3rd Person's POV

Xander looks down at Buffy's empty raincoat lying on the floor, then back up at Amy. Giles comes back into the library with Jenny.

"What, what just happened?"

Xander indicates the raincoat, "Buffy."

Jenny smiles broadly when she sees Xander and tries to go to him, but Giles holds her back.

"Where is she?"

They both look down at the raincoat. They watch the sleeve move a bit as Buffy has been turned into a rat, and she comes crawling out.

"Oh, my God!"

Amy steps over to Xander and gestures to Jenny, "Why is she here?"

Xander groans in frustration, "Can you focus for a minute? You just turned Buffy into a rat."

Buffy starts to scamper across the floor. Giles follows her with his gaze.

Amy looks to Xander and takes his arm, "Buffy can take care of herself. Why don't we go someplace private?"

Jenny puts her hands on her hips and gives Amy a haughty look. Giles looks around for where Buffy went.

Xander jerks his arm away, "Can you... I'm not going anywhere until you change her back."

Jenny steps over to Amy, "You heard him. So why don't you undo your little magic trick and get lost?"

"Who made you Queen of the World? Well, you're old enough to be."

Jenny chuckles unimpressed as she grabs Xander the shirt, " Well, what can I say? I guess Xander's just too much man for the pimple squad."

Amy puts her arm between them and pushes Xander away from Jenny. She waves her hands before her and begins to cast another spell. Her eyes turn pitch-black, and energy begins to swirl around her as she speaks.

"Goddess Hecate, to you I pray, with this..."

Xander quickly puts his hand over Amy's mouth, "Would you quit with the Hecate?!"

...

In the halls nearby, Cordelia is at her locker and closes it. She starts down the hall, but runs into Harmony and friends waiting to confront her.

Cordelia sighs annoyed and completely over it, "Okay, what now? You don't like my locker combination?"

Harmony puts her hands on her hips, "It's just not right. You never loved him. You just used him. You make me sick."

Cordelia chuckles sarcastically, "Okay, Harmony, if you need to borrow my Midol, just ask."

Harmony slaps Cordelia across the face. Cordelia holds her hand to her face and looks at Harmony in surprise. She turns to go the other way, but Cordette blocks her way and pushes her up against the lockers. Then she and another girl pull her away from the wall and shove her down to the floor.

Back in the library, Giles has had enough and talks sternly to Amy and Jenny.

"You two, sit."

Amy goes to the table as Jenny joins her.

"And be quiet. We have to catch the Buffy rat."

He takes off his coat and looks around with Xander who gasps lowly a minute later. He spots Buffy and slowly makes his way over.

"Ooo, there!"

Buffy squeezes behind a bookcase as he rushes to try to catch her. Amy and Jenny sit down at the table across from one another, each staring at the other. Xander is too late to get Buffy, but he sees her crawl along the space behind the case toward the other end. He quickly crawls along the front of the case to head her off. Giles watches at the end that Xander just left. Xander peeks around the other end of the bookcase to wait for Buffy to come out.

"Good Buffy. Just..."

He sees someone come up next to him and looks up. There he sees Oz standing over him, and the next thing he knows Oz has punched him in the face. He stumbles backward into the shelves. Giles is startled and looks up as well. Oz shakes out his hand. Buffy makes her escape from behind the bookcase and goes out of the library doors into the hall.

Oz still shaking his hand frowns, "That kinda hurt."

Xander groans rubbing his cheek, "Kinda?! What was that for?"

"I was on the phone all night, listening to Willow cry about you. Now, I don't know exactly what happened, but I was left with a very strong urge to... hit you."

Oz offers his hand to help Xander up. Xander takes Oz's hand and stands.

"I didn't touch her. I swear."

Giles groans upset, "Xander! Where's Buffy?" He starts looking again.

Xander turns to Oz and sighs, "Amy turned her into a rat."

Oz looks around confused then nods, now being used to the weird towns antics.

"Oh."

Giles and Xander get on their knees and look around while making squeaking noises. Oz crouches down to look as well.

"I don't see her. If anything happens to her, I'll..." Giles looks at Xander in disgust as he stands up, "Oh, just go home. Lock yourself away. You're only going to cause more problems here. Now, Amy, Jenny and I will, uh... try and break the spell."

Both the women stand up now feeling wanted.

"Oz, if, if you could aid us in, in finding, um... Buffy."

Oz nods just happy to be involved, "Sure. Absolutely."

Xander starts to say something, but Giles cuts him off before he can even get out a word, doing his best to control his anger.

