A week of training had been good for the group, helped bond them together even tighter than they'd become. Kendra was teaching basic self-defense moves and the use of crossbow pistols (which Faith found at a sporting goods store and had Tara buy each go-around). Tara was teaching the basics of meditation and herbal lore as prerequisites of learning magic. Faith was drawing them both out of their shells and teaching them about normal life, avoiding the wrong types of people and other 'street' skills. Every night they drove around to a different area, and as they suspected, whenever the 'Scoobies' let the spell go on for too long, vampires and other demons seemed to be attracted to the area. Carefully listening in on the Library group had slowly filled them in on many of the details they'd needed to know to get a better picture, but they had neither the experience or the research materials necessary to go much further.
On their forays, however, they'd been able to guess that maybe upwards of three hundred vampires were entering Sunnydale from other places by nine o'clock, of which they at most were only about to ambush fifty or sixty. Kendra had been the most nervous and uncomfortable of the three, the idea of a Slayer encountering that many in a night normally would have meant the calling of a new Slayer. With a pair of friends with their own perspectives and gifts (Tara's fire spells and Faith's idea to ambush them in their vehicles) made a difference, and really committed the three to finding an end to the Resets early enough to prevent the surge of undead, or hold it to survivable levels. Maybe they'd be contacting the main group sooner than expected.
Xander and the group had spent the last week researching for the most part, but also focusing on an aspect of their skills and abilities to draw it out. Xander and Dawn leaned more towards the hunting and destruction of vampires, while Doyle and Willow followed their own tendencies to research, develop an inventory of what they'd need post-Resets, and planning for the future. Focusing as much as possible on his previous encounters with the nightlife, as York, Murphy, Chronos, Hicks, and others, Xander had put together a general route and schedule with his companions' assistance. For weapons, they lacked the firearms necessary to really get the job done, but had a good plan for dealing with the undead when they did. Doyle had scoped out the weapons possibilities for the future. A trip down to Caritas had given them a few leads as to possible necromancers and such, but so far they hadn't moved on the information.
It was costume time again, and the girls had everything planned out, even down to planning get Jonathan, who usually showed up to exchange costumes while they were there, to dress up in their themes for many of the next few Resets. Xander couldn't remember a lot of the details as he'd been focusing on the 'Battle of Sunnydale' planning, but felt certain enough that they wouldn't embarrass him too greatly in the process. He'd also noticed a blonde girl with beautiful eyes driving around town a couple nights, and he thought he'd seen her recently, but couldn't quite place her.
The three girls had noticed that the costume-group had gone into the shop again. They knew from listening in that they seemed somehow to keep the skills and memories of those they'd dressed as. Tempting as it was to try it, Tara had cautioned that until the three of them also could keep the skills and memories, they'd only be leaving themselves open to attack. Instead, they followed the group, and if no knew information came to light in the next week, introductions would be made.
"What about cutting the whole deal short?" Faith asked, "That way they'll keep the memories and such, but we keep the vamps away and kids safer."
"Th-that might be a good idea, Faith," Tara agreed and they both turned to see Kendra deep in thought, "K-Kendra?"
"Dat sounds like a good idea," she began, paused, then continued, "But I'm tinkin dat we meet up wit dem and have dem help us eliminate de spell."
"So, you're thinkin' that a show of good intention will make it easier?" Faith asked, nodding, "But if we do that we'll be talking with them tonight."
"I tink dat since we have been scoutin the town for a while now, we should tell dem dat de vam-pyres are attracted by some-ting in de spell and de Hell Mouth." She looked at her friends, who both nodded.
Aral had just sat down to dinner with his family; Miles had managed to bring home Elena for a visit and Cordelia was glad to converse with a woman with both Barrayaran and Galactic perspectives. However, Aral suddenly found himself, and presumably some of the others based on attire and reaction, in a completely unfamiliar location. It seemed residential by the looks of it, and perhaps a little like some of the housing popular amongst the gentry and successful trades families a generation ago.
"Nothing hurts!" a short young man exclaimed, "And I'm taller! Okay, only up to like four or five more inches, but still…"
"Miles? Is that you?" Aral asked the young man intently.
"Yes it is…" the young man responded, looking at him and the others as they sorted themselves out, "What's happened?"
"I hesitate to speculate, Miles," Aral replied to his apparent son, "Let's determine our situation and that of the others first." They walked up to the others dress in recognizable attire, and after some question and answer sessions, were relatively assured that the group consisted of Aral (Xander), Elena (Dawn), Simon Illyan (Doyle), Cordelia (Willow), and Miles (Jonathan).
"Excuse us," a dark-haired girl called out, "We could use your help in straightening this mess out." The Barrayarans turned as one and gave Faith their full attention.
"If you could explain the situation to us," Aral responded, "We would be more likely to comply." Tara nodded reassuringly to the Boston teen.
"Well, this town is on a…dimensional rift," she explained, "And in this dimension magic does exist" she gestured to Tara, who fired a fireball of near some demons heading for that annoying Buffy chick "and as a result of a guy tapping the rift for his mojo, he's turned people into their costumes. Kinda like possession, but it's keyed to bring you in from the multi-verse for a while in hopes of providing him with amusement. So when kids and others dress up as monsters…they're made into monsters. We know where this guy is, and since you seem to be good guys according to Tara, we could you your help in ending this before too many kids get hurt. How 'bout it?"
"How do you know of us?" Miles asked, "We just got here."
"I-In our world you're characters in a series of books," Tara explained, "And we're guessing that that gives more focus to drawing you in."
"Is it two way?" Miles pressed.
