Prologue
Title: The Four Seasons
Author: animereid27
Spoilers: Not if you been watching the last Three seasons.
Rating: A Strong PG-13, Because I use a one really bad word. It will the only time I use said word, so it definitely Hard PG-13.
Warning: That's a secret
Disclaimer:I own nothing! Not even the Character Xellos who is from a anime named The Slayer Next. Please don't look it up. I want you to know nothing about his Character and in the off chance that you seen The Slayer Next Please No Spoilers.
Summary: Season One AU, The group fines something odd in the study room one day.
Authors Notes: I'm so sorry this is so late, my life just got crazy busy and I also want to rewatch season one before writing this,so yeah. As stated above this is a mini Crossover, I been wanting to do this for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity. It is also connected to my other fic, The Feeling I've Been Here With you Before, like with Slayers, you don't need to have read it.
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Prologue
Jeff Winger took a sip of his scotch. He was pissed off and weirded out. He looked away from the TV screen and over at his friends. Some of them seemed to be handling this better than others, or at least they were better at hiding how truly freaked out they really were. Abed was handling this surprisingly well; it would seem having one foot out of reality helped in situations such as these. He and Troy had even somehow managed to make t-shirts. Jeff sighed to himself, frustrated, “Of course they would find time to make t-shirts while we're being held hostage by a sick, manipulative mad man.” He rubbed his forehead to try and dull the ache. This whole thing was making his head hurt. This was just his luck. His time at Greendale had somehow turned him into a weirdness magnet. He took another sip of scotch.
But this wasn't about him. It had taken him a while to figure it all out, and he was sure Abed had figured it out a little after Xellos revealed himself.
Xellos; the man behind this. What was he getting from this? Why was he doing this to them? To her? And furthermore, how? This shouldn't be possible. Abed pointed out that most of the angles would have been impossible to catch without the group noticing that they were being filmed, and even if it was possible, that wouldn't explain the stuff that hadn't happened yet.
The group had a couple of different theories about Xellos and who, or what, he was. Pierce was convinced that Xellos was hired by an old business rival out for revenge; Abed thought that he might be a trickster god, like on the CW show Supernatural; Shirley thought that he was a demon sent to lead them astray; Britta thought this was all just a bad trip; and Troy thought he was the Boogieman.
Jeff wasn't sure what he thought. At first, he thought this was all just an incredibly strange dream, but Abed busted that bubble quite quickly and painfully when he stabbed him in the hand with a large sewing needle. Of course, if he was dreaming, Jeff admitted that he wouldn’t feel pain, to which Troy frantically responded, “Unless he's Freddy Kruger. Oh my God, we're all going to die!”
Jeff was pretty sure Xellos was not Freddy Kruger. His sense of humor was a little less morbid than Freddy’s. But only a little.
Jeff looked over at Annie. She was eerily silent and still, with her hands in her lap and her eyes on the screen.
“I guess she figured it out too, which isn't all that surprising; she’s too smart not to.” Jeff thought. She must have felt his eyes on her, because at that moment she looked at him and Jeff froze. Her eyes were screaming, Jeff tried to give her a reassuring look; “It's going to be okay. It's almost over,” he mouthed to her. She gave him a sad smile and Jeff ‘s heart skipped a little. He hastened to remind himself that she didn't love him, she was just in love with the idea of being in love and he was okay with that. It would be better for both of them that way.
They both looked back at the TV. On screen they are in the study room, talking about their spring break plans. Jeff laughed a little bit when he and Troy schooled Britta in stripper names. He glanced back at Annie again. She was silently crying, her eyes still wide open; and who could blame her? She’d had it harder than anyone else here. Xellos seemed to be fixated on her and he kept calling her Amelia, even though he knew her real name. He wouldn’t call her anything else. He wasn’t doing it out of some sick delusion - no, he knew her name. He knew all of their names. For everyone else it was “Mr. Winger” and “Mr. Barnes” and “Miss Perry”. No, he was doing this deliberately. He was doing it to get to her.
Deep down, Jeff experienced a feeling that he had only felt a few times in his life; a burning rage bubbled up inside of him. Jeff thought to himself, “Xellos, I don't know who or what you are, or why you get your kicks by forcing people to see their future via DVD, but I don't care. I don't care if you’re a demon or a god or goddamn Freddy Kruger; I'm going to get out of here and when I do, I'm going to hunt you down and fucking kill you!”
As soon as he thought that, the image on the TV changed from Troy, Abed, Annie, Shirley and Britta at the camping store, to the man in question.
