Mayor Wilkins looked up as a wave of magic rolled through his office. He shivered as the magic brushed across his skin. After all these years it was a magic he was very familiar with: the magic of the Hellmouth. Glancing at his schedule he noticed the notation about the Hellmouth trying to open. He nodded, that must be the reason for the excess energy. With a smile, he pushed aside the magic and went back to the contract he was working on. Wolfram and Hart were trying to scam him again.

Oz watched Xander walk around the school with a new found confidence. Something had happened the night before and no one had told him anything. Despite the whole kissing Willow situation, Oz considered the younger boy a friend and he hated being kept out of the loop when it came to his friends.

"What happened last night?" he asked Willow and Buffy at lunch.

Willow paled and shook her head but Buffy sighed. "We fought the Sisters of Jhe while Xander was in the basement."

"I thought he was staying home," Oz said. He looked at his girlfriend. "You said he didn't want to help."

She went a bit paler. "Well, actually, we told him to stay home."

"Why?"

"So he wouldn't get hurt," she said earnestly. "He's normal."

"Yeah, and so are Giles and Wesley," the werewolf pointed out. "They just have more training. What happened?"

"O'Toole was a zombie," Buffy told him seriously. "He set a bomb in the boiler room."

"That's right underneath the library," Oz said slowly.

"Xander stopped him."

"How? O'Toole is probably a bit much even for you."

"We don't know exactly what happened, but when Giles and Angel went down there they found some of the remains. Xander took most of it apart," the Slayer admitted. "He told us about it, had some strange conversation with Faith and went home."

"Uh huh," Oz nodded. "Where's O'Toole now?"

Both girls went a bit green. "You may have eaten him," Buffy said hesitantly.

"I ate him?" They nodded. "Explains why I haven't been hungry today."

"Oz!" Willow gasped, looking sick. "That's just nasty."

He shrugged. "So is that all that happened?"

"That we know, yeah," the blond replied.

Oz thought for a moment. It was obvious something had happened when Xander took on O'Toole and the only one to answer it was Xander himself. He'd track down the other boy after school and find out what was going on. His pack might be mostly human, but he was still Alpha and therefor in charge of their well-being.

The van pull up beside him startled Xander out of his thoughts. He looked through the window to see Oz grinning at him just before the door unlocked. Grinning back, he climbed in and buckled up, knowing he would have to wait to see what Oz wanted. The blue haired youth drove them around a bit before parking in one of the small parks that dotted the town.

"The girls told me some of what happened last night," Oz began. He glanced over at Xander. "Your side?"

"They tell you O'Toole was zombified?"

"Yeah."

"His grandfather did it. He used me and my uncles car to go around and raise a few buddies. Then they decided it would be a good idea to blow up the school," Xander said, slumping in the seat. "I didn't realize at first what was going on. Figured it out right after an encounter with Faith."

"And?"

"I stared him down," Xander said softly. "Told him I liked the silence." He shrugged.

"Bluffing?"

Xander shook his head. "No."

"Xan," Oz sighed. "Why?"

"Truthfully, I was tired. Tired of being the normal one. Tired of being pushed aside and left out." He chuckled mirthlessly. "It's funny that they think anyone would be safe on the Hellmouth."

The older boy nodded. "They obviously didn't think that through."

"They tell you about O'Toole's end?" Xander asked with a smirk.

Oz grimaced. "Yeah. Think I'm gonna lay off the meat for a while."

Xander laughed at that. "We good?"

"Pack," Oz reminded him. "Have to do something really bad to be not pack."

"Good to know," Xander replied. "What now?"

Oz shrugged. "No clue. Maybe things will go back to normal."

"On the Hellmouth? No likely."

Things did go back to fairly normal. Patrol happened. School happened. The occasional vampire and demon attack happened. Life was as normal as it got in Sunnydale. That should have been a warning sign, but no one was really paying attention. So when the first body disappeared, no one really noticed. It was the 'Dale after all, things like that happened. The second body went by without comment as well. The third body however, did get noticed.

"Something is going on," Angel told Giles seriously.

The two men were in the far stacks of the library as the the teens researched some obscure demon that Buffy thought she had seen.

"What exactly?" Giles asked.

"Three bodies have disappeared," Angel answered. "Only one was supposed to rise."

"Disappeared how?"

"I don't know," the vampire said. "The first was killed in crossfire between two demons. It disappeared just before burial. The gravediggers went to get the coffin and it was open and empty."

"Which was the vampire?"

"The second. I'm not sure the circumstances," Angel admitted. "It might have risen early."

"And the third?"

"An old woman. She had died of natural causes a day or so before she was found. She was gone from the morgue. She's the one that really got notice."

"Have you asked around? Someone might have taken the two human bodies?"

Angel nodded. "I checked at Willie's and few other places, no one knows. They all claim that there are no grave robbers or the like in town at the moment. All the flesh eaters prefer their meals alive too."

"You're right, this is odd," Giles murmured. "Can you keep an eye out? See if anything else happens?"

"Of course. Are we going to tell Buffy and the others?"

Giles shook his head. "Not yet. I would prefer to have something more concrete than dividing their attention."

Angel nodded. "Let Buffy know I dropped by?"

The ex-Watcher rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, fine. Go now."

Laughing softly, the vampire slipped out the back way and headed to do a quick patrol. He knew Giles hadn't forgiven or forgotten, but at least the man wasn't pointing crossbows at him any more.