"What about this one?" asked Selina, tracing with a fingertip the thin scar on Xander's bare lower chest.

Looking down at where the naked beautiful woman in the bed they were sharing was touching him, Xander reasonably had to think this over for a moment. "Um, a Bruthlyyk demon in Singapore."

Selina next went on to poke at a much deeper healed gouge on the man's right bicep which looked as it'd been inflicted by something with three sets of teeth, "And that?"

"Dodged the wrong way, couldn't help getting munched on by some Z!woset's familiar. Never found out what it was called, our Council squad instead retreated from the Budapest sewer system right after and burned the whole place down to the last vamp."

Selina's eyebrows rose over how easily Xander pronounced the !click! noise she'd just heard. "Exactly who thought up those ridiculous names in the first place?"

Xander grinned. "About a month in at Sunnydale after we hooked up, me and Buffy and Wils and Giles were doing some research in the library. It didn't take long for Buffy to complain every demon species in her Watcher's dusty books was identified like all the tiles from a Scrabble game had been tossed on the floor. Next, someone wearing spiked golf shoes walked over these, with the letters stuck there then pried from these cleats and randomly shuffled them to make up a really dumb name. Giles just went red a little and polished his glasses faster, but he didn't come out and deny it."

Noticing at that point Xander's fond smile had turned bittersweet, Selina snuggled closer and laid her head upon his chest. Listening to the man's strong heartbeat, she sympathetically murmured, "You miss them all, don't you?"

His left arm cradling the woman's shoulders lying next to him hugged her a bit harder, and then relaxed. Staring up at the basement ceiling, Xander admitted, "Yeah. I never thought I'd be the last one. Well, except for Andrew, but he doesn't remember me or anybody else because of his Alzheimer's."

"Was that why you made your w-"

A swift press with Xander's left palm now completely covering Selina's mouth stopped her from saying anything more. He left it there while urgently advising, "Not a good idea ever saying that. Better to get into the habit of never using the double-you word. I wound up here because of magic and it's part of this world, too, so ix-nay on engeance-vay emons-day in case one of 'em's listening."

Selina stuck out her tongue and gave Xander's palm a damp lick. He jerked his hand off her face and then wiped it off on the disheveled bed sheets they were lying upon, giving an amused grunt at Selina's retaliation.

Satisfied by this small triumph, the woman began again. "Fine, your decision, then, when you made up your mind to come here as one of Bruce's sidekicks."

Xander said seriously, "I was dying, Selina. I'd already said all my goodbyes earlier to the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids and whoever came to see me for the last time. At that point when I opened my big mouth, I was pretty much counting down to maybe only a couple of minutes more and my head wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders. Considering what I've gone through with Anya, Hallie, and D'Hoffryn, winding up as Ace the Bat-Hound wasn't the worse which could've happened to me."

"Well, you're not anymore," pointed out Selina. She paused a moment while a stray thought tried to attract her attention, something which Mordred had been about to mention. Dismissing it for now, Selina continued, "So, what are your plans?"

"I dunno," Xander sighed. "It's not like I can drop in at Wayne Manor today and tell Bats his pet dog for the last few weeks was me until I finally regained my rugged good looks with the help of three witches. Even if he's not presently the paranoid asshole that Frank Miller and the rest turned him into, this might be kinda hard for him to swallow even if I tried to blame Bat-Mite for it."

When Selina seemed about to speak, Xander shook his head. "I know you'd back me up, but I don't want to put you through that. Bats has his own issues with Catwoman, remember? Plus, sooner or later, it'd come out how much I know about every hero and villain in the DC Universe's Silver Age. That puts one huge target on me, along with anybody else around who I might've told. I think the best thing to do is to totally disappear-ACK!"

That abrupt shocked yelp coming from Xander was due to Selina unexpectedly grabbing with her hand this male's genitals and giving them a quick squeeze just a fractional less pressure from causing him agonizing pain. Keeping the tight hold there with her fingers, which weren't in her Catwoman gloves with the metal fingernails but still possessed rather sharp original cuticles, Selina now menacingly purred at a stunned Xander not daring to move a muscle (especially anywhere down there), "Alexander Harris, you'll do no such thing! You come into my life as a talking dog, reveal your secrets, and then expect me to wave goodbye as you head off into the sunset? Not a chance, buster!"

