(Thanks to everyone for reviewing! Now that I've got everyone confused about Percy mentioning Willow's and Xander's names, well, guess what: I'm not explaining it! Not until a later chapter, anyway. Evil cackle

Don't worry, more confusion is yet to come!)

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CHAPTER SIX

Because the military did not quite trust Harry or Ron with their most important secret just yet, SG-1 and their two guests wouldn't be flying commercial. Jack and a lieutenant were piloting. Xander was bent over in his seat, trying to keep himself from throwing up. He and Harry had experienced Entropic Cascade Failure for a second time sometime near the Arizona-Utah-Colorado border. It didn't help that it was normal for Xander to feel nauseous when traveling; coupled with the Cascade Failure and he was not having a good day. Every minute that he didn't spend concentrating on staying healthy was spent praying to every god that he'd ever heard of in Giles' books that they would land soon.

"Are you all right, XanderHarris?" Teal'c inquired with open concern.

"Just wonderful," Xander said without bothering to look up from his contemplation of the floor.

Daniel sneezed. At least Xander and Harry weren't the only ones with health problems.

Sam was seated next to Xander. She watched him, concerned. "We should be landing soon," she assured him, glancing around at Daniel, Harry, and Teal'c.

Just then, Jack's way-too-cheerful voice sounded over the intercom. "Okay, kids, we're getting ready to land. Hold on to your lunches."

Xander groaned. "Thank God."

It was then that the plane started to descend. Xander felt his stomach lurch. "Oh, God-" He snatched the bag that Daniel proffered and then proceeded to lose his lunch.

-----

Tonks, Moody, Arthur Weasley, and Hermione Granger stood near the metal detectors that barred them from the airport terminal as they waited for Agents Rosenburg and Harris to arrive. It had taken only hours to contact the two Agents. They had responded quickly, saying that they would be on the next plane over. That plane turned out to be a connecting flight from Los Angeles to Houston and then from Houston to London.

"'The next plain over'?" Tonks had repeated. "What do they mean by that?"

"They mean an Airplane," Hermione had said, rolling her eyes. "Evidently, they prefer Muggle means of transport." She didn't blame them. She, herself, hated flying, and flooing was very disorienting. One must always be careful when Apparating halfway across the world, also. Flying commercially on Muggle airplanes had been the only kind of flying that she'd ever cared for.

Because Hermione was the only one of their group with a slight idea of what to do at Heathrow, she had accompanied the three members of the Order of the Phoenix. The three adults had spent the time questioning her about all sorts of things. Arthur, especially, had become rather starry-eyed when they'd entered the lobby, and looked like he'd died and gone to heaven.

Arthur was gesturing at the nearest metal detector. "This machine can detect metal, correct?"

Hermione sighed. "Right."

He looked it over curiously. "How exactly does that work? Through Etrelicity, yes?"

"Electricity," Hermione corrected.

"Oh, grow up, Arthur," Moody growled. "Stop acting like a ponce. We don't want any unnecessary attention."

Hermione blinked at him. He obviously wasn't aware of how much he himself stood out without Mr. Weasley's help. He wore a bowler cap over half of his face; the matching pinstripe suit further enabled him to stand out. Hermione figured he would have gotten less attention if he'd worn an eye patch and black shorts, even if it made him look like a pirate because of his peg leg.

Tonks held the sign with the Agents' names written in big letters on both sides. She, too, was looking around curiously, only more discretely. Her hair was a mix of neon yellow and pink that morning. Moody had lectured to her for an hour during the car ride about trying to fit in, which translated to him wanting her to change her hair to a natural hair color. She had refused. Now no one batted seemed to bat an eye at it, much to Moody's annoyance.

Hermione glanced at her watch. The Agents' flight would have landed half an hour ago. Surely they would have gotten through customs and the baggage claim already, unless there was some sort of misunderstanding. She sincerely hoped there wasn't.

Tonks and Shacklebolt had done some checking on Rosenburg and Harris before owling them. Despite their young ages, Willow Rosenburg and Alexander Harris were considered to be the best in their field. They were investigators but both had been in a number of skirmishes and battles with all sorts of creatures they'd personally been sent to kill.

Their files hadn't been pretty. Hermione couldn't help but wonder how they were still sane, assuming they hadn't gone off the deep end by now.