"Just go. Get out of my sight."

Xander doesn't take it very well and stares at Giles for a moment with his mouth agape, but then goes with his head hung low. Oz crouches back down to look for Buffy.

"Buffy..."

...

Xander comes out of the library, still looking down, when he hears Cordelia cry out and looks down the hall toward her voice.

"What are you doing?! You guys are crazy!"

He sees a group of girls apparently involved in a catfight.

Harmony glares, "You thought you could do better, is that it?"

"No, I..."

Cordette chuckles, "We'll knock that snotty attitude right out of you!"

The crowd of girls opens a bit, and Xander sees that it is indeed Cordelia that they are attacking. He starts running toward them, and when they see him coming several of them break off and come at him, screaming and shouting. In their lust they try to grab him as the others push Cordelia to the floor. He fights his way through them and over to Cordelia, where one girl has a pair or scissors pulling at her hair.

"Ow! Stop!"

When he reaches her, he pushes the hair pulling girl aside, picks up Cordelia from the floor into his arms and shakes the girls off as he runs from the hall. They all chase after him.

Xander and Cordelia come running out out a hall from the staircase after two minutes of running

"I think we..." He pauses seeing a crowd of girls waiting for them, "lost 'em."

Willow is at the front of the crowd holding a large fireman axe.

"I should've known I'd find you with her."

Xander holds out a hand trying to calm the girl down, "Will... Come on, you don't wanna hurt me."

"Oh, no? You don't know how hard this is for me. I love you so much! I'd rather see you dead than with that bitch."

She raises the axe and advances toward him. The others start toward him as well. Harmony and her friends come running out of the hall now, too, and confront the crowd. The girls all scream and yell as they fight. Harmony grabs Willow's ace and wrestles her for it.

"Get away from him! He's mine!"

As the girls all fight Xander and Cordelia make their escape. When the girls realize they've gone they start to give chase.

...

Xander and Cordelia come running down Buffy's neighborhood and slow to a walk.

"Okay, now I really think we've lost them."

Cordelia groans, "Damn it, Xander, what's going on? Who died and made you Elvis?"

Xander sees the house and sighs in relief.

"Buffy's house. Let's get inside. I'll explain later."

They run up to the door and Xander knocks fast and loud, looking back to see if the crowd of girls has found them yet. Cordelia joins in the knocking.

Cordelia speaks frantic, "Come on!"

Joyce opens the door confused, "Xander, Cordelia, what..."

They push their way in past her.

"Yeah, hi."

Cordelia smiles as she slams the door shut behind her. She and Xander look out the small windows in the door to make sure there's still no one following them.

Xander walks into the kitchen with Joyce and Cordelia close behind.

"What happened? Why are you all scratched up? Where's Buffy?"

Xander grimaces, "She's, um... around."

Joyce gestures to a stool, "Well, sit down and tell me about it."

Xander sits as Joyce then turns to Cordelia.

"Why don't you run upstairs and grab some bandages out of the bathroom?"

Cordelia goes down the hall toward the stairs. Joyce looks at Xander again.

"Let me, uh, get you something to drink. You in the mood for cold or hot?"

"I, uh..." He shrugs with his hands.

Joyce walks around behind him and starts to rub his shoulders as she leans close to his ear and giggles while whispering, "I think it's more of a hot night, don't you?"

Xander drops his head to the table in defeat, "Whatever."

Joyce massages his shoulders, "Ooo, you are so tense..." She slyly kisses his neck, "Mm."

Cordelia comes back and frowns at the scene, "What are you doing? Make me yak!"

Joyce frowns defensive, "Cordelia, go back upstairs. This is between us."

Cordelia scoffs, "Gross! I think not."

She grabs Joyce by the arm and pushes her back toward the front door and opens it.

"What are you doing? Hey! Get your hands off me!"

Cordelia pushes her out of the door, slams it shut and locks it.

"And keep your mom-aged mitts off my boyfriend. Former!"

She turns to Xander and throws her arms up in the air.

"Why has everyone gone insane?"

Xander frowns, "Insane? Is it so impossible for you to believe that other women find me attractive?"

Cordelia glares, lThe only way you could get girls to want you would be witchcraft."

"That is such a..." He concedes and continues, "Well, yeah, okay, good point."

Joyce breaks one of the kitchen door windowpanes.

"Oh, my God!" Cordelia hides behind Xander.

Joyce reaches in and feels around for the lock.

"Xander, honey, let Joycie in. Hon, let Joycie in!"

Xander gets up, takes hold of Cordelia and leads her out of the kitchen at a run.

