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“Well, it’s a parasite,” Willow declared, taking her eyes away from the microscope. She had one of the tiny creatures under a high-powered microscope and was studying it intently. She shook her head in bewilderment, “but it’s not like any I’ve ever seen before.”

Giles frowned at her. “How so?” he inquired.

Willow sighed. “Well,” she began, “for starters, it’s an endoparasite. It’s designed for living inside a host body and it comes equipped for the trip. Its developing cells are protected by a cyst wall like a tapeworm's is.”

They were in the campus laboratory, the lights shut off so that Willow wouldn’t have to deal with glare. Willow sat on a stool in front of a lab table, Alec and Giles beside her, and Xander and Faith sitting on desks behind them.

Giles nodded. “Protecting it from its host's immune system, interesting,” he observed.

Willow nodded. “It gets better - it’s got teeth. Normally, only ectoparasites, parasites that live outside the body, like leeches, come equipped with any sort of teeth or barbs,” she frowned and continued. “Now, here’s where it gets really weird-”

“We weren’t already at ‘really weird?’ ” Xander quipped sardonically.

Willow shot him a patiently amused look before continuing.

“It’s a permanent parasite, which means that it’s meant to live out its life span within a host, but it also contains characteristics of a facultative parasite, which means it can survive just fine without one.”

Giles frowned. “How can that be?” he asked.

“It can’t,” Willow replied simply. “This thing shouldn’t exist, period. But it does.”

“Leave it to the Hellmouth to repeal the laws of nature,” Alec added dryly.

“It’s repealing more than that,” Willow put in, “this thing is shedding its surface cells and replacing them with polarized silicon.”

Xander frowned. “You mean like that stuff they put in....” he put his hands to his chest signifying breasts.

Willow rolled her eyes. “Not silicone gel, Xander, silicon, an organic polyurethane substance that’s very durable,” she frowned, “and also not supposed to exist in the natural world, at least not in a living organism.”

“Isn’t silicon supposed to be flame resistant?” Alec asked.

Willow nodded and patted him on the head.

“You get a cookie, lover,” she smiled prettily at him; he smirked and gestured for her to continue. She nodded in agreement to his allegation. “Yep, silicon is supposed to be flame resistant, but I’m examining the cells that haven’t been shed yet, and THEY contain high traces of methane, which is anything BUT flame-resistant,” she leaned forward and looked back into the microscope, “my guess is, is that this change was triggered by its exposure to air.”

Faith frowned. “So, hang on, these things have skin made up of stuff that burns, because they live in peoples bodies and don’t need to worry about fire,” she furrowed her brow, “but when you take them out of people, they shed their skin and replace it with stuff that doesn’t burn?”

Willow nodded. “More or less.”

Giles shook his head in amazement.

“That’s a remarkable defense system. That sort of biological reconfiguration is unheard of, especially at the rate that this seems to be capable of,” he turned to Willow. “Have you begun the internal probe?”

Willow rose from the scope. “Just about to start. Alec, can you hand me that scalpel there? That small one?” she pointed to a tray of instruments, without looking up from the microscope. Alec selected the correct one and placed it handle-first into her outstretched hand.

“Thanks,” she replied. Gingerly, she moved the edge of the blade to the creature, began a small incision across the length of its body… and cried out suddenly as a tiny stream of black liquid shot out of the wound and splashed against the scalpel. The creature, suddenly very much awake, shrieked and thrashed against the constraints of the microscope tray as Willow jumped back, dropping the now smoking scalpel. Alec pushed her behind him, eyeing the microscope warily.

“Good lord, Willow, are you all right?” Giles asked.

Willow swallowed and nodded. “I’m all right, I didn’t get any on my hand,” she looked down at the scalpel on the floor, now corroded and useless, “but I think I may want thicker gloves to continue this.”

Alec turned to face her. “What’s going to keep that stuff from eating through the gloves?” he asked.

“Most lab gloves are made of an anti-corrosive latex. Unless this stuff is as powerful as molecular acid, and if that were the case, the entire microscope would be melted into slag.” She gestured and shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay,” she smiled reassuringly up at him and patted his face. “But it was very brave of you to protect me from the big bad leech.”

