"You need my help," Jonathan said, his face saying it all. "What can I do for you? I can't even touch anything."

"In this world," Xander replied with a nod. "But you should be able to interact with other ghosts just fine. And that's part of the issue we're hoping to get you to look into."

Xander took a deep breath, and paced over to settle to a seat on the corner of the desk that Wesley was working at. "A bit over a month ago, I was in London when something happened. I was visiting with Willow when... well, I'm sure that Wills would describe it differently, but it started when I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. And then we were, for lack of a better word, visited."

"Before I go on, I should say that we weren't the only ones so visited. At the very least, everyone with any connection to the supernatural who'd been in Sunnydale originally was. But, in our case..." He broke off again, clearly having difficulty with this.

"We were all visited - and attacked - by the ghosts of people we weren't able to save. Ones who died because of supernatural causes, or at the hands of supernatural beings. As you can imagine, there were plenty of spirits to go around." He stopped again. "But the one that got to Wills and me, it was Jesse."

Jonathan's eyes widened, as the reason why Xander was having such issues talking became clear. He remembered Jesse - the three of them had been a group, Xander, Willow, and Jesse, always together, usually laughing and otherwise having fun. It had been one of the things that he'd been a bit jealous of back then, that those three each had each other, and he didn't really have anybody.

But Jonathan hadn't known that Jesse had died due to supernatural causes. He just knew that Jesse had disappeared. Though he probably should have figured it out, once he'd known about the Hellmouth. But it wasn't like he could have asked, after all.

"If it'd been anyone else, well... I won't be so callous to say that we could definitely have dealt with it, but... well, I already told you about all the Slayers being activated. Willow's one powerful Wicca these days. But, against Jesse?"

Neither Xander nor Jonathan noticed that Wesley had stopped moving. He hadn't lifted his head to look at either of the people he was sharing the office with, but he was clearly listening closely.

"I had to do some things that I hated doing," Xander said. "It was all I could do to ward him out, see. Even I could make a basic warding circle where we were. And it actually was Jesse, not just an apparition or anything like that. He knew things. Things that only Willow and I knew. And he blamed us. Blamed us for living when he'd died. It was awful."

Once again, Xander's voice faltered, and he didn't continue, not for well over a minute. His head dropped so that his hair covered the upper part of his face. The other two didn't say anything, so as not to intrude on the speaker's private grief.

"Eventually, it stopped. We don't know why, nor why it started. Several of our magical personnel didn't make it through. One of the watchers and two of the new Slayers died as well, one of them protecting her Watcher. It was a hard blow for us, and the way things are continuing are making us nervous. Really nervous."

Xander went on, his voice regaining strength as he left the memories of what had happened with one of his first best friend's ghost behind. "Since that day, reported ghost activity has increased nearly ten-fold. Slayers across the world are encountering them with higher frequency than ever before, which scares the bejeezus out of them, because they can't really fight them."

"Here in California... well, just to give an example, we're getting at least one report every day of a sighting of some kind on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. That's roughly a 3,000% increase over what we were getting beforehand, but it's quite possible that there had been some that weren't reported before, just like it's possible some aren't even being reported now. Also, the Whaley House in San Diego is active again, and we're hearing reports about Bloody Mary from all over the place." He mutters something about 'damned kids' under his breath there.

"In short, something is stirring up ghost activity around the world. That's what we're coming to you for help for. We're hoping you can give us some indication, some pointer, something to help us with this. Or, if you can't, can find someone who can. As for why you?"

Xander hesitated again. "Andrew told us, Jonathan."

Jonathan blinked at the non-sequitur, though he did bristle at the name of his fellow Trio member. "What did he tell you?"

"He's really sorry, by the way. When he found out that we were going to be coming here to potentially see you, he wanted to come along. I said 'no.' Mostly because he drives me friggin' insane, but also because we didn't want to start off hostile to each other."

Jonathan grit his teeth, but gestured for Xander to go on.

"He told us that part of the reason you came back to Sunnydale in the first place was to tell us about the Seal of Danzalthar, that you wanted to join us and help out. To repent, as it were, and seek redemption. And that he misled you, even though he, himself, was being misled by the First."

For his part, Jonathan wasn't quite so forgiving, though he did understand that having to spend five years with Andrew Wells might drive anyone insane, so he didn't hold it against Xander. Instead, he grew thoughtful. "You said this thing happened a month ago. Would it happen to have been the night of September 21st?"

Xander immediately stiffened. "Yes. How did you know that?"

Jonathan frowned. "I didn't, but... that night, I felt some strange things. There was a tugging sensation, but it wasn't strong enough to break me free from Morgan's body. I... I had a bad feeling about it too, so I fought it off."

