Simples plans are good plans, but sometimes even THAT won’t survive intact upon first contact...

Reika

“What Halloween episode and who’s Ethan?” Fred Takahashi, Rei’s husband, asks in a concerned tone. “I do hope that this Ethan’s not one of the ‘Big Bads’ is he?”

“No, not really . . . .but while Ethan Rayne was something of big ‘baddy’ he is NOT a Big Bad,” Setsuna says. “He played something of an unwitting catalyst in getting Angel and Buffy even closer together in the episode ‘Halloween’.”

Uh huh! We had another character and episode which did a similar service and function in “our” Buffy series. The guy we had had been similar from the sound of it, but not the same. Still close enough to get the job done, even IF it just goes and shows you that not all TV series must be exactly the same from one reality to the next. It hadn’t been deemed important enough when we’d talked with the new husbands about the series, but it seems that with this reset/reshuffle here it might come back to haunt us!

We’d gone on something of a crash course on the Dramatis Personae (i.e. the major good guys and bad guys) in the “Buffy the Vampire” series with Fred and Setsuna’s husband here. That and a general outline of the series had been gone over. Some episodes (and minor characters) from my Buffy series versus Setsuna’s Buffy series, but not enough to have been hashing over. In the end the different characters and episodes had fulfilled the same plot devices and major series outcomes to have made no never mind.

We had known that we had skimmed certain episodes. Skipped over relatively minor villains and such in the series because of the simple fact that they had happened earlier, relative to where things stood on this particular world. It was in a lull time in this world between major events, albeit a brief and SAD one: right after the time Buffy died having jumped into that rift to close it before the Earth had been destroyed due to that Hell goddess Glorificus as seen in the episode “The Gift” (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki /The_Gift _(Buffy_ episode for fuller summary). Instead, we had concentrated more on upcoming events and villains in our planning.

We DID want to have a plan before going into this mess keep as low as profile as possible while we went about closing the Hellmouth and it’s various passages, IF at all possible. There were some decidedly powerful entities out there who’d object to us trying, even IF in the end the thing would have closed itself in one manner or another.

We wanted to close the Mouth in as nonexplosive manner as possible, thank you. Those Big Bads might not believe us and interfere, leading to the cataclysmic (and explosive) results we all did NOT want.

Still, reshuffling or no. Still with everything, we still must not just go in guns ablazing without at least finding out exactly what is going on here. It might just make matters worse. Perhaps even something on the level of the Apocalypse of all things!

Saw that almost happen enough in the TV show, thanks and experienced the after effects of what a post- apocalyptic world was like from Second Impact back in our old worlds (I and my sisters), thank YOU! Don’t want to even be accidentally responsible for something like that HERE!

. . .

Ah but don’t I just sound like a paranoid doom speaker going off the deepend there? If we’re careful we can still do this . . . And even perhaps have good time of it? Righting the wrongs and fighting the good fight, maybe?

Yeah, sure we can! Who needs to have doom and gloom? Shoot ourselves in the foot if we sink into depression before the battle even begins, for God’s sake!

“Okay, here is what we do!” Lilith says, pointing towards the motel and interrupting my train of thought. “We still need to check in and get our rooms as a home base of sorts. That part of our plan will remain the same! As for the rest . . .”

Later...

Buffy Summers glances back down the block and blinked at the young woman at the corner there under the streetlamp. That had to be something of the oddest looking costume she’d ever seen!

Oh, she knew that the woman was supposed to be some kind of angel in that getup. But . . .it was SURE a high quality looking costume there and something about those white wings . . .like if she looked at them from the corner of her eye her Slayer senses put her teeth on edge about it. Like they . . .had magic on them? And even from this distance Buffy had to say those were the reddest eyes she’d seen anywhere on a person...

“That has got to be from Party Town because I’m SURE I would have seen that at Ethan’s,” Buffy muttered to herself. “Cordillia would have died for something THAT good!”

Ethan’s costumes had been pretty good, despite it being a rather newcommer to Sunnydale. THAT costume would have won a prize at ANY costume party, though! But that said something about the woman herself, odd appearance of costume aside was . . .off.

Nothing vampiry or demony or anything like that, just . . . Off. Then red eyes locked with blue and then the pale woman angel nods slightly in acknowledgement and chagrin. And . . .apprehension?

“Hey! Nice outfit you got there!” the red eyed woman waves in what appeared to Buffy to be a friendly manner. “Got mine from out of town before coming here for some kind of boring business party . . .

She looks Japanese under that makeup but sounds like she’s from England, Buffy thinks to herself, glancing slightly around to see that her charges are still in sight. Nope, the brats that that troll Principal Snyder had roped her into herding were still around.

Almost like Giles in a way, she observes, trying not now to stare at the white winged woman before her. Gawd, those contacts give this girl the most RED eyes I’ve ever seen!!

Didn’t she see some kind of anime chick like this somewhere? With big Japanese robots and angels and stuff like that?!

“Though what I saw of the Chases caused me and my friends to just ditch the party,” the girl in the angel outfit sniffed, shaking her head in disgust. “Stuck up prigs. Figured we‘d at least make the most of the night instead by trick or treating and let the suites deal with their business partners instead of us.”

The fact of the matter that Rei and friends had crashed the party and hobnobbed with the Chases before making their leave was quiet besides the point!

Almost against her will, Buffy smiled a bit. So, rich girl or not this young woman wasn’t a fan of the parents of Cordilia Chase as well? Hmmmm. Something slightly off about the girl here but still . . .kudos for her distaste in the Chases, any who.

