"Hmm, still have that tune in my ear, and my Brahms stuff just isn't doing it," Alexander sounded as he shook of the last transition, picking up his bag, and talked/emoted to the snakes, "Hey guys? Give me a few minutes with Ethan and I'll buy you each a mouse at the pet store, okay?" The mini-drags emoted general contentment at the emoted promise of feeding.
Ethan looked up, even on Halloween not expecting to find himself looking at a huge magic-radiating Daimyo entering his shop, especially with two snakes.
"C-Can I help you, sir?" the proprietor asked
"Yes, Ethan, I've been sent by Janus to observe and experience your offering of Chaos this evening," the man replied civilly, "And to tell you that the time has come to become one of the good guys."
"Really?" Ethan replied in amazement, then noted the amulet being shown from underneath the genuine samurai armor, which looked expensive and authentic, "Oh, I see. Um, how do I go about that?"
"Well, after tonight, you'll volunteer with Giles and his little bunch, and yes, I know your history," Alexander told him, picking up the telephone, "And for my own amusement, I'd like a Mozart costume, with your best electric guitar."
Ethan scurried to comply as the large muscular man dialed his call.
"Giles? This is Alexander Harris from a parallel reality, and before you hang up all I have to say as proof…Ripper…Ethan Rayne…Eyghon and my favorite, Cruciamentum…No, I'm not a blackmailer, G-Man, what I want you to do is head over to Ethan's Costume Shop, he's planning to turn everyone into their costumes…yes, I know that's an 'oh dear' thing, but the god Janus needs it to happen to save the universe. Hurry over, Ethan is joining the good guys, and you'll need to help minimize the bad things for tonight. OH, and bring your Xander Harris if he's around."
He gave directions and was pleased to find Ethan had finished with the gathering and preparation of the costume.
"It looks quite acceptable, Ethan," he told the mage, "I'll be back in a few minutes, I promised my companions here a snack from the pet store up the street. Giles should be here within the hour."
"What should I do until then?"
"Pick out a costume for yourself, something that you believe fits your personality, but is a good guy."
"If such a thing is possible…"
Alexander was actually quite surprised to find Ethan being interrogated by Giles, with Buffy, Jenny, Willow and Xander preventing possible escape.
"You might want to learn to lock the door when you might be interpreted as robbing the proprietor, G-Man," Alexander smirked and looked at his other self, "Hey, other-me, how's it going? Ever tell Buffy how you had to force that cowardly pet vampire of hers down into the Mater's Lair to save her?" He looked at the surprised faces.
"Guess not," he smirked again. Buffy was unsure of what to do, and it showed. "Giles, please stop harassing the Ethan, he really is going to become one of the good guys."
"And why's that?" Giles asked, letting the man go.
"Because his god, Janus, wants the spell to go off tonight, and as his current representative, I'm telling you that it's going to be that way. I mean, yes, he's still a bloody wanker and all, but he's the cross you bear over your lingering guilt. Oh, that reminds me, call your friends and all of you get rid of the stupid marks or in about ten days all of you will be dead from the demon itself."
"What!" Ethan said, "You didn't say anything about that."
"Why repeat myself," Alexander responded, then began, "My own time line is about a year in the future? I think. Anyway, if Buffy has sex with Angel, the soul is lost and Angelus proceeds to murder several dozen people including Jana Kalderash, here, who was desperately seeking permission from her Clan to inform you of her status as Angel's 'Watcher' to make sure he was still Angel and not evil. Willow is in love with Xander but he's afraid with Jesse murdered by Angel's sire Darla, that he'll become just like his wife-beating, child-abusing dad and treat his dearest and only true friend that abusive way should they get together, whereas..."
"No!" Willow interrupted and disregarding the situation attached herself to Xander, and babbled for a minute at him about how wrong it is to think that and so forth.
"…Whereas he knows that the Slayer he fell for last year but is now merely crushing semi-hopelessly over, would never be a victim to such treatment," Alexander continued, waving down possible interruptions, "Jana over the next few months falls madly in love and lust with the Ol' Ripper, and dies in her attempt to curse Angelus again. Oh, tell Angel that Drusilla is in town with Spike, and they'll try to use the Du Lac cross to kill him and regenerate her. If Spike and Drusilla are around on Buffy's birthday, they'll have retrieved the parts for the Judge. Oh, and in May, a construction team will unearth Acathla. I think that's it for the major stuff. Just wanted to let you know all of that in case I forget to tell you later."
