"Do we have everything we need?" Willow asked Tara as she stroked Miss Kitty Fantatico's head. The cat purred loudly as Willow scratched behind her ears.
"Yes. I've just finished sewing shut the satchel. Now we just need to start the chant, and at the right moment prick her paw to add blood to the satchel. Then we just hang it around her neck and it should automatically absorb into her body." Tara replied.
Willow loved it when it was just the two of them - Tara never stuttered or faltered when she spoke like she did when others were around. She was getting better around Xander, but so far he was the only one she was really opening up to. Well, him and Spike. Did Spike count? Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Willow set Miss Kitty down on the pillow in the middle of the dorm room. She and Tara clasped hands on either side of Miss Kitty and started their chant.
Translated from Latin
Hear us great ones, hear us Gaia, Hear us Hecate, and grant our plea. We request a boon, to place a modicum of your powers in our care. Accept this as our vessel, and anchor it to us for all time - unending, undying to passed from parent to child throughout the ages. Please grant this boon, this request, this familiar. By it's blood, and your sacred potion, let this be known as the Witches Familiar!
During the third and final intonation, Willow grabbed Miss Kitty's paw and pricked it with a small dagger. Miss Kitty went berserk thrashing as Willow held her and Tara dabbed the sachet into the drops of blood. As she placed it around Miss Kitty's neck, the dorm door crashed open - revealing a harried looking Xander.
"Wills! Tara! Are you alright!" Xander exclaimed, as Miss Kitty broke away from Willow and raced for the open door.
"Grab her Xander!" Willow shouted, and Xander grabbed Miss Kitty by the tail as she attempted to dodge past. Unpreturbed, Miss Kitty turned around and slashed Xander with her claws, trailing four long deep scratches along his right arm. Xander quickly grabbed Miss Kitty and held her in the crook of his arm.
"THANK THE GODDESS! Why did you charge in here like that? You could have ruined everything Xander! What were you thinking!" Willow was practically screaming.
"Hey! Heard what sounded like screams coming from in here and with what happens here at night I thought . . ."Xander started. Tara retreated to the corner of the room as they started raising their voices.
"That's just it Xander, you didn't think! You just came charging in like you always do. I mean. . . "
"Willow" Xander said
"you could have been hurt by interrupting one our spells - our interrupting us! What if we were . . "
"Wills, I don't feel so good . . " Xander tried again, still holding the struggling cat in the doorway.
"doing something private when you barged in! Xander you know better! Wait do you mean you don't feel so good?" Willow whirled around just in time to see Xander dissolve in a show of purple sparkles and Miss Kitty, freed from the arms holding her, dashed out the door.
"Xander? OH GOD XANDER!" Willow threw herself on the floor by Xander's clothes, the only thing left of him.
Tara was speechless, she just rocked the frantically crying Willow, who kept muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Xander, I didn't mean it. I'm Sorry, I didn't think that she could hurt you, I'm sorry, please come back, I'm sorry"
Spike was walking down the alleyways of Sunnydale, hurrying to his crypt to beat the fast approaching dawn. As he turned out of the alleyway and started to cross the street, a small black blur stopped in front of him. Spike looked down to see Miss Kitty rubbing his legs. Spike bent down to pick her up, and started stroking her. "Miss Kitty, what the bloody hell are you doing out here? Red and Glinda's probably going insane right now, not knowing where you are. Course, them going insane sounds smashing in my book."
Spike carried the cat with him back to his crypt. He set her down on his bed, and quickly undressed. Lying down, he pulled Miss Kitty onto his chest where she curled up as he stroked her. They fell asleep together, both purring in contentment.
Later.
A loud crash announced that someone had broken into the crypt. Spike jumped up at the noise, dislodging Miss Kitty from his chest. He quickly wrapped the sheet around him as he tried to figure out what was going on up in the crypt.
Suddenly, two Fyarl demons jumped down into the lower level of the crypt. Spike attacked the first one as it approached him, fighting with all the grace a vamp in a sheet skirt could.
The second Fyarl quickly got behind Spike, and dashed him over the head with Spike's bedside lamp. They each grabbed an arm and held Spike still as two figures appeared at the upper level edge.
