Title: Silverback Pride
Rating: T (Although it could get Dark)
Chapter: 23
Author: Jonathan
Category: Xander/Buffy Eventually
Spoilers: Season 1 AU. Stats from "The Pack" We're hitting original territory this time around.
Summery: Answer to a FanFic Challenge. Xander Harris took a different animal spirit that day.
Disclaimer: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer is owned by Fox, UPN, Whedon, and ME. Tarzan is owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs' family.
Special Thanks: William Gilmor, Cyclone, Nu_klear, Silent Bob Foley, Wayne

Rupert Giles held the last book in his hands. He successfully put all the books away from last night's research get together. He had been looking up more information hoping to gather some more knowledge on Xander's recent Tarzan transformation.

All through last week, Giles had been taking notes when he and Buffy trained. Giles was especially interested in Xander and how he would react to Buffy's slayer duties. True, Xander had had the Tarzan abilities since a little over a month ago, but now, he could actually see just how much Tarzan did against a slayer. Especially a Tarzan that had been finally becoming the true version of what Tarzan could do.

Over the past month, Giles had seen what Xander was capable of doing. But, he had been seeing it at a slow rate. Just when Xander was getting the new abilities as they became apparent.

Giles first remembered seeing just how strong Xander became. But over the weeks, he has witnessed Xander becoming more agile; graceful even. He had also seen how more animalistic and dangerous Xander was becoming. How more gorilla as well.

Xander's behavior shifted as well. He was protective of his friends before, but now he became more brutal. If any of his friends felt threated or were harmed, Xander would actually become a determined aggressive force. He would even bring in aspects to his body outside of gorilla behavior. Giles had even seen Xander roar like a lion a few times.

The time with Sid came to mind.

Especially when Marc strapped him down for the guillotine. If Xander were an ordinary human, it would've taken him a while to keep the rope in place. Enough time for Willow to come and pull Giles away from the blade. But with Xander actually using his Tarzan abilities, he yanked the blade off the top along with the rope with ease. He then turned around and unleashed an animalistic lion roar and jammed the blade into Marc's skull, slicing his head in half.

They all watched Marc's demonic body fall limp to the stage. Then Sid came and finished off the demon; ending his curse.

Along with the aggressive nature and protective instincts, Giles found that Xander had improved in mimicry. Which everyone had been aware as of late. It was almost foreseeable for Xander to use one of his friends' voices against them. It even caused some confusion. And while they could see how it became somewhat daunting, it had become quite useful in their endeavors.

Now with everything coming together, Giles had seen what Xander was fully capable of doing. He just hoped he would never become the threat to anyone Xander holds dear to his heart. But, seeing how Giles and him grew together in a strong bond, it almost cemented that Xander would never hurt him. Not just because of their friendship, but also the friendships he had with Buffy and Willow.

Xander's commitment to them was that strong.

Not that Xander didn't have a strong commitment before.

But with Tarzan? His commitment, determination, and all the aspects had before multiplied a great number of times. So much so that a number of equality could not be measured.

With that last thought, Giles took a left. But as he went further, he took a wrong turn. So, he turned around and took a right. Halfway after passing through the right, he took a step back and veered to a second left.

He then turned around and headed south. It was then when he heard some voices from the main part of the library.

When he found that out, he turned around and tried to find his way back to the main part of the library.

It actually him quite a few moments when he heard Willow say, "Maybe he's in the faculty room."

"Hey, Giles! Wakey, wakey!"

He looked at Buffy. "I was, uh, in the stacks. I got lost."

"Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books?" Xander asked, wiggling his fingers.

Willow shivered when she saw Xander hand over her shoulder doing the 'spider' motion. "Big, hairy, crawly…" She freaked and hit Xander.

Xander smirked, "It's funny if you're me."

He showed a confused look, "I couldn't find anything, uh… particularly illuminating. Uh, I think perhaps you'd best have a chat with Wendell himself."

Luke smirked, "If he can still talk."

The four of them headed out of the library while Giles headed for the library stacks; still confused.

"Hey, Wendell." Wendell Sears looked up when his named was called. "How are you?"

"Huh?" He simply asked.

Buffy showed a confused look, "You okay?"

"Good talking to ya, man." Xander smirked. He slapped on Wendell on the back as he attempted to head for his next class. Buffy pulled him back/

"Do you guys want something?" He asked, annoyed.

"We just want to talk about what happened." Buffy answered.

"Y'know," Luke began. "Before you had your arachnophobia moment."

Wendell said innocently, "I don't know what to say about that."

"There's nothing to say." Xander pointed out. "You say two hundred insects, you Gonzoed, anybody would have."

Wendell reminded him, "They're not insects. They're arachnids."

Xander showed a confused look, "They're from the Middle East?"

"Spiders are arachnids. They have eight legs. Insects only have six. Why does everyone make that mistake?"

