It was dawn, and Alexander found himself standing on Kingman's Bluff, no one or thing around to take note of his arrival. A few sea birds sounded in the distance, the smell of salt as a breeze wafted up, gave the World Jumper a feeling of peace he felt reflected in his Alaspinian traveling companions.
"Hey girls," he smiled as the snakes seemed to snuggle closer, "I'll cast this spell and we'll go find the other me, alright?"
Alexander had felt the power flow from all directions very suddenly like a tidal wave, then slough back like a lowering tide, the experience unsettling for him as it sent unexpected sensations throughout his body.
He could feel reenter and reinfuse the ground itself as he hiked back into Sunnydale, and wondered if it was a variant on the other spells he'd cast for the Valar. 'Any vamps left in Sunny D?' he asked himself, 'I can only hope not.'
Around eight in the morning he walked into the Espresso Pump and acquired food, a triple mocha, a regular black coffee chaser and the LA and Sunnydale newspapers.
About forty minutes go by, and he'd pretty much decide to go fins his local self when he noticed the local Willow and Tara enter the premises, place orders, and sit down right next to him. He was overwhelmed as he noticed the exchange of familiarities between the two attractive women that caused him to sigh at the separation from his own fiancées. Tara glanced over, then looked again.
"Xander?" she asked, confused but fairly certain, "Is that you?"
"Sorta, Tara," he replied, "Just from another dimension is all to cast a few spells, boost my local self if he's around, that sort of thing. And might I add, the two of you look stunning?"
"Wow, you're huge," Willow gasped as she looked over, "How?"
"Thank you for noticing, and I dressed as Phil the Weatherman from Ground-Hog Day for Halloween," he smiled self-deprecatingly, and gestured at himself, "So I managed to make out a little better, and I'm affianced to your equivalents, there."
"W-what?" Tara asked, kinda stunned, "Us?"
"You, me, Willow and a grown up Dawn Summers," he replied, juggling the possibilities shown by different dimensions of experience, "Does she exist in this world? Does Xander still exist in this world? Does Buffy still have sex with vampires?"
"Um, Dawn's only fourteen, almost fifteen, Tara and I are a couple, Xander's seeing Anya…"
"Again," Alexander sighed, grimacing with dismay, "What's wrong with your friends? Sorry, continue."
"Um, Xander's working construction, and Buffy's seeing an ex-soldier. Angel's in Los Angeles. Amy's a rat…"
"Really? How? Maybe I could help?"
Willow explained the circumstances of the Hansel and Gretel night and her inability to change Amy back.
"What if magic were suddenly and completely interrupted?" he asked both young women, "Would that be enough to return things, or would they stay the same?"
"I-I think it wouldn't make a-a difference in this situation," Tara quietly answered, "She was transformed, not imprisoned in the shape of a rat."
"Hmm, I was hoping the spell I cast this morning might have undone it," he considered aloud, then finished his caffeine products.
"You did that!" Willow asked, "I didn't think Xander could do magic?"
"Why not? Amy cast the Valentine's Day spell if that happened here, and other than that what spell casting has he done?" Alexander asked, noticing from Willow's face that he hadn't dabbled, "And yes, I did cast a spell for the Aesir, did it affect you? If so, I hope you're alright?"
"W-we're fine," Tara said, "But we haven't fully regained our powers yet."
"So it did affect Sunnydale, huh?" he mused, "Maybe in this line, all the vampires in range are dust too. That should give you all a few days or rest and relaxation, huh?"
"Why would the vampires disappear?" Willow asked, "What do they have to do with a spell that weakened our magic?"
"The spell was a Blessing, and it drew on an awful lot of magic to slightly redress a Balance in favor of Natural, rather than Unnatural, for a minute or so," Alexander told her, "And it's supposed to help the good guys eventually win if they don't slack off."
"And the vampires?" Willow reminded him.
"Oh, demons bound to bodies through blood magic, so if the magic is neutralized, no vamps…"
"Wow."
"Only for the ten miles or so range I think it might have had," he considered, "So where can I find Local Me?"
"He's probably at work, why?"
"I'm only here until midnight, and I want to make the most of it, break up this weird Anyanka thing, give him back the soldier and hyena without the bad spirit parts, that way we'll plug the whole that keeps allowing magic and such to happen to him."
"Um, Hyena," Willow pressed with concern, "Um…"
"No spirit, Wills, just the physical boosts."
"Oh, okay then," and she told him which jobsite Xander might be working, as they'd had to drop off Anya there a few days before.
Walking out onto the street, they saw a red convertible swing over, Giles driving Buffy and a very young Dawn around.
"Hey Giles, sharp wheels!" Willow called out, "Look! It's a Xander from another dimension. He's here until midnight."
"Then he turns back into a pumpkin," Tara let out with a small smile, causing everyone to look at her in amused surprise.
"Nice one, Tare, just like my own Tara would've managed," Alexander smiled as he walked over to the car, "Hello Mr. Giles, how's the car handle?"
"Like a dream," Giles responded, reaching over to shake hands, "Are you in town for a specific reason?"
"Oh, I managed to get the business part of my trip out of the way…see, world's still here, Buff," he smiled as he turned to the blonde slayer, "Wow, don't get mad, but you really need to eat, you're nothing but skin and bone! Are you okay? I was going to boost Xander a bit, I could try it on you as well. Are you sick? I know some healing magic that might help."
"Um, no," the embarrassed and skinny slayer responded, the wave of concern overwhelming her almost as much as the accusations of self-starvation began to annoy her. Then she remembered the loss of her slayer abilities that were only now starting up again. "Hey did you have anything to do with the loss of my powers this morning?"
"When did you notice?" he replied.
"About six-thirty or seven?"
"Probably, as I told the eye candy," he smirked at the wiccas, "I was in town to cast a spell for the Aesir, and it interrupted magic for about a minute or so. Willow and Tara told me it got them too, but they seem to be recovering. Here, I have half a croissanwich left. Go on, you need it more than I do."
They'd headed to the magic store next, planning to swing by during Xander's lunch hour to let him know about things. After discovering the body of the owner and asking Tara to stay outside to keep watch with Dawn, they'd looked to see what might be missing.
"Good Lord," Giles muttered, causing Alexander to smile as he noted the reason.
"Impressive margins there, Giles, perhaps you and Xander should go into business together?'
"What? Why Xander?" Giles considered, "I didn't think he was interested in retail."
"No, but if he accepts my offer to boost him up, you can use that big back room for training both him and Buffy, you'll have most spell materials at the ready, and with two of you here at the same time, it's unlikely that you'll suffer the fate as Mr. Bogarty."
"A-an excellent point," Giles considered, "Though I don't want to ask him to give up his construction position. He seems to enjoy it."
"Then work around his schedule, and with research parties here instead of your apartment, you could even keep later hours, maybe convert the top space of the building into a pair of apartments so you and Xander won't even have to pay out for personal rent."
"I hate to break up the money fest," Buffy interrupted, "But we have a murder here."
"Oh, um, sorry," Giles responded, slightly abashed, "I-it looks like the vampires ate the owner and are studying up on the slayer."
"Hopefully Alexander's spell killed the vampires," Willow said, "This woulda happened before his spell, so…"
"We should," Giles nodded and took up her line of thought, "Perhaps, check to see if Spike is still around, o-or check with Willy this evening to see if there's any word to that effect."
"Sounds like a plan," Buffy agreed, "Now what?"
"Now I buy you a bucket of chicken and everybody else a regular lunch, and we go visit the other me," Alexander teased, "Because if I can get him up to par, and help out a bit, it might be fun to go pick on Dead-boy if I have time."