"Mr. Spike, it's a pleasure to see you again, " The shark headed demon said. "It's been brought to my attention by Kev here that you are behind in your payments; you owe me 8 kittens, payable by midnight last night. You aren't trying to pull one over on me, now are you?"
"No, I'm bloody not pulling one over on you. Something came up last night, and I couldn't come by. I was going to bring the kittens by tonight." Spike seethed.
"Why do I find that hard to believe," the figure said.
"Do you doubt my word, the word of a master vampire?"
"Actually, yes. Yes, I do doubt you. I believe you never had any intention of paying back the amount you borrowed from me with interest. I think you thought it was all one big bloody joke." Seeing movement behind Spike, the shark-headed demon saw Miss Kitty on the bed.
"I'll just take this one now, and you still owe me 10 more by tonight."
One of the Fyarls grabbed Miss Kitty while the other held Spike still.
"NO! You can't take that one! That's not a wagercat! That one belongs to.. to.. to someone more powerful than you want to face! I'm just watching it for the day!" Spike said in a panic. For some reason he knew that he couldn't let Sharky have the witches' cat.
"Really, I'm all atwitter in dread," Sharky took the cat from the Fyarl who was holding her, and handed her to the little demon next to him.
"Here, hold the cat."
\
As soon as the demon grabbed the cat, he dropped it. Miss Kitty took off, and jumped back into the lower level again; she quickly hid under the bed.
"YOU FOOL! Why did you drop the cat! All you had to do was hold it!"
"Boss, no! You don't want that cat! It's enchanted!" sniveled the demon.
"Enchanted? How?"
"It has massive amounts of magical powers in it - like it was - was a token, or a Familiar. Yeah, a Familiar, that's what it felt like! It was a witch's familiar. Or more than likely a witches' coven familiar, I felt more than one lifeforce tied to it. It was like."
"Shut up!" growled the irate Sharky. "Fine! We'll leave that cat alone - but you now owe me 12 kittens by midnight tonight or you will regret ever meeting me!" Sharky stormed out of view, quickly followed by the other demon. The two Fyrals tossed Spike into the wall of the crypt and climbed up and out.
Spike wearily got up, and struggled to the bed. Lying down beside it, he gently coaxed Miss Kitty out of her hiding spot.
Picking her up and cradling her to his chest, he climbed into bed. "So that's what I felt. The witches made you their familiar. I wonder how you wound up where I found you. Witches seldom let the fountains of their power just wander around. Well, we'll just see about it tonight."
With that he just stroked her head until they were asleep, both purring again.
Buffy hurried to her front door to see who was trying to pound it down at 7:30 in the morning. She'd only gotten to bed about four hours ago, and did not appreciate having to get up this early the first week of summer vacation.
She passed a just woken Dawn as she rushed down the stairs. She flung open the door as she reached for the small decorative axe her mother had taken to hanging by the door. She called the axe, sword and stakes functional art. And it did kinda look good there. As soon as she had the door open, Willow rushed in and grabbed Buffy in a hug, with Tara right behind her.
"Buffy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it wasn't supposed to happen like that, he won't come back, he wasn't supposed to disappear like that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm SORRY!" wailed Willow as she squeezed her arms around Buffy.
Buffy looked over to the shaken Tara, "What happened?"
"W-We were d-d-doing a Familiar s-s-spell, and Mrs. Kitty tried to run away, but Xander caught her and then he - then he he " Tara broke down into quiet sobs.
"He what? What did he do this time?"
Dawn came in from the kitchen, hearing the two heartbroken witches. She walked into the foyer just in time to hear Willow say "He's gone Buffy, Xander's gone." Dawn felt her eyes automatically tear up, and hurriedly grabbed Tara.
"What do you mean Xander's gone? How can he be gone? What happened to Xander?"
Tara grabbed Dawn into a hug and tried to shush her cries. "It was an accident.
He walked into a spell, and something happened - he vanished."
"A spell? A messed up spell? We gotta call Giles! He can figure it out! He always figures it out!"
