Giles and Willow carried Oz into the crypt. They lay him down on one of the symbols, then Giles took out a book and flipped through the pages.

"I just hope this'll work," Giles said. "It's a form of the spell we'll use to switch Oz and Alex back, except it doesn't require a sacrifice."

"That's good," Willow said while cradling Oz's head in her lap.

Giles found the page and said, "Well, then, let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

The werewolf lay dozing in the cage set in the far wall. They hadn't even bothered to take out the tranquilizing dart.

The leader of the demons-turned-warlocks, Preta, stood nearby with the other two warlocks and the Clacken Demon they'd employed in their service. He smiled. It felt good to be in a mortal body that was several hundred years old and hadn't aged a day over forty. Before they had switched bodies with the real warlocks, they had found the spell that would allow them to cheat death for millennia if another didn't kill them. Preta was surprised and amused that the warlocks did not know about the spell themselves and that it took them over a century just to figure out how they switched bodies. It turned out that the demons were better at magic than the warlocks.

Now it didn't matter. The warlocks knew how to switch them back and they knew Petra and the others were on the Hellmouth.

Petra wanted them to know. They had to be in close proximity with the demons for their newest spell to work.

Petra knew the warlocks would try to switch with them. In fact, he counted on it. Because Petra would be in his real body then and would be happy, and the warlocks, when they're bodies have switched, will discover that they'll die immediately of old age.

There were other factors, of course. The reason why they switched in the first place was to hurt the good guys. They had heard that Alex McPhierce, a shape-shifter known for not abiding by his kind's ways and helping the Slayer once or twice, now resided on the Hellmouth. They had sent the demon to confirm the rumors, and when he reported that a werewolf was helping the shape-shifter, they wanted to hurt him, too.

Then the demons-turned-warlocks had come to Sunnydale and set their trap. When they realized the Slayer was among them, they had gone on alert, but the plan had gone smoothly anyway.

It was around that time that they heard the warlocks-turned-demons were there. Hence, they're knew plan.

Now, they were getting ready for the warlocks and possibly the Slayer to arrive. Petra rubbed his human hands together in anticipation.

"When do I get paid?" The Clacken Demon asked.

Petra turned toward the cage holding the werewolf. The Clacken Demon stood to the right of it. He was in his human form at the moment, and he looked very impatient. Every once in awhile, however, his eyes would wonder over to the werewolf's sleeping body, and his eyes would fill with hunger. The Clacken was always hungry, so Petra ignored his look.

"You said you'd get us a Slayer as well," he said.

"If you pay me more."

Petra titled his head. "If you do it right, we'll pay you more."

The Clacken scowled. That hadn't been the answer he was looking for, and Petra knew it. "Alright, wizard. You'll get your Slayer. Does she have to be alive?"

"If she is to be of any use to us, yes," Petra said. "If she comes here, you are to empower her and throw her in with the werewolf."

A smile crossed the Clacken Demon's face. Petra couldn't help but smile back.

PART SIX

Buffy moved through the trees, a tranquilizer gun in hand and her Slayer bag slung over her shoulder.

Hearing footsteps, she slipped behind a bush, slung the gun over her shoulder, and took out a crossbow. She aimed it at the direction the sound came from and waited.

Three men dressed in uniforms appeared. Each wore hats that cast a shadow on part of their face, keeping their identities unknown. One of them was looking at a locating device in his palm while the others flanked him, checking the trees with taser rifles at the ready.

Buffy knew commandos when she saw them. The real question was what they were doing here. Perhaps they heard about the new slime-guys in town.

"Any change?" One of the men asked the guy with the locator. Buffy thought it sounded familiar. But she was too worried about Xander's, Oz's, and Alex's safety to place it at the moment. She filed it away for later.

The commando holding the device shook his head. "It's still coming from directly ahead by about two hundred yards. The demons have stopped moving."

"Okay, charge your weapons. Remember, this is a capture, not a kill."

