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8:20 AM - The lab

It hadn't taken anyone very long to fall asleep. Buffy had only been dozing on and off, trying to keep track of the time. Finally, she decided that it was time that they get started.

"It's time to get up," she called to the room.

Everyone woke quickly, sleeping lightly to begin with.

Tess had heard the announcement and wandered back into the main room with the others.

Buffy went to the door and unlocked it, staring into the dimly lit room. "Xander? It's time to start giving the shots."

Xander was sitting in the corner, and had obviously been awake for most of the morning. When he'd fallen asleep, he'd had a nightmare about busting down the flimsy door and attacking all of his friends. It terrified the Xander part of him, but excited everything else. He'd opted to stay awake to not only avoid more dreams, but also to make sure he didn't somehow do exactly what he had dreamed.

"Are you all right?" Buffy asked as he stood.

"Sure," he answered automatically, joining the others. The dream had jarred him even more than he realized. The horrific images popped into mind as he looked at his friends.

"How all right is sure?" Anya demanded. "You don't have the fangs right now, but that doesn't mean you're really all right."

Willow stepped in front of Anya before she could say anything else. "Now that the sun's up, are you feeling any different?"

Xander nodded. "Could have been from not sleeping, but I'm more tired and a little weaker than before."

"I figured that would happen," Willow said easily. "The Balford in you usually sleeps during the day, so that'd explain the fatigue. As long as the sun's up, you'll probably be feeling this way. Why couldn't you sleep?"

"Bad dreams," he answered quickly.

"Do you need blood?" Buffy asked him bluntly, knowing it was a question that needed asking.

Xander shook his head a little, looking at her. "Once we've cured a few of them, I think it would be best if I opened that door and had Anya go to the hospital."

Buffy nodded, looking to the three that had been in the hall with her the last time they'd entered Lee's room. "Since Lee seems to be the most dangerous, I think we should try this on him first. We'll use the same routine. Even if Lee looks like he's asleep, treat him like he's faking it; we can't afford to be taken by surprise again."

The four of them, and Willow with the syringe, headed back to the hall. Anya and Dawn were again left in the lab to wait.

Tess unlocked the door again, and Spike, Buffy, and Xander rushed inside, picking Lee up by the arms, legs, and throat to hold him in place.

Lee tried to get away from them, but he couldn't pull away from the padded wall. Willow followed them inside, joining them beside Lee. She pulled up his sleeve and gave him the shot slowly.

"This isn't fair!" Lee shouted as best he could.

"I'm the one with the short straw," Xander explained.

Buffy looked at Willow, trying her best to hold Lee's arm still. "He's kinda heavy," Buffy complained. "Can you hurry it up?"

"Done," Willow called, the syringe finally empty. She took a few steps back.

Lee started thrashing at them more violently, kicking Buffy to the mat.

Willow ran from the room, stopping outside the door with Tess.

"You really want to get hit again," Xander pointed out, pulling his fist back to do just that.

Lee suddenly grabbed onto his chest, falling to his knees, and gasping for air.

Spike and Xander backed away from him, helping Buffy to her feet as they watched.

Lee fell on his stomach to the mat, unconscious again.

"I'm going to check his pulse," Buffy announced, taking a step towards Lee.

Xander caught her by the arm, to stop her. He released her just quickly, his excitable senses overreacting to the gesture. "His heart wasn't beating before; it still isn't. He might just be trying to get us to drop our guard again."

Willow took a step into the room again, looking to her friends. "We should probably give it some time to work. Changing him to begin with was, apparently, not an instant thing, so it might be the same to change him back."

The trio agreed and followed Willow into the hall. Tess locked the door again behind them and they went back into the lab.

"What's the verdict?" Dawn asked eagerly. "Cure or poison?"

"We don't know yet," Willow answered.

Xander put his hand against the wall, catching his balance as he started to feel a little dizzy. He wasn't feeling exceptionally hungry, so he wasn't sure why he was feeling dizzy. "I think I should open the door pretty soon."

"It's probably just because of the Balford again. Like I said yesterday, they literally can't stay awake during the day," Willow explained. "You're just really tired."

A sharp, beating sound came from one of the cells.

Everyone looked towards the hall.

One more sharp thud and the door flew off of Lee's cell.

"This is just great," Anya commented sarcastically.

They all gathered in the far corner of the lab with Buffy, Xander and Spike ready to defend the group.

Lee came running out of the cell and directly for the exit, ignoring the others.

Xander, Spike, and Buffy all hurried for the hall to find out what was happening.

He looked completely human now, but, as he began to beat at the door, the metal was dented by his fists.

"Lee!" Buffy called, running at him.

Lee casually backhanded her, sending her sailing towards her friends.

Buffy was on her feet quickly.

With one more hit, Lee sent the door off it's hinges and clattering to the pavement outside. He ran out, heading towards the park.

Buffy, followed by Xander and Spike, ran after him.

Xander fell to his knees on the pavement, hit roughly with the light of Willow's spell so suddenly blinded by the sunlight that he couldn't keep running.

Spike passed through the doorway and stumbled back inside, unable to follow because of the sun shining near the horizon.

Xander got back to his feet quickly, looking back inside the building at Spike with a smile.

"We'll all be happy that the Spell still works, but you'd better hurry or you might not be much use to Buffy," Spike instructed from the shade.

Willow came running past Spike, catching Xander by the arm to turn him around. "Come on!"

They both ran after Buffy and Lee.

Getting nearer to the playground in the park, Buffy overtook Lee, tackling him to the ground.

Lee was wheezing as though he were having trouble breathing, but he managed to throw Buffy off of him and to the ground. He forced himself to his feet, glaring at her.

Buffy stood, ready for whatever might come next. "Lee, can we just talk about this and not fight? You're dangerous."

"What is the Hell is going on?" Lee demanded. "Why am I feeling these things?"

Xander and Willow finally caught up, stopping beside Buffy.

Buffy looking to Xander. "Is his heart beating now? He's talking more like Stephen."

Xander looked at him, trying to hear the heartbeat.

"At least this isan improvement," Willow commented, looking at Lee fearfully. "Sounding more like Stephen, I mean. At least Stephen seemed to want to be peaceful."

Lee was panting with a hand on his chest, pained by every breath.

Xander's senses were too dulled to even hear Buffy or Willow's heartbeat. "I can't tell because of that Spell. I think it's working better than it was. I could hear and smell all sorts of things before, but not now." The one thing that wasn't dulled was the intensity of the golden light being sifted through the trees. It burnt his eyes and warmed his skin in the cool temperature of the morning. Another unrelenting aspect of his physiology that remained was how tired he while the sun was in the sky.

Lee fell to his knees. "Yes, it's beating and it hurts," he said weakly. "Oh, God... Please help me..."

"Come back with us into the building," Buffy began. "If you don't try to hurt us, we will help you."

Lee nodded, trying to stand. His eyes had become a warm shade of brown, presumably meaning he was becoming more and more human every moment.

Buffy and Xander went to him, pulling Lee to his feet by the arms.

"I guess this means it wasn't poison," Willow commented optimistically, heading back to the lab.

"Poison?" Lee asked nervously.

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9:00 AM - The lab

When Xander had passed into the building, he could feel the rush of sensations as the spell was lifted again. They'd waited a moment just inside the door before continuing back into the lab. Dawn, Spike, Tess and Anya were waiting in the lab when the others finally came back into the room.

"Everything all right?" Spike asked, looking to Lee.

"That shot brought him back," Xander explained with a yawn, feeling even weaker now that the spell had been blocked.

"I still feel a bit ill," Lee corrected. "But better than I did a few minutes ago."

"You can sit down," Willow offered him, gesturing to the steps where all the others had always chosen to sit.

He gratefully sat down.

"Well, this means you can give the shots to the others," Dawn said to Willow happily.

"Could some of you please fill me in on what's going on?" Lee asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Tess asked him.

Lee thought a moment. "I was cutting through Central Park, on the way home from a meeting, and someone mugged me; I couldn't see who. The next thing I know, I'm running through this park, and I felt like Superman with a hangover. Then I get tackled, and you know the rest."

"Lee, excuse us for a minute," Xander requested, motioning for the others to follow him to one of the counters.

They all gathered around apprehensively, still not sure how close to Xander would be all right.

"If he doesn't remember, I don't think we should fill in the gruesome details," Xander whispered. "We should send him to the cops, and Andy might be able to get this guy back to New York. If we had Andy pick him up right now, we could have him start tracking down those vampires while we finish with things here."

Buffy shook her head. "If we don't tell Lee about this, there's nothing to stop him from mentioning all of us to the other cops, and if we let him go right now, we're still not sure what kind of effects to expect after the shot has been working a while. For all we know, this amnesia could be temporary…or even the cure could be temporary."

Lee spoke suddenly. "You'll think I'm crazy if I'm wrong, but I'm remembering some other things... Monsters... And blood..."