Alec snorted and kissed her hand. “Hey, I’m always ready to protect you from things that I outweigh by at least a good eighty kilos.”

Willow chuckled and gingerly poked at the ruined scalpel with the toe of her sneaker before deeming it safe to pick up. The blade was pitted and charred.

Xander whistled. “Acid for blood, cool,” he smiled at Willow. “Hey, Will, remember ‘Aliens’?”

Willow shuddered a little. “Yeah, I was seven when you talked me into watching that. I had nightmares for a week,” she replied.

Alec laughed and took the scalpel from her, tossing it into the garbage. Another tinny screech from the microscope brought them back to reality. He turned to address his father.

“Dad, could you…?”

Giles already had a syringe filled with alcohol at the ready.

“Have one for the road,” the elder man whispered with a savage tone that caused Alec's ears to prick up, as he inserted the needle into the creature and pushed the plunger down. The creature stopped thrashing and lay still. Giles gingerly removed the syringe; the needle tip was now melted into slag. With a look of disgust, he placed the instrument into a medical waste disposal bin and turned back to the group.

“It’s been rendered docile, though I don’t see how you’ll be able to continue the dissection, Willow, if its blood can eat through the metal scalpels.”

Willow nodded as she pulled on another pair of latex gloves with an elastic snap.

“I wasn’t planning on using metal scalpels,” she replied, looking around the lab, before finding a tray with several instruments made of some sort of black plastic. Picking the tray of tools up, she brought it over to the table. “These are made of anti-corrosive plastic, sort of like the gloves. We used them once when we dissected a cow’s stomach. These proved pretty resistive to the cows digestive acids.”

Xander made a face. “You cut open a cow's stomach?” he blanched, before informing her, grimly, “Wills, you need a hobby, STAT.”

She ignored him and placed a small black plastic Petri dish under the parasite, before taking scalpel in hand, and, this time very slowly, drawing the tip of the blade across the length of the parasite. Taking a pair of tweezers, she gently peeled back the flaps of skin to study its workings.

“It’s an incomplete organism,” she informed the group. “It can survive on its own, but its really just part of a larger organism.”

“Like the golobulan that spat these things at me in the first place?” Alec asked.

Willow nodded. “I think so, but since I don’t have a sample of the golobulan's genetic tissue, I can’t be certain.” She frowned inhaling. “Anyone else smell that?”

Alec understand instantly. “Methane,” he said, focusing on the creature in the dish. “Is it coming from it?” he gestured to the microscope.

She nodded. “It’s weird; it doesn’t have anything in the way of organs, just a lot of rotted tissue. It’s like it’s in a state of continuous decomposition,” she lifted her head from the eyepiece and made an adjustment to it, “let’s see what an examination at the cellular level reveals,” she leaned back into the eyepiece and whistled. “Whoa!”

Alec frowned. “What is it?” he asked.

“Well, at first glance it looks like your average animal cells. Mitochondria, nucleus, everything pretty much standard, but if you take a closer look,” she squinted her eyes, “there’s something that sort of resembles a collection of thylakoid membranes, which are supposed to contain chlorophyll, the key component in the process of photosynthesis.”

Faith spoke up. “That thing plants do in order to eat?”

Willow nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed hesitantly, “except, I’m getting a good look at this chlorophyll and it does not look like the type that can utilize sunlight. This stuff seems more conducive towards a kind of chemosynthesis. A variation of photosynthesis, no sunlight required.”

“Makes sense - if this thing has anything in common with the Hellmouth, sunlight’s probably a bad thing,” Alec commented thoughtfully.

Willow stood up, taking her eyes away from the microscope. “The whole thing just doesn’t add up.”

Giles cleared his throat. “So, what we have here is a parasite, that can either live in a body, or on its own, can shed its skin to match its environment, and has characteristics of both plant AND animal cells?”

