So Angel and Manco spent an hour or so at the diner, but you have to remember, that I wasn't exactly myself. Besides, with Cordelia becoming slightly interesting as the Willow-Xander Du Jour possibilities becoming near-time probabilities, the Buffy factor standing been Dead Boy and myself was evaporating steadily on my side of things.
Manco had steak, Angel settled for coffee. The conversation revolved around vampires, Spike, Drusilla and the nightlife in Sunnydale; the professional guide to killing things. They were half-way to Willy's when Xander felt the costume magic drop. Tired, but not overly, Xander decided to keep heading to the Alibi Room with Angel. Surprisingly, it seemed the most normal time he'd had in a while, feeling like furlough after a long stretch at the front. Xander had Angel go game-face as they approached a quad of vamps. They feigned conversation as they drew close, then as Angel leapt forward against a large vampire, Xander cocked his revolvers and shot into the necks of two vamps at close range, dusting one and dropping another to the ground. Angel turned from quickly dusting the first to strike the remaining vamp hard in the head. Xander took a stake from a sheath and quickly staked the two unsteadied undead.
"Not bad, Manco," Angel noted, "we'll make a demon hunter out of you yet."
At Willy's bar, Xander decided for luck he'd take his 'favorite booth', walking over to where a vamp was nursing a mug of blood.
"Angelus and I are sitting there," Xander whispered, gun drawn under the poncho, "It's time for you to move." The vamp looked over to Angelus, then into the human's cold eyes. It got up and left. Xander sat down, facing the door, but turned for a minute to read graffiti on the wall when the dark-clad vampire sat down across from him.
"Thought you could just run ol' Spike outta town, now didja?" the healed vampire sneered. "Now you're the one outnumbered and your poor choice of companions is in a wee bit o' difficulty, eh?" Xander looked to see Dead Boy wincing from a head wound as two burly minions started moving over to the table.
"Now what do you have to say for yourself, now?" the master vampire sneered. "Before I kill you?"
Crack-Crack his left revolver under the poncho shot into the knee of one of Angel's captors, as the other round from the revolver Xander'd been adjusting under the table as Spike showed up...plowed into the vampire's soft under the table parts. The master vampire seized up and screamed in surprise and agony as the bullet tore through to lodge in the vampire's spine.
Angel quickly moved against his opponents, Xander simply firing into Spike again before bringing both side-arms above the table. "This isn't Mos Eisley, Spike, but you're just as stupid as that bounty hunter," Xander remarked as he blew a pair of big holes in Spike's neck, removing his head as the lead passed through into the next booth, dusting another to everyone's surprise.
"That'll be a to-go order, Willy," Angel remarked to the bartender, "The atmosphere in here is suddenly less appealing."
We never even broke open the bottle. I was mentally tired, and passed out a few minutes after hitting the couch, and purposely slept as late as possible. With a vampire as my host, I didn't much worry about being bothered by Giles, or forced to get up. I just stayed there resting. I think the vampire could sense the exhaustion and let me be.
The Reset occurred, and I was back to being showered and ready for another round. Still tired, I wanted to slowly get back to myself but didn't really want to be alone in a crowd with my memories until they'd blended more. Fifty-five years of Manco memories helped a lot in that regard to Ripper, though the death toll on my future list of nightmares would be high. But I was reminded that not all evil is demonic.
I headed back into school, my costume putting me in an upbeat mood, and I had a little extra something with me this time for someone else. The bandolier and extra plasma rifle couldn't hurt much on the hell mouth.
Xander had from memory managed to hit the best houses, plus a couple of streets next to the High School, and returned the kids to school with time to spare. Stealing Giles' car again, he headed to where he needed to be to help his friends when suddenly he saw Tucker Wells dressed as a big furry thing. Pulling the car over, he barely missed Cordelia as he called out to the other teen. Xander straightened out the brown vest over white shirt as he walked over to Tucker.
"Hey Tucker," Xander called out, "I need someone to head over to the school for a skit, and you're almost dressed for the part."
"I don't know, Harris," the dog-lover demurred until Xander held up a $20 bill, "Okay. What do I need to do?"
"Put this on," Xander said, noting a minute to go, "the bandolier, yeah. Cool."
"Xander," Cordelia complained, "You almost hit me! Who do you think you are?!" Smirking as he felt the magic roll over them, he retorted.
"I'm Han Solo, and this is Chewbacca."
She watched as Tucker Wells gained slightly in stature, but suddenly became a wookie. This caused her to reevaluate the snappy comeback she'd been ready to unleash as she notice Xander looking around suspiciously.
"Hey, lady," Han Solo addressed her, trying to figure out what was going on, "What's going on here?"
"I'm not sure," Cordelia responded, looking around as former children now ran wild as mini-demons "But we'll find Buffy and she'll know."
After directing them to the car, Cordelia took over the ghastly task of driving Giles' car back toward the school and became quieter as it became clear that Xander was Han Solo. After a few minutes, she screamed, braking the car but bumper-punting a small but real demon away from Buffy and Willow to hear a disheartening conversation.
"A DEMON! A DEMON!" Buffy screams pointing at the car, "A DEMON!"
"That's not a demon, Buffy," Willow sighed, "It's a car."
"What does it want?" the Lady nearly cried.