“Oh, Mr. Winger,” he said smiling. He was always smiling; it made Jeff sick. “I’d like to see you try.”
The Four Seasons
By Animereid
for eleventhimpala
Was this karma? Was this the universe punishing him for conning his way into a job at a law firm? That doesn't seem quiet fair. Growing up in the neighborhood he did, he could have ended up so much worse. He would know, he helped more than half of his senior class get out of going to jail.
Okay maybe that’s why the universe was punishing him; but this was just cruel, Jeff thought as he sat and watched all of his friends share a group epiphany (except for Abed, who opted to sit next to Jeff and eat popcorn annoyingly loud and hush Jeff every time he try to speak). This was usually about the time when he would try and make his exit, but that was a little hard to do, being that he was currently handcuffed to his chair.
Jeff sighed and looked up at the clock; that’s when he saw his chance for freedom. Pottery class. They were going to be late for it if they didn't leave now. Not that it would matter, but Annie would care.
“Annie,” Jeff started, but he was quickly shushed by Abed.
“Abed, do that again and I’ll make you sit and watch all of Two and a Half Men,” Jeff threatened.
“That would be kind hard to do while you're handcuffed your to seat,” Abed said, teasing Jeff.
“Want to try me?” Jeff challenged. Abed thought about this for a few moments, then said, “I think I'm going to cut my losses.”
“Smart move,” Jeff said sharply. “Annie, I don't mean to interrupt this little love fest, but we're going to be late for Pottery class.”
“Dammit, Winger, why do you have to make everything about yourself?” Pierce complained.
“No, it’s okay guys,” Annie sniffed. “I'm glad Jeff reminded me.”
The group separated from each other and started to return to their seats, except for Annie who went to un-cuff Jeff.
“Sorry about your head, Jeff,” she said as she turned him loose.
“It’s fine, Kiddo,” He said, rubbing his newly freed wrists and giving Annie a brilliant smile. Annie smiled back and started back to her seat.
And that’s when she saw it, sitting on the table in the space between her chair and Jeff’s.
It looked like a box set of DVD’s for a TV show, except on the cover there were a bunch of pictures of the study group with the title “Community”. It was where Abed had just been sitting, so she really couldn’t be blamed for coming to a very logical, but wrong, conclusion.
Annie picked it up and said, “Abed, I think you dropped this.”
Jeff, who was not in such a hurry to get to Pottery class now that he wasn't handcuffed to a chair, was the second to see it. For some strange reason he couldn't stop himself from staring at Annie at every opportunity he could get, and even though he hadn't really been listening to what she'd been saying, he’d come to a similar conclusion when he saw the box.
“Wow, Abed!” Jeff said. “Way to out-creepy Britta’s prank- and her’s involved a dead body!” Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at Jeff and Annie.
“Hey, that was an accident!” Britta protested to dead ears.
“What do you mean?” Abed asked, confused.
“Jeff, don't be insensitive. Clearly Abed put a lot of work into this, and I think it's sweet,” Annie said in her “I love Butterflies” voice, as Troy called it.
“Sweet? Annie, I think you and I have different definitions of “sweet”. But then again, you are dating Vaughn, so I think you may have a warped sense of the word.”
“Ugh,” Annie scoffed. “Stop picking on Vaughn! And anyway, if anyone has a “warped sense of sweet”, it’s you, Mr. My Poor Mother Thinks I'm Out of the Country and that’s Why I Don't Answer Her Calls.”
“Amen, Sister!” Britta cheered.
Troy leaned over to Abed and mumbled, “Is it just me, or is there lot sexual tension between Jeff and Annie today?”
Abed thought about this for a second as Jeff and Annie argued and then nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I sense a possible epic love triangle between Jeff, Britta and Annie,” he whispered back.
“Goody,” Troy said, unenthusiastically.
“Excuse me, Jeff, Annie, would you please tell us what this is all about?” Shirley boldly asked.
“This,” Jeff said as he grabbed the box and threw it on the table so everybody could see it, “is Abed’s April Fools’ prank.”
The rest of the group gasped, except for Abed who had already come to a relative conclusion as to what everyone was thinking, and Pierce, who didn’t really know what was going on.
“It's a box with our picture on it; whoop-dee-do,” Pierce said, uninterested.
“See? Pierce agrees with me,” Annie countered.
“And that makes it not creepy, how?” Jeff questioned.
“It pains me to say this, but I agree with Jeff. This feels like it might be an invasion of privacy,” Britta said.
“Mmhmm,” Shirley nodded in agreement. “This is like something I saw once on CSI or Criminal Minds. I think. I can't remember which one, but in the episode the killer would film himself killing the victims and then send them to his next target.” Shirley shuddered. “Gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.”