She went over their profiles again in her mind. Alexander LaVelle Harris was 6', had brown hair and eyes, and had lost an eye during combat at the age of twenty-two, only a year after graduating from the Academy for the Magical Investigations Bureau. He was Muggle-born. Willow Rosenburg was 5'4" and had red hair and green eyes. Her father was a wizard while her mother was a Muggle. Both graduated from AMIB in the same year. Both had attended the American school of magic, entering at the age of 11 and graduating at the age of 18. Both were 27 years old and were born in Sunnydale, California. Sunnydale had been rumored to be based directly over a center of mystical convergence that sucked in dark magic and attracted demons and other dark creatures. The town was still there, but the Hellmouth was not; Harris and Rosenburg had been instrumental in its closing, also.

There were so many things she was dying from curiosity to know. Many details had been taken out of their files that made her wonder if a significant factor had been left out of the story. Surely two agents couldn't have been responsible for so much. It just boggled the mind.

She caught a flash of red hair among the crowd and focused on it. "There they are!" she announced when she was sure it was them.

They waved the Americans over to them. Hermione couldn't help but stare. Both appeared much older than their files claimed them to be; eyes that had seen much sadness met their own world-weary glances in turn. What attracted Hermione's attention the most was Alexander's eye patch. She wondered if there was a magical eye behind it.

"Hello," Arthur said, smiling as he stepped forward and held out a hand. "I'm Arthur Weasley. My associates are Nym-"

Tonks loudly cleared her throat, glaring at him.

Arthur hastily corrected himself. "-Tonks, Alastor Moody, and Hermione Granger."

"Hi," Harris said. "I'm Agent Alex Harris and this is Agent Willow Rosenburg, but then you guys probably already knew that."

They shook hands, then Tonks led the way to the car. Once the Agents' luggage was placed in the magically expanded trunk, everyone took their seats inside the vehicle. Arthur, Tonks, and Hermione were crowded into the front while Moody, Harris, and Rosenburg took the back seat. The first thing both Moody and Alex did was remove their respective bowler hat and eye patch. Hermione turned in her seat to watch. Agent Harris did indeed have a magic eye. Unlike Moody's electric blue eye, his eye was completely black. Not even an iris could be seen.

Moody and Harris studied each other. "Klinker's?" Alex asked.

Moody grunted, nodding. "Yours?"

Alex smirked. "A friend."

Hermione glanced at Willow and saw the redhead blush. Hermione's eyebrows skyrocketed. Surely the female Agent couldn't have designed Alex's eye?

"Your letter mentioned something about a man with pale-skin and glowing green eyes?" Alex inquired as Arthur maneuvered out of the parking lot.

"That's right," Moody said. "Our sources said you had contact with someone who met that description. Care to tell us about it?"

Willow bit her lip. She and Alex exchanged a look. "It was two years ago, wasn't it?" Willow asked him.

Alex's eyes hardened. "Yeah, it was." He turned back to Moody. "Is this everyone?" he asked, motioning at the car's occupants. Moody shook his head. "Then we'd better wait until we get the whole group together. This'll take a while."

Because they had no time to lose and because Moody, Arthur, and Tonks were all growling at the frustrating, slow-moving traffic out of London, Arthur's car was rendered invisible and took to the skies.

"Cool!" Alex said, gazing out the window as they soared UP toward the clouds. "Hey, Wills, we should have tried this. So much more leg room."

Willow smirked. "But worse bathroom facilities."

"Ya got me," he said, smiling at her. He turned back to Arthur. "I assume anti-collision charms are used to keep us well away from birds and airplanes?"

"Yes, exactly," Arthur said.

Moody said, "I heard that you and Agent Rosenburg took on a Pyardo Demon once."

"Pyardo Demon?" Tonks repeated, brow furrowed. "Aren't they instinct?"

"That's what we thought, too," Willow said, eyes narrowing. "I'd kind of like to meet whoever decides that a demon race is instinct and give him a nice, day-long rictusempra curse."

"Believe me when I say that those are painful," Alex assured them.

"So, what happened?" Tonks asked. Hermione was curious, also; the entire incident had received only a footnote in the Agents' file.

"He managed to re-direct my own immobilis spell back on me," Willow said sheepishly. "I'd cast some protection charms on myself, but they were pretty weak against the charm." She shrugged. "I had put some power behind it."

"It was then that we realized that spells couldn't work on him. He had literally impenetrable scales; spells just glances off of him. So I got out my trusty axe and started cutting."

"So, you killed it?" Hermione asked.

"Nope," Willow said cheerfully. "He got whooped."

He glared at her. "You don't have to sound so cheerful about it, Willow."

