Xander came out of the changing room at Ethan's wondering how a thing like dancing could have gone astray. Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly he could understand and feel manly enough since most of his classmates were idiots who'd never seen any of the old movies in which they'd starred. But this…made him glad he was looping.
"Dawn, this suit is going to kill me," Xander said as he started to look up, "And he wasn't the brightest bulb in the disco…" And then he saw Dawn in her outfit and gulped.
"What's the matter, Xan?" Dawn cooed, "Starting to like what you see?"
"It's unexpected, Dawnie, and remember the rules," Xander said, starting to sweat. Ethan grabbed the money from Xander's hand as the two left the store. Dawn insisted on running down the street, buying about two hours worth of cassette tapes that would work in the boom box Buffy used for training or even the secret stereo system Giles kept locked away for his own use since no one knew the library was also a back up media center.
While she was in there, Xander quickly ducked into a beauty salon that looked like it was still stuck in the 70s or 80s, handed the receptionist a twenty, and asked her for just a quick hair blow and hair spray to finish the look and to surprise Dawn.
Finishing fast and amazingly first, the 30-somethings gave him a few pointers on 'the walk' before sending him out the door. Xander found Dawn with a smaller boom box as well as the various tunes.
"Oh! I love your hair!" Dawn hugged him, "Thank you!" Xander suddenly beamed back at her as they got into the car.
"Hey, Dawnie," Xander smiled, "I found a place we can go dancing at the university, we'll head over as soon as we're done with the candy brigade."
Sunnydale High was rendered nearly speechless for a variety reasons, some because of the music, some the muscled state of the costume wearer, and some the entire look of Xander Harris as he walked down the halls of the school in full costume…a true Halloween horror as Dawn casually strutted along with the music playing at this side, a sight unto herself.
Well, you can tell by
the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music
loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other
way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on
man.
"Ladies," Xander winked as he passed by Cordelia and her flock.
Whether you're a
brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin'
alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and
we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin'
alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Larry leapt out as though to strike Xander, who grabbed a wrist, spun him around almost in a dance move but into the lockers face first as the white-jacketed disco icon moved along without much interruption, 'Thank you, Methos for having survived the 70s for me, and for having used such a move.'
Well now, I get low
and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got
the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just
can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to
see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Times'
effect on man.
He passed Oz, winked and made a hipster firing of a gun hand gesture at the musician and kept walking.
Whether you're a
brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin'
alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and
we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin'
alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life
goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life
goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin'
alive.
"Principal Snyder, ladies," Xander greeted, taking the troll's hand in a surprise handshake, "Sir, which ones are mine for the evening?"
"Those, uh, there, Harris" the normally shouting or sneering man responded with confusion, the polite disco dancer being something unexpected.
Yeah, I have to admit to you that I'd forgotten to give Willow a head's up even the usual letter or sword form. The smoothness of my disco walk experience without ridicule had left me in such a positive mood that I can't really excuse myself. Dawn and I had a great time as Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. The two of us had driven over to a Dance Club Night over at the University's Fine Arts College and spent the night dancing and waiting for something to clue us (Olivia and John) into what had caused our body swaps. It was rather amazing that once they'd realized they were who they were and now looked like, they'd just gone along with it. Maybe it's an actor thing.
The spell wore off, and when I found the letter for Willow on the floor of the car, we'd mutually revealed that neither of us had prepped our family on the goings-on. It was a little before midnight by the time I got to the Library to find a grieving Willow and Giles. I stared at Dawn and she stared back in horror. Rupert had not managed to figure out Ethan's participation in time that go around, and his slayer died at the hands of William the Bloody. Angel had again been rendered into dust particles trying to save her. Willow, covered with Buffy's blood, had fled in terror, and was went into shock as she wandered back to the library and muttered about it for an hour until Giles finally did piece the fragments of her babbling together. Cordelia in her cat costume was mauled in a dog-thing attack and barely hospitalized in time, and Amy Madison raped by pirates. Hundreds were dead, or badly hurt. Again.
Dawn buried herself into Xander's chest, screaming. Even though they knew they'd be resetting, the tiny little voice in the back of their minds was always there, casting doubt. Dawn vacillated between sorrow and rage, the latter eventually gaining control as Willow and Giles drew near.