"What do we do now?" He grimaces.

"Alright the only other place I can think of is near but-"

Xander interrupts her while waving his hands frantically, "Let's just go!"

Cordelia grabs his wrist and the two hurry out the back door. As they run through the neighborhood, he realizes the place looked familiar. He frowns as he glances over at Cordelia who doesn't look at him.

"Is this a good idea?"

Cordelia shrugs, "She'll either love you like everyone else or hate your guts like everyone else."

Xander frowns, "With her fighting skills, let's hope it's the first one."

Cordelia slaps the back of his head making him groan.

The two quickly run up to the front porch and knock hastily on the door.

"Laney!"

"Open the door!"

"Please hurry!"

The door is yanked open and the two quickly grab the stunned girl and bring her into the house while closing the door behind them. Xander grabs a chair from the kitchen and puts it under the doorknob of the front door as Cordelia looks at Laney nervously.

"Uh what's wrong with you guys?"

Cordelia bites her lip and huffs, "Please tell me you don't love Xander."

Laney frowns confused as she looks between the two, "Uh..."

Xander cuts her off and holds her an arms length apart with his hands on her shoulders, "I know I may seem irresistible and so very attractive and kissable. But you have to control yourself. Well actually maybe a little peck is oka-ow! I was kidding!"

Cordelia rolls her eyes at Xander and then stares at her friend who still wore the same face of confusion.

"First of all, gross. Second of all..."

"Ow!" Xander holds his cheek as Laney slaps him across the face, "Oh no we gotta hurry and tie her up with something before she tries to kill us!"

Laney raises an eyebrow, "Am I being punked?"

Cordelia pushes Xander away and pulls her friend into a tight hug with a sigh of relief, "Oh thank goodness you're normal!"

"Somebody please tell me what is going on!" Laney says now feeling frustrated at their weird antics.

"Dumbo over there got Amy to use a love spell which backfired and made every girl around love him."

Xander shrugs sheepishly smiling as he scratches the back of his neck, "And that love turned quickly into hate as they realized all girls within a ten foot radius of me want me."

Laney stares at Xander blankly before bursting out laughing. She bends over chuckling before slapping her and wiping a tear from her eye.

"You idiot. You already had a big bug go crazy over you then the hyena situation... now you got a witch to use a magic love spell and it went wrong. Now all the girls around wanna kill you because they think you're messing with their hearts. Oh sweet karma. You just can't make this stuff up."

Xander stares at her blankly as she tries to compose herself but bursts out laughing once more.

"I'm sorry I can't. This is too good. They're gonna rip you apart."

Cordelia chuckles making Xander look at her with wide eyes.

"Cordelia!?"

"Sorry. Laughter is contagious."

"Apparently so is the Xander ick." Laney grins as she walks into the kitchen and goes into her freezer grabbing an ice cream cone.

"How can you eat at a time like this?"

Laney glances at Xander before plopping down on the island chair, "Easy. Like this."

"Anddd I'm gonna die." Xander pouts as he watches Laney eat her ice cream.

Cordelia shakes her head trying to hide her small smile, "Alright enough. We should be safe-"

SMASH!

The three all jump in fright as the glass by Laney's front door is broken.

"Upstairs! Hurry!"

They run in Laney's room and Cordelia slams the door shut behind them. Xander goes to the window and checks outside.

"Good. The mob still hasn't found us. It looks like it's just Joyce. We should be safer up here."

Just as he looks back from the window Angelus grabs him from outside.

"Works in theory."

He pulls Xander out onto the roof.

Cordelia stares terrified at the now empty space, "Xander!"

Laney curses and grabs her stake from under her pillow.

On the roof outside of Laney's window. Angelus grabs Xander by the shirt.

"Where's Buffy?!"

Cordelia comes up to the window and looks out at them.

"Cordy, get Laney and get outta here!"

Angelus throws him off of the roof to the lawn below. He leaps down after him and stands over him.

"Perfect." Angelus grabs Xander and pulls him up, "I wanted to do something special for Buffy, actually to Buffy, but this is so much better!"

Xander knees him in the crotch, but Angelus isn't fazed. He flips Xander over backward onto the grass again. He bends down, grabs Xander's hair and lifts his head up.

"If it's any consolation, I feel very close to you right now."

A hand grabs Angelus by the shoulder, pulls him up and throws him aside into a tree. He hits it hard and slides down to the ground. Xander jumps to a conclusion and looks up at his savior.

"Laney..."

"Don't fret, kitten." Drusilla helps him up, "Mummy's here."

