Rise of the Magi

by texaswookie

On Halloween Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles all have to play dress up for Snyder's escort service. On this night each of them goes as a powerful character. Power such as that cannot be allowed to go unchecked by the Mayor. A rumble like the streets of Sunnydale hasn't seen in a long time.

Over the Summer I got hooked on Jim Butcher's Wizard for Hire series I think I've read all but one or two of the books now. That's what two different car trips will do to you though. Was somewhat disappointed when I saw how few fics there were in the genre. Answer was simple create one of my own. So I created this.

I do not own the rights to BTVS, Xena, The Craft, LoTR or Charmed. Hopefully I got the various characters characterized correctly.

Beta work by Sekmarc.

And away we go.

---

Xander Harris, founding member of the Scoobies and the We Hate Cordelia Club sighed as he looked at the various costumes that were on display. Some of them were the more traditional type of costumes of monsters and superheroes even some of the gag costumes from here and there. He admired some of the Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Wolverine costumes. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have the kind of funds it required to buy one of those. That meant that he was going to have to be somewhat creative in putting together a costume. He could do the easy cop out and buy a gun that would go with the fatigues he had at home, but that seemed almost too easy. Part of the fun of putting a costume together from scratch was wowing everyone with what you had managed to piece together from bits and pieces. As he was looking around the store he noticed a fedora like hat on a plastic skull. It was as he was looking at the thing that inspiration struck him. He remembered a book series that Willow had recently become enamored with. It was a detective series about a wizard in Chicago of all places. He had read some of it himself and had to admit that there was something cool to the series. One of the biggest being how the vampires while often pretty boys and girls were also without any argument dangerous animals that would rip your throat out or use you in some other way. Even the one good vamp in the series admitted that he was more dangerous than not and that the hero was something of a fool for trusting in him. As he remembered, the guy was supposed to wear a trench coat like Spikes and carry a staff. With a little scrounging he found a battered matrix jacket, and a silver pentagram necklace. Since most of it was junk, he figured that he could manage to get a somewhat decent deal on it. At least he hoped so.

He looked over at Buffy and Willow who were standing near the classic costumes in a somewhat deep conversation. He briefly wondered if he should go over there. He was still somewhat smarting from the unintentional smack down Buffy had given to his male ego. There was only so much saving that it would allow him to take before it needed to assert itself. Creatures that were inhumanly strong and wanted to eat you was one thing, but jock loser bullies like Larry was another thing entirely. The comics didn't really give an instruction book for how the human element was supposed to respond to that sort of thing from the team powerhouse. Still, they were his friends, and he figured he might as well go over there. Maybe if he acted as if it didn't happen his friends would get the hint and not say anything either. Repression was always a good thing in these sorts of situations. Besides, Buffy had merely reacted to seeing him in danger. Sometimes the blonde just needed to be reminded when to turn the Slayer off and the Buffster on.

---

An oblivious Willow and Buffy were currently discussing costumes. "Come on Willow, if you want Xander to notice you then you have to give him something to notice, something different than what he's used to. Something a little bit sexy as well." The blonde suggested knowingly.

"But I don't do sexy. Sexy and me just don't go together." Willow returned nervously.

Buffy rolled her eyes at her friend as she looked around the store for something that she would accept instead of the overpriced sheet in her hands. Her eyes lighted on something. "Alright, how about this?" She asked pulling what looked like a school girl uniform out. She also added a few witch like items to it. "Come on, it combines the sexy schoolgirl with the sexy witch all into one neat and very nice package." She reasoned with her friend. Getting her friends at Hemery to wear sexy outfits had never been as much trouble as it was with her redheaded friend. Still, what was life as a Slayer without a few interesting challenges. And this was a challenge that wasn't likely to get her killed either.

"I don't know." Willow returned as she eyed the costume nervously.

"Come on, with a little work we can make it into a Sarah Bailey from the Craft. What's wrong with it?" Buffy asked her. "Remember how Xander was talking all about the movie last year, and complaining that we never got to meet the sexy hot witches?" She asked her friend.

"True." Willow agreed hesitantly. "But, I'm not the sexy school girl slash witch type either though." She tried to point out to the blonde.

"Not yet," Buffy shot back at her confidently. "Just consider it as your just putting a new cover on." Buffy pointed out to the other girl. "Besides, didn't you say that Ms. Calendar was teaching you magic anyways? It'll be like a look of things to come." She suggested brightly. The blonde didn't know what all her friend had been trained in, but figured it was something good. Next time they had a wicked witch they would be in for a surprise when they pulled out Ms. Calendar and Willow in response.

Willow did her best to ignore the twinge of guilt that created. Ms. Calendar wasn't actually teaching her anything, all she was teaching her was a few breathing exercises and how to clear her mind and focus on the mystical energy. She was a long way from doing anything like learning any actual spells according to the computer teacher. "Things to come huh?" Willow asked skeptically. "Fine I'll wear that if you wear that." She promised, pointing to one of the more embarrassing and revealing costumes that she could see. She figured that might get her out of this. It was also the exact opposite of the dress that Buffy had been eyeing in the old Watcher Journals earlier that day.

Buffy turned to look at what her friend had pointed out and grimaced a bit at what she was suggesting. There on a mannequin was a fake leather dress with plastic armor and plastic weapons. "Do I have to?" She whined at her friend.

"It'll be like a look into things to come though Buffy." Willow returned, parroting the blonde's own words back at her. "It'll let the world see who you really are." She suggested with a grin at her friend.

"Fine," Buffy grumbled, "I wear the sexy armor, and you wear the sexy schoolgirl slash witch costume."

"Really?" Willow asked as she saw her plan backfire in her face.

"Yeah really." The blonde answered in agreement, as she reluctantly picked up a bag filled with the needed items. "Buffy, Warrior Princess reporting for duty." She pronounced with an unenthusiastic mock salute as she took in the Xena costume.

"A look that I think that you'll make work with killer aplomb." Xander stated with a grin as he eyed the costume already imagining what the blonde would look like when she was in it.

"What about you Xander, what do you have?" Buffy asked hoping to draw attention away from her own choice.

"Cost me a bit more than usual, but I think I got everything I need for Harry Dresden." Xander replied cockily as he tossed the various items into a bucket. The girls nodded. "Say, did you hear that faculty has to help out as well?" Xander asked them with a grin. "I hear Snyder is even going to make them wear costumes." He declared his eyes lighting up as he thought of the mocking that he could do for the various teachers when it came to their costumes. Giles in particular was high up there on his list.

"Really?" Buffy asked her friend with interest.

"Yes I heard." Willow replied ignoring the matching grins of her friends. "Giles asked that I pick out a suitable costume for him."

"Seems that this means Giles quite night in has been ruined." Buffy pronounced cheerfully, the less than sympathetic attitude that the Watcher had given her meant that she was now totally without any feelings of remorse when it came to her Watcher's plight. Not to mention his exciting night of book organizing got canceled as well.

"So spill Willow, what are you going to do for our favorite Englishman. An aging Elvis maybe?" Xander asked with a hopeful grin. The two girls grinned at the thought of Giles in such a costume.

"I was actually thinking Gandalf." Willow admitted, as she nodded towards a sword, robe, beard, and pointed hat that were lying in a pile at her feet.

"Sounds like a plan then, although I think that you're missing on some prize teasing and mocking time by going with such a costume." Xander returned with a grin.

"Which is why Giles suggested that I be the one to pick out a costume that was in good taste." Willow informed her friends giving them both knowing looks. "He was afraid that if he had asked either of you that he would be some American abomination." She explained to them knowing that the Watcher was correct in his assumptions of what her friends would do to him if they could. Xander's suggestion merely confirmed that particular thought.

"Watchers pet." The other two declared in mock disgust.

"So a Street Wise Wizard, a Witch, an Ancient Wizard, and a Warrior Princess from Ancient times. All we're missing now is a Jedi or something similar." Xander joked. The group spent a few more minutes looking around. The others had to forcefully drag the Slayer away from a dress that looked almost exactly like one that had been in the journal about Angel. It had taken Willow reminding her friend of their deal, and Xander making some snarky Barbie doll comments to get the girl to let go of the dress. Once she did that the other two hustled their friend forward and paid for the items that they had already chosen. Willow had even helped Xander out by using some of Giles money to pay for some of his costume.

Once they were gone Ethan Rayne's eyes followed the group wondering just what Rupert would think of his Slayer and the changes that were about to happen to her. He might get lucky and she would become a force that would tear through everyone and thing causing all sorts of chaos in her midst. From the snippets of conversation that the group had traded back and forth he had learned that one of the male costumes was actually for Ripper. It would be interesting to see what would happen since dear old Rupes wouldn't be around to stop his fun. Although the little speech that he had prepared in his head when they confronted each other was now useless. It might make it all the more fun though since not even Ripper would be around to stop him.

---

Spike was currently in the warehouse lair that he had 'acquired' upon the destruction of the bratty Anointed One. He was watching a video of the Slayer on one of her solo treks through the dale. He had come to the conclusion that the only chance that he had of really beating her was making sure that she was alone. Her mum had proven just how dangerous all of her connections could be. No, he wasn't going to make the same mistake and hit her where she was strong. While the fight at the school had been fun, there were other things he had to think about as well. He would hit her where she was weak and out in the open. He just had to find where that weakness was. The trench coat wearing vampire thought to himself. He was interrupted from studying the way the Slayer staked a vampire with a sign post as Dru walked into the room.

"Miss Edith needs her tea." The vampiress told him in her usual weak and dazed manner.

"Dru love, what are you doing up?" Spike questioned with concern, as he held his hand out to her. "You need your rest love." He chastised his Sire and lover as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Dru questioned as if she couldn't hear him.

"Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet. That's why I've got to study this Slayer. Once I know her I can kill her. And once I kill her you can have your run of Sunnyhell. Get strong again." Spike explained to her reassuringly as he stroked her hair comfortingly.

"The rules are changing though my dear Spike. Everything's switching. Outside to inside." Dru divulged to her childe.

Spike looked at the pale, even by vampire standards woman. "Did my pet have a vision?" He questioned with interest. "This thing that's going to change the rules, when is it?" He cajoled her.

"Tomorrow." Dru returned softly. "Tomorrow the rules change, and the wise will rise."

"Tomorrow's Halloween." Spike reminded her in a disbelieving tone. "Nothing ever happens on Halloween."

"Someone's come to change it all. Someone new." Dru explained with a soft smile, as she heard something that only her ears could hear.

Spike spent the rest of the day trying to get her to talk, but there wasn't anything else that she would talk about on the matter of Halloween or the Slayer that even he could decipher. All he knew was someone new was going to shake the town up and change all the rules someway or somehow. As long as it ended with the slayer dead at his feet Spike couldn't care about what else happened tomorrow night.

---

Xander smirked as he twirled his staff around a few times as he walked down the street. He had the look down pretty good he thought, as he stopped in front of the Summer's house. He had been very careful as he had carved a handful of various designs into the jacket and staff that he had found in one of Giles books. To make sure he didn't do anything accidentally, he had even made sure that the images he used were not all on the same page. No sense in causing a problem when they didn't need one. He had learned from Willow's confrontation with the freaky internet/robot/demon. As he got up to the Summer's house he considered using the staff to knock on the door, but figured that he didn't want Mrs. S to cut him off from free snackage so used his hand instead. Besides that was more a Gandalf move than a Dresden move.

When Joyce opened the door she looked Xander up and down in confusion. "All right, I give up what are you supposed to be?" She asked curiously.

"Harry Dresden Wizard for Hire." Xander greeted Buffy's mom with a grin. "Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or other entertainment." He informed the older woman with a grin.

"Interesting." Joyce returned, unsure exactly who Xander was supposed to be despite his answer. "Girls, Xander's here." She called up the stairs.

"Coming." Buffy called as she came down the stairs clad in rather revealing plastic armor.

"Ah Buffster, Warrior Princess a pleasure to see you. I do hereby renounce spandex and embrace the sweetness that is leather." Xander pronounced, his eyes roaming up and down the long toned legs of his friend appreciatively.

"Remind me why I'm letting you go out like that again?" Joyce questioned her daughter with a frown as she looked at the ensemble that her daughter was currently wearing. She was doing her best not to order her daughter back upstairs to change.

Buffy gave her mother a pained smile, obviously her mom had gone back and forth on permission to wear the costume. Xander's leering had not helped the situation it seemed. "Willow conned me into wearing it, and she promised to update all of your computers for the gallery if you allowed me to do it and she promised to set up some sort of spreadsheet. I still think that I would have looked good in that noble woman's dress I saw." She added with a pout.

"I'm beginning to wish that you had chosen that." An exasperated Joyce told her daughter. Still she supposed she should take some comfort in the fact that her daughter wasn't comfortable with what she was wearing. The fact that Buffy was more uncomfortable because of the life she led as opposed to how revealing the outfit was something the blonde hoped that her mother never found out.

"Speaking of Will's, where is she?" Xander questioned looking around curiously, expecting to see a big familiar and friendly "BOO" somewhere around the place.

"Right here." A nervous Willow responded as she appeared at the top of the stairs.

Xander gaped as he saw just what it was that his friend was wearing. "Dark blue knee high socks, with a matching plaid skirt, white shirt, and jacket. It was a sexy school girl uniform. If it was anyone but Willow Xander would have become very uncomfortable. He was currently thinking about how many people he would have to chase off from his friend as he saw his best friend in clothes so unlike what she normally wore. He came to a rather uncomfortable realization that not only was Willow a girl, but she was a hot girl. The Gothic makeup and blonde wig really added to the overall look that she was sporting. "Well, we must be going." Xander spoke hoarsely. He didn't even noticed the smug smile that Buffy was sporting, or the pleased one that Willow now had.

The group quickly gathered the few things that they needed and head headed out for the school so that they could go and do their civic duty that they had been shanghaied into doing. No reason to give Snyder yet another reason to be unhappy with them. The little troll was always searching for something to pin on them as it was.

Upon arriving at the school the group saw Giles. The librarian had ditched his usual tweed and replaced it with a series of dark robes. He was leaning on a gnarled old staff, had a sword belted around his waist, and wearing a long pointed blue hat.

"Yo Giles, you're really rocking the wizard look tonight." Buffy complimented the Watcher gleefully." I see that you're not all about telling people that they should do something, but are also leading by example." She told the Watcher in mock approval.

Giles raised his head so that the trio could see his bright blue eyes under the brim of his hat. "Hmm, why thank you Buffy." Giles returned to the Slayer at her rather backhanded compliment. The glare in his eyes let her know that she would pay for such a comment later when he could get at her without any witnesses though. A glare that the Slayer didn't even seem to be worried about. It was rather hard to intimidate someone when they regularly tossed you around the room during a simple spar. "I do believe that each of you is suitably attired as well." He ground out as he examined the trio in their varying costumes. While he didn't really recognize what any of the outfits were supposed to be, he supposed that wasn't all that surprising considering how little attention that he paid to whatever pop culture foolishness that they were usually trying to imitate. Buffy's outfit looked like a leather dress with bits of protective armor over her vitals. Hardly the most efficient type of armor for someone to wear, but considering that she usually never wore any protective gear unless you counted her leather jacket she had received from Angel. So he supposed it could be considered a start. That is if she ever thought to wear such things beyond tonight. Besides it's not as if she would need any type of protective clothing. It was Halloween, the night that all of the monsters made a habit of staying inside instead of dealing with all of the annoyances that usually came for supernatural creatures.

The group were interrupted as Snyder oozed out of the crowd of students. The man's eyes narrowed as he took in the group. "Summer's, Harris, Rosenburg." The man growled in what he thought of as intimidating. "You are not here to talk with the Librarian. If you've got a late library books then deal with that at another time."

"Ah duty does calls." Xander answered dramatically. "I suppose that we should go and find the little urchins then."

"Yes do hurry along and don't talk to any of them hopefully they won't be corrupted by you and Summers." Snyder retorted angrily.

"Just so you know, I don't do diapers." Buffy returned to him while staring the wannabe troll down.

"Just go." Snyder sneered with an angry pointing of his finger at different groups. He then stalked off to find some student that he could actually scare into doing what he wanted.

"Point Scoobies." Xander declared with a grin while pumping his fist. The girls giggled, and Giles smirked as they each broke up to head in their own stations. Each of the teens headed towards their own group while Giles and other teachers wandered around offering words of encouragement to the various children who had been trained to stay indoors when the shadows started to come out.

Xander looked his group over with a smile as he saw an assortment of monsters in his group. The best type of camouflage in a town that the monsters ruled he guessed. "Welcome kiddies, to the principal Snyder labor escort service. I mean volunteer program." He amended with a wink at several of the kids, causing giggles from them and snorts from the parents. Snyder merely glared at him across the room, but wisely kept his mouth shut. No need for the parents to start voicing complaints. The mayor expected him to keep everything running and not to worry about the oddities that happened from time to time. "The names Dresden, Harry Dresden. I'm a professional Wizard, and it's my job to make sure that all of you guys come back from this journey in one trip." He then knelt on one knee holding his staff in one hand while his other arm was planted across his leg. "Pay attention my dear padawans you just might learn a thing or two. Now then, about the sleazing on extra candy: Tears are key. Tears will normally get you the double-bagger. You can also try the old 'you missed me' routine, but it's risky. Only go there for chocolate. Understood?" The kids all nodded their understanding. "Good, then lets head out." Xander ordered, ushering the children to follow after him.

---

In the shop where half of the town had all bought their costumes a roman bust with a face carved into either side sat upon an altar. Around the altar traced on the floor were various magical writings and symbols. Ethan sat down in front of the statue and bowed before the statue before he began chanting.

"Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!"

The chaos mage finished his chanting, bowed his head again as he felt Janus answer his call as the energy from the spell activated and spread throughout the town. "Showtime," Ethan whispered with a smirk as he looked back up at the statue. This should be interesting, not to mention fun. He could hardly wait to see what the results of this little trick of his managed.

