Bright Copper Trails

"Any side effects?" Giles asked.

"I'm solid once more, but I'm wearing racier underwear," Willow admitted, blushing bright red a few seconds later.

"Willow now has a tendency to overshare," Buffy offered.

"Err, yes," Giles said embarrassed as he noted it for his journal.

"I spent the night as a terrified and useless noblewoman, but once I got my hands on a frying pan I was unstoppable," Buffy said.

"Really?" Giles asked curiously.

"A large cast iron frying pan," Buffy said matter-of-factly. "I disarmed pirates with swords and took out a number of monsters using a frying pan. I can still remember the moves too, they're so easy they're almost instinctual."

"She did," Willow agreed. "And all while wearing a huge poofy dress and reduced to normal human strength levels."

"We'll have to see how that works now that the spell is ended," Giles said. "Xander, anything to add?"

"Why are you still dressed that way?" Willow asked. "I mean the overcoat and hat give you a film noir private detective look, but it also looks a bit like a flasher, not that I'd object to you flashing me and I'd love to sneak under that coat only—" Willow's voice was cut off as Buffy covered her mouth.

Xander placed a brown gloved hand on the table and tapped his fingers pinky to pointer in sequence several times. The table shuddered as if he'd struck it with a hammer and there were small dents where his fingers had contacted the wood. "I dressed as more than just a detective, I dressed as a cyborg."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dawn ran a hand over the stuffed dog in front of her, ignoring the tears falling from her eyes. She knew it was just a stuffed animal from a TV show, but for one night it had been more than that, it had been her loyal companion and closest confidant, and now... he was gone.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Xander suddenly stood up ignoring the arguments going on around him. "I gotta go!"

"What?"

"I'm needed," Xander replied, turning to go and ignoring their calls for him to stay.

Buffy tried to catch him but he was much too quick for her, vanishing out of the school before she even reached the middle of the hall.

"Giles, what do we do?" Buffy asked, returning to the library.

"I—I don't know," Giles stuttered. "We need more information before we do anything," he said before muttering something under his breath about how other watchers didn't have to deal with this sort of insanity.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Joyce didn't know what to do, Dawn was crying and wouldn't say why, she just sat there hugging the stuffed dog that was part of the last night's Halloween costume. It probably has something to do with the hallucinations brought on by the gas leak, but it was impossible to help your daughter through a bad trip if she wouldn't talk to you.

Joyce had started a pot of coffee and almost jumped out of her skin when something pounded on the front door hard enough to cause it to shake in its frame just before a brown gloved hand actually came through the door.

"Sorry!"

"Xander?" Joyce asked opening the door and revealing an embarrassed but concerned young man. "You're still wearing your costume?"

"Xander!" Dawn yelled attempting to rush down the stairs but her toe caught a quarter of the way down and she tripped. Instead of trying to save herself, she instinctively curled into a ball to protect the stuffed dog she was carrying.

Joyce started to rush over when Xander's arms stretched past her to catch dawn and return her safe and sound to Xander. "That's not a costume," Joyce realized.

"Not anymore," Xander agreed as Dawn cried on his shoulder. "It's OK," he told her. "He's not dead, he just returned to his family. We couldn't keep him when they still needed him."

"Promise?" Dawn begged.

"Promise," Xander assured her, and was rewarded by a tight hug and a much happier Dawn.

"How?" Joyce asked.

"The last time Buffy tried to talk to you about it you had her committed," Xander told her, not saying anything more.

"Claiming you're the messiah, responsible for cleansing demons from the earth, without providing any tangible proof, tends to get you committed," Joyce said bluntly.

"She didn't demonstrate her superhuman strength or anything?" Xander asked.

"No, just torched her school gym and claimed to be Jesus," Joyce told him. "An insanity plea beat jail-time, so we put her in a sanitarium and hoped someone had just slipped her something at the prom."

"She wasn't hallucinating or crazy," Xander told her. "Not exactly Jesus and mainly deals with vampires, but yeah she was telling the truth."

"I'll still miss him," Dawn admitted, not paying attention to their discussion.

"So will I," Xander assured her. "But I'm also happy he's home."

"That does help," Dawn agreed readily.

"And you're now a natural blonde, which is going to drive your older sister nuts," he promised, making her laugh.

Joyce reached out and ran her fingers through Dawn's hair, finding she wasn't wearing a wig. "Do you have X-ray vision?" she asked Xander, wondering about the natural blonde comment.

"Eyebrows," Xander told Joyce, shaking a finger at her with a smirk.

"Don't you have an X-Ray scanner built into your optical sensor suite?" Dawn asked seriously. "It should be accessible just by motive force alone, not even needing an audible command or override code."

"Yes, however your mother was thinking Superman not medical tech," Xander replied. "X-Ray's do not tell you the color of someone's pubic hair nor even if they have any, normally."

"You should be able to tell if I have any through the use of several different sensors. Its color is beyond the current tech level possible and would require speculation however," Dawn agreed. "You could just ask me to show you or use a remote surveillance drone if you were curious."

"Honey," Joyce said calmly, "that topic is highly inappropriate for your age and you seem to have jumped a couple dozen IQ points."