Buffy, taking command, "Alright, here's what we're going to do - Dawn go get dressed, I'll be right behind you. Willow, Tara, go grab all the information about the spell you cast. Meet at Giles as soon as you can - as soon as we're changed, we'll meet you there.
Buffy threw open the door to Giles condo, with Dawn hot on her trail,
"GILES! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" she bellowed.
"Yes, I'm quite aware you have a problem," stated Giles, sitting at his desk going through his ongoing research. Under his breath he continued, "Problem knocking before entering, problem showing any consideration for others,."
"Giles, Willow and Tara are on their way here. They did a spell this morning that got messed up and Xander disappeared!"
"Good Lord! What spell were they doing? Do you know what they were using in the spell? How did Xander get involved?"
"Chill Giles. I told them to bring all their info on the mojo, here, to see if you could figure it out."
"Giles?" Dawn finally said, tears in her eyes and her voice wavering, "You will figure it out right? You'll fix it and Xander will come back right?"
"I'll do my best Dawn. Where is Joyce?"
"She's at the gallery." replied Buffy.
"Have you notified her yet on what is happening?"
"Not yet. Should I?" Buffy asked.
"I think it would be rather prudent, don't you agree? She considers Xander one of her adoptees, I'm sure she would rather know now than find out later."
"I'll go call her."
"Fine. Dawn, could you help me clear the table? We're going to need the space to research all that has occurred."
Spike woke covered in warmth. Stretching, he realized that the warmth was too big to be Miss Kitty. Opening his eyes he found to his shock Xander stretched across him.
"Bloody Hell Whelp! Where in the hell did you come from! Get off of me!" Spike screamed, as he pushed Xander off and jumped out of bed. Spike grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around himself, trying to figure out what the hell was going on
Xander for his part rolled over, and blinked at Spike, then laid back down.
"Get your bleeding arse up Whelp! And where the Hell are your Clothes? I always knew you were a poof, but you need to stay the hell away from me! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Xander continued to nap, curled up on Spike's bed. Spike, sensing something was amiss, gently approached the bed. "Whelp? Xander? Xander, what's happening?" he finally reached out and shook the sleeping man's shoulder. Xander woke up again, and stretched, arching his back into the air. He then sat on his haunches and began licking his hands and arms.
"OH FUCK ME! You gotta be kidding me! Xander, jokes up, snap outta it!" snarled Spike.
Spike stormed around his crypt, getting dressed, ready to get this farce over with. He noticed, though, when Xander tensed up. Xander stared intently into the corner, leaning forward, on his palms and the balls of his feet, his rear in the air. "What is it, pet? I mean Xander! What is it Xander?" Suddenly, Xander took of like a flash, diving towards the far corner. Spike heard a high pitch squeal, then Xander came back, still on all fours, with a very large rat clamped in his mouth that was still struggling profusely. Spike raced over to Xander and tried to grab the rat, only to have Xander growl, hiss and spit at him, all while never losing his hold on the rat. Spike was losing patience fast when Xander finally relented and dropped the rat, which quickly scurried away. He then crawled back onto the bed curled up, and glared at Spike.
Spike, for the most part, could not believe what he was seeing. He had to figure out a way to get Xander to the witches, maybe they could figure out a way to fix him. But, there was no way he could take a naked Xander through the streets; even Sunnydale residents would notice that. He went and searched through the chest he had to see what he could use. After several minutes searching, he had found an old pair of sweat pants and an extra black T-shirt. Turning to Xander, he tried to get the sweat pants on. Xander however had completely different thoughts. He kept batting at Spike's hands, and twisting every time Spike tried to get one of his legs into the sweatpants.
"It's like tried to grab a bleedin' greased pig, HOLD STILL DAMMIT!" Finally, Spike threw Xander on his stomach and sat in the middle of his back. Xander hissed loudly and actually growled at Spike, and tried to buck him off. Spike reached down and looped both legs inside the waistband of the sweatpants and yanked up, securing both his legs in one pant leg. "BLOODY HELL!" He pushed down and started wrestling with Xander's legs again. After nearly 10 minutes he fixed it correctly finally. He got off Xander and let him get up. Xander glared at him again, then hunched up and started grooming himself, licking his hands and rubbing them through his hair.
