Alexander Harris from another World, working for the Frey and Freya, found himself in the castle of Count Dracula; he could feel the magics, almost but not entirely dark, permeate the area. Quickly he set Pip and Pop, his twin mini-drags, off to the side to provide some measure of early warning against the undead as he quickly set up the spell as he'd been directed. He heard his local self and Buffy entering the castle to find Dracula, but couldn't stop his own casting. Feeling the link to the magically powerful master vampire mage, he made the best possible time.
There seemed to be a magical backflow to the spell, which as far as he could tell, combined a purification spell with a power absorption spell.
Alexander felt clean in every aspect, powered up, and feeling really good about life in general and about what he was doing for his alternate selves.
Stepping out of the room, he was somewhat amazed that the structure itself seemed clean and new, restored and without taint. He found his alternate self lying on an expensive rug in a heap, so he picked him up and carefully set him on what could only be described as a throne. On the other side of a thick door, he'd heard Giles and Buffy talking, about something frantically, but as he was moving away with Xander, he couldn't hear the exact words.
"Giles, quick!" Buffy called out, "Something's wrong with Riley!"
"Good Lord, Buffy, pick him up and run him to the hospital," Giles directed, "I'll be right behind you."
"I can't, Giles," the girl gasped, "I don't seem to have my slayer strength right now, please help him."
"Alright, you get the door, a-and use the first pay phone we come across."
Placing his hand on the young man's chest, he activated the recall spell, and was surprised that he experienced glimpses of local Xander receiving the memories and some of the abilities of the Dark Prince, as a result of the link the vampire had established.
"What hit me?" the local Xander asked as he came to, "And who are you? And what did you do to me?"
"I'm you from a different dimension, Dracula put the whammy on you and I cast a reclamation spell to give you all the good and little of the bad from the hyena and soldier. Didn't really expect that being in contact with Fangus Maximus meant you'd get a bunch of that, too. Sorry about that."
"Is Buffy okay!" Xander responded, suddenly realizing he'd led her to the castle, "I gotta find her!"
"She's fine, her and Giles just left in a hurry. Probably betting her temporarily negated strength has her worried."
"So, can I go now?" Xander asked.
"Sure, but I'm thinking that as I'm leaving soon, this could be your new home," Alexander gestured, "I'm sure the Toothy One has enough in the way of valuables that Joyce could hock for you, you could even get away with not working and just mastering your abilities…and magic."
"Magic? Me? Are you sure you're me?" Xander asked, then recounted the few times he'd had anything to do with magic.
"You do realize that you didn't cast spells, right? So it wasn't you," Alexander sighed, "And having just been given the upsides of the possessions kind a fills in the gaps of your susceptibility. And if I can do it, so can you."
"Hmm, I don't know…"
"Now, let's go find the vamp's books and see what you might be able to do before I need to leave."
"What do you think I can do?"
"Probably most of the neat tricks people think vampires can do? I'm guessing that it is a bunch of combination spells, where instead of turning into a bat, you're casting a glamour that looks like it while you run away to avoid getting staked."
"So how long you here for?"
"Well, it's what? Seven in the morning? Another seventeen hours then," Alexander considered, "Do you mind if we head out to breakfast? I'm starved."
"Okay, now I know you're me."
The morning went well enough for the local Xander until they ran into Anya, which after recognizing Alexander led to her breaking up with Xander on the spot and fleeing town immediately.
"What was that all about?" Xander asked in confusion.
"We ran into each other before she became human, and I've been happily chasing her away from our alternates ever since. I mean, come on Other Me, if one of you normal Xanders ever screwed up that relationship, don't you think that her vengeance demon friends might have fun at your expense?"
Local Xander shuddered at the possibility.
The Scooby Gang was avoided the entire day, and after transferring title to the property to Xander, stocking up on supplies and groceries, buying a generator and some basic lighting, they returned to Castle Alexander. Sparring, spell basics, general discussion of local Xander's issues and such pretty much filled the rest of the day and night. The local man felt better, more stable than he had before, and had a good beginning to a couple of weeks of self-training. And when Alexander dropped one of his last four bundles of cash he'd carried on him at all times since raiding the mint, it removed the last excuse for avoiding study.
"Now, just do what you need to do, study the magics and work out as much as possible. If you feel restless, sneak over to an area Buffy doesn't get to and dust a few vamps."
"Why don't I just tell them?"
"I think you should see how far you can get without help, Xander, that way they can't really try talking you out of it because you'll already be doing it."
"I guess I could be a backup for Buffy and Willow…"
"Maybe their equal, remember how close it was with Buff during the hyena? And since you have the power now, and you know the only smarts involved with magic is knowing the language the spell is written in, or for combining them for a new spell, you can't worm out on those grounds. Who knows? You might be able to get Amy back among the humans."
"Yeah, I'll give it a try," Xander replied, nodding as they shook hands, "Ur, thanks."
"My pleasure, Other Me," Alexander smiled, "And good luck."