"Problem solved," Anya chirped happily. "The amnesia is just temporary."

"Oh God..." Lee whispered, putting a hand to his mouth in shock. "I killed a person and I was a monster, too... I was a vampire, or something like one…"

The others broke away from their circle, no longer in need of a secret meeting.

Willow went over to the counter, picking up another needle. "Room two or four?"

"Two," Buffy answered. "Lee hit the Stephen-ish phase in less than five minutes, then was pretty peaceful. We don't know what to expect from Olivia." She looked to Tess. "Just to be safe, I think we should wait until last for you, just in case something happens to Lee after a while."

Tess nodded reluctantly. She was eager to be normal again, even if it meant re-living all the trauma slowly. She'd had months to get used to living like a monster, but to experience everything all over again, memory by memory, wasn't very inviting. "Plus I'm not like the others; we don't know how I'll act."

"Wait a second," Xander requested tiredly. "The door's all ready open, so I think we should have Anya go to the hospital for me."

"All right," Anya agreed, sounding happier than she had all day. She went quickly up the steps towards the door.

Xander followed. "I'd have figured you were the one person who wanted to see me suffer," he called after her. "You'd wanted someone to wish a worse punishment on me not too long ago."

They passed into the parking lot.

The same, magical light hit him again, sending him off balance and back to the pavement. Happily accepting the price of sore knees, he stood again, feeling very human.

Anya laughed, turning back to him. "This would be a very fitting wish against you. All you've done since you met Buffy is try to fight demons who kill people to survive. For you to become one with a soul is more poetic than you can imagine."

Xander stared at her, expecting her to give that sort of answer. He, too, could see the irony.

Anya made a sweeping motion with her hand. "Seriously, I'm over all of that, but I can't say I haven't enjoyed your suffering. Don't think that means I'm not going to be one of the people who helps to make it stop." In the blink on an eye, Anya had disappeared.

Xander found some shade against the building near the door. He sat down and waited. Sitting there, alone, he began to feel exactly how differently the spell was working on him. He couldn't see, hear, or smell any better than the average person. It was almost as though the spell had still been gaining its effectiveness while it was being blocked. He ran his tongue across his teeth. Just as they always were with his human face since he'd been changed, his teeth remained slightly pointed.

Willow came through the door, into the lot, looking around.

"You should just wait inside," Xander called to her.

She looked at him with a smile, going over to him. "So my spell's working on you when you're outside?"

Xander nodded. "Strong as ever; like it hadn't been off me the whole time."

Anya reappeared with a bulging, flower-print bag over her right shoulder and a black t-shirt in her right hand. She reached into her bag with her left hand and pulled out a plump package of blood, thrusting it at him. "I stole the bag from a patient's room, saw that you needed a new shirt, and here is what you actually wanted."

He stood and took the package quickly. He turned away from the women as he messily tore into the corner of the package with the residually pointed teeth. He was hungrier than he'd realized.

Both Anya and Willow looked away, eyes scanning the parking lot for lack of anything better to focus on while ignoring Xander.

"With all the blood he's been needing, I have enough to last a full day," Anya explained. "That is, if he doesn't get stabbed through the chest again. Who knows how many of these he'd need if that happened," she asked rhetorically.

Xander finished the bag, throwing it to the pavement beside the overflowing dumpster. The desire for more blood was lessening by the moment as he felt more and more like his old self. The taste had disappeared completely; it was like drinking thick, red-colored water. "I need another." If he was short by even a drop when he reentered the building, he may as well be in the same situation he was in when he walked through those doors the first time.

Anya turned around and handed him another, rejoining Willow just as quickly.

Xander took it and began drinking it in the same fashion, turning away from them to spare them the spectacle that even he found grotesque.

Xander finished the other package and discarded it in the same manner. His heart was beating at a normal pace again, and he looked back to the others, trying to wipe any remaining blood from around his mouth. "All done," he announced quietly.

"Are you ready to come back inside?" Willow asked him, turning back to her friend.

Xander gave a small nod, a little frightened. Outside, his wish to feel normal was granted in full, but, inside, he wasn't sure he was strong enough to hold everything back again. The struggle drained him, and, weather inside the building or out, the sun wasn't helping him feel any stronger.

Willow led the way, followed by Xander and then Anya.

Once again, Xander paused upon passing over the threshold, startled by the rush of sensations and strength, and finally disturbed by the desires surfacing within him. It wasn't nearly as terrible as it had been, but he still wasn't accustomed to that hyperactive state-of-mind.

They went back into the lab.

Anya set the bag on the counter next to the needles containing the cure. She pulled the shirt from the bag, tossing it to Xander.

Xander caught it, quickly pulling off the torn and bloody shirt, and puling on the clean black one. He gave a chuckle, seeing the words in dark red lettering that were written on the front on his shirt. "Who did you say you got this shirt from?"

Everyone but Lee turned, amused. The message asked "got blood?" in a fashion meant to mock the "got milk?" dairy campaign. Lee was still sitting on the steps quietly looking at the floor.

"Some guy was getting an x-ray," Anya answered easily. "There was a pile of black clothing and I just grabbed the shirt."

"Xander?" Lee called to him seriously.

Xander turned around, still a little uplifted by the humor of the shirt. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry I stabbed you," Lee said sincerely, looking up at Xander.

"That's ok," Xander lied as well as he could manage, too obviously loosing his cheer. That injury had stunned him so badly that he'd attacked Buffy. To further prevent the lie from being discovered, he turned to Buffy and changed the subject. "We may as well not waste any time."

Willow picked up one of the needles. "Sounds good."

Xander led them down the hall, and Tess, Spike, Willow and Buffy followed.

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9:45 AM - In the Hall Outside Room #2

Tess grabbed the key off the hook and unlocked the door, throwing it open quickly.

Xander, Spike, and Buffy rushed inside, just as they had before.

Stephen had been sitting quietly on the floor but stood, looking almost confused, as they entered.

The group pinned him against the wall, each taking the same position on Stephen as they had Lee.

Stephen began to struggle, kicking and thrashing.

Willow came inside quickly, jabbing him just as she had Lee and slowly pushed the liquid into his arm.

Not too tight or you'll break his arm Xander reminded himself suddenly, realizing how hard he was actually gripping Stephen

With one burst of strength, Stephen threw Xander off his arm and then kicked Xander to the mat. Stephen grabbed Willow around the throat with his free hand.

Willow let go of the needle. It was sticking out of Stephen's arm like a dart as she tried with both hands to get away.

Stephen threw Willow towards Spike and Buffy, knocking them away from him. He pulled the needle out. It was nearly 2/3 of the way emptied of the liquid.

Xander jumped up at Stephen, tackling him to the floor.

Stephen, still conscious, stopped struggling. Some of the vampiric traits were disappearing and his eyes became brown.

Buffy and Spike pulled Xander up, revealing the empty needle sticking out of Xander's right shoulder.

Willow ran out of the room after the needle with the leftover portion of the mixture. If Stephen was going to react the way Lee had, by running when he got back to his feet, she needed to give him the last of the shot before he did.

Xander, his hand shaking violently, pulled the needle out of his shoulder and dropped it to the mat. He suddenly fell to his knees, gasping as pain began shooting through his body every time his heart pumped.

"Xander," Buffy called quickly, going to his side.

Spike quickly pulled her away from him. "Careful," he warned. "We don't know what this'll do to him and keepin' a distance, something' he's been spouting a lot lately, would probably be the best thing."

Xander's claws, four sharp teeth, and strangely colored eyes had resurfaced. He scrambled away from all of them, pressing himself against the wall, his eyes wide from the shock of the pain as he stared fearfully at the floor. His skin was crawling and his veins felt like they were on fire.

Willow came back into the room with the other needle. She injected Stephen in his arm quickly.

Stephen finally lost consciousness, falling onto his stomach.

Willow looked back to Xander.

He was breathing a bit more easily. The pain was passing, but his skin was still tingling a little. He put his hands over his eyes, rubbed them a little with a sigh, and looked back to his friends. "That wasn't very smart of me, was it?" It was hard to tell exactly what he was feeling. He'd been weakened, that was true, but he almost felt like he was hungry again.

"How do you feel?" Willow asked him nervously.

"Weird," he said, standing up with a yawn. "But pretty much the same; maybe a little more drained." Xander looked at his long fingernails to see if there was any change and was surprised by the return of the coal-colored stain. "Why do you think that happened? Wasn't the point of that mixture to make me more like a normal person again?"

Willow took a moment to think, biting her lip. "M-Maybe..." She wasn't sure if she was right and she didn't really know how to word her theory.

"Spit it out," Spike urged.

"Maybe the way it works is like splashing turpentine on a painted canvas," Willow began to suggest. "In this case, think of four of five colors on top, and about twenty underneath; that would represent the dominate and recessive traits of the various demons... The chemical will smear some of the layers as it uncovers the blank, human canvas."

