Xander looked around, and nobody moved our talked the second the demon left, until he heard a gentle throat-clearing. He turned to find a tired-looking old man clearly of Mediterranean descent sitting on an empty seat.
"Mind if I sit down, I'm rather tired, you know."
"Go right ahead, though I'm hoping you're stopping by for more than a rest stop," Xander sighed, "I'm rather busy at the moment."
"The next moment perhaps, but right now time has stopped so I could talk over a few things with you," the old man coughed, "Namely my life and death situation."
Xander nodded and gestured for the man to continue.
"I'm Janus, the god Ethan Rayne throughout the sections of the universe he inhabits, called on for his amusement."
"Not endearing me to you here," a bit of the old Xander shone through.
"Understandable, though I should point out that the perceptions and worship of humans change, and over time it changes the gods themselves, or at least the roles we tend toward. Somehow I went from a god of doorways, thresholds, and change, among other agrarian things, to a god of Difference, of Chaos, which is neither Good nor Bad, but represents Probability."
"I'm hearing a lot of Capital Letters, here."
"Indeed you are, as if enough Beings Perceive, things can alter. And without any blame on you, your Unfortunate Circumstance has eliminated many of the Aspects of Higher or Infernal Beings not of the True Heaven or True Hell, in over 3,000 realities, and Threatened five times as many."
"How?"
Since you went as many people who are real in a huge number of dimensions, you changed History in most of those Worlds, at least slightly, and since most worlds are at equivalent time…"
"I caused time paradoxes, and in the worlds that would have branched from them."
"Very good, Alexander, most of the gods are too lazy to see that, but it gets worse. You see, the longer you progress in time in your Resets, and from your Halloween since, you're threatening to erase that much time in the opposite direction in many of those other realities, and this would just mean a Big Reset…"
"Except for the paradoxes."
"Yes!" the god exclaimed, "And the effect is to shred space and time, but also, the power drain on me, in a completely different plane from a different reality, created a whirlpool effect, and that's what's eating up the Aspects."
"You mentioned Aspects before," Xander interrupted, "What are those?"
"Pantheonic Beings do not generally divide themselves as individuals when new realities split off, Alexander, but we become aware of the new reality even if we favor the original main line, and the tiniest fraction of our Awareness ties itself to the new place. One of me, with thousands of little strings, and all of a sudden they're pulled by Ethan's spell in my case. Equally pulling, means nothing. Throw in what the whirlpool effect in your case, and suddenly all of me is reeled in. All of my magic, boosted and bound to the Hellmouths, are pulled in. The Hellmouths and your world begin to warp, and get pulled in."
"Wouldn't the other gods stop this?"
"Every Aspect of Mine is suddenly pulled in this manner, and the others' Aspects suddenly Require Attention, but that attention is on the various Hellmouths, so they are overwhelmed as partials rather than attracted as gods that might do something, each in microcosm believing they are not the Aspect, but the Full Being. They get pulled in, faster if they cross pantheons, or of mine, and so on. To you we might seem Truly Powerful, but are not Omniscient unless we were to Focus as one Being with One Aspect, and we're like Q in that Star Trek show, not the Creator."
"Celestial Event Horizon."
"Exactly, and I need you to do more than patch the area like the Powers and the Surviving amongst the gods would have of you; they do not see the shredding effect due to their Fatigue."
"What can I do to help? And shouldn't you be shredded already?"
"My last few Aspects threw myself forward and outside of time, in hopes of having enough energy to have you save us/me. It's simple, actually, what needs doing?"
"What, then?"
"I'm going to cast you back in time to Halloween, one minute before the Reset would have begun. You will be dressed as me, with a letter from Me."
"Then what happens?"
"Then the Aspect leaves you to save its portion of the multiverse, and preventing the shredding from the Halloween side."
"Okay, but what do I do, do I disappear and come back here immediately or what?"
"Oh no, you'll be free to add a costume and roam around, though it's preferable you don't let the spell last past two hours, as that was when in most unaffected realities it ran out due to the Watcher breaking the bust of, well, me, and as you can see not a very good one."
"What should I not go as?"
"You shouldn't go as a god or such, anything too magically powerful, but everything else should be limited to this world, not drawing beyond it."
"How many times do I have to do this?"
"Eleven times, actually, the number of key lines. Then with the fabric of space and time secure, you'll come back to this moment and continue on; the Powers and Pantheons are correct in much, they missed what you now know."
"Can I have some money to pay for a costume?"
"Here's an amulet with my image on it; Rayne is beholden on a Day of Dedication to honor the Bearer of Such."
"Any restrictions?"
"Only if you're into that kind of thing?
"Zinged by a god, that's new."
"Be glad I zinged you and not Bacchus…"
They both laughed and Xander found himself in a Roman toga with gold lining, and laurels upon his head
"Hey," the mortal asked, "Why are you so…informal…talking to me, rather than getting nasty or vengeful?"
"Remember, The God of Chaos? Well, just between us, I'd be doing a lousy job as Chaos if I of us all didn't realize…St Happens."