(I'm speaking in Classical Greek)
As planned between them the night before, Xander picked up Dawn around six-thirty, having already acquired better than average food and beverages on the way over. She wore sweats and brought with her the books of Giles they'd used as part of the spell. She had her hair pulled back into a pony tail, not usual for her, and Xander had noticed.
"Picked up a few Buffyisms, I see," Xander joked, looking at her hair, "Is that your sister's?"
"Oh yeah," Dawn beamed, "I loan her my body, and she doesn't know she loans me hair scrunchies and insight into her psyche."
(Do you remember anything else?) Xander asked her.
(Yeah, I some Greek know) she replied, rolling her eyes, (And I sense things better I think…)
(Cool,) Xander continued, (Let's continue our conversations in the languages needing practice, so that your retention will be higher.)
(You're so starting to sound like Giles,) Dawn remarked in kind, (How much do you remember from your loops?) Xander remained silent for a moment before answering.
(One of my costumes was a dark mage in his youth,) Xander sighed, (And he decided that he wanted to stick around. So his spell caused him and the other memories to be like super highlander quickenings. I get it all, everything during this day.)
(Oh, and since this day ends not,) Dawn realized, (every costume you wear adds more and more.)
(You seem to be handling this pretty well, Dawn,) Xander noted, then joked, (I didn't know your sister would leave you this mature.)
"Puh-lease," Dawn grimaced, then considered, "Though I guess when you add in just sheer extra experience and all this slayer stuff, maybe a little, though I just don't see it her way."
"How so?" Xander said, also switching to English as they pulled into the SHS parking lot near the library.
"Well, I understand what attracts Buffy to her vampire," Dawn conceded, "Though I consider him boring and stalkerish. He's seemed more… human… since he saved Buffy. Before that he was really yucky, but after his going down into the Master's Lair with y—" Xander halted suddenly and looked at her.
"She thinks he saved her?" Xander asked incredulously, "Since when does a vampire learn CPR? And since when does an eighty-year defeatist grow a pair? This stays between us, Dawnie, but I forced that bastard at cross-point and then I brought her back. I guess the oxygen deprivation of being drowned musta killed of a lot of brain cells." He opened the door and held it for her as they carried stuff in.
"Not nice, Xan, and she thought only a master vampire would be strong enough to force his way down there, Xander," Dawn sighed, "And she did think you were brave to go with him."
"Okay, so what's with her martyr complex?" Xander asked, now that 'taboo' topics were out in the open, and realizing Dawn was not Buffy.
"Confused, wouldn't have chosen if asked," Dawn replied, then softer, "And I think when Merrick…died…her first Watcher, it's carried over. And Dad left. Everybody but me and mom, and since I'm not the slayer she's expecting me to leave too."
"So she feels abandoned deep down, and is…"
"Kind depressed…can you be lightly depressed for a long time?" Dawn replied. "If so, she needs to take fun breaks."
"Yeah, depression doesn't have to be the abyss to get to you Dawn," Xander remarked, "You just have to figure out ways of diverting it so it doesn't consume you. So…why the vampire?"
"Tall, dark, mysterious and she thinks he's powerful enough to stay with her longer than other males have," Dawn responded, "She'd feel really isolated if mom and I weren't here. I'm guessing on a lot of this, since I have memories and such but no real way of sorting it more than that."
"Hmmm, I gotta ask," Xander sighed, "Did she have a clue how she was treating me when she did the dance when she came back this summer?" Dawn stared, trying to remember, then blushed as though it'd been her.
"Oh. No she didn't, she was just in her weird I'm the Lone Slayer but I still want to yank Angel's chain attitude," Dawn considered, "And if she were half as embarrassed as I feel right now, she would. Sorry?"
"Thanks Dawn," Xander replied with a sad smile, "Maybe when we get out of the loop, we'll see about get her some counseling, and maybe some medication for the depression."
"Yeah, but what psychiatrist would believe her vampire tales?" Dawn agreed, but shook her head. "Maybe one of these loops you could go as Freud" Xander looked at her as he finished his coffee and croissants like she was crazy.
"Dawn, as stuck as I'd been on your sister before the Resets," Xander said, backing away from that idea, "I'm not going to be ship's counselor on this trip."
"But I don't think that I would be someone she'd listen to," Dawn sighed, "Though on one of our trips I just might go as Troi."
