The statue broke, and Ripper's memory spell went off. Costumes lost their hold and elsewhere things returned to denial, or rather, normal. But in Ethan's Costume Shoppe the magic of Ripper Giles had brought back all of the memories near-eidetically, and because the spell fed on the back-wash of the Janus magic...a bit more.
Xander Harris remembered his childhood, all of the good and bad, returned fresh in that moment, the anguish and physical manifesting themselves briefly on his body. Phil the Weatherman who had died repeatedly in his own Cycle of Time, re-experienced it all anew, but none of the physical. Private Harris experienced the exhaustion of training and combat, as well as personal woe, while York and Murphy experienced their war-time afflictions. Asimov suffered the least, and only his mind could briefly keep rein on the insanity. Ripper...Oh, Ripper reveled in the moment of pain because he created it and because the boy would know the real experiences beneath the tweed. Emotional and related stress of the musicians bonded into the whole as all became one and would provide an amazing depth of musical composition for a lifetime if Xander (?) escaped the loop.
And the most primal memories of man and beast were brought to the fore...not the Hyena Spirit, but the Hyena Memories...the Hunt, the Pack, the lone times in the brush in drought...the pain and the survival. Hunter and Prey.
Things that didn't fit were thrown off as dross, days of nothingness, the repetition of savannah, leaving the moments of experience, of skill, of actions. The good and the bad, intellectual or stupid, but nothing truly passive. If Asimov was writing on the porch, the writing and content remained in memory, but the sounds of cars driving by, or smells of cooking were irrelevant as mind and magic forced the issues. The magic of chaos, and even of hell, is that of result, not passivity, and that's what Ripper forgot. He didn't turn the boy into Ripper Junior, he became absorbed into him. And with Rupert Giles standing next to him as the statue breaker, Xander received that which had come to be Rupert Giles sense, but not the emotions or the passive memories. The dark lifestyle, the cold and experienced Watcher training aspects but none of the reformed feelings behind the choice. Alexander Harris had skills and abilities, but the lack of context was more like an instruction manual than a real integration..."Behold I am Klutzo...Inadvertent Destroyer of worlds..."
I know what you're thinking...talking in the third person is not a sign of the good. Well, I wasn't in a good place, I wasn't really in any place. I'd thought of Giles as a father-figure, but I'm the one that basically told Ethan to take that away from me. All of Giles' deeds are part of me, more than a Highlander quickening, and I don't really know how to explain the pleasure and agony of that moment of magic.
I needed to think when I came out of the Reset, the memories fresh., Not wanting to leave Phil around that...LIBRARIAN, I ran out of the building with Giles' money and car keys...I needed to shoot things, and I knew just who would set me up.
"I need these items, and a lot of cartridges, maybe a lot of fake gold coins," Xander ordered, and handed him a list, not even allowing Ethan Rayne to speak, dropping forty dollars on the counter. With calculation he softly added as the 'shopkeeper' turned away, "and the mood I'm in right now Giles better hope he doesn't meet up with Manco tonight." He felt rather than saw the positively delighted evil look on Ethan's face as the latter headed into the back room.
With fake stubble, the pancho, boots and spaghetti western attire in full, "Manco" Harris walked down the hallways of Sunnydale High, spurs clicking on the floor. Waiting for the chaos to envelop him and take the edge off his latest...incarnation...Xander oozed nameless quiet power as he moved toward Snyder and the waiting halloweeners. He still didn't understand why he was still going trough these parts of the charade, but maybe, like his life with Tony and Jessica, it provided familiarity and guidelines if not comfort. Also, the Man With No Name might be around to save Willow if they were near each other at transition.
A couple pirates laughed at a joke, and as he moved along the outside corridor toward Willow and Buffy, Larry intercepts Xander with a smug look.
"Where's your bodyguard, Harris?" Larry laughs sneeringly, "Curling her hair?" He jumps at Xander, hoping to make him flinch with a near-miss punch. Instead, students and faculty watch as Xander steps outside of the punch, grabs the bully right hand to left wrist, introducing him to a locker door and pain. Xander walks away, putting an old harmonica to his mouth,
'Wa, Wa, Waaaa' having never said a word.
Willow in ghost costume walks toward Xander as Snyder charges past to get there first. Xander returns the harmonica to his pocket, reaching for matches and a cigarillo as the troll approached him.
"Harris! Fighting in school?" the principal sneered, "that's suspension!"