"So we don't really know what's been uncovered and what's been destroyed," Buffy translated.

"I think I'd better stay outside," Xander suggested. "Magic is the only guaranteed way to white-wash all the demon parts into looking like the canvas."

Stephen began to wake up. He slowly pushed himself to his knees and looked at the group with confusion, rather than the rage they had been seeing. "What's going on?" He looked to Xander with an expression of shock. That man looks like a monster... Stephen thought to himself, trying to stay calm.

"You'll start remembering things in the next few minutes," Willow assured quickly before looking back to Xander. "I'll come with you."

Xander gave a nod and they left the room, went down the hall, and startled Lee on the way up the stairs. As Xander stepped into the light streaming in through the doorway, he jumped backwards into the shade; the light burned his skin.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked, stopping in the light of the doorway.

Even the glare of the sunlight was burning his eyes and searing his skin. "I-I think we found one of the smears."

"We don't have any blankets with us... but I'll get Spike's coat," she offered. First, she looked outside. "The shade you were in before is gone, but there's some shade from the trees in the park. Would that be enough? Or should I walk you to the parking garage across the street?" She looked back to him, a little surprised. "Your eyes... They're a-almost back to normal."

The whites of his eyes had returned to white, but the irises were a mixture of red and gold.

"That's good, considering I found another problem..." Xander began slowly, still experiencing discomfort from the indirect light. "I've been trying to make myself look normal since that shot stopped feeling like acid, but I just can't seem to make everything disappear. That's why I figured outside might be a good thing."

Willow nodded. She headed back down the hall to the lab for Spike's long coat.

Stephen was sitting on the steps near Lee, struggling through the things he was beginning to recall.

The others had gathered near the counter with the last two syringes, both filled with adequate doses of the cure.

"So, has he mentioned what that shot is doing to him?" Buffy asked.

Willow looked to Spike. "He needs to borrow your coat." She looked to Buffy. "He can't handle sunlight or do the demon-face-to-human-face thing, so he pretty much wants to just go outside. The spell will kick in again when he does, so he'll feel a little better."

"Did he mention if he felt any different?" Dawn asked. "Is he acting any weirder?"

Spike slid off his coat and handed it to Willow. "If he does start to act a little bit off, or somethin' happens, just give a call." He reached into the flower-patterned bag on the counter and handed a plastic package of blood to her. "Given his meal schedule..."

Willow shook her head, refusing to take it. "If he actually needs it, I'll come back in and bring it to him then. He won't get violent when the spell is on him, so I won't be in danger."

Tess looked to Buffy and Spike. "Olivia is still tied up, so we don't need Xander to give the shot... I'm strong enough to do more than just hold the door."

"I'll watch the door," Dawn offered.

"But who will give her the shot?" Willow asked. "I'll be with Xander..."

"Me," Anya offered in a bored voice. "I've been taking people apart long enough to know how to hit a vein with a needle."

"All right," Buffy decided, looking to Willow. "We'll handle Olivia while you help Xander."

Willow nodded and headed up the steps with the coat as the others headed towards the hall of rooms.

Xander was on the floor with his back against the wall, asleep. His nails were still long and stained nearly black, but he otherwise looked no different than he had when she'd left him.

She approached cautiously, unsure of how to wake him. She remembered hearing that the last time he'd been asleep the result of waking him had been a panicked, mindless action. Using the tip of her shoe, she gently tapped him at the sole of his shoe. "Xander..." she whispered, ready to jump back at his first sign of movement.

Xander opened his eyes a little, still pained by the brightness.

Willow took a small step back. His eyes were a golden-brown that was lighter than his usual color. They seemed a mix of vampiric yellow and his human shade. "Are you feeling different?"

Xander shook his head as he rubbed his eyes and stood. "Crazy as ever." The exact same urge to jump at her for the sake of violence and blood had returned as though he hadn't had anything to drink that day. The only real difference seemed to be that he still couldn't hide his monstrous appearance.

Willow stepped foreword again and handed him the jacket. "When it comes to all of us actually leaving, I'll make a run to the car and find the blankets."

Xander pulled the coat over his head and clutched it tightly closed in the middle.

"So, where to?" Willow asked.

"The closest patch of shade you can find," he said quickly.

Willow put a hand to his back and escorted him outside.

As soon as he stepped across the threshold, he felt the spell take hold and he was forced to stop walking. A sharp pain was sweeping through his joints, pricking at his skin, stinging his eyes, ripping at his fingernails, and sending an ache through his teeth. Finally, he felt thoroughly numbed by the magic.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked him quickly.

"I'll tell you in a minute," he said. "When we get to the shade..."

They kept walking until they'd reached the shade of a neighboring building.

"All right," Willow said. "We're in the shade."

Xander slowly pulled the jacket off his head, unsure of how the ambient light would feel. Happily, there was no more pain; not even to his eyes. He dropped the jacket to the ground, noticing that his claws and teeth had, for the most part, been turned human. His long teeth were just small points, and his fingernails were short with only slight discoloration.

"Nice to see my magic can still do some good," Willow commented, also noticing how human he was looking.

Xander nodded, looking out into the sunny parking lot. Impulsively, he extended his arm into the light. The sunlight sharply stung his skin but didn't turn it red or even make smoke. He pulled quickly back into the shade, feeling pain despite no outward mark. "It may not look it, but that hurt like hell. Your magic didn't solve all my problems."

Willow gave a sharp, irritated sigh. "This magic was supposed to keep you from wanting to hurt people, not make you completely human again; that was just a nice side-effect so you shouldn't complain."

A sharp cry broke the silence and Olivia came running out of the doorway, stumbling aimlessly as she tried to protect herself from the sun. Her skin was beginning to let off smoke as it turned red.

Xander dove quickly into the light, the pain hitting his skin like he'd just been splashed with boiling water. He grabbed Olivia by the arm and dragged her into the shade with the same force he could have displayed inside the building. The pain faded quickly and he held her thrashing form against the wall, sadly realizing that one more trait no longer smothered by Willow's magic was his dangerous level of physical strength.

Olivia was still being seared by the light, and struggling to get away from him.

Willow picked up the jacket, throwing it over Olivia's head.

Xander let Olivia drop to the pavement, hiding in a lump under the jacket.

Willow looked to Xander, about to ask if he'd been badly burned, but Buffy came running out of the lab.

"Did you see Olivia?" Buffy asked quickly.

Xander pointed to the slightly shaking jacket. "She's under there; the light was hurting her."

"Speaking of," Buffy began to Xander, joining them in the shade, "it looks like you're doing better in the light and you definitely look better. How do you feel?"

"Sunlight doesn't affect my skin--you know, like catching fire or charring or anything--but pain is definitely a factor. I think I might actually be as strong as I am inside, which is good for a fight but generally dangerous," Xander began to inventory. "Happily, I'm not feeling all the other things, but when I go back into that lab I'll have to deal with all of them, too."

Buffy nodded a little. "But once we've given Tess the last shot, and gotten them all ready to be taken to that Detective, we'll track down those other vampires and we won't stop until we've gotten you the cure, too--a full dose, that is."

"And in the meantime I'll consume more blood every day than most of the operating rooms I steal it from," Xander pointed out pessimistically. "That is, unless I snap one day and decide to get it from the source, you might say, and let a few people die."

Olivia lifted the jacket, looking out from under it at each of them. She stopped on Xander, a little jarred by what he had just said. "W-Where am I?"

"You're safe with us," Willow assured her a little more kindly than she had Stephen. "I think you'll be all right if you come out from under there."

She did as suggested, letting the heavy leather jacket fall to the pavement. "How did I get here?"

Buffy answered this time. "We're not sure, exactly, but your memory will come back pretty soon. We should go back into that building," she gestured to the open door, "and you can sit down until you do start to remember."

Olivia nodded a little, still in a dazed state.

Buffy put her hand on Olivia's shoulder and led her back through the door.

"How much of that stuff do you think was in the syringe?" Xander asked Willow after an awkward silence. "How much more of it will I need to make a full dose?"

Willow didn't answer right away. "I'm not really sure how much was left in it when you were injected."

He looked to her quickly. "So how do we know that Stephen got as much as he needed?"

She shook her head. "We don't but I'm pretty sure he got more than the full dose."

"You have to see if it really worked--you have to bring him outside, and then test him with a cross and..." Xander rambled urgently.

"I know we should," Willow interrupted quickly, a little irritated. "With my magic working on you, it's all right for us to be close. I realize that without it, you're dangerous. Basically, out here is the only place you can be the old you. Because of this, I'm trying to concentrate on you for the moment, unless you have a problem with that."

Xander shook his head, feeling a little dizzy from a mixture of sleepiness and something else he couldn't be sure of. "I don't have any problem with that, but what more is there to concentrate on?" He rubbed his eyes and gave another yawn before turning back to her. "All of them will be cured, and I'm worse off than I was before. That's pretty cut and dry, right?"

