Several minutes later, Xander leaned back in his chair, wincing slightly, until his face returned into the smirk he'd had on his face for a while now. Looking over at Harmony, the young man's grin only grew wider at seeing his girlfriend proudly holding out her hand as the other two girls cooed over her engagement ring.

Standing side-by-side in front of Harmony's chair, their heads together as both Buffy and Willow intently studied the ring, it was the redhead girl whose engrossed face changed to sudden worry, as she voiced her misgivings, "Uh, Harmony, that ring is really eye-catching--"

"That's the point, Wils!" interrupted Buffy, trying to suppress a flicker of jealously over what Harmony had on her hand.

"Yeah, but it might get too much attention. People are going to wonder about two teenagers getting engaged, and also how Xander could possibly afford that big a diamond -- or even if it's real--"

Now it was Xander's turn to interrupt, "It's real, Willow. I can show you the receipt, if you want."

A thumping sound drew the four teenagers' attention from their discussion, as they all looked at where Giles was sitting at the library table. For the last five minutes, the Englishman had borne a bleak expression on his face as he'd gone through the journals thoroughly detailing how the Mayor had blackmailed the Council -- names, dates, amounts, instructions -- until Giles had finally slammed shut the records in complete disgust, pulled off his glasses, and started moodily polishing them.

Catching sight of the quartet staring at him, Giles blinked, and evidently ran through their conversation of a few moments ago in his mind. Seemingly glad of something to possibly dispel his sour mood, at least provisionally, the librarian replaced his glasses, and cleared his throat. "Er, Xander, I'm a little surprised about how a teenager acquired so easily such a valuable object in the first place. Weren't there any reservations or suspicions at the jewelers' shop?"

As the girls' attention switched back to Xander at this question, the other male Scooby just shrugged. "Hey, it was Los Angeles, Giles. As long as the bill got paid, nobody would've batted an eye if I handed over the credit card while dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. Actually, I bet if I'd done that, the entire shop would've waved goodbye when I left with the ring, and broken out in a musical number of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend'."

Xander proudly savored both the three girls' giggles and Giles rolling upward his eyes at the young man's punch line. The teenager mentally awarded himself a record high score at the Englishman's caustic, "Indeed."

There was a pause for a few moments while the librarian eyed what sparkled on Harmony's ring finger, before the man thoughtfully said, "I'm sure there are spells that can be used to disguise that. Perhaps a minor glamour--" Giles actually jerked back in his seat, swallowing his words at the simultaneous furious glares sent his way by all three girls.

Buffy grabbed Harmony's wrist, and while waving the girl's hand with its ornament in Giles' direction, the Slayer snarled, "NEVER call this minor, you….you….man!"

"Uh, Buffy--"

"Oh, sorry!" Buffy hastily let go of Harmony's arm, and then the smaller blonde shot a dirty look at Xander, who was laughing at the top of his lungs. At least, until the young man suddenly clutched his sides and grimaced with pain. Both Buffy and Willow now stared in worry at the seated teenager who cautiously rubbed his ribs, before looking over at an equally-worried Harmony with a reassuring smile.

Willow perplexedly said, "Xander, you didn't say anything about getting hurt while you were the Batman--"

For some reason, that exact remark caused Harmony to utter a choked snort and promptly clap her hands to her face, covering her mouth with her fingers, as she rocked in her seat while barely containing sounds of, to the others' disbelief, what could be nothing but screaming laughter.

As his girlfriend seemingly lost her mind at his side, the trio of bewildered Scoobies watched Xander Harris develop, from his collarbones to the tips of his reddened ears, the most impressive blush they'd ever seen. The young man's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, as they all watched him trying to put words together to say something, anything. Finally, a loud statement was issued with total conviction:

"IT'S ALL ETHAN'S FAULT!"

As the other two girls and the older man tried to comprehend this, Harmony straightened up from leaning forward in her seat, ending the shaking of her shoulders, and taking her hands away from her mouth to wipe tears of mirth from her eyes, as she turned to a beet-red boyfriend to giggle, "He couldn't have possibly known!"

All of the watchers now shifted their attention back to a glowering Xander answering Harmony, "I still think it was some form of delayed payback, for what Bruce did to him!"

Harmony looked exasperated at having to continue what was clearly an old argument, "And the same thing's against that -- he wouldn't have done anything that might bring him back!"