---

Harry Dresden groaned as he stretched his senses out. Something weird was going on. The last thing he remembered he had been receiving his latest orders from Mab Queen of the Winter Court also known as the Queen of Air and Darkness. She was the leader of one side of the two Fae Courts. The other obviously being the Summer Court. He noticed that he seemed to have about half of his usual gear on him. He had his staff, his enchanted trench coat, silver pentacle with a special gem in it that had his mother's journal in it, and his .44 magnum revolver. He was missing his kinetic energy rings, his shield bracelet, his blasting rod, and any potions or other enchanted items that he usually had on him. Oh yeah, and it looked like the staff that he was holding was only about half done as well. Wouldn't want to make this easy on him or anything. He did notice that he had Bob's skull in his jacket pocket, which was something of a surprise considering that was supposed to be hidden away right now. Heck, Karrin had made him agree to surrender Bob and the Swords of the Cross he had become guardian of once he had come back to life. Any other assessments were going to have to wait though the wizard thought as he saw 10 critters that he had never seen charging at him. They were some sort of small goblin or something like. Normally he would have used a flame spell, but something caused him to stop. The hesitation cost him the perfect spell casting range, allowing the creatures to get closer to him and he had to change his targets. So instead of slinging a spell out at the creatures from a nice safe distance he swung his staff causing the lead creature to holler as his staff connected with it with a satisfying crack.

"Wizard is not on the menu." He told the creature, he then focused his will and sent a blast of wind out that sent the other creatures tumbling back. This had potential to get real ugly real fast and with him only having half of his regular things it made it all the more dangerous to be in a fight like this. He raised his hand, and muttered a spell and some wind came flying out it was nowhere near as controlled or powerful as what he was used to though. He needed time to fix this staff, otherwise he might as well just be using raw will to control his spells. Not really something that anyone wanted, and while he had been trained to perform without any of his regular toys it would be easier if he had them. "Why don't you movie rejects get lost." He gathered his will. "Forzare!" He called out, sending a raw push at the creature causing them to tumble back. He needed to figure a way to deal with these things fast, they were causing more trouble than he had expected. The fact that there was a strange energy surrounding them made them odd as well. It wasn't like anything that he was familiar with. If he had the time he might be able to figure it out, but for now it was better to just try and weather through what was going on.

"Harry, what the hell is going on?" A voice demanded from the depths of the trench coat. "What the hell kind of trouble did you drag me along for this time?" The spirit demanded rather snootily.

Harry looked down at the skull in his jacket pocket. The skull's eyes glowed back at him as the twin orbs glared at him. Bob was possibly the most interesting and unique magical tool that Harry had owned. He was a spirit that had all of the knowledge of wizard magic in him. Bob had forgotten more about magic than Harry would likely ever know. Hopefully the spirit could tell him what was going on. "Why don't you tell me? I'm a little busy trying to make sure that we don't get killed or crushed." He snarled to the skull. As he dodged the claws of one of the midget creatures that were trying to make him into a scratching post. "Back off you overgrown house-cat." He really hoped Mister his Cat never heard him say that, or he would be the target of another set of claws.

"Well what did you do that got us here?" Bob demanded in annoyance.

"Nothing!" Harry returned to the skull defensively. "The last thing I remember is that Mab had called me in to talk about a potential new mission. She was still deciding whether or not she wanted to send me out to do her work when suddenly I found myself here with your heavy weight stuck in my pocket. Must be that big head of yours getting even bigger." He snarked at him.

"Please, your nothing but a pathetic little weakling that thinks it's a good idea to do exercise once a month and it will count." Bob shot back at him in equal snark. "Now shut up while I try to figure out what's going on here." He ordered at the wizard.

Harry gritted his teeth as he raised another shield. While Bob was annoying, he was smarter and knew more things than anyone could ever guess. If someone could figure out how it seemed like he had appeared as an extra in a monster movie then it was likely to be Bob.

He was broken out of his musings as several birds flew past his shoulder and began to pester the small creatures. It was like they were being assaulted by fairies or something. He turned to see a girl in a school girl outfit gesturing with her hands like she was conducting a concert. How she had managed that he wasn't sure. The creatures backed away going off in search of prey that wouldn't fight back as much as they were. "Thanks for the assist." He grumbled, as he kept a watchful eye on the odd creatures. He had never seen anything like those except maybe in the Nevernever. The home of the Fae.

"No problem, it looked like you could use some help." The girl declared as she shouldered a book bag.

Harry's eyes widened slightly at hearing a very distinctive California accent coming from the girl. He hadn't heard of any girls with that much power residing in California. Considering how much of the United States he was supposed to be responsible for you would think he would have heard of them.

"I don't suppose that you know what's going on here?" The girl asked curiously, as her eyes scanned the area worriedly.

"Fraid not kid, come on, we need to find us someplace to weather this insanity." He replied as he checked his meager gear over. It seemed that he only had the six rounds for his .44, since he didn't appear to have any other ammo. He began walking, hoping that the girl would be smart and follow him. If there were more of those creatures out there then he needed to be ready. He also didn't want to be stuck in the middle of the street when they showed up again either.

"Well now here's a tasty morsel." Bob whispered quietly so as not to reveal his presence to the girl. It was Harry's rule for him to stay unnoticeable unless Harry said otherwise. "Now if only that skirt was at her thighs instead of her knees and she would lose some of those buttons on her shirt. Well that and the bra." The spirit noted to the wizard as he stormed down the street.

That was the other thing that made it real hard to deal with when it came to Bob. He was one of the biggest perverts that Harry had ever met. And considering that he had a vampire half-brother that fed off of tantric energy that was saying something. One time when he allowed Bob free of the skull the spirit had induced a coed college Fraternity house to have a 24 hour orgy. One that had gotten so bad that it had made the papers.

"So you're some kind of magic user as well?" The girl asked curiously, as she jogged to keep up with the long legged wizard who was trying his best to ignore the suggestive remarks of his assistant. "I thought I was the only one around in this area."

Great, possibly self-taught to the craft, which meant that it was likely she had been breaking the tenants of magic without even being aware of it. As if his dealings with Molly weren't bad enough, now he had another padawan to deal with. He only hoped this one didn't make him have to put his neck out for the Blade of Damocles.

"So what do we do now? I mean it's not like there's a local cop for us to call." She bitingly noted. "Sides, I doubt that there are any cops that could handle all of this." She pointed out bitterly. "Someone plays with magic and it's our job to fix things why is that? Which makes me wonder how did you learn magic and why are you using some of the things that you do have? For that matter what elder are you drawing your power from?"

Harry finally had enough of the near incessant questions that the girl was launching at him. "Look kid, while I'm sure that this is all rather interesting, there are a few more important things happening right now than the intellectual discussion.' Harry snapped at the girl. Cutting her off from saying anything else for the moment. That was the problem with people who met their first magic user after having been practicing on their own for a while, they sometimes forgot about the world that was around them. "The only thing I can tell you for sure is that we're in America, California to be exact." He answered, using his staff to point out the license plate on some of the cars that they were walking by. "Now pipe down while I try to figure out what's going on." The girl looked unhappy with his orders, but nodded her head in acceptance. Obviously the girl had been in a few scrapes of her own with magic if she actually understood the need not to draw attention to themselves. That actually made him even more worried. He could feel the power that this girl had at her fingertips, and while he had felt stronger it was rarely from people that were so young and inexperienced. Heck he was considered one of the top wizards in the continent and he was impressed. Something that didn't honestly happen all that often.

The two were stopped as a large hulking figure stepped into view. "Oh Hells Bells." Harry muttered as he saw a Minotaur lift a heavy ax. It was one thing to face off against some sort of mini monsters that barely came up past his knees, it was another to fight with an 8 foot tall creature, wielding a giant ax, had more muscles than Schwarzenegger, and had sharp horns on its head. He wasn't sure if even he could face off against this thing much less protect the girl that was behind him. "You wouldn't happen to have a spell for stopping that would you? He asked the girl hopefully, as he eyed the creature while looking for any obvious weaknesses. On the bright side her own shock at seeing this creature seemed to have caused her to momentarily forget how to speak.

The scared girl shakily raised her hands at the creature. Several vines from various trees and the ground and began to wrap themselves around the creature that was standing from of them. The Minotaur merely snorted at them and glared as if annoyed by the attempt to contain it. It then seemed to shrug, snapping the many vines that had wrapped around it without any apparent effort on its part.

"Well that wasn't exactly the result I was hoping for." Harry noted dryly, as he gathered his will for a shield spell to stop the beast. He kind of wished Murphy was here right now. Preferably with her P90 or Fidelacchius the Sword of Faith. The girl stayed strong though as she followed that shot with a few other spells. Many of them looked like they were elemental spells, but none of them appeared to be strong enough to work against a creature that was as strong as the Minotaur. Heck most of the magic actually seemed to be sliding right off of it. It wasn't even her fault that none of it was working. She seemed to have a pretty wide range of attacks to use, unfortunately none of them seemed to work against the beast in front of them. She even tried to grab the heavy ax with magic, but that didn't work against the powerful grip that the creature had. Harry tried some of his own spells, but they didn't fare any better than the girl's had. The creature raised a fist and he raised his staff and focused all of his will into a barrier. The creature slammed its ax into the barrier and he could feel the staff start to overheat the force of the blow drove him to his knees. Harry gasped there was no way that he was doing that again without a chance to gather his will back together. He had met trolls with less raw strength than this thing had.

The girl appeared between them and pulled her hands upward jerking the very Earth itself into a protective shield. The Minotaur didn't even bother with the ax this time and instead head-butted the thing shattering the shield that had come up between them. Yep, here he was, Harry Dresden badass wizard, once again being saved by a little slip of a girl. Some hero he was. He could try drawing on his powers as the Winter Knight and hope that they would be enough. Heck he ought to be able to freeze the thing where it stood. He focused on the part of him that dealt in cold and nearly fell over as he realized that the cold that he associated with being the Winter Knight wasn't there. It seemed as if Mab had withdrawn her blessing for some reason or other. Which meant this was just a test for her to see him run around through. Great, and he had thought that he was done with those for the moment. Not about to let that stop him though he drew his pistol and fired all six rounds into the creature. Three to the chest and three to the face. He saw the bullets hit, but they barely even went into its hide. He might as well have been poking it with a pocket knife for all the damage that he was doing to it. The tinkling sound of the metal slugs falling to the ground emphasized the point.

The Minotaur roared in anger at being shot though and jerked its ax up with a speed he hadn't been expecting the haft of the weapon shattered the shield and sent the girl flying into him knocking the both of them into a heap. The creature bellowed before raising its ax over head for a final strike.

"This is going to hurt." Harry noted as he grabbed the girl and twisted around so that he was over her and his back was to the creature. He hoped that the defensive spells worked into the jacket kept them alive, or this was going to be a one-time save. Heck there was a chance that the ax would go all the way through him and her before stopping if the protective runes weren't right.

"Well at least you'll get to cop a decent feel before you die." Bob optimistically murmured in his ear.

Harry ignored the spirit as he closed his eyes in preparation for the blow. He heard a whizzing sound, and what sounded like metal hitting metal followed by a loud thumping sound. He lifted his head up and was surprised to see that the large battle ax had been sliced in half the ax head was now lying on the ground between his feet. He turned to look and saw a petite looking brunette woman wearing some sort of weird looking revealing armor, and a heavy looking sword on her back. He watched as an odd silver disc came flying out of nowhere and she plucked it out of the air. "Oh Hells Bells." The man declared as he realized that he recognized the outfit. "You have got to be kidding me." He complained to no one in particular.

---

Xena scowled as she found herself in some place that she had no idea as to where it was. Considering that she had traveled all over the known world that was surprising. Judging by the craftsmanship of the surrounding buildings though she figured it must be some sort of village that the Gods had designed. There was no way that anyone else would live in such a place. Each of the buildings seemed to have entire walls made of some sort of odd barrier like item. It was not like anything she had ever see as whatever the barrier was allowed a person to see through it. She let her fingers touch one of them and was surprised to realize that it was cool to the touch much like ice might be.

There were odd creatures and monsters all over the place, and Xena knew that she could easily beat them, but the damage that some of them were causing was so amazing. It was as if the Gods themselves had opened a doorway into Tartaras and allowed them to run free through this village of theirs. No, she needed to worry about more important things like how she got here, where Gabrielle was, and how to get back to where she had been. Everything else was of secondary importance as far as she was concerned. That was what she was telling herself at least. She came across a drunkard waving a sword around.

The man let out a laugh as he saw her and began swinging his sword at her as if to intimidate her. "Come little lovely, let me show you what I do with your kind." The man suggested. "If you drop the weapons and let me cut you out of the armor, I might even let you live." He cackled out at her.

Xena was unimpressed with this simpleton and his attempts to scare her and responded by drawing her own sword and meeting her blade to his. "Trust me pal, you don't want to do this." She warned him even as her grin grew bigger. "But if you want to get your ass kicked then you're more than welcome to try something and we'll see just how long it is that you last."

The pirate looked insulted, and soon the two were swinging their swords back and forth as they tried to get at each other. The pirate was using a scimitar against Xena's own blade. The Warrior Princess while impressed with the slashing style that the man was using was able to easily keep up with his moves. With a leap she landed on a fence and ran along the top of the wooden frame before leaping onto the roof. "If you really want to do this, let's make it more interesting." She challenged the figure.

The pirate snarled as he scurried after her like a monkey and soon he was up on the roof. The pair continued their fight, and Xena was impressed with his balance, it was almost as good as some of the acrobats she had known over the years. Still, while he was sure footed there were other skills he lacked. The two swords became tangled, and Xena twisted her blade jerking the weapon out of the hold of the pirate. The sword wen flying into the air only to fall into the outstretched hand of the Warrior Princess. Xena smirked as she looked at the suddenly nervous pirate as she held both of the blades now. The man scrambled for some odd looking device on his belt. He pointed and squeezed like he was firing a crossbow. Xena had already moved though, and was far away from the strange device. She watched the weapon seemingly explode in his hands. It was like he had Greek Fire in his hands. The pirate flung the odd thing at her and she twirled her sword slicing through the strange weapon. With a kick to the pirate in the gut she sent him tumbling to the ground where he slammed down hard enough to rattle all of his bones. Xena looked down on him with a grin as she saw that he had a broken leg. "I'd say that I was sorry, but we both know that wouldn't be true." She told him, she then mock saluted the man before turning away from the cursing pirate.

Xena blinked as she saw in the streets there were two figures facing off with what looked like a Minotaur. Not something she was expecting to see. Then again, when you considered all of the odd underworld creatures that were roaming about, she supposed that she shouldn't be too surprised. The Minotaur had two figures trapped in front of it the pair were sprawled out as if waiting for the finishing blow. The larger of them twisted around so that they covered the smaller one as the Minotaur raised its ax for a final blow. Not even thinking, Xena drew her chakram from its place on her belt and let it fly and watched as it slashed through the handle of the ax causing it to fall much to the bewilderment of the Minotaur.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Xena questioned as she looked the group over. "I wondered what that stench was, I guess I can blame it on you." She snarked at the creature. "Come on big guy, show me what you got." She taunted, as she gestured for the creature to come at her. The Minotaur snorted letting out a blast of air. The beast seemed uncertain about this new opponent before it finally turned and began moving toward the warrior woman. The creature took a clumsy swing with the remnants of its weapon. The warrior almost casually ducked under the club. She then flipped herself into the air and with a twist landed on the shoulders of the Minotaur. She then wrapped her strong legs around the creature and it bounced around helplessly as the female warrior cut its air supply off. The creature tried to buck her off, but the woman forced it to its knees she then slammed her fists into its eyes blinding the creature. The creature roared in fury at the way it was being manhandled. The woman then dug her fingers into the area around its neck. The creature began panting as it tried to draw air n. The woman flipped off the creature and landed in a crouch in front of it. She stood there silently and watched as it began wobbling and blood was trickling out of its nose. "You might as well stay down." She told the large creature. "I've just shut off the flow of blood to your brain." The Minotaur collapsed, and the woman slammed her fingers into it again causing the creature to gasp, but not get up. It was more than content to lie there and draw in air.

"Nice save." Harry coughed at the woman dressed in some weird armor. He recognized the outfit. Heck he had fantasized enough people into that armor that he had better recognize it. The only thing was, it was the armor for an imaginary person, but somehow it seemed like she was real. Shorter than he had anticipated her being, but still real.

"Oh my, you can forget all of the bad things that I ever said about you Harry, this more than makes up for it." Bob whispered into Harry's ear as he took the warrior girl in. "She could do with a bigger bust to really make the costume work, but not bad overall."

"Not helping right now Bob." Harry hissed out.

"Hey I'm just calling them like I see them." Bob returned to the wizard. "And while she's not built like Lucy Lawless she would make a decent enough stand in for Renee O'Connor." The spirit informed him. "I wonder if there's a special latch that would make it all fall off or if it has to be taken off a piece at a time." Bob mused as his eyes took the girl in as he tried to figure the best way to get the armor off of her.

"Just be quiet." Harry mumbled.

"Glad to be of help." The woman returned to him offering him her hand and helping him up unaware of the free show that she was likely giving to Bob of under her skirt.

The wizard was surprised at the casual ease with which the woman pulled him up. The woman pulled so hard that it shot him nearly all the way to his feet and the woman hadn't even seemed to strain herself. Something his ego wasn't overly sure about. It also showed how dangerous she was though, if she had that much strength. Strength that had to be supernatural in some way he was almost positive. Maybe she was a Changeling of some sort. The Half Fae were known to be somewhat stronger, faster, and more beautiful than your average mortal was.