Willow nodded. “And that’s also part of a larger organism, and that seems to be in a perpetual state of decay.” Willow shook her head. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

Alec snorted. “This isn’t exactly National Geographic material,” he commented wryly.

Xander perked up. “Hey, I’ve heard of something like it.” Everyone turned to look at him and he colored a little.

“Well, in this movie, I saw last year, ‘The Faculty’, I think it was called, it had these parasites in it that could control human beings. But, really, all they were, were these things that were spat out of this really big monster,” he thought hard, “I’m not sure, but I think one of the guys in the movie did this same thing we’re doing, and HE said it was an incomplete organism, too,” Xander finished.

Faith snorted. “So, what?” she retorted. “I keep getting told I look like that kid who can talk to dead people’ on TV.”

"Haly Joel Osment?"

"No, no, the other one, the chick on FOX. Her show got cancelled or something."

"Heh, yeah happens a lot on FOX. There was this great 'cowboys in space' show, catchiest theme song in the world-"

"If you please?" Giles interrupted. Xander looked sheepish and shrugged.

“Hey, I’m just saying where I saw it,” he replied defensively.

Alec held up a hand, “How did the movie end Xander?”

Xander thought. “The kid killed the big monster and that caused all the little monsters that had taken over all the people to die,” he grinned, and added, smiling, “and the school nerd got the hottie.”

Faith scoffed wryly. “Over-relate much?”

Xander ignored her as Alec pursed his lips in thought. Giles regarded him.

“Son, what are you getting at?”

Alec shook his head. “I’m not sure, but if this is an incomplete organism, then we should find what spawned it, the golobulan or whatever, and get rid of it - that should kill off anyone who’s had these things put in them.”

Faith frowned, “Yeah, but D, we haven’t run into anyone who’s had the bite put on them, so what difference does it make?” she interjected.

Alec turned to his father. “Dad, you remember what Dracula said about what had happened to everything that had lived underground? What had happened to those that didn’t get away in time?”

Giles nodded slowly. “He said that had been made part of a larger whole, unwillingly.” He got it instantly and regarded his son with a mixture of paternal pride and astonishment. “You think this was what he was referring to? That they’d been somehow infected with these necro-parasites?”

Alec nodded slowly. “That’d be my guess, yeah,” he turned to Willow, “but there’s only one way to know for sure. Introduce one of the parasites to a living host.”

Willow didn’t like the look in his eye. “Alec? What are you thinking?” she asked a little worried. When Alec put his mind to something, "reckless" didn't even begin to capture how he could get. He caught her worried look and smiled reassuringly.

“Relax, baby, nothing overdramatic, but do we have any rats in here?”

Willow frowned and nodded. “Yes, but they’re the property of the school.”

Alec waved her protestations away. “I’ll spring for some new ones, where are they?”

Willow turned to the lab door. “Down the hall about three doors to the left,” she answered and gestured.

Alec turned to Faith. “Feel like a little B and E?” he asked her.

She grinned. “Always,” she replied as she hopped from her perch on the desk and followed Alec out of the lab. They came back minutes later, Faith bearing a cage containing a large white rat.

“Here is our lucky contestant for ‘You bet your life’,” Faith piped in, setting the cage down next to the microscope.

Xander frowned. “Huh?” he asked, confused.

“This little guy is going to be taking a serious detour on the evolutionary ladder,” Alec explained.

Willow whimpered. “You’re going to infect him with the parasites? That’s… that’s…” she sputtered.

“Necessary,” Alec gently soothed her, “we need to know what we’re up against.”

“Yeah, but he’s so small and furry and he’s white,” she protested weakly.

Alec nodded. “Okay, I see your point. Would you rather not be here?”

Willow nodded emphatically.

Alec chuckled. “Okay, why don’t you and Xander go raid the vending machine for Oreos and Doritos? Dad, Faith, and I will take care of things here,” he suggested.

Willow nodded. “I’m not normally squeamish or anything, and if he was a frog I’d be all in favor of demonic infestation,” she gave Alec an apologetic look, before gesturing to the rat in its cage, “but he’s FURRY!” she exclaimed. “I like furry things!” she offered piteously.