"Cool," Xander smiled, relieved that the Buffy analysis was over, "By the way, how'd you get your mom to agree to you coming out this early?" Dawn winced and was about to say something when the telephone rang. Cocking an eyebrow at her and sighing, he answered it.
"Sunnydale High Library, Harris speaking."
"Hello, Ms Summers, how are you?"
"Yes she is…I'm guessing from your tone she just left you a note?"
"Uh-huh, yeah, I already got a quart of OJ, a couple muffins and a croissant into her just now."
"Homework? I was going to start training her in self-defense and such after that craziness last night, but seeing as we're in a library, by the end of the weekend, she'll be able to teach the class."
"How about I return the little miscreant around 3-ish?"
"Okay, great, bye."
"Hey, Dawn, next time a little warning, please," Xander smirked playfully, "And to keep my promise to your mom, I get to pick out your costumes until you really can teach the course." Dawn at first looked horrified, then realized school and maybe college just became very easy.
"What's first, sensei?" Dawn enthused, "Math? Science? Social Studies?"
"Well, since we're on a 'school' kick, maybe we'll both go for a few together?" Xander said, conceding his own need for grade-boosting, "Then we'll figure out a few good costumes to go with my already planned next few."
"Got any ideas?"
"Oh, yeah, now all we have to do later is a little recon to figure out where to get whatever else we need in order to fill in costumes we get from Ethan."
"Can I be smarter than Willow?" Dawn asked, "That way I could talk to her about smart people stuff and not feel slow."
"Okay, now there's a good idea," Xander approved, "I've already been Asimov, so—"
"You were Mister 'I, Robot'?" Dawn gasped in amazement.
"Dawn, if you were five years younger, I'd adopt you," Xander laughed, "or ten years older, and I'd worship you like a Sci-fi goddess." The two friends laughed as he explained his plan.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Angus MacGyver swore as he'd stepped through the far event horizon of the wormhole to find himself…in a suburb? "Now what?!"
"Sir, is that you?" a pretty young brunette girl wielding a P-90 said as she approached him. Her mannerisms reminded him of…
"Carter?" MacGyver, known to many as Colonel Jack O'Neill, queried as he looked at his hands and realizing the twinges in his knees had disappeared, "What's going on?"
"We seem to be in a suburb or small town, sir," Samantha Carter replied, reaching into pockets to find a compact and a wallet. "I seem to be in the body of a girl named Dawn Summers, aged thirteen "she groaned "And I attend Sunnydale High School and Middle School half-time each."
"Aw, so even your new…you…is brainy," Jack smirked, recovering Xander's id and a letter. "I'm guessing I'm Xander Harris, and he left a note. Let's see…Dear possession guy, I foresaw this happening and couldn't find a way to avoid it. I think of the brunette girl as a sister, so don't try anything fly-boy. Vampires in this world are real, as are demons. You now know magic works. If you don't believe me, Angus MacGyver who is Jack O'Neill who flinched when Sam said she'd macgyvered the gate together, go on the assumption. The big vampires, especially an obnoxious British one with the Billy Idol look, are more evil than Apophis. Sam has very bad luck keeping boyfriends alive. Be warned. The 'mini-demons' are children transformed like you and Sam. Do not kill the kids, Jack. On you, you'll find wooden stakes, crosses and holy water, and hopefully your cartridges have converted to blessed-silver-coated wood, some phosphorus rounds and such. Normal bullets don't kill unless there is no heart left or you've decapitated the things. Good luck, and in three hours look for Ethan's shop in the business district, by then he'll be there, and you can destroy the glowy-eyed statue to go home and let me have my body back."
Sam, who'd only halfway paid attention after the 'MacGyver' revelation, fired off a couple of rounds at a charging monster's feet, scaring it off.
"Sir?" Sam gasped in disbelief, "Why do you act so obtuse if you're really MacGyver? We could get so much more done on missions…"
"Carter," Jack interrupted, "Burn-out. I'm Jack O'Neill, normal guy, who also happens to be a genius. And I learned that being Jack is very calming, and it seems to make those around me work harder at what they do instead of one-up or get bogged down. Could you imagine how bad Daniel would be if he knew I know more about North American archaeology and cultures than he does? He'd be too busy discussing rather than rock-hunting. Plus, while I can be language-knowing guy, he really is a linguist, better than I am. I'm the overlap and the Authority Guy. So if you have any questions, we'll cover them tonight, otherwise, only in rare situations when we're paired up in the field or captured and held separately from the others."