Willow didn't answer.

"Not that I was planning on having much of a life as that thing I was an hour ago, but at least it wouldn't have been so obvious. I could have gone out into the sun without so much pain, and I might have been able to stay awake during the day," Xander explained sadly. "But if it weren't for your magic, I'd look completely like that monster right..." He stopped talking as his vision began to cloud and he felt a spinning sensation. Xander hit the ground hard, his eyes unfocussed.

"Xander!" Willow shrieked, kneeling at his side to make sure he was all right. She checked his pulse. It was faint, but at least he still had one. "Wake up!" she demanded, shaking him by the shoulders.

"What happened?" Buffy asked from the doorway, rushing over to them.

"He just fell over!" Willow explained frantically.

Xander blinked, not sure how he'd gotten to the ground, but he was able to feel the pain in his elbow from the apparent impact. He sat up slowly, still dizzy.

"Are you all right?" Buffy asked quickly.

"I don't know," he whispered, still feeling weak and groggy. "Probably."

"Do you need blood, or are you just tired?" Buffy asked right away.

He shook his head a little. "I don't know."

"We'll help you back inside; you need some sleep or something, and I don't think you can just sleep out here," Willow explained.

"Besides, if you're inside, you might be able to establish what that dose of chemicals has actually done to you," Buffy agreed.

Xander didn't argue as they helped him to his feet. They were both right: if he was going to get some sleep, he couldn't get it outside, and to figure out what had actually made him pass out, he needed to see how he was really feeling.

Willow threw the coat over his head, and they led him towards the building.

Despite his vision being blocked by the coat, he could feel the magic wearing off several feet from the doorway. As he passed the threshold, he was sorry that he agreed to come inside. Not only was there a slight ache as his teeth, eyes, and fingernails changed, but he was hit with hunger pains so severe that it was as if he hadn't had any blood at all that day. His mind began to cloud as he threw off the coat. Before he could pinpoint whatever else he was feeling, he'd suddenly grabbed onto Willow, pinned her shoulders the wall and found himself positioning to bite her on the neck.

Even her Slayer reflexes couldn't have prepared her for that moment: in the blink of an eye she was staring at Xander as he seemed ready to kill her best friend. Buffy tried to pull his arm away from her, but he seemed to be much stronger than she was.

Xander easily pushed Buffy to the side, his eyes still on Willow's neck.

Willow let out a short scream, too frightened to take any other action.

The sound brought him back to what was happening. He stumbled away from Willow quickly, terrified by what he had almost done. He pressed himself into one corner of the entrance hall, and slide to the floor with a dazed expression. The pain was still present, but he forced himself to ignore it. If he paid too much attention to what he was feeling, he feared he would be on his feet again, trying to hurt one of his friends.

Willow stood silently, her eyes wide in horror as she stared at him.

"Are you all right?" Buffy asked her.

She could barely move, but seemed to make a motion similar to a nod.

Buffy turned around to face Xander.

Spike came running down the hall, unsure of what he might find. "What's happening?" he called as he arrived.

"He attacked Willow," Buffy confessed.

Finally able to move, Willow ran past Spike, and down the hall towards the main room.

Spike went over to Buffy to get the details, but she pushed him away from her to stare at Xander.

"Xander?" Buffy began in a small voice.

"Barely," he panted quietly as he looked back to her. He put his hand to his head, dizzy again and more exhausted than he ever remembered feeling.

As his eyes caught the light, Buffy was a little surprised to see that his irises had changed to yet a different color: a metallic sort of gold. At no point had she remembered Willow mentioning pointed ears, so she was even more surprised when she noticed the slightly pointed tips to Xander's.

Willow came cautiously back down the hall carrying her backpack, Buffy's slaying supplies, and a few packages of blood. She went straight to Buffy and Spike and set her supplies on the floor. Sitting on the floor by the items, she slid one of the packages of blood towards Xander.

Quickly, Xander picked up the package, tore a hole in the corner and began to drink.

Willow looked away, taking a few papers from her bag. She pulled out several sheets: the list of demons that had been in some way added to Xander; the ones she'd confirmed to be a part of him; and the physical traits and abilities of all the different demons on both lists.

Xander finished the bag of blood, laid it on the floor quietly, and looked back to Buffy and Willow.

"Xander, can you do a few things for me?" Willow asked as bravely as she could. He'd just tried to kill her, but she wanted to be firm. Like she'd said outside: he was dangerous in here, and not like the friend she knew. She made a note on her paper of how absolutely pale he looked and the fact that his ears seemed to have points at the top.

He nodded a little, not sure what he could say to any of them. The pain had passed, but the mixture of sensations and urges he was feeling matched those of when he'd first entered the building. It was almost as strange a feeling being near his friends as what he'd felt venturing into the room to kill the two vampires. This frightened him more than anything else he'd ever seen or felt.

"Can you try to melt that plastic bag for me?"

He nodded again, picking up the package. Doing things exactly the way he had before, he concentrated on making his hands feel warm. Nothing was happening; his hands didn't feel any different, and the bag remained the same. "It didn't work," he said quietly with a little bit of a smile. "This must mean that shot was working the right way on me after all."

Willow nodded absently, looking more concerned as she dug around in Buffy's bag. She pulled out a cross, a plastic bottle of holy water, and an arrow. One by one, she slid the items to Xander. "The cross and water are pretty obvious."

Xander did as he was told. He picked up the cross, feeling a little warmth. "I-Its warm, but doesn't hurt."

Willow made a note on the paper.

Sliding the cross back to them, he moved on to the water. Pouring a little into his palm, the sensation was the same. "It's like it's been in a microwave for a minute, but otherwise fine." He closed the bottle, and slid it to her.

Willow made another note as she put the cross and water away. She looked back to Xander without showing any emotion. "We didn't have a knife with us tonight, but the arrowhead should be sharp enough to see how fast you heal."

He wrapped his left palm around the arrowhead, and swiftly pulled down on the shaft with his right. It felt like a paper cut when it happened, but the pain disappeared instantly. Dropping the arrow, he looked back to his hand. There was no mark, and only a few stray droplets of blood. He slid the arrow back to them. "I healed faster than before; I didn't even have time to bleed."

Willow nodded as she wrote. "Do you still feel tired?" she asked, not looking at him.

"Very," he said simply. He felt that if he shut his eyes, he could easily fall asleep.

Willow pulled a small flashlight out of a zippered portion of her bag. "Can I come closer to look at your eyes?"

Xander nodded, hoping that it really would be all right.

Willow crawled over to him, and put a hand under his chin to position his head correctly. She turned on the light.

He blinked a few times before managing to keep his eyes open. The light, even looking to the side of it, seemed to be as bright as looking directly into the sun.

"Zurika," she whispered to herself as she looked at their coloring. No red ring around the pupils, and the whites were perfectly white. The only thing different was the shiny-golden color of his eyes.

"Don't you mean 'Eureka,'" Xander asked her.

She turned off the light and let go of his chin, shaking her head. "Not really, but I guess both would apply. By what you seem to be feeling, and by the way you look, there are a few demons that have been flushed out of you by that shot, but the few that are left could be the most dangerous."

Xander had been dreading that that would be the answer.

"Turn your head a little," she requested.

He did as he was told.

She brushed some of the hair away from his ears, just to make sure she really had seen points. "All done," she announced.

He looked back to her for answers.

Willow reached behind and picked up the paper she had been writing on. She circled two more things with her pen and handed it to Xander for him to examine. "The ones I circled seem to be what's left. If any others are there, they're too weak to have influenced your behavior or physical form at this point."

Xander skimmed the list, remembering that she had mentioned most of them at the motel.

"Lazlon," Willow began to recite. "are extremely violent, several times stronger than vampires, and have to drink blood nearly all of the time just to stay alive."

Xander read the section on Lazlon Demons. "And that's why I have these points on the bottom teeth. I didn't bother asking about that before."

Willow nodded and continued her list, "Deshkleave are also violent. They have long, dark-colored, poisonous claws can keep a person's blood from coagulating for at least 24 hours after the poison enters the bloodstream."

Xander looked quickly to his fingernails. "But before, when they weren't black, you thought they might have been poisonous…"

She nodded quickly. "In that final shot they wanted to cover the discoloration but also gave a stronger dose of the Deshkleave in hopes that they would remain poisonous."

"And Bijou?" he asked, looking at the blurb she'd writing.

"That's why you have pointed ears."

Xander reached up quickly, feeling the tops of his ears. "That's definitely new." He lowered his hands back to the paper, reading.

Willow nodded. "They survive off on human blood, and are pretty violent. There was one case of a peaceful one in Europe, but that's the only case any researchers seem to know of."

"That strong?" he asked under his breath.

Buffy and Spike were both a little curious.

"How strong?" Buffy asked.

Willow answered. "The strongest and fastest breed of demon who can pass as human."