“Or it could be a video scrapbook,” Troy offered, and everybody looked over at him in surprise, except Abed, who had picked it up off the table and pulled the sleeve off of the two small cases and was examining them.
“First the tap dancing and now the video scrapbook; talk about gay, right guys?” Pierce chuckled
“It was modern interpretive!” Troy shouted.
“Pierce, I'm so sick of your out of date thinking. Troy liking to make video scrapbooks doesn't make him gay,” Britta said in Troy’s defense.
“Yeah! Wait. What? My Aunt likes to… No, I don't have to explain myself to you guys!” Troy protested. “Okay, first off, I didn't make this; Abed did. Secondly, I agree with Annie: it's not creepy, it's sweet, and thoughtful, and it looks like it took a lot of work, and you guys are totally overreacting!” he quickly screeched.
“Troy’s right,” Britta said soberly, slightly ashamed with herself.
“Yeah, I guess we were being a little over-dramatic,” Shirley agreed.
“Ha, see Jeff? I was right; it was sweet,” Annie gloated.
“No, Jeff is definitely right; this is creepy,” Abed said, finally deciding to join the conversion. “And the outer cover is just the tip of the iceberg.” He held up the two small DVD cases that he had taken from the cover for everyone to see, then continued. “See this? There are more pictures of us on the cases, some of which have most likely been photoshopped by a pro. There are also two DVDs inside each case, of who knows what. But that’s just the beginning. On the back there are brief descriptions of several things we’ve done both this and last semester, including the events of today and into the end of the semester, giving each entry a title like they are episodes of a TV show. But even that isn't the worst of it. No, the creepiest thing about all of this is that is the fact that it contains a copy of my and Troy’s secret friend comic.”Abed said very matter-of-factually.
“WHAT?! But that was for our eyes only!” Troy exclaimed, irritated that his friend would use something like that for a dumb prank.
“You know what? I change my mind again, this is definitely creepy. Some people just can't let things go,” Shirley said bluntly. Everyone nodded their heads.
“I didn't make this,” Abed said calmly.
“Abed, you can cut it out, we know you made it. You can stop,” Britta said. This was starting to piss her off.
“Guys, it wasn't me. Troy and I promised that we wouldn’t mess with friends like this anymore,” he said sincerely.
“That true,” Troy nodded in agreement.
“I understand why you think I did. If I were you guys I think I did it. I'm the only one of us that would has the skill, the patience and the imagination to do something like this,” Abed said.
“Well if you didn't make it, who did?” Britta asked, drearily.
“I don't know,” Abed said.
That was around the point where everyone started to really freak out, screaming all kinds of crazy things.
“Guys, calm down, it was probably Starburns or Buddy trying to mass with us,” Jeff said trying to calm everyone down.
“You really think the “cool group” would put this much effort in to messing with us?” Pierce huffed.
“I don't care! This is just a silly prank,” Jeff rationalized.
“I thought it was creepy, Jeff,” Annie snapped back.
“It is, but it’s creepy and harmless, much like this school,” Jeff snarked.
“That doesn't make any sense. This could be really serious” Annie said, frustrated.
“And I thought you said it was sweet.” Jeff smirked.
“That’s when I thought Abed made it, not some creepy stalker,” Annie said, folding her arms around herself as if to shield her from it all.
“Here, if it makes you feel any better…” Jeff grabbed all the DVDs and threw them in the garbage. “Look, all gone,” he said.
“Jeff, you can't just throw it away and expect it to just disappear,” Britta protested.
“Yes I can, because it just some prank from one of the socially awkward misfits that this school is known for; possibly one who teaches here and once faked his death to send a message to his Spanish class; maybe one who might want revenge after one of his students tried to pull a frog related prank on him, which is his mortal fear,” Jeff said in his lawyer voice.
“Are you saying…” Abed said in awe.
“Yes, Señor Chang. Think about who else would be crazy enough to do this,” Jeff confirmed.
“I'll buy it,” Britta shrugged.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Troy agreed.
Everyone seemed to buy this except Annie, but they where late for class, so she decided to drop it for the time being.
The group got up and slowly left the study room, when Abed asked, “Hey guys, I was wondering if you were up for movie night tonight. We’re watching The Wall.”
Everyone seemed to be up for it, except Jeff.
“Sorry, but I have plans,” he said, only half listening.
As Jeff walked down the hall to class, he really thought that was the end of the creepy DVD mess.
He really should have known better. He's not that lucky.