to use tools, the zookeeper dropped his knife, grabbing Willow's head between his hands. He roared like a wild beast. He leaned toward her, baring his teeth like he meant to rip into her flesh.
"Willow!" It was Xander. Sounding like himself. She never thought his voice could sound so wonderful.
He pushed away from Buffy, launched himself across the room, and slammed into the growling zookeeper. They both went down, but the zookeeper regained his footing quickly. When Xander came at him again, he swung a backhanded blow that knocked the teen to one side.
A feroucious growl and Xander suddenly turned to see the Zookeeper with hatred and hunger on his face, lunging for Willow. Xander kicked him the way Buffy did before - only without the same results - as the Zookeeper simply grabbed Xander's ankle, pulling Xander's leg to his open mouth, when Willow lying on the ground nearby, lifted the knife with both hands and reluctantly drove it into the top of the Zookeeper's Foot. The Zookeeper howled in pain, immobile.
Phoebe and Aviva grabbed Xander and Willow and pulled them to safety. With Xander off them and the rest of the pack watching the fight; Prue, Piper and Buffy could stand. They did, then Buffy launched a kick at the zookeeper's painted jaw. She connected, hard, and he fell back. In a second he was up again, and charging her. Prue squinted at the zookeeper and she sent him flying backwards. He landed on the hard stone floor.
He was powerful, though. Most men would have been out cold, but he jumped up and came back for more with an animal-like growl.
Buffy grasped his robes, turned, spun, brought him over her shoulder and down.
Except that this time, because he was coming at her from the other way, "down" meant into the hyena pit.
He screamed.
"Piper!" Buffy called as he reappeared, trying to haul himself out by the bars of the cage.
When Piper heard the ferocious growling behind the zookeeper she knew it was too late for the man. He screamed again, in pain this time more than fear, and was dragged down from the bars.
He was out of sight, but the growling continued. And even worse, crunching, gnawing, gnashing of teeth.
Kyle and his friends ran out of the hyena house, horrified.
"I am going to suggest no one looks in the cage," Aviva suggested. "I don't think any of us will like what we see."
"I think that is good advice," Prue agreed and for the first time she smiled at Aviva.
A door opened, and Giles staggered into the room. He put a hand to his glasses, trying to gain his balance. "Uh," he said. "Did I miss anything?"
Halliwell Manor
"Why couldn't I save him," Buffy said with a sigh as she, Prue, Piper and Phoebe sat in the living room. "I know he wasn't good but he was still a human being. Which technically made him an innocent even if it meant trying to protect him from himself."
"One thing I think we can all agree on here is not all innocents can be saved," Prue reluctantly admitted.
"Besides he did try and kill you after the Hyena spirit went into him," Piper added.
Buffy sighed as she looked at her cousins. "I know, I just wish there had been a way to save him is all."
April 17, 1997 – Thursday
Gateway High
The next day was one of those bright, sunny days when it really becomes clear that summer is just around the corner. Buffy, Aviva, Willow, and Xander walked across the quad, heading for class. Buffy was enjoying the sunshine, and, strange as it seemed, enjoying being with Xander.
"I heard the vice principal is taking over until they can find a replacement," Willow said.
"It shouldn't be hard to find a new principal," Buffy said. "Unless they ask what happened to the last one."
"Okay, but I had nothing to do with that, right?" Xander asked for the millionth time.
"Right," Buffy agreed.
They started up an outside staircase. "You only ate the pig," Aviva added.
"I ate a pig? Was he cooked and called 'bacon,' or . . . " Xander put his hand to his forehead, in obvious dismay. "Oh my God. I ate a pig? I mean, the whole trichinosis issue aside, yuck."
"Well, it wasn't really you," Buffy assured him.
"Well, I remember going on the field trip, and then going down in the hyena house," Xander said. "Next thing some guy's holding Willow and he's got a knife."
"You saved my life," Willow said.
"Hey." Xander stopped at the top of the stairs. "Nobody messes with my Willow." He put his arms around her, drew her into a hug.
"This is definitely the superior Xander," Buffy announced. "Accept no substitutes."
Xander touched his lips, his chest. Buffy thought he was maybe going a little overboard on the hand language, but, in comparison to the hyena bit, decided it was not worth getting worked up over. "I didn't do anything else, did I? Around you guys? Anything embarrassing?"
"Naah," Aviva assured him.
"Not at all," Willow added.
Buffy took Willow by the hand. "Come on," she said. "We're gonna be late."
Willow looked at Xander. "See you at lunch."
"Cool," he replied. "Hey, going vegetarian, huh?" He gave them a broad smile and two thumbs-up.
He was pretty sure they were buying it.
Good.
It felt great to be himself again. He preferred that, he sometimes, you have to pretend a little, keep your own secrets. For the sake of your friends.
He turned and walked a few steps — straight toward Giles, who was coming right for him, looking crisp in a fresh suit and tie.
"I've been reading up on my animal possession," Giles said, "and I cannot find anything anywhere about memory loss afterward."
"Did you tell them that?" Xander pointed toward the girls.
Giles leaned close to his ear. "Your secret dies with me," he said.
That should have been enough. Except Giles knew. And he knew Giles knew. It might be better to let Buffy know, than Giles. He could trust the man, he was sure of that. But still. . .
"Shoot me, stuff me, mount me," Xander said.
Giles clapped him on the shoulder. Co-conspirators to the end. Xander walked away from him, hands on top of his head, as embarrassed as he could remember ever having been.