She smiled cheekily at him. "He almost got his skull crushed and his brains eaten. It was a good thing I'd reminded him to cast his own standard protection charms or he would have gotten eaten. They work one hundred percent against any type of brute force, even a Pyardo's."

Alex glared even more at her. "It was then that I finished him off. I got my axe back and cut off his head while crying, 'There can be only one!', only 'cause I liked the first movie. The TV series sucked. So did the other movies."

The British witches and wizards were confused by this last statement but decided to let it go. Hermione shook her head, dumbfounded. "But you nearly died!" she said.

Willow and Alex both turned sober. "Yeah, I did," Alex said. "But with our kind of lives, you have to find humor somewhere. It keeps you sane."

Hermione only stared some more at them. She wondered if they honestly thought that they were still sane.

"Although, that was before we met Trig," Willow said, her gaze darkening.

Some time later, they arrived at the Burrow. Everyone was there, waiting for them. After a long round of introductions, they got down to business.

Willow began, "Two years ago, while being stationed in Sunnydale, Alex and I were called to a site just outside the town. A magical barrier was forming in the air. We had to take down anything hostile that came through it while other Agents worked on a way to close the portal. The portal had been huge. Gigantic monsters and demons stumbled through it into this world; blasts of magical energy traveled outward from the portal and collided with nearby buildings, transforming them into alien structures." She bit her lip. "We, along with many other Field Agents, were able to stop most of the energy blasts from colliding with anything, but we didn't get everything. We had our hands full with the monsters. It lasted only ten minutes, but by that time all sorts of things had come through, even a pterodactyl. Then the portal just closed without our having to do anything."

"Next came clean-up duty, as well as seeing to the wounded," Alex continued. His face was unreadable. "We lost one agent, Buffy Summers. She was a good friend of ours."

Everyone offered their condolences. Xander said, "Thanks. We miss her, but we've moved on." He took a deep breath and continued, "Sunnydale is a Muggle town, but after that, there was no obliviation spell that would keep our secret them. Fortunately, Southern California is full of people who refused to believe what they see, so we ended up not having much trouble. Anyway, we searched for anything we missed that came through the portal. It was then that Willow and I found Trig."

"Trig turned out to be an alien from the planet Runeus, which was in another reality. He'd been sent through the portal accidentally. He convinced us that he meant us no harm and that he only wanted to get home." He sighed. "We believed him. The Department of Magic okayed our requests to help him return to his world in exchange for any information he could give us on his kind of magic, which turned out to be so alien with ours that it was incompatible."

"We already know that first hand," Shacklebolt assured him.

"Then you'll understand why we were so eager to learn as much as we could," Willow said. "It's not often that you come across magic that isn't anything like what you've grown up with."

Alex continued, "So, we came up with a spell that would send him home. He told us that it needed a powerful energy source like the Hellmouth to work, but in truth, it didn't. The spell could have been performed anywhere on or off the planet."

"Then why did he tell you he needed the Hellmouth?" Hermione asked.

"He planned to suck all of its energy into himself before leaving via the portal, in effect turning Sunnydale into a big, giant crater and making himself extremely powerful."

"But his magic and ours can't mix!" Mrs. Weasley pointed out. "What good would draining the Hellmouth do for him?"

"Our magic is incompatible. The raw energy that made up the Hellmouth is compatible with Trig's magic," Willow explained. "It's because it's raw. It's unprocessed, unfocused energy that is incredibly easy to tap into, if you know how. It was a little more difficult for Trig, because he's not from Earth, but it didn't take him long."

"You, too, have used this magic, Agent Rosenburg?" Dumbledore inquired.

Willow looked down. "Yes."

There were gasps around the room. Dark magic in any form was dangerous and highly addictive; it was a wonder that Agent Rosenburg was able to get past it…assuming she had.

"He would have succeeded in sucking the Hellmouth dry and then escaping without us being the wiser until it was too late if one thing hadn't happened. Half-way through the ritual, Trig knocked me away with a magic blast and grabbed onto Willow." He clenched his hands into fists. "It would seem that he figured that he could get even more of an energy boost from her, because of her dealings into dark magic. We managed to fight back. We had an advantage in speed; in took him slightly longer to ready his spells than we needed to perform ours. We stopped him from completing the ritual, therefore assuring that Sunnydale remained standing and Trig stayed in our reality. But he still managed to get away. After searching for him for awhile, we put out a warrant for his arrest and then went on to the next crisis."

"We've been hoping for some payback with that asshole," Willow said. "Which is why we've come."

"So what can you guys tell us?" Alex asked.