Giles was the first to understand, as shown by his paling face and a horrified, "Dear Lord…."

This finally directed the two engaged people's attention to their audience. Xander looked around at all those staring at his girlfriend and himself, and at once looked sheepish and guilty. Harmony, on the other hand, now had an expression appear on her face of total mischief.

The tall blonde, who on Halloween night had dressed up as the last daughter of Krypton, leaned over towards Xander, to place her right hand palm up under the bottom of his chair, and in one smooth, effortless motion, she lifted this piece of furniture containing her boyfriend, to hold it casually directly over her head, neatly balancing over a hundred and eighty pounds of dead weight on the palm of her hand.

Keeping their gazes fixed on all of this, including Harmony smiling at them, Buffy and Willow now both slowly backed up until they bumped into the library table, and then they followed the edge of the table to their seats by Giles, to fall into these chairs, still with dumbfounded expressions identical to Giles' own.

Throughout it, Harmony kept her impish glee on her face, while above her, Xander had quite a different expression on his features, that of absolute apprehension. Through stiff lips, the young man managed to force out the words, "Uh, Harm, you can put me down now…."

Looking up to see Xander staring straight ahead, Harmony also spotted how hard his fingers were gripping the sides of his chair, putting an evil idea in her head that she promptly carried out, as she happily said, "That's okay, Xander, I could do this all day." Right after that, Harmony did a quick push with her hand, causing the chair to bounce up a few inches and then landing back on her palm to once again become rock steady in her unforced action in holding it high, with all this producing a panicked yelp from Xander.

"H-Harmony!"

As the girl smirked upwards at Xander's now-whitened fingers hanging on like grim death, a very meek voice asked, "Are…are you Supergirl?"

Glancing over at Willow's awed expression, Harmony's own face changed to sadness, as she answered with quiet melancholy, "No, Willow, she's gone. I'm no more Kara than Xander is Bruce."

A voice much higher, both in altitude and pitch, joined in, "Yeah, about that…. Iza saraba, yukimi ni korobu, tokoromade!"

Harmony looked blankly up at where Xander had just spoken in perfect Japanese. "What WAS that?" she asked.

"A Basho haiku. 'Now then, let's go out, to enjoy the snow….until I slip and fall!' Put me down, already!"

The young woman easily bearing the weight of her seated boyfriend huffed, "Batman swung around Gotham City hundreds of feet in the air on a rope!"

Xander tightly pointed out, "You're talking about a guy who's so obsessed with the bat symbol that you have to wonder about the shape of the toilet seat in the Bat-John!"

Rolling her eyes, Harmony finally lowered Xander's chair back to the library floor. As she brought her hand away to straighten up, the girl smirked right into Xander's scowl, until her attention was caught by something else to make her smile even wider. Her boyfriend followed Harmony's gaze, and his look of irritation now changed into a reluctant grin at the identical open mouths of Buffy, Willow, and Giles.

"Boy, what I wouldn't give for a spitball right now."

That brought the other three members of the Scooby Gang back to something resembling rationality. Nobody but Xander Harris would say anything like that at this specific moment.

Giles closed his eyes, and asked a simple question.

"What happened?"

Xander and Harmony glanced at each other, looked back at the others, and simultaneously shrugged. It was Xander who spoke first.

"Best guess, Giles, there was a magical backlash from destroying the Janus statue. We found over the weekend that nobody else was permanently affected by changing into their costumes -- or even remembering it, thanks to good ol' Sunnydale Syndrome. You guys weren't affected by it, either?"

The last question had been directed at the two girls seated by Giles, who both shook their heads. Buffy confirmed, "All the memories are vanishing, just like that, and I can't wait for them all to go!" She glared into the distance as if regretting the impossibility of giving the long-dead girl who'd taken over her body on Halloween a good thumping.

Willow looked at Buffy out of the corner of her eye, to then wryly say, "It's the same with my ghosthood. I spent the first day after Halloween bumping into walls until I finally decided I wasn't able to walk through them any more." The redhead smiled at Xander's grin produced by him picturing this. Her amusement vanished at Giles' serious voice.

"But…you kept your….abilities. Powers." The Englishman held a steady gaze on the two teenagers seated before him, the blonde and the brunette, who looked back equally calmly. But then, they'd had an entire weekend to discuss it between themselves, as confirmed by Harmony's next words.

