Halloween, Part 5: Aftermath

(_)(_)(_)

Jon, Xander, and Willow

When the magic spell was broken, the results were as instantaneous as the inception of the spell had been. Between one second and the next, everyone affected went back to normal.

Well, back to normal save some very odd, and in many cases discomfitting memories. Willow had managed to find her way to the high school before the spell was broken, so found herself in the familiar environs of the gym. Because her changes had been the most mild, she basically shrugged and just went with it. At least, until she remembered that Buffy, Xander, and Jon had been in costumes too.

Willow was bright enough to figure that Jon wouldn't be in too much trouble. He had been a soldier, after all, so regardless of how exactly the spell had affected him, it wouldn't be too far from what he'd experienced. Or, well, what his older, non-clone self had experienced, but Jon still had those memories, so it was the same basic thing.

The ones to worry about were Buffy and Xander. Xander would be discombobulated by having been a soldier briefly but it oughtn't to be too bad. What really worried her was Buffy. Had Buffy retained her Slayer abilities? The fact that Willow remembered *not* remembering the last year or so made her think Buffy might have had something similar happen, and Buffy hadn't been a Slayer for all that long. Worse - what if the Slayer abilities had been suppressed or something thanks to the spell? She really needed to find Buffy, fast.

(_)(_)(_)

Not too far away, Xander - who had made it to the Principal's office despite Snyder's attempts to intervene and had even begun to search for a nearby army base - jerked as the spell broke. He blinked at the computer screen for a moment, trying to reconcile what had happened.

Well shit. So that's what it meant to be a soldier, huh? Xander had kind of suspected - Jon sometimes did or said things that made it pretty clear a soldier's frame of reference was pretty different - but he'd kinda missed the mark. And he had Snyder in his face. Shit.

Xander shut the computer down and turned to walk away, trying his best to keep pretending he didn't know who Snyder was or where he was or any of that. He even took the same route out of the building that he could remember having taken to get to the principal's office.

About halfway there, he passed the gym. He just barely managed to not do a double take when Willow came flying out.

"Xander! Oh I'm so glad to see you. I was worried. What happened? Do you know? I mean, everything was so ... "

"I'm sorry miss. I have no idea who you are or who you think I am." Xander said. With Snyder behind him, he could afford to pin Willow with a pointed stare.

It took Willow a couple seconds to get it, but she did get it. "Oh! I'm sorry. Ummm ... did you get lost or something?"

"I got separated from my unit somehow." Xander bluffed.

"Well, there's an army base at the edge of town. I can show you the way there. They're bound to be able to get you where you need to be."

"I would appreciate that ma'am."

And, ignoring Snyder's outraged sputtering, they made their way out of the school. Once they were out of line-of-sight of the nearest windows, They collapsed against the house they'd ducked around the side of.

"Xander?"

"Yeah, I remember you. And it was definitely weird."

"Xander - we need to find Buffy. If it affected me and you ... "

Xander blanched. "Damn, it would affect her. And the real demons would take advantage of a Slayer that doesn't remember she is one."

"Or worse, on that might not have her Slayer abilities, however temporarily." Willow pointed out.

"Shit. You're right. We've got to find her, now. Let's go collect Jon. He can lead us to her a whole lot faster than we'd ever be able to find her on our own." Xander said.

"You know where he is?"

"Not exactly, but I know the general direction." Xander said. "Once we're close enough, he'll find us."

Willow grinned. "Good point. Let's go."

It didn't take them all that long to reach the general area that Jon had planned to take his group of trick-or-treaters.

"Jon! Where you at?" Xander called out.

Amusingly, Jon must have already been making his way towards the high school because he appeared around the building across the street seconds after Xander called.

(_)(_)(_)

"So ... that was different." Jon said. "And considering what I used to do for a living ... "

Xander laughed. "You'd know from different." He agreed. "We need to find Buffy, pronto. She was dressed as a *cheerleader*, Jon. And I don't know about you, but I didn't remember about demons or any of that for a while there."

"Neither did I." Willow said.

Jon cursed. "Me either. Right. Operation Find The Slayer is a go." Jon said.

Xander immediately put a hand on his arm, and Jon turned his attention outward, searching for the sound of Buffy's voice. If they were closer, or he was more practiced at this, he'd risk trying for her heartbeat, but with an entire town to check and a ton of people around, that wasn't going to be an option for Jon.

"Well, she's not on this end of town." Jon said after a few moments. "We're going to have to head over to the other side of town before I can check it. I can't manage the whole town yet."

They worked their way towards the middle of town, where Jon would be able to 'reach' the far side of town from the high school. He'd focused for less than three minutes before he gave his head a shake.

"Wow. Giles is *pissed*. He's reading someone the riot act. The guy from the costume shop, I think. Joyce isn't all that much better. She's hunting around for us and muttering dire threats at whoever did this to everyone. Buffy is ... " He reoriented himself slightly, then pointed. "That way. Up by Willow's place, I think. She's cussing up a storm too. From the sounds of it, she didn't have a good time. We also have someone else freaking right the hell out about accidentally killing a kid. They're ... " He reoriented again and pointed. "That way."

"Ok ... how do we do this?" Xander wanted to know. "Go from one to the other? Split ... " He didn't even bother finishing that option, because Jon was giving him A LOOK that made it very, very clear what Jon's opinion of splitting up was. "Ok, from one to the next it is. So ... Joyce first so she stops looking for us and knows we're ok, pick up Buffy, then the person who accidentally killed a kid? I don't know about you but disturbing Giles in the middle of bitching out the perpetrator of this mess doesn't sound like a good idea."