"Stop that! Even I think that's disgusting!" Spike put his hand on Xander's head to stop him, and Xander leaned into the touch. Spike noticed this and softly began to rub. Xander let out a contented purr, which gradually became louder, and reached a hand up to bat at Spike's face. He batted Spike's nose several times before Spike grabbed the hand and pulled it through one of the armholes of the t-shirt. Xander actually didn't fight him this time, just sat there purring as Spike got the shirt on correctly, pausing to continue to rub Xander's head whenever he started getting antsy again. Having gotten Xander dressed, Spike grabbed his duster, cigarettes and lighter and then took Xander's hand and started towards the ladder to the upper level.
Xander let himself be dragged to the ladder, and then climbed the ladder faster then even Spike could. Once he got to the top, he again hunched down, and blinked at Spike, waiting for him to come up. He shifted, then shook one leg, then tried to pull the restricting garment off of his leg. Spike hurried to the top, and stopped Xander from trying to get undressed. He grabbed Xander's hands, and begin dragging Xander out the crypt door. "Let's go whelp! Let's see if the witches can fix this bleedin' mess"
Xander for the most part, kept trying to get down on all fours again, and was only walking on the toes of his foot. He was constanly stopping and shaking first one leg, then the other. Spike kept tugging on his arm whenever he stopped though, trying to get to the dorms as fast as possible. After the fifth time Xander stopped, Spike realized that Xander wanted to walk on his hands and feet, and that he also had no shoes on. "Bloody Hell! Fine, I'll carry your sorry arse, but you are gonna so owe me! Bugger Me! Now I'm talking like you idiots!" He picked Xander up and carried him towards Willow's dorm, grumbling the whole way.
Willow was really worried. Giles was infuriated with her, Xander was missing, Buffy and Dawn weren't talking to her, and Tara had withdrawn into herself. They had been searching all night, at least she, Tara, and Giles had. Joyce had stopped by after closing the gallery, with dinner for everyone and had taken Dawn home with her. Buffy had left to patrol and also keep an eye out for Miss Kitty about three hours ago. So far they had had no luck in finding what went wrong: Giles himself had gone over their spell countless times, trying to figure out what had happened. He was still mumbling to himself at the main table.
Willow tried to shake the feeling of dread that had been weighing on her the past 12 hours, ever since she'd seen Xander disappear before her very eyes. It was getting to be too much, with no answer forthcoming: it looked like she was responsible for her best friend's death. She could tell that Tara was feeling the same thing because she would not look at anyone, or speak above the barest whisper. All because something went wrong, but no one could figure out what.
She couldn't even blame Xander for barging in; he'd heard the commotion and was trying to help them, like he always was. He always helped others before he'd even think about himself.
Like how he'd taken the blame when she'd broken her crayon in kindergarten, and just known she'd get in trouble. And when he had protected her from Cordelia and the snobs throughout school. And when he avoided talking about where he always picked up the bruises that scattered his body, just claiming to being clumsy.
Willow knew the home life Xander had and yet he'd never said a word about it. When she'd thought about it, the list seemed endless. When he had forced Angel to the Master's lair and saved Buffy's life. He was scared shitless, in his own words, but he went down anyway because Buffy needed him.
Facing Angelus at the hospital. Attacking Spike to protect her. Defusing the bomb and facing down Jack O'Toole the day they'd faced the Hellmouth opening. He'd never taken credit for any of these things though. Hell, she wouldn't even know half of what he'd done if she'd hadn't been reading his journals for the past few years. Because of her promise to him, she had to pretend she didn't know any of this.
She wondered if he knew that she still read his journals, up to last week? He never acted like he knew. But he'd never removed her permission to read them, so she continued, always placing it back in exactly the same place she found it. He'd gone through 5 journals so far, and she knew them all by heart.
And now, now he was gone. Her best friend, the self-proclaimed jokester, Cordelia's Zeppo, Angelus's White Knight, Buffy's Xander Shaped Friend, Dawn's first crush, Spike's whelp, Joyce's son, Giles's heir, Tara's only male confidant, the one person she could never live without, was gone BECAUSE OF HER!
