The Way We Were
by T. C. McGonigle
Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and the WB, I'm only borrowing them for my own twisted purposes.
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Part Five
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Xander was knocked out of the magical safety of the pentagram by a rushing dark force. He fell headlong into Oz and Buffy and they all tumbled to the ground in a flurry of limbs. The whiteness of the pentagram became obscured by the dirt and the flame of the candle extinguished. For a moment all was still as the world froze. With an almost imperceptible click, the world resumed its course in time.
"What the hell!" Oz agilely disentangled himself and pulled the intruder up with him. Cordelia's eyes were round with fright as she stared at him. "What are you doing, Cordelia?"
"Sorry, I'm sorry. I thought you were doing evil. It looked like evil doing!"
Buffy and Xander slowly picked themselves up from the ground. "Relax, Oz." Buffy brushed the dirt and grass from her hair. Her hands stopped in mid-swipe as she realized what she had just said. Relax, Oz. She doubted that anyone had ever uttered those two words together, it would have been redundant. Oz was relaxed. He was calm. He always acted cool in wiggy situations. Nothing fazed Oz. Just like nothing was no longer fazing Buffy. "I think something went wrong."
Oz let go of Cordelia and met Buffy's calm stare with a withering glance. "You think? This is great! Just great!"
A horrified shriek from Xander ended Oz's tirade. "Grass stains! I have grass stains!" Xander plucked at his clothes fastidiously. "At least these are obviously not my best clothes. I hate hanging out with you people!" Xander pushed his way past them, muttering about hanging out in cemeteries in sub-par fashions.
"I would say we have a big problem. I think it's time we told them what's going on." Oz followed Xander.
"What's going on?" Cordelia asked Buffy.
"You'll find out soon enough." Buffy patted Cordelia's shoulder and they followed the guys out of the cemetery.
* * *
It was like old times. Giles presided over the meeting, the Texts of Korpax in his hand. Willow sat in a chair on his right side and Cordelia sat on his left, the computer screen lending an eerie green glow to her complexion. Angel lounged in the chair beside Willow while Xander perched himself on the table. He held a mirror in front of him and seemed to be totally absorbed in the task of combing his hair. Buffy observed everything calmly from her chair at the end of the table while Oz paced the room behind her. It was nothing like old times.
"So, what you're saying is that we're all under the influence of some spell and when Xander tried to reverse it, it only served to complicate things further." Giles took off his glasses and bit on the end of one of the arms, deep in thought.
"There was your first mistake, asking Xander to do something." Angel grinned. Xander threw his comb at him.
"Angel. Xander. Let Buffy and Oz finish. We have to figure this out if we're going to get things back to normal," Willow said with complete authority. She seemed to be perfectly comfortable wearing the black leggings and hot pink sports tank top.
Angel put his feet up on the table and rested his head in his hands. "Hey, as far as I'm concerned, this is normal." Angel winked at Buffy.
"Trust me, it's not." Oz stopped pacing. "Whoever did this is up to something."
"We need to be ourselves to deal with it," Willow finished the thought for him. Buffy's smile quirked in amusement. Whatever trouble lay ahead, at least there was two parts of her soul or spirit or whatever residing in Oz and Willow to handle things. And Giles was back as his good old self who was in no way related to her in a fatherly manner.
"Cordelia...." Giles turned to Cordelia and slipped his glasses back on to his nose.
"Already on it, Giles." Cordelia tapped busily at the keyboard. "I'm cross referencing the date, the Texts of Korpax, and the items we've been finding in the cemetery."
"Any luck?"
"This isn't luck, it's skill and technology." Cordelia's eyes lit up and she bent closer to the screen. "Here's something. The spell from the Korpax can be used in the new moon to gather power. You can steal the traits like strength and intelligence and use them for personal gain."
"That's what we're looking for." Willow stood up.
"Let's go." Oz started for the door.
"Wait!" Cordelia stalled their exit with a yell. "There's more. This spell couldn't have done what it did if it were cast for those purposes." Cordelia looked up at Willow. "I found something else. It's a journal entry. It's your journal, Willow."