"Giles, we think that it had to do with us being in the same room, with our costumes filled with Chaos magic and our heads filled with our, uh, visitors, when the statue broke. If, say, we hadn't been there and someone else had broken it, who wasn't wearing one of Ethan's costumes, we probably would've just changed back like everyone else."

The librarian slowly nodded, his thoughts busy as he went through in his mind his years of studying magic, finally admitting, "That seems logical…. Wait a second. If everything changed back, wouldn't whatever this….Batman gave Ethan also change back, or wear off? Couldn't we….talk to him, to see if he can shed any answers about this?" Giles' face had a half-eager, half-hesitant expression as he contemplated meeting his once-friend again.

"I don't think so," said Willow thoughtfully, her intelligent face preoccupied with a new puzzle. "If someone's costume changed to produce a hammer, say, and if Ethan had been hit hard with that hammer before it changed back, he'd still have the bruise caused by that hammer. I bet the drug Batman gave him is gone, but its effects are still ongoing." The redhead looked around at the others, who accepted this, except for one person who hadn't been paying all that much attention.

Instead, Buffy Summers had been eyeing Harmony Kendall, with the shorter blonde girl finally asking the question most on her mind.

"So, if you're not Supergirl, then what are you? I could do what you did to Xander here, but no normal human could." Buffy hesitated, to sheepishly go on, "If it helps any, I can't read you as any kind of demon." She then shot a suspicious stare at Xander. "You, on the other hand…. Since when do you know any more Japanese than sushi, sumo, and Godzilla?"

Xander guffawed, and then his face became serious. "The most important word about that question was 'know,' Buffy. See, the effects of that Chaos spell match its name: unpredictability, disorder, confusion. But first and most important, we're NOT Bruce Wayne and Kara Zor-El. We had enough time together over the weekend to find a lot of what we're now, after the spell. Let's start with me."

Harmony placed an arm around Xander's shoulders, producing a quick smile from him to her, as the young man turned to the three others at the library table, and began explaining. "I basically got what Bruce knew. Not his specific, personal memories, which is just as well -- I really don't want to remember seeing his parents murdered. No, it's mostly what he learned. For one, if I want, I could be the world's best escape artist and martial arts master, IF I want to do the training. That's a big drawback in everything I got from him. I know a lot, but I don't have any practical experience, which is necessary for a lot of it. For instance, Giles, I now basically have a medical degree and a surgeon's skills, but would that make you happy if I had to remove your appendix?"

Buffy and Willow had to suppress snickers at the librarian's acerbic comment of, "I believe I shall pass on that, Xander." Giles looked thoughtful then, going on to ask, "Is that how you acquired your new language skills?"

"Uh-huh. Not just Japanese, but a lot of others -- French, German, Spanish, Arabic. Some old ones, too -- Greek, Latin. I don't just speak them, Giles, I can read them, too. No demon languages, though. Bruce never knew any, so I don't either, except for what I learned here." Xander stopped, to glance around at the library they were in, and continued, "Oh, there was one other, though I'm not sure how much I'm going to use it. Right now, I can speak perfect Kryptonian."

Willow's eyes brightened in a research-geek reflex. "Do you know anything else that Bruce -- Batman -- did? I remember from the comics you and Jesse shared with me that he spent years traveling around the world, learning everything he could."

"Oh, a LOT of it. Criminology, science, engineering, chemistry, computers, disguises, tracking, tactics…." Xander's voice trailed off at the looks of awe he was now receiving from his friends. He had to remind them, "Guys, I've never actually done all of what I know now, and it's not a good idea to rush out and really do them for the first time. Skydiving, for instance. Also, a lot of Batman's knowledge just doesn't apply here or is completely useless. For one, I have absolutely no use for knowing the best crime patrol routes through Gotham."

"You'd be a really big draw at the San Diego Comic-Con, Xander," muttered Willow, smirking at her friend's exasperated look and the others' puzzled expressions.

"Wait," said a confused Buffy. "Do you have Batman's stuff or Bruce Wayne's? It sounds like both, to me."

