Alex frowned she noticed Xander frowning at the screen of the computer he was using, "What's up?"

Xander glanced around to make sure that no one else was in the living room. Most of the girls were either in the kitchen grabbing a snack or they were wandering around town checking on a couple of things before they reset everything and went with different costumes, "Do you want an honest answer or should I just smile and say I'm fine?"

Alex looked at his eyes, "Let's go with honesty."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

"So noted."

"Don't take this the wrong way because I like you but you're a bit of a tease."

"You seemed to enjoy it and I like showing off for friends, I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable messing around..." Alex sighed.

"That's not it, well in part..."

"Oh?"

"You're cute and I like you and you don't mind me watching you mess around with the girls which is awesome because hey that's like every man's dream but you've never invited me to do more than watch and then there's Buffy..."

Alex asked surprised, "Wait, you like me? Like, like me like me?"

"Well yeah..."

"What about Buffy?"

Xander said, "You wound her up enough she finger fucked herself... I'm fairly sure that my chances with her are nonexistent."

Alex sighed, "You can't always pick who you're attracted to. As for why I never asked you to mess around, I was getting to know you and you didn't say anything so I sort of moved you into the friend zone and then things got busy with school and you seemed okay with watching when we had the group orgy..."

Xander rubbed his face, "Are you telling me that if I had asked...?"

Alex said, "Ah well yeah... for a while. I mean you were a demon fighting badass even without powers, what's not to like?"

"Please tell me this isn't a joke."

Alex shook her head, "I'm not joking Xander, I really would like a chance to have some fun if you're not going to freak out or get weirdly possessive or tease me because I'm not exactly certain what to do with a guy..."

Xander asked, "In that case, where do you want to go on our first date?"

"Burgers and milkshakes?"

"I can do that." He was just glad that he had spoken up rather than just let things continue. At least this way they could give it a try, maybe it wouldn't work out but at least he had a shot.


Harry looked up from his Dungeons & Dragons books as Xander walked in, "Did you sleep well?"

Xander said, "She steals the covers."

"Do I have to give you the shovel speech?"

Xander snorted, "First of all, I'm not planning on hurting Alex. Second, I'm way more afraid of her than I am of you."

Harry chuckled, "True."

Xander gestured at the books that were scattered around the table, "What are you working on?"

Harry said, "I'm working on my D&D character."

"I can see that, I was curious why."

"I'm curious if going as the same character from a later point in his life will help reinforce the skills and let me grab a couple of new class abilities."

"New class abilities?"

"He's a human, I'm changing his class to a bard and talking Alex into running him through a gauntlet of death traps so I can get the experience I need to level him up high enough that I'll be able to use his ranger abilities as well."

"Why not just edit his character sheet and give him the abilities?"

"Because the mission to get the bow is less distinct than the adventures I actually ran. I figure I'll play him as a bard then I can change class and level him again in something else then I'll chance classes one more time and level him as a magic user."

Xander laughed, "You take cheating the system to an art form."

Harry said, "Life wasn't kind, I played by everyone else's broken rules for way too long."

Alex grinned as she walked into the gaming room without a stitch of clothing and hugged Xander. "Do you want to help Harry out with his crazy project?"

Xander said, "Sure, I've got a couple of characters that could use the experience, do we have a tank?"

"Ginny said she'd tank for us."

Xander asked, "Us? I thought you were running the game."

Alex said, "Nah, I talked Willow into it."

Xander gulped, "But she loves killing characters."

Harry shrugged, "I'm sure we'll be okay."


Harry finished filling in the details on his character sheet to match the truly hellish adventure that Willow had put them through. He hated the number of entries he had to make for scars and missing limbs thanks to Willow's critical hit table but at least he had gotten quite a bit of experience and loot out of the nightmare adventure. He handed his finished character sheet to Willow, "Does that look right?"

"Let's see." Willow took the character sheet and looked it over.

