"So, what happens now?" Buffy warily asked. She was a bit more subdued than might have been expected after being released from the stasis spell, but that was probably due to her recent hurried trip to the ladies' restroom with her spare outfit from the library training area, and after taking care of business, a hasty change out of her Halloween costume. Which she'd left stuffed into the corridor trashcan before Buffy had returned to the others; it wasn't like she was going to get back her costume deposit, anyway.
From the other end of the library table, the mature man with a receding hairline allowed a wry look to appear on his face, as he replied, "You get used to calling me Rick."
Buffy stiffened in her chair, sharing an indignant look with Giles next to her and seeing him wince in exasperation, an emotion that was also clearly evident in the blonde girl's next outburst. "Oh, come on, Xander! There's got to be a way to turn you back-!"
"Hey, Buffster, I got permanently marked by Janus himself!" The newly-named man glowered back at the annoyed young woman he'd just interrupted, while abruptly lifting his right hand up to shoulder level, palm outwards, to brandish it at the Slayer and her Watcher. The little piece of dark stone still embedded in the center of his hand was more than visible to both at the other end of the table, as Rick crankily continued, "It's not like a note from my mom will get me out of this!"
"Er, how can you possibly be so sure?" cautiously inquired Rupert Giles, his unwillingness to use that man's new name showed how he was still struggling to deal with all that had occurred tonight. Which, among other things, included the murder of his former friend by that boy over there who'd somehow lived up to his usual nature by unexpectedly changing into someone that just happened to be an undying sorcerer secretly ruling Sunnydale under the very noses of the Scooby Gang. Not to mention everything else that had been revealed several minutes ago in the library.
Rick sighed, and then he pityingly looked across the table at the Englishman. "Giles, I have the memories of Mayor Wilkins, who learned all kinds of major mojo stuff and in the process he managed to take over and use the Hellmouth! Plus, I also got someone's else memories about Chaos magic-" (a quick flash of pain crossed Giles' features over that rather-tactfully phrased statement) "-as well as Hyena's experiences, for whatever they're worth, and in all that, there's nothing on how to fix this! Hell, none of them would have been stupid enough to try! Go up against a god?"
There was quiet in the library for a few moments as the others absorbed this, until Willow then hesitantly spoke, "Xander- YEEP!" After her abrupt yelp, the red-haired girl glared up at the man next to her and snapped to him, "Don't do that!"
From where he was looking down at Willow in her seat, Rick allowed his glowing green/yellow eyes to change back to normal, as he smirked at his annoyed friend, and shrugged, "Fine, then. I'll just pinch you every time you forget to use my new name." A gleeful expression now passed over the older man's face, as he held up his left hand and jabbed this at Willow's rear in her chair, making pinching motions with his thumb and forefinger.
"Don't you dare! Rick," hurriedly finished Willow, as she edged away in her seat from the man's groping fingers. Looking satisfied, this adult now pulled back his hand, and then he interestedly listened to her next words.
"Um, what I was going to say - Rick - was, why were you so sure that the Mayor would show up in City Hall again after the Janus statue was broken? I mean, we all changed back-" Willow nodded across the table at Buffy agreeing with her, and then she determinedly continued, "-but from what you told us, Wilkins was killed by Hyena in your mind. Wouldn't that have kept him from coming back to life?"
Rupert Giles' own interest sharpened as he stared across the library table at the older man there looking a bit rueful. The Watcher had also noted that inconsistency in the story he'd just heard, and he watched with close attention as Rick now reached into an inner suit pocket and resignedly pulled out something from there before then laying this object upon the library table.
It was a small, white business card.
"Yeah, you're right, Wils," good-naturedly answered Rick, gazing with deep affection at the all-A's student ever since kindergarten, who'd always helped him with his own homework from then on also. He sighed, and then continued, "From Ethan's memories, he was going to end the Chaos spell at dawn, and then sneak out of town, laughing his ass off over all the trouble he caused. Sorry, Giles, but your friend was a total bastard." Rick's eyes were sympathetic as he looked at the immobile man at the opposite end of the table clearly wrestling with his own memories and emotions.
After a few moments, Rupert Giles slowly took his glasses off his face, pulled out an handkerchief from his tweed suit, and he began to absently polish the lenses, as he looked off into the distance, a bleak expression on his features. Finally, as the subdued teenagers watching him heard the man lost in his thoughts quietly say, while still avoiding everyone's eyes, "Ethan always had a tendency to take things to extremes." The librarian then coughed, and replaced his glasses while also shamefacedly admitting, "When I was with him back then, years ago, I wasn't very much better. Both of us did whatever we pleased, regardless of the cost to others."