Xander looked back to the paper. "And outside of what I know as Vampire in me, that leaves just the Zurika. You said before that they're really violent and impulsive."

"An understatement," she corrected. "They're some of the most violent creatures on the planet."

No one in the room reacted very well to that news, growing even more eager to hear Willow's rational for thinking the Zurika may still be a part of him.

"When you came in here and the spell wore off, you acted on instinct because your body was in such a starved state. Also, Zurikas have metallic gold or silver eyes, depending on what continent they were found on. Your eyes are gold, so the Zurika they used is from South America," Willow announced. "But there's one more demon on that list. It, combined with the human in you, was able to stop you before you...Well…"

Xander nodded. She didn't have to say what he'd almost done because it was obvious. He looked to the list. "Balford Demons? The nice people on the night shift?"

Willow nodded with a small smile. "They're virtuous and peaceful."

"And you're sure there's still some of that left in me?"

She smiled again. "First, all the other demons on this whole list, except for Vampires, have healthy to dark-looking skin, but you're like paper."

Spike gave a small laugh. "Vampires don't even get as pale as you, mate."

Willow continued. "Balfords don't go out during the day, so their skin is naturally that pale. On that note comes number two: you're tired during the day. Balford Demons are physically unable to stay awake when the sun comes up."

Tess came slowly down the hall, and looked at them all with a sad expression. "I've been listening to all of this, and now that we know the cure could help Xander, I think he deserves it more than I do," she said sadly. Suddenly, she ran outside. The sunlight was beginning to burn, but she ran as quickly as she could into the light, trying to avoid the shade so her end might come more quickly.

Buffy grabbed the coat off the floor as she and Willow followed at a run.

The pain to Xander's skin as he ran into the light was excruciating, but he knew he was more likely to survive this stroll than Tess was, so he followed, too. Passing through the doorway, he forced himself to continue running as the spell hit him uncomfortably.

By now, Tess's skin was smoking, but she kept going. Her speed was well beyond human, but she feared her attempt at suicide may still be stopped.

Buffy was catching up as Willow fell farther behind.

Xander's speed increased as he forced his eyes open. Running blindly was easier on his eyes, but he could run more quickly when he didn't think he would run into a wall or a car. He passed Willow, continuing to gain on Tess's smoking form.

Buffy was just feet behind her. Making her move, she threw the heavy, long coat over Tess's head and jumped on top of her, tackling her to the pavement.

Tess struggled to push herself up, but she was too weak from the burn and running to match the Slayer's strength.

Seeing that Tess was safely under the coat, Xander dove into the shade of a car parked beside them. "Tess, are you all right?" Xander demanded. "What were you thinking? Why did you do that?"

She looked up a little from under the coat, her cheeks streaked with tears. "I wanted this to be over, and I didn't want to take your great life away from you just so I could live a long, depressed one. I'll never be able to forget what I've done."

"You mean drinking blood?" Willow asked as she joined them, out of breath from trying to catch them.

Buffy helped Tess into the shade next to Xander, making sure she was well covered by the coat. Buffy sat on the other side of Xander so, as Tess looked out from the side of the coat, she could see Tess more clearly. Willow sat in front of Xander, also wanting to see Tess as she spoke.

Tess shook her head. "M-My boyfriend… They didn't kill him, I did."

"You lied to us?" Buffy asked in shock.

She shook her head again. "I wouldn't have hurt any of you. It was about a week before it finally happened. He was the one they put into the cage with me when they were turning me into this… They gave me that shot, and did the same thing they did to Xander: took blood from me and sliced Johnny up to try to get me to hurt him." She looked to Xander. "I even had the same idea as you: tie myself up just to make sure I wouldn't do anything."

"Did that actually work?" Xander asked her.

"No," she answered. "After about a day, they took the restraints out of the room, and gave me another shot. The shot didn't seem to work, so, a few hours later, they gave me another…and another. After about four or five days, Johnny told me I should just get it over with and kill him. He didn't want me to have to suffer anymore shots, and he knew there wasn't any chance that we'd get out of there."

"So that's when you killed him?" Willow asked.

Tears were falling quickly from Tess's cheeks. She nodded.

"The others did the same to the people thrown into their cells, and they'll find a way to live with it," Xander said. "You'll never forget, but you'll be alive. You can still have a good life."

She shook her head, holding back a sob. "You deserve to have your life back. You and your friends help people, and make a difference in the world. What will I ever do? Finish college and work in some office? How does that compare? You're worse off than me, so if you're cured, you wouldn't ever have to take another life."

Xander shook his head, giving a sigh. "If I let you give me this cure, I'll have taken your life." He looked at her very seriously. "I refuse to take the rest of that medicine. Either we're both stuck this way, or you can get back to your life."

"B-But I heard what's part of you now. How can you live like that?" Tess asked quickly.

"I have friends, and you've probably caught on that Willow's a witch. Look at me out here," he suggested. "Her magic is keeping me feeling human. The longer the magic is working, the less I feel and look like the monster. Besides, we're going to find the scientists, stop them, and then I'll get the cure."

Tess gave a small nod, finally breaking into sobs.

Xander leaned over and wrapped his arms around the jacket, giving her a hug.

"As long as we're out here, I'm going to head to the car and grab some blankets," Buffy explained, getting to her feet.

Xander was still holding onto Tess. She was crying even harder now.

"We'll be here when you get back," Xander told Buffy.

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10:25 AM - The Lab

Tess and Xander were both covered in the thick blankets as they were led into the building by Willow. Buffy trailed in behind them, carrying Spike's coat over her arm.

"Everyone all right?" Spike asked them as they came into the foyer.

Anya and Dawn had joined him, but the other patients were still in the main room.

"We thought Tess looked upset when she came to talk to you, but we didn't think she'd make a run for it," Anya confessed.

"Everyone's fine," Willow explained, walking all the way to the wall to make sure the others had room to enter.

Tess came in, moved out of the light, and took off the blanket.

Xander did the same, glad that time he was coming in after having had enough to drink. The violent feelings were still there, and the fierce features had returned, but at least it wouldn't be much longer until the spell worked inside the building as well as it did outside. He wished there were fewer people trying to cram into the small entry room; it would make him feel better if he didn't have to be so close to everyone . "We should head back to the others. We're running out of room in here."

As Buffy came inside, she handed Spike his coat.

They gathered up the things they'd brought into the hall and went back into the main room of the lab.

The other patients looked pale and upset. By then, all three of them had remembered everything they'd done when they weren't human, but they were still quite shocked when they laid eyes on Xander's demonic features.

Everything they'd carried from the other room was placed on the counters, out of the way.

"Are you ready for the shot?" Willow asked, picking up the last dose of the cure.

She nodded, going up to Willow. "Should we go into another room, or can the other's go into the place the workers stayed? I don't want to hurt anyone if I try to get outside."

Buffy nodded. "One of the padded rooms might not hold you, but if there's a door and us between you and the exit, you might not get burned again."

Willow led her down the hall and into room number one, one of the two closest to the main room.

Tess shut her eyes tightly, not looking at the needle.

Willow held Tess's left arm and gave the injection slowly. She pulled out the needle, backed out of the room, shut the door, and locked it.

Tess sat down, feeling dizzy. Her heart was pounding furiously. She put her hand to her chest, not sure what would happen next. Finally, she began to black out, slumping sideways and hitting the floor.

Xander stepped forward, in front of the others. Two of the last three people who had been given the injection had had a burst of strength and run for the exit after falling to the floor. If she went outside, she'd be burned again and he didn't want that to happen. He hoped he'd be able to grab onto her and keep her inside the room.

"S-Should we still head into the workers' room?" Olivia asked. "Lee managed to break down the doors to his cell, and…" she broke off, hearing a faint beating sound.

Buffy opened the door to the other room quickly. "Xander, Spike, and I will stay out here, but the rest of you should go inside. You probably wouldn't be hurt if you stay here, but it might be for the best if you're out of sight."

The group filed inside as they were instructed.

The pounding became louder, and louder.

"Spike, you just guard the door to the others," Xander began to instruct. "I'll worry about stopping her because she can't actually hurt me. Buffy, you talk to her when she snaps out of this; try to calm her down. With the way I look, I can't do that part."

They heard a crash and saw the door fly into the hall. Tess came running out of the room. Her eyes were yellow and unfocused, and her face lacked expression.

Xander ran in front of her, but as if she didn't see him, she didn't stop.

She ran into him so hard that he lost his balance.

As he fell backwards, he grabbed her by the leg, tripping her to the ground.

Kicking and thrashing, she tried to get free.

Xander held her firmly, focusing on not gripping too forcefully or accidentally scratching her with a fingernail. He twisted around and got to his feet, flipping her onto her back.

Her eyes were blue again, and seemed to hold a bit more consciousness. She was still fighting to get away and had yet to look directly at him. She kept looking towards the hallway that led to the exit. "Let go of me!" she demanded.

