fandomtownies | Causeway [Sunday Evening]

Which is when RIC, leading Anders, Xander, and Z, finally catches up with him.

"Bridge?" Anders calls tentatively. The night air has started to sober him up a little more, and in the morning he'll be kicking himself for a lot, but for now he's got other things to worry about. "What are you doing?"

"Getting the hell off this island," he says with a sneer as he turns around. He tilts his head at Anders. "Do you really think you can stop me?"

"Yes," Z said. "I think I can. If I have to."

"I think whatever the hell you are, you're not going anyplace with Bridge," Xander added.

"I think you all just want to turn around and go back home..." the djinn says with a smirk, and an accompanying mental push behind his words.

Anders almost does turn around and start heading for home at that, but -- that smirk is so obviously not Bridge that it scares him. And there's no way in hell he's going to lose his best friend to an evil creature. Not this time. Not again.

"I think you might be a little bit on crack," he says instead.

Now that Xander knows it's not Bridge - now that he's not so focused on himself that he can see what was in front of his face the whole time, he can't un-know it. And he's not leaving Bridge alone with this thing that's been wearing his face.

"And not the good, oh my God, how did this episode get past the network censors crack," he says, not moving.

"Bridge, seriously, don't make us do this," Z said. "Let's just go back to the school and we can figure this out."

"Why would I want to go *anywhere* with a little freak like you?" he hisses.

"You don't mean that," Z said levelly, "and I know that you don't mean that."

"I mean it." Freak.

"No, you don't." Even though you're right.

"Of course I'm right. I *know* you, Elizabeth Delgado. I know *all* about you."

Z pulled herself together. She had to. Bridge needed her. "Then you know you'd better get the heck out of my teammate."

"And out of my best friend," Anders adds, instinctively moving over to stand next to Z.

"Don't you have something- excuse me, someone else you could be doing?" the thing that isn't Bridge asks Anders.

Anders just smirks at him. If this question had been asked earlier in the day, he might have gotten a more incriminating reaction, but right now? Yeah, Anders is feeling a little . . . satisfied.

"Nice. You got something to throw at me?" Xander asks, taking a step towards Bridge. "That I haven't already thrown at myself?"

The djinn cocks his head at Xander.

"Actually, now that you mention it..." and he pulls out the sidearm, taking aim at Xander. "Yeah."

Before he can pull the trigger, though, there's a twitch. A tiny moment of hesitation as Bridge manages to reassert the smallest bit of control over his own body.

Anders is used to reading those moments of hesitation. Even what's left of the alcohol haze can't take years of Pyramid training in that away from him, and he knows it's not a good sign when that sidearm comes out.

Every muscle in his body tensing, he launches himself at Bridge, hard, with the kind of tackle that's meant to knock the ball loose from an opponent's hands.

And it accomplishes what it's meant to. The sidearm goes skidding across the road as the djinn hits the ground, hard.

Z put her foot down on Bridge's sidearm as she drew her own. "Oh, forget this. Bridge, I'm really sorry, okay?" she asked, and zapped him on stun.

And he twitches slightly, before going limp.

Xander runs forward to try to catch Bridge before he hits the ground; he isn't all that successful.

Crouching down next to the fallen form ~~like a moron since he'd so be toast if the djinn was faking it~~, he feels Bridge's neck for a pulse, and only looks up at Z and Anders when he's sure he's found one.

"Okay note for future possession-issues? Somebody please tell me there's a stun setting before I have the heart-attack?"

Anders was about a step behind Xander, except he stumbled and nearly fell in his hurry to try and get to Bridge.

"I didn't know there was a stun setting!" he blurts out as he finally scrambles over.

"Don't tell me you guys actually thought I was going to kill him," Z said, really hurt, as she fumbled at her belt for her Judgement Scanner. "Hang on, let me remember how this thing works."

"I didn't say you were gonna," Anders points out helpfully. "I just said I didn't know it had a stun mode. Please. Like you'd ever kill Bridge."