"What?" Willow hurried toward Cordelia and looked at the entry over her shoulder. "Why would I switch everyone around?"
"You didn't. It talks about a spell you were casting to bring back Buffy. To make things like they used to be."
"Of course! The spells must have been cast at the same time and their effects combined." Giles started going through his books. "This will make a reversal more difficult. The caster is the only one who can reverse."
"Then we'll need our Korpax spell caster." Willow headed for the door again.
"And you." Oz followed her.
"Don't forget Xander." Buffy stood up. She grabbed Xander and pulled him off of the table. "Want to change before we go?"
"Just a second. Let's get organized here first." Giles frowned at the impulsive teenagers. Changed or not, they were still tiring. "I'll work on a reversal spell. Everyone else split up and look for our other witch." Giles organized the teens into pairs and sent up a prayer to whoever was listening that they would be compatible. He had no idea anymore who would work well together. Angel and Xander would check the magic shops, Cordelia and Willow would investigate the local covens and Buffy and Oz would go back to the cemetery. "And we'll meet at Frederick's tomb at eleven-thirty."
* * *
"Why am I always stuck with you?" Xander whined as he and Angel walked along the deserted sidewalk. It was early, but apparently the Sunnydale residents were starting to clue in on the dangers darkness represented.
Angel didn't bother to answer. It was his view that he was stuck with Xander and the reason was that no one else wanted to be. Angel considered his team-ups with Xander to be his good Samaritan deed for his lifetime. No need for him to be helping old ladies cross the street, he spared others the presence the Xander, one of the most self-absorbed guys Angel had ever met.
"What no insult? No snappy patter? Have you finally realized that your silence is golden?"
"Just plain silence would be nice," Angel muttered to himself. He wished he was with Buffy. She was so cool. So laid back and relaxed. Exactly his type. Angel frowned. Only according to Buffy and Oz she wasn't. According to them Buffy was the Slayer, not Willow, and he was a vampire. Angel shuddered. He couldn't imagine the life Buffy and Oz claimed was his.
"Angel." Xander's hand gripped his shoulder and forced him to stop walking. "Are magic shops supposed to do that?"
Angel looked up from his brooding. The small, quaint magic store on the corner throbbed with light. Blue, pink, purple, green. Angel and Xander were close enough that the colors washed across their faces. A low hum vibrated the ground under their feet, trembling the dirt and dust. "This is our guy!" Angel sprinted toward the shop.
Xander hung back. "Shouldn't we wait for Willow? Or Oz and Buffy? Even Giles or Cordelia would be nice."
Angel ignored Xander. He busted through the door. Inside the light was even more intense and the color strobe-effect was disorienting. Angel shielded his eyes with his arm and used his free hand to search his pockets for his sunglasses.
"Angel, look out!" He heard Xander yell over the increasingly louder hum. A crash followed the yell and it was followed by a series of large crashes, bangs, and the sound of shattering glass. The hum stopped.
Angel cautiously uncovered his eyes. The store was a mess. The shelves had been knocked over and the merchandise was strewn all over the floor. In the middle of it, under a pile of debris, Xander lay on top of an unconscious man who had been standing within a pentagram.
* * *
Frederick's tomb was a lovely place to wait. Located in the oldest cemetery in Sunnydale, the grass was long and wild and the stone crumbled when touched. The wind and lack of moonlight enhanced the spook factor, although Buffy wasn't sure that the place would have looked much better in daylight. She perched herself on the gravestone of some distant Frederick ancestor who wasn't worthy of the crypt and watched Oz fidget as they waited for the others to join them. She and Oz had made a sweep of the cemetery and found nobody doing anything vaguely resembling a ritual.
"You know, Oz, I think you're exaggerating things. I know I'm not laconic man, but I'm generally not that fidgety or over reactive," Buffy commented. Buffy had no idea how she and Oz had remained sensitive to the changes their world was undergoing, but she was thankful for it. She couldn't imagine blissfully going through life not realizing that it wasn't hers.
