They came through the vortex on the other side of the island, cloaked and heading for shore, Xander wondering what the smiles from Beth, Dawn and Willow entailed.
'Coming up on the coast Commander," Major Beckett confirmed, "We seem to have a Sunnydale."
"Thank you, Major," Xander responded, then turned to Willow, "Lt. Rosenberg, anything as to a possible date or landing?"
"The Breaker's Wood landing option seems best right now, Commander, and as to dates, I think Tara might prefer Italian, with a more adult venue than the Bronze for dancing, or you might try coffee at one of those little places near the college." Tara blushed crimson and allowed her hair to hide it.
"Thank you, Willow, and as amusing as that is, admittedly, please give me what I actually requested."
"Information coming in, it seems to be September 28, 1998 by stellar reckoning, so that would be a Monday."
"It tells you that?" Beth asked.
"No, Willow knows every school day…" Alexander remarked, causing Willow to blush from the truth, "Okay, everybody, it's early enough to where I think main Sunnydale groups should infiltrate and make contacts with the Slayerettes, see what's going on. We'll scope out the status of that mansion we've mentioned on Crawford Street, and possibly land the Capricorn in back."
"Sir, what about the R&R we discussed for the family groups if this isn't your home?" Major Beckett asked on cue.
"Hmm, I think once we're confident enough, we'll rent a charter bus and let the families head for Santa Barbara and just hang out at the beach, in restaurants and such for a couple days, please remind me to access the safe for funds, Maggie. Those remaining, will be encouraged to stay at the Sheraton if it exists, and maybe spend your days learning about Sunnydale and the intellectual property that might prove valuable to take with us. Logan, I'm going to put you in charge of that, Conrad is hereby detached to accompany you, as is Professor Arturo."
"Um, yes sir," the young woman responded.
"Okay, Major, you're in charge while I'm on 'away,' Bennish and Doyle will replace the bridge crew on this go-around. Mr. Williams will serve as your Security Officer in my absence. Joyce, Beth, Dawn, Willow, and Tara with me, believe it or not, only stakes, crosses and your hidden pieces. Pike, for now you're on door detail; keep the ship safe. Ten minutes people."
The Giles Apartment, 7 AM
Rupert Giles was locking the door of his house when he heard the approach and stop in front of his complex of maybe three or four motorcycles. Turning and walking down toward his own vintage and much-maligned automobile, he found a half-dozen people waiting for him, most of them very similar to those of his acquaintance.
"Mr. Giles, I'm Alexander Harris, from another reality, as are those with me," the huge version of Xander addressed him, shaking hands politely, "And having just arrived in your world, we were hoping you could spare some time to orient things for us during our visit."
"Well, uh, certainly, Mr. Harris…"
"Alexander please, and the fact I don't wish to be compared to my father is one of the minor points I wish to cover with you," the man said, "Shall we meet you at the library, or discuss this here."
"Perhaps the library might be roomier…"
"So let me recap to make sure I got this straight," Alexander raised his hand to prevent others from continuing, "Kendra came to town last November and saw Buffy Summers with Angel, so she dusted him when the two were apart." He received a nod. "Then this blue demon called the Judge came through and because of the Private Harris memories, fading though they are, you were able to blow up a bunch of vampires at Spike and Drusilla's warehouse, allowing you to reclaim and dismember the beastie." Another nod, then continuing, "Then this sorta relationship between Other-Me and Cordelia ended on Valentine's Day, and so Buffy offered to take Other-Me out for a coffee to commiserate, they become a couple over time, Kendra dies when all of you manage to dust Spike and Drusilla before they figured a way to use Acathla to send everyone to Hell. I miss anything?"
"Um, no, I believe that covers it," the librarian in this world agreed, "Though once the others get here, I'd be interested in your story."
They had left the confused group at the Library, with the plan of meeting them later established. The Sunnydalers made use of Willow's hacker tendencies to determine that this world's Tara had just arrived in Sunnydale and was enrolled in the university, that there wasn't a Dawn in this world, and that the Daniel Osbourne of this world, while dating Willow, did graduate and attend college.
It was a little before lunch when Alexander and Dawn left the Juvenile Courts with the necessary papers filed to emancipate Xander Harris and hold the charges of child endangerment and neglect, if not outright abuse over the heads of the local Tony and Jessica Shouting Club. Pointing out Xander's turning eighteen in a month and the provision of an account for college and educational expenses had swayed the case worker assigned, as well as copies shown that tax repossession of the mansion on Crawford had begun and a Rupert Giles had agreed to take in the young man until the papers cleared.
"Now what, O Great Commander Xander?" Dawn smiled, "Lunch?"
"Sounds like a great plan, Morning Light," he smiled back, using a nickname picked up during their Halloween Resets, "You wanna see if the others want to meet us?"
"I think mom and Tara might be free, Willow was going to give Beth the dollar-tour of a Sunnydale with people in it and eat near the University," Dawn mused, reaching for a cell phone they'd gotten for the Scoobs' use once they moved on. Alexander was gesturing at deli, Dawn nodding, as he put more money in the meter.