Best play this softly, for now. That is what Buffy opts on doing for the moment.

“Oh but where are my manners?” the winged woman smiles. “Names Lilith. Lilith Quatermain! Just saw that outfit and . . .just had to comment, that’s all. Party Town?”

“Ethan’s actually,” Buffy smiles, noticing the smile on the angel woman’s face fade. “And the name’s Buffy Summers and . . .is there a problem?”

“Uh. . .it could just well be Buffy,” Lilith says hesitantly. This is the part of the plan which was kind of ify. The idea had been to approach various of the “Scoobies” (Buffy’s close friends) and associates and access them. See if they appeared to remember the reset and such and evaluate how approachable each was in turn. Assess them to see who to approach finally to help (maybe) in Setsuna’s Quest. Or if nothing else at least not interfere...

Buffy and friends could either make great allies or bad enemies. That or at least get underfoot at the wrong time sooner or latter if not brought into the know.

They had a knack, let us just say. Lilith just wanted to at least (hopefully) keep them out of the way if nothing else!

Now it’s time for the probe, Lilith thinks to herself, bracing for the response.

“If the owner of ‘Ethan’s’ happens to be anything like a few towns I’ve heard of,” Lilith begins. “IF . . .if the owner happens to be an Ethan Rayne who’d been associated with a guy named Rupert Giles then that dress you’re wearing . . .is cursed.”

Ethan Rayne had been an associate and friend back in Rupert Giles’ early, rebellious days. Back when Giles had called himself “Ripper”. Both had rebelled against the Watcher Council (the boss organization of various Slayers and their Watcher support) but after some dire incident with a demon (and a bit of Chaos magic in Lilith’s TV series), Giles had quit and went back to being a Watcher, eventually. Ethan? Well, he . . .didn’t. Something of a menace, really.

Buffy just stares at Lilith for a few beats.

“Do you really expect me to believe all that,” Buffy says softly, not making any move to at least look for a spot to take off the supposedly cursed costume. “And what exactly are you trying to imply about Giles? What. . . How do you know about Giles? Just who ARE you, really?”

Lilith sighed inwardly, having expected something like this. Maybe she still could convince Buffy here of her sincerity before taking matters into her own, magically.

“Uh, that would take a bit of explaining . . .” Lilith begins, hesitantly. Not exactly sure how to approach this now without sounding . . .insane.

“Well duh,” Buffy drawls, rolling her eyes a bit only to blink in surprise as Lilith makes a simple gesture and . . .

“Those . . .are real wings?” Buffy said softly, reaching out and pulling on one of the white feathery wings and jumping a bit when the wings jerk a bit.

“Buffy, I’m not a chicken and don’t need to be plucked please,” the winged woman laughs (albeit a bit forced) before quickly redounding her magical disguise. Was quick and hopefully the Sunnydale Syndrome would keep people from noticing that business there.

“What are . . . You’re an angel?” Buffy blinks, wide eyed. Flummoxed.

They had real demons running around here in Sunny Hell! Why NOT a real, live angel?!

The young vampire slayer had seen much but this was something . . .else.

“Long story short?” Lilith says softly. “Human with wings as a side effect due to magic overload exposure. Makes for a rad time, flying, but hard to blend in without magic to disguise ‘em.”

That was . . .a bit more down to earth for Buffy, somehow. Something a bit easier for the young teenager to deal with here.

“So . . .you’re some kind of witch or something?” Buffy ventures, tilting her head slightly as if to try to figure out Lilith’s angle.

“Heh . . .try magic user Buffy please?” Lilith mutters. “Know that some of your best friends are into Wica and all that but for politeness sake do NOT call me and my friends that? They’d get annoyed really fast you know.”

“And that said I wasn’t kidding when I was thinking that Ethan costume you got there is cursed because I did detect traces of magic’s upon it.”

Had been hard enough to do with a basic “Detect Magic“ spell, what with it being Chaos based magics. Might play merry hell with any thing more complex.

Kind of played into just why Lilith hadn’t just gone and taken matters into her own hands (magically) yet. Goodness only knows what would be the result from any side effects.

Buffy looked at Lilith. Tried to figure out any way she would be compromising her own safety by listening to this strange woman and came to a quick conclusion. If there was some kind of nefarious plot to do her harm here surely it wouldn’t involve her just getting naked? Yeah, it could have been some convoluted plot to get her to panic and dash off to strip, where Lilith’s minions would jump her and such.

But frankly there were easier ways to go about it. More . . .straight forward ones, really. And that’s saying a lot, given all Buffy had seen in Sunnydale!!

“Ah frell me!” Lilith mutters as she (and her sister who’d been in hiding as backup) feel something (if not wicked) mischievous this way approaches.

Cut to Buffy. A wind begins to blow. She senses something isn't quite right and the former NGE angels realize their time is running out and quick here. They’d hoped for more time. A little more finese, but oh NO! Can’t have that!!

Buffy, somewhat panicked now as she realizes that something magical is approaching that she does NOT want to be a part of, staggers as something magical (a rather high leveled “Remove Curse” spell) is cast upon her backside. Reika had been rather more skilled at that particular brand of magery...

Too bad that it didn’t quiet work out as planned. As witness, two young women now knocked for a loop at a disgruntled Lilith’s feet. One is dressed as Buffy Summer would dress, going out on a night to the local music place: The Bronze.

1. The other is a dark haired young noble woman dressed very much like Buffy had been dressed as seconds ago!

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