"No, but you are impatient. Willow got all the Slayer traits and I was blessed with your anxieties."
Buffy shrugged. "Sorry. Maybe it's some sort of karmic thing. I mean, really, I didn't think it was possible to be this unconcerned about things."
Oz threw her a withering glance just as Giles approached them. He picked his way gingerly along the overgrown path. He carried the Texts of Korpax and another large volume in his arms. "I found reference to this sort of phenomenon happening before." Giles waved the second book around excitedly. "It's called spell twining and there's quite a detailed account of how we are to go about untangling everything."
Willow and Cordelia joined the group while Giles was talking and caught the last sentence. "Well, it's nice to know something about what's going on. Does it by any chance say that we don't need the other spell caster because Cordy and I came up empty."
"No. We need all three of you and it has to be done tonight. At midnight."
"And if it isn't?" Oz demanded.
"Then we exist as we are now."
The five considered Giles pronouncement. Buffy shivered. She always thought that, given the choice, she would choose not to be a vampire slayer. Now she couldn't fathom not being one for the rest of her life.
"Never fear, your knights in shining armor are here," Angel proclaimed as he and Xander escorted an older man toward the group. Angel gave the man a push and he stumbled forward. "This is Norman, our ritualist. Tell the good people what you've been up to, Norman."
Norman peered at each of the group in turn. He didn't look like a sorcerer hungry for power. His dark eyes darted nervously and his baby fine blonde hair was pasted to his skull with sweat. "I...I w..wanted... t..to st...stop st..st..stuttering," he stuttered.
"What?" Willow voiced everyone's incredulity. They usually vanquished demons, not stuttering Normans.
Norman started to answer, but Angel placed a hand on his arm. "Don't bother. Norman here wanted to cast a spell to stop stuttering, but he didn't have enough power to cast it, so...."
"He used a power spell which twined with Willow's calling spell which produced the same effects as the Korpax curse," Giles finished.
"And then Xander's Korpax spell switched us around again," Willow said, connecting the last of the dots.
Oz walked over to Norman and looked at him speculatively. "Are you sure that you don't want to take over the world? Destroy the world? Open the Hellmouth? Wreck vengeance upon your enemies?"
"N...no."
"Okay." Oz nodded. "Just checking."
"It's almost midnight. Let's set things up." Giles set the books on a headstone and directed everyone in setting up. In no time, a pentagram had been drawn in the dust, candles were lit, and the three spell casters were ensconced within the magic star. "Okay, it says we go in reverse order. Xander, since you chanted a reversal spell, you must invoke the curse to reverse it. Then Willow and Norman must chant their reversal spells at the same time."
Xander stepped a bit forward in the pentagram "Okay. I, like, call upon Korpax for the knowledge of human nature. Let the souls I have marked be imbued with the traits I desire. Okay, that's a really stupid...."
Time froze for a moment and then clicked back on. "Spell," Buffy finished Xander's sentence. Giles was gone. Buffy no longer felt relaxed, just well dressed.
"Willow, Norman, do your reversal spells," Angel urged. He picked up the books. "You have to say them at the same time."
"Sure, whatever." Willow shrugged. "I thank the air for carrying my plea. I thank the water for heeding my request. I thank the earth for receiving my entreaty. I thank the sun for granting my wish. My friend has come back to me."
"I...I re...lease th..th...the p..p...p..ower g..athered," Norman said at the same time.
Light flashed around them as the sky rolled with dark clouds and wind whipped the trees. Then it all stopped.
"How does everyone feel?" Buffy ventured. Giles was back and he was holding the books. Buffy's heart plummeted when she realized Angel was gone. That was the price for having everything normal.
Oz stumbled over to Willow. "Willow?"
"Oz!" Willow hugged her boyfriend close. She looked over his shoulder to see Cordelia with her head buried in Xander's shoulder.
Buffy watched her friend's happy reunions and it brought some joy to her heart. She had them back. They were back to the way they were. The price had been high, but she was happy with normal.
The End
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