"Well," Xander loudly whispered, lighting a match off the brick wall and moving it to light his smoke, "You might want to discuss with your lawyers and these witnesses the fact that I never said a word, he attacked me, and has for years." He then stared down coldly into the eyes of the little fraud, as he revealed the two authentic revolvers that accessorized the costume, "You might want to adopt a policy of ignoring me if you know what's good you."
"W-Well, uh," the now-frightened man began, reaching for straws, "No smoking in school!" Xander pointed to the ashtray next to him, and the sign 'Designated Smoking Area' that sits right outside the Faculty Lounge outside door. Snyder gives up in frustration and storms off. Xander turns back toward Willow, and pulls the sheet off her.
"Looking good, Willow," Xander continues in his Eastwood whisper, "Leave the sheet here, and stay close to me tonight. I...have a feeling."
"Xander, what're the two stuffed animals with you poking out from under the pancho?" the red head asks as they gather their candy-seekers and leave.
"This one's Phil, and he's real. Say 'hi' Phil," Xander responds, a touch of the old Xander showing through as he hands the groundhog over to Willow, "And the other thing represents the white horse I'd ride if I were really this character." Willow seemed delighted with Phil, who decided for himself he wanted to stay with Willow.
They were out on the streets still, as Xander felt the familiar sensation of the Change beginning. As he felt himself leaving, with all of his strength he screamed to himself mentally as he focused his sight on her, 'Protect Willow!'
Willow watched as the changes took effect, children becoming their costumes. She felt something tickle in her mind, and turning to make sure everything was okay on Xander's side of the street, she say Xander staring intently at her and a white horse's reins in his hands. He led the horse toward her.
"You Willow?" her friend asked her in near-perfect Eastwood tones, the intensity of that look making her deep feelings for Xander come to the fore, matching her confusion at the question.
"Xander?" she replied, then worriedly asked as a suspicion flared, "D-don't you recognize me?"
"No ma'am, can't rightly say I do," Manco, the Man With No Name responded, "One minute I'm nursing a whiskey in Tucumcari, and now I'm here with the idea I'm supposed to protect you."
"Me?" Willow asked, surprised but delighted, thoughts of a certain variety still-nascent in her mind, "A-and what should I call you?" The man stared at her a minute, clearly appreciative of the task at hand, drawing his gun to ward off a pirate that'd been looking their way.
"Manco," the gunman replied, thinking about getting on the horse, "It's as good as any. Turn your...skirt sideways." Willow cocked an eyebrow, blushing as she complied. He grabbed her hips from behind, an unexpected, scary and yet not, experience for the girl, who was surprised to suddenly find herself flying up and atop the horse, Manco sitting close behind her.
"Let's find some place safe, shall we?" he breathed, the cigarillo in his teeth not bothering her under these circumstances.
Starting down the road, Willow noticed a woman in a large dress being chased after by a very large demon and four little demons. Recognizing the human brought her from some very happy thoughts.
"Buffy?!" Willow exclaimed, pointing out the chased girl to Manco-Xander, who starts to draw as he veers the horse to intercept the Lady.
"No guns!" Willow cried out, "Those little monsters are Children!"
"What about the big one?" he asks her, mouth breathing in her ear causing her to shiver.
"Shoot that one!" she exclaimed decisively. The revolver booms twice, dropping the demon as the backs of its knees are holed. The mini-demons begin to feed on the fresh meat. Manco guides the horse around to Buffy's location.
"Buffy, are you alright?" Willow asks while being helped down from the horse by Manco, "Are you hurt?"
"Who are you?" the young woman asks.
"She doesn't know who we are," Willow says turning to Manco-Xander. "We need to get to a safe place."
"How about a hotel?" Manco asks, "I can afford it."
"No, too far," Willow declares confidently, "I know, we can go to a friend's house. Get her on the horse."
Grimacing, the gunman moves towards Buffy, who looks indignant. "I'll not have you lay hands on me ruffian, and shall not go anywhere with you and your...harlot." The smug arrogance surges as she grabs the cigarillo from his mouth, "And I'll thank you not to smoke that disgusting devil-weed in my presence, low-born."
Xander looked at Willow, who smiled apologetically, yet waved her hands impatiently. Turning around, he lightly punched the slayer in the face, rendering her unconscious. As she collapsed toward the ground, he caught her, flung her over the neck of the beast, moved up into the saddle and offered Willow stirrup and a hand.