"We'd like to know what's going on?" Cordelia sighed, then addressed Willow, "Is she insane? I have Han Solo and Chew-Toy in the car. What should we do?" Chewie let out an indignant noise at being insulted.
"She thinks she's an 18th Century Lady," Willow sighed again, "Can we cram in and you take us to Giles at the Library?"
"Okay," Cordelia sighed, "Cram in." After five minutes of arguing, with Han shooting two stray vampires before stunning Buffy, and Chewie blasting a Polgara demon trying to get away from a half-dozen mini-demons, they were on their way and shortly arrived back at the school.
None of the Scoobies have their spare keys to the Library, so before anyone can knock he fires his blaster at the lock, Chewie jumping forward to push them open successfully.
Giles had been going through his card cataloging when he'd voices. Moving to investigate, he'd come to a complete stop when the doors flashed with light, then knocked him back and onto the floor
"Ahhh," Giles moaned: "Ow!"
"Hi Giles," Willow greeted the librarian, "We have trouble out there."
"Red, that's putting it mildly," Solo affirmed kicking his feet up on the table, "If half what you say is true, Chewie and I need to get back quick and change some things."
"What are you talking about, Xander?" the Watcher asked, very little sense being made. "Wh—"
"Giles," Cordelia interrupted, "People out there switched places with their costumes and so you have a lot of kids out there as demons now!"
"S-So you're saying Xander and this other person here," Giles gestured, are actually..."
"Han Solo and Chewbacca, Chief," the Republic General affirmed, "and your tough girl is nothing but noise and fluff."
"Dear Lord, what will we do?" Giles worried, "Where to begin our research...Ah, Willow, why didn't you change into whatever you are? Or Miss Chase for that matter?"
"Well, I'm really dressed as a less-repressed version of me, and trust me when I say Xander Solo's looking pretty good about now." Cordelia nodded in agreement. "And other than that we bought at least part of our costumes at a new place. Ethan's."
"Well, that's charming but not goin' do ya a whole lotta good, now is it?" William the Bloody asked as his eight minions followed him into the library and flanked him. "So, the Slayer's all fluff and noise, huh? So why's she asleep?"
"Because she got on my nerves," Solo sighed heavily as Chewie aimed his rifle at one of the nearer vampires. "I take it you're the local vampire guy?"
"Yeah, whelp, that'd be me," he said slipping into game-face and swaggering almost all the way to Buffy, as Han brought up his blaster. "And as all I want is the Slayer, stay where you are or die, unless your toy there can actually do something?" Spike's hand reached for Lady Buffy...
Chooomp then 'poof' followed by Ch-Choooomp as both energy weapons fired on Spike's nearest minions, dusting three of them as the burns cauterized the holes where their hearts used to be.
Splash and a pointed-toe woman's pump into the groin by Cordelia stunned Spike long enough for Solo to turn back to him. Choomp Choomp and the screams of William the Bloody filed the room as Chewbacc wrestled a vampire to the ground and ripped its head off. Willow and Giles each grabbed Buffy and dragged her behind Solo, and into the office as the fight erupted.
Choooomp another minion dusted as the rest broke and ran having suffered some minor singeing. Spike turned to charge his attacker when Choomp a throat shot brought an end to William the Dusty.
"You can come out now," Solo called, then turned to Cordelia, "If I wasn't married and expecting twins soon, princess, I wouldn't mind adding you to the crew of the 'Falcon.' I bet you'd make a good tail-gunner."
Slap
"What'd I say?" Solo asked, confused at the hit, "What?"
"REEEaaaeeEoorrr," Chewie returned, ""Rouuuuooreee"
"I meant no such thing," the former smuggler said, "I meant Leia would be jealous, and she'd shoot Imperial fighters out of the sky..."
"B-be that as it may, Mr., ah, Solo," Giles responded, "We must go and deal with this Ethan in order to end this spell...and presumably send you home."
"Works for me, "the young smuggler smiled, "Let's just get me back before Luke gets me drafted into another one of his off-the-cuff save the Galaxy schemes again." He rolled his eyes as Chewie laughed.
Ethan Rayne was not expecting a midget-wookie to slam him against a wall, but that cleared up as his old friend's voice cut through the pain.
"How do we end the spell, Ethan," Giles' voice demanded, "or do you want your new friend to eat you?" The wookie slammed Ethan into the wall again, then looked over his shoulder at Giles. The librarian caught the undecipherable look and at the weird roaring responded in the only way possible.
"I know he's too skinny and smelly, but it was meant as a threat, not a declaration regarding your diet," the Watcher assured him. At a less angry growling, "Of course you can hit him again, try a leg or other extremity, we need the information." With a placated noise, the wookie turned back to inflict more damage when Ethan realized he couldn't talk his way out of this situation.
"The statue of Janus," the chaos mage called out, "Break the statue."
Chooomp crash, and the blaster turned the ceramic into clay dust. Everything turned back to normal. Tucker pulled the costume head off, looking disturbed. Giles was quick on the draw this time.
"Come, lad, the gas leak must have thrown off your senses a bit, let's get you and the others home," the librarian offered, "Oh, and Ethan? I expect you to be out of Sunnydale by tomorrow."
Ethan was about to make a snide comment when Xander stared into his eyes, and whispered, "Be careful of what you wish for, Ethan, or it'll come back to haunt you, like Eyghon." The boy in front of him picked up the cashbox and walked out to find a hotel room and get some sleep.