"Does the General know?" she asked.
"Nope," Jack smiled, "And I don't plan to tell him."
An hour of patrolling later, they'd rescued around two dozen people from mini-demons and had managed to blast away about four hostiles that turned to goo and evaporated, thus proving demons existed in this reality.
Sam had asked lots of questions, some of which Jack/Angus answered, and then she moved on to discussing goa'uld technology, possible applications at the SGC, and more. When he broke down and made a couple of corrective comments, she knew he was MacGyver since she'd not put a couple of items in her report, and yet he not only understood, but understood.
"Carter," Jack asked, relatively relaxed in spite of the alertness, "How about we see if that statue's ready to get knocked over. I'd feel better continuing this at O'Malley's or perhaps on a fishing expedition to Minnesota."
"You mean the fishing thing is for real," she looked at him in stunned amazement.
"It's a zen thing, I like to fish, it lets me do some free-association thinking while keeping my hands busy," he said defensively, "And besides, what's wrong with fishing?"
"Well, Sir," Carter spoke aloud, thirty minutes later, "We're finally here. What now?" She watched as he dusted himself of remaining vampire dust, grimacing.
"Now that I have most of Billy Idol off of me, I guess I'm ready," Jack half-whined, "But did you have to shoot him at full-auto while he was twisting me arm?"
"Well, Sir, you did make it an order, 'Damn it Major, just spray the sonofabitchbeforeitils me,'" she quoted, barely suppressing a smile, "So I just followed orders."
"But you got me all dusty," he grimaced, "And I'm so ordering you not to tell Daniel about this."
"Fine, Sir, shall we kick in the door and shoot everything, or follow proper entry procedure?" Jack answered, twinkle in eye, by kicking in the door and charging stupidly in, screaming nonsensically. Charging into the store, and finding no one in the room, Jack effectively tackled a man coming out to investigate, winding him. Rolling back to his feet, Jack noticed the statue, lightly rifle-butted Ethan in the head to render him unconscious. He checked the room, as Carter secured the outer areas and met up with him staring at the statue.
"Go ahead, Sir," Carter smiled, "I know you want to…" Jack smiled and blew the statue away at full automatic.
SHS Library, 10 AM next day
"And then w-we found that Ethan guy all tied up in duct tape and he couldn't move," Willow rambled rather than babbled, "And the money was gone from the shop, so we think robbers just got lucky and stopped the spell."
"Whoa, decaf, Willow," Xander laughed, as he stood up and gestured Dawn to the practice area as Buffy and Giles were discussing if the thieves might be connected to the night life in town. Dawn and Xander began to slowly circle each other, while taunting and commenting in Greek, and gradually caught the attention of the others as Dawn lunged and Xander side stepped lightly.
(Ha, Morning Light," Xander laughed, (You forget that I'm older and have good knees.) he feinted, then grabbed her wrist, rolled behind her, tapped the back of her neck and leapt away. (What would Sam say, slow poke, letting the old man take you down so easy.)
(Okay, Horseman,) Dawn quipped in such a way as to catch his attention, which worked long enough to gain her two minor strikes, (Prepare to meet this apocalypse) only to be floored again, but getting in a side-kick on the way down.
(Oooh, Psych warfare time, huh, Buffy Two?) Xander mocked as he missed the easy grab, but presses her back, (Next go-around, I'm thinking girl-janitor to remind you of this impending humiliation.) She grabs his wrist, thinking a victory within reach, as he falls limply to the ground, pulling her down, she loses her control of the situation to have him pin her under him.
"Okay, you two," Buffy interrupted, Giles and Willow walking just behind her, "What's with the martial arts display?"
"A-and why is your Ancient Greek better than my own?" Giles added, curious.
"Simple, Watcher-Guy," Dawn addressed the question, "We remember being our costume characters. As to the specifics, go add Show-Time to your cable service and you'll learn what they know."
"So who'd you go as?" Willow asked.
"Xan was MacGyver, known as Jack O'Neill," Dawn supplied, "And I went as Samantha Carter?"
"So you're both as smart as me now?" Willow asked, amazed.
"Maybe, Wills," Xander replied, smirking, "But it could take weeks to train Dawn to Willow-babble. And nothing says lovable genius like a babbling red-head."
"Darn, tootin' mister…" Willow smiled, then caught the zinger, "Hey!"