'Wow,' Willow considered the new manly Xander as she accepted his hand up and held snugly to his back, and gave him directions so that he could get them there with a minimum of traffic or fuss. He only shot four vampires of the real variety, and kicked a pirate unconscious who was trying to bother a girl as they rode buy.
'That just felt right some how,' he thought, moving them into a trot until the reached the backyard of the house. Xander opens the kitchen door and
scans the room, Willow then calling out to possible residents as they head into the living room.
"Hello? Mrs. Summers?" Willow shouts, remaining close to Manco as he places the Lady on the couch, "Good, she's still at that gallery party and Dawn's at the kiddy party next to it."
"Where are we?" Buffy asks, coming to, "You hit me!" She glares haughtily at Xander-Manco. "My father will have his men thrash you for this!" He knocks her out again with another light tap.
"What did you do that for?" Willow asked, coming back from closing and re-locking the back door.
"She was annoying," the man said, "Did you really want to listen to her?"
"Well, no..." Willow conceded, "But even if she doesn't remember us, she's a friend." She started looking at him again.
"Then she'll understand I saved her from embarrassment," he responded
as a banging came from the front door. Manco goes to investigate, and Willow groans as yet another interruption of her plans for Manco-Xander takes place. They hear a woman screaming outside. Xander looks out again.
"Damn it!" Willow sighs, frustrated, "Go help!" Manco opens the door and goes out to rescue the person, door closing behind him.
Cordelia screams as she runs from a sasquatch and four laughing vampires following along for the show and possible meal.
"Somebody help me!" Cordelia screams, nearing the Summers residence. She looks back at the monster chasing her and screams again. When she turns back around again she nearly runs into Xander, who draws two revolvers from under his pancho, firing into the legs of the beast, to bring it down, the vampires falling down as they run into it. This causes them to go game-face in frustration.
"Xander!" Cordelia cries as the gunfire starts in earnest, "Help me!"
Crack-Crack
Crack-Crack
Crack-Crack
Crack-Crack
Four vampires lose most of their faces at that range, two of them dusting as the lead separates jaw and neckbones from the skull. The other two fall back from shock and pain.
"Get in the house, woman," Manco rasps, "I'll finish off these things." He walks over and shoots the throats out of the wounded vampires, ending them. He grabs the stunned Cordelia by her elbow and leads her into the house, leaving the furry beast to slowly regenerate from its wounds.
"So, what's going on Willow?" Cordelia began, and looking at the red head, "Nice look, only needs a little work."
"Cordelia? Are you okay?" the girl responded. "You know us?"
"Yeah, Lucky me," Cordelia smarted off. "What's going on? I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume! Do you really think that Party Town's gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely."
Manco, meanwhile, has removed the pancho and begun reloading his weapons again. Xander offers it to her, flicking it with the toe of his boot into Cordelia's hands.
"Here," he responded, "You'll be warmer and less distracting."
"Thanks," Cordelia replied gratefully, it only now really dawning on her that he'd dusted four vampires and rescued her from the animal thing.
"Okay," Manco says, "Let's all just sit tight and see if this craziness outside goes away. Hey, Red, you have any whiskey around here? I think we could all use a drink."
"I don't think that's a good idea, Xa—Manco," Willow responded, "but I'll check the kitchen for food?" He gives her a small smile and nod that causes her heart to skip as she goes. Manco gets up and forces a chair under the door knob to resist entry, and turns off the living room light, leaving on the porch light to silhouette any that try sneaking up on them.
"Now, Cordelia was it?" Manco asked, and when she turned and before she could respond continued, "Check upstairs. Make sure everything's
locked up, then head back to the dining room. We'll hole up there."
Willow puts a bunch of food possibilities on the dining room table a few minutes later, as Manco come into the room from one direction, and Angel from the kitchen.
"Oh, good! You guys are alright," Angel states, "It's total chaos out there."
Manco reaches for his guns as Willow and, from behind him, Cordelia, call for him to stop.
"No, don't!" they both cry out, causing Angel to halt his entrance and Manco to refrain from firing.
"He doesn't know who he is," Cordelia stated, squeezing Xander's arm possessively, "though he shot up four vampires while rescuing me."
"Bullets don't kill vampires," Angel stated in disbelief. Manco looked at him
"They do if you use lead to remove their heads from their bodies close-up," the gunman half-whispered, holstering his weapons since the women thought this one unthreatening.
"So...where's Buffy," Angel asked, concerned. "I thought she'd be here."