A prayerful whimper then issued from deep within Xander's throat when Selina next gave another firm squeeze to his man-parts, once again almost causing him actual damage. Ignoring this sound as being of no consequence, Selina went on glaring nearly nose-to-nose at him. "What we're going to do instead is figure out how to deal with this, together! You've got any ideas about sneaking away, you better not even try it! I'll hunt you down wherever your cowardly ass is hiding and turn you into two hundred pounds of chopped liver! And then, I'll get inventive!" This last was wrathfully hissed towards Xander's paling face.

Satisfied she'd made her point (all five of them nearly drawing blood), Selina at last let go. This woman calmly regarded Xander attempting a furtive peek further down his body without setting her off again. When his gaze flickered back to where Selina was still watching him, Xander dithered a moment before risking, "Can I just say two things?"

A gracious nod was bestowed upon Xander by Selina. This produced from him a fervent, "Yes, ma'am! Whatever you say! Also, is it already around or did you make it up right this second, the phrase 'when you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow'?"

Selina contemplated what she'd just heard, before happily declaring, "I like it. Is that a quote from someone?"

Very glad she seemed to be in a far better mood than mere seconds ago, Xander shrugged. "Nobody's really sure. It won't be mentioned at large until sometime a decade from now."

Dismissing this as somewhat interesting but with no need of extra discussion at this point, Selina looked across the basement to the diagonal skylight set there at the far end of the ceiling. This skylight was just past the portion of the inner wall where another door led to a basic below-ground bathroom. Perhaps an hour before when they'd woken up in each others' arms and began their post-coital conversation, it'd already shown a dim morning illumination denoting the earliness of the hour. Now, the brightness shining from there was much greater, indicating that maybe it was time for breakfast-

As if that thought had been a signal to her stomach, this trim part of Selina's body loudly growled. Ever noisier was Xander's own inner rumble instantly joining in. Looking in surprise at their companion, Selina and Xander then roared with mutual laughter. They got up and out of the bed, with this nude pair standing side by side in their bare feet on the basement's stone floor.

A very rueful expression on her face, Selina waved an indicating hand at the discarded scraps of her former costume also lying there on the floor. "I guess I could wear a bedsheet when going upstairs. Cynthia's about my size, maybe I could borrow a robe from her. I don't know about you, though."

"Yeah," Xander glumly concurred. "Maybe you could go shopping in that, pick up some pants for- WHAAAAARRFFF?!"

That astonished howl ending in a bark of disbelief came from the German shepherd now at Selina's side. Now the only human there, this woman gawked at where a once-again furry Xander was frantically twisting and turning his head to look himself over, from a drooping tail to hairy paws. It was at this point that Selina muttered aloud: "Oh. That's what Mordred was trying to say."

Selina had been rather hesitant to partake of the proffered breakfast. There'd been floating in the back of her head the words 'eye of newt and toe of frog', but thankfully Mildred had whipped up a quite prosaic meal of coffee, toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. This plump witch bustling around in her kitchen had even deposited a heaping portion of the latter two items into a bowl and put this on the kitchen floor for Xander to eat. While still in a state of sullen fury, the dog's appetite had won out and several minutes of him gulping down every bite of this soon resulted in a licked-clean bowl, matching Selina's finished plate.

Taking a final sip of coffee, Selina glanced around the kitchen from where she was sharing this room's table with Cynthia across the furniture nibbling at a piece of toast. As hoped for, the blonde had good-naturedly lent one of her robes to Selina which she now wore. In a few minutes the taxi called to the witches' house would collect the pair and take them to Selina's apartment with this cab then returning with Cynthia's robe after the cat burglar quickly changed into one of her own outfits.

In one corner of the kitchen, Mordred was smoking a pungent pipe and rocking back and forth in her rocking chair, observing everyone else with a decidedly sardonic eye. This expression of dark amusement only deepened while watching how Xander trotted by Mildred cleaning up at the stove and sat down in front of Mordred to glare right at this leader of the three witches.

In a supremely aggrieved tone, Xander snarled at Mordred, "Whhhaaatttt hhhaaapppeennneddd?"

Taking out her pipe, Mordred blew a smoke ring directly at Xander, nailing him between the eyes with this floating circular cloud. She then smirked at this grouchy dog pulling back his lips to show every fang he possessed back at her.