Willow couldn't take it anymore and completely broke down, letting out loud keening wails. Giles and Tara immediately jumped up to console her, Giles letting Tara go ahead and hug her while he stood to the side and softly shushed her.
"He's gone isn't he, Giles? Really and truly gone?" Willow croaked after she stopped.
"It's still to soon to give up hope."
"But it's unlikely that we'll find anything else. You've been over the spell more times than I can count and haven't found anything yet."
"Yes, but I'm not ready to give up yet. I feel that there's something that we're missing. Plus, we still need to find your feline to see if we can find any reason for what happened. It's likely, when we go over everything again, we will see it."
Nearly an hour later, Tara spoke up, "G-Giles? I think, I think I found s-s-something."
Giles and Willow hurried over to see what she had found. "It s-s-says here t-t-that the witches casting the s-s-spell must f-f-first assemble the t-t-t-talisman. Once t-t-that is done, they perform the incantation. Finally, the blood of the familiar, or familiars, is added. That's what happened."
"Right, that's exactly what we did. We already know what we did, why did it go wrong is what we're looking for." Willow stated.
Giles, on the other hand, started nodding, seeing the same thing that Tara had. "That could possibly be the answer. We definitely need to find the feline to be sure. If it is as we suspect, I may be able to find a way to break the spell." He headed towards another of his great dusty tomes. "Willow, I have a tracking spell here. You and Tara need to return to where you performed the incantation. Once there, recite this incantation, it should let the two of you follow the path to your familiar. As soon as you find it, bring it here."
Willow still didn't see it. "What? What do you think it is? What went wrong?"
"The spell called for the blood of the familiars, Willow, plural. You said Xander was bleeding from the scratches on his arm, remember? His blood must have combined with the talisman. Since their can only be one familiar per Talisman, it appears Xander, err..uhm ..Well, succinctly put: Xander is now your familiar."
Spike dropped Xander to the floor in front of Willow and Tara's dorm and started banging on the door. "Red! Glinda! Open up! I've got.Actually You've got a problem out here!"
As Spike Continued pounding on the door, trying to get someone to open it, Xander decided to do a little exploring. Slinking away on all fours, pausing every couple of seconds to shake his legs and try to get rid of the restrictions on them. He made as far as the stairwell before Spike realized he was gone. Spike rushed over and grabbed Xander, and threw him over his shoulder. "Bints aren't home, no heartbeats inside. We'll just head over to Slutty's and see if they're there."
Halfway to Buffy's house, while crossing a darkened alley Spike realized that they were being followed. He sensed the other vamps stalking him , or more accurately stalking Xander. There were at least 6 of them, all newly risen by the smell of them - one probably tonight even. "Sod it all! Can't anything go right for me tonight!" Taking Xander off his shoulder and sticking him behind one of the dumpsters in the alley, before turning to face the coming Vamps. "Alright you ruddy buggers, come get some! I've not got all night you know."
The Vamps did exactly what he hoped - they attacked singularly. * Stupid Wankers * Spike thought as he dusted the second one in a row * Always coming in one at a time, when they had the numbers to swarm me down. Not a bleeding brain cell in the lot of em * That train of thought was delayed as Two Vamps happened to grab him from behind while he was fighting a third. "Bloody Hell! What, were you reading my flipping mind?" Spike growled as he tried to pull loose. The vamp in front of him smiled, and picked up Spike's own stake, "Good Bye traitor!" the vamp yelled as he began to thrust the stake..
Only to be knocked down by a very dark mass. Spike heard the earsplitting scream the Vamp made before he was released. The other vamps turned and ran off, and Spike tried to see what had scared them off. One look, and Spike visably paled. The other Vamp was being mauled by solid black cat creature the size of a horse -* It's as big as a freaking Clydesdale! * Spike made the decision to grab Xander and run before the Cat creature noticed him and wanted dessert. He made to move when the Cat turned around and stalked up to him. Spike Froze. The Cat was mere inches from his face, It sniffed him. Then it licked him with it's sandpaper rough tongue, which itself was wider then Spikes face. Spike did what any self respecting Vamp would do. He Fainted.