"What did they say?"
"They'd be over in about fifteen minutes, they're finishing check-in for everybody over at the Sheraton, seems the families decided to stay close to the ship this time anyway."
"Think they'll want to move here?"
"If they're smart, they'll wait for the next non-Sunnydale world we come across, I know I'd probably want my kids to be away from the vampires if I didn't already have a home."
"Where would you choose?"
"Caprica."
"No hesitation?"
"It was beautiful, and they have the Stargate to get to Earth," she admitted as they entered the deli and they considered food options before the others would show, "But we have responsibilities. Too bad we didn't have a manta-ship that could combine the Stargate and the Slide so we could go from Caprica to our own Earth, build hangars so no one would know we'd even left."
"Well, Brainy Girl, why don't you and the others make it a side project. We could build a pair of larger Gates on our Earth and on Caprica, then carry it over to the other Caprica and we'd have one piece done, and it would provide a nice big Trade Conduit without taking up all the gate time at the SGC. The manta gets up high, but we'd need to make sure it was safe up in geo-synch for any length of time. And if we charged one percent on the Gates—"
"Stop, okay," Dawn waved him back with a smile, "When did you become Mister Money, anyhow?"
"Hmm, I guess, now that you mention it, the characters I dressed up as pretty much had to crawl their way up the ladder, even the bad guys worked hard at it. And I do have a family to support."
"I kinda caught on to that last fact…" she nodded once with a smirk, "So I guess all the stuff in your head is settling down? Ya know what you wanna be when ya grow up?"
"Actually what we're doing now is kinda cool, but maybe build something like a multidimensional SGC and Watchers Council, like the Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne and General Hammond guy, that finds and helps the good guys against the bad, gets to take the wives out to the nice parties, or better yet, be known for throwing them. Sneak off to a club and play music, shoot billiards, the dream."
"That's a big dream, but if you find time for our kids, I'm for it Xander," Dawn smiled, drawing close to the father of her children, as an approaching Joyce announced her and Tara's presence.
"Hey, enough of that, we're here now," Xander's future mother-in-law smiled.
"Mom, there can't be enough if there isn't any," Dawn mock-whined and hugged the just-arrived women in greeting as though she hadn't seen them in a while, "Now let's eat, I'm developing a bigger appetite these days for some reason…"
Crawford Street, 6PM
"So Xander," Alexander asked as the two of them left the mansion with the local Scooby Gang, "How many soldier memories do you still have?"
"Only some, luckily Buff's been training with me since March, so it's been a big help, I think I have most of the unarmed Special Forces style back, as my own, and knife fighting's come in handy with wooden ones I keep with me. Why?"
"I know a spell that'd give the hyena and the soldier back."
"What about the fish guy?"
"Probably not, since there wasn't any magic involved and you never actually turned into one."
"I don't know if it's such a good idea, Xander," Giles cautioned, "While a memory spell might bring back the soldier memories, the other two aspects might be dangerous to you and others."
"Okay, I get that," the local Xander agreed, "So we'll at least get the soldier memories back, my test scores could use the boost if I'm hoping to get into U Sunnydale."
"Why not a different college, Xander?" Alexander asked, knowing the answer already.
"Well, I need to get a good enough career to support the Buffster, but I'm not leaving her alone on the Hell Mouth, though we might take some time off next summer on the funds you gave me."
"Funds?" Giles inquired.
"The MegaXander's pre-paid my college and housing, and gave me a little extra to make sure the group gets occasional time off to keep from burning out. I so hope you all like the idea of Paris and Tweed Town next July, because that's where we'll be going."
"Really?" local Willow asked with a smile, Buffy hugging her boyfriend tighter, Alexander receiving a grateful nod from Rupert. Oz gave Xander a nod.
"Yeah, though Mega-Me made me make a few promises I'll keep to myself right now."
"So what do we do now?" Buffy asked Alexander.
"Now I show you how to take a profiteering approach to demonic pest control."
"…"
"We find a few minions that may have been around a little while, but of course aren't bright enough to keep to the shadows, and in the course of Buffy beating them up, just happens to let them go…"
"And this is good because?" Xander asked.
"In the course of this she'll place on transmitter on the vamps," and we'll be able to follow from a distance where the bloodsucker goes, other demons and vamps he talks to, that sort of thing, eventually to a nest or lair. Even better if they decide to go brag about getting away from the slayer. That way you have plenty of targets, then all of us make daring raids, wipe out the vampires and loot their lodgings. This way you can at least pay some of those emergency room bills, afford better research materials, higher quality clothes that are stylish and can take the beating of a slayer lifestyle. Most important, by us helping you right now, you might be able to do enough damage to where your opposition for months to come will be individuals and no master vampires."
"I see you've thought this out," Giles replied.
"Remember, I do have thousands of years of memories to draw on," Alexander told them, "And I'm emphasizing the ones that Soldier-Me here can continue when my group moves on."