They'd spent the rest of the Reset going over the answers Doyle had received. With a necromancer, a gypsy mage, a power source such as a chaos spell feeding off the Hell Mouth, the remains of the targets and the necessary items and materials, Doyle felt confident that they'd have success within the first few tries even if the first try didn't work.
Giles had caught what could have been a fatal or at the very least an embarrassing flaw in the plans: why would the possessors perform the spell, and mightn't such powerful magic users take out their displeasure on all of them?
It was with a sigh of relief that they decided to go for possession and immediate interruption of spell to obtain the particular gypsy and necromantic expertise. They discussed the various capabilities that could affect the magic: Xander having a massive quickening, sentinel senses, the integrated hyena spirit, the blessed blood of Indiana Jones, maximized body, and the inner power of King Elasser of Gondor and Belexander holding the orb as both a possible power source, filter of chaos and Hell Mouth energy and telempathic advisor. Dawn with sentinel capabilities and slayer spirit gifts, the power and capability if not the honed familiarity of skills of Polgara and Arwen Evening Star, Doyle with the power, knowledge and capabilities of Liet, Elrond and Belgarath, though similarly without the honing of usage within his body and without the divine connections the 'Bel' honorific might confer on Xander. Willow while without tremendous power, having available Lady Jessica's background as well as that of Galadriel and X'Nedra's personal links potentially important in a support capacity.
Three days of preparations and dressing Jonathan as Ivan Vorpatril and Commodore Koudelka from the Vorkosigan books, and Yoda for the third night, then tranquilizing him immediately when he became too distraught seemed to help him through the worst of the initial pain and fear of his situation, the surprise beheading not quite as alarming as when first his memories had revealed themselves, while the tendency of the costumes to recognize the authority of Xander's own did serve to counter to a great extent the feelings of betrayal. That and the day of Xander looking sick and depressed like Jonathan himself felt. That, and the annoying way Jonathan found himself speaking in Yoda grammar when tired.
The brief experience of being Necromancer Hainsley filled Xander with revulsion as he recovered from the transformation. That intimacy with the dead, the undead, demons and humans of great evil and taint of corruption made it an impossibility to shrug it off and sleep. Xander and the group immediately set to outlining and explaining to each other what they could do and how it should go.
Immediately after the Reset, Jonathan had immediately fulfilled his word by finding Giles and Ms. Calendar, taking up position in the Library and informing the two of what was going on, and of course to explain Phil the Tree-Cat. Wesley and Linda hailed a cab and proceeded to the magic store for supplies and to pick up a heap of food on the way to the library.
Willow had confused Buffy to no end as they raced to the weapons locker to find Xander already outfitted, several options for each of them readied and on the table, and talking to her mother about Dawn.
"What's with the weapons, Xander?" Buffy asked as she started to arm up, "I thought Halloween was supposed to be quiet night."
"Short version, Buff, is that Willow, Dawn, a few others and myself have done the Groundhog Day thing and are repeating Halloween over and over again," he told her just as Jonathan brought the two teachers into the room, "And we've amassed some power and ability. We're going on a nest raid on Spike's warehouse to capture him and Drusilla his crazy consort as we suspect something weird about the soul thing and Angel, like maybe their souls are trapped within the vampires. While on our way there, a couple of Watchers will help Willow and Dawn cast soul restorations without the happiness clause" Xander looks at Jenny "And then when Ethan Rayne the costume shop owner" looks at Rupert, then Buffy, "activates the spell turning everyone into their costumes, we'll have dressed them as their human selves, at which time I will entrap the demon essences to prevent their later return. If this works, Buffy, not only will we be able to restore them to human, but possibly Angel as well. Now let's go." He left without waiting for response.
An hour later, Spike had finally hit Drusilla hard, knocking her out after she started screaming that 'Clock Man and his Three Slayers were coming to get them.' He didn't want to do it, but what was a bloke to do? He sent his minions back to rest up for tonight when he suddenly felt a great pain in his chest that forced him to his knees. Slowly and excruciatingly, he struggled against whatever it was, something within him, and as he could see, Dru, leaving their bodies. He collapsed in exhaustion and confusion, barely keeping conscious as he felt something forcibly reentering his chest stronger than before, this a prelude to darkness.