"That works for me." Jon said. Willow nodded her agreement.

They opted to jog towards Joyce, so as to get from one to the next quickly. Joyce let out a relieved sigh when she spotted them.

"I can assume from your lack of urgency that Buffy is fine?" She asked.

"Madder'n a wet cat, but yeah, fine." Jon said. "I kinda pity anything dumb enough to cross her path tonight. She's in a mood. Not that I blame her one bit."

(_)(_)(_)

Buffy and Kendra

For her part Buffy was understandably pissed. She'd just spent the last ... how long? Hour or so? Maybe more, maybe less, she wasn't sure, running scared from demons. It pissed her right the hell off. Seriously. She'd actually been mid-flight from a demon when the spell had broken. Not that the running had lasted long after the spell broke. She'd nearly fallen on her ass in shock, then got her feet back under her, whipped around, and put the KA-Bar she'd been toting through the demon's chest.

She glanced around, trying to figure out where exactly she was at. She'd done so much running since the spell hit that she'd lost track. Fortunately, their daily patrols made it pretty easy to figure out where she was at. She was a block and a half away from Willow's house.

She considered her options, and decided to stay put. If she went looking for everyone, they'd conceivably miss each other repeatedly - at least until Jon managed to round everyone up. If she stayed put, they'd get to her that much easier and faster.

Sure enough, she hadn't been hanging out for more than about five or ten minutes before her mom's car came up the street, with Joyce behind the wheel and Jon, Xander, and Willow inside.

"You all right, Buffy?" Her mom wanted to know.

"Yeah, I'm fine. A few scratches but nothing more serious than that." Buffy made a face. "I'm seriously narked off though. We know who did this?"

"Giles has them, and is bitching them out." Jon said. "Using language that even Daniel'd be jealous of, I think, since he's worn out expressing his ire in human languages and has moved on to demonic ones. At least I think they're demonic anyway. They don't sound anything like a human language."

That got an amused huff out of Buffy. "So what's the plan?"

"We got one more stop to make. Some poor schmuck accidentally killed a kid wearing a monster costume." Jon said. "They are seriously not happy about it, but I figure we can help at least a little."

"Oh, damn. Yeah, that can't have been fun to realize." Buffy said with a wince. "Kind of lucky it didn't happen more, really. You'd think even Sunnydalians would fight back against something attacking them."

(_)(_)(_)

Kendra was ... horrified.

That was the best way to put it. She'd been attacked by a demon. She had slain the demon. At which point the demon had ... changed. Had become a child in a costume.

She had, however mistakenly, killed an innocent civilian.

Nothing in any of her training had prepared her for this possibility. Civilians were supposed to be far, far away from demons when a Slayer went on the warpath. Either that or easily identifiable as civilians compared to scaled, horned, fanged demons.

She ... didn't know how to deal with this. At all. She collapsed down near the body, not even capable of thinking far enough to return to her Watcher and report. She just kept staring at the dead body in horror. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

She didn't even move when a car appeared at the top of the block and headed her way. She didn't notice when the car stopped. She did, though, finally take notice when a blonde haired girl crouched down in front of her, blocking her view of the body. Such was her shock it took Kendra a few moments to correctly identify Buffy from her spying stint earlier in the month

"Hey." Buffy said, her tone oddly gentle. "Look at me, ok? Don't blame yourself for this. It's not like you knew, right? You were just defending yourself."

Kendra gave her head a sharp shake. "Is my fault. I should have known. Should have seen."

"No." This time, a male voice. From a boy crouched down beside the dead child. After a second look, Kendra identified him as Jon, one of the two boys who worked with Buffy. "Don't do that to yourself. I don't care if you're the best trained anything ever - mistakes are gonna happen and you can't possibly know everything. So don't kick yourself over this." Then Jon glanced at Buffy, and over to one side, evidently at people that Kendra couldn't see due to Buffy and Jon blocking her sight-lines.

"Guys ... I think we have a situation. I could be wrong, but I think Buffy here has a twin, if you know what I mean."

"A ... are you sure?" That sounded like an adult woman's voice. Kendra pulled out of her fugue enough to try to peer around the blonde, and saw a woman, and a second and boy standing a little back from the group around Kendra and her victim. Her, Kendra did not immediately recognize, but assumed she was mother to one of the teens present. The two other children she recognized as Willow and Xander, Buffy's other tagalongs.

"As sure as I can be." Jon said.

"But ... there's not supposed to be ... twins." The woman said.

"Yeah, I know. Don't ask me how, but ... " Jon shrugged.

At that point, Buffy cocked an eyebrow at Kendra. "So. I'm Buffy. Vampire Slayer. That guy there is Jon, and if he's right, you're a Slayer too. Which means you have a Watcher around here somewhere, and I'm thinking a conference is in order." She said, then offered Kendra a hand up.

"Much as I hate doing it, we should just leave the kid here. The cops'll find him shortly, and assume he was killed by dogs or whatever excuse they come up with." Jon said, then glanced at Kendra. "You going to jail for it won't do any good. In the meantime, we can introduce ourselves, go collect Giles, Buffy's Watcher, find yours, and have a bit of a chat."