"W-we don't know of anyone else whose dressed up in the group the same thing, to ask," she replied.
"If we assist you," Aral responded, "Can you explain to us what you know of our 'dimension' so that we can maybe avoid anything particularly bad coming up? I remember meeting with my son after Vervain, but Elena and Miles are talking about a clone-brother, and Cordelia is just remembering Miles' explaining his new Dendarii experiences and the death of Elena's father. And Simon's complaining about the costs of 'Admiral Naismith' and his mercenaries breaking his budget again."
"Uh, um, okay?" Tara and as they walked to Ethan's she explained to Lord and Lady Vorkosigan what she remembered of the books, and suggested that they actually ask Simon since he has the chip in his head.
"So, Tara," Xander slipping into Methos-mode remarked as the statue shattered and Ethan curled in spell-induced sleep at their feet, gabbing her hand gently and guiding her outside as the rest followed, "You come here often?"
"N-No, just recently," she shyly replied but played along, "W-we've been, um, doing this since that night in the diner, w-with that W-Whistler guy."
"That's where I remember you!" he smiled, "I've seen you riding about in a car looking at everything. I'm going to pay for this in the not-too-distant future, but I've been thinking about how beautiful your eyes are for the last couple of Resets, kinda like Dawn or Buffy's, and with Willow's size all wrapped up into one. And before I get slapped in the back of the head by the two girls who've decided I'm theirs after this mess clears up, I'm just being honest, not making with the moves on you."
"S-so what now?" she replied, suddenly unsure, as the Brits showed up ready to end the spell.
"Well, we go get some take-out," he said, "I hope you like Chinese because it's Chinese night at the library, and we'll swap information. 'Kay?"
"Y-yes," she agreed, smiling at the nice way he spoke to her, 'Not like my family…' Xander caught the brief look of sadness.
"Are you okay," he whispered very softly, surprising her, "I've hidden that look myself more than once." She nodded.
"Yes," she whispered back without stutter or stammer, "Thank you."
The next two weeks passed busily as the girls were integrated into the Reset Group, exchanging information, surveying the differences in vampire numbers and activity and generally trying to come up with a more complete picture. The research re-exhausted itself as everyone reached the same levels of understanding and while they could anecdotally understand what was going on, they'd been so far unable to pin down the immediate causes.
"W-what would it take to make you happy with your life…Xander," Tara asked at one point while the others were training or otherwise occupied, "I-I think you're the key to this."
"You know, Drusilla said something like that, and that I'd be the one to save Miss Edith by sending Drusilla away when I accept things," Xander replied, "But if what I've learned about her from Angel is true, and Miss Edith exists…" He drifted off into deep thought and Tara arrived and vocalized the conclusion.
"Miss Edith is the soul, and Drusilla the demon," they said, drawing the attention of Angel and the two Slayers who'd been coaching the others. Xander turned to Angel.
"Miss Edith is the soul, and because of the broken nature before her turning is still there," Xander explained, "And more importantly, though I believe I been down this road before, I think if I can either affix her soul as in control she'll be like you, but less broody, and if we dress Drusilla as Edith, then it'll be like when Spike left a corpse instead of dust behind."
"You mean?" Angel began.
"S-Spike and D-Drusilla still have souls, trapped inside or merged with them," Tara added. Xander began pacing as he kept going.
"If they have souls affixed, and we link the spell to the end of the chaos spell, maybe we can make them living humans again," he tossed out.
"B-but what happens to the demons?" Tara asked, intrigued at being closer to solutions to two avenues of research.
"An exorcism, maybe?" Angel suggested, beginning to realize the inkling of hope, "To cast out the demons."
"Yeah, but how to ensure that they come back as healthy humans and not just zombies like Daryl Epps?" Xander countered, reminding them of the girl parts event back in September, "We need to ensure it 'sticks' if you know what I mean."
"I-it should," Tara added, gesturing to where Willow was petting Phil the Groundhog, "Phil came back to life."
"Hmm, yeah, but we need to make sure before we make Dead Boy into Live Boy," Xander emphasized.
"How about dressing him up as Connor Macleod," Faith contributed, "They have the same broodiness and foreheads, maybe if we stab him while he's in costume his body'll heal up by the time the spell's ended."
The group stared at her for a moment until Xander smiled and nodded.
"Good thinking Faith," the young man said, "And if he comes through partially human, we can dress him up again as a different Immortal until it works."
"B-but what if it doesn't work," Tara questioned, "W-would you try that spell of yours with the memories and stuff?"
"Hmm, I don't know," Xander conceded, "But a necromancer would, and we might want to follow-up on that after all. We wouldn't want to go so far with this we couldn't properly undo it."
"So we're really considering restoring the humanity to two really bad vampires?" Willow asked as the rest of the group finished up and joined the gathering.
"I don't like messing with souls at all," Xander said, "But with them, and Angel, it might be that the souls are here now, in which case we just might be getting rid of the demons and putting things partially right again." This statement garnered nods from the Watchers and Angel.
"W-what about vampires just turned but not eating people yet?" Dawn asked.
"You mean, still corpses, but the demon hasn't had much if any time to move in?" Xander asked, "Hmm."
"W-we could do the curse if we knew it, a-and do the same as with the others," Tara considered, "But will a curse work if they haven't killed anybody?"
"Well, if Jana will call her Uncle Enjos," Xander said, "Maybe she can find out enough about the spell and the spell caster by the next Reset to let us know something."
"Who's Jana?" Buffy asked.
"I am," Jenny Calendar admitted, looking concerned at Xander, "And I guess I'll be making that call now."