The pair were interrupted when several various creatures began walking towards them. This was almost as bad as traveling through some of the more dangerous parts of the Nevernever. Harry thought as he willed some fire to slow the creatures down. The school girl made some gestures and began sending a torrent of various spells towards the creatures using them to scare the others off pretty well if he did say so himself. At this rate he figured that they would all be gone, or at least less willing to get into a fight. The sound of his companion drawing her sword added to the safety he was feeling. While she was no Karrin Murphy, she was probably the next best thing.

"That is quiet enough." A gruff voice growled, and a bearded man stepped into view with a large wooden staff with some sort of quartz foci on the top. The man slammed the end of the staff into the ground and a crater opened up between them and the creatures.

Harry couldn't help but whistle at that display of power. He hadn't even felt him building up his power for that one, which meant he was probably using only a little power to control that spell. A spell that most people needed at least a moment to gather their strength on. He doubted his grandfather Ebenezer McCoy the White Council's hit man wizard could have so casually pulled that spell off. Considering how dangerous the Black Staff was, that was saying something.

The wizard made several signs, and Harry saw a circle of fire surround them. Not sure if that was enough Harry quickly traced out a protection circle within the ring of fire. The old wizard merely watched him. The man's bushy eyebrows rose slightly as Harry forced his will into the circle and they were now protected by a shield. Not as good as some of his work though. What he wouldn't do for some chalk right about now.

"Now then." The older man stated turning to face the trio. "What is going on here?" He demanded of the group, as if expecting them to know what was going on in this place.

Harry gaped a bit as he recognized who he was facing. The long crooked nose, the staff, the blue hat, even the ring on his hand. He didn't know how it had taken him this long to recognize just who it was that he was facing. He was going to blame the craziness around them though. "This is crazy." The wizard grumbled. "You're the one they sometimes refer to as Stormcrow or Mithrandir?" He asked, wondering if the others would catch the references he had just made.

"Indeed I am." The wizard admitted, causing the school girl to gasp as she recognized the names that were being called out as well.

The armored warrior didn't seem to know what they were talking about though. "Wish I could tell you wizard. Last thing I remember I was training, the next I'm here." She replied waving her hands at the area around them. "I noticed some strange carriages and then started scouting around from the rooftops of the buildings. Saw these two trying to get away from the big guy here and decided to help them stay alive." She noted, nodding toward the Minotaur at their feet. The wizard eyed the downed beast, but didn't say anything.

"Same thing for me." The girl agreed nervously as she looked around as if hoping that something would force reality back to the way it should be. "I was just heading towards a place to get something to eat when I appeared on the streets here. I ran from what looked like a couple of goblins or demons and then met up with this man here and helped him push back some unknown creatures only for us to finish that and run into a Minotaur."

"And you, what is your tale young one?" The older wizard questioned turning to look at the other male in the group.

"Not sure really." Harry admitted. "One minute I'm getting my newest set of marching orders, and the next thing I know I'm on the streets getting attacked by who knows what. I originally thought that this was the work of Queen Mab, or even my fairy godmother Leanansidhe. Now I'm not so sure." He admitted to the figure before him.

"I am unfamiliar with these names." The old man admitted. "And do you really think that they would have the power to bring us here?"

"Without thinking." Harry returned, he had seen the two of them do too many amazing things for him to dismiss them as a reason. Still, he hadn't given any of them a reason to try and kill him recently. At least he didn't think he had. Unless this was Mab's response for him threatening her that time.

"How about we do introductions first since none of us says we know what's going on." The warrior woman told the group even as she eyed the others suspiciously.

"Agreed, names to go with your faces would be useful. I am Gandalf Stormcrow, though I have been known by other names as well." He admitted to the group. "I also can see that some of you know of me."

"Something like that. I'm Harry Dresden of Chicago." The wizard replied for an introduction.

"Sarah Bailey of California. Lately from San Francisco and Los Angeles." The young witch stated to the group nervously. "I'm currently trying to understand what it means to be a witch. I just kind of came into my powers over the past year or so." She admitted to the group.

Harry nodded at that. Despite the different way that she called on magic he had been right to her being new to magic.

"I am Xena." The last member of the group stated.

"That wouldn't happen to be the Warrior Princess now would it?" Harry questioned her with a smirk.

"Indeed." Xena returned to him. "I take it you have heard of my reputation as well?" She questioned him.

"Something like that." Harry returned to her. "Let's just say I know of your quest for redemption and the Legendary Tales of Hercules." He replied with a grin at something that he alone found amusing.

Xena scowled, obviously unhappy with the answer, but she was not ready to start pushing the situation right now either. Besides, wizards were well known for holding onto their secrets tighter than even their lives. So if he decided this was a secret worth keeping, nothing would part him from it. The look in her eyes promised him lots of pain later on though if he continued to play such games with her.

"We cannot stay here long, even with the protections that Wizard Dresden and myself have placed around us." Gandalf informed the group. "We need a plan on what we should do now though."

"I say we hunt down whoever or whatever it is that caused this to happen and tell him that if he doesn't fix everything that we'll use him as guinea pig in which we'll test out some of our more creative spells." Harry returned to him with a grin, as if he hoped that whoever was responsible for all of this would let him unleash some of his annoyances on them. "Someone needs to be reminded not to anger a wizard."

"I'm with him on this one, although I'm not sure that we need a pig." Xena voiced in agreement. "Unless you want him to squeal like one that is?"

"Something like that." Sarah replied, although her voice held a tone of disapproval at what they seemed to be planning. "Isn't there a better way to do it though?" she questioned, turning to Gandalf hopefully.

"But of course my dear." Gandalf spoke reassuringly to her. "First we shall ask whomever it was that cast this magic, and if they refuse we shall use our companions more forceful methods in learning the truth as to where we are and how it is that we may return home." The girl didn't look happy with that statement, but she did nod her head in acceptance. "Excellent, now let us be off. There is someone that we need to speak with about our current condition." Gandalf declared, as he tapped his staff on the ground and the flames that surrounded them began to weaken and lower. They then watched as Harry tapped his own staff on the ground scratching through the circle bringing the barrier down. "A most remarkable bit of magic there." The older wizard complimented the younger, as he stepped over the circle. "Now does anyone have any ideas on where we should go?"

"Hang on." Xena ordered raising her hand to halt them. She closed her eyes for a moment and seemed to be trying to listen or feel the way that they needed to go as she turned her head from side to side. "That way," she told them, "that's the way we need to go." She pointed off to the right of where they had originally been going.

"So you can connect with the spirit world." Gandalf asked with interest as he observed the woman and her actions. "It would appear that you know something of the mystic arts as well."

"I'm a novice of a couple different disciplines." Xena admitted to him, as she easily rose to her feet. "I'm actually better with a sword or my hands than magic."

"Amazon and Chinese spiritual magic as I recall with a dab of Indian dealing mainly in Soul magic and runes along with power circles." Harry returned as he eyed her with interest.

Xena's eyes narrowed as he noted what her skills in the mystical were. She had seen these people create protective barriers with a flick of their sticks and knew that her chances of winning without preparing herself both magically and physically were slim. No, it was better not to try and antagonize this man. Even if he did seem to have a disturbing knowledge of her life. Once she knew the source of his knowledge and his skills in other things she would reconsider it. She also remembered that he had that strange weapon. And while it hadn't killed the Minotaur it had only been because of its seemingly resistant hide. She doubted if even her sword would have been able to cut through it before it had tried to take them out. Still, she had managed to take it out with her other skills. She doubted that this was going to be an easy thing to do though. The others were far more skilled and powerful than Xena was in the use of magic. She had trouble maintaining the focus required to keep her magic going. It was why she preferred to continue with her own physical skills. Had she stayed with some of her teachers, she didn't doubt that she would have learned the required methods of focus that her companions all had. She was all right with this though. It wouldn't be the first time she fought a mage with nothing more than her own skills.

Xena's eyes turned to look at the young girl. In a way she reminded the Warrior Princess so much of what Gabrielle used to be. There was a newness to the world that showed in her eyes, the way she looked at the other magic users eagerly as if they could show her the way that they needed to go. There was also a haunted edge to the girl though, that showed that she had some experience in dealing with crazy things like this. It made her wonder what the girl had gone through to be like that though. The look was similar to the one she had seen in many a man, boy, and woman after their first battle and they were still coming to terms with what they had done. The girl wasn't a fighter by choice, but if she was confronted by anyone or thing she would be more than willing to face off with them. Knowing what was hidden in the dark was better than not though in her eyes. It was harder to be taken by surprise when you were aware.

---

Sunnydale Courthouse.

Mayor Richard Wilkins III chuckled as he saw everything that the wave of raw Chaos Magic was doing to the town. He had to admit that whoever was doing this had a certain amount of style to them. To take the one night when the supernatural usually stayed in and create this, and to have people make the choice of what they would become even if they were unaware that they were doing so. This wasn't Spike's doing, as the Victorian era vampire wasn't much for magic. Nor was it the work of any of the local magic users as they did their best to follow the schedules that the rest of the supernatural community fell under. Besides, he made sure that anyone with this much juice was either under his control, dead, or run out of town for various reasons. Whoever this was had managed to slip through his usual security measures. No, this was someone new. New players were always interesting as long as they learned to play by the rules. Those that didn't play by the rules usually ended up gone.

He idly wondered if the Slayer and her friends would be the ones to stop this, or if it would be others that stopped it this time. When magic like this changed the very essence of people, there was no telling who or what might be the one to act as agents of the Powers. He usually used this night for business reports and meetings with his less publicly known political contributors. With it being their night off from a number of their usual activities, he was almost assured of everyone he invited showing up. He had been just as surprised as anyone else when he had heard that there were creatures running amok through the streets. That was why he and several people were out on the balcony enjoying the bloodshed as they did business. He would have to be sure to reward whoever it was that had put this little shindig together. The only bad part about this whole thing was that it was going to make for a hard act to follow for next year's meetings, and they would all be expecting something of this level on the year of his Ascension. He did have a whole year to plan for that though. He shrugged that concern off as he turned back to listening to how many baby sacrifices that a demon wanted and how many virgins a vampire wanted.

In mid turn he paused though as he felt a flare of magical power. Someone or something had just erected some powerful wards. He flinched as another magical signature erupted and another ward went up. He turned his head toward the direction of the magic's. Thanks to his connection to the area, he recognized what each spell was doing, but he didn't recognize the type of magic. It felt similar to how the Watcher felt, but there was an aura of power mixed in with it that was so much greater than what he normally put out. He wondered if this little amusement had brought some serious players to the field. Players that didn't belong here.

"You feel it as well then my student?" Cyrus Vail questioned, as he moved to stand beside his former apprentice.

Wilkins nodded his head toward the demon warlock as he looked in the direction from where he had felt the blast of magic come from.

"The Black Thorn would be most displeased if they were to learn that you had lost your control of the town my apprentice. The energy that the Hellmouth provides us through you is not something that we are willing to give up." Vail warned the young magic user. "It is one thing to allow the Slayer to believe that she is in control so that she will deal with the rogue elements that refuse to bend to our will. It is another for magic users of that caliber to be felt. If the other members of the Circle do not believe that you can maintain the control on the Hellmouth they will likely send myself or others in which to wrest control from you and then deal with whatever defiance that this is." The demon took a sip from his wine glass as he watched to see what the boy would do next. He had made many promises and deals with a number of beings. None of which were going to let him die before he paid off those debts.

"I know." Wilkins returned, as he glared towards where the unknown magical signatures were coming from. "I suppose that I will have to deal with this problem now before it gets out of hand. And to think I was amused by the monsters that this spell was creating at first." He grumbled in annoyance.

"Yes, it either summoned these magic users or they are using the magic in the air to try and hide themselves from your senses." Vail replied in agreement. "That doesn't matter though, what matters now is what you do about this threat."

"I'll have to have the car brought around so that I can inspect this disruptive force. I won't have bad elements in my town." Wilkins returned to his former mentor coolly. "I don't suppose that I could interest you in joining me?" He questioned, as he looked towards the warlock curiously. "You could consider it as an assessment of the job that I'm doing here, and investigate what kind of light forces that the world is sending out here." He suggested with a bright grin aimed at the figure.

"It would be useful to have such information." Vail admitted after a moment of thought. "Might I suggest you have some reserves ready though just in case."

Wilkins nodded his head and gestured to one of his vampire subordinates, a quick whispered conversation had the undead creature scurrying off. A few minutes later the pair watched as a limo and two vans with blacked out windows pulled up in front of the courthouse. "Shall we?" Richard asked brightly, as he gestured for Vail to move on ahead of him. The warlock nodded his acceptance and the pair moved towards the limo. Wilkins stopped in his hasty retreat to approach a robed figure. "It's a pleasure to see you here my Lord." He informed the figure bowing his head respectively. "I was unsure if you would be willing to leave your home to come and see my own."

"This sounded like a good time to remind you of your benefactors before you began taking the final steps towards Ascension Richard Wilkins." The robed figure returned to him in a cold voice.

"Well that's just swell." Wilkins said with a smile as he rose up to look at the figure. "I'd hate to be accused of being a welsher on my debts. I'm actually going to investigate that flare of power. If you're interested, I'd be more than happy to have you along for the ride." He offered the being with a smile.

"Perhaps I shall, it should be interesting to see how you deal with intrusions into this area." The figure returned.

The three figures made a quick jaunt towards the waiting limo. Once Wilkins had ensured that they were all seated comfortably and that they were moving he turned so that the pair could meet. "Cyrus Vail, may I present you the Lord of San Francisco Underworld, the Source." Wilkins explained gesturing to the robed being. "The Source here has helped to keep my borders strong and convince certain rivals that they wouldn't want to try and take what's mine for themselves. It's made life easier having him as a neutral than an enemy."

Vail nodded he recognized the powerful demon before him. While he had actually never met the Source, he had heard several things about the demonic being that was seated near him. As a ruler of one of the more demonically active areas he was said to be one of the more impressive beings and spent most of his time directing the war between light and dark against the Warren Line. The Warren Line was a family of naturally born witches and according to the prophecy the bloodline would breed one of the most powerful groups of witches. It was also believed that the group of witches would come to be soon.

"My Lord, meet Cyvus Vail, a mentor of mine and an emissary from a much more powerful group from out of town that like to keep tabs on various people of interest." Wilkins explained to the robed figure.

The pair of powerful demons nodded a greeting at each other before returning their attention to the Mayor. "What is going on?" The Source demanded from him instead.

"Someone out there is using rather potent magic's." Wilkins explained to the demon. "I thought that this would be a good time to bond and learn a bit about each other. I know neither of you are big Golfers or Card Players so I thought that this might be a decent alternative." The mayor explained to the pair pleasantly.

The group stopped talking as the limo paused. The group waited patiently till there was a knock on the window. The window was rolled down and a vampire leaned down to speak to the mayor. "Whoever was here is gone sir. I've got one of my best trackers working on it right now." The vampire hesitated for a moment.

"Well? Speak up, you know I never believe in their being any stupid questions." Wilkins told the figure in a stern voice. "So go ahead and tell me what's on your mind son."

The vampire nodded uncomfortably. Wilkins didn't kill you for asking questions, and was actually one of the few that encouraged thinking in his forces. With most leaders, that sort of thing got you killed. The Mayor was harder to read, and if you disappointed him he was likely to have you dealt with as well though. "Sir, it appears that whoever this is, is traveling with the Slayer. Her scent is all over the place. It also appears that Spike is out and about tonight as well. It's by your own orders that we are to not interfere with Spike or the Slayer when they are in the same area." He reminded the Sorcerer.

Wilkins pursed his lips, but nodded his understanding of the warning and reminder that his underling was giving to him. He had done his best to stay off the radar of the Slayer. It was easier to manipulate the girl if she was unaware of his part in the supernatural life of Sunnydale. Still, it looked like he had lost his choice in the matter. He had to admit that it was somewhat surprising to find out that the Slayer had been out and about tonight of all nights though. This was Halloween, all supernatural activity was supposed to be at an all-time low including the movements of the Slayer. He would have thought that she would have been more content with enjoying a night where she could get to bed on time or getting in some extra training. The idea that she would willingly go out, didn't exactly fit in with the mental image that he had of her. When they met up, perhaps he could spin it so that she thought that he was on their side if he worked it right. The bit about Spike was troubling, but was not something that he had time to worry about right now. He missed when Nest was in charge of the vampires. When he had been around they had known how to behave. Even the Anointed One had better control despite his youth. The rebel that was Spike, often caused as much trouble as he did evil. He needed a plan to deal with all of this though. First he needed answers, and he had a pretty good idea as to where he could get them. "Get me the High School on the phone." He finally ordered of the vampire. "If she was out tonight, then it's likely she was in costume. If that's the case then this might work to our advantage. She may not even be aware of who she is." He added in thoughtfully. "In which case she may be vulnerable or easier to control."

The vampire nodded and withdrew as he pulled out a phone and began dialing. Having Snyder on his payroll was useful. He knew of the need to cover up certain things and activities that would have most schools shut down. In the past Snyder had been his hatchet and cleanup man while Flutie had been his oblivious figurehead at the school. With the death of Flutie though, things had changed. Snyder had wanted to try and move his way up in power though, and had decided to make a play as principal. He did keep things covered up well enough that the mayor didn't think that he would get rid of him just yet. He would probably deal with him when his Ascension came around though. He would have to remember to pencil in killing the man at some point. He knew the final fates of to many of the teens and faculty to leave alive.

A few minutes later the vampire handed a phone to the mayor. "Ah Principal Snyder, I take it that you're somewhat aware of the disturbances that are going on tonight." He spoke jovially to his agent. "From all of the noise going on, I can only presume that all of your participants are enjoying themselves. As much fun as I'm sure that some of your students are having, I have to wonder about one student in particular. I need to know where one Miss Buffy Summers and her companions are. So if you can kindly tell me if she has been at the school this evening?" He nodded as he listened to what the man was telling him. "You don't say? You had her sign the volunteer form to keep her actions under control, and you say she was dressed as some sort of female knight or other? Thank you that will be most helpful." He pressed the end button and looked at his companions. "He gave me the neighborhood she should be around. He also informed me of the likely culprit for this little bit as well. There's a Chaos Mage from England that just came to town and opened a Costume shop of all things."