The commandos started moving again, but Buffy sprinted ahead, hoping to get to the demons before they did. She hoped it was the right direction, and she hoped Xander was still alive.

A few minutes later, she saw the trees thin. She heard noises coming from only a few feet away. She slipped behind a bush and crept closer.

A demon stood next to a pile of logs and twigs. At the top of that pile was Xander, bound and gagged to a wooden pole.

The demon was going to burn Xander.

Once, that had almost happened to Buffy, Willow, and a girl named Amy Madison. Buffy wasn't about to let it happen again, to her or anyone else, including Xander.

She ran out of her hiding place at the demon.

She managed to take it by surprise. She rammed into its side and they both went down on the ground. The demon was pinned beneath Buffy. It rolled over and got on top of Buffy. It pinned her arms with its own.

Buffy struggled, but could not get loose.

The demon smiled. Its tail came into view. The dangerous bone tip centered over her heart.

Something hit the side of the demon's head. The demon roared and loosened its hold on Buffy. Buffy took advantage the opportunity and pushed the demon away. She rolled to the right and got quickly to her feet.

She glanced in the direction the piece of wood had come. Xander had freed himself, and pieces of the ropes hung on his wrists. He was walking down from the center of the woodpile.

The demon turned his attention to Xander. Its long tail swiped the air in front of it. At the bottom of the woodpile, Xander paused.

"Xander, run! Go to Giles'" Buffy called at the same time she delivered a swift kick to the demon's side, sending him back a few steps.

Xander hesitated for only a second and glanced at her. Then he was off, racing through the woods.

Xander stopped after he'd run through the woods for a few yards and looked back. He couldn't see through the forest, but he knew Buffy was out there, and she may need his help.

He didn't have anytime to contemplate turning back, however, because of low a growl coming from in front of him.

Xander turned and saw two more of the green-slime demons. One was bound, but another of the three held him without much trouble.

He didn't have any choice but to turn back now.

He turned and was about to run when a third demon stepped into his view.

"Oh, great," Xander said.

The demons closed in, waved their spiked tails at him, taunting him like they had earlier that night.

The one he knew was the leader stepped up to him and placed the spike end of his tail near Xander's chest.

I'm gonna die, he thought.

Xander closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the tail enter his body.

He heard something reminiscent of video game noises.

Xander opened his eyes. The demons hadn't said a word. But the weird noises were getting louder.

Xander disappeared in a flash of light, and the space between the demons was empty.

Once Xander had disappeared from sight, Buffy turned her attention back to the demon. "Okay, Slimer. Let's fight. It's not your lucky day, either, especially because you went after my friends."

The demon didn't move. He shouted some words in his language and charged.

Buffy got ready to meet his attack with a kick to the face when a heavy wind picked up, knocking her to the ground.

When she got back up, she was alone. The demon was gone.

"D***!" she cursed and headed off to meet Xander and the others at Giles' apartment.

The three warlocks-turned-demons stared at the empty space for a moment.

"The boy is a warlock," he told the others in a demonic language. "That is how he managed to teleport."

Gare, the demon left behind to light the fire, appeared.

The leader looked at him angrily. "You said you didn't need our help lighting the fire."

"The Slayer found our camp," he said.

"Did you kill her?"

Gare shook his head. "No."

The leader looked at Jaka. "Release Han."

Han was untied.

The leader gestured to Gare. "Tie him."

Gare tried to resist. The leader ended up helping them tie him.

After he was bound, they heard a noise.

Then Han was thrown back into a bush by a blast of electricity.

Even as another assault came, Jaka and the leader were constructing magical barriers to shield them from the blasts.

The leader could make out mortal men in dark attire in the bushes. There were three of them. One of the mortals shouted orders to the others.

They had no time for this. The leader lifted his hands and chanted something in Latin.