Xander chuckled and threw an arm around her shoulders. “This is a throwback from Oz, the teenage werewolf boyfriend days,” he quipped. Alec's face spasmed briefly, his own jealousy aside, Willow had never entirely gotten over Oz's sudden departure or Tara's equally abrupt disappearance.

Willow caught the look and elbowed Xander. “Just for that you can buy your own darn Oreos,” she retorted before giving Alec a quick reassuring kiss. Alec smiled, letting her know all was well and she smiled back gratefully before she headed out, Xander following close behind.

“Ah, come on, Wills, I was joking! Wills!” he cried as he exited the room.

Alec shook his head, chuckling, before returning to the business at hand.

“All right, shall we?” he asked.

Giles cleared his throat. “I suppose so,” he murmured. Unscrewing the specimen jar, he carefully removed one of the sedate parasites and placed it in the cage with the rat before screwing the cap back on tightly and setting the jar back on a table. The rat sniffed at it curiously as the three of them hunched near the cage, watching intently.

Faith turned. “So, how long is this gonna tak-”

With a screech, the parasite lashed out, catching the rat’s throat with a vicious bite, sinking it’s teeth deep into it. Blood spurted out as the rat wailed, and the three of them jumped back.

“Jesus!” Faith cried out. “Holy…” she shook her head.

Giles and Alec regained their composure, and leaned forward, although a great deal further away than they had been originally, as the parasite gorged on the rat’s blood. With a gurgle, the rat collapsed and lay still.

“Cute little buggers aren’t they?” Alec commented dryly. Giles mumbled something as they watched the parasite began to burrow under the dead rodent’s skin, and they watched the skin bulge sickeningly along the trachea and under the rat’s chin. Before it proceeded to slither back along its spine, fur and skin surging and rolling before settling at the base of its spine. For a moment, the rat was still.

Faith swallowed through dry lips. “Is that it?” she asked.

Suddenly the rat’s face SHIFTED into a demonic, vampire-like face, its eyes shot open and bulged nearly out of their sockets, no longer albino red, but a deep putrescent yellow-black, utterly pupil-less. It screeched as its skin began to stretch and writhe.

“Not even close,” Alec replied, watching the rat’s metamorphosis with sick horror. The rat’s fur melted and fell from its body, its face began to elongate to accommodate the rows of dripping needle teeth that had grown in through its gums, its paws thickened and widened as the skin, now mottled and festering with decay, stretched tightly over the bones which popped and groaned wetly. It snarled a sound far too deep to be coming from its body and gripped the bars of the cage, its paws gaining extra digits to form something that nearly resembled hands, each finger ending in a wickedly curved claw. The rat’s body continued to swell and grow as it thrashed from side to side. It was now the size of a large beaver and quickly running out of room in the cage. The three people in the room began to back away from the cage in unison.

“Uh, D? How’s about we pull the plug on the demonic Mickey Mouse over here?” Faith suggested sounding a little worried.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Alec replied. “Dad, get the gun.”

Giles whirled on his son in shock. . “Gun? What gun?” he demanded.

Alec jerked his head to gape at his father. “You didn’t bring a gun or a crossbow? How could you not bring a crossbow? You always bring a crossbow!” he yelled.

“I don’t always bring a bloody crossbow!” Giles yelled back while secretly being relieved that his son had asked about ‘a’ gun, not ‘THE’ gun.

“Will you shut up about the stupid crossbow?!” Faith yelled at them.

“Look out!” Giles yelled, pushing the others out of the way as the creature reared back and smashed clean through the front of the cage, careening over their heads, snapping at them with drooling jaws as it landed in the shadows of the lab, behind some specimen bottles, and disappeared from sight.

“Where is it? Where’d it go?” Faith demanded.

Alec spun around and pointed at her. “Get the lights!” he yelled.

Faith nodded and slowly backed towards the wall with the light switches, her eyes sweeping back and forth, scanning the darkness for the creature. Her back collided with something solid and she yelled and spun around, fists raised. Giles threw his hands up to shield himself.