"Ethan Rayne." Vail stated in understanding. "Not overly powerful on his own, but when he channels the magic of God's and places he manages some impressive displays. What he lacks in power he usually makes up for in displays. Yes, this whole thing reeks of Rayne and his flashy tricks. By drawing on the power of the Hellmouth and Janus he could create a decent display."

"A ritual magic user then, not a spell user then?" The Source questioned him curiously.

"Yes, so unless he has some magic weapons he prepared he's of no use to us in this matter." Vail returned to the demon. "At the best his wards might be useful for us to tap into should this matter become more troublesome than we expect it to be." He mused out to them.

"True." Wilkins replied in agreement. "Driver, take us towards where the fighting is the worst." He ordered the vampire.

The cars took off heading towards where they could see the occasional blast of power. They were going to return the proper balance to the Hellmouth that the Chaos Mage had destroyed.

---

Gandalf looked the group of magic users that he had joined with in this strange village. They were an odd bunch. Dresden reminded him of various members of the Rangers of North, Xena of some of the elven hunters of Lothlórien, while the Lady Bailey reminded him of some of the adepts that he had met over the years. The two fighters were good. The woman keeping her senses alert, while the young wizard seemed to be searching for threats with his senses. Dresden and Lady Bailey also seemed to have knowledge of some of the odd devices that were all over the place. As they walked, he had convinced the girl to explain things to him as they walked. He knew her type, and once she realized that he needed her aide she would be more than willing to help him understand the things around him. She had more wisdom and power within her than she likely knew or believed. Faramir of Gondor was much the same type of person. He was shocked when the girl told him that each of these plush buildings was the dwelling place for anywhere from one to five person families. In his land there were kings that didn't have such opulence to reside in. Even Rivendale would be hard pressed to match some of the luxuries that the girl described to him. To make it all the more amazing, there was row after row of these houses. It made him wonder all the more of what this world was like. If they had the time, he would have to see if they had any collections of writings that he could investigate. Who knows what knowledge that he might find in a world such as this. He was distracted from his musings as he noticed several of the horseless carts rolled to a stop in front of them. There were three of them in all. Two of them were vans as Lady Bailey called them, while the middle one was a long type that he hadn't seen as of yet. By its look he would guess that this was a more expensive one. Perhaps where the leader or king commanded from.

"It's a limo." Sarah informed the two per-industrial members of their group. "They're usually used by the rich, famous, or powerful to drive around in. there's a spot for the driver up front and then the back area is where they usual are." She explained pointing to the where the doors were located.

"Much like one sees from a coach. It's a good thing to know." Gandalf returned, as he eyed the contraptions with undisguised interest. He wished he understood how they worked. Such devices would be invaluable for long marches and carrying feed for livestock wasn't an option. It could change the way war was done completely. The next time he saw the dwarves he would have to ask them if such devices were possible.

"It's just another fancy chariot," Xena replied indifferently.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one that thinks that this is a setup." Dresden pleaded with the others as he watched several figures climb out of the carts. His eyes darted behind him to see several figures stepping out of the shadows. Effectively boxing their group in.

"Indeed you are not Harry Dresden." Gandalf calmly assured him. "Still, it is only right that we try and make peace with the people that inhabit this land instead of trying to blast our way through them. It is not right that we should destroy things when we are only passing through. Who knows, perhaps we will be lucky and they will concede to letting us through without violence." He told the others optimistically. "Not all confrontations have to begin or even end in hostility." He advised the group.

Xena and Harry looked at him as if they couldn't believe just what it was that he was saying. "It does make them easier though." Xena noted dryly, as she watched the group.

"Can't really argue with that one." Harry agreed as he eyed the figures suspiciously. There was something about this group that just made him nervous. In a way they reminded him of Gentleman Marcone with their well fit clothes and the proud dignity that they exuded. The fact that one of them looked more like a burn victim than a person and was managing to pull that look off was impressive. There was a robed figure, and a middle aged looking person that had arrayed themselves to confront them.

One of the other carts opened and several strong looking figures stepped out of these. They were similar to the ones that were behind them. Gandalf watched carefully as the beings eyes flashed yellow, and he could see that they were not quiet human. They were not of the Race of Men as he had originally thought them to be, but were some sort of creature that he was unfamiliar with. They reminded him somewhat of some of the various trolls and goblins that he had seen over the years. Perhaps even some of the half breeds that had come before the Uruk-hai. Pale skin from little to no time spent in the sun, combined with a ridged brow, yellow eyes, and what looked like fangs hanging out of their mouths. They were definitely far beyond anything that he was familiar with.

"Bachae." Xena spat out in disgust, as she tightened her grip on her sword as her eyes began darting around her as she began planning out the upcoming battle. Whatever doubt that she might have had about this turning into a fight seeming to have been destroyed upon her laying eyes on these beings.

"Vampires here?" Dresden asked in annoyance, as he fell into a defensive stance, by holding his staff in both hands. "As if all the psycho critters running around trying to eat people wasn't bad enough now we've got vampires? When I find the idiot that hauled us here I'm going to turn them into something." He declared angrily. The wizard's rant was cut off as a girl being chased by some sort of human animal ran by. Her costume had several tears in it from the claws of the canine like creature. Harry pointed his staff at the creature and muttered a spell and the animal was lifted up and tossed through a window. He cocked his eyes at the vampires as if daring them to say something on the display of power he had just used.

The girl paused to look at who had saved her. She was surprised to see that the loser squad were standing on one end of the street. On the other end was the mayor of all people. "Where have you idiots been?" She demanded while she glared at the group. "Do you have any idea how long I've been running from Jo-Jo there?" She demanded gesturing towards the broken window. "And just look at my costume." She continued ranting while waving at the skin tight outfit and the rips that were in it. "I'll never be able to get my deposit back after this." She complained to the group in annoyance as if they were somehow to blame for her misfortunes.

"Uh yeah, we can see that." Harry returned weakly, swallowing as his eyes roved up and down the girl. Thanks to the rips, he could see that the girl had opted to forget her underwear and just how tight the outfit really was.

"Harry, we really must stay around this place if all of the women that are going to run around dressed in such amazing outfits." Bob whispered to him excitedly. "I haven't had this much fun with women in years." The spirit noted to the wizard. "Just look at the way her chest goes up and down, and up and down, and all over again." The spirit let out a perverted giggle of excitement. "Are you really sure that you want to leave this place? If you really have to go, maybe you can just leave me here?" The spirit suggested in a pleading tone.

"Shut it." Harry groaned out, trying his hardest not to watch the rising and falling chest that the spirit had so helpfully pointed out to him. Besides, if he were to leave Bob here there's no telling what kind of trouble he would cause.

"Personally I'm amazed that your parents allowed you out in that." Wilkins declared coolly, seeming to be unphased by the display that the young socialite was putting on for them.

"Mayor Wilkins." Cordelia squeaked out as she realized who else was standing in the middle of the street. She quickly covered herself with her arms. In a weak attempt to conceal her modesty. Much to the disappointment of Bob, and to Harry's relief.

"John, give her your jacket and escort her home." Wilkins ordered one of the beings beside him. "The Chase family are generous contributors, I don't know if I could bear to look them in the eyes if I knew that I had left her to wander the streets like that."

"Yes sir," One of the creatures replied as its face morphed back into a human visage. He stripped his jacket off and covered the girl.

"At least you're a gentleman." The girl noted with a charming smile that usually had her father's business partners nod at her approvingly. The large man placed a protective arm around her as he began leading her away from the two groups.

"This isn't good, that thing could just as easily drink her blood as it could take her home." Xena warned the others.

"Yeah, well unless you want to fight what twenty vampires then I'm not seeing a whole lot of choices." Harry growled, as they watched the girl be herded away from them.

"What are vampires my dear?" Gandalf asked the girl at his side, even as he eyed the beings before them warily. If his companions were worried he figured caution would be better at the moment.

"I didn't know that they were even real." The girl noted in shock as she eyed the creatures that were glaring at them.

"It's usually those that we believe not to be real that are truly the most dangerous." Gandalf sagely told her.

Sarah nodded her head in agreement even as she stared at the beings thoughtfully. "I know some of the basics that everyone has heard about vampires. Vampires are reanimated corpses that drink blood." She explained, as she watched the girl being pulled away. "According to the stories you destroy them with garlic, fire, or a wooden stake to the heart." Sarah rattled off at the wizard. "Unfortunately, I don't know how many of those are true though. If some of the stories about the way that they act then they're right that the girl could just as likely die as be saved tonight though. Particularly with everything that's going on."

"Thank you." Gandalf returned to her. "I suppose one of us should go and retrieve the dear girl before she finds herself in a situation that she is unable to deal with." He suggested staring at the two warriors hopefully.

"Don't look at me." Harry shot off quickly raising his hands as if to block the wizard from volunteering him. "I have a habit of annoying anyone that I talk to. Particularly when I don't agree with some of their actions. Then there's usually threats, and then people end up dying. It's really a great big mess in the end." He assured them. "That and it usually ends in property damage. Lots of property damage."

"Not my thing really." Xena added. "My answer to diplomacy is to find a nice way to stab them, or to figure a way to say die without trying to insult someone." She informed them with a smirk.

"Yeah, we both suffer from aggressive negotiating skills." Harry told the old wizard with a grin.

"Very well then." Gandalf grumbled, as he strode forward to face off with the beings holding the girl. "A moment of your time before your companion escorts the young lady home." The wizard declared in a loud and crisp voice that cut through the night even with all the screams that could be heard.

Wilkins frowned as he saw one of the magically stronger figures was moving toward him. The essence he was feeling off of this figure was the first magical presence that he had felt after the spell activated. It was a mixture of the Watcher and something else. The face wasn't that of Rupert Giles though. No, this was a much more weathered face with a crooked nose and long hair and bushy eyebrows. He looked the rest of the group over. He could tell by the way that the vampires were eyeing the armored woman that she was something more. While she was about the right height for the Slayer, her skin was darker and her features much sharper. A sharpness to the features that usually came with age. If that was the Watcher and Slayer than these could be the Slayer's companions. The Slacker and the Hacker according to what Snyder had told him. The boy look aged, as if he was nearing the age that the Watcher was supposed to be and the girl, well many of her features were similar. Her features were tighter as the girl looked more tired and haggard than the usually bubbly Willow Rosenburg was supposed to be. He wondered how the girl had been able to so easily identify them. Still, it was only polite to at least hear the man out first. After that he could have them killed. "Yes of course Mr..." Wilkins trailed off while looking at the old man expectantly.

"Gandalf." The wizard returned to him gruffly.

"Gandalf?" Wilkins questioned looking at him somewhat in disbelief. "As in the whole Grey Wizard?" He questioned the man, snorting in amusement at facing off with this wizard. Personally he had always preferred Sauruman and Sauron to Gandalf and Elrond.

"One and the same." The wizard agreed sagely. "I take it you have heard the name before? It does make this all so much easier. For I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me." He declared to the group.

Vail and Wilkins shook their surprise at the identity of the intruder off as they now began assessing the figure for what kind of danger that he might be to them. "And the identities of your companions?" Vail asked curiously, as he looked the group over with interest.

"Oh but of course. They are the Wizard Harry Dresden, the Lady Xena, and the Lady Sarah Bailey." Gandalf pointed with his staff as he introduced each member of the group. "Now who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"I am Mayor Richard Wilkins the III. Beside me is Lord Cyvus Vail, my former mentor in the mystic arts, and then there is The Source who has been something of an ally of mine over the years." Wilkins returned while nodding towards each of the demons respectively.

"A pleasure." Gandalf noted while looking the group over.

"I take it you have something to say?" Wilkins finally asked.

"Indeed I do." Gandalf returned pleased that this was going decently despite the misgivings that his companions had on this plan. "I am not about to let you take the girl. Not with a vampire at the very least. From what my comrades have told me these vampires may not be the most reliable of escorts."

"Vampire?" Cordelia asked weakly, while looking at the creature that had been trying to usher her away from them.

"Ah, I do wish you hadn't said anything." Wilkins uttered, shaking his head sadly. "Now I'll have to have her killed with the rest of you. If you only hadn't disrupted everything." He informed the old wizard.

"You'll find that I have a habit of making things difficult." Gandalf returned with a smirk. "Now, if you'll be so kind as to turn the girl over." He requested of the mayor pleasantly. With a nod from the mayor the creature shoved the girl back into the group. "Thank you." Gandalf acknowledged. "I do not suppose that you could let us be on our way now?" He requested of the man politely.

"Afraid I can't do that." Wilkins replied with a shrug as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You really should have left the girl alone and she would have gotten home alright. Her death is going to be on your hands now. That is if you live long enough to feel guilty about it. Kill them" The man ordered. The vampires moved forward to comply with the command.

"If you can form another of those circles now would be the time." Xena told Harry, as she pulled her chakram out in one hand and her sword in the other. "Ay, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi." She cried out, as she flipped over the group and landed in the middle of the crowd of creatures. She threw the chakram with one hand even as she ushered the vampires toward her. The chakram bounced around the street and sliced through the necks of three of the vampires before returning to the expectant hand of the Warrior Princess. "Come on you guys, who wants to be first?" Xena goaded the creatures that were so like the Bachae of her world. She returned the chakram to her belt even as she drew her sword.

"She is buying us time." Gandalf declared as he raised his staff and spun it around a few times. A wall of flame rose around the group. "That may slow them down as well." He noted as he saw the vampires eyeing the wall of flames warily.

"I'll need a minute to put up my own circle." Dresden warned the group.

"Me as well." Sarah told the others. "I'm actually not sure if I have the time to put any useful protections up actually." She admitted as her hand began jerking around as she fired several small fireballs towards the vampires.

"Focus on one problem at a time." Gandalf told her reassuringly, as he drew his sword. "Come then creatures of the dark, shall we see how you are against the sharpness of Glamdring!" He shouted out to the creatures. "Let us see if the Foe-Hammer can beat you back from the shadows that spawned you." The blade itself seemed to light up and be covered with fire causing the vampires to watch the sword warily.

In their fear of the flaming weapon they took their eyes off of the other members of the group. That was all the opening that the pair needed. With a wave of her hand Sarah Bailey caused the nearby trees to fire their branches at the vampires causing several of the vampires jumped away from the appearance of the unexpected projectiles. Their inattention meant that their arms caught on fire and their attempts to smother the flames were futile as the rest of their bodies caught on fire and burned. Sarah smiled weakly even as she then launched a few more fireballs to keep them back.

"Fire magic appears to be their primary method of attack." Vail observed to the other members of the group. "We shall have to see just how adept they are at confronting us when we are not as easily impressed by such feats." He raised his hand and built up a blast of magical power and threw it towards Gandalf. The spry wizard saw the incoming attack and raised his staff in front of himself allowing the attack to bounce away from him. "Most interesting." Vail decided as his eyes followed the direction that the spell had gone off into. "I shall deal with this Gandalf." He informed the others.

"Very well, I'll handle the young man while you handle the girl." Wilkins suggested to The Source as he began building up his own power to confront the wizard that had invaded his town. It was time that he showed these youngsters that he was still at the top of his game, even if he didn't come out very often anymore. It would serve as a reminder as to just who and what were truly in charge of the town. It was good for such lessons to be taught to the more rambunctious elements of the town. The three magic users each waved their hands and the protective flames were doused as they moved forward. "Deal with her." He told the vampires off offhandedly, as he saw the Slayer off to the side. With a wave of his hand he then threw a blast of power at Harry Dresden.

Harry had barely finished making a circle around the girl in a cat suit when a spell of some kind flew past his head. In fact the spell bounced off of his circle and hit a nearby house blasting a hole in it. "Stay in the circle, if you step out of it you die." He barked at her before he turned to see just who it was that had decided to take a potshot at him while his back was turned on them. It was the middle aged man in the suit with a fake smile. In fact, the guy was still smiling even as he lobbed another one of his spells at him. Really not what he had been expecting. He thought that they would all want to try their hand against the legendary Gandalf before they bothered with someone like him. Beating him would be like winning against the original Merlin. He thought that the old guy would have been a lot more tempting a target than he was. Which meant that the warlock that Gandalf was facing off with was a lot more dangerous than he had originally thought if he believed he could take on Gandalf. So much for hoping the old man would wipe the field with this bunch. He glanced over at Xena, and saw that she was currently surrounded by a majority of the vampires and the Bailey girl was trying to dodge around the cloaked being that had come with the mayor and his advisory. He always had known that it would be a bad move if a politician learned magic as well. It was obvious that the twin powers had somehow corrupted the man even farther than a regular warlock would be influenced. He dodged two more blasts, and had to admit, that unlike most wizards that this guy had some somewhat decent aim as several of the spells were coming uncomfortably close to him.

"Forzare" Harry intoned, sending a blast of force back at the man. The blast was a direct hit. The man was sent flying back and then tumbling out into the street.

Wilkins chuckled a bit as he climbed back up to his feet. Once he was standing he adjusted his suit as if he had taken a minor stumble. "Now this is fun, I haven't had a chance to really cut loose like this in a long time." The grinning Mayor noted as he formed another ball of magical power and threw it.

Harry dodged the spell, and watched where it had hit a metal mailbox. The mailbox wavered for a moment before it began to melt. "An acid spell?" He asked in disbelief at what the other magic user was using against him.

"Use what works." Wilkins returned to the other wizard as he formed another spell.