A few seconds later, he was rewarded by the mortals' cries as they dropped their weapons, which were now too hot to hold without burning away skin.

"Let's go," he told Jaka.

They left with Han tailing behind them.

Riley watched them leave as he picked up his walkie-talkie and said, "Lilac-One to Base-One, D-Team has located the demons. They are headed west through the Heatherburn Forest. We are giving chase. Request backup, over."

"Lilac-One, this is Base-One. Back-up will meet you at the UC-Sunnydale Campus, over and out."

PART SEVEN

Oz opened his eyes. He lay on the floor of his crypt, on top of one of the symbols.

He was still in Alex's body. He knew the spell had worked, and that shape-shifter killing disease was gone. He could feel it. He knew he had the power to shape-shift again.

"Oz?" Willow asked hopefully.

Oz sat up and saw Giles and Willow standing only a few feet away. Both held old leather-bound books in their hands.

"Hey," he said.

Willow's face broke into a smile and she ran into his arms.

Oz held her for a long time. He was reminded of their present situation when Giles cleared his throat.

"We'd best hurry back to my place," the ex-watcher said. "Buffy and Xander are to meet us there."

Oz nodded, and the three left.

As they did, he glanced at the sky. The full moon hung low on the horizon.

"Sunrise will be here soon," he said. "We've got to find Alex and stop these demons and warlocks."

"Agreed," Giles said. "I hope Buffy was able to find the demons' hideout and rescue Xander. And, hopefully, find out where the warlocks are keeping Alex."

"I guess we'll find out," Willow said.

It was still night when Xander crawled up onto the sandy beach, soaking wet with salt water from head to toe. He must have swum for miles before he reached the shore. He was out of breath and desperately needed something to drink, and he doubted the salt water he swallowed while in the ocean would help much.

Panting as he pulled himself into a sitting position, he began to shiver. He glanced around at his surroundings.

He was on an island of some kind. There were trees not far from him.

Something else jutted out of the sand. Xander narrowed his eyes, trying to see straight through his water-dimmed vision.

The moon glanced off it, and he realized it was metal. That surprised him and filled him with hope at the same. He thought hopefully that it was some kind of human structure, and that there were people inside that could help him out.

But on further inspection, his hopes dropped. Because the metal that was sticking out of the sand didn't look like it was man-made. In fact, it didn't look like it originated on Earth.

He needed to get back to Sunnydale. Buffy and everyone else needed him. How he was going to get there, he didn't know. He wasn't even sure where he was or how he got here.

Those demons must have sent me here, he thought. They were members of a warlock Sect, after all.

He heard a sound behind him. It was just like what he heard in Giles' apartment before he was somehow sent here.

He whirled around, the action making him dizzy. But he turned in time to see a flash of light, just before a young man who was only a few years older than Xander appeared, replacing the light.

"I don't know about the demons or warlocks bit," the man said. He had an accent Xander recognized as Australian. "But you came here for a reason."

Xander gaped up at him. "Who are you? You can read my thoughts?"

"To answer your second question, yep," he replied. "As for the first, the name's Adam. Adam Newman. Welcome to the island. I'm a Tomorrow Person, and so are you."

PART EIGHT

"A Tomorrow Person?" Xander asked cautiously. "What is that?" he looked around again. "Where am I?"

"You're on an island in the South Pacific," Adam answered.

"The South Pacific?!" Xander exclaimed. How the h*** did I get here? "I've gotta get back. Buffy needs me."

"I don't know who Buffy is, but there are a few things you need to know first."

"Like what?" Xander asked.

Before Adam could answer, they both heard the voice of a girl with a English accent. Only, it sounded different, unlike what Xander would hear through his ears. He realized with shock that he was listening to her inside his mind.

Adam, the voice said. What's going on?

Hey, Ami. I've just met a new Tomorrow Person, Adam's mind voice responded.

The girl sounded excited and disappointed. I want to come over and meet him, but I've got college classes to go to.