"You mean the loud woman in the big dress?" Manco mentioned, "She's on the parlor divan."
Twenty minutes later, Manco had sized up the other man, a cold calm character, not to be slighted in a fight, even if he wasn't bright enough to carry side arms or even a shot gun. Listening carefully, both men looked at each other as they heard noise coming from the kitchen, then the door crashed in. Angel leapt forward, beating two mini-demons back out the door. Manco followed him out guns ready, and concerned for his horse.
Bursting out the door before anything could get in, Manco quickly sized up the situation, Angel was fighting two mini-demons, with two more knocked down behind them getting back up. He faced the tougher and easier opponents, five adult size bastards switching to demon faces, and a vampire clearly the leader waiting behind them.
Willow cries out to Angel that the monsters are changed children, which slows him down in his efforts.
Crack-Crack and two cried out in pain and fright, powder burns
singeing them. Crack Crack-Crack and the other two trying to push around them take shots in mouth and neck, taking the fight out the two srelatively new minions Crack-Crack and the latter two dust as heads remove form bodies, dust rising and mixing together, and Crack the leader cries in pain from the shot taken blind as Manco races sideways into the backyard out of the cloud and light to see his target. His horse is trying to bolt, but is too well secured.
Spike and four more minions are all that's left as Manco manages to drop-out his barrels and snap in two more in the ten second lull taking place as the minions were brought to heal by their master, who swaggers forward, wound healed.
"So, you're the man my Dru says is the Man With No Name," Spike smarts off, "Well Ulysses, It's time to die, as I'm no Cyclops. Kill him!"
The minions start forward and a black-clad blur tackles the two on the right, upsetting the minions' charge. Four rounds thump into Spike's body, Manco as surprised as the master vampire at the turn of events as one revolver seems to jam up. Manco pauses briefly, and Spike screams out, "Get out of here!" and runs off into the night. The three remaining minions manage to escape into the alley. Manco repreapares his weapons as the others come up to him.
"Will the mouthy one be back?" he asks Angel, "Or will he take a hint?"
"Even if he doesn't come back tonight," Angel sighed, "he'll be determined to go after everyone here and their families."
"Can you protect Willow and the others?" Manco asked, calming his horse.
"You really shouldn't go," Angel answered, "especially alone."
Manco got back up on his horse, Cordelia handing him his pancho. He winked at her, putting it on. Willow's protests were ignored, and as she placed her hand on his knee, he leaned down on impulse and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, a bit of Xander showing through.
For reasons he didn't understand, Manco seemed to have an instinctual knowledge of where the vampires and other demons seemed to be. Between running them down with his horse, and using rifle and occasional revolver shots, he'd dusted twenty of the bastards and a half-dozen things he'd never be able to describe, as he pursued and herded off-path the wounded, recovering, re-wounded and again recovering master vampire, something always stepping in the way of the kill. The horse was killed by a white furry thing an hour before. 'This bastard has my own luck in surviving.'
Finally, the crowds thinned as the night progressed, Manco finally back in revolver range as he ducked into the doorway one shop down from the shop of costumery into which the vampire had darted. Carefully, he followed the vampire into the store, hearing a backdoor being destroyed, he hurried to the back, guns angled to the sides in case of ambush. Seeing none, he continued out the back of Party Town, losing the trail.
Guessing as to the location of the house, he managed to get there at around an hour past midnight, finding it darkened. Angel stepped out of the bushes, clearing his throat to avoid a confrontation.
"Buffy's mother drove the others home," Angel remarked, "Did you...dust Spike?"
"No," Manco replied, "I had to keep taking care of other things as they came along. I've run into the same pirate twice tonight and knocked him in the nose. Annoying."
"So what now?" Angel asked.
"Know where I can find a good bottle of whiskey and place to sleep for the night?"
"Yeah, a place called the Alibi Room," Angel smirked. "It'll cost you, but they'll have it. You can sleep on my couch if that's acceptable."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Manco asked, having spoken more words in this night than in the last two years combined except to order a room, a whiskey, a steak or a senorita. "Do they have food there?"
"There's a diner on the way, we'll eat first. They don't have whiskey," Angel remarked. "But it's on the way to the...saloon. You have any money?"
"Yeah, about twenty of these," Manco responded, sowing him a handful of gold eagles, "This do?"
"Here, give me two of those," Angel looked on, impressed, "and I'll cover this evening, they only use...greenbacks."