Hermione told them about Ron and Harry being sent through the portal. Willow added that it made sense that he'd tried to do it as close to Diagon Alley as possible; that place was second only to Hogwarts with the most concentrated amount of magical energy in all of the United Kingdom. If Trig was operating true to form, he'd planned to absorb all of the energy from the Alley before he went through the portal to his home planet.

Then Shacklebolt and Tonks told them about Trig getting away through a second portal.

"Damnit!" Alex cried in anger. "How could you just let him get away!"

"Alex, calm down," Willow said, placing a hand on his arm. This seemed to work as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Willow smiled apologetically. "Sorry."

"We still need to retrieve my two students," Dumbledore said. "Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated."

Willow and Alex exchanged determined looks. "We can help you plenty," Alex assured them. "In fact, we know exactly how to open a portal into Trig's world."

"I've discovered a way of working around Trig's magic without the two actually mixing," Willow said. "All we need is the bowl and knife Trig used during the first attempt near Diagon Alley. Then we can open a portal into Runeus and rescue your friends."

"Oh, thank God," Molly said, relieved. Everyone else echoed her.

-----

Dawn found Ron sitting surprisingly alone at a table in the dining room. She smiled as she approached the table. He glanced up and smiled back. "Hey," she said. "Where's your adoring public?"

Ron grinned. "They had to go to their classes," he said. He held up a book. "One of them let me borrow this."

Dawn sat down and glanced at the cover. She realized that it was a hardcover edition of the fifth Harry Potter book.

"It's weird," Ron said. "I've been skimming through it, and it's like this J. K. Rowling person was actually there. It's unnerving, actually."

"I can understand that," Dawn said. "I'd feel the same way if my own life was written down in a series of fiction books or was made into a TV show or something."

"A TV show?" Ron asked, eyebrows furrowed. "That's like a movie, right?"

Dawn fought to suppress a giggle. "Right."

Uncomfortable silence descended. Dawn took a deep breath. "There's something I-"

"How's it going with Trig?" Ron interrupted quickly. "Has he done whatever he's doing yet?"

"He's working on the preparations still," Dawn replied, trying to hide her disappointment.

"Oh. Good. Not that you people haven't been nice and all, but I'd kind of like to get back home…"

"It's Hermione, isn't it?" Dawn asked.

"What?" Ron asked, startled.

"Look, every time I try to get near you, you're always making up some excuse to get away from me," Dawn went on before he could interrupt. "And you yourself said that the books are just like your life. So with all the clues Rowling's dropped in the books and with what's been developing between Ron and Hermione in the movies, I figured that you and Hermione are together or something. Is that true?"

"I-we-Hermione-me-we most certainly are not!" Ron exclaimed, standing up. "You can't just go around accusing people of having crushes on someone they've known since their First Year! You just-can't! I mean, honestly! Hermione? Come on!"

Dawn only rolled her eyes and smirked. "Yep. Definite crush, there."

Before Ron could protest again, Dawn stood and approached him. "Look, Ron, there's nothing wrong with a crush. I mean, I like you, but if you've got your eyes set on Hermione, that's okay. It's not like we can get to know each other, anyway."

Ron opened his mouth to start on another wave of protests, only to double over in startled pain. He tried to grab the back of a chair to keep from falling, missed, and dropped to the floor.

"Ron!" Dawn said, rushing over. Her eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets.

Ripples rode up and down Ron's skin, making him gasp. They lasted for several seconds before subsiding.

"Ah, fuck," Ron said, lying on his back once they'd stopped. "That hurts."

"Looked like it," Dawn said shakily.

She helped him to his feet. "I really hope Trig is going to perform that spell soon," Ron said, "'cause that one was worse than the first one was. I don't know how much more I can take."

-----

It had been a little under a year since Xander had last been to the Hyperion. Only it hadn't been this Hyperion. It had been another universe's Hyperion. His universe's Hyperion, as a matter of fact. He wondered if his double was waiting inside, and if he had lost an eye like he had, or if Anya was still alive here. He desperately hoped that Anya was alive.

He and Harry followed the members of SG-1 through the Hyperion's front door into the lobby. They found themselves on the receiving end of several crossbows. People Xander recognized stood about the floor of the lobby and on the second story landings.

"Hands up where we can see them!" cried a voice from the western landing. Xander recognized it as one of the Slayers-in-Training, Tasha.

All six dutifully raised their hands. Xander had told them to expect this, so none of them were surprised. He'd known that there would be sentries hiding outside, and that those sentries would have alerted those inside the hotel of their arrival.

