Quivering in rage, his fists clenched at his sides, Xander once more glared at the mage on the floor still in his slumber. Hastily turning away before he totally lost his temper and kicked in Ethan's head, the teenager in the body of someone else who was certainly going to be furious about that again glumly stared at the Janus statue on the register counter. "I really, really hate magic," muttered Xander, his right hand coming up to the back of his skull and scratching the cropped hair there in a vain attempt to think of something, anything-
Suddenly jerking his hand away, to then bring it around to hold this part of his body in front of his face, Xander stared at Richard Wilkins' outstretched fingers there, with his new features wearing a maniacally hopeful grin, as he exclaimed, "I'm a sorcerer now, and I've got his memories! If I use his magic and remember what he can't defend against, maybe I can come up with something…"
Trailing off, Xander hurriedly started planning in his mind. *Lessee, there's no magic I can use on that rock, and after it's smashed, I'll be ordinary again, so it has to be before that. Um- Magic up a weapon that'll work on him, or put his secret of becoming a giant snake into someplace he can't get to and use it to blackmail him into leaving me alone, or set up a spell that'll hide me somewhere he can't find me when the statue is broken-*
His features paling, Xander stopped his reckless plans, as cold reality in the form of the Mayor's memories intruded itself into his mind. The bleak fact was that this sorcerer had a century of creating his own plans to take care of anything his enemies might try, plus he was a lot smarter than one Xander Harris. Not to mention that Wilkins had just faintly informed that teenager possessing the older man's memories that even if Xander did come up with something that might actually work and that the Mayor hadn't foreseen, the most simple and effective strategy to counter the high school student's idea would be for the sorcerer to take hostages - up to the entire town of Sunnydale, if necessary - and kill several or most of them. Then order Xander to surrender. Said hostages would certainly include the rest of the Scooby Gang and their families.
Yes, Wilkins knew all about the small group meeting in their high school library headquarters that supported Buffy Summers in her battles against the creatures of the night. That man had occasionally availed himself of their services by subtly aiming them at certain troublesome vampires and other demons who were making a nuisance of themselves in Sunnydale, and as long as they remained ignorant of who was truly pulling their strings, the Mayor had left the Slayer and her friends in peace. One takes good care of one's tools, after all.
This would certainly change once the Chaos spell was broken. His face now turning pasty white, Xander further understood from Wilkins' icy memories that since Buffy, Willow, Snyder, the trick-or-treaters, and a good portion of the town had seen him as the Mayor even before the big change for everyone, it only made sense for the sorcerer to possibly kill them all off too, if there was any chance at all that these people had learned about the politician's secrets. That likelihood also eliminated Xander's very last hope. Just for trying to contact him, much less in succeeding in that teenager's desperate appeal for his advice, an automatic death sentence would be given to Rupert Giles.
At that very moment, the son of Tony and Jessica Harris finally accepted his fate. However, even if he was going to die, he'd do his damnedest to make sure nobody else suffered. His mature face set, Xander once more opened his magical shields a fraction, to then jab a forefinger at thin air, which made several sheets of blank paper appear to hover at chest-level above the costume shop floor. Wearily closing his eyes, Xander concentrated as hard as he could, which meant he missed seeing how the sheets of paper promptly became covered in his own handwriting, completely filling the letter.
It was a full account of everything significant that had happened during the last few days, from Xander's first meeting with Ethan Rayne, including the entire events of Halloween, and ending with the teenager writing his suicide note. For that's exactly what it was.
Xander was making the only bargain he could, and the key to that was Wilkins' own memories, as stressed by the teenager in his letter. The young man reminded the sorcerer that both of them now knew what the older man's overriding purpose was and also the bloody actions over the last century that the politician had taken to accomplish this, coldly doing whatever was necessary. And…also refraining from performing what was unnecessary. The Mayor didn't kill out of sadism, greed, or cruelty; all the lives he'd taken had been done for a specific purpose, and if there had seemed to be no pressing reason during all that time to murder anyone, Wilkins hadn't bothered to do so.
In his letter, Xander proposed that tonight, only he and Ethan would die.
After finishing his note, he'd magically send it to the Mayor's desk for him to read (after all, the teenager knew exactly how to get this message past that sorcerer's wards), and keep a copy of it on himself, on the outside chance that after the Janus statue was broken, neither of them would remember what had occurred to themselves tonight. Or maybe they would. Anyway, Xander agreed to submit himself to what would happen next.
The morning after Halloween, two bodies would be found inside a costume shop, one being the proprietor of that business, and the other a local Sunnydale teenager dressed in an outdated formal suit. Both of the pairs' deaths would be perfunctorily investigated by the Sunnydale Police Department, and those zealous(!) law enforcement officials would eventually report that it appeared the deceased had killed each other during a fight, with no known reason for their conflict.
Virtually all of the small California city's population under the influence of Sunnydale Syndrome wouldn't pay the slightest bit of attention to that minor piece of news appearing in their daily newspaper. If anyone even noticed or cared, including the majority of those who'd actually known the dead teenager, they'd probably just think, *Oh, him, the one with the drunk parents. Looks like he finally went bad. Wonder how the Dodgers did yesterday?*
Of course, several other people would know better, and they'd promptly carry out their own investigation, only to then sadly come to the proper conclusion about what must have happened in the costume shop. Since he hadn't gotten a Halloween outfit at that place (Xander stressed in his letter that Buffy and Willow had been told in the school library after he'd changed there that the formal suit he wore was from his grandfather's stuff), on that night, the teenager must have been unaffected, only to realize the costumes from an Englishman's place of business had changed their wearers. With no means of finding the affected Slayer and his red-haired friend, and having no time to contact Giles, Xander must have gone off alone to confront Ethan Rayne, and it had ended in a deadly altercation between the pair that at least had ended the Chaos magic. The only people in Sunnydale he truly cared about would know that Xander Harris had given his last full measure for them.