"I'm now his primary technician," Dawn told Joyce. "In fact here and now I am his only technician, I can't afford modesty because if he's less than completely open with me he could die."

"You're skipping a step or two in that explanation," Joyce said.

"Honesty begets Honesty," Dawn said not feeling the need to say any more.

"And that's all?" Joyce asked.

"No," Dawn admitted. "I'm also trying to forge much stronger ties with him, but that's secondary."

"I'm right here," Xander reminded them.

"I know," Dawn said cuddling into his chest. "I wasn't trying to be rude or treat you like a thing I was just explaining things to mom."

"Fair enough," he replied easily.

"Let's start over," Joyce said. "Buffy wasn't crazy?"

"Buffy was chosen to be the next vampire slayer when the last one died," Xander explained. "Its a destiny thing and no earthly power was involved."

"And what does that mean exactly?" Joyce asked.

"The world is older than you know..." Xander began sounding exactly like Giles.

Half an hour later...

"And Halloween?" Joyce asked.

"Usually a quiet time as demons feel it's too commercial," Xander explained. "We were all turned into our costumes and we still don't know why. Buffy's watcher is researching the matter."

"What are you doing?" Joyce asked Dawn who had unbuttoned Xander's shirt and crawled halfway inside.

"Checking his systems," Dawn replied. "I really should get him on the table in my lab... OK, I need to build a lab, but for now I need you to strip down to your shorts and I need... an eyeglass repair kit and some Visine."

"I should have both in my purse," Joyce replied going through her bag and finding the requested items.

"We're probably going to need some privacy for this," Dawn hinted, recalling how embarrassed he got.

"I don't have his insecurities," Xander told Dawn. "I'm not him, sorry."

Dawn threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Never apologize for that, I like you! I just thought you might have some of his issues."

"Being a cyborg is a step up for me," Xander assured her. "It gives me the edge I need to keep fighting demons."

Dawn released him with a sigh. "Just be you, I don't need an uncle or older brother, I need a friend."

Xander set Dawn down and removed his coat, revealing he was only wearing a small section of fabric around his neck that gave the illusion of a shirt. His torso looked like it had been sculpted by a Greek artist and there were gleaming lines of silver crisscrossing his body.

"Don't you need a clean room and specialized tools?" Joyce asked, trying to distract herself from the sight.

"I argued that he was a working man and not a hothouse flower," Dawn said motioning for Xander to sit as she took the Visine and eyeglass kit from her mother. "They put some rather large brains..." her voice trailed off for a moment and she cleared her throat. "They put their best scientist on making the design robust and able to be maintained and repaired with commercially available supplies."

Joyce watched as her daughter used the tiny screwdriver from the eyeglass kit on the corner of Xander's right eye and poured Visine in.

"Xander's tear ducts are gone, so we have to use an artificial reservoir and refill it every three days," Dawn explained, handing Joyce the half empty bottle. "Release," Dawn ordered, taking hold of Xander's hat. There was a loud click and Dawn carried the hat over to the couch where it dented the cushions enough to show it wasn't made of felt.

Joyce watched as Xander sat there with his eyes closed and a smile on his face as Dawn ran her fingers through his hair and hummed while she explained his scalp. "What are you doing now?" Joyce asked curiously.

"Checking for damage and reinforcing his humanity," Dawn said. "One of the biggest changes is sense of touch and Xander's is a bit more limited now."

"You poor, dear," Joyce said sadly.

"Actually I have gotten lucky there," Xander said softly. "He had a lot of scar tissue and nerve damage from the accident and the procedures used to turn him into a cyborg, but since I was changed using magic, I don't have that problem. I don't feel quite as much as I used to, but I feel a lot more than he ever did."

"I'm happy to hear that, but my schedule remains the same, at least a quarter of an hour a day playing with your hair," Dawn said. "It's as much for me as you! You have a very dangerous job and I need to feel that you're OK and alive."

"Yes ma'am," he agreed with a grin.

"So, what all can you do?" Joyce asked curiously.

"Built in phone, extendable limbs, sensory suite, superhuman physical abilities," Xander rattled off.

"Uncle didn't use ten percent of his true capabilities," Dawn said.

"He had issues," Xander said. "Fortunately I don't share them."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"The only point of commonality is where you all bought your costumes," Giles said, "Ethan's. What can you tell me about the proprietor?"

"A British guy named Ethan," Buffy said with a shrug. "Why, you know him?"

"What are the odds of that happening?" Willow asked before saying, "Of course around here the odds are so skewed he probably blew him."

Buffy smacked herself in the forehead. "Bad mental image!"

"Not enough ale in all of Bristol," Giles muttered absently. "I need a large blunt object or maybe a hammer; I think it's time to drop in on an old friend."

"Or embarrass yourself threatening a stranger," Willow offered.

"He's probably involved anyway, so no problem there," Giles said finding a hammer behind the counter. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some answers."

"What if he is your friend?" Willow asked.

"That's what the claw side of the hammer is for," Giles said as he departed.

Typing by: Stephenopolos

TN: I was torn between Robocop and Inspector Gadget...

AN: Go, gadget go!