Buffy asked, "Now that everything is reset, what's the plan?"

Hermione said, "The plan is we get dressed in our costumes then we wander around until the spell hits. Twenty minutes after the spell hits, Miss Calendar will confront Ethan and break the bust of Janus. Then we'll meet back here and copy any useful knowledge to skill candies and use them."

Willow marked another scar down that she remembered, "You forgot the scar where the knife wielding goblin stabbed your character in the ass with a critical strike."

Harry winced, "I was trying to repress that one."

"I don't see what you're complaining about, you got plenty of loot." She handed Harry's character sheet back to him so that he could put it in his pocket.

Alex snickered, "I think he was complaining because you had anti cheating spells up and you tossed some very nasty challenging monsters at us."

Willow smirked, "Not as easy when you can't tweak the dice is it?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "I survived and made enough gold for a regenerate spell. I'll need some help adding the scars and tying my leg back in a way that looks right." He figured he could just leave his left arm inside his shirt to signify his character's severed arm.

Willow said, "I'll help as soon as I finish putting together your Deck of Destines and your Deck of Many Things."

Alex shivered, "I'm not sure which is more broken, the weird decks or the permanent potion of alternate professions that you found in the dungeon."

Harry said, "I guess it depends on how well the potion works in real life. Considering it gives you all of the first level abilities of a class of your choosing without the drawbacks, I'd probably have to go with the potion if it works. I'm looking forward to playing with all of the magic items my character recovered or acquired."

Sirius said, "Being that Giles and I are going to be wearing costumes this time, do we have any volunteers to stay behind and toss our crippled ranger/bard in front of the mirror of opposition?"

Xander said, "While tempting, I'm looking forward to something a bit more useful than Dungeons & Dragons spells that don't work."

Alex said, "Same."

Tonks shrugged, "I'm fine with staying behind this time as long as we're planning on doing a couple of more runs."

"That's the plan."

Buffy held up the old fashioned pretty dress and the red stone that Hermione had given her, "How safe is this?"

Hermione said, "It should be safe enough. Stick the Philosopher's Stone in your belt pouch and you're Buffy Summers, child prodigy at alchemy, apprentice to Nicholas Flammel and the youngest person to ever create a Philosopher's stone that gives immortality with just one drink of the elixir of life."

Buffy sighed, "Right, so are you going to have Tonks toss me in front of the mirror?"

"Nope, the stone actually can make someone ageless permanently, hopefully it will be enough to provide a roadmap to the correct knowledge. You'll probably be spending the next couple of days storing memories and making knowledge candies though."

Buffy grinned, "That I can do." She mentally added a couple of details to her character's background like a goblin friend that leaked various goblin metalworking and trade secrets to her.

Willow looked at Xander, "Who are you going as?"

Xander smirked, "Well I was going to go as Odin but you vetoed that idea on account of not wanting me to dress as a god, I was going to go as Anakin Skywalker before he fell to the dark side but Alex vetoed that because she didn't want me going evil so I decided to go as an older me that was tossed back in time and became Merlin's apprentice."

Willow finished the last detail on Harry's cards then looked around at her friends, "Is that even legal?"

Harry shrugged, "It's not like I've got a rulebook on what types of costumes we can get away with. I'm not sure how accurate the future knowledge will be but any skills he picks up will probably be useable."

Alex looked at Ginny as she walked out of her bedroom in something that looked a lot like a short skirt version of a UPS outfit except the badge said RMC and she had a brown witch's hat to go with the brown outfit. "What are you supposed to be?"

Ginny said, "I'm Ginger and I just finished a techno pagan wizard mastery with a minor in Chemistry and Physics from Salem's computer department, class of 2027. I'm doing part time work as a delivery girl for Rosenberg Magical Computers, makers of the best magical computers since 2000."

Willow laughed, "Did Miss Calendar put you up to that?"