The front door of the warehouse burst open, four figures with weapons charging in and surprise the few minions in the front area. Doyle hit the light switch to illuminate the main area, and Tara spelled a few fire spells at the most-threatening targets. Kendra, Buffy and Faith charged at the nearest vampires, sending them into dust as Xander raced over to the prone forms of Drusilla and Spike and rolled them into heavy tarps he'd brought for the purpose. A minute later, the poofing stopped and the girls happily exchange high-fives before helping with the lifting.
The trip to the costume shop was an unusual one to say the least, with only Kendra and Faith accompanying Xander into Ethan's.
"Ethan Rayne?" Xander asked directly as the annoyed proprietor walked up to him, "I need your assistance in a matter that will tremendously annoy Rupert Giles and disturb the Watcher's Council. How do you feel about that?"
"Tell me more," the chaos mage smiled evilly, "But I thought you were the Slayer's friend?"
"Of course I am, and I know about the Cruciamentum," Xander said, pausing to see that Ethan did in fact somehow know of the ceremony, "And as I can feel and almost smell the magic in this shop, I have an idea of what will happen tonight." At Ethan's look of concern, he waved a placating hand and spoke reassuringly. "While I won't let the Slayer here die, it will be funny to mock her for years to come," Xander chuckled as the Slayers unrolled the vampires, "and so we need costumes from 1860 and 1880 if you please, to see if your spell is enough to turn the re-souled William the Bloody and Drusilla into Immortal versions of themselves from that television show. Maybe put extra mojo. We stab them, they heal, and maybe turn them human when this is over."
"How does this upset Rupert?" the mage asked.
"Ripper's little slayer has a thing for a certain souled vampire that used to be Angelus," Xander gloated, "and turning the old boy human would distract her to no end as the vampire was a womanizer and a drunkard. And if this works, then Watcher Boy will have to deal with it. But the best part will be at the Cruciamentum when we just turn every vampire into a human. Or better, every time the Slayer is about to stake a particularly nasty vampire he'll suddenly be human."
"That's not bad, so this is just the beginning of a long series of pranks against those stuffed shirts?" Ethan asked as Xander nodded, "Count me in, that's why I'm doing this after all."
They tranquilized the two vampires before proceeding with the costuming. Both Kendra and Faith were extremely edgy being this close to the undead without ending it, but held up satisfactorily. Once they were done making physical contact, they rolled them back in the rugs.
"Why not just wait and see from here?" Ethan asked, "I'd very much be interested to know how it works out."
"Oh, you will," Xander assured him, a nasty grin forming, "We're going to drop these two off at Rupert's library just before the spell, which you're doing at six-fifteen you said? I already have a video camera planted and hopefully we get some good footage of the Watcher's reactions."
"Send me a copy won't you?" Ethan smiled back ferally, his Halloween getting that much better.
"You played that pretty nasty Chief," Faith remarked as they loaded up the cars, "You sure you're not in cahoots with him?"
"It's the necromancer after-effects and a bit of Methos shining through," Xander replied with a sick expression, "Once we get back to the library, I'll touch the orblet and feel better."
"Some kind of a charge?" Faith pressed, curious rather than suspicious.
"More like a filter or cleaner," Xander replied, "It's helped me lose some of the evil feeling from Hainsley's memories. I have to stop and get something from home first."
Surprisingly, Dawn with her newer and older appearance had been able to fill in for Xander on candy duty, Buffy shucking her Lady's outfit for normal clothes, claiming to be an undercover cop from twenty-one jumpstreet, and Willow wore her 'loose' clothing but none of the accessories from Ethan's.
The group gathered in the library and prepared their materials and marks for what would come next. Xander over the Hell Mouth, had created a relatively small circle of just over a six-foot diameter, necromantic rune markings surrounding a box placed into a small pool with water, into which he emptied eight bags of O- blood. Xander handed the tranquilizer gun to Giles, asking him to shoot immediately that which results within. Xander began his spell, and even the magically-disinclined could feel the charge in the air as the young man proceeded. Suddenly, Xander reached out and a flash with smoke filled the air in the circle.
"Now, Giles!" Xander called out, "Shoot!" The man did, hearing the dart hit something flesh-like. Xander then turned to a just-arrived Willow and pointed at the orb of Thessala, which she retrieved to find him dragging a naked male body into another prepared circle. Xander began to chant again, and those there recognized the words as those of the soul curse earlier cast. Minutes later, the body stopped twitching and rested again.