Afraid he might be holding her too tightly, his fingers loosened a little too much and he lost his grip when she kicked at him again.

She rolled back to her feet and tried to run.

Xander caught her with his arms around the waist, lifting her feet off the floor so she had no choice but to stay inside.

"Let go of me!" she sobbed. "Where's Johnny? Where am I?"

Buffy hurried in front of the struggle, realizing it was her turn to help. "Tess? You're all right. We won't hurt you; we're trying to help you."

"Make him put me down," she begged. "He's hurting me."

Instantly, Xander lowered her. The last thing he'd wanted was to hurt her in any way. He turned his back to her before she had a chance to look at him. The other thing he wanted to avoid was frightening her.

"W-What am I doing here?" Tess asked, swaying a little as she looked between all three people in the room.

"You can sit down over here," Buffy told her, gesturing to the steps.

"Answer me!" she demanded, looking to Buffy.

"You have a problem with your memory right now, but in a few minutes you'll start to remember what's happening," Buffy assured, still patient despite Tess's demeanor.

"And what about Johnny?" Tess demanded. "Where…" she trailed off. Realization swept across her face and her expression went slack. "Someone locked me and Johnny in a room together." She seemed a little dazed now.

Buffy nodded. "You should sit down." She took a few steps closer to Tess. Buffy received no more arguments as she led Tess to a seat.

As if a movie were playing in front of her eyes, Tess sat, still and silent, staring at the tiled floor.

Xander glanced over his shoulder at her, feeling even sorrier that he couldn't be the one to sit next to her and help her through these memories. Feeling ill suddenly, he made his way to the handbag Anya had stolen, grabbed a package from it, and went towards the padded cells. "The others are safe now," he called over his shoulder to Spike. "You can let them out."

Spike did as suggested and opened the door, allowing the others to come back into the main room.

Xander sat down in room number five to drink the package of blood privately. Tess was recovering in the other room, but he still felt jealous of all the others. He tore the edge of the package and began to drink.

"Should we call Andy now? Xander gave me the detective's business card and I programmed the number into my phone," Dawn explained. She pulled the phone out of her pocket.

Willow nodded. "I'll talk with him a little while to figure out our options when to comes to getting these people back to their homes."

Dawn handed her the phone and Willow headed down the hall to talk outside.

Tess looked around at them. "Where's Xander?" she asked them suddenly, looking calm but very tired.

Xander finished the bag, and tossed it to the side. He sighed as he got to his feet, trying to clear all the thoughts out of his mind. Not only was he worrying that he and his friends would never find the scientists, but he was dreading that those demons might not give him a cure even if they found them. He stepped into the main room.

Tess got to her feet quickly and ran up to Xander, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

That was the last thing he'd expected to have happen when he entered the room. It was still over an hour before Willow's spell would began working inside the building, so the gesture was not as harmless as it should have been. Despite the fact that he'd just had a meal, the hug stimulated the predator within him as strongly as ever. He pushed her away quickly, taking a few steps away from her, into the entrance of the hall. If it were even possible, his teeth suddenly felt even sharper than they had been.

"S-Sorry," Tess told him remorsefully. "I just wanted to thank you for…"

"That's all right," he interrupted restlessly, still not feeling that he was in control. He looked towards the other, focusing on Buffy. "I'm going to sleep for a little while. Could you wake me up sometime after noon?" He looked back to Tess. "At noon, I'll be back to the way I was outside, so I'll feel a lot better. I just-" he backed towards one of the cells "-can't be around people when I'm like this." He looked to see which cells still had doors. Only number two and three hadn't been damaged at any point. Turning off the light-switch outside of number two, he closed the door and laid down on the well-padded floor.

Tess looked back to Buffy. "Is he always like that around normal people?"

Buffy nodded. "He's been like that around all of us since this happened. Distant, and won't really open up. He probably thinks its safer for us all if he keeps up what he's been doing."

Tess sighed. "I heard what you said was in him, now, so I could see how much harder it would be for him. That's why I wanted him to take the cure in stead of me."

Willow came back into the room and looked to Buffy. "Andy is going to come here with a couple social workers. We settled on the idea that they were kidnapped by a cult and don't remember anything that happened."

"What are you talking about?" Lee demanded. "This guy, Detective Thomas, seems to know the truth, so why can't we tell other cops what really happened here? We want these monsters to be stopped before they can do anything to someone else."

Stephen and Olivia nodded in agreement, but Tess shook her head.

"Do you really think that cops are prepared to believe that demons exist?" Tess asked Lee. "One cop knows the truth and odds are he didn't have very much fun when he found out; he probably didn't believe it right away. How would the rest of the force, if they were told and believed it, even know how to stop them? And what if they all ready have more victims in cages? What do you think the cops would do? They probably wouldn't try to help them." She looked at Stephen. "You're some sort of cop, right? A sheriff or something? If you'd have busted in here, would you have tried to help any of us? Or would you have shot and stabbed, and asked questions later?"

"Why should that matter? They could learn what they have to do from these people," Lee continued, looking around at Dawn, Anya, Spike, Willow, and Buffy. He paused on Buffy. "You haven't exactly told us why they're all so great at dealing with monsters, but you do seem to know what they're doing."

"That's my point exactly," Tess said. "They, these people, know what they're doing. We should leave them out of whatever story we end up telling the cops, and then they can set off right away to stop the scientists."

"Plus this guy, Xander, still needs the cure," Stephen began to realize.

"He sacrificed his own future so all four of us could be normal again," Olivia continued.

Lee finally nodded. "If the cops deal with it, there's no way they'll be able to give Xander a dose of the cure." He looked to Willow. "So, what exactly do you want the four of us to tell the cops when they look into what happened?"

Willow began to explain what all of them should say.

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11:55 AM - The Lab

Andy, followed by two women in suits and a two men in medic uniforms, came cautiously down the hall.

The first of the women was fairly short with brown hair in a pony tail and she carried a clipboard. The other woman was quite tall with red hair tied back in a braid, and a detective's badge attached to her belt. Both men were average height and build, and each carried a medical bag. One man had black hair and the other, light brown.

Tess, Stephen, Lee and Olivia were all still seated on the steps, and Buffy's friends were standing in the middle of the room, covering the last details of their stories. By then, Willow and the others had gathered up the beaker, syringes, bags, and empty boxes, and taken them to the rent-a-car; anything to disprove the claims that they hadn't been in the building for very long was hidden away. Given that it was not yet noon, Willow had yet to explain any of this to Xander.

"Is everyone all right?" Andy asked the crowd as he entered the main room. He looked around at everyone as he came down the steps to join Buffy.

The women and the men followed. The men stopped right in front of the four people on the steps, easily identifying them as the ones who had been kidnapped. The woman with the clipboard joined the men while the red-head joined Andy, pulling a pad and pen from inside her pocket.

"Which one of you is Willow?" Andy asked.

"That's me," Willow confessed, raising her hand a little.

"Can you please introduce us to all of your friends," he requested.

One by one Willow pointed at each of the people in her group. "This is Anya, Dawn, Buffy, and…" She paused at Spike. Spike didn't seem to fit as the nickname for a law abiding citizen, so she decided to introduce him by his given name. "William."

"It's nice to meet you all," he said pleasantly. He gestured to the red head. "This is my associate, Detective Rebecca Stanley. She is in charge of investigating these kidnappings. Because of Xander being drugged and left in an alley for dead, I've been temporarily reassigned to assist her on this case." Andy looked back to the crowd near the steps. "Anna Black is the social worker who'll be helping to track down their families. Kris Perry and Bob Rice are just the medics who'll treat any injuries."

"I just have a few questions concerning your involvement in this," Rebecca announced, looking to all of them. "How did you happen to choose to notify Detective Thomas of this, rather than simply dialing 9-1-1?"

"We called Andy because of Xander," Buffy explained simply. "He's the man who was on the news a few nights ago. He gave us the number."

"How do you know Xander?" Rebecca asked, making a short note on her notepad.

"We don't," Spike said calmly. "Just met him today."

Rebecca glanced to the two men sitting on the steps. "Is one of them Xander?"

"No," Anya answered.

Rebecca looked around the room. "Where is Xander?"

Willow nodded. "He's asleep in room number two."

"There are rooms?" Rebecca asked quickly.

Dawn pointed towards the hall. "Five of them."

"Why is he still in there?" she asked.

"He was feelin' kinda sick," Spike answered. "Didn't really elaborate." He looked up at the clock on the wall. It was 12:10. He looked to Willow. "Maybe you should go wake him; he should come out here and tell them what he knows."

"Wait just a moment," Rebecca said quickly, making a note on her pad. "I only have a few more questions for the rest of you. How, exactly, did you come upon this location?"

"We're visiting from California, and decided to spend Christmas somewhere where it was actually cold," Dawn began, explaining things as Willow had instructed. "We were walking through the park, heard some yelling, and saw the broken door. When we got here, everything was like this and they," she gestured to the four people on the steps "were all strapped against the walls of their rooms."