“It’s me, it’s me!” he cried. Faith lowered her hands, relieved, offering him an apologetic smile.

“Brings back memories, don’t it?” she asked him wryly.

Giles snorted. “The box of Gavrok all over again,” he replied dryly. He carefully moved past her, his eyes moving from floor to ceiling cautiously. Faith continued backing towards the wall, her fingers scraped against the light switches, condensation from a water pipe along the ceiling dripped on her hand, making her fingers slippery as she spun around and flipped the light switches on, florescent lights flooding the room. Faith smiled tightly and turned to address the group.

“Well, that problem solv-” she stopped as she examined her fingers. They weren’t smeared with condensation, but instead with a foul-smelling clear ichor. Looking up sharply, she got a glimpse of a large silhouette in one of the florescent lights. Without any warning, the rat-beast exploded through the light, showering them all with sparks and glass. Faith had no time to get out of the way as the rat-beast, now no smaller than three feet in diameter, dove at her, snarling with dripping claws and fangs.

“Faith!” Alec cried. He dove into a shadow and came out next to her, shoving her out of the beasts trajectory and down to the floor as the beast slammed into Alec, sending him sprawling to his back, the hissing creature atop him, biting and clawing. Alec struggled to get a grip on the abomination’s head to keep it from tearing his throat out as it drooled viscous slime across his face. He nearly gagged at the stench coming from its mouth, the smell of rot was overpowering. The beast thrashed this way and that, trying to dig its claws into his skin, but Alec kept wriggling about on the floor, dodging it as it continued to hiss and snap at him.

“Get this bloody thing off of me!” he screamed, still dodging its snapping jaws.

“Faith!” Giles cried out, tossing her the axe from off the desk. She caught it and flipped from her back to a standing position. The Slayer took three quick strides, bringing her into striking distance with the snarling beast, which was obsessed with devouring Alec. She raised the axe over her head.

“Hey, Mickey!” she called out. The creature jerked its head to snarl at her, drooling slime. Then its soulless eyes widened as Faith brought the axe down hard across its neck, severing its head cleanly from its body, spraying Alec with ichor. The head flew away from its body and splattered against the wall with a nauseating crunch. Rather than calming with the loss of its head, the beast frenzied as vines, dripping of slime, erupted from the severed neck. The vines writhed and cracked in the air. Faith, looking a little stunned, spun and delivered a punishing roundhouse kick to the creature, and with a tearing of fabric, its claws were ripped from their purchase on Alec’s jeans and duster. It flew from him to slam against the wall, falling to the floor on its back next to the remains of its own severed head. Its paws scrabbling madly in the air, it quickly righted itself and charged madly at Alec.

Alec was crab walking away from it as fast as he could. He turned around and dove for a grip upon a lab bench, his fingers stroking the metal valve of a gas jet. An idea struck him, snatching the jar containing the last parasite from the table; he turned and hurled it at the rapidly closing creature. The jar shattered against it, stunning it slightly. He twisted the gas valve all the way to the right and, with a grunt of exertion, leapt over the bench to come to stand behind the gas valve, which was already spewing invisible propane gas into the air.

Faith, seeing what he was getting at, dug into her pockets and extracted a small lighter. She caught his eye.

“Catch!” she yelled at him, sending the silver lighter across the room. Alec lurched forward, picking his feet clean off the floor, balancing one hand on the desk with the other outstretched desperately to catch the object. It landed solidly in his palm, and with a snap of his wrist, the lid opened, the wick flaring to life. He brought his head around to target the writhing creature, which had shrugged off the blow and was coming full-speed at him, the vines sprouting from its neck writhing madly. With a vicious grin, he placed the lighter flame directly into the path of the spewing gas jet… and with a roar of combusting gas, a gout of flame erupted from the nozzle to engulf the creature. It screeched high and loud, standing up on its hind legs as its body continued to be assaulted by the makeshift flamethrower.