"Sonny, just be grateful we could do something about the magic spell that's on you. Whoever did it in the first place, they've got a definite mean streak. There's no way you can be permanently turned back into a human by anything we know. However, that smoke ring I just did, it'll allow you to be a man half the time, twelve hours a day, from nine in the morning to nine at night. After that, you'll be a dog for the next twelve hours. It'll start today at nine when you get to Miss Kyle's apartment with you then switching back and forth like I just told you. The only other workable option was for us to change you into a were-dog or more accurately, a dog-were. You really want to try being human just three nights of the full moon and converting everybody you bite into another German shepherd?"

The dog winced at hearing this uncompromising declaration. Eventually, Xander sighed, and bowed his upper body to the witch along with a rumbled, "Ssssooorrryyy."

A stern nod of Mordred's head showed she'd accepted this apology. The crone continued, "Now, buck up, lad. It's possible someone else in the magical world has a way to fully cure you, so you might want to think about looking for them. In the meantime, we'll keep studying the spell and send you a message if anything promising turns up. Are you going to be in town?"

Xander turned his head to stare at Selina in her kitchen table chair. She shook her head. "There's no way he can stay with Batman now, so the both of us might as well as leave Gotham as soon as we can arrange- What?" After saying this, Selina frowned at where Xander had just leapt up onto all four feet and was trembling in actual eagerness.

His eyes full of stars, Xander crooned a heartfelt request, "Ccccannnn wwweeee gggoooo ttttoooo…Mmmmeeetttrrrooopppooolllliiisssss?"

Unsure of exactly why he wanted this, Selina cautiously answered, "Fine, why not? Oh."

Xander sat down on his haunches, lifted his head towards the kitchen ceiling and began to bay deafeningly in absolute bliss, "Ttttrrruuuttthhhh, jjjjuuusssttiiicceee-"

"OKAY!" shouted Selina over Xander's gleeful howling. "We'll try to see Superman! Now, shut up!"

All three of the witches were chuckling at witnessing this amusing byplay between the pair. Cynthia now spoke up. "Selina, Xander, we've got something for each of you. You're first, poochie. C'mere."

Giving the youngest witch a dirty look at being called this, Xander nevertheless went over to where Cynthia was seated. Standing in front of her, he saw how she slipped a hand into a robe pocket and pulled out two strips of leather with buckles. One of these was quite familiar; it happened to be Ace's collar which had been removed from him the previous night before the witches tried their spell. Cynthia pushed that collar across the table towards Selina who pocketed this into her own robe.

Cynthia then strapped the new collar around Xander's furry neck, tightening it into the proper position. Satisfied, she straightened up in her chair while a puzzled Xander tried to crane his head to see what was on him. Failing as expected in this, Xander looked up at Cynthia and asked, "Hey, why'd you- I can talk better now!"

Indeed, the dog in the kitchen was speaking as well as he could in human form.

Nodding, Cynthia told both a startled Selina and Xander, "That's the minor effect. The main one, it'll start the next time you change back. Put on any clothes you want then, and when you become a dog again, they'll magically stay with you. Become human, the clothes appear too with you still wearing them."

A delighted Xander exclaimed, "Thanks a lot, Cynthia!"

Cynthia smiled at the dog's enthusiasm, all while pulling out another object from her robe pocket. "One more thing." She held this up for everyone in the room to see. It was a quarter-sized silver disk attached to a thin gold chain that'd do as a bracelet. Cynthia next bent down to present it at head level for Xander.

"Press your nose against the disk for a ten-count, staying in contact all through this. When you're doing that, think about a woman your age whose face you'd recognize anywhere, anytime. This is a glamour for Selina, so keep that in mind."

Xander nodded thoughtfully. Selina herself was confused, since she had no idea what Cynthia was talking about. The master thief watched with increasing bafflement while Xander then obediently carried out the witch's instructions. When this was done, Cynthia straightened up again and handed over the bracelet to Selina, who took it with an inquiring gaze which wanted an answer.

Cynthia just smiled, and directed, "Put the bracelet on, Selina."

After a moment's hesitation, Selina also obeyed, without any seeming consequences to her of this action. However, the witches had matching expressions of mild approval but nothing more appeared in unison upon their different visages. Xander, on the other hand…

A large German shepherd looks really weird with their eyes bugging out and their lower jaw falling open in absolute shock to brush against a hairy chest.

"What?" asked a panicky Selina.