"Let's go kill them, Xander," the young girl rasped, "I want them to pay…even if it takes all Resets I want them all to pay."
"I don't think you're balanced enough, Dawn," Xander responded, even as some of her slayer strength tightened her embrace. "I'd lose you, too." She pulled away abruptly and stared into his eyes, her own very red from crying.
"Then kill them all for me," she replied, very voice dead, "And I don't want to do this any more until I see Spike's dust." She turned away and sat down, Giles and Willow looked and listened with confusion. Xander headed for the office, coming out with Rupert's revolver and the keys to the weapons cage.
"X-Xander, what are you planning?" Giles asked with concern showing in his voice, "You're not going after two master vampires are you? You'll d-die…like Buffy."
"Dawn'll explain things to you, Ripper," the young man responded, weapons expertly placed around his body. The white suit was gone, a t-shirt and pair of gym shorts in their place. Giles froze into place at the use of his old nickname, "I'm heading over to Angel's for better clothing, and then I'll be seeing a pair of vamps about a timeshare in a dust buster."
Xander counted eighteen minions, Spike and Drusilla from the two skylights he'd looked through half an hour before. 'Twenty vamps,' he calculated, then smiled ferally, 'Not the best odds. It's a good thing I stopped at Willy's first.' His eyes glinted with cold humor, the bar owner's first clue as to his presence had been when he'd entered from the back room and leapt over the counter, revolver to head.
Flashback
"Willy, I'm in need of greater firepower," Xander whispered as some of the demons looked up in curiosity. "I get whatever weaponry you have in this place, and I very possibly pay for it, or you die and after much unnecessary conflict with your patrons, I take it anyhow."
"I-I think we can do business, kid," the bartender choked, and listed off a partial inventory. And Xander actually paid him with money a thoroughly bloodied Ethan Rayne had still had with him when Xander had come calling. Ethan wouldn't need it any more.
End Flashback
Xander smiled as he crept up on the two guard vamps at the front door. Now he'd get to see if the weapons he'd acquired would do the job. Two loaded pump shotguns slung low and loose, two 45s looped loosely around his wrists, and two swords over his back, Xander stepped around the corner, a leaking 5 gallon container of gas in one hand, 45 in the other, and two lit cigars dangly from his mouth. He knew it was too unplanned, and he was too poorly armed for this, but he'd promised Dawnie.
The entry was only twenty feet away and the two vamps faced him as he made it to about sixteen feet. He 'aimed' and fired six times, surprising them as the rounds tore into one and then the other, flooring them. Xander hurried toward them and hurled the leaking can the last four feet as they started to pick themselves off the ground, recovering, and noise of response could be heard inside. He reached down with his free hand and dropped the cigars onto the trail of fuel.
Whoosh the flame came up. Xander ran back to the corner of the building. Looking back around it as he reached cover, the two minions had regained their footing as six more came out the door and looked at him as the can exploded. Screams were music as he raced around to the back door shotgun at ready. Two minions ran out and at point-blank range he blew their heads off and knocked back a third minion right behind them. Pump and fire in the door and to the left, pump and fire to the right, he stepped in to see they'd been the only vamps sent back. 'Nine and the Demonic Duo, if I'm lucky,' Xander quipped to himself. 'Back and around I guess.'
He was half-way back along the building when four vamps came around the corner, two badly burned. He could faintly hear British swearing from the back door. 'Oh well, these first…' Pump and fire, pump and fire and then he dropped to switch to the other. Three more rounds, remains of the last vamp dusting on him. Sneezing, he turned to see Spike and four minions come around the corner. 'Hmm, not good. Better get the other three before I'm trapped.' He took a step toward the main entrance, when he saw two vamps come around the corner and heard a noise above. Gun already pointing upward, he adjusted and fired, rewarded with a scream, but also the wrenching of his weapon from his hand as the body fell atop his bracing arm. Running toward the other two, running at him, he went with twin 45s firing madly and wildly. He tore into them, dusting them, only to notice that they'd also been recently burned as one sidearm came up empty and steps close behind him caused him to turn as the pain of a knife in the back caused him to lose consciousness.