-/-/-/-/- 63 hours from Now, approx. 12:00 AM

They ate their meals without saying much of anything. Afterwards, Willow left the booth, claiming a need to make a long phone call and went outside to use her cell phone. She left Mason and Rube sitting across from each other and staring at their empty plates.

Mason really didn't want to have this conversation. For one thing, he wasn't good at talking. For another, he'd never had to tell Muggles about the wizarding world, and wasn't sure exactly how. For another, he just didn't want his coworkers to know. It was why he'd obliviated Rube, George, Roxy and Daisy when they'd stumbled into the alley and seen the crups. This time, though, he wasn't going to perform the Obliviation Charm. He was going to confess.

He pulled out his wand and laid it lengthwise on the table. Rube stared at it. "Please tell me that's not a wand," the older reaper murmured, resignedly.

"I'm a wizard," Mason stated. "A wand wizard, to be specific."

Rube nodded. "Your friends, too, huh?"

"Yeah. Jexter - he was the other guy with the wand - he's a wand wizard, too. Willow, though, is a Wiccan witch. Ethan was kind-of a sorcerer. There are different types of magic," he finished lamely, grimacing at his eloquence.

"Different types?" Rube repeated, incredulous. "You've gotta be shitting me."

Mason pressed his lips together in thought. "Well, see, it's like this." He held up one hand. "You've got your wand wizards and witches. Now, there are a few million of these people wondering about the planet. They were all born with the ability to cast magic."

"Does that include you? You were born with this ability?"

Mason nodded. "Yeah, I was."

Rube barked out a laugh and rubbed his eyes. "You know, I've seen some strange things in my time, but I never thought magic would be one of them. I was convinced magic wasn't real."

Mason quirked an eyebrow. "Even with the gravelings about?"

Rube grimaced. "Gravelings. You get used to them and stop wondering how they could even exist. Do they exist because of magic?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Wouldn't surprise me."

Rube studied him. "Why'd you keep it a secret, Mason? Why not tell me?"

Mason laughed. "Why, Rube? You're a Muggle, uh, a non-magic person. There are laws in the wizarding world that forbid wizards from telling Muggles what they are."

"Then why tell me now?"

He sighed. "Because you were bound to find out sooner or later. I just hoped it would be later. Much later." He twisted his lips as he tried to choose his words. "Wizards and witches, you see, have stayed hidden since the time of Merlin. None of us fancy being burned at the stake, as you can probably imagine."

"Merlin was real?" Rube asked, not at all surprised. He was probably still in shock.

"Oh, yeah," Mason answered, nodding. "He's one of the great ones."

Rube nodded. Mason regarded him, concerned. Rube had yet to blow up like normal. He feared that his boss wasn't taking this well at all.

"So what was that thing that came out of the ground?" Rube asked conversationally.

"Some Chaos Lord. Probably from Hell," Mason replied in the same tone.

"Chaos Lord, huh?" Rube buried his face in his hands. "You think you know a person…"

"…and it comes back to bite you in the ass," Mason finished with a smile, thinking about his own problems concerning his cousins.

Rube peered at him over his hands. He dropped them and leaned back in the booth. "I'm probably going to regret asking this, but exactly what was happening a few hours ago?"

"I don't think you want to know," Mason asked, giving him a nervous smile. He so didn't want to get into the fact that he was related to two of the people who were involved.

"Probably not." Rube sighed again, leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. "What about whatever the hell's been going on the past few days? Was that magic, too?"

Mason nodded. "Yeah. Ethan cast a chaos ritual that made everything go wonky for a bit, but Willow cast the counter-spell so everything would go back to normal."

Rube nodded in understanding. He was silent for a long moment, and therefore Mason was as well. Mason wasn't sure what was going through the older reaper's head, but then the only emotion of Rube's he could recognize with certainty was anger. At the moment, Rube was expressing anything but anger. It didn't put Mason at ease at all.

Rube's head came down to stare at Mason's wand. He reached a hand out to it, only to stop and meet his eyes. "May I?"

"Um, sure."

Rube picked it up tentatively, as if afraid it would blow up. The sight made Mason smile a little. The older reaper turned it over in his hands, staring at it in all directions.

"Uh-" Mason reached out and pushed the tip away from Rube's face. "Really not a good idea to point it at you."

Rube replaced it on the table. "So how does the whole wand magic thing work?"

"Well…" He wrapped his hand around the wand handle. "Er, I pretty much pick it up like this, point it at something, and speak a spell." He pointed at his glass, which was empty. "Diffindo." With a crack, the glass broke neatly in two. Before Rube's staring eyes, Mason tapped the crack and said, "Reparo." The crack neatly sealed itself and the glass was whole once again.

Rube picked the glass up and studied it, mouth slightly agape as Mason sheathed his wand.

"Hey," Willow said, announcing her presence as she stepped up to the booth. She smiled apologetically. "I have to go back. There's some big demon guy who's trying to take over the world."

She said this almost casually. Mason and Rube both stared at her. "Deal with that sort of thing often, do you?" Mason asked, tone baffled.

Willow shrugged. "Only semi-annually. It was nice meeting both of you. I'm going over to Jexter's hotel room to get the books, and then I'm heading to Cleveland to help with the crisis du jour. "Bye!" She walked to the door, then paused at the entrance and whirled around. "Call me when Jexter or Ethan shows up!" she called, then turned and left.

Rube stood up. "I'm going home. I'll talk to you about this tomorrow."

Mason nodded. "Of course. See you tomorrow, Rube."

The younger reaper remained in the booth, staring off into space. He wondered, again, where Ethan and Jexter had gone. He hoped Jexter knew what he was doing.

So much had happened in a matter of days. Mason's biggest secret was now revealed to his supervisor, and he was back in contact with a member of a family he hadn't spoken to in thirty-eight years. He'd discovered that one of his cousins owned a shop on a Hellmouth, occasionally practiced Wiccan Magic and sometimes even assisted others in fighting demons, vampires, and the like. He'd also found that his other cousin, who had been born a Squib, not only regularly practiced Dark Wiccan Magic but also worshipped Chaos. It had been an eventful week, to say the least.