"Despite what's in the comics, he's really one person," Xander told Buffy. "But I do have stuff that only matters to Bruce. Like, I can now tie a perfect Windsor knot, and I know how to use the oyster fork at a banquet. Not that I really want to. Oysters….yuch." After the Scooby Gang member grimaced at the last, he briskly went on, "More important, I've got in my head an MBA from Harvard Business School, as needed by someone who's running a multi-billion dollar corporation. That's why I wasn't bothered by the price of Harm's ring -- I'll get it all back soon enough anyway. There's this stock I've got my eye on, a funny name of eBay.…"

He was interrupted by Harmony giving him an affectionate peck on his cheek. Smiling, Xander watched as his girlfriend took off her arm around him, to place both of these neatly on her upper legs, palms over her knees, as she shook herself once, and eagerly looked at the trio watching her and Xander. "Now, it's MY turn!" giggled Harmony.

"Yeah," agreed Xander. "Go ahead."

"Well, guys, as you noticed, I've got Supergirl's powers. Just not the full ones, though, or even all of them. We don't know why. It could be due to the Chaos magic, maybe that they won't completely work in this dimension, or even because I'm human instead of a Kryptonian."

Xander nodded, interjecting, "There's also something about them that isn't in the comics, kind of. They're variable, changing in their levels depending on how long she's in sunlight."

Harmony firmly said to her boyfriend, "I'm talking, Xander!" She started ticking off items on her fingers. "Strength: about half yours, Buffy, just before sunrise, to about twice as strong as you after all day in the sun. Speed and endurance: about the same changing levels. Invulnerability: nothing like the comics. Xander couldn't cut me with a knife, but I was able to give myself a small cut, though the knife shattered when I did it. Healing: faster than what I had before Halloween, maybe a little slower than yours, Buffy. It wasn't superhealing, the cut didn't close right away."

Xander looked unhappy at this last memory. He glanced with concern at Harmony, and said firmly, "You better not get shot, missy! It's Wonder Woman, not you, that plays bullets and bracelets!"

The blonde girl sighed, but still bore a small smile when it was Xander's turn to lean over to kiss her cheek. Her face turned to real sadness as her boyfriend pulled back, and she whispered, "There's also something that's completely gone. I tried, and tried, but I can't fly!" At these words, Xander put both arms around her to hug hard his woebegone girlfriend.

Watching the pair giving each other comfort allowed the trio seated before them to come out of their daze over what they'd learned. Oddly, it was Buffy who came out with some comics knowledge, sympathetically saying, "Hey, at least you don't have to worry about kryptonite, Harmony!"

"Yeah," sniffed the other blonde girl. "Thanks, Buffy. Uh, I do have to be careful around magic, though. Since Kara was both brought here and sent back by the Chaos spell, it's clear I can be affected by it."

"Er….you may be right," managed Giles, as he thought this over.

Now it was time for Willow to enter the discussion. Her eyes were half-closed as she reviewed all she could remember about Kryptonian abilities from the comics. Now, they opened wide, as the redhead realized something, to ask, "Harmony, do you have any, ah, super senses?"

Xander snickered. "Well, she doesn't have super-ventriloquism. Not that I ever figured out how it was done in the comics, or even if it was actually a sense--"

The young man was stopped by a now-smiling Harmony's hand being clapped over his mouth. The girl now looked fixedly at something at the left of her audience. Willow, Buffy, and Giles all followed Harmony's gaze to see that she was staring right at….a wastebasket?

It was a simple metal container on the floor next to Giles' desk, now filled to the brim with paper as usual, since for some reason, no school custodian would come anywhere near the library. A grumbling Englishman, sooner or later, had to physically carry anything that needed to be disposed of out of the library into a corridor trash can. Knowing this, all three people looked with puzzlement back at Harmony, to see something that completely staggered them.

The eyes of the girl with a musical name glowed red, and then beams of pure red light shot forth from these orbs in a perfectly straight line directly at the wastebasket, lasting just a moment. Right after that, the papers at the top of the wastebasket burst into flame.

Xander observed all this, a very delighted expression on his face as he now watched how his friends' heads wildly turned back and forth at Harmony and then to the wastebasket merrily blazing away. Just a fraction of a second before Giles would have shot to his feet and gone about frantically getting his hands on the room's fire extinguisher, Harmony pursed her lips, aiming these directly at the burning wastebasket. There was a soft 'puff' noise, and Giles, Buffy and Willow all disbelievingly witnessed the fire in the wastebasket instantaneously extinguish. Even more incredible, the wastebasket itself, whose metal sides must have been scorching hot just a second ago, was now coated with rime, this glittering along the edges and sides of the container.

