Three days of telephone and Internet contacts and research had yielded up many small pieces of information, but this meant that after scoping out Southern California with some direct recon, the Rest folks would soon be making a foray into dark magic wielders and a few follow-ups to help cleanse them of the taint.
Xander told the group tat before they got too far into the actual magic wielding, he'd promised Dawn and Willow four more costumes, and he might as well fulfill that before getting into the unpleasantness. He also didn't tell them that he planned to bring back Jesse, Morgan and Ampata no matter what, though they'd been mentioned in a few previous discussions.
The others would allow the spell only five or ten minutes to take hold, then they would proceed to end it before too many suffered.
The next four Resets proved quite beneficial in the long run, but at the time, only a few highlights survived to make a difference, such as…
Honor Harrington stepped into the street and aimed carefully at the strange people attacking others, firing into a large figure. While it caused little to no effect, the noise of her large side arm and the impact itself were sufficient to drive off the thing. As she did this Nimitz flew forward off her shoulder, racing in to tear apart another such figure, his claws cutting through the neck and causing it to implode into dust.
Tomas Santiago Ramirez fired his service-issue weapon repeatedly into a cluster of the yellow-eyed freaks, some turning to dust from the sheer amount of damage, others fleeing at the sight of mere humans cutting such a sudden swathe into their ranks.
Shannon Foraker and Senior Chief Harkness proceeded to kick and deflect the two opponents facing them, Harkness soon breaking off the head of one at the neck, while Shannon picked up a stick and managed to repeatedly stab her Harkness-punched opponent into unconsciousness until the others came up.
"Oops," Shannon smiled in embarrassment as she the stabbed the thing in the heart to watch it dust, "I kinda forgot from the stories that you stake the vampires, not bludgeon them." The spell lifted, and they noted that Phil was still a Tree-Cat as he walked up to them in confusion.
"Well, Stinker," Willow joked with the changed animal, "My name is actually Willow, and you're Phil, okay?" The intelligent life form looked back at her quizzically, until she held out a few pieces of celery, at which point he lunged at her with wide eyes, embracing and bonding with the human happily.
"Look's like Phil's life had improved," Xander quipped, then noticed his body was a full size bigger, but even more densely muscled, no fat on his already-enhanced frame, "And I seem to be muscle-guy, strong and heavy like Colonel Ramirez."
"Hmm, Xander," Tara pondered, then caught the looks of Kendra and Faith, "I said I was leaning toward girls-only because of my family. I haven't quite made up my mind, it's not like there are a lot of nice Xander-like guys out there." They smiled, laughed and nodded, even Dawn and Willow.
The next leap of costume choice landed them in a similar situation, but with Aragorn/Xander, Arwen/Dawn, Elrond/Doyle and Galadriel/Willow at one moment with their companions to see the end of the Fellowship at Orthanc, and the next easily turning back an attack of evil creatures of great speed and strength, only one of them managing to truly raise its hand in effective attack, throwing a knife at an ebony-skinned girl that had been in their accompaniment Gimli? Jonathan, just down the avenue, had cut down two evil figures and ended this last, but not soon enough to save the girl's life. As the spell lifted, Faith screamed and fainted as a white mist flashed from the dead girl to the Bostonian.
All but Dawn and Xander had turned from mourning to shocked amazement as two things happened the next Reset: Kendra, phantom pain in the chest and back where the knife had cut, was back with them, and Faith had started having weird and scary nightmares of the demonic type. When Kendra and the Watchers had asked about them, they'd determined with a couple of tests, that the reason Faith had been sent to Sunnydale by the Voices, was that she'd been an undiscovered potential slayer next in line. Seeing nothing but acceptance and smiles by Tara and Kendra, her 'sisters,' Faith could only respond as she now could offer real assistance in the fight, "Cool."
All but the core Resetters had shied away from dressing up themselves. Even though Kendra had not been in costume, her 'death' had proved so sudden and unexpected that they threw themselves into Faith's training and acclimation rather than get too close to the costume situation, but Xander, Doyle, Dawn and Willow went ahead with their next costume, as much to add a little light-heartedness to themselves as any other reason. Though the girls really liked the books and the playful superiority of the women-figures in the series.
Belgarion swung hard with his sword, the moment of decision at hand for determining the path of prophecy, wondering why his fight with Torak couldn't have resolved the matter with finality, only to strike the neck of a yellow-eyed evil man-form instead. It turned to dust as his companions used their magic or hid behind the others as the means of dealing with their situation. The young man could feel Aunt Pol and his grandfather behind him as he turned and began to sheathe his sword, the orb glowing at him insistently as Errand came up and placed his hand on it and held it as well as the one already in other hand.
"Prophecy fulfilled, but differently," the young boy began as the orbs merged into one, and the world around the froze as the chaos magic ebbed, "And at least you four must in your future travel to us and to others 'touched' by you in this manner, before destinies can continue." He pulled out a smaller orb from the combined orb, "But as my elevation must occur in my own universe, this small reminder from Aldur will remain with you, along with the sword, until you rejoin us in person. Thank you, friends, and to you, Belxander. Our Blessings to you and the knowledge you're on a path to escaping the circles of time."
"Uh, guys, what just happened?" Jonathan asked as the god-essence disappeared