"You said it." Harry shot with a smirk. "Infriga." He chanted causing ice and frost to appear on the ground all around the mayor.

Wilkins made to throw his spell only to slip on the ice and was force to stretch his arms out for balance. The action while saving him from a fall caused the spell in his hand to go wild and fly off into the side of a house where it blew through a wall. "Impressive." Wilkins grunted as he managed to stop his flailing around and stare at Harry. "It's been a while since I've been caught off guard like that." He congratulated the Chicago Native Wizard.

"I aim to please." Harry replied to the man. "For my next trick how about I make you disappear though?"

"You're welcome to try." Wilkins offered encouragingly as they each began charging up for the next spell that they would be using.

---

Gandalf and Vail had stared at each other for several moments, trying to gauge just what it was that the other would do. Each of them was taking in the worth of their opponent as they tried to learn just what made them be who and what they were. Gandalf was of one of the ancient races who's very reason for being among the mortals was to help guide them. He had advised all sorts of beings on how best to take control of their lives. Cyvus Vail was nearly the exact opposite of the wizard. The warlock was part of an ancient organization that was set for ensuring that the darkness either controlled this dimension or at least the status quo was maintained as it currently was. The two flared their power as they stared at each other. The air around them rippled and the street around them cracked as each of them pumped more and more energy at each other.

"This will be an interesting fight." Cyvus Vail noted with a smile. "I haven't had a good magical fight in way too long. I wonder just how strong you really are?" He held his hand out and an orange ball of magic appeared in his hand. He flung the sphere at the wizard.

Gandalf raised the sword and slashed through the spell. The spell broke apart as it hit the edged blade. Gandalf returned the attack by slamming his staff into the ground, causing a crack in the street to open up and head towards the warlock.

Vail side stepped the incoming crack, but the earth that jutted upwards still caught him by surprise and clipped him on the leg sending him spinning away. The Warlock gestured and water lines shattered and the water rushed towards the wizard. Gandalf chanted and a wall of flames blocked the incoming torrent leaving a wall of steam. Vail made another gesture and the steam disappeared leaving the two to face each other. Vail clapped his hands together and a concussion blast aimed at the wizard sent him flying. His sword skittering across the street and falling under a car.

Gandalf rose back to his feet his hands grabbing some of the loose gravel with his hand. He shook it for a moment before he threw it at him. The rocks exploded with the force of a grenade lifting Vail up and slamming him into a nearby car. The warlock grunted as he felt superheated bit of gravel dig into his skin.

Snarling Vail lifted himself out of the indention of the car and with a gesture of his hand the car lifted into the air. With a heave he slammed it toward the wizard.

Gandalf raised his staff and the car stopped halfway between the two as he caught it in his own telekinetic grip. The pair each began pushing against the car the ends of the car began to become crushed at they each pushed with the same amount of pressure. Gandalf released his hold and spun out of the way holding his hand out Glamdring came flying back into his hand. He slashed the ground causing sparks to shoot up, the sparks turned into small fire balls which began rushing at Vail who was forced to raise his own defenses against the incoming attack.

---

Sarah focused on her opponent. This being known as the Source seemed to be extremely powerful. She was pretty sure that she had never found herself matched up against anything this powerful. Even Nancy, despite all of her power was nowhere near as powerful as this being was. She really wasn't sure if she was going to stand a chance against this cloaked being.

"You are new to the Craft." The Source noted as it began moving toward Sarah. "If I were not required to destroy you I would try to turn you to the path of a Dark Witch."

"I've seen what happens to those that follow the dark path." Sarah returned. "So I have to say that I'm not interested."

The Source didn't seem overly insulted as it raised its hands and an energy ball appeared in in either hand. "Let us see how long you can properly entertain me then light witch." It declared as it launched the energy ball at her.

Sarah raised herself into the air allowing the ball of energy to pass under her. She landed on the ground with a thump. She closed her eyes and soon there was a rumbling sound and a pipe exploded near The Source nearly knocking it off balance as she shot a stream of water at it. The Source responded by firing it other energy ball destroying the pipe.

"You have some experience in magical combat it seems." The Source mocked. "I shall have to show you what it means to truly use your powers for such things though." It raised its hands and fired a pair of fire balls. Sarah yelped, as she caught the two balls of flame and then sent them back as two streams of flame.

The Source created a force field made of flames and the attacks merely fed the shield causing it to grow even stronger. The Source then dispelled the flames before the witch tried to grab control of that particular flame as well. It waved its hand at a nearby car which suddenly started, and began bearing down on Sarah.

Sarah turned around and using her telekinesis dragged another car in the way of the incoming one causing the two to crash together. She turned around and raised her arms and a blast of wind headed for the cloaked figure.

The Source conjured various blades and with a telekinetic blasts sent them through the wind storm at Sarah.

The girl tried to dodge the blades but one of the daggers managed to catch her on the arm while another managed to nick her leg and another one caught her on the cheek. While none of the blows was life threatening, it did show that the attacks were more than dangerous and that some of the attacks could get through her defenses if she wasn't careful.

The Source raised its hand which seemed to glow for a moment and then fired an energy beam that seemed to connect with the girl as it sent her flying away.

---

Xena smirked as she looked at the creatures that she was facing off with. The group had surrounded her in a circle as they tried to find a weak spot on the warrior princess. "You know I'm kind of disappointed." She drawled out, as she watched the Bachae. Her booted feet moving in time with the creatures. "I mean, I thought that since I was going to be facing off with so many of you that it would almost be even. I've got to say that none of you guys seems to know the first thing about a real fight though." She scolded the group mockingly. Two of the pale skinned creatures rushed at her from behind only for her to back-flip over them and then with a large swipe of her sword she decapitated them. The two creatures froze for a moment and then fell apart in dust. "You guys are almost making it too easy though." She complained in annoyance as she turned her attention to the still moving figures.

One of the vampires drew a sword out of its jacket and charged at her from the side with a downward blow. The Grecian Warrior's sword which was sticking up in the air caught the incoming blade and pushed it slightly to the side causing his hit to miss. She returned his attack with a kick to his gut which sent him flying back into the shadows.

She twirled her sword and smirked as she waited to see what the other creatures would try to do. She vaguely remembered Hercules once telling her about creatures like these. So similar to the Bachae, and yet still so different. It seemed as if these creatures were nowhere near as strong as the ones that he had told her about though.

She pulled her chakram out, and launched it into the air. The creatures tried to follow its path but were soon distracted as Xena was amongst them and the path of the small disc seemed unimportant when compared to the amount of killing each blow could cause. The warrior woman was death in motion if they weren't careful it would be their deaths that they would seeing. Several of the vampires drew out a variety of daggers and picked up pipes or branches to use as makeshift weapons. While not the best way to battle the woman, it was all that they had. It was 10 vampires VS Xena. The odds weren't in the favor of the monsters at all. The raven haired woman smirked as her chakram came whizzing towards them. The vampires turning on hearing the whizzing sound the weapon made only for Xena to stab one in the forehead using the sword as a lever she leaped into the air twisting the blade as she went and kicking two more of the creatures. She held her hand up and the incoming chakram sliced through the necks of two vampires. Spinning she used her weapon to slice through the neck of the vampire she had skewered. She glared at the vampires but was caught off guard as a vampire kicked her sword out of her hand and into an overhead tree. Not letting the loss of her primary weapon even slow her down Xena ducked and rolled a swinging pipe and came up with a wooden branch not sure what she was doing she broke it over her knee and threw the pieces of wood out. She smiled as she looked at the three remaining vampires. The vampires looked scared as they realized that the slayer despite being possessed had just taken out 7 of their number in a matter of moments. The Slayer couldn't normally perform such feats when she was on her own.

---

Spike was watching the various mystical battles that were going on between the magic users with more than just a little bit of him being impressed. Whatever was turning a majority of the children into monsters and demons was also messing with the Slayer and her groupies. All three of her closest lackeys had been given a serious power boost that put them several leagues above what they had been before. He wasn't sure that he wanted to confront any of them as they were right now. At least not unless he was sure that he could close the distance with them quickly enough that is. They were tossing around spells that would make even the most hardcore vampire pause and rethink the wisdom of trying to do battle with them. Hell, he doubted that the Master would have wanted to go up against them without some sort of insurance policy. Or at least not without a small army of vampires, strong vampires at that. On the bright side, the Slayer hadn't been affected in the same way as the others had. Whereas the Watcher, the redhead, and the boy had all been turned into spell slinging loonies. The Slayer was merely a better fighter. Her whole style had changed into something far more brutal than it used to be though. Before the girl had been content to use her fists to subdue her opponents and then stake them. Despite being the Slayer though, her technique was rough in comparison to the Slayer he had killed during the whole Boxer Rebellion. Now the Slayer seemed to know where every part of her body was and how best to use it though. Her technique was also different, it had a grace and precision to it that it had always lacked. She also seemed comfortable in what she was doing. Something that he had rarely seen in her. That didn't even bring in the matter of that deadly Frisbee of hers that she would toss out every once and a while, which usually ended up going through a vamps neck. The girl had become the living weapon that she always had the potential to be.

"Keep back for the moment." Spike told the small group of possessed beings, he had collected as he studied the fights. It would appear that he was going to need to relearn all of the Slayer's moves before he could confront her again. "Shame none of you can tell me how you got like this, I would love to know just how this happened." The monsters merely growled back at him in unintelligible response. Considering he was fluent Fyral that was saying something "Yeah, I thought you might say something like that." Spike grumbled back at them as he took a pull from his cigarette. Content to wait and see an advantage.

He noticed that the vampires that were fighting the Slayer were being tossed around the street despite the fact that there was something different about her and her knowledge on fighting them seemed a bit off. Perhaps they knew something that could help him out. He watched calmly, and as one of the idiots taking the Slayer head on was turned to dust another one of them finally had enough and took off and ran. To make it even better he was heading in the rough direction that he was in. He dashed off to the side and as the vampire was rushing away he tackled them. "Easy there mate. I just want you to answer some questions for me now." He explained as he hauled his fellow vampire up. "Now then, why don't you tell old Spike just what the bloody hell is going on out here tonight?" He cajoled the vampire.

"I don't know, alls I know is that there's some magic going on." The vampire stumbled out. "If you want the real story then you'll have to talk too Ronnie, he's the mayor's right hand."

"That's another thing." Spike growled out at his captive. "Since when has the Mayor been keyed into the way that this town works? I thought he was unaware of how good old Sunny-Hell really worked."

"Your kidding right?" The vampire returned in disbelief as it stared at the blonde vampire.

"Humor me." Spike growled.

"Fine, fine." The vampire agreed quickly. "Wilkins owns this town lock, stock, and barrel. He's some kind of magic user or something. For the most part he likes to keep to the shadows though. A person usually has to be in the town for a few years before they even hear about him."

"Likes to play the big boss does he?" Spike questioned with interest at hearing this tidbit of news. He had been fighting the Slayer off and on for months and hadn't ever heard of this tidbit. "Anything else about him that I should know?"

"He's old, a lot older than he looks. I've heard him say that he's the original Richard Wilkins." The vampire supplied.

"Which would make him over a hundred years old." Spike calculated. "That does make things a lot more interesting." The vampire mused. "Suppose that I should go and introduce myself to the Big Man then, and find out what kind of game that he's playing here." He tossed the vampire off to the side and moved toward the battling magic users. "You little ones entertain yerselfs with the boy." Spike ordered a pair of the mini monsters. The creatures nodded and scurried at the wizard.

At seeing the unexpected help Wilkins turned to look at the approaching vampire. "Ah Spike isn't it?" The man greeted acting as if he wasn't involved in a life or death magic duel as he fired off a few more spells that his opponent either dodged or deflected. "What brings an enterprising being such as yourself out on this night of all nights?" He questioned as he deflected a spell that the boy had sent at him with his hand toward a house creating a hole the size of a softball in the door. "Would you boys keep this one busy while I talk with this concerned citizen?" He asked some of the vampires that were watching the fight.

"Sure no problem sir." One of the vampires agreed nervously, as they rushed forward to put themselves in between the wizard and warlock.

"Hey, I call foul on getting your vampire helpers to fight between us." Harry argued as he saw that he was now facing off with several vampires. They looked like Black Council Vampires from everything that he could tell about them. He just hoped that he would be able to deal with them before they tried to do something like overwhelming him. Made him wish he could cause things to combust with but a glance like Gandalf was capable of doing.

"Now then, where were we?" Wilkins questioned the blonde vampire, even as he kept an eye on the wizard.

"Just got to being curious at all the noise and wondering why nobody thought to invite me to the party." Spike replied, as he watched the fight with an interested eye. Internally he was trying to figure what his own chances against either one of the magic users might be.

"Yes it came as something of a surprise to me as well." Wilkins returned to the vampire. "Still you have to admit, it does have its interesting points." The man informed the bloodsucker.

"Aye, mayhap it does." Spike agreed, as he ducked a ribbon of fire. "Its also changing all o the rules as well though." He pointed out to the figure that he was fairly sure he would rather not tangle with unless he had to.

"Good point." Wilkins agreed. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find suits like this that breathe just right? I've had this one for nearly 30 years and this little pretend wizard is trying to burn it off."

"Answers simple then Mr. Mayor Sir, where does their power come from?" Spike asked the politician. "I mean, you can't really have their sort wandering around town who knows what type of mischief that they'll get up to. Its bad enough when its just the Slayer, but add in the rest of them with power and it changes the balance that you got going here in town."

"All too true." The Mayor agreed. "There are reasons that we have rules, and when someone doesn't follow those rules in my town then they get a rather harsh meeting with reality."

"Exactly, so what needs to happen now is something of a truce." Spike offered the sorcerer. "You and yours just need to deal with the Slayer and her groupies long enough for me to get to wherever this spell is and stop it." He offered. "Wouldn't want you to think that old Spike wasn't a willing and contributing member of the community." He informed the man slyly.

Wilkins didn't look excited at the prospect that the vampire was offering, but he was needed here as he didn't doubt for a moment that the boy there would do something to tip the balance if he wasn't around. The wizard that he had dressed as was extremely powerful, and more than a little bit skilled in the use of his magic. He nodded his head in reluctant agreement. "Yes, I suppose that I should make sure that this matter is dealt with before anymore unsavory elements are tempted to try and come here. Mr. Spike, would you mind horribly to take all of your little friends with you and deal with whoever it is that thought that it would be interesting to do this?"

"You got an address mate?" Spike returned with a knowing smirk.

"Of course." Mayor Wilkins returned as he pulled out a date book and handed him a scrap of paper. "If you would properly chastise the man there it would make things so much easier for me. Consider it a take back the night event." He suggested to the vampire in amusement.

The vampire smirked back at the sorcerer at the irony of that. "You got it." He agreed as he memorized the address and then left the mayor to his magic duel. He had other things to deal with at the moment. He also had to think of the proper way to chastise whatever wanker it was that thought this was a good idea. While he had to admit at first glance it was neat when you did it and allowed the Slayer of all people become even more dangerous it was a clear sign that it was time to pull the plug and come up with a new idea. Preferably one which ended with the Slayer lying dead, broken, and bleeding at his feet.

"Sorry about the interruption." Wilkins apologized to the wizard.

Harry Dresden was panting, had several bruises forming on his face, and had a bloody lip. He was also surrounded by several piles of vampire ash though. "Take your time. I'm sure that there are a few other things that you need to do." He wheezed out as he tried to catch his breath.

"True, but my mother always did think it was rude to keep people waiting." Wilkins informed the man jovially. "Now where were we?" He asked as he telekinetically ripped the branches off some trees and sent them flying at the man.

"Hey Harry, we got another problem." Bob's voice whispered into his ear.

"Bob, in case it escaped your notice I'm currently fighting someone with a lot more experience and power on me than you would think he would have." Harry returned to the spirit. "How much worse can it get?"

"Did you think to look him over with the sight?" Bob shot back in annoyance. "I swear Harry, if you could see this guy you wouldn't be so surprised."

"Not like I have the time now." Harry returned to him.

"Damn it Harry, would you just for once in your ignoramus life just do as I tell you without arguing over it." Bob shouted out. "Put a shield up in front of you and then turn on your sight already. You may not want to see what this guy is, but you sure do need to see it." The spirit of intellect assured the wizard.

Harry scowled at that. The Sight or the Third Eye, was really not something that a person could just throw around willy nilly. It was something that allowed wizards like him to see the things that were hidden beyond the perception of normal beings. The downside of it was that whatever you looked upon while using the sight stayed with you for the rest of your life. He could still recall the first Fae that he had ever looked upon with the sight when he was a fourteen year old brat. Some of what a person saw was so monstrous that it made even him want to curl up in a ball and try and hide himself away, and then there were others that had been so full of peace and comfort that he had never wanted to tear his sight away from them.

"Fine." Harry grumbled as he powered his shield up and then looked toward the sorcerer. He nearly puked at what he was seeing. The figure of the mayor was still there, but there was more to him he could see the lines of power that a person had when they made deal with someone or something. These tendrils of power seemed to be wrapped all around the man as if he was a mass of these strange deals. "Hells Bells! What in the world is that Bob?"

"That's what I was trying to explain to you Harry." Bob returned rather snippily, as a spell slammed into the shield causing it to spark. "Your opponent isn't exactly human. He's been undergoing a series of magic's that will convert him into the demonic. He's also drawing on several demonic sources to amp his magic up even more than it already is."