"Heat vision and freezing breath," casually commented Harmony. She hastily added, seeing how the others' faces showed their brains were about to pop, "Nothing like Kara's level, though. The distance to that wastebasket is how far I can use both, and they're nothing like her power. I can burn through a wood log a couple of inches thick, and turn a filled ice-cube tray solid, both a distance a few feet from my face."

"Can you imagine how surprised an up-close vamp would be, getting either right in their mugs?" gleefully said Xander, a somewhat bloodthirsty snicker coming from him after saying that.

Rolling her eyes at the young man's vindictive comment, Harmony now looked at Buffy, Willow, and Giles, all who flinched at being under her gaze. Exasperated, the girl said, "It works only when I want it to! You don't have any problems shaking hands with Buffy, who can crush bricks in her grip!"

Sighing, Giles said for the others, "We….apologize. However, it's all a bit too much to take all at once. Ah….that's all of it? No more surprises, astonishments, revelations?" The librarian's voice was actually pleading.

Harmony actually had to think this over, before nodding, "Well, there's one more thing…." She stopped short, her lips quirking as the others groaned. "No, wait! It's not all that important, but it just makes sense, and uh, it might be useful…. It's this. I can speak Kryptonian, too."

The trio blinked at her, and then they looked at Xander, who confirmed this, "Yeah. Which kinda brings up some interesting tactics, between two people who speak a language nobody else in the world knows."

"Two people? Or more?" Now it was Giles whose face showed interest.

Xander had to actually think this over. "You're right. It wouldn't be all that hard to teach it to you. Or, maybe Buffy and Willow, too."

The Slayer pulled a face as she glanced over at the excited faces of Giles and Willow. More homework, she mentally muttered, as she got up out of her seat, being followed by the others as it was clear the conversation was over. Buffy's gloomy thoughts were interrupted by Xander's muffled groan as he stood up. She frowned at him. "Hey, Xander, you never did tell us how you got hurt on Halloween."

Both the young man and the young woman standing across from her whooped with laughter at the same time, and had identical grins on their faces as they looked at each other, before turning to face their baffled audience. "Can I, Harmony, please?" pleaded Xander.

"Oh, all right, as long as you don't get into the actual details," sighed Harmony, though her face was smug.

"Oookay! First, Wils, do you remember a couple of years ago, when you came across Jesse and me snickering over a science-fiction book we had and demanded to know what we were reading?" At seeing Willow's uncomprehending face, Xander added, "The author was Larry Niven."

As the redhead's eyebrows lowered in concentration, Buffy and Giles watched her, until Willow suddenly had a shaken expression appear on her features, as she clearly remembered. It only increased the other two's mystification as Willow now stared at Harmony, and then Xander, and back to Harmony again, with an ever-increasing blush rising up from Willow's lower body to completely turn her entire head a bright red. Then, really alarming Buffy and Giles, Willow sank back into her chair, leaned forward to put her upper body face down onto the tabletop, and folded her arms over her head, all while whimpering.

"Yeah, you remember!" sang Xander, a totally evil grin on his face. Willow's whimpering only increased at that.

Now looking at the other pair totally at a loss, Xander went on, "See, guys, when the statue smashed at Ethan's costume shop, we got back into our own bodies and our fake costumes, and we were really glad to see each other then."

"Well, of course, Xander," said a puzzled Giles.

Now perfectly deadpan, Xander continued looking at Giles, while saying, "Really, really, really, really, really, really glad to see each other."

At this, Buffy herself felt an overpowering blush appear on her own face, as she stared at Xander slowly turning his head to lovingly stare at a truly satisfied Harmony. As she felt an absolutely-frozen Giles at her side, Buffy was unable to stop watching as Xander took a step toward Harmony, to take her in his arms, as he continued talking over her shoulder, in a low, gleeful tone the Slayer could hear all too well.

"See, Niven wrote a very funny and very dirty story about how Superman, a guy who could crush a chunk of coal in his bare hands into a diamond, would have certain problems in doing the horizontal mambo with a normal human woman. I can tell you now from personal experience, that it works the other way around, too."

Then, Xander Harris kissed Harmony Kendall long and hard, before pulling his mouth free, to say one last comment.

"Oh, by the way, if you want to read the story, it's called, 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.'"