“Alec!” a familiar voice cried out. He craned his head to peer over the flaming creature in horror as he realized that Willow had dashed into the room, and directly into the path of the flaming creature's death throes. She screamed in terror and tried to back away from it, tripping over her feet and falling to the floor. The flaming monstrosity loomed over her, the stench of burning flesh and rot gagging her. She threw her arms up in a futile attempt to shield herself.

A black barbed spear tip erupted from the thing’s chest, sending bits of flaming debris to spill across Willow, who yelped and scooted away on her backside, swatting at the fiery material. The spear tip unfolded, becoming a four-prong hook, and, with a jerk, ripped the dying monster back into the lab, revealing Alec, eyes swirling with darkness, one arm outstretched from which the harpoon emerged from, the other wrapped around the shadowy cord, dragging the creature away from his beloved.

"No. You. FUCKING. Don't!" Alec snarled through teeth clenched so hard they were beginning to crack. Tiny streams of darkness could be seen dribbling from between each tooth as he pulled his mouth back into a feral snarl and yanked with all his might. The creature flew backwards, its spine snapped from the brutality of his attack, and flew towards him. Alec didn't even have time to realize his mistake as the monster slammed into him hard, (word order) sending them both smashing into the wall in a heap.

A shelf full of dark black bottles marked "CORROSIVE" in dangerous yellow letters came crashing down upon them, and immediately there was a loud HISS and an evil smelling vapor began to rise - chemicals began to eat through their flesh and both man and monster screamed as their skin and the muscle underneath it began to bubble and run like hot butter, and then… all was quiet.

Alec got to his feet, his face half concealed in shadows and coughing violently from the fumes. What was left of the beast was quickly melting into a pile of smoking goo and the young man was certain it was finally dead.

Willow ran up to him. "Are you all right?!" she cried out, reaching out to him.

Cradling his jaw with one hand, Alec waved her off and began stripping out of his jacket and shirt, checking his clothes fervently. The crazily swinging florescent light, mixed with all the fumes, the heat, and the smell, made it impossible to see anything clearly.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Willow implored, reaching for his smoking jacket.

“Don’t touch me!” Alec snarled. Willow drew back, afraid, before he offered an apologetic smile.

"Got some of that muck on my coat and clothes, love, no time for hugs," Alec replied hurriedly. Willow reached down and gingerly touched one of the broken bottles, wincing slightly at left over traces of acid.

" 'Sulfuric Acid, 15% concentrate...' " she trailed off in horror as she counted two, three, four bottles, all identical and smoking, all smashed on the floor, and her lover in the middle of it. "Alec, are you sure you're okay?"

" 'Course, love, no worries. Go help the others, looks like I managed to dodge a few bullets there," Alec caught her look and sent her a half-smile from the dark. "No worries, baby, fit as a fiddle I am."

Reluctantly, Willow stepped away from Alec to see to the others.

The light swung back and revealed Alec in full - half his face was gone, just gone, hair, teeth, nose, musculature, all of it was simply gone. He looked like a plasticine mannequin - assembled by a madman before being dipped in acid and broken glass. Even the bones of his face looked wet and runny, and he could feel a draft at the top of his head where portions of his skull had been eaten away to expose raw brain matter.

With an impatient snarl, he brought his good hand up, the other having melted away into mush, and began tearing into his body mercilessly, yanking out wet clumps of dissolved tissue whilst angrily berating himself not only for his foolishness at having caused this damage but also for worrying Willow and slowing down the others in the process.

"Bloody idiot you are!" he muttered through his mutilated jaw as fistfuls of steaming acid-saturated meat fell away from his body in a frenzy of activity. Brittle bones broke and were pulled out of his head entirely as he tore into his face one-handed. "A fitting punishment for being a damn fool!" he said with a gasp, the excruciating pain of tearing flesh and bone from his own body setting every nerve in his tortured frame on fire.

A minute later he began to regenerate: slivers of bone, strands of muscle all wove down from his skull to knit his jaw back into place, and even as Alec stretched his jaw experimentally, flesh, gums, and teeth blossomed like flowers within his mouth. Connective tissues grew from just a few scraps of skin and cell residue into fully woven and healthy weaves of musculature. His skull regenerated to cover his brain again, whether or not his actual brain had regenerated, he had no idea. Hair, skin, even his five o' clock shadow - within moments all had returned.