Harry swallowed nervously at that lovely bit of news. People that made deals with demons for power were amongst some of the more dangerous magic users. Knowing what he did now he turned to look at the other beings that they were pitted up against. The Source was a pit of darkness, had to be one of the most powerful demons that he had ever seen. He hadn't known demons actually had power levels that high actually, the burn victim demon or whatever was just as strong maybe even stronger. He turned to look at his companions and wondered what he would see from them. From Gandalf he saw the wizard as a being of amazing brilliance that was almost too bright for him to see. He was more of a presence than he was a person. It was like looking upon the Fairy Queens, there was so much power and it threatened to overwhelm him. He was both saddened and relieved to look away from the old wizard. The girl Sarah Bailey was practically bathed within the elements, she was connected to the very essence of the Earth in ways that he hadn't thought was possible for a normal person to be in. It was like she was a true avatar for the earth and its power. The Warrior Princess was dark, so much darkness in her and yet it was like she wore dark armor to protect the light within in. As he stared at the group though, he realized that each of the essence of the others was cast over another.

He focused first on Sarah as her sense of self was actually the weakest of the three. As he looked he saw someone else a girl with red hair she had potential as a magic user. He could see that, but there was an innocence and naivety to her as well. The girl was currently curled up in a ball trying to hide from everything that was going on. Yet at the same time she seemed to be aware of everything that was happening and was unable to look away from what was happening with her body. His gut clenched, and a feeling of dread went through his entire being. A personality over another. He knew what that was, it was a possession. Considering the amount of power that the possession was using, it had to be a really strong one as well. This was a lot more than a group of ghosts or something like though. That meant that the girl wasn't really Sarah Bailey, but whoever the girl beneath was. He turned to look at the others it took a moment of concentration to peer through the dark armor and cloak that made up Xena's sense of self. The warrior woman who was aware of who and what she was and even accepted responsibility for her actions was a much harder nut for him to crack. When he finally passed through the essence that made up the Warrior Princess, he was shocked at what he found. It was a blonde girl in one hand she held a stake while in the other she held what looked like a cheerleading baton. Behind her though was the shadow of a being that radiated an ancient power. The being radiated a dark power that scared him. He was positive that he had met Fae with kinder dispositions than whatever that was. It was dark skinned, dreadlocks, and had what looked like white tribal painting all over it. In its hands it carried a strange looking ax with a sharpened handle point. He wasn't sure which was scarier the warrior woman or the little slip of a girl that was on the inside. The blonde unlike the redhead was actually trying to break the bonds that held her, but didn't seem to be having any luck in taking control back of her body. It seemed that Xena's sense of self was too strong for the blonde to disrupt. Taking a deep breath he turned to look at Gandalf and pressed against the presence that was Gandalf. If he had thought Xena was a nut, that must have made the old wizard a coconut. Hell maybe even a cannonball. He finally managed to look through the veil that was Gandalf and saw a middle aged man in what looked like a chamber filled with a multitude of books. One arm was covered in dark energy while the rest of him looked gray. A scholar and a warrior, and a very proper type from what he was sensing as well.

After everything that he had just seen it took all of his strength for him to gather up his will and cancel his Sight. He took a steadying breath before he dove out of the way of a spell, he looked at his shield and grimaced as he saw that the enchanted device had nearly been burned out from the number of spells it had already deflected. His standing still and staring like an idiot probably hadn't helped matters either. Judging from the burning sensation that he was currently feeling it would need to have all of its magic reworked pretty soon. If only he'd had the time to work the magic himself instead of whatever lameness whoever he was possessing had done. Yeah he figured he like the others was merely possessing the body he was currently wearing. Even he could figure something like that out when it slapped him hard enough in the face. Although if you asked Bob, Murphy, Thomas, anyone on the White Council, Billy and the Alphas, or anyone that he knew really they would disagree with that particular assessment of his skills.

"Alright mayor man let's do this, it seems that I got all night." Harry told him as he ushered the man forward.

"Actually you don't." Wilkins returned to him confidently. "If anything, you have an hour at most." He informed the Chicagoan with a smirk.

Harry was about to snap off a witty reply back at the man when he thought about the Billy Idol lookalike, and how he ad dashed off on some mission for the mayor. If that vampire, or whatever knew how to figure out where this magic had come from and how to break the spell, or if he went in and tore everything up. Either way, that could be bad. Particularly if they hadn't managed to deal with these guys before the blonde wonder did whatever it was that he had planned.

"Gandalf we need a new plan." The Wizard for Hire shouted at the White Rider.

Gandalf looked toward the young man, and then sent a burst of magic that shot rocks and street all over the place. While the stones pelting his opponent Gandalf moved away from his opponent. All four of the combatants moved towards the scared girl in a cat costume. With a gesture each of the three magic users created a shield that would at the very least slow their opponents down.

Harry quickly outlined the problem for all of them once they were looking at him. "Basics is this folks, someone cast a large area possession spell and somehow we ended up as some of the characters that were brought forth and are now possessing these forms."

"Well that does explain how it is that we got here." Xena replied as she managed to get her head around the idea. She spun around and her sword intercepted an incoming fireball deflecting the attack back into the air before it could hit any of them. Harry waved his hand and muttered, reinforcing the spot that had begun to weaken.

"Yes it does make a certain amount of sense as to how we got here." Gandalf agreed, he closed his eyes and focused inward and found the essence that was his host. A moment later he was within a building and was seeing the damage that his essence had done to the person that he was controlling for the moment. He looked around and at his feet he found a book he bent over to pick it up and examined the title. The Life and Times of Rupert Giles Vol. 6. He noticed that many of the pages had been ripped out or were strung around the room with other books. In the center was a bookshelf and connected that was a fractured looking statue. The wizard opened his eyes to look at the others. "I have connected to my host, unfortunately my host is in no shape to answer any questions at the moment. My presence has made him incapable of doing anything but watching.

Harry nodded his acceptance of that bit of information as if he had half expected something like that to be the case. "The bad news is that these guys we're fighting know all about the possession and sent someone to end the spell I think. And as soon as it ends the people we're possessing are going to be stuck fighting insanely powerful magic users." He pointed out nodding towards the wall where the mages were trying to blow through. The shield wouldn't last long as it had been somewhat hastily put together to give them the chance to talk without yelling or getting killed. "So I'm hoping that one of you has an idea on how to fix this mess that we are now stuck in." He pleaded with the group.

"Your shields may be the only method that we have." Gandalf returned thoughtfully, as he stroked his beard and watched the magic users blast away at the shield. "You must construct a barrier that will allow us to remain in this world even if the focus of the spell is destroyed."

"That's really heavy magic's though." Harry argued with the ancient wizard. "I'm not even sure what all it would take to set up a barrier like that, particularly with what we have on hand particularly and when we're up against the clock."

"You may not know what it would take to pull this kind of magic off Harry, but I do." Bob spoke out loudly, causing everyone to look at the pocket of the wizard.

Harry grimaced a bit as he pulled the skull out of his pocket. "Nice going there Bob." He grumbled at the skull. "Nice way of being discrete there. In fact, why don't you just say hello to everybody." He offered the spirit.

"Not now Harry, like you said we're on the timer." Bob snarked back at the wizard.

"What is that?" Sarah asked with a grimace, as she saw the mouth of the skull open and shut as it talked with the wizard.

Harry sighed in irritation. More from the fact that the skull was right than the fact that he had revealed himself. "Meet Bob, not only is he a complete pain in the neck and ass, but he's also knowledgeable in most forms of magic." He explained, as he introduced the skull.

"Our first bit of good news then." Gandalf noted with a smile as he looked the strange spirit container over. "I take it you have an idea on how we should proceed then Master Bob?" He questioned.

"Now why can't you ever talk that respectfully to me?" Bob questioned Harry.

"Because I know you better." Harry bit back at him darkly. "Now do you have a plan or not?"

"Yes, yes I do." Bob answered cockily. "Lady Xena is skilled in the workings of Soul magic's, so I would recommend that Harry and Gandalf create a shield designed to hold spirits in, while they are doing that Miss Xena uses her magic's to bind the souls, and then Mr. Stormcrow here helps each of them connect with the inner essence and merge with them that way when the spell does end its likely that even if we are gone then we'll leave our knowledge and some of our power on this plane."

"So basically you got a maybe plan that might work then." Harry questioned dubiously.

"It's better than anything that you've managed to come up with, or are likely to come up with Harry." Bob pointed out smugly. Harry scowled at that, but didn't say anything either.

"It does seem the best way for us to do things." Gandalf agreed with the skull."

Bob snickered, while Harry ran his hand through his hair trying his best to ignore the smug spirit.

"So what do I do?" Sarah asked.

"Well unless you want to perform a striptease, "Bob suggested lecherously. Harry bopped him in response to that, "Fine. I would suggest you make sure that the shield stays up while the others do their jobs." Sarah blushed, but nodded as she turned to watch the shield.

"Anyone have any ink?" Xena asked as she sheathed her sword.

"Blood is the only thing that we have to draw with I'm afraid." Bob returned to her. Xena nodded as she drew a dagger and sliced her hand open and began drawing the circle that she needed. The others joined her in drawing their own circles of power to perform their own spells.

"What should I do?" Cordelia questioned nervously as she saw all of the others doing something.

"Hop up and down." Bob answered from the ground where Harry had set him down so he could work.

The cheerleader nodded and began hopping up and down. "Why am I doing this anyways, does it actually help?" she asked suspiciously.

"Ah, of course it does." Bob returned hurriedly. "It helps to generate the energy that we'll need to control the spell." The Skull explained.

"Fine." Cordelia grumbled, as she continued jumping while Bob watched with interest as she went up and down and bounced around in the protective circle.

---

Spike grumbled as he stalked through the streets of Sunnydale. It would figure that the only way to stop this bloody spell would be on the other end of town. Seems that the Mayor and his Lot were more interested in taking out the results instead of the main problem. Made him wonder how anything ever got done. If he was the man running things he would take care of things at the heart. Maybe old Spike should consider taking over after this was all over. It couldn't be any worse than things actually were. Things might even be a bit more fun if things weren't so structured. He began to think of all of the things that he would do if he were in charge, and how Dru could finally get the care that she truly needed and he could find the cure for her weakness as well.

Spike was pulled out of his daydreams as they came upon a costume shop with the name Ethan's on the front. He had to admit to being impressed, the guy here had managed to not only cause all sorts of hysteria, but he had charged people to do it as well. It was an impressive and amusing plan to say the least. Charge people to turn them into monsters it was a classic. He hadn't seen anything like this since a meeting he had with a Djinn who had turned some fan boys obsessed with comics into vampire hunters. It had been embarrassingly easy to kill the Daywalkers as they had called themselves. He had killed two Slayers, some pimple faced morons with vampire abilities weren't really that impressive. Had it been someone like Holtz with those powers he might have been worried.

He took a long drag from his cigarette as he examined the place for a moment. "Go and bring this wanker to me. He's got him some explaining to do." He ordered his new minions. The creatures nodded and headed towards the building as soon as the creatures got to the sidewalk they yelped and fell to the ground turning back into humans. "Interesting." It seemed that the Wanker wasn't a complete idiot as anything that got too close to the door that was in costume reverted back to their original form. Theoretically that should have protected him from anything that tried to get at him. Too bad for him there were real monsters out here as well though. "You two bring him to me now." He ordered pointing to a pair of vampires that had joined up with him in all the noise and destruction. The vampires nodded and cautiously approached the building unsure if they would be turned back into humans. Spike getting tired of waiting walked up behind one and kicked him forward. The vampire stumbled as he fell. Spike grabbed the other one by the back of his jacket and slung him through the door. He smirked as he watched the vampire tear through the door. Spike switched to his game face and followed the vampire minions inside. "Knock, knock." He called into the store with a malicious grin on his face.

Ethan Rayne saw the trio of vampires and swallowed. "Oh Shite." He complained, he had no idea why a group of vampires were out tonight and about tonight of all nights, but figured that they were annoyed with him for some reason or other. For all he knew they were upset about his spell. Demons and vampires tended to get amazingly agitated when someone started to mess with what they considered their food.

"That does about sum it up." Spike agreed, as he looked the mage over. "Got to say, I was expecting someone a bit more impressive than you though." He admitted to the man. "I mean anyone that could manage all of that shouldn't look so average." He complained to the man indignantly. "Couldn't you have at least have made an illusion around yourself to make yourself seem more impressive?" The vampire reverted to his human face as he realized that there was no threat to him from the mage. "At least you're from the homeland that does make things somewhat better." He grumbled, as he looked around the shop at the odds and ends that were still around the store. He reached over the counter and jerked the register open. "You did fairly well for yourself." He complimented, as he counted out the money that the man had managed to accumulate from all of his victims. "And I thought doctors were good at gouging people for their lives. But you charge them and even try and kill them or turn their dreams into nightmares. That's one hell of a skill."

"Thank you." Ethan returned warily. "So what happens now?"

"Now I take a cut for the troubles that you've caused me, and you tell me how to end this spell before it causes me anymore troubles and I leave you with the money and all of your limbs attached to you and all of your blood in your body." Spike explained with a grin. "You try and get shirty about it though, and I'll have to be a bit creative in my chastising of you for what you've done around here."

"Well I was hoping to get Ripper here before this all ended, but those are the breaks in this game." Ethan returned with a shrug.

"Ah you were doing this in part to annoy someone then?" Spike questioned with interest, a hint of approval in his voice at that bit of information. "Question I got for you is who is Ripper?"

"Ripper and me go back to the old days back in London." Ethan answered honestly. "Although I understand he's gone and made himself respectable now. Hard to believe that old Rupes has done that." He spat out. "No matter how hard he tries I know what kind of person he really is."

"Rupes, as in Rupert Giles?" Spike asked in surprise that the posh Watcher knew this little worm of a man.

"Aye Rupert Giles, Watcher and mage of not some inconsiderable power I might add." Ethan explained to the vampire. "Not that he practices any more. He's got all of you fooled into just who he really is. All you lot see is the sniveling Watcher and not the person he really is. I know what he is truly capable of in the darker recesses of his mind."

"If he keeps on being a pain, I may just have to come and find you, but for now I got me a spell to end." Spike explained to the man. "Now quit stalling, or I might lose me good disposition."

"Right." Ethan nodded, accepting that the game was over. "Destroy the Janus bust, and the spell ends."

Spike walked toward the bust of some two headed thingamajig picked it up and slammed it to the ground. There was a flare of light that blinded the vampires for a moment.

Ethan used the moment of distraction to grab the money Spike had left on the counter and then touched his doorframe. The frame shimmered and he stepped through it, but did not step out into the Main Street of Sunnydale. Instead the mage used one of Janus other abilities. He used his power as a God of Doorways to make his escape and walked into the hotel room that he had been renting. He sighed as he fell onto the bed wondering what he should do now. Personally he would love to leave, but with Eyghon currently hunting the old crowd it was actually safer to stay here. He was sure that Ripper would thank him later on. He was also currently working on a couple of plans that would get him off of the magical radar of the possessor demon.

Spike scowled as his sight returned and he realized that the worm had managed to slip out while he was distracted. To make matters worse he had gone and grabbed the money off the counter. He noticed that the doorframe had cracked as well for some reason or other. "Come on, lets go." He ordered the two vampires who fell in step behind him as he left the store. Spike scowled as he didn't see any sign of the runaway. "Where the bloody hell did he go?" He demanded of the two minions whom merely shrugged uncertainly. "All I wanted the two of you ninny brains to do was to hold one aging human." He complained at the pair. "What part of that was too hard for you to understand?" He demanded of the vampires." Ah forget it." He growled at the stupid looks that they were returning to him. "Let's go and see what the damage is." Spike then headed towards where the battle had been taking place a little while ago. Maybe if he was lucky and he hurried he would be able to see the end of it. If he was really lucky he might even be able to convince them that he had more than earned the right to be the one to finish the Slayer off. Once she was dead he could then put all of his attention to healing Dru.

---

The group had managed to erect the new defense only just in time, and even they could see that it was struggling to hold the effects of the possession spell. "If we're going to do this, then we need to do this now." Harry declared as he watched their defense waver. As soon as the ward was destroyed all of their work would be for nothing. If they'd had more time he might have been able to come up with something stronger and more permanent.

"Agreed." Gandalf spoke. "Gather around." He ordered the group. "We must ignore the sounds that are going on outside and focus inwards. Find the people that belong to these forms and help bring them back." He watched as each of the group settled as best they could into meditation. He truly hoped that they could manage this as they would likely only have a few moments in which to accomplish their task.

Gandalf settled and closed his eyes for a moment. He soon found himself back in the room filled with books. He could see that some of the books had started repairing themselves, but there was still much that had to be done before Rupert Giles was ready to return to the world that he belonged to. He began the arduous task of returning the books to their shelves. He noticed that with each page he touched though he was leaving a small imprint of himself. He stopped as he felt one book. Looking down he was surprised. Rupert Giles Vol. 21 Under the regular title was another inscription. The rise and fall of a Mage. Young Rupert it seemed had been something of a practitioner. He opened the book and saw that it was incomplete in some places. The magical training that he had gone through had not been enough. This was what he needed. He thought of much of the magic's that he had trained in and began crafting a book that would go along side of this one. It would be the light to counter the dark. He would be a mixture of light and dark. Possibly one that would better hold a title as the Gray Wizard than he himself had during his time. As an afterthought he added in his knowledge of the various languages he had learned over the years and his skill with a pipe and sword. It would do the man some good if he learned how to relax somewhat when he had the time. He watched as the statue gained what looked a copy of his favorite pipe and some of the books nearby had changed to some of his favorites and the statue now wore a copy of his own blade.

---

Harry Dresden really hated meditating and such things. Unfortunately for him, it seemed like it was one of the main things that was required of him. It was one of his main failings. While he had all sorts of raw power, possibly as much as some of the upper level members of the White Council he lacked the sort of control that many of the other wizards possessed making him so much less than he could be. Unfortunately for him, he simply couldn't manage it that well. Personally he would have preferred to have the wonderful flavor of a coca cola before he was forced to do this. That or a twinkie. He wasn't sure where the craving for a twinkie had come from though. He took a deep breath and did his best not to think of the very dangerous magic users that were just outside of his protective barrier. Come on, just like his original teacher Justin had taught him. Breathe in and breathe out nice and slowly. Or as Yoda told Luke concentrate. Then again he had been yelling that as he was falling to the ground as well.