Angelus glares, "I don't know what you're up to, Dru, but it doesn't amuse!"

She growls at Angelus and he growls back.

"If you harm one hair on this boy's head..." she strokes his hair.

"You've gotta be kidding. Him?"

"Just because I finally found a real man..."

Angelus backs away slowly staring in confusion, "I guess I really did drive you crazy.

Drusilla runs her fingers over Xander's lips, "Your face is a poem." She moans, "I can read it."

Xander smiles terrified, "Really? It doesn't say 'spare me' by any chance?"

"Shhh." She kisses him, "How do you feel about eternal life?"

Xander trembles with fear, "We couldn't just start with a coffee? A movie, maybe?"

She grabs his hair and jerks his head to the side, exposing his neck. She moves in to bite him, but is shoved aside by a smaller figure. She glares as she looks up from the ground as Laney stands with a stake and Cordelia stands beside her holding a wooden cross.

"Leave the geek alone."

"Hey..."

Laney shrugs peeking over her shoulder at Xander, "What?"

Xander rolls his eyes and shakes his head, "Never mind it."

Angelus chuckles as he looks at Laney peek at him cautiously, "Oh hello beautiful. Did you like my gift?"

"Enjoy the days you have left..." Laney frowns as she looks him up and down.

Angelus smirks and pouts jokingly, "I could say the same to you, sweetheart."

"Don't get too happy. I'll gladly show you a preview of what's to come."

"Ditto."

Cordelia looks from Angelus' interested eyes to Laney's furious, uncomfortable stare.

"Why do I feel like he's in love with you now?"

Laney doesn't take her eyes off Angelus, "He's psychotic."

Angelus goes to say something but gets distracted by the screams of the mob of women running at them. Willow leads them with her axe. Jenny and the rest are right behind. Some of the others have weapons as well.

"There he is! Get them!"

Jenny grunts out pushing the other girls, "He's mine! Get off!"

Drusilla stands up as Willow shoves Cordelia and Laney aside. Jenny jumps onto Xander and knocks him to the ground. All the girls are screaming.

Several of them including Harmony begin to paw at him. Willow stands over him with her axe. Cordelia comes out of the house and rushes toward the mob.

Xander gets pinned down, and Willow raises her axe to strike, "All you had to do was love me!"

"No!"

Cordelia shouts as she grabs the axe and shoves Willow over and onto the ground, then tries to free Xander.

"Get out of the way! Move it! Get off him!"

She pushes the one that has him pinned down off of him, grabs his hand and pulls him up.

"Back off!"

She pushes him ahead of her, and they start to run back to the house.

They just manage to slam the door in the faces of their pursuers.

Drusilla hits it with both hands, and it goes crashing to the floor. Two girls rush in beside her.

"I love you!" A random girl screams.

When Drusilla tries to follow an unseen force prevents from entering the house. Angelus watches from behind her.

"Ahh! Sorry, Dru." In that very moment, she turns to face him as he glows, "I guess you're not invited."

Xander, Laney, and Cordy run back inside the front door.

Joyce comes up behind them holding a large knife, "It's never gonna work for us, Xander. We have to end it."

The other two girls come up behind her. Cordelia yells out in fright as Xander pulls her away from the door.

Laney looks around frantically, "This way..."

The three run through the kitchen then open the door that leads to the basement. The girls rush in as he pulls the door closed behind him and hooks it shut.

The door is being yanked at violently. Xander has hammered a couple of boards across the doorframe and looks back at Cordelia.

"Gimme a nail!"

She hands him a nail and he goes back to hammering.

Laney groans, "If we die in here I'm gonna kick your ass! I mean it!"

Xander looks back at her and frowns. He then turns to Cordelia and frowns.

"None of this would've happened if you hadn't broken up with me. But no, you're so desperate to be popular!"

Cordelia gasps in shock, "Me? I'm not the one who embraced the black arts just to get the girls to like me. Well, congratulations, it worked!"

Xander looks at her. The two completely forgetting the other grind.

"Would've worked fine, except your hide's so thick, not even magic can penetrate it!"

Cordelia is surprised by that, and reaches out to him. He turns to face her again.

"You mean the spell was for me?"

They look at each other for a moment, then hear a raspberry sound. They see Laney make the sound with her mouth.

"Lame..."

A knife blade stabs through the door as the three run down the steps. Once at the bottom they hear glass breaking and see a hand reach in through the basement window.

"Oh, please let me touch you!"

Cordelia screams as she, Laney, and Xander run into the area where the washer and dryer are. Willow finally gets the door open.