Using his newly regenerated left hand, he gently helped pry out the destroyed eye on the left side of his face that was being pushed out by the new one growing in its place. With a sniff, he tossed aside the ruined eye, uncaring, like a used up tissue and looked around.

"So, that was fun," he commented. Reaching down he took one of the bottles that hadn't broken completely.

"To my health, it seems," he toasted and, with a grin that bordered on lunacy, drank it down. Tossing the bottle behind him with a crash, he waited. Nothing. No pain, not any thing at all. With a quiet laugh, he went to join the others.

“Are you all right?” he asked Willow fervently. She nodded and sniffled a little, looking into his face.

“I’m all right, just a little scorched,“ she assured him. She was coughing and blinking rapidly in surprise and for a guilty second, Alec was actually grateful that his lover had been too distracted by the attack to notice his powers at work.

Faith chuckled before looking around.

“Uh, guys? I hate to ruin this Taster's Choice moment. But shouldn’t we get going?” she asked.

Alec nodded. “Yeah, let’s get gone,” he turned to his father, who stood there with a puzzled expression on his face.

“You all set, Dad?” he asked.

Giles frowned. “ ‘Taster’s Choice moment?' ” he asked querulously.

Alec stopped a moment. “Yeah, you see there were these commercials with this guy and, on second thought, forget it. I’ll explain it to you later.” Clapping his father’s shoulder, he headed out the door with Faith and Willow. Willow reached out to grip his hand and give it a tight squeeze.

“I rather like Taster's Choice,” Giles was heard to comment as they exited the lab.

Just then Xander came running up the hallway, his arms absolutely overflowing with snacks of all kinds: cupcakes, cookies, chips, candy bars, and cans and cans of soda.

"Hey, guys, I found a twenty in one of the couch cushions, so I went all out. Who wants what?“ he asked. The others regarded him askance, and Xander finally tore his attention from his edible treasures long enough to focus on the suddenly ragged state of the group.

“Whoa! What’s the sitch guys?“ he asked, turning his head to face Willow almost reluctantly, “Wills, what’s that smell?”

“Our contribution to the snack bin, Xander,” Alec commented sourly. "Barbequed bloody rat.“

"Not just any rat - Dusk’s super-special Demon Mutant Rat,” Faith added helpfully, making Alec glare at her.

"Oh...yay?“ Xander joked weakly.

The other’s just grumbled as they pushed past him out the door. But not before Giles, with a slightly guilty look, discretely filched a bag of corn chips from Xander’s arms and spirited off with them.



On the way home, Alec's stomach began to gurgle loudly.

"Whoa, Giles Junior, you need a drink or something? Settle your stomach?" Xander asked from the front seat.

Alec smiled slightly and turned away from the others to gently open his jacket. Acid was beginning to dribble out from his body, having already, Alec guessed, eaten its way clean through his stomach. Prying apart the steaming hole with his fingernails to get a better look verified this - for a moment, he could see the clear syrupy like acid froth as it tried to bubble away his skin; he could see the pink of his own stomach organ with a tiny hole burned through it.

And then the acid just gave up and he watched as his stomach healed itself, muscle folded back over to protect it, and skin knitted itself back together.

"No thanks Xander. Just had a drink, didn't agree with me it seems," Alec replied off handedly.

"Whew! I can tell, dude, crack a window!"

Alec chuckled and rolled down a window as Willow smiled prettily at him.

"That's okay, honey, I don't mind if you are occasionally stinky, so long as we get some better food in you, you have to be careful what you put in that tummy of yours, you know?" she insisted, reaching over to pat his smooth stomach.

"As you say my love, though I'll warn you: I have a heartier stomach than you might think."

"He gets that from me," Giles put in, "All that English food has bestowed upon him great intestinal fortitude."

Alec discreetly spit out the window then watched the spittle landed on the street and began to eat through the pavement.

"You have no idea," was all Alec said.





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