It was supposed to be a simple assignment, they just didn't expect to run into someone waving a gun. A fellow classmate named Eric Gittleson.
"Eric," Alex asked, trying to keep Eric's attention on him and not on Cordelia. "is there a reason why you brought a gun to class?"
"Funny, Harris, always joking. Now I wonder why the Mayor's kid and his errand boy are snooping around some place they shouldn't be?"
"Looking for a new make out place." Alex offered, judging the distance to Eric and the gun he was holding, he was sure he could get it away from Eric, he just wasn't sure he could get there before the shaky grip Eric had on it resulted in one of them getting shot. He didn't like the odds. "Janitor's closet is getting a little routine. And errand boy? More like personal body guard for the divine Miss Chase."
"Very personal." Cordelia muttered beside him, also eying the gun and well aware that Alex was willing to put himself between her and human danger.
"The devine Miss Chase will actually be prefect for the little project we've got going. Inside." He motioned with the gun, making both Alex and Cordelia even more nervous, the gun was practically vibrating. And it wasn't from nervousness, they could both clearly smell the excitement and anticipation level of the student in front of them. Eric reeked of it. "Daryl always liked her."
"Daryl?" Alex asked. "I only know one person named Daryl and he's dead. Daryl Epps, quarterback for the Sunnydale Razorbacks. He died in a hiking accident."
"Yeah, your fellow football player, open the door, I'll introduce you. Or reintroduce you, I should say."
Alex carefully eased open the door and sidewalked through it, trying to keep himself between the gun and Cordelia, the Day of the Nightmares nightmare flashing through his mind. The smell of death and his pack, Cordelia dead. He wasn't about to let it happen for real. They moved into the darkened interior and Eric followed them, still with the gun pointed at them and turned on a light as he did.
"What's going on, Eric?" A voice asked as the smell of death and chemicals hit them. It was nauseating. On a guerny lay a headless body and standing beside it was Daryl Epps, former quarterback and someone both Alex and Cordelia had known for years. They'd attended his funeral.
"Daryl?" Alex asked as Cordelia gasped. "What happened to you?"
"Chris and Eric figured out how to bring me back, but as you can see, there's some problems."
"You're alive, but not completely somehow." Alex guessed. "Judging by the chemical smell, they're somehow keeping you alive with some kind of chemicals or formula or something. I'm not a scientist, but if you were fully alive, you'd have been able to heal the injuries you still have from the accident."
"That's pretty much what they said. I'm alone, Harris. I can't go home, see my mom, talk to my friends. I'm trapped here."
"And instead of letting you go, they decided to make you a girlfriend?" Cordelia asked, staring at the pieced together female body minus a head.
"I'm lonely." Daryl admitted.
"The timing of your arrival is perfect." Eric crowed. "Daryl was just about to decide who's head should be on his girlfriend's body and Cordelia is in the running as a candidate."
"You want to cut my head off and attach it to a new body?! I already have a perfectly good body, I don't need or want another one." She aimed a Queen C glare at the nerd with a gun hoping to intimidate him into backing off. No such luck, he was obviously insane to risk her wrath. Whether she was Queen C, Cordelia Chase or a she wolf who was co Alpha of their pack, she was a dangerous female and only an overconfident idiot or insane person would challenge her. Eric was obviously both.
"It's not going to happen, Eric." Alex told him, trying to keep Eric from doing something stupid. "We told our friends we were checking this place out, we don't need Jesse and Aura taking our make out spot." Keeping up the pretext of why they were there. "Eventually they'll come looking for us, they know we don't risk annoying Cordelia's father and he's expecting her home."
"Well, he's going to have to get used to her not coming home anymore. We don't need you, just her, so I guess this is the last time you see your girlfriend. In a little bit, she'll be Daryl's girlfriend and never want to leave here either." Alex figured if he was going to get shot anyway, doing it while trying to get the gun away from Eric was worth it. And he was a lot stronger and faster then Eric, he might make it before the gun went off.
Unfortunately he didn't, he heard the gun go off and Cordelia's scream and felt the bullet hit him and his guts burned with pain as he landed on Eric. Only he was no longer a teenage boy, he transformed heartbeats after the bullet hit him and a large gray timberwolf landed on Eric with a snarl, going for his throat and tearing through it. Cordelia was snarling at Daryl who was backing away in fear and he bumped something on the lab table, it caused a spark and then Daryl was on fire, the chemicals used to keep him in some semblance of life proving very flammable and Cordelia froze in terror. Fire being something all Wolfbloods instinctively feared.
Alex transformed back and saw the fire too, he was already healing thanks to a combination of an accelerated healing factor and transforming, which sped it up even more, but he was still injured and now facing a fire. Two fears were waring in him, fear for Cordelia's life and his own fear of fire. One fear won out as he unfroze and grabbed the terrified Cordelia and raced for the door of the lab and into the freedom beyond, as the fire spread from Daryl to the room, the chemicals in the lab feeding it.