"Oh, my God!"

Xander spots a large pipe wrench and grabs it to use as a weapon.

"Stay behind me."

Willow ducks under the boards Xander nailed across the doorframe and starts down the stairs. Joyce is right behind her with her knife. A crowd of girls follows them. The three teens retreat into the corner by the water heater.

Willow leads the way in. When they find Xander, Cordelia, and Laney. They all charge them, screaming and shouting. They knock the three to the floor. The two of them have to fight off the girls' grabbing hands.

"Get off you love sick zombies!"

"Watch the hair!"

Suddenly a breeze passes by and the ground of girls stop moving. Willow has dropped her axe and paws at them like the others. Xander struggles to keep from being torn apart. Cordelia pushes one of the girls away as Laney stops fighting against another.

"Get off me!"

They all stand up and look around at each other.

"What's going on? Where am I? What's going on?"

Cordelia bites her lip thinking quick, "Boy, that was the best scavenger hunt ever."

She and Xander sheepishly smile at everyone as Laney groans rolling her eyes.

"Lame..."

...

The next day at school, Xander and Buffy come walking around the corner and continue toward the library.

"Scavenger hunt?"

Xander shrugs, "Your mom seemed to buy it."

Buffy sighs, "So she says. I think she's just so wigged at hitting on one of my friends that she's repressing. She's getting pretty good at that. I should probably start worrying."

Xander chuckles while shaking his head, "Well, I'm back to being incredibly unpopular."

Buffy smiles, "It's better than everyone trying to axe murder you, right?"

"Mostly, but, uh... Willow won't even talk to me."

"Any particular reason she should?"

"How much groveling are we talking here?"

"Oh, a month, at least." They stop and face each other, "Xander, come on, I mean... this is worse for her than anyone. She loved you before you invoked the great Roofie spirit. The rest of us..."

Xander grimaces, "You remember, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. I remember coming on to you, I remember begging you to undress me... And then a sudden need for cheese. I also remember that you didn't."

"Need cheese?"

Buffy rolls her eyes, "Undress me. It meant a lot to me what you said."

"C'mon, Buffy, I couldn't take advantage of you like that. Okay, for a minute, it was touch and go there..."

"You came through. There might just be hope for you yet."

"Well, tell that to Cordelia."

Buffy frowns, "You're on your own there."

She goes off down the hall leaving Xander alone.

Out in the courtyard, Cordelia, Harmony and her friends come walking around under the balcony and head toward the foot of the stairs.

"Cody Weinberg called me at home last night." Harmony gloats.

"Cody Weinberg? The one with the 350sl?"

Harmony smiles, "The very one. Said he's thinking of asking me to the pledge dance on Thursday."

Cordelia smiles uninterested, "That's so huge!"

Harmony nods, "Yeah, there's just two other girls he's gonna ask first, and if they refuse, then I'll..."

Xander bumps into Harmony as they round the corner to the stairs.

"Watch it!"

Xander frowns, "Sorry."

"God!" Harmonh looks him up and down, "Y'know, I'm glad your mom stopped working at the drive-through long enough to dress you."

She then turns to Cordelia and smiles, "Oh, that reminds me. Did you see Jennifer's backpack? It is so a crying..."

Cordelia looks at Xander sadly then interrupts, "Harmony, shut up."

Xander looks back in awe at the scene.

"Do you know what you are, Harmony? You're a sheep."

Harmony frowns, "I'm not a sheep."

Cordelia nods, "You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are 'cause I'm not a sheep. I do what I wanna do, and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what?"

Xander smiles feeling his heart elate at Cordelia's speech.

"I'll date whoever the hell I wanna date. No matter how lame he is."

Xander's smiles fades at that. Cordelia leaves the group and goes over to him. He smiles again. When she reaches him she takes his arm and they start walking together along the colonnade.

Cordelia breathes hard with anxiety as they take each step, "Oh, God! Oh, God!"

Xander pats her hand, "You're gonna be okay. Just keep walkin'."

"Oh, God, what have I done? They're never gonna speak to me again!"

"Oh, sure, they are. If it helps, whenever we're around them you and I can fight a lot."

Cordelia smiles, "You promise?"

Xander takes her hand in his.

"You can pretty much count on it."

What did think?

Not much Angelus, or Laney in this chapter. But we do get to see Cordelia finally sticking up for her fans her geek. 😭😭

Did you think Laney would not be affected at all? Or was that a complete shock?

Fav part so far?

Fav character so far?

Future predictions?

Any special requests...