"I was curious where such a style might go. Besides, I want a better gaming computer and the games to go with it." Mostly she was looking to get a better handle on some of the mundane sciences that she had missed out on because of her mother's lack of understanding about the normal world.

Sirius said, "It's worth a shot..." He smirked as he added notes to his notebook.

Harry said, "It scares me when you do that. Who are you going as?"

Sirius said, "I was thinking about going as a pirate captain but I think I'll change that to going as Captain Black, Lord of the Seven Stars Systems, creator of the Black Wind and destroyer of pirates everywhere."

"Black wind?"

"A magical sailing ship that flies between the stars."

Hermione laughed, "That actually sounds like fun. Do you need a first mate?"

Sirius said, "Sure."

Buffy said, "If you recreate the ship, you'll take us for a ride, right?"

"Of course."

Willow said, "Awesome."

Xander said, "Sweet."

Hermione looked around the collection of supplies until she found a set of fake dentist tools that came from Ethan's shop. She took out a couple of the tools and added a screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters and a couple of fake magic crystals off the table then transfigured her clothes into a set of overalls. "Just call me Mione, first mate and chief engineer of the Black Wind."

Willow looked at Ginny, "I think I'll go as Willow Rosenberg, techno pagan computer designer and trainee of Morgan Le Fay."

Xander asked, "How does that work?"

"It was obvious an accident in the lab that threw us both back to the past where we got training."

Xander laughed, "Welcome aboard."

Ariel walked over and grabbed a painter's hat and a fake paintbrush, "I know who I'm going as."

Alex asked, "Who's that honey?"

Ariel smiled, "Ariel Faust, world renowned magic painter and the developer of the Dorian Gray style portraits."

Willow asked, "Like Dorian Gray style magic paintings?"

"Yep!"

Willow frowned, "I think she wins for being the best hacker."

Harry said, "That's awesome."

Ariel grinned, "Yep."

Gabrielle looked over the collection of costume bits and selected an X-Men belt and a white mask that would probably work for what she had in mind, "Can I talk someone into conjuring me a costume, I want to go as Jean Gray from the X-Men."

Harry pulled out his wand and conjured a white superhero costume with a phoenix on the chest, "You can go as a de-aged version of her in a world where she never met Scott." He handed her the costume then conjured a wand holster. "You'll probably want to wear this as well."

Gabrielle asked, "A wand holster?"

He winked, "Obviously this version was a witch and a mutant."

"Thank you." Gabrielle giggled as she took the wand holster and started putting ideas together for a possible background.

Harry looked over at where Jane was sitting in a chair putting together a costume with her wand, "You're being rather quiet."

Jane looked up, "I'm going as Jane Earth Binder."

"You might need to explain that a bit more."

"Basically I'm stealing Xander and Willow's idea and putting my own spin on it. Basically I'm going as myself tossed back in time where I got training from an Atlantian magic user in the creation of golems and alchemy." She wasn't going to mention that she was planning on using one of the Philosopher's stones as part of her costume to give it a boost and hopefully make sure that the magic she learned was usable.

Alex settled a hat on her head and put her trench coat on, "Nice."

Ginny asked, "What about you?"

"I'm going as an older me, Alexandra Potter, destroyer of goblins and raider of tombs. A famous Gringotts curse breaker turned goblin hunter and thief after they screwed her over on a dig. A stealer of goblin secrets and partner to Laura Croft the tomb raider also an expert on magical law."

Harry laughed, "That sounds useful."

Alex smiled, "Considering the number of cursed items we've ran into, I'd say having some curse breaking skills is a good thing."

Harry said, "We can hope." He glanced toward the hallway, "Did Giles say what he was dressing as?"

Sirius stuck his captain's hat on his head, "He didn't."

Giles walked out of the hallway with Dobby following him. Giles was dressed in a set of white robes and carried a carved wooden staff. "Gandalf the White."

Harry looked at Dobby who was wearing a pair of leather pants and carrying a plastic smith hammer. "What are you going as Dobby?"