Hey Adam, another voice, this one American and male, piped up in Xander's mind. What's going on?

Hi Megabyte. There's a new Tomorrow Person, I'm not sure what his name is. Adam looked at Xander questioningly. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Xander Harris," Xander replied, thinking it at the same time.

Jade, now in on the conversation, and Megabyte heard his thought. Oh, another American! Jade said excitedly. Are you from Vermont, like Megabyte?

All of this was making Xander's head spin.

I think Xander's having a little trouble taking this all in, Adam said. Megabyte, are you coming over?

A minute later, a young man who was at least twenty appeared after another flash of light. He had short red hair and freckles. "Hi," he greeted Xander. "I'm Megabyte Damon."

"Megabyte?" Xander asked.

"Trust me, my real name's not any better," Megabyte said.

"You're must be freezing," Adam said. Xander realized he was shivering from the cold.

"I'll get him a blanket," Megabyte volunteered. To Xander, he said, "I'll be right back," and teleported out.

Xander couldn't take much more of this. "Okay," he said. "Who are you people? How did I get on this island in the South Pacific, and how could I hear you all in my head?"

"We're Tomorrow People," Adam answered. "The next step in human evolution. We can teleport and we're telepathic."

"And you think I'm one of you?" Xander asked.

Megabyte reappeared. "How else could you hear us talking just now?"

He draped a blanket across Xander's shoulders. Xander took it happily, along with a water bottle.

They explained some more, including how the government was always after them, and that they all possessed some sort of extra power, such as Adam's ability to heal people telekinetically.

Ten minutes had passed by the time they were finished. "Okay, I'm convinced," Xander admitted. "But I've gotta get back to Sunnydale. That's where I was an hour or so ago. Buffy, Willow, Oz, Alex, and Giles may be in trouble."

"Who are they?" Megabyte asked.

"My best friends."

"Are you going to tell them about all this?" Adam asked.

Xander shrugged. "It's not like they won't believe me. We've faced so many supernatural beings in the last three years, I don't think anything would surprise me anymore. Well, except for finding out I'm the next stage in human evolution. That is a very big shocker."

Adam frowned. "Supernatural?" he asked.

"You don't mean aliens, do you?" Megabyte asked.

"Aliens?" Xander asked incredulously. "You've met aliens?"

"A few."

Xander just shook his head. "Man, I know an alien. He's one of my friends. Just to know there are more of them out there makes the world seem even smaller than the song makes it out to be."

"What about the Supernatural beings? What are they?" Adam asked.

"They're things like vampires and demons and witches," Xander said.

"Oh my," Megabyte quipped. "You believe in that sort of stuff?"

"I fight them all the time," Xander said. "My best friends are an ex-Watcher, a Vampire Slayer, a witch, a werewolf, an ex-demon, and a shape-shifter. The shape-shifter's the alien."

"Do you kill the things you fight?" Megabyte asked.

"What else am I supposed to do with them?"

Adam and Megabyte looked at him in horror and disgust.

"What?"

"You can't kill, now that you're a Tomorrow Person," Adam said.

"Why not?"

"Because the emotional stress may kill you," Megabyte answered.

"Oh," Xander said. "But I've got to get back to Sunnydale, let them know I'm alright. I want to see if they're alright, too, and help find Alex."

Megabyte and Adam looked at each other, then turned back to him, resolved. "We'll go with you," Adam said. "You're not in full control of your powers yet, and we may be of some help."

Xander wasn't sure he liked the idea, but he didn't really think he had a choice. "Okay," he said. "Just show me how to teleport, and we're out of here."

"You guys haven't seen him?" Buffy asked, worried.

She, Oz, Willow, Giles, and Anya were in Giles' apartment building. Buffy had told them what happened in the woods. They had no idea where to find the demons or the warlocks holding Oz. At least a half an hour had gone by, and Xander hadn't shown, either.

"The demons must have recaptured