Buffy smirked, "Especially when you used to read Zoobooks as a kid, huh Xand?"

"Or reads allot of Spider-Man." Willow added.

"Jeeze." Xander said simply. "A guy makes a simple mistake."

Buffy grinned, "We still love you."

"Thanks." Xander said in a low voice.

She grinned at her friend and then turned back to Wendell. "Has anything like this ever happened before?" He nodded. "When?"

"Lots of times."

"Ew!" Willow interjected. "You must hate spiders more than I do."

He laughed, "I don't hate spiders, I love 'em. They hate me."

"So it was mutual then…" Xander smirked.

"I hope you studied for the history test."

Everyone turned to see Cordelia approaching the five of them. Buffy asked, "What history test?"

Luke looked at his watch. "The one that starts before fourth period…"

She glanced from Luke to Cordelia to back to Luke. "There's a history test?" They nodded. She glanced at Luke. "You never told me."

He shrugged, "I thought you knew."

Buffy looked at Cordelia. "Nobody told me there was a test."

Luke told her, "Come with me. We'll do a quick recap before class."

"You two better hurry." Cordy said as she went for the class.

"We'll catch up with you later." Buffy announced as she and Luke headed after Cordelia.

"What do you remember about the Boston Tea Party?" Luke asked as they headed out.

Willow took a seat by Wendell. "What do you mean, you love spiders?"

Xander smirked, "It is platonic, right?"

Wendell replied, "I had the best collection in the tri-county area. Brows and Tarantulas and Black Widows… then my folks shipped me off to wilderness camp. All my brother had to do was maintain their habitats. Instead he left their heat lamp on for a week. When I came home they were all dead. That's when the nightmares started."

"The nightmares?" Willow asked.

"It's always the same. I'm sitting in the classroom, teacher asks me to read something, I open up my book and then there they are. They're comin' after me. God, can you blame them after what I did?"

"And that's how it happens? Every time?" Xander asked.

"Yesterday in class I thought I'd just nodded off again. But then everyone else started screaming, too."

"Ok, the Boston Tea Party…" Buffy said, trying to bring the importance of what was being almost certainly going to fail her. "It was…was…"

Luke nodded, "It was…"

She took a breath… "Uh…it was when these…these…um…" Her breath got caught in her throat. "Oh god I can't do this."

Luke gave her a smile, "It's alright…take a breath." She did. "Again." She did again. "You know this, Buffy." He swung his bag around from his back and opened it up. He fished out a small bottle.

Buffy walked slowly along with Luke. "It was when… when… "She turned to him, "Something to do with Indians, right?"

"You're part right…" Luke answered. He looked ahead of them and they saw Cordelia's retreating form leaving the quad. Buffy followed his gaze as well. He then took the bottle and placed a finger on it. He squeezed it and a spray came out, absorbing it into Buffy's skin. He then placed the bottle back in his bag.

"Which part?" Buffy asked, hoping he would give her something that would give her the answer.

He glanced back at her, "The part where it wasn't actually Indians."

She showed a confused look. "Huh?"

"The colonists, Buffy." He reasoned. "What did they do?"

What did they do?

Buffy didn't know what he was talking about. What did they do?

"The British, Buffy." He told her. "What were they doing in Massachusetts? In, 1773."

1773…Buffy thought. "1773." She repeated her last thought. Thinking back to her class, she thought about what they talked about. "The taxes?"

He nodded. "What about the taxes?"

It then sparked in her mind. "The taxes. The colonists didn't like the taxes. So, they fought back. They dressed as Indians and dropped the tea off the ship and into the ocean."

He smiled, "Right."

Buffy grinned in response.

"Now what about Paul Revere?" Luke asked. Buffy groaned. "C'mon, it's going to be on the test."

Buffy sighed, "I know."

He nodded, "So what did he do?" Luke grinned, "C'mon. You can do it."

She thought for a second. "Oh!"

"Yeah?"

"The British are coming! The British are coming!"

"Yep." He told her. "Just remember "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere", and you should be fine." He added, "The poem by…"

"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."

"Yep. That be him." He gave her a smile. "You should be fine." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "And if you do well, we'll do a night at the Bronze."

But when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, she couldn't help but stiffen. Something just didn't feel right when he did it. She retreated from his grasp and looked back at him, just a few steps in front of him. "And if I don't do well?"

He smirked, "We'll still go Bronzing."

Buffy nodded, "Yeah, I think we all can use a night of Bronzing."

Luke nodded slowly, not getting the answer he was hoping.

Buffy grabbed the door that led to the classroom. "Thanks for the help, Luke."

"No problem." Luke replied, a hint of sadness in his voice.

He watched her go through the door. Luke held the door for a moment and followed through, closing it behind him.

TBC

I know it's rather short. But then again, it's been a while since I worked on this story. So, this is my first attempt in coming back to it. I think it's a good stopping point, and next chapter will be longer. Again, thanks for reading.