With a casual wave of her hand, Mildred caused a rectangular mirror to appear from thin air, hanging without any visible means of support in front of Selina. This woman stared in disbelief at seeing there in her seat someone else completely different from how she normally looked. There were some similarities of hair color, age, and body shape, but otherwise the rather exotic stranger resembled Selina Kyle not at all.

Another wave of Mildred's hand caused the mirror to vanish, at the same time Selina yelled at the top of her lungs, "HARRIS! What'd you do to me?!"

"It's just a glamour, Selina! Uh, think of it as a magical disguise! You'll show a new face to the whole world, but your original face stays the same under it! If you don't like it, all you've got to do is take off the bracelet! Right, Cynthia?" came out in a rush of words from Xander not wanting to have all his chin whiskers pulled out one at a time as a properly deserved punishment.

"That's right, Selina," confirmed Cynthia, though this witch then glanced with interest at Xander. "Who is she, anyway?"

Throttling down her temper for a moment, a furious Selina then glowered at where Xander was returning a genuine…hangdog…expression back at her. She listened to him groveling, "It's Ampata, all right? I told you about her, but instead of how she was in high school, I imagined her as a grown-up, what she never had."

That took completely away in a flash any ire Selina might've borne. She'd indeed listened with compassion to Xander's story of the sacrificed Incan princess who'd never wanted to drain the lives of others and yet had been offered this by a teenage boy himself ready to help someone he liked any way he could do so.

Sighing, Selina told the dog, "Xander, you're forgiven. I'll wear this…glamour?…but in the future, I suggest you always remember something your female friends in your other world must've repeatedly told you: Never surprise a woman without advance warning."

The three witches listening there solemnly nodded in mutual agreement.

At that point, a quite commonplace sound entered the kitchen from the front of the ancient house. It was a car horn being honked out in the street, undoubtedly coming from the taxi now parked there. Selina still wearing her charm started to get up, only to have Xander shake his head at her. The dog then studied each of the witches for a few seconds altogether, before wondering, "Ladies, what's the catch? It's nice, you doing us a couple of favors that we can really use, but neither of us came out and asked for the collar and the glamour. You want to clue us in, maybe, before we walk out of here with them and end up owing you some even bigger favors?"

An appreciative twist of Mordred's lips came along with her praise, "Ah, it's good to deal with people who know the proper protocols. Fine; in return for our gifts, we merely ask to keep an occasional eye on you. Simply put, all of us have the feeling-"

"Make it a certainty," snickered Mildred.

Continuing as if she'd never been interrupted, Mordred finished, "-that your lives together from now on are going to be very…interesting. It'll be even more fun to watch than any Ed Sullivan program with Topo Gigio and a dozen Bulgarian jugglers!" chortled the witch in her rocking chair now tickled pink by the prospect of witnessing first hand a Chaos magnet wandering around the world accompanied by a woman thief more than capable of stealing the Pope's mitre in the middle of a St. Peter's Square blessing of the faithful.

Xander only shrugged, not all that surprised. "No problem, but that's just my opinion. Selina has the deciding vote." He glanced at her. "Whatever you want is fine with me, honey."

In time with another impatient blare of the outside car horn, Selina quickly thought it over. She did have one important question to ask. "Uh, are you going to be watching all the time-?"

Guessing correctly what Selina was going to say, Mordred cut her off rather kindly, "No, we'll respect your privacy, the both of you. All we want to observe is the entertaining parts out in public, anyway."

"Okay, then," conceded Selina, glancing at where Xander was also nodding in approval.

This was followed by everyone saying goodbye in the kitchen and the three witches escorting Xander and Selina to the front door where the house's residents did a final farewell wave at the departing taxi. It wasn't until the door was closed that Mordred turned to where Cynthia was giggling to herself and severely inquire of the younger witch, "All right, what'd you do?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" indignantly huffed Cynthia in a quick change of mood.

Mildred and Mordred just turned their heads to wearily examine the other, then they returned their resigned attention back to where Cynthia was giggling again. It took a few more moments before she broke under their unblinking gazes.

Tossing her long, blonde locks back, Cynthia smirked, "Well, if you insist, I might've made sure Xander's collar can't ever be removed even when he turns into a human and it also has inscribed on it the words in capital letters SELINA'S GOOD DOGGY. Hey, all it'll take for him to cover that up is a couple of turtleneck sweaters!"