"When it comes to some people, I worry first and ask questions later," Xander said, bundling up his jacket to put under Bridge's head. "It's a thing."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Okay, stand back, because I'm not entirely sure I'm doing this right." Z brandished her Judgement Scanner and announced, "Judgement mode! Whatever's possessing Bridge Carson, on the charges of body theft and inciting others to break laws..."

Red X, green O, red X, green O...red X.

"Guilty! Confinement mode!"

And he suddenly isn't unconscious anymore. At least, judging from the scream of rage that he lets out as he's forcibly pulled from Bridge's body and in to the capture card.

The card clatters to the ground next to Bridge, as he pulls himself in to a sitting position, arms wrapped around his knees.

"Dude," Anders says abstractly, staring down at the capture card, octagonal with its lopped-off corners. "It's, like, Colonial!"

Z swept down and snatched up the capture card, and then rounded on Anders, punctuating every word by swatting him on the shoulder with it. "You! Drunk! Freaking! Bastard!"

...Z has issues.

. . . so does Anders, but hi, beside the point.

"What the frak?" he sputtered, too busy WTFing to try and get out of the way.

Xander doesn't have an eye to spare for them, so he doesn't give them one. He just touches Bridge on the shoulder. "You okay?"

Bridge just shakes his head. Everything that that *thing* had done while using his body... it made him sick to think about it.

Meanwhile, Z was doing her damnedest to beat Anders to death with a small piece of plastic. "Oh, hey, my best friend is--" smack--"evil--"thwack--"guess I'll get--" smack smack smack--"drunk and be all goofy!"

She could have made a dig about how Anders was probably used to evil friends, but it felt like a low blow.

Wow, those capture cards were sturdy, weren't they?

"Hey!" protested Anders, rather impressed with the sturdiness of the capture cards himself. "It sounded like a good idea when I was talking to hi --"

He froze.

"Oh, frak."

Z froze, arm pulled back to hit him again. "Oh, you didn't." Smack. "Moron!" Smack again. "And you didn't figure out he was evil how?" Z looked at the capture card in her hand, realizing that she didn't know what would happen if it broke, and decided to switch to using her hand. "Here, Bridge. Have a souvenir," she said, tossing it in his general direction.

Bridge glances at the card disinterestedly as it lands by his feet.

Xander sighs, unsure what to do, given what he'd like to do, he's so not going to. He reaches for his jacket on the ground, instead, pulling a pair of brown work gloves from the pockets. "Hey. They're not yours, but better than nothing, yeah?"

Bridge nods and takes the gloves, clutching them in one hand but not actually making a move to put them on.

Xander crouches down next to him, trying to shove aside for the moment the instinct to hide from everybody up to, including, and well, especially Bridge that he'd been going with all day.

"It wasn't you," he says simply.

Which would be when Anders, in attempting to keep his eyes safe from Z's barehanded assault, turned to look in that direction.

"Z, lay off," he said, gesturing toward Bridge with his chin. There was no mistaking that look on his best friend's face. "We gotta get him back to the dorms or something."

Z laid off and crouched down next to Bridge. "Hey, Bridge, c'mon, you've gotta get your gloves on so we can go home."

Xander takes advantage of the broken-up slapfight to stand and step away. When Bridge gets it together enough to remember what happened last night, his presence could only make things worse.

After one more glance to make sure Z and Anders have him safely in hand and no one's watching him, Xander turns and walks back in the direction of MCA.

"Kay," Bridge mumbles, obligingly slipping the gloves on and starting to stand up. He notices Xander's coat on the ground and, after looking around and noticing that there's no *Xander*, quietly slips it on over his uniform jacket.

"C'mon, dude." Anders hesitates for a moment before slinging an arm around Bridge's shoulders -- figuring that right about now Bridge needs the reassurance. "Let's get you home, huh?"

Bridge *almost* flinches, but nods. "Yeah." He says. "Let's get outta here."

Causeway [Sunday Evening]

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