Rebecca looked to Willow. "You can wake Xander up. I'll be getting statements from the others." Rebecca turned, and joined Anna and the medics.

Willow hurried to the hall of rooms, and quickly knocked on the door.

Xander woke pretty quickly, feeling almost as good as he had since the last time he was outside.

Before Xander said anything, Willow opened the door, stepped inside the dark room, and shut the door behind her. "Are you all right?" she asked quickly, her eyes searching the pitch-black room for Xander's outline.

"Fine," he answered. "What's so urgent?"

Willow sat on the mat and quickly raddled of what he was supposed to say when he was asked questions by the detectives.

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12:45 PM - The Lab

"What's taking Willow so long?" Rebecca asked impatiently. She'd gotten statements from all four of the others all ready, and Willow had left the room before she'd even begun. Impatient, Rebecca followed the path Willow had taken towards the hall, and stopped in front of the one marked with a two. Just as she was about to knock, the door opened.

Xander had heard her approaching the room. Though it seemed much quieter than it had a few minutes ago, the spell that was working to make him more human had yet to diminish his sense of hearing to the level of an average human. Willow had told him everything he was supposed to say, so he felt prepared for almost anything. He stepped into the hall, followed by Willow.

"What was taking you so long?" Rebecca asked Willow suspiciously.

"I was still feeling sick," Xander answered for her. "All the light and noise was making it worse. She was sitting with me until I was ready to come out."

"Are you feeling well enough to answer some questions?" Rebecca asked him.

Xander nodded. "Sure."

They trailed back into the lab.

"Take a seat," Rebecca suggested, gesturing to the space on the steps next to Tess.

Xander did as suggested.

As though he were fresh meat in a lion's den, the two medics and Anna focused only on him. The medics began to take is pulse, blood pressure, and temperature.

"Can you give me the address and phone numbers of the family members you wish to have contacted?" Anna asked him softly.

Before he could answer, Kris began to talk to him. "Your blood pressure is way below what it should be, your temperature is a almost two degrees below normal, and your pulse is pretty fast… You could be dehydrated and suffering from fatigue. Have you been eating and drinking enough? And getting enough sleep?"

He looked to Kris and remembered what Willow had told him. "I don't really remember much of the last couple of day, but I'm definitely tired." He turned back to Anna. "I haven't really been gone for that long, so my family wouldn't have reported me missing. Willow and her friends volunteered to help me get home, so I'll just talk to family then."

This time Bob spoke, announcing to everyone on the steps, "We'd like to take all five of you to the hospital for overnight observation."

"No," Xander said quickly. Willow hadn't really told him what to say if they wanted to take him to a hospital. "Not me; I'll be fine."

Kris shook his head. "Especially you. With your vitals that far off, we need to make sure it doesn't turn into something like pneumonia. And we need to run a blood test to make sure you haven't got some sort of an infection."

Xander looked back to Rebecca. "I'll answer your questions, but I refuse to go to the hospital."

Rebecca finally shrugged, looking to Kris and Bob. "It's up to him, so we can't force him." She looked at the other four. "What about all of you?"

"We'll go," Tess agreed for them all before the other three could say anything. "If you need evidence or something, you have us and won't really need Xander."

The other three nodded. They didn't like the idea of being the focus of the investigation, but the whole point of doing things this was to ensure that Buffy and her friends could leave without too much of a delay.

Rebecca turned back to Xander. "What do you remember? And what is the last date you remember?" She poised her pen on the pad, ready to make notes.

"I guess it was the night of Tuesday, December 12th. I was walking in the park…"

"What city and state?" Rebecca interrupted. "And do you recall the time?"

"Sunnydale, California… around 7 or 8," he answered easily. "Anyway, I was in the park alone, and something hits me on the back of the head. When I started to wake up there were about five or six guys carrying me into a car. They gave me some shot, and I was out cold. Every time I'd start to wake up from then to when I woke up in the alley, they'd knock me out again."

"Can you describe any of the people who gave you the shots?" she asked, still writing on her pad.

Xander shook his head. "No, I was always too out of it when they'd give me one."

"How did you end up back here?" she asked finally.

"Someone knocked on the door at the hotel, and when I answered it a couple big guys knocked me out with another injection."

"When was this?"

"Saturday afternoon… The 16th… Before I was totally out of it, they tore up the room pretty good."

Rebecca scribbled some more on the notepad before speaking again. "Then what?"

"I woke up in one of the cells, strapped to the wall. The door was knocked down and I could kinda see part of the lab--it was empty and quiet. I started to yell and kick. That's when I heard the other people in the cells. I talked with them a little, and we agreed to make as much noise as we could until someone came in here." He looked to Buffy's group who had begun quietly chatting with Andy. "That's when they got here and cut us all loose."

Rebecca continued to write things on her pad before finally looking to him with a slight smile. "Thank you very much for your cooperation." She turned away and went back to Andy.

Xander sighed, putting his face in his hands. He knew it had only been nearly two hours since he'd last had a drink, but figured his slight headache meant he was getting hungry.

"Are you all right?" Tess whispered to him, leaning close enough so only he would be able to hear.

Xander looked back to her, shaking his head a little. "I need to get out of here pretty soon. I hope this lady isn't going to keep us here much longer. If I pass out or something before that, there's no way I'm getting out of going to the hospital."

"Willow took all of it out to the car so it wouldn't raise any questions," Tess explained in reference to the human blood in the bag Anya stole.

Xander looked up at Rebecca and Andy, about to ask them how much longer he had to stay when Andy spoke to the group.

Andy looked at Rebecca. "You and Anna can head back to the station. With the info she gathered, you can try to pinpoint the kidnappers' last locations. We might be able to connect them with more disappearances." He looked at Kris and Bob. "You can start to transport whoever's going to the University Hospital. We don't want them in the Glenn center in case the kidnappers decide to return. If you can't get everyone into the ambulance, these people seem well enough that I'll take whoever's left to the hospital when I leave."

"I'll ride with you, Detective," Tess volunteered, hoping to stay behind and talk candidly with Xander before they had to part.

"All right," Bob agreed. He gathered up some of his instruments and looked to the other three who were on the steps. "Follow us."

Kris picked up the bag and he and Bob led the others out of the building.

Rebecca looked to Andy suspiciously. "What exactly are you planning to do before you leave?"

Andy gave a small laugh. "I'm gonna call some lab guys to get out here and see if anything's been left behind. I was thinking about putting up some police tape so no one come in here before we had a chance to look at the scene. I'll make sure Xander makes it back to the hotel, and then I'll take Tess to the hospital… What did you think I was planning on doing?"

"I wasn't entirely sure," Rebecca said curtly. "You weren't being very useful when I was asking everyone the questions."

Andy became serious again. "You seemed to be asking enough questions for the both of us."

Rebecca looked very angry. "That is our job," she said through clenched teeth.

Andy sighed to calm himself. "I get that, but…" He decided to turn his ill-spoken statement into something a little more socialable. He would, after all, be working with Rebecca for a few more weeks. He smiled. "…Your questions were through enough that I had little to add. When you've left, I'll do the errands here while you begin with the things at the station."

"I'll be at the station with Anna when you're done with your errands," Rebecca agreed quickly, still not happy. She turned and left quickly, Anna trailing behind.

Andy waited a moment until he'd heard the car start up and drive away. The ambulance was still in the parking lot, but the crew would be too preoccupied with the others to return to the building. He looked to Xander. "How have you been the last couple of days?"

Xander looked at him and gave a laugh. "Overall, it's been a pretty rough week." Xander looked at Buffy and the others. "Did you stash the blankets in the car, too? Or are there some handy for us to leave right away?"

"They're in the car," Willow answered.

"I got the short version from Willow on what's been happening , but you guys gotta fill me in on the details before you leave," Andy said quickly.

Spike looked at him. "The short version probably didn't do ours or Xander's efforts much justice, but the cliff notes are just as good as the movie."

Xander shook his head, and answered differently. "Before we leave, I'll fill you in if no one else is wanting to. Right now, I just want to get away from this lab. I need to some sleep."

Tess looked at Willow. "And he needs another package of blood. Before the others left, he wasn't feeling very good."

Xander nodded, looked to the tiled floor. His headache was gone, but he was a little dizzy.

Tess looked around at Buffy and her friends. "When I get released from the hospital, can I go with you and help you track these creatures down? I want to help Xander."

Xander shook his head and looked at her. "It's too dangerous."

She put her hand on his shoulder. "I don't care. I have savings in the bank, so I…"

"No," Xander said firmly, interrupting her. He looked to the others quickly. "Can one of you go to the car and grab the blankets. I still can't stand saying it, but, yes, I need a package of blood."

Willow nodded and headed for the door.

"I'll come, too," Buffy volunteered, following. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear Tess and Xander's argument.

