3rd Person's POV

The library doors slam open. Willow and Giles look up from their research startled and anxious. Buffy enters, dragging an unconscious Xander.

"Hurry-- we've gotta look him up somehow, before he comes to."

Willow turns off the Video she's been studying.

"Oh my god, Xander-- is he alright?"

Buffy nods, "Oh fine. He's just enjoying a little brick-induced coma designed to prevent felony sexual assault."

Buffy heaves Xander into a steel-mesh book-return cage. She slams the door and locks it. Hangs the keys on a nearby book.

Giles frowns, "Oh Buffy, the Hyena in him didn't--"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, but it's safe to say that in his current state, his idea of wooing somebody doesn't include a Yanni CD and a bottle of Chianti.
And there's six more of them out there. So that means that Laney is leading them. What've you found?"

Giles flips pages in an ancient book, frustrated, "The book says nothing about Hyena exorcisms..."

Willow looks over confused, "How'd they stop it in the past?"

"I'm afraid the only solution is... Shoot to kill."

Buffy's eyes widen, "Shoot to kill! Now what?"

"We buy guns?" Giles smiles sheepishly.

"Who wrote this book-- the Michigan Militia? They're just teenagers."

Giles shuts the old book, frustrated.

"And I thought I'd found such a distinctly American solution to the problem. Well, I honestly don't know where else to look-- Malleus Maleficarum!

Willow shakes her head, "Swearing is never appropriate in any language."

But Giles has already disappeared into the stacks, as he speaks excitedly.

"No, no, no-- the Malleus Maleficarum, written by Sprenger and Kraemer in 1486, speaks directly to all demonic possessions!"

Giles returns, carefully holding a very dusty volume. He carefully opens and turns the pages.

"Its knowledge of the occult is so comprehensive,
Pope Innocent authorized that only twenty-eight
editions be published--"

He turns another page and his eyes devour the text.

"YES! The entire procedure described- we simply need to transfer the evil spirits..." He looks down crestfallen, "Into some other human... Or an animal..."

Buffy leaps up, "The Hyenas at the Zoo! The Zookeeper knew they were sick in the first place--"

Giles shuts the book and stands, motioning for Buffy.

"Willow, continue your video research-- whatever you do don't let Xander out. Buffy, you come with me. We must find that Zookeeper--"

"--Before those Hyena Kids get the munchies for more than bacon."

Motivated, Willow returns to work. Ejects the video cassette. Static, then the T.V. shifts out of vcr mode. On the screen, new reporter stands in a clearing in the Woods, as paramedics remove a ripped up tennis shoe.

"Guys..." Willow stares at the tv in horror.

Buffy and Giles stop at the door, then slowly approach the T.V. with growing terror.

"...Where just hours ago, a young man, identified only by the label in his underwear as 'Bobby,' was mauled to death by a pack of wild dogs."

The reporter looks into the camera then holds his earpiece with a frown.

"Oh and it just came in... Principal Robert Flutie has also been found in his office at Sunnydale High School also mauled. If you have a lead on these wild dog whereabouts call this number-"

Willow quickly shuts off the tv thinking of her sister.

An ominous silence fills the library as the three just look at each other, then at Xander-- and what he and the others have become.

Willow watches another video, at once fascinated and frightened. Then she hears some very human groaning. She looks across the room at the cage where Xander now sits up, rubbing the knot on his head.

"She whacked me with a brick- Buffy hit me with a brick--"

Willow turns back to the video, unforgiving.

"You deserved it."

Xander looks up at Willow. His eyes narrow as he studies her. Suddenly, his expression changes completely.

"What I said to you this morning, Willow-- about
being... pasty-faced-- I'm sooo sorry..." he says sweetly.

Willow's face softens. This is what she'd wanted to hear. She turns to Xander. He now looks at her, his eyes pleading.

Willow sighs, "I know, Xander-- but it wasn't really you talking."

"So help me, Willow."

"We are-- Buffy and Giles are the--"

Xander shakes his head, "--No... I mean, you -- you're the only one who can really help me-- let me out."

Willow pushes out from the desk, walks over to her friend, sympathy across her face.

"Giles and Buffy said--"

Xander frowns, "--Why're you even listening to Buffy? She doesn't care about you the way I do."

"Buffy's our best friend--"

"--Best Friend? Think about it, Willow- how long have you know me?"

"Since Mrs. Connor's Kindergarten class."

"You've only know Buffy since the beginning of the Semester--"

"So-- she's saved our lives about a dozen times already."

"She's the reason she had to save our live-- I'm
telling you, this weird stuff didn't start happening
until Buffy checked in to our lives--"

He starts pacing back and forth in his cage. Willow just watches him- her expression shows the pain she feels for her friend's condition.

"Vampires... Zombies... now 'Evil Hyena Spirits.' I mean she only tells us whatever she needs to use us. I've told you my deepest secrets- what's Buffy ever told you?"

"Xander, I think 'Slayer' ranks up there with childhood bed-wetter."

Xander stops pacing and turns to her.

"--Okay, she's a Slayer of the Undead-- so why's she
hanging out with you? Can't you see, she thinks she's
way socially superior."

Willow just stares at him, emotionally injured.

"I'm only telling you this because I love you, Willow-- and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Willow scoffs, "You have a pretty warped way of showing it."

"We belong together, Willow- Buffy's the outside who came between us. Let me out-- pleeease."

Willow obviously feels sympathy for her friend, but there's no way she's going to let him out. He pleads with his eyes.

"So you won't help me and you won't even help your sister?... you saw what she did to those people. She needs help. I can help you and I can help her. She needs me... she needs us. Just hand me those keys right there..."

Willow's eyes suddenly follow his outstretched arm to the keys and suddenly leaps for them, just as Willow takes a giant step backwards.

"I don't think so. Nice try."

Willow backs up and drops the keys safely on the desk, as Xander snarls at her.

Ferocious who-whoops, spine-chilling roars and the tearing and slurping sounds of a slow, horrible death we're heard throughout the library. Willow sits on the table watching another Nature Video of Hyenas attacking animals.

"Willow. Lots of times when we're together-- Biology, the Bronze-- I catch you leaning forward to let your hair hang down--"

But his cold, narrow eyes reveal his true feelings.

"--Then you peek through the strands, just enough to check me out. I know what you're feeling deep inside you--"

Willow smirks, "La la la la la, I'm not listening to you."

"Fine you want the truth... those feeling deep inside you... I have them too... not for you though. For your sister."

Xander cackles as he looks down at his hands. He has now scratched through most of the metal door hinge. The Cage Door rattles ominously. But the soft rattle is obscured by another rattle.

Willow looks up nervously ignoring Xander's hurtful comment. The library windows  are still.

Willow watches them a moment. Then her eyes return to see the Video.

Six sets of yellow eyes stare, hungrily glaring in at Willow from the ink-lack night.

Kyle presents a leering grin, "Wil-lowww... Wil-lowww..."