"Took you long enough to get here." A voice rang out. Harry groaned as he turned to look over at what was him. "Inner Me." He greeted his subconscious.

"Idiot." The subconscious answered him. "One of these days you are going to have to learn how to do that without taking so long." He grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Harry waved his subconscious off without any concern. He climbed to his feet and grimaced as he looked at the near mirror image of himself. While technically they looked exactly alike, his subconscious was always so well groomed while he usually met with it while he was bleeding or whatever. Heck even when he wasn't bleeding and bruised his subconscious still looked better than he normally did. Which was really unfair now that he thought about it. Since they had the exact same bodies and everything. His inner self was just a bit more aware and observant on things that he sometimes missed until he thought them through.

"So have you found the kid?" Harry grumbled, as he looked around a messy room.

"Sort of." His subconscious replied nodding toward a shelf with a mess of comic books lying on the ground. He knelt down on one knee and picked one up. He flipped it over and grimaced as he looked it over. It was a comic book, but it wasn't like anything that he had ever seen. Xander Harris Possessed. It read on the front. He could see a picture of some dark haired kid with glowing green eyes. "Great, this isn't the first possession the kids had." He grumbled as he picked up another. Xander finds love? It read on the top. It showed a hotty girl in some sort of Egyptian garb. Another showed a giant shadow of a bug like thing standing over him. "So in order to get this kid's head on straight we have to put his comic book collection of his life back together?" Harry asked looking annoyed at the thought.

"Yep better get to work, I'll keep an eye out for any possession echoes that might still be out there." The subconscious offered turning away.

"How come you couldn't be the one to put this kid's brain back together anyways?" Harry questioned from his spot in the middle of a crap load of comics.

"Because I'm your subconscious Dresden." The double returned. "You're the one that does pretty much all of the action and thinking. Besides, from what I've examined the kid is more like you than me."

"How is that though if you are me and I'm you or however it goes how can he be more like me than you?" Harry questioned curiously, as he tried to piece the collection together.

"The witty banter and sarcasm are too much like you." Was the stoic answer he got in return.

"Well at least he has good skill set then." Harry returned.

"Now if only he had some actual marketable skills to go with that tongue of his." The subconscious grumbled back.

Harry chose to ignore the complaint and focus on all of the comic books littering the ground. He began piecing the collection together and re-shelving each issue even as he added a bit of the wizard for hire series in with them as well. On a nearby TV screen, he could see a flickering image begin to appear. He grimaced slightly at the loud Hawaiian shirts and the bowling shirts the kid wore, but figured that a guy that dressed like he was an extra in El Dorado didn't really have the room to talk about fashion to someone even if they were a teenage guy. Although he was pretty sure that the slayer would be more interested in him if he followed some of the Harry Dresden fashion suggestions as opposed to the Magnum PI ones that he was using. He was pretty sure that the Slayer was one of the girls he had met.

He really hoped that this crazy plan worked. Of course even if it did, he would never know because of the way that the magic worked. Well not unless he got an inter-dimensional thank you note that is, and since he didn't know how to make one of those he kind of doubted that the kid was ever going to be able to pull that particular trick off. He also added all of the knowledge he had gained while training to be a private investigator and all of his experience with women. The kid would have a good way to know what not to do with beautiful women now. Like setting a date up forgetting about it, accidentally offering her a love potion and then teleporting her outside while the both of you were naked. As far as first dates go that one really could have gone better. Or maybe not to set someone up to kill you right before a date with a woman that was good with a gun and could kick your ass. Then there were rules about girls that tended to betray you no matter what you did.

---

Sarah looked around the room and could practically feel the organization that normally covered the room. Everything had its place it seemed. She noticed that a lot of things had been messed around, and that there was a sparking computer sitting on the table. The thing was obviously damaged, she just wasn't sure that she was actually capable of repairing the mass of wires and circuits. This was beyond anything that she actually knew how to do. If all of this girl's innermost secrets and personality were locked on the inside of the computer, then she doubted that there was anything that she could do to retrieve the personality. She hadn't exactly been the best of students when it came to science like this. Still, she could try. She began cleaning up the mess around the room. As she worked she noticed a pair of yellow crowns that had been placed in a place of reverence on the desk. She didn't see any other crayons though and returned them to their place alongside a Barbie doll with a broken head. It was as she was placing some items on the desk that she heard a sound. She saw that the computer was actually repairing itself as she cleaned. She understood while the things arrayed on the desk represented thing that were a part of her life the computer represented the combination of all of that energy and memories. The more she put all of this organized the more of the computer got put back together. With a relieved smile she began organizing the desk as quickly as she could. The computer blurred as it began to repair itself. Finally it was done. The image wasn't perfect as she could see spots on the computer where there were obvious cracks or pieces of plastic missing. Still, it was a lot better than what it had been before. She then concentrated and the books on magic that she he been shown by those that she believed to be her friends appeared on the table. Every bit of knowledge that she could think of was added to the books and was placed into the computer and she saw that pieces of siding were coming in and covering the spots that still needed covering in a patchwork of defenses. It wasn't the best of things to do, but she hoped that it was going to be enough. She had a feeling that they were just about out of time. She quickly wrote the oath that she had once sworn to unlock her powers to their full extent, she only hoped that Willow was capable of using the power responsibly, or else the power would turn around and control her. She had seen it happened, but there really wasn't much else that they could do for fear of changing the girl. On the plus side, they both appeared to be very similar in some ways. She did add some fashion tips to some of the memories though, as the girl obviously needed them if her momentary glance into the closet was anything to go by. Fuzzy pink sweaters and jumpers weren't something one did while in high school. Particularly if one was supposed to be something of a bad ass. Hopefully her fashion knowledge was compatible with this world and would help the girl.

---

Xena scowled a bit as she entered the room that was filled with all sorts of pink items and posters of various people in skin tight outfits while they were wearing bladed shoes of some sort. Next to this was sort of mural of a blonde girl set in a fighters pose even while she held some obviously non weapon like items. As she looked at the mural she noticed that there were other versions of the girl farther and closer at the same time. It was showing the girl in different phases of her life it seemed for some reason. This was hardly the room of a warrior, this was the room of some sort of noble or royal as far as she was concerned. There was no way that she was going to be able to actually do anything about this place. Tartarus, she would be lucky if she didn't actually make the entire thing worse. For this sort of job she needed Gabrielle, or maybe Aphrodite to figure this place out. She noticed a door off to the side and grinned in relief as she pulled it open and what she saw. There was a wall filled with all sorts of weapons some of which even she had never seen before. Along with weapons were scrolls and books filled with fighting styles. Thinking quickly, she pulled the doors open all the way. While she couldn't understand all of the princess stuff, this was something that she could. She quickly began organizing the weapons and bringing them into the room. The mural on the wall began changing unknown to Xena. As she worked a new image joined that of the blonde it was one of a strange primal looking woman with dreadlocks and war paint. DNA paused as she stood in the doorway it was at this moment that something leaped out of the closet and slammed into the Warrior Princess.

"She is Mine." The being growled savagely, as it slammed Xena into the wall. The unknown then pinned the tall woman to the wall.

Xena shook herself off before she jerked her head back slamming it into the head of her attacker forcing it back. Xena spun around to face her attacker. "You really don't want to start with me whoever or whatever you are." Xena warned the other being. "I don't know what you are, but if you push it I'll slice you in two."

"Mine." The being repeated in a raspy voice made harsh from disuse.

"And I'm not claiming her." Xena returned to her. "I have my own worries. I'm just making sure that she's ready for the fight to come." She assured the being. How the essence of a savage warrior came to be within the mind of this girl was confusing when one considered the fact that the girl was as far away from the warrior as could possibly be.

"Leave." The being commanded.

"When I'm done." Xena snapped back in annoyance, she then delivered a kick that caught the creature on the chin that snapped its head back. She followed that one up with a kick to the gut which sent it flying into a wall. "I don't know who, or even what you are, but I'm guessing that you're supposed to be here. So how about you sit there and be quiet until I'm done." She ordered the being.

The creature ignored the Grecian warrior's suggestion and lunged at her. The pair began fighting back and forth using everything that they knew to fight each other. Every skill Xena had picked up in her years as a warrior and a warlord came out as the pair went back and forth on each other. Neither one willing to admit surrender. As they fought the mural changed as Xena added more of herself to the mind scape.

"I really didn't want to try this, but here goes." Xena decided. "Aphrodite if you can hear me I need your help." She called out reluctantly. For a moment there was nothing and then rose petals fell and buxom blonde in a sheer outfit appeared between the pair.

"Xena." Aphrodite greeted cheerfully turning to face the armored woman.

"Aphrodite." Xena returned to the Goddess. "I wasn't sure that you would be able to hear me." She admitted.

"Are you kidding me?" Aphrodite questioned. "When you've got old Janus controlling whatever it is that you're doing in this world. Which between the two of us can I tell you that it's really out of focus. It's almost entirely devoted to insuring balance. For every good there is an equal bad, hardly the kind of place a person would want to hang out in for a long time."

"That's interesting Aphrodite," Xena returned to her, "but I have a few more important things to worry about like putting this mind back together."

The Goddess of Love frowned as she looked around. "Yeah you tried to make her like you and this thing came at you didn't she?" She asked knowingly, pointing to the warrior creature that Xena was fighting with. "Unfortunately I can't help you in this Xena. You've got to put her together yourself. Right or wrong, whatever the results are your responsibility."

"Are you really playing the responsibility card with me?" Xena demanded in disbelief.

"Yeah you bet your steel booties I am." Aphrodite acknowledged. "Changing people like this is something that only Gods should do. By interfering in Janus's work like you have there's not a whole lot that I can do."

"What does Janus have to do with any of this?" Xena questioned.

"Janus is the one supplying all the power for this little hoo-rah." Aphrodite explained apologetically. "As long as it's his power there's really not a lot I can do without starting a fight between us. You know the whole you're messing with my people thing, and right now he's actually a bit more powerful since the whole thing was set in his name giving him a lot of juice to call up on." She admitted with a scowl at the thought that the Minor Roman deity had more power here than her despite the fact that she was a Major Goddess of both the Roman and the Greek Pantheons. "If it was closer to Valentine's Day then I might be able to do it." She mused distractedly.

Xena nodded her head in understanding. Janus was making it impossible for her sometimes ally to do anything even if she wanted to. "Any suggestions then?" She cartwheeled away as the being tried to decapitate her.

"Honestly, considering everything I'm seeing I think that the best thing that you could do is think Gabrielle." Aphrodite admitted to her brother's favorite mortal. "Not that it means much what with the other personalities should be coming back to being in control once the spell ends." Xena merely stared in surprise at that bit of information. "Now as good as it is to see you I have to go. I found this boy who is just wonderful with his hands if you know what I mean." She said suggestively with a smile on her lips. "Good luck." She called as she waved at the woman and disappeared in a blast of sparkling hearts and flowers.

Xena shook her head before she began thinking of her friend and soon the room began to change while there were weapons placed around the room they were added in alongside of pictures and other memorabilia and knick nack's. She even closed the door to the inner darkness that the girl had. It was opened more than it had been before, but it was also nowhere near as much as it had been when Xena had first redecorated. Xena looked at the murals and grimaced a bit as she saw that the blonde was wearing what looked like her armor instead of the clothes from before. She held her hand out and the chakram appeared and she placed it on the wall near the bed for easy grasp. Several scrolls appeared next. Half of them were filled with her knowledge of amazon spiritual magic the other half was her knowledge that she had gathered while in the orient. The wall changed again and Xena smiled as she saw symbols of Amazon and Chin society arranged on the wall. She had done what she could, it was far from perfect considering all of the changes that she had done to the girl, but it was better than it could be. Hopefully after the snap back more of the core personality would overshadow any damage that she had done. As a last minute addition she placed her thoughts and memories of all of her campaigns against various people together and formed a new scroll. That along with her survival skills would hopefully be enough to help the girl in the upcoming fight.

---

The group all rose to their feet they could feel the barriers that they had set up weakening and breaking. "This has been a most interesting time." Gandalf told the group as he surveyed them all for one last time. "And I am sure that each of us has given these people whatever skills that we think that they may need. We must now trust them to do what is needed." He told them reassuringly.

"Yeah, yeah it's out of our control we get that." Harry returned to the older wizard in annoyance. "Just because we get it doesn't mean we have to like it though." He grumbled out as he adjusted his grip on the staff that he was carrying.

"I'm with him on this one." Xena agreed as she held her sword at the ready. "I found out that some of the old personalities should snap back into place after the spell is over though." She told the others with a grin. "So at least they won't be completely helpless. Well my host won't be at least. My contact even said that they might be slightly aware as well."

"So they might know everything we did to them that may or may not have messed them up even more than they already were then?" Harry asked somewhat shocked. "That's good news then right? Even if we didn't get everything exactly right we'll at least have that to think about."

"Yeah great." Xena agreed unenthusiastically not sure that she really wanted to consider what the real person in control of this body was going to think when her mind snapped back into place and she found so much new darkness in her. A darkness the girl didn't need when she was obviously fighting her own darkness.

"Well that's good then." Sarah said with relief as she realized that the girl was going to be alright despite the fact that she hadn't really known what she was doing. She only hoped that the knowledge that they had placed in their minds was of use to them in some way or other.

"Indeed it is." Gandalf agreed. "I would suggest you brace yourselves, for it would appear that we are about to be ejected." He noted pointing to where the shield was now glowing from the power being applied to it.

The group waited patiently as the shield cracked and then broke. Cordelia watched in morbid fascination as each of the group wobbled slightly as their faces returned to their own. This was either really bad or really good, and she wasn't sure which it was.

"Good Lord." Giles commented, as he fumbled with his glasses and began cleaning them off as he tried to wrap his head around everything that he had seen and done over the last few hours.

"Ditto." Xander agreed as he worked on getting his bearings.

"Uh huh." Willow called out. "Watch that first step, its something of a doozy." The redhead told the others as she fell to her knees.

"Yeah definitely." Buffy agreed, her sense of balance had not caused her to even misstep. The only reason Giles and Xander had even managed to stay upright was because of their staffs.

It only took a moment for the group to shake off their disorientation as they turned to face the dark magic users. "Think we'll be lucky, and whatever was giving us power is what effected the Mayor and his Goon Squad?" Xander asked somewhat hopefully as he stared at the broken remains of the shield that their costumed selves had managed to put together.

"I do believe that we're about to find out." Giles told the teens while nodding towards the crack.

The group of dark magic users was through and despite the spell being canceled they were still going strong. The group of demon hunters turned to face Mayor Richard Wilkins the I, II, and III and those that he brought along with him. The Source was accompanied by several of his demon soldiers while Cyrus Vail didn't even bother with soldiers as he stepped through the broken defense, last of all came Spike who smirked at the group of helpless victims. They had been drained of any magic knowledge and they didn't have any real weapons amongst them either. As long as they kept them away from any potential weapons he could finish them all off on his own.

"Well I hope you lot enjoyed yourselves." The vampire scolded the group. "Considering all of the trouble you went and made for the town tonight though I doubt that it was really worth it."

"All to right." Mayor Wilkins agreed as he strolled down the street while giving the group a reprimanding glare. "Do you kids have any idea on the amount of trouble that you went and caused tonight?" He demanded of them. That's not even taking into account the number of meetings that you disrupted either. Still, I suppose it's better that you did it now instead of next year. What with it being election year and all it would have made things rather difficult for me. As it stands I'll owe quite a number of favors for insuring that this problem was dealt with as quickly as it was."

"Wasn't exactly our idea you know." Buffy reminded the man with a scowl.

"A good point, but I'm sure that there is plenty of blame to go around for everyone to share." Mayor Wilkins returned to her. "No sense in everyone not taking their fair share."

"How do you figure that? We were the ones that were possessed, high jacked, body snatched, or however you say it." Xander returned to the man sarcastically. "I mean we were only along for the ride, it's not like we were capable of doing anything and it sure wasn't our idea to do any of that craziness." He pointed out to the man.

"I really wish I could believe you on that matter, however there are certain things about that which make it hard for me to believe." Mayor Wilkins returned to the defiant teen.

"Yeah, like what?"

"Well for starters, the person who caused all of these problems happens to be an old chum of Mr. Giles there." Wilkins explained to the group.

Buffy snorted in amusement at this. "Yeah right, as if Giles actually knows anybody capable of this. I mean seriously Giles is probably so straight laced that his diapers were tweed." The blonde crossed her arms, confident in her Watcher. "You want try another one?"

"Ethan." Giles grumbled causing the teens to become startled.

"Giles?" Buffy questioned in a somewhat surprised tone. "Is there something that you might want to tell us?"

"Ethan and I were associates back when we were younger." Giles admitted to the group. "This whole thing practically reeks of him."

"Indeed Mr. Giles, which is part of why we can't simply let you walk because of the things that you may know about tonight's events." Wilkins explained to the group.

"I could probably figure what he did relatively easily, but other than that I have my doubts onto the level aide I would be able to provide you with." Giles tried to explain to the politician before him. "As for information on Ethan, I'm afraid that any information that I might be able to give you will be quite antiquated as I haven't spoken with Ethan Rayne in a number of years." The Watcher informed the group.

"As you may have noticed Mr. Giles, I already have all the experts I could possibly need for this." Wilkins explained to the group as he waved at his companions.

"Yes I suppose that you do." Giles noted dryly. "It doesn't hurt that you are extremely well versed in the knowledge yourself either."

"That it doesn't." Mayor Wilkins agreed. "I do believe that it's time to put an end to this whole mess now though. If you try not to fight too much I'll try and make it as painless as possible. Consider it as a favor for all the work you've done to keep the Hellmouth stable for the last year and a half." He offered.