Xander nodded again. "It was one of the things that we noticed. Well, that Andrew noticed. He was bleating about a lot of things, really, but one thing he did point out was that it was probably you that he injured the most, but you didn't show up to haunt him." Xander would NOT mention the major headache that all of Andrew's whining had caused him. He'd somehow construed Jonathan's lack of showing up for him being unforgivable, for him not even being worthy to ask for forgiveness. "That, combined with Colleen's report, and our finding out that Morgan here was your cousin, was what, basically, lit a fire under us to come find you."

Jonathan was quiet for a few moments, drifting slightly in place. He chewed on his bottom lip silently, and then, finally, asked, "So, what's in this for me?"

Xander's eyebrows went up. "Huh?"

The ghost shook his head again. "Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I won't help, but I've been out of this whole thing for going on four years now. My life, such as it is, is relatively calm. Even amusing, since my cousin's quite the funny guy. So I'm sure that you guys came up with some kind of incentive for me here."

Xander grinned at that. "You do know us, don't you?" He looked over at Wesley for a moment, then back at Jonathan.

"Well, the first thing is your status as a dybbuk... I am saying that right, right?" At Jonathan's nod, Xander continued. "Willow said that a dybbuk often remains because they don't feel that their duty is done, that they haven't completed what they wanted to do in life. Andrew said that you came back to Sunnydale to help gain your sense of repentance and redemption, which he cut off."

That was a summation, basically. Andrew had actually gotten on quite a few nerves during the actual discussion.

"So, we were thinking that this might be what you could do, that it might be what would let you move on to Heaven or whatever is next. And it'd be something pretty much only you could do, so, whatever happens, you would be the one doing it. But, even if that isn't the case, Willow and the rest of our research division are working on a way to give you back your own body."

Jonathan's eyes bulged, but Xander continued talking. "Apparently, it's a lot harder to do than it was for Wesley, though I'm given to understand that that wasn't all that easy in the first place."

Wesley actually winced. He'd known that that was something Willow and the others were working on, but he'd hoped that it wouldn't have come up.

"Wait," Jonathan said, his attention turning to the older man. "You were dead? And now you're not? How come?" There was a wistful wanting tone to his voice.

Wesley sat back in his chair, and sighed. He took off his glasses to polish them, intentionally this time. It was an effort to delay, but it didn't last long.

"Will... er, Miss Rosenberg brought me back." His tone was very hesitant, as if he didn't want to talk about it.

* * * *

A flash of lightning broke through the lavish boardroom, and a yawning portal of white light appeared.

"All right," came a voice. "This is so not where I expected us to come out."

Stepping through the portal was the red-haired woman that was known as one of the most powerful Wicca on Earth. The portal spread out, flaring with light, and vanished, leaving the room filled with women. Blondes, brunettes, and redheads, all armed to the teeth, all antsy and spoiling for a fight.

"But it makes sense, Red," was the Boston-accented response. "Over here."

Willow Rosenberg squeezed herself through the crowd to join the leather-clad Slayer, the last of the original line, to find two bodies. The head of one, clearly demonic, looked like it had been... disrupted. But the other, the other was familiar.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no...!" Willow outright whimpered. "If he's here, we have no way of getting there!"

"If you mean a way to get to where the others are fighting, I believe I can help with that," a male voice replied, with a British accent.

Willow looked up, then down at the body at her feet, then back up again. "Whoa. Deja Vu."

"Actually, not quite," Wesley Wyndam-Price's ghost said. "I'm frightfully sorry for this, but is that what you were looking for? To get to the big fight?"

"Uh huh," Willow nodded. "Angel called, but my targeting spell can't center on vampires, and I didn't know any of the others well enough and I didn't know where, exactly, you'd all be. Else I would have targeted directly there."

"Well, then I'm glad to be of some help then," Wesley's ghost responded, eager to snub the Senior Partners' nose one last time. He gave the direct location, and Willow called for everyone to 'bunch up again and prepare for teleport.'

Buffy Summers bounced out of the crowd, carrying the Scythe. "Hey Wes," she remarked. "Looks like you got a bit dead there."

"Yes," he remarked. "I had noticed that," he bantered back. "Eh, what are you doing?"

"I'm having her take your body," Willow said, as Faith picked up Wesley's corpse. "If we can find some way to fix the damage, I may be able to reattach your soul, since it's, y'know, right here."

* * * *

Xander explained, taking pity on Wesley, "Willow's told me that a body and soul match each other, that they are locked together in some kind of cycle or something like that. Because Wes' body was there, and his soul was there, once the 'meat' was healed, his body could be reattached to his soul and he would be alive again. If it wasn't his time to die, that is. Which it apparently wasn't. I'm probably seeming to make light out of it, but that's the gist of what I got from Willow. There was also something about the timing of the rejoining too." He waved a hand. "I don't 'get' all of the magic stuff, really. You probably would understand it better than I would."

Jonathan nodded, even as Xander continued. "We later found out that Wes' soul was still there because Wolfram and Hart have an iron-clad contract with him that extends even after death. Apparently, it's normal for their higher-level executives or something."