Dobby stood up proudly, "Dobby is going as an elf smith from the days of old. Dobby is proud to reclaim his ancient heritage."

Hermione smiled, "Excellent."

Harry turned and looked at Hermione, "I'm guessing you helped with his costume?"

"He wanted in on the fun and I figured this was the best way."

Alex glanced around, "Has anyone seen Luna or Puck lately?"

Hermione frowned, "Not since I saw them grab a couple of things off the table and rush to their room."

Harry called out, "Puck! Luna!"

Puck shouted back, "Just a minute!"

Harry asked, "Has anyone created a costume for any of the Kreachers yet?"

Hermione said, "They're not in the loop."

Harry smirked, "Exactly."

Alex said, "I say we dress them up as enemies then question them after the spell ends."

"Fudge, Umbridge, Snape and Dumbledore."

Xander said, "Snyder."

Buffy said, "The Mayor and maybe a couple of other key people in this town."

Willow added, "Travers..."

Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them, "That might not be a bad idea."

Xander smirked, "Once we question them we'll probably get more names for next time."

Puck walked into the living room with Luna, "Puck and Luna reporting for duty."

Harry looked at Puck and Luna's dark robes and lightsabers. "Are you going as Jedi?"

Luna shook her head, "Even better, we're members of the Potter investigation and retrieval team."

"What exactly does that involve?"

Puck answered, "We're masters of combat, stealth, Legilimency and Occulumency. We go where we're needed and steal secrets as needed. The lightsabers were stolen from the Empire as well the knowledge of how to create lightsabers and all of the Empire's files on creating lightsaber crystals as well as files on creating crystals without resorting to that world's excuse for magic."

Hermione asked, "You're going as thieves?"

Luna said, "We prefer the term acquisition specialists." She looked at Harry, "We live to serve."

Harry laughed, "Welcome to the insanity."

Thea walked into the living room as Rowena Ravenclaw, "How do I look?"

Alex said, "Delightful."

"Thanks."

Giles looked at the clock, "Not to rush things but we've got fifteen minutes before we need to leave to pick up the children at the school."

Harry said, "In that case we should probably get Ginny set up with the 'computer' box outside and check on Tara."

Alex said, "I'll work on setting up the various Kreachers in various locations. I'd rather our enemies can't track us back to here." She was hoping that the reset would wipe out all knowledge of them messing around with things but she didn't want to take more chances than she had to.

Sirius said, "I'll help."

Willow said, "I'll check on Tara."

Harry said, "Let's get it done people."


Faith was still freaking out about losing several days and having things jump back to Halloween when she saw the same naked girl as before walk up to her in her spot in the library carrying a pair of elf ears and a plastic bow. "What the hell is going on?"

The nymph smiled, "You're stuck in a time loop sweetie."

"Did you create the loop?"

"Nope. My boss arranged for you to be included in the time loop so that you could benefit from a couple of different costumes and the skills that come with them."

Faith asked, "Who created it then?"

The nymph grinned, "Some rather powerful magic users that are working on collecting skills so they can help keep the world safer."

"What's that have to do with me?"

The nymph shrugged, "In another timeline you would have been the next mystical warrior called. You would have went to Sunnydale and things would have gone sideways thanks to the hellmouth and your own personal demons. You ended up going down a bad road."

Faith ignored her question about what the hell a hellmouth was in favor of asking, "Then why help me?"

The nymph said, "Because you're attractive and because I know that you've got the soul of a hero inside of you."

Faith asked in disbelief, "Are you sure you've got the right girl?"

"The other you managed to put her life back together and be a hero in the end. So yeah, I have the right person Faith Stark."

"You know that's not my real name."

"Your real father was a drugged out criminal piece of shit. Your mother wasn't any better. You don't owe them anything."

Faith sighed, "I know."

"Cool, are you ready to play dress up?"