Spike snorted in amusement at that. "Like the Slayer and her people would really agree to something like that." He drawled back to the sorcerer. "They're all too bloody stubborn to go along with that kind of offer."

"Glad to see that at least Spike hasn't lost his understanding of the way that this is going to go down." Buffy told the group of mages. "Then again, he does have some idea as to just who we are."

"Yeah come on Slayer, let's dance." Spike offered holding his hands up as he got into position. "Maybe you learned a trick or two while being possessed by someone that actually looks the part of a Slayer somewhat. Not like you, ya cheer leading midget."

"Alright you are so going down for that." An annoyed Buffy returned as she began moving toward him. A grinning Spike waved his hands and four of the demons that had come with the Source turned and threw their energy balls at the approaching Slayer.

Without even thinking about it Buffy shot up into the air and over the attack.

"I thought that there might be some changes in ya." Spike told her with a smirk.

"That was all a test then wasn't it? Buffy asked him.

"That it was Slayer. In the past ya would have gone under that, maybe slid or even twisted in the air and gone through those things." Spike explained as he showed just how well he knew Buffy's fighting style. "But leaping over them without so much as a thought? Well the only reason that I can imagine for ya doing that is that you got a new play book in that bleached blonde head skull of yours."

"Like your one to talk about the use of color their hair peroxide for brains." Buffy returned to him as she cartwheeled out of the way of another volley of energy balls. She then drew a knife and threw it the blade spun in the air for a moment before impacting with one of the demons skewering its head. The demon exploded.

"Ooh my favorite, self-cleaning demons." Buffy chirped out happily as she turned to look at the other three demons and Spike. "No mess no fuss just kill and move on. Without the difficult to answer awkward questions that always come up." Despite the fact that the demons could throw some sort of street fighter like attacks she didn't doubt for a second that Spike was still the most dangerous member of the group. Besides with her memories she was pretty sure that she could dodge most of the attacks anyways. She did need to get her hands onto a weapon though. The sooner she took them out the happier she would be.

Wilkins smirked as he saw that the Slayer was now to busy battling Spike and the other out of towners to come to the aide of her companions when he and his allies decided to launch their own attacks. "Well I suppose that we should go about and finish this then?" He asked the others who merely nodded their heads in agreement with the younger magic user. Each of them raised their hands and built up their own individual spells to launch at the three figures. The Source held an energy ball, Mayor Wilkins a bolt of lighting and Vail began forming a ball of fire in his hand.

"As agents of Balance, I am sure that you understand why we must do this, we cannot chance that you would involve higher powers and beings in this world so we must deal with you now before your connection causes a disruption in the Order that this reality has."

"You know, no one's ever accused me of being an agent of balance or anything like that before." Xander interrupted the man. "I've been called twisted and unbalanced, but never an agent of balance."

"Got to agree with you on that one." Willow nodded while she looked thoughtful as she tried to recall anytime that she might have heard her friend referenced as that, but was pretty sure that she had never heard him defined in that particular way to her recollection.

"Enough of this." Vail commanded as he held his hand out and fired the bolt of fire at Giles. The others quickly fired their own attacks before the demon sorcerer could finish off their own buildups of power.

Xander smirked as he raised his staff up. "Fulminos!" He shouted out, and the lighting attack of Mayor Wilkins was drawn toward the tip of the staff. Xander gritted his teeth as he felt the lighting course through his body. He raised his hand and fired the lighting bolt back at Mayor Wilkins.

Wilkins was shocked as he saw the blast that he had created to destroy the boy was not only absorbed, but it was also redirected back at him. The sorcerer could only stand and stare in surprise at this sudden turn of events as he realized just what this meant. The blast slammed into him and sent him flying across the street.

Xander panted tiredly, that trick had pretty much wiped most of his reserves out. Hells Bells, he wasn't sure if he tried to do anything other than stand on this spot while leaning on his staff like an old man that he wouldn't fall down. God he really didn't want to have to try and do that again. He needed food and sleep before he tried that sort of thing again.

---

"Come Watcher, one such as you should know that we cannot allow you to continue being." Vail informed Giles as the pair stared at each other. "You signify too much of a change to the order of this reality. Not even your precious Council will allow you to remain as you now are there are simply too many dangers in allowing such power to go around unchecked and that is nothing compared to the danger of the new higher beings that your presence would attract and having them interfering with the workings of our world." The demon then shot fire at his opponent.

'From a logical point of view your argument actually has certain merits to it." Giles admitted to the demon as he held his staff up in the air causing the flames to splash harmlessly around him. "However, I find myself unwilling to simply allow you to take my life or those of the others. I do believe that I will simply end you instead."

"Many before you have tried that young Watcher." Vail laughed back at the man. "Those that did so rarely used borrowed knowledge and power that was not of this world though. I am still here though while those that have challenged my might have gone on to death. I shall show you what happens to those that would dare to face me."

"I see that you cannot be reasoned to walk away then." Giles returned to him. "The advantage is no longer yours." He informed the warlock. "If you make me tap into my full power you will not like the results."

---

Willow swallowed nervously as she conjured a wind and sent it towards The Source and the spell he was launching at her. The winds knocked the attack away from her and struck the Source. Using the element of surprise that she had for the moment she called up a lightning bolt from the skies causing it to hit the cloaked figure. The demon hissed out in anger that this girl had somehow managed to score a hit against it.

'Why do you continue child? You know as well as I do that you stand no chance against me. So why do bother facing off against one as myself. Do you have any idea just whom it is that I am?" The Source demanded of the girl in annoyance.

"You mean other than a mean demon with even worse fashion sense than I have?" Willow questions nervously.

"And let me tell you, that's saying something." Cordelia spoke from where she was cowering within the confines of the circle that Harry had set up. "I mean sure the outfit she's wearing now is kind of fashionable in the whole gothic school girl way, but its really not her style. Then again its better than the JC Penny's catalog ordered things that her mom usually gets for her."

"Ah Cordelia, now might not be the best of times to insult the demon considering that the person that cast the shield spell is no longer possessing Xander and Xander's kind of busy right now." Willow told the cheerleader in a catsuit.

"Oh yeah." Cordelia agreed looking suddenly worried. "I don't suppose that you'd be willing to forget I just said all that stuff?" She asked the demon as sweetly as she could.

"I will deal with you later girl." The Source promised the brunette girl. It then returned its attention to Willow. "You know, you do not have to fight me young one. Once a witch's power awaken they have 48 hours to choose whether or not they will serve the light or the dark. Choose my side and I can give you the world. Join with me and I can show you power like you have never seen or heard of." He tempted her.

"I think I heard this speech before." Willow told the demon weakly, as she tried to think of what else she might be able to do.

"Let me show you, just what I offer." It suggested as a blast destroyed the shield around the cheerleader. It then waved its hand and Cordelia shrunk and reformed into that of a kitten. "She is less offensive this way." It noted to the scared redhead who had seen the demon change her tormentor with just a wave of his hand. "Or perhaps you have other thoughts for her." It suggested as the kitten returned to human form. At least that's what Willow had thought at first until she noticed that her nemesis had been changed into a cat girl. Complete with a ribbon collar. She shifted again and returned to her human form. A shivering Cordelia whimpered as she backed away from the powerful demon. "So what do you think "Willow Danielle Rosenburg? Will you join me?" The Source questioned as it offered her its hand. "You can even bring the Slayer and your companion along with you." It offered waving towards where Buffy and Xander were fighting their enemies.

"No," Willow shook her head defiantly "I'm not going to be a poopy headed bad guy." She declared crossing her arms in determination.

"Then your death is assured young one." It promised the redhead. Neither of them seemed to even pay attention as Cordy ran away from the battle. "I will deal with the mouthy one later." The Source promised as it remained focused on Willow.

---

Buffy ignored the others as she focused on her opponents. She had managed to kill the one demon with her throwing knife trick another into being killed in crossfire that left her with these two and Spike. The vampire was sitting back and watching as she was forced to keep moving by the demons. The vampire was also heckling them all though, giving the demons ideas while critiquing her technique. In the past Buffy would have laughed it off but after whatever Xena had done to her she wasn't as willing to ignore the vampire. The energy balls came flying at her and this time Buffy wasn't ready for them. She only had one chance to survive this. She held her hands out and redirected the blasts using the teachings of Loa Ma. The energy balls returned to the shocked demons and they suddenly found themselves blasted away from the slayer and turned to ashes by their own attacks.

Buffy stared at her hand in surprise, amazed that she had actually managed to pull that particular stunt off. She was pretty sure that she was going to die, instead she had not only survived, but she had managed to kill her enemy with their own attack.

"That's an interesting new trick you got there Slayer, and if it weren't for all of the new acrobatics and fighting skills you added I might be tempted to finish you off. As it is, it looks like you got friends to save." Spike nodded towards where Willow was facing off with the Source and despite the impressive display she was giving it was also obvious that she was losing to the much more experienced demon lord.

"We'll have to finish this one later." She told the master vampire.

"That we will Slayer, that we will." Spike promised with a smirk as the pair back away from each other.

"Here's a little something to remember me by." Buffy told him as she met eyes with the vampire. The vampire gasped in pain as he relived getting hit in the back of the head with a fire ax. The vampire stumbled at that rising up ready to repay the sucker punch or whatever that had been only to see that the Slayer was already moving away from him. Spike scowled even as he began looking for a good escape route while Buffy headed for the battle that was going on between Willow and The Source.

As a nasty looking spell headed toward the redhead she was about to call out a warning only for her friend to launch an attack from another direction. She watched as the illusion of her friend faded and a huffing Willow appeared off to the side. Willow might have fooled it, but she was still barely managing to stay alive.

"That's enough," The Slayer ordered, "or you'll be taking on both of us at once." She warned the demon.

The Source stopped and looked at the new arrival unimpressed. Still there was no reason to antagonize the girl either. This girl who had beaten both Lothos and the Master despite her lack of official training or skills. Someone who had managed to carry the mantle of Slayer on the Hellmouth for more than six months was not one to underestimate. "A battle with you is not worth the time it will take to beat you. I agreed to help out as a favor to be repaid. A favor I shall not receive if you somehow get lucky. Something that you are very good at Slayer." It admitted to her as it seemed to weigh its options on whether the blonde was actually worth fighting.

Buffy nodded and understood. He was backing off for now, but only because there was no reward for taking her out. If he thought that there was something worth it in taking her down he would. The fact that she was a Slayer didn't even matter to it. Like a Slayer was beneath whatever the heck it was that The Source was. Which was really kind of scary when you considered the fact she was supposed to be the thing that scared demons. Fire erupted around the demon and it disappeared.

"Okay that was all sorts of fun that wasn't, can I go to sleep now?" Willow pleaded with her friend. The redhead was not used to being on the frontlines of the various fights as she usually stuck to the edges offering support or she was safe in the library offering tech support.

"Wait here." Buffy ordered, turning to look at where the mayor was. It seemed that the mayor had managed to climb back to his feet and was using Xander as a punching bag. The man had obviously decided that magic was no longer the answer and was now just beating on Xander. Her friend who had been weakened by all of the magic that he had cast that night couldn't do anything except take the beating.

Xander groaned as he fell to his knees his staff lying just out of his reach where it couldn't help him. He grunted as he felt Mayor bring his foot up and catch him in the ribs. If he hadn't been getting kicked and beaten on he would have acknowledged that he was getting one of the most severe ass kickings in his life for the least amount of effort. Considering he was a master on being on the receiving end of getting his butt kicked that was saying something. Vampires had actually caused less damage to the young boy, and it was all internal damage so it wouldn't even show up. So unless Xander got an X-ray and a handful of other tests done no one would be able to even see the damage. It seemed as if he had gained Harry's luck when it came to fighting. When you added that to the Harris luck he was really screwed.

"Now if you had simply just stayed out of all of this monster fighting business then all of this wouldn't have happened." Mayor Wilkins explained rather calmly as he raised his fist to give the boy a concussion. He was debating over how severe of one he should give the boy when someone grabbed his arm and squeezed on the limb with super human strength. He spun around and delivered a blow that should have caught the girl. Had she been reacting as she normally did the strike would have caught her, instead the hit not only missed but it was used as leverage to toss him to the side.

"That wasn't a bad counter." The Slayer complimented the man.

"Well you didn't think that I worked my way up on the Hellmouth with just my mystical power and political know how now did you?" Mayor Wilkins demanded of the girl with a smile. "I had to figure a number of things out in order for me to rise to the top. I had to become skilled in magic, fighting, financing, and politics just to name a few of the things that are required of me to stay on top here." He pointed out to the girl.

"So don't need to hear the speech that you give to the demon voters." Buffy returned to him. "For one, I'm underage still, so not really with the caring on all of that." She admitted to the sorcerer.

"But your birthday is this year making it so that you should care." Wilkins returned to her sagely. "That's one of the problems with the youth of today, they're not interested in the bigger picture." He lamented. "The process of voting and electing leaders is important. It's also important that all parts of our community are heard from. Like the supernatural community that you represent for example." He explained to the girl. "Do you think it's easy hiding all of things that some of the beings do without some official help? How many times have we looked the other way when you were in places you shouldn't be or carrying weapons around town? It's the duty of people like me to insure you get ignored. Without me in office the entire supernatural community would suffer."

"That's really how you win isn't it? You flood the area with voters that your rivals haven't spoken to or do you simply have your vampire minions turn a lot of people the week of elections and then make them vote for you since their all vampirey." Buffy questioned curiously.

"You're much more observant than you allow people to believe. You might have actually had a career in politics if you hadn't become the Slayer." Wilkins told her. "You would have made a great analyst or even a lobbyist."

"Thanks, but it's time to back off now." Buffy told him. "The spell has ended and we still have a connection to our mystical powers now. If this continues it's likely to cause an even bigger scene than it already has."

Wilkins looked around and saw that an angry looking Vail was backing away. The two on one odds obviously not one that he wanted to tempt. Of the Source he saw nothing and figured that the demon lord must have lost interest in the fight or been called off. Spike was either dust or had fled. Knowing the vampire, it was likely that he had fled so that he could regroup and come at the Slayer again. To live through this he was going to have to follow the vampire's example. "It would appear that victory is yours." He finally decreed as he began adjusting his clothes. "For the moment we have a cease fire that should allow each of us to return to our respective homes. We'll have to decide on a more lasting peace later."

"Right." Buffy returned, not believing that the man would allow for a peace between them to last very long. He had tried to wipe out the threat that they represented and had failed. Now he would have to deal at least temporarily with the fact that there were good magic users on the Hellmouth. For the time being it seemed that the game had changed.

"Until we meet again Miss Summers." Mayor Wilkins informed the group before walking away from them and towards the limo.

"What the hell just happened, and since when can any of you losers do things like that?" Cordelia demanded of the group as she crept out from behind the safety of a car and watched them gather together.

"Cordelia, while I'm somewhat glad we saved you from getting yourself killed from your own stupidity once again. Could you please just shut up?" Giles requested tiredly, as he looked at the girl. "It has been an extremely long night, and I for one would like to get to bed." The others nodded their heads in agreement with that thought.

"But who's going to pay for my deposit?" A flabbergasted Cordelia asked unused to having all of them ignore her. Buffy and Giles ignored her all the time, but Xander and Willow were both too scared to ignore her. This was not the way things were supposed to work out, and it was their fault that this had happened anyways so it was their job to fix it.

---

An angry Spike stormed into the lair. He noticed a TV was on showing the Slayer fighting. His various minions watching as they tried to learn the moves of the Slayer. "Turn that ruddy thing off." He ordered them.

"Eh, but why Spike? I thought you wanted us to know how the Slayer fought?" One of the vampires questioned in confusion.

Spike who had been picking up a bottle snarled and threw the bottle at the TV shattering the screen. "When I tell ya to do something I usually mean it." The vampire growled. The other vampires nodded their heads in acceptance of this, none of them wanting to anger the Master Vampire any more than he already obviously was. They figured they were lucky he hadn't killed any of them yet as it was with the foul mood he was apparently in. Spike fell into his chair to think of just what he was going to do now.

---

The next day the group gathered back together to discuss all that had happened to them in the last few hours. "So I take it that we all still have our new found abilities then?" Giles questioned as he looked the group over curiously.

"Yeah." Buffy agreed as she held her hand out and summoned the tea cup from in front of the Watcher. "I also seem to have greater control than Xena did though."

"Well that's probably your personalities." Xander told her. "Xena had so much anger in her that she couldn't focus on the type of power very well. When she let her inner peace out she was extremely powerful, but finding that balance inside of her was hard for her to do."

"Indeed." Giles agreed. "One of your more impressive abilities Buffy, is your ability to accept yourself and your inner calm. From time to time you have times when you simply can't take it anymore, but for the most part you have a type of inner peace that few fighters manage to maintain. This Xena was ruled as much by her darkness as her sense of right and wrong."

"Yes, I imagine that your right." A voice agreed.

The others all turned to look at Xander as he withdrew the skull from his backpack. "Sorry, I wasn't sure he was still in there I thought I was going to have to leave him in the girls locker room before he would actually respond to anything that I tried. I guess he enjoys showing off how smart he is too much to not say anything though." He explained, as he set the skull down on the table.

"I am a spirit of knowledge boy, and as such I would think that you would know to treat me with respect." Bob returned to him his candlelight like eyes flashing at the boy as the skull twisted around to glare at the boy. "Not that placing me in the lockers wouldn't be nice." It added in quickly.

"Well having the aide of such an able mind may prove useful." Giles told them, stopping the spirit and Xander from continuing with their discussion.

"See, he at least acknowledges that I'm useful kid." Bob snarked back at Xander. The boy glared back in response, not trusting in himself not to say anything else at the moment.

"So what happens now?" Willow asked.

"The rules change." The others all replied knowingly.