Everyone who wasn't a new Slayer minus Wood, who was likely in the hospital, stood in the lobby. There was Gunn, Wesley, Fred, Angel, Giles, Andrew, Buffy, Faith, Willow, Dawn, a girl with unruly brown hair that Xander didn't recognize, a two-eyed version of Xander, and… "Anya," he said, feeling a smile creep up. He felt his heart leap in joy. She was just as stunningly beautiful as he remembered.

"Hey!" Willow said. She pointed at the just-arrived Xander. "It's you! With an eye patch, just like Cordelia said!"

"Huh," Buffy said, obviously impressed. She glanced at Cordelia with newfound respect. Cordelia just looked irritated.

Xander smiled at all of them. "Hey, guys. What's up?" he said, without moving his eyes from Anya.

Anya frowned down at herself. "What?"

Xander felt a pang of remorse. "Nothing. It's just…where I come from, you're…" He sighed. How could he tell her that she was dead in his reality? "Never mind." He looked at his double. "Looking all full-visiony there. God, how I envy you."

Anya was still alive here and the other Xander also hadn't lost an eye. His double seemed to get all the breaks.

"How'd that happen, anyway?" His double asked, motioning at the area around his own left eye.

"Yeah, Cordelia couldn't tell us," said Fred.

Xander winced. "Caleb," he said simply.

Everyone's eyes widened. They knew who he was talking about, and could sympathize. Two-eyed Xander's face went a little pale, probably thinking about how close he came to losing his own eye.

"Who's Caleb?" Carter asked, curious.

"Bad guy, now dead," Buffy replied. "Good riddance."

"So says all of us," Two-eyed Xander said with conviction.

"Who might you be, miss?" Giles asked, nodding to Carter.

"I'm Major Samantha Carter, USAF," Sam introduced herself.

"And your companions?" Wesley asked. "We already know Xander." He looked at Jack. "And you would be Colonel O'Neill, correct?"

Jack nodded. "Colonel Jack O'Neill. This is Dr. Daniel Jackson, Murray, and Harry Potter."

Everyone looked at Harry. "Harriet, gotta say, you're not a bad-looking guy," Dawn teased, turning to the young brunette girl that cyclops Xander didn't know.

"What?" Harry repeated, eyes widened. He stared at Harriet. "You mean…you're me?"

Harriet stepped forward. "I guess so. I'm Harriet Potter."

One-eyed Xander's mouth dropped. He started to laugh, then guffaw. "You're a girl!" he said. He snorted.

"That's what I said!" his double cried. "Only it was more like, 'You're a boy!'"

Harry and Harriet walked up to each other. "Don't touch each other!" Wesley warned. "You could destroy each other if you do."

"Thanks for the warning," Harry and Harriet said.

"Well, that's something you don't see everyday," Jack commented, looking on. In all of SG-1's encounters with alternate realities, they'd never met a female Colonel O'Neill, or a male Carter, or a female Teal'c or Dr. Jackson.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed, eyebrow raised.

Everyone else introduced each other. "Sorry about the unwelcome welcome earlier," Buffy apologized. "It's just, we just got back from fighting a really big battle that ended in the destruction of an entire town, so we're still kinda on our guard."

"Wait a minute - all of you fought in Sunnydale?" Xander asked. He looked over them all again, and this time he took in the various bandages, bruises, cuts, and scrapes that weren't limited to the Scooby Gang.

"We sure did," Angel said. "Didn't that happen in your reality?"

Xander shook his head. "Nope. It was just us Scoobies and Potentials. Angel Investigations didn't have anything to do with it, besides delivering the amulet."

"I wonder why we didn't help to fight?" Wesley wondered.

"You said you knew how to get Harry and Xander back home," Daniel prompted after a moment.

"That's right," Cordelia said. "I know where we can find Trig."

"Who?" both Xanders asked simultaneously.

"Trig," Cordelia repeated. "He's the guy that sent you and Harry here."

"Oh," the Xanders chorused.

"This is going to give me a headache, I can just see it," Jack muttered. He rubbed his eyes. "I'm having flashbacks here."

"As am I, O'Neill," Teal'c told him.

"Me three," Carter said, smirking.

"Me, four," Daniel added.

"So, where can we find him?" Harry asked.

"My Vision told me that he came here, to Los Angeles," Cordelia said, "Which was why we had to get you guys here."

"I did a location spell," Willow chipped in. "We were about to go out and get him, actually. Care to come along?"

"No need for that," a new voice said.

Everyone turned and saw that there was a new arrival. It was Trig.