"As what?"

The nymph giggled, "As a magic using archer frost elf."

"What are the downsides?"

The nymph smirked, "You're going to have to strip for me."

"You've got elf ears and a bow..."

"Yep!"

"I'm I going to get stuck with weird memories?"

The nymph shrugged, "Magic lessons and some demon hunting."

"Demon hunting?"

The nymph grinned, "Trust me, you'll appreciate it later."

Faith sighed as she started taking off her clothes. "You're enjoying this way too much."

The nymph grinned, "Yep!"


Harry uncovered his eyes then scowled as another one legged Harry jumped out of the mirror. "Damned Mirrors of Opposition."

The evil Harry smirked as he dropped his crutch, balanced on his one leg and drew his dagger, "I'm going to cut off your other arm and leg then I'm going to find a damned healer and get out of here." He glanced around the mirror filled room, "Wherever here is."

Tonks flicked her wand and cut the evil Harry's head off with a severing charm. "Maybe later, I'm on a time crunch." She flicked her wand and covered the mirror with its cover then dropped her invisibility.

Harry gulped as he turned and looked at a purple haired girl he didn't recognize. "Please don't kill me."

"I wasn't planning on it." She flicked her wand and summoned the evil Harry's bag and bow. "You're welcome to stay here or you're welcome to follow me."

"You're keeping the his loot aren't you?"

"Technically I killed him." Tonks smirked then walked out of the mirror room and over to the front door and opened it for Ginny.

Ginger blinked in surprise as someone opened the door before she got there, "Hello, I'm Ginger. I'm with the Rosenberg computer company."

Tonks said, "Sweet." as she looked over the three large boxes on the handcart that Ginny's character was pushing.

Ginger smirked as she handed Tonks a clipboard, "Sign here."

Tonks signed for the three large boxes, "Thanks for delivering it so quickly."

Ginger pulled her handcart out from under the packages, "Enjoy your new computer."

Tonks watched Ginny leave with a smirk before she levitated the boxes back toward the mirror room.

Harry frowned, "What are you going to do with the boxes?"

Tonks said, "Duplicate them. Do you want to help me out?"

Harry asked, "What's in it for me?" He really hoped the witch didn't just say, I won't kill you.

Tonks said, "I'll let you keep the duplicated gold and I'll kill your evil clone each time."

Harry shrugged, "In that case sure. I'll probably have to be sitting on the floor in order to be holding the boxes though."

Tonks said, "That works for me." She wanted things copied as soon as possible so that she had enough time to grab Luna and Puck and grab their information at the meeting place before Jenny ended the spell.


Faith Stark groaned as she woke up in the library where she had found herself before. "I'm back... I'm back!" She laughed as she hugged herself. "No more icy wastelands for me." She reached up and checked her ears, "Damn it, I'm still an elf..." She took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm down. "Okay, it could be worse I guess. At least I'm not feeling the cold and I've still got my bow." She reached down and opened her belt pouch, "Okay, I've got some gold which means that I can get some supplies. Hopefully before someone complains that I'm naked. Dad's never going to believe my adventure when I get back." She headed toward the back of the library to see if there was a coat she could borrow so that she could get some clothes so that she could get some supplies.


Rowena Ravenclaw looked around at the unfamiliar town she found herself in, "What's going on?"

Gandalf glanced around, "I'm not sure. This place feels dark and twisted."

Dobby looked around, "We're on Earth. What do you expect?"

"Earth?"

Rowena looked at Gandalf, "It's the name of the planet."

Gandalf frowned, "I see. In that case, I'm far from home." He glanced around, "I feel a large concentration of magic coming from that direction." He pointed down the street.

Rowena looked at Dobby, "What are you?"

Dobby said, "I'm an elf."

Gandalf said, "You're rather short for an elf."

Rowena said, "You look like a human with pointy ears..." He didn't look anything like the servants she had created.

