Xander was seated on the curb, his new form easily resting in that position even if it was really, really old (well, older than Giles, anyway), as he perched his elbows on his knees and then the teenager dropped his head into his hands. He tried not to flinch away from all the strange sensations he was feeling inside someone else's body, to instead start contemplating how one Xander Harris' life had just gotten truly weird, even for the Hellmouth.

Here he was, on Halloween night, with his original mind, also having the powers of an animal spirit that had passed these onto him (probably because Hyena just felt like laughing her ass off), and for the joke's punchline, he was now stuck inside the body of the town mayor, who'd turned out to be a wizard or a magician or some other kind of spellcaster, all while keeping this a secret from everybody in Sunnydale before that guy had been killed by the Primal spirit sharing Xander's brain. The high school student knew damn well he was going to be blamed for that somehow.

Glumly forecasting a future of being yelled at by a lot of people, Xander tried to distract himself by wondering exactly how Mayor Dick had picked up all those major mojo chops. In the next instant, he received the dreadful answer. Just as Hyena's complete memories had previously presented themselves to Xander in their full inhuman behavior, that person now got all of Richard Wilkins' recollections of an extended lifetime well beyond a normal human, including every single atrocity that man had committed in his overriding purpose to accomplish his desired objective.

Abruptly twisting his body to the left, Xander entirely emptied his stomach while performing a genuinely impressive feat of projectile vomiting, sending out his last few meals a good distance away onto the patch of lawn between the sidewalk and the curb next to himself. Coughing and spitting, Xander tried to wipe away from his mind the horrific events he'd just witnessed. It was even worse that what he'd seen in Hyena's memories. At least that animal spirit had killed simply to defend herself or for other needful reasons. Wilkins had ruthlessly murdered multitudes just because he was working towards-

Gagging, Xander managed to get out the words, "He wanted to turn into a giant snake? Didn't that guy ever read the Evil Overlord List?"

That last statement was truly lacking in Xander's normal cheerful humor, as that teenager again felt his stomach spasm and he heaved up a trickle of bile, leaning to his left to spit this onto the ground. More spitting was done to try to get the taste out of his mouth, as Xander absently reached out with his left hand, to rip away a clump a grass, and then he crammed this handful of greenery into his mouth. Just when he started to chew on his unexpected repast, Xander abruptly regained his senses, disbelievingly hacking out his mouthful of grass and then starting to claw at his protruding tongue with his fingers to get any remaining flakes off.

When he'd finally finished, Xander spat a few more times to make sure everything was gone, only then realizing he'd just tapped into Hyena's memories of cleansing her mouth by snatching up a mouthful of plant life and vigorously chewing on this. Smacking his lips, Xander grudgingly admitted this had worked. The sweet taste of the grass had overcome the vile flavor recently in his mouth from throwing up, but the teenager still wasn't a happy camper.

"Like I really want or need what both of those trespassers remember," groaned Xander to himself. Beginning to shudder in reaction to the last few moments, Xander edged his seated behind along the curb away from his discarded stomach contents, glancing to his right in a forlorn hope for a distraction from his troubles. The young man in an older body now blinked at indeed seeing something to divert his attention.

The globe of white energy that had engulfed the demon during its attack upon Xander was still there, floating in the air while the spell continued holding inside itself the slumbering creature-

*The Orb of Confinement.*

"Yurk!" Xander wildly looked around himself, not seeing anyone who'd just said that odd sentence- No, a gulping Xander mentally corrected, he hadn't heard that; it had just popped up inside his head, to be sensed directly by his mind. He didn't need three guesses to know who'd just provided that matter-of-fact comment, and Xander now flinched at the possibility of Richard Wilkins the first, second, and third suddenly coming back to life in his head.

After a few terrified moments of waiting for whatever would happen, Xander nervously regarded the energy globe, to then again sense the unemotional statement: *The Orb of Confinement.*

"Yeah, I got that," muttered Xander under his breath. Hesitantly, the teenager then tried to directly contact whomever or whatever was doing that in his mind: *Uh, could you be a little more specific- Guh!*

Instantly laid out in his brain was the named spell, including every bit of information on how to create, maintain, and terminate the invoked enchantment, its purpose, and whatever else any wizard needed to know about casting this piece of magic. Wilkins' memories then began to inform Xander on the exact price that politician had paid to learn about the Orb and what he'd done with it, with the teenager hastily rejecting those gruesome reminiscences, something that had become much easier. The son of Tony and Jessica Harris had more than enough practice of mentally thrusting aside unwanted recollections in his own life.

Instead, Xander now thoughtfully regarded the Orb of Confinement. The way he'd learned about it from whatever part of Wilkins that was faintly lurking around in his mind had strangely reassured Xander. That politician's presence was kind of like how Hyena's essence currently felt in his brain. Both were…weakened, diminished, listless. It was like comparing a faded black-and-white photo with the real, full-color, living being.

Trying an experiment he'd just thought up, Xander said aloud, "Twinkies." The sudden gush of saliva in his mouth was more than familiar, as the teenager beamed with relief. He next called up Hyena's memories, with the word of the Hostess cake once more spoken. The only reaction Xander got from that animal spirit's residue was a vague sense of mild dislike over any kind of food that wasn't warm and bloody meat. Shrugging, Xander tried again with Wilkins, only to get from that remnant of the politician faint disapproval of such an unhealthy snack.

An extremely relieved Xander Harris breathed, "Yeah! Nobody but me in the driver's seat, and those two are like, um, talking books on tape, or, I dunno, a location device saying where to go and how to get there."

Nodding in satisfaction, the teenager started to lift his right hand to scratch the side of his head, only to halt this action when his fingers were at eye level. A slow grin appearing on his face, Xander then pointed his index finger at the Orb of Confinement, and did exactly what Wilkins had just told him.

There was an odd, inward surge in his body, and the white globe of energy instantly flew towards Xander, with this sphere contracting in size down to the width of a marble when it finally touched the tip of his finger, immediately vanishing into thin air. Xander then felt another odd sensation, like a cool streak of fire inside his hand that zipped right up his arm into his chest, where a warm glow then spread throughout his entire torso.

However, he'd only paid partial attention to this, since the Orb had left behind its prisoner when that spell had returned to its caster. Xander watched in sudden alarm as the insensible demon that had been hanging in the air now dropped limply to the ground, falling forward to land right on its face, and bouncing, once.

"Ooops!" Xander choked, guiltily looking around to see if anybody had witnessed that little mistake. His anxious gaze returned to the demon still on the ground, worriedly expecting it to at once wake up, leap to its feet, and go right for Xander's throat.

The demon let out a burbling snore, and continued its nap.

Wincing with relief, Xander chided himself, "Be careful, you bozo! You might have the mojo, but it doesn't mean you can use it right now as well as those two could!* A sheepish gleam in his eye was followed by an half-ashamed, half-gleeful intonation of a classic comic book line: "With great power comes great responsibility." Xander then went on to snicker, "But there's got to be ways to have lots of fun with this!"

A strangely-youthful grin now appeared upon a mature man's face for several moments, until his features slowly changed to become more serious. *Before all that, there's a question that needs to be answered: What the hell happened in the first place that got me in this body?*

Xander then quickly scanned the memories of both Hyena and Wilkins during tonight's events, with the teenager becoming really concerned about one specific recollection by the politician.

Why had Wilkins sensed there was something very wrong in the city of Sunnydale right before he'd been yanked out of his office in City Hall?