"Which means that, the next time I die, I become a ghost again as well," Wesley interjected. "It was suggested that we try that in order to figure out this problem, but, as you may well imagine, I rather didn't like the idea."

Xander shook his head, remembering that, and went on. "Anyway, that's the problem they're researching now, anyway. Your body, unfortunately, is somewhere in the remains of Sunnydale, probably under a significant amount of water. Robin said that he buried your body after he found it. Even if we had your body, it's been more than five years since your death, and... she also said something about you having been killed in a mystical way. I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing."

"I got the impression that they're having a hard time of it, so I don't want to get your hopes up," Xander added, this time with a final shrug.

Jonathan was silent for another few moments, and then said, "I want to think about this before I give you a 'yes' or 'no' answer, Xander. If nothing else, then because if I can interact with ghosts, they can interact with me... that potentially places me into danger." The fact that he wasn't quite sure what even one ghost could do to another one didn't come up.

Xander nodded. "Of course. You know where to find me."

Jonathan nodded, then drifted forward to 'sit' back inside of Morgan's body. Xander and Wesley waited a full two minutes before the latter raised his hand, and said, "Corpus Corporis, Excito."

And Morgan began to awaken, absently licking at his lips.

"Have a nice nap?" Xander asked, his tone teasing. "That chair must be really comfortable, man."

Morgan, for his part, bolted upright, head swinging from side-to-side. "Um... I guess. I'm not really sure what just happened."

Xander shrugged, "You fell asleep. No big deal, really. It happens sometimes, especially if you're not getting enough sleep at home. If that's not the case, well, maybe you should have a doctor check you out? Now, if you can finish up the other chair, I'll let you get back to work?"

Morgan, somehow sensing he'd squeaked by without being punished, scrambled up to finish the second chair. It would take less time than the more involved executive chair.

"Am I right in thinking that you guys don't get commission?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Morgan said, sounding a bit irked about that whole issue.

"That's kinda what I meant about you making money off this, but I can deal with that. Will twenty be enough? For the labor putting together the chairs, I mean?"

Morgan opened his mouth for a moment, his first thought being to ask for more. But then he thought about how long it'd take him to do this, and that he'd - somehow - managed to fall asleep in the office itself. Twenty bucks for fifteen minutes work wasn't bad at all. "Sure. That sounds great."

"Excellent," Xander said, doing his imitation of Mister Burns (from the Simpsons). He unbuttoned his suit jacket to retrieve his wallet, and Morgan, who happened to be glancing up at that moment, spotted the loaded holster under the jacket, and gulped. Morgan supposed it was good to know that someone was wearing a gun, but why would he wear something like that to a place like the Buy More?

Jerking his head back down, Morgan quickly finished setting up the remaining chair, and quickly tested it, leaping out moments after settling his whole weight on it. He didn't want to fall asleep again. "Thereyago! Need me for anything else?"

Xander looked over at Wesley quizzically before shaking his head, offering a twenty from his wallet. Morgan snagged it so fast that Xander almost ended up with a paper cut, and then bolted from the room.

Outside the office, Morgan turned down an aisle and spotted the person he was looking for. He had good, juicy, info, and he wanted to use it.

"Anna, did you know that that guy is our new Assistant Manager?"

Anna Wu blinked at him, "The one with the eyepatch? Duh."

Well, okay, it was likely that one could have been figured out, but the other one was priceless. "Yeah, okay. But did you know he's carrying a gun on him? Here? In the Buy More?"

Anna blinked a couple more times. "Where have you been for the last hour, Morgan? Everyone in the store knows that. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with it, but it's not really my decision, now is it?"

Morgan stared. And he'd really thought he'd had a good piece of gossip for the rumor mill.

Anna waited and waited, and then finally said, "See you later, Morgan. I need to get back to work."

Author's Notes: Yes, what Xander is talking about is the Rise of the Witness, from episode 4x02 (Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester). Yes, this means that Supernatural (the TV show) is the same world as this is. Yes, that probably means that Xander and company will probably eventually meet Sam and Dean.

That flashback is the one I mentioned in reviews would feature Willow and Wesley. At the time, I hadn't realized that Faith and Buffy would make a showing as well, but then I realized that there was no way Faith would miss out on a fight like that, especially if Angel calls, and Buffy'd come along because a) she's competitive and they'll hardly ever get another chance to compare counts of kills, and b) if the Scythe was going to be used, she would insist on being there anyway.

Why do none of the guys (or, for that matter, any other magic-users) show? Easy. Willow is using the power of the Scythe not only to open the "teleport portal," but also to transport people. That's the reason why she can't target vampires - the Scythe is kinda their anathema. It also means that means she can only transport herself (as caster and intimately familiar with the Scythe) and Slayers. So, no guys, no extra magic-users. For all intents and purposes, Wesley's body is an object, no different from the weapons that all of the Slayers are carrying. (Just thought some people might have an interest in seeing my thought process as to how the magic works, is all. Heck, it makes it easier for me to understand if I write it down first!)