"Willow, hand me the clothes in the bag," Xander directed, "And bring over one of the Highlander costume swords with you." As she did, the smoke cleared enough for most including her to see. She dropped everything at Xander's feet as she gasped out in disbelief.
"Jesse!"
"I told you I'd try it, Wills," Xander asked, "And he'll get the same chance as the other three vampires."
"B-but what if he was in heaven?" Willow whispered loudly as Xander embraced her and held her steady.
"Remember our change to the curse Wills?" Xander asked, "I added 'if the soul be willing…' if you recall."
"Does that mean Spike and Drusilla are willing?" she asked.
"No, we yanked the souls out of the bodies and put them back in again," Xander explained, "So they never went to the afterlife."
"A-Are you going to do this every time we lose someone?" Giles asked, awed by the power shown.
"No, Giles," the youth sighed, "This type of thing requires touching a lot of dark magics and in a couple of hours, chaos magic. Since we're in this loop I have a good chance of remaining 'clean' but repeated use when things get moving again would have nasty repercussions. Part of why we're able to do this is because of the sheer amount of power given off by the loop. The only other way normally involves ten times as much blood, preferably from alive or fresh victims, and really delving into the nasty stuff, and you can't always avoiding bringing something back in a friend's body instead of his soul." He sighed, sat down and rested, sipping tea and waiting for the next stage as the vampires were also moved into the circle with Jesse.
A smoking Angel ran through the library doors at six-ten, looking in bewilderment at such a large crowd. Xander stepped forward and handed him some Highlander-style accoutrements and guided him quickly to the circle with the others, the other magically-capable assuming positions. Xander briefly outlined things as the time grew closer to six-fifteen. Jenny and Giles came forward with the four orbs, not of Thessala, but representing a focus for the exorcism.
Xander began the chanting at six-fourteen, quickly moving along as Giles apologetically tranquilized Angel. Xander paced himself and as the chaos magic could be felt creeping through the room, Xander signaled the others to add their voices and cast holy water into the circle as the chaos magic worked them over physically, and the exorcism forced out the demons into the orbs.
The bodies shook and writhed, and blue electricity covered the minor cuts inflicted on them just before the spell took hold, healing the bodies as quickenings corrected the damage. The orbs burst with dust and flame, briefest of seconds taking the forms of those they'd occupied. Tara declared the demon energies gone.
Xander moved into the circle, stabbing wooden stakes into the exposed chests of Edith, William and Jesse, removing them after a second to allow the healing to really reinforce what the team had already accomplished. Dawn and Doyle moved forward with healing draughts of the elvenkind, designed to purge the body of toxins as it sped up the natural processes. They indicated it would adversely affect unnatural forms of life. Willow checked the vital signs of the circle occupants, careful not to smudge any runes or chalk markings.
After half an hour, the four people in the middle of the circle began to stir, the tranquilizer doses being purged from their bodies. One after another they were compelled to drink the elven tea and then sit up carefully, then allow themselves to be seated at the tables as Tara and the others looked them over physically and supernaturally. Rupert dialed a phone number and three minutes later the chaos departed from the room.
Angel was the first to recover, looking around, and then staring up at Buffy smiling, as the other recent vampires made the same realizations.
"I'm human again, Buffy," he softly declared, then again louder with laughter creeping in, "I'm human!"
"Bro? Wills?" Jesse confusedly asked, "What exactly happened?" Willow lunged at the young man, babbling into his shoulder but no one could make out the words. "Bro? you staked me!" Jesse added in disbelief, causing Xander to step back with some shock.
"You would have hurt Wills, Jes," Xander rasped out, "And it was the demon, any way."
"But I remember it," the young man asserted, "But I also remember not being there."
"I had to bring back your vampire body first, then put your soul into it," Xander replied with the fatigue showing in his speech, "I couldn't let you hurt Willow."
"Okay, man," Jesse replied, "I'm good with that, I guess. Now what?"
"Good question," Xander replied, turning to see Giles and Jenny helping Edith and William with their newly restored humanity, "But I need to take a nap. Sorry." And with that, he put his head down on the table and let himself pass out.
"Well, well, well," Whistler in his black suit approved as he watched from the skylight, "That was interesting, but the Powers are gonna be pissed about Angel being human now. Hmm, truck stop chili sounds good right about now…"