There was general silence, and so Alexander continued.
"So, no Angel and Buffy or the world might end, hunt down and kill Spike and Drusilla as soon as possible, and get rid of the Eyghon tattoos," the large muscleman reiterated, "And one of the ways to help you without Evil getting a free chance to balance things out, will be to select costumes for you, and with a little extra magic, the skills and memories will stay with you, perhaps even the physical capabilities. So Buffy, no Lady dress, all you do is learn to knit and get a little bit of French that lasts only a week or so. Willow, ghost equals becoming a ghost, so also bad. And my experience seems to be that with a group concept, it reinforces he spell, increases the warp on reality to make it fit."
"So what do you have in mind?" Giles asked, "And won't innocents be harmed if they're left changed too long?"
"Unfortunately, to save universes including this one, the Chaos needs to run full force, for as much as the two hours it does in the other realities," Alexander replied, "So the better the costumes, the better you'll be at stepping in and preventing those deaths?"
"So perhaps, a mage casting a sleep spell just after the Chaos is invoked," Giles asked, "Or some such?"
"Do you know of any mages that could and would do such a spell, that would work on nonhumans as well as people?" Alexander asked, "I hadn't really thought of that, though a magical theme would be good."
"Um, Gandalf, Belgarath and Polgara come to mind," Willow said, "But I don't remember any big sleep spells."
"Jedi mind trick?" Xander suggested, but I don't know if you can really do more than a few at a time at most."
"H-how many costumes of adversarial beings are we facing Ethan?" Giles finally asked, "More than a hundred?"
"I daresay more like five hundred," the mage replied, "Though I tried to balance it out with soldiers and what have you. And much of the magic lies in the mask, so if I cast the spell just about the time you finish escorting the little ones back to the school, maybe only a hundred teens and adults would be considered truly dangerous."
"Of what types?"
"Maybe twenty vampires of different varieties, a dozen or so comic book mutants, another dozen or so other comic book villains, four Vaders, and the rest are gun-wielders, thieves and the like."
"Who are the comic villains?" Xander said, "Any Magneto costumes?"
"Thankfully no, that one is still here, but there were three sabertooths, and a few others of the type, a Joker…"
"Okay, can I be Wolverine but his missing memories are me as a soldier?" Xander asked, "That way I can maybe hold off the cats while someone can put some sleep mojo on them?"
"Why the soldier?" Ethan asked.
"So I'll have a connection between me now and me as Wolverine 2000," Xander admitted, "If I have the extra memories, I'd like them to fit."
"Good thinking, Xander," Alexander told him, "That makes sense, so maybe Giles as Belgarath, Jana as Poledra free from her obligation, Willow as Jean Grey, Ethan as Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi, and Buffy as Mara Jade-Skywalker."
"Cool, that makes sense," Xander said, nodding, and noticed Giles' curious look, "We get different power and skill types, so in case one type doesn't work, the others will, and most run in the family."
"Oh, yeah," Willow agree, "Sorcery, The Force, Muscle Power, Telepathy and Telekinesis."
"So what are you going as?" Buffy asked the big version of Xander.
"This is my night off, as it were," he admitted, "I've had this annoying song in my head, so I'm dressing as Mozart with an electric guitar to get rid of it."
Lots of stares and silence.
"I'm not kidding, you see as soon as the spell is over, I start wide awake in the next Halloween and so I'm taking this one easy."
Lots of stares and silence.
"Okay, how about Mozart with an electric guitar and an Immortal sword?"
Brief silence.
"Yeah."
"That's something."
"I should say so.
"Fine."
"Sure."
"I'll get the costumes ready."
"You know," Alexander shook his head and turned and quietly said to his local self, "I shouldn't have said anything. Hey, I cast a spell on another one of us and managed to revive the hyena in him without the spirit itself. How about I cast that before you head off, that way the Wolverine transition is even more likely to take hold on you?"
"Really? Sure."
Luckily Buffy was too busy imagining light saber use to have overheard.