"And me," Dawn added, following for the same reason.

"And how 'bout we be the ones to let Andy know what we've been up to?" Spike volunteered both himself and Anya.

Andy nodded. "Sounds good."

They headed towards the counter and Spike began to tell him the story, starting with when he and the others arrived at the motel.

Xander turned back to Tess. "You should head back to school and your family. I'd give anything to go back to my normal life right now, but I don't have the choice."

"But why shouldn't I have a choice? I can go back to school any time, and I think my time would be better spent if I were trying to help you and your friends," she said firmly. She lunged forwards and kissed him.

Xander pulled away, shocked. "You don't even know me."

"But I want to know you. And how am I going to do that if I go back home?"

If he'd actually been human at that moment, and one of his other friends were searching for a cure, he might not have minded the sentiment. In fact, he might have allowed himself to feel the same way. Xander laughed uncomfortable, resting his hands on the edge of the steps. "You'll get over me."

"Why would I want to do that?" Tess put her hand on top of his, smiling contently.

He stood quickly, backing away from her out of frustration. "Why?!" he demanded loudly. "You actually have to ask why?!"

Spike stopped talking and the others looked at Xander.

Tess was speechless, looking up at him fearfully. She was honestly starting to care about him, and she didn't know why he thought it was such a crime.

Andy seemed a bit pale from the story, and confused by Xander's outburst.

Anya was a little jealous of the attention Xander was giving to Tess. Xander had, after all, left Anya at the altar despite their love for each other.

Spike, however, seemed very interested in finding out what was going on.

Xander glared at the three who were watching.

They turned away, and Spike began speaking again, only just getting to the part where their group was breaking Xander out of the hospital.

"My not being human is pretty much at the top of the list," he argued more quietly.

"But that's not going to be for forever," Tess assured, standing.

"It might be," he answered sadly. "And I've seen too many monster-with-human relationships fall apart to even think about having one of my own... I mean another one of my own." Xander paused before beginning to ramble on the subject. "I guess there have been more than a couple. That is, if you want count Praying-Mantis-Lady and the Inca-Mummy-Girl, and they were basically just one-date things. More recently the girl was an ex-demon, who's now back to full demon, but…"

Tess took a step closer to him, holding her hand up to stop him. "I was a monster for four months. This is a case of ex-demon, meeting demon who is very-soon-to-be an ex-demon. It doesn't matter to me that you're not completely human."

"It matters to me," Xander said in a tired voice, feeling weaker than he'd felt a few minutes ago. He was really looking forward to getting back to the hotel.

"Then what about having another friend? One who is willing to be more than a friend when you're ready?" she asked hopefully.

Willow and the others came down the hall before Xander had a chance to give answer.

Tess backed away to let the others past her.

"…And that's when Tess goes running outside!" Spike narrated enthusiastically.

Andy's eyes were wide, hanging on every word of the story.

Spike caught sight of the others, and turned away from the story. "We ready to head out?"

Buffy and Dawn continued into the room, not answering.

Willow handed Xander a package of blood and one of the blankets.

Andy blinked. "But what happened next?"

"I'll be by the door when you're all ready to leave," Xander announced, ignoring Tess and heading down the hall.

Tess made a move to join him, but Willow caught her arm.

"Just give him some time," Willow urged. "He doesn't like what's happened to him, and he doesn't want an audience."

Tess nodded, turning back to the others.

Spike looked back to Andy, not as motivated to tell every detail. "Well, they brought her back in, she got cured, Xander went for a nap, and Willow called you. After that Willow was telling us all what to say and we moved the suspicious stuff outa' the building. We finished just when you got here. The end." He looked to Buffy again. "Now are we ready?"

Willow shook her head. "Let's give Xander a couple minutes. We should make one more sweep of the cells to make sure there aren't any stray plastic bags, bandages, or other things that don't belong."

"And I need to head outside and put up that yellow tape like I said I would," Andy announced.

"Could you use any help?" Dawn offered Andy.

"Sure. You can help me set up the security cones," Andy said happily.

The others went down the hall as Dawn and Andy headed up the steps. As they left, they made a point not to stare at Xander.

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6:20 PM - Xander's Hotel Room

Xander woke suddenly, a little disoriented. The last thing he remembered was laying on the floor near the exit to the lab. He sat up and, noticing the shaft of light shining past the broken curtains, realized that he was back in his hotel room.

He was alone and the room seemed strangely quiet. For the first time, he wasn't able to hear every creek and buzz present in the room. The room also seemed dimmer than it had before. Even with the light coming in at the edges of the curtains the room still seemed darker than it had been the first night he'd come into the room.

"At least the magic is doing me some good in the feeling human department," he muttered to himself as he put his feet on the floor. He stood and went to the window. Knowing that the sun had all ready gone down, he opened the curtains to look out.

The twilight was brighter than he'd expected and it made his eyes ache a little. After only a few moments, the pain was gone and he felt no discomfort at all.

There came a knock at his door. "Xander? Are you awake?" Willow asked through the door. "The local news said that the sun set about five minutes ago, and all the info I could find on Balfords suggested that they always sleep during the day, but always wake up as soon as the sun goes down." Given Xander's inability to wake that afternoon as they left the lab, she knew that the Balford was likely to still be potent even with the spell.

Xander went to the door and opened it, greeting Willow with a relaxed smile. "How can I help you?" He stepped aside and motioned for her to come inside.

Willow smiled, glad to see that he seemed to be feeling better. "Have you had anything to drink yet?" She came into the room.

Xander shut the door. He didn't feel dizzy or light-headed, the way he had at the lab. "No, but I don't feel like I need to. Maybe the spell is helping me not need as much to drink as before." He still couldn't bear to say the word blood. "Because it's working better than before; I can see and hear like normal again."

Willow waited a moment before answering. "Well, you'd better be careful not to wait too long; I don't want you to faint or anything."

Xander nodded. "I'll have some when I need it."

Willow sighed, changing the subject. "We're going to be on a flight out of the airport at 2 am--that'll put us back in Sunnydale just before sunrise."

Xander was disappointed that his cure may be moving farther and farther away every moment. "So we aren't heading to some other city? Just back to Sunnydale?"

She nodded. "For now, but we're going to go to the hospital to see if the others might have remembered anything about where the scientists are heading next. Tess called about an hour ago, and said she'd be allowed to leave at 9 pm."

Xander sighed. "What do all of you think about Tess coming with us?"

"I think it's her choice, and I can understand why she wants to," Willow answered easily. "Not only because she likes you, but she needs closure before her life can get back to normal."

"I guess you're right."

They were quiet for a few minutes.

Willow hesitated a little before speaking. "D-Do you blame any of us for what happened to you when they caught you again? For us not coming for you sooner?"

Xander shook his head a little, looking around the wrecked room. "No." His voice wasn't very convincing. "You had to wait until they didn't expect you to come. Magic was the one thing they weren't expecting; if you'd have tried it at the wrong time I might still be in one of their cages." His eyes were resting on the broken curtains, wondering if the spell she used would ever get strong enough to let him painlessly go into sunlight again.

Her lip began to quiver a little. The thought of him chained to a wall the way they'd found the other prisoners was suddenly too overwhelming. Willow rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him tightly as she burst into tears. She'd done her best to be strong and to keep her distance as he'd wished, but with her spell obviously working so well on him she had no more need to hold back.

Xander was a little surprised. Since his friends had found him, she hadn't really shown him anything except for fear, concern, and the occasional optimistic cheer she expressed so easily. He gladly returned the hug, a little relieved that she wasn't as repulsed by what he'd become as he thought she might be.

She started to sob even harder when he touched her, grabbing more tightly as she pressed her cheek against his chest.

He gave a small laugh, a little breathless from her grip. "I may be a demon, but I'm the kind that has to breath."

"S-Sorry," she sobbed, loosening her grip. "It's j-just, I've been so worried about you.," she said in a small voice. "I thought I lost you, and I don't know anything else I can do to help you."

He gently pushed her away, looking into her eyes.

She sniffed a little, her eyes still welled with tears.

He wiped some of them from her cheek with his thumb. "You've already done more for me than anyone ever has. You saved me."

She started crying again.

Xander pulled her closer to him, doing what he could to comfort her. He, Willow, and Buffy had been through more together than most people Xander had ever known. Willow had almost let her grief destroy the world, but Xander helped her through the pain. Buffy had faced extreme dangers throughout the trio's friendship, but Willow and Xander had been by her side through it all. Now, when Xander's condition almost destroyed him, Willow's magic and Buffy's friendship saved him.

A few snow flakes passed by the window as they stood there.

"It's been a while since we've seen snow," Xander commented casually, reaching over and pulling open the curtains before wrapping his arms around her again.

As they stared at the snow they both felt a little more relaxed. They realized that each of them had been through so much in the last few years that as long as their group remained together, they would be able to survive whatever else they were going to be put through.