"The distraction has ended." Richard Wilkins muttered, feeling the Magic end and turning to Allen Finch. "Just passed ten o'clock, obviously someone discovered Mr. Rayne and undid his hard work. And my guest was expected an hour ago to pick up his Tribute."
"Should I return the...Tribute, Sir?" Allen asked nervously, glancing at the children collected for the Tribute, Untransformed children sleeping, unknowingly waiting for the demon who was suppose to be picking them up.
"Not until I know why my guest is late. Call Chief Monroe and have him begin searching for him. In the meantime, have the Sunnydale Times Editor begin preparing tomorrow's headline, 'spiked candy causes massive hallucinations.' Also, have Chief Monroe have his men determine what the Slayer and the hunter team were doing. I should have thought to have someone watching them, but I honestly thought Mr. Rayne would be able to handle his assignment and they'd all be suitably distracted. But I'm very much afraid one of them did something to my guest. Contact all of the neighbors watching them, someone saw something."
"Yes, Sir." Allen left the ceremonial room to find the nearest phone and deliver the Mayor's orders, wondering if the Slayer or the hunter team did manage to destroy the demon before he could collect his Tribute.
Praying they did and that at least these children won't be a demon's idea of fun and games. Later he returned with a report.
"The Slayer was seen riding through town on a strange horse, Sir."
"A horse?"
"Yes, Sir and the hunter team, along with Alexander Harris and Cordelia Chase, were seen securing transformed children. They may not have been affected by the spell."
"But the Slayer was riding a horse, which suggests she, at least, was affected. Which means that most likely none of them had anything to do with why my guest is late. Any explanation for that, Allen?"
"He was found a few blocks from here, Sir. Someone appears to have slit his throat."
"That's very disappointing, Allen. I guaranteed his safe passage in my town. I made sure the Slayer and the hunter team were distracted or should have been anyway and still someone or something managed to kill him. Since only children and teenagers were meant to be affected by the spell, that means most likely, one of them somehow destroyed him."
"Yes, Sir."
"Which means there's nothing else I can do, return the children. The parents likely haven't had a chance to miss them yet. This is very disappointing, Allen." He repeated "I try so hard to keep my promises. I don't want to be like other politicians, going back on my word. How does it look if a demon who's safety I guaranteed dies by random chance in my town?" Richard Wilkins asked retorically, as Allen gathered the two sleeping children and carried them out.
While he silently wished he had the courage to end this nightmare of a job.
Diana quietly sighed as parents began to arrive to pick up their kids, seemly unaware of any problems. Physically the children had bumps, bruises and headaches, but they were alive. All of them had returned to human form and their own identities the moment the spell ended.
"Find anything, Diana?" Mason asked.
"The children's costumes all had a magical tracer on them, it called the Magic to them. All the teenagers, including our four, had a magical tracer on their hands, not their costumes. Which tells me, something they all touched caused them fo transform. Kiddie escort duty was mandatory, every Junior was required to participate as a class project. How the Hell did Rayne get them to touch something in common?"
"We need to trace his path." Mason answered. "Find out when he got to Sunnydale, how he came to manage Party Town. Do you know if any of the kids will have any magical after affects?"
"The exposure was too brief. Our four however, that's a different story."
"Because they've been exposed to Magic repeatedly."
"Exactly. All of them remember the Ancient Greek language, they keep skipping between it and English. Faith's chakram has stayed real and so has Cordelia's staff and both of them remember how to use them, although Faith is the only one able to actually use it. It seems Mr. Giles has experience with staff fighting and he's agreed to help Cordelia turn the knowledge from theoretical to practical. Xander remembers how to bypass the kind of security Autolycus was use to dealing with when he broke into somewhere and his grappling hook has remained real too and he remembers how to use it as well."
"And Jesse?"
"Is a human again, but his problem is different and I'm unsure he'll be able to handle it."
"The others don't exactly sound like problems, what happened to Jesse?"
"Ceridian is still in his head, Jesse can still talk to him."
"Will he fade or can you excise him?"
"He may fade, but no, I can't excise him. He's not a spirit, he's become a personality of his own within Jesse. When I make my report to the Council, I'll have them search for any prior incidences and determine if they were able to be corrected. In the meantime, we help him cope with having a second personality in his mind. Personally, I've never heard of anything like this, but it's why Magic can be dangerous, the unexpected side effects."
"Any other side effects?"
"Yes, there was one other person affected by the Magic, the baby." Diana swallowed hard.
"What's wrong with the baby?"
"She now has a seed of Magic in her, just like Xander."