Dobby shrugged, "I was always shorter than my fellows. Shall we continue toward the disturbance you felt?"

Gandalf said, "Yes, the longer I'm here the more wrong the air feels."

Rowena said, "I feel the same."


Jean Grey looked around the horror filled town that she found herself in. It had only taken a second for her to clamp down tight on her telepathy once she realized that everything and most everyone were going crazy. "What the hell is going on?"

Ariel frowned, "I'm not sure."

Jean blinked as she noticed a young girl standing a couple of steps from her in a white hat and coveralls that was also holding a paintbrush like it was a wand. "I'm not sure. I'm Jean."

"I'm Ariel..." She trailed off as she realized that saying her last name was probably a bad idea considering how much damage her various relatives had done to the family name over the years.

"I don't suppose you know what's going on?"

Ariel shook her head, "Last thing I remember was working on a painting in my study."

Cordelia shouted, "I hate Halloween!" as she ran past with a dog monster chasing her.

Jean reached out with her telekinesis and tossed the dog creature down an alley. "It's Halloween?"

Cordelia looked at Ariel and Gabrielle, "Where is Buffy or better yet Harry?"

Ariel asked, "Who?"

Cordelia sighed, "Never mind, we should probably get you somewhere safe. I know just the place." Getting off the street when everything was going to hell sounded like a good idea, hopefully someone knew what was going on.

Ariel held her paintbrush up and said, "Okay but I'm warning you, any funny business and I'll remove your mouth."

"Okay... maybe it's genetic. Let's go."


Spike smirked as he saw the slayer's little red haired friend dressed in a business suit and another blond girl an long red dress, "I don't see the slayer around."

Willow said, "I'm not afraid of you coward. You ran like a scared little girl thirty years ago, I imagine you're going to run this time as well."

Tara Gemstorm looked at the vampire then at Willow who she had been walking with for the last half an hour, "You know the vampire?"

Willow said, "He thought he was some big bad vampire. The vampire slayer beat him up and he ran for the hills."

Tara pulled out a crystal, "So you're saying that I can destroy him?"

"Yep."

Tara said, "I release you to eat your fill of this vampire trash."

Spike snorted, "Now see here..."

Tara's gem glowed with purple light before half a dozen motes of flight flew out of the crystal and touched the ground and turned into rabid looking grey Smurfs like creatures with large knives in each hand.

Spike stared at the Smurf like creatures, "Seriously?"

The Smurf like creatures charged the vampire as a mob.

Spike's laugher stopped as he first creature closed the distance almost before he could get his hand up to block his face as the creature jumped at him. Spike cursed as the creature's knife stabbed through his hand with barely any resistance. He screamed as something cut his Achilles tendon while another evil creature stabbed him in the balls.

Willow watched in disbelief as Spike was hacked apart in less than six seconds. "Those things are vicious."

Tara smirked as she recalled the creatures into her gem, "They're good at what they do and what they do isn't pretty. Shall we press on?"

Willow frowned at the pile of dust, "Yeah, I want to make sure we can contain the dangerous monsters."

Tara grinned as she pulled out a couple empty crystals, "Hopefully we'll find something that's worth capturing."


Jenny Calendar frowned as a naked girl stepped in front of the doorway to Ethan's shop, "Excuse me."

The nymph said, "I'm afraid that I can't actually let you enter the store just yet."

"Why?"

"Because a friend of mine is going to need more than twenty minutes to sell some of her 'fake' gold and get some supplies to last her for the next couple of days."

Jenny asked, "How do you know about that?"

The nymph grinned, "I'm the personal assistant to Janus."

Jenny gulped, "Sorry..."

The nymph shrugged, "It's fine, he's having fun playing with different costumes and refining things on your dime."

"What do you want other than more time?"

"You've got a way to send things outside of the time loop, I want to send something back so that I can collect it later. If you scratch my back I'll scratch yours."

"How?"

"For one, I won't tell your friends who you really are Janna. For another I'll grant you a boon if you help me out."

Janna asked, "Are you a demon?"

"Nope, I'm a nymph." She didn't see the point about explaining that she had divine blood running through her veins.

"What type of boons can you grant?"

"I can give you an increase in your luck or your attractiveness if you want."

Jenny said, "I'm not sure how they accomplish such a feat. But I can introduce you to Harry or Alex and you can pitch your case."

"Sure, you bet."

Jenny asked, "How many more loops?"

"You'll probably want to end them soon while Janus is in a good mood."

"I'll tell the others."

"Excellent, I mean I know it's a great way to increase your power and it doesn't really cause Janus issues but eventually he'll get bored or someone else will notice and they'll complain then he'd have to do something about it and no one wants that. He actually likes humanity."

Jenny said, "We should be able to get everything done with one or two more resets."

"That should be fine."

"How much longer?"

"Now's good. I'll be watching." The nymph giggled as she vanished.

Jenny sighed as she walked into the shop and headed to the back room.

Ethan frowned, "You're not Ripper."

Jenny reached out and pushed the bust off the table. "Nope."

Ethan stared in surprise as the bust shattered and the spell dissipated. "What the hell?"

Jenny said, "I'd leave town before Rupert catches up with you."

Ethan said, "He can tell me himself."

"Your funeral."


Faith sighed in relief as she found herself back in the driver's seat of her body. She reached up and removed her plastic ears, she looked into her belt pouch and was relieved to see the ten hundred dollar bills and change stuffed in her pouch. "At least that's something."

The nymph assistant allowed Faith to see her, "See, I told you it would be okay."

Faith jumped slightly as she naked girl appeared in the chair opposite her, "Not that I don't like the view but you're going to get in trouble."

"Nope, you're the only one that can see me right now, so relax."

Faith adjusted her jacket, "Was there a point to that last adventure?"

"Sure, you learned how to use a bow, a sword, how to hunt and how to use certain types of magic. Plus it reinforced your Faith Stark memories. The more you use them the more you'll keep after all."

Faith asked, "Am I still in a loop?"

"Yep, until the next time you find yourself in the library. The loop will probably break then so don't do anything too crazy."

Faith asked, "Am I going to see you again?"

"At least one more time."

"Do you have anywhere you have to be?"

"Not for a couple of hours, why?"

"I've got a thousand dollars, I'm going to lose it all in a couple of days, which means that I might as well enjoy it. Do you want to get some milkshakes, burgers and grab a hotel room?"

"That's your idea of a date?"

"It's been a while."

The assistant said, "No strings right?"

"No strings."

The nymph smiled, "In that case, let's grab something to eat, find a room, grab a shower then fuck until we collapse."

Faith laughed, "Then you can explain to me what the hell is going on then we can fuck some more until things reset."

The nymph grinned, "Hell yeah."


Harry wiggled his toes, "It's really nice to not be a cripple anymore."

Tara looked around the room, "I'm a little sad that I don't have any of my character's monster traps or monsters."

Willow laughed, "Those Smurf like monsters were awesome. They dusted Spike in less than six seconds."

Buffy laughed, "Cool."

Xander asked, "How come we can't actually find him with magic?"

Harry shrugged, "He's cloaked. I've got no idea why."

Giles said, "That's something to research."

Buffy looked over at Giles, "How are you feeling?"

"It could have been worse I guess. I'm not sure how much of his magic is useable but he's certainly seen a lot over the years."

Harry looked at Dobby, "Are you okay Dobby?"

Dobby rubbed his head, "I've got a headache."

Alex scowled as she walked into the living room from outside, "I'm killing every single last one of the fucking little demons."

Buffy asked, "Goblins?"

"Yes, goblins."

Giles asked, "What's up?"

Buffy said, "My character's friend ended up getting killed for sharing secrets. I got hunted because I had a Philosopher's stone. Goblins are greedy nasty demons that need to be destroyed."

Giles said, "They're magical creatures."

"They're actually demons Giles, they're not native."

Alex nodded, "My character found out and was sworn to secrecy about it. Thankfully, I'm not my character and I never promised anything."

Hermione blinked in next to Harry with Sirius. "How did we make out?"

Harry said, "We managed to get a copy of the Deck of Many Things and the Deck of Destinies. I sent my character's stuff and a copy of the boxes back with Kreacher."

Jenny Calendar entered the living room with Thea.

Hermione asked, "So everything went well?"

Jenny shook her head, "I ran into a complication at Ethan's shop."

Giles asked, "What?"

"Some type of fey creature said that she was Janus's assistant. She knew about the loops."

Giles winced, "That doesn't bode well."

"Relax, she said that Janus was amused though she did recommend that we end the loops spell next time."

Sirius said, "That's probably for the best anyways."

Harry said, "In that case, we should probably take care that we end the spell as quickly as we can the next time around."

Alex looked at Sirius, "How did your boat fly?"

Sirius said, "Just fine until it turned back into conjured paper. Thankfully we can fly or that might have been messy."

Alex laughed, "That and durability."

Xander said, "Since the next run through is going to be our last run through we should probably do some planning while we have extra time."

"How was your training with Merlin?"

"Please don't kill me..."

Alex raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Apparently I went as a future Xander, not actually myself. Which means that I wasn't myself..."

"What did you do?"

"I sort of had sex with Morgana."

Alex asked, "Was she hot?"

Xander blushed, "Yes."

"Cool, you'll have to share the memories with me." She stuck her tongue out at Xander.

Tara said, "I know a neat spell to record memories in gems or crystals. Actually I know some really neat spells to do a lot of things with crystals."

Gabrielle and Ariel walked in with Ginny.

Alex smiled, "How did it go?"

Ariel said, "I like my fairy princess family a lot better than the Faust family but I picked up some interesting magic."

Gabrielle said, "I picked up a spell or five and a bunch of different things to try with telepathy. That and I think I want to go over the G.E.D test material a bunch so that I can keep more of Jean's education."

Alex said, "That sounds like a good idea."

Willow looked at Xander, "Did you enjoy Camelot?"

Xander said, "It got a lot better after the evil king was killed."

"Arthur died?"

Xander shook his head, "Nope, Arthur's father. He had rather uncanny resemblance to Giles, maybe a little old but it was creepy. That and he was a total whack job."

Giles asked, "Whack job?"

"He hated magic with a passion that would have impressed an inquisitor."

Giles winced, "What happened?"

Xander sighed, "He ordered an innocent girl killed, my other self objected and killed him in his sleep with a dagger in such a way as it looked like a mundane assassination by the neighboring warlord."

Tonks said, "Did that lead in war?"

Xander shook his head, "Actually no, the other me snuck over there and charmed the group of advisors to the warlord to kill the warlord and send his head to Arthur as an apology. Of course that caused the councilors to be killed and a slight civil war but it turned out for the best in the end."

Tonks said, "I've placed penseives in your rooms, you should get started as there is a limit to the amount of time that we can send stuff back using a time turner."

Jenny spoke up, "That brings up another issue. Janus's assistant would like to meet with Alex or Harry. She wants to be able to jump backwards out of the loop."

Harry asked, "Did she say why?"

"She didn't say why but I have a feeling that she wants to gather power and then bring it back with her without anyone other than us and Janus knowing about it."

Giles said, "Assuming that she's actually working for Janus."

Jenny said, "We can probably use a ritual to contact him to ask. Considering everything we're getting out of this, I'm not opposed to helping repay the favor."

"I'll research a couple of protection spells so that we have a reasonable chance to survive the meeting."

Alex looked around, "The rest of you start recording memories and skills."

Buffy yawned, "We should order pizza."

Tonks said, "I'll take care of it.