"What?" was chorused by two astonished girls now staring at Giles in disbelief. Rick, on the other hand, continued his look of commiseration (albeit with an unholy glint of mirth beginning to appear in his eye) at the man across the table presently waving his hand in a firm gesture for their attention.
"I promise I'll tell you the full details, Buffy, Willow, but later, not now! If we could please get back to the matter at hand? Er, Rick, you were about to explain how that business card had something to do with the Mayor," glowered Giles at the other man there sniggering under his breath.
"…let's do the Time Warp again…" Rick finished his sotto-voce singing and with great difficulty, he managed to get himself under control. A glance at the small rectangle of paper lying on the library table helped him become completely serious, as the man with a former politician's face now explained to the others. "See, guys, if it had only been the sash with the word MAYOR on it that was chock full of Chaos magic, that might have caused Ethan's spell to work the way it was supposed to. That spell was designed to change people, and with specific costumes, it changed those people wearing them into their specific characters. But, in the case of just pieces of costumes, or for nonspecific costumes, it usually changed their wearers into nonspecific characters. Like you, Wils."
Willow blinked at those last words, as her friend continued. "You weren't Casper, or Jacob Marley, or any other specific ghost. You were just wearing a generic ghost costume, so you got changed into a ghostly Willow Rosenberg. That happened to you too, Buffy." Rick glanced over at a fascinated Slayer listening to him with her full attention. "You dressed up as a French noblewoman, not a specific one like, um, the only one I can think of is Marie Antoinette, but you didn't intend to be her tonight, so you just got changed into a basic French noblewoman from the time of your gown, who could've been anyone. Say, who were you, anyway?"
Instead of Buffy replying to that, surprisingly enough, it was Willow who then delivered a vicious snarl that ended in the furious statement: "Madelaine Giroux, that bitch who made Cordelia Chase look like Mother Teresa!"
"Hey!" came from an indignant Buffy, once she managed to get a word in edgewise. "I keep telling you and telling you, I don't remember anything! So, quit blaming me over what Miss Priss said and did!"
BANG!
A pea-sized spark of white energy shot out of Rick's flicked forefinger, soaring to head level in the center of the library table, where it instantly detonated in mid-air, exactly like a thrown firecracker. All the others promptly clapped their hands over their aching ears, and then they stared at the older man sardonically eyeing everyone around the table. As Buffy, Willow, and Giles cautiously took their hands away from the sides of their heads, Rick dryly said, "Do you girls really want to hear the details, or should I just shut up and let you yell at each other?"
Willow and Buffy traded an evil glance full of 'this isn't over yet, but that jerk over there needs to be taken down first' and then they both shot identical glares at that meddling male who was getting too big for his boots. Blandly looking back at his annoyed friends, Rick cleared his throat, and he went on.
"Like I said before, Ethan sold me the sash and he used his mojo on it. He didn't know what I wanted it for, but that piece of cloth would've picked up who I was dressing up as when the spell finally hit. So, I got changed into Mayor Wilkins for real later tonight. Now, there were also two other things that Ethan didn't know about. One of them was Hyena. Which meant when the spell hit me, I got both of them right in my brain at the same time, and they took each other out, leaving me the one in charge and having their memories and powers."
Rick then pointed his finger at the small business card on the table, ignoring the nervous flinches from the others at this gesture. "Okay, we're getting to the really important thing that Ethan totally missed. The sash brought Wilkins into me, but that card there had been personally owned by the Mayor, and when he gave it to me years ago, he put down on it his name in his own handwriting! So, when I took the card in my wallet to the costume shop and Ethan accidentally juiced it up with his Chaos magic, later on I had what was basically a back-up copy of Richard Wilkins III loading himself onto that card at the same time Ethan's spell hit the MAYOR sash!"
Leaning back into his chair, Rick patiently allowed the others to work out the rest in their minds. It was Giles who was the first to speak, indicating he'd finished thinking it through. "That means…when you returned to the costume shop, you had Mr. Wilkins with you in that card, and breaking the statue would've brought him back to life."
"Got it in one, G-man," nodded Rick, ignoring the usual glower from the Briton over that detested nickname. "I'm still not sure if the business card Wilkins would've remembered anything of what I went through later tonight, since he wasn't actually a part of me. But, like I told you, he sure would've known about the Chaos magic and the Hellmouth energies, and soon enough, everything else. The weird part is, now that I've told you guys about it, something else just occurred to me."
"What?" An alarmed Buffy beat out everyone else in her anxious question.
Giving the Slayer a crooked grin, Rick admitted, "Well, if the business card Wilkins came back to life, I still had in my head the sash Wilkins' memories. It's just possible that those could've gone back to the Mayor, too, along with the rest of me. So, Xander Harris could've changed to the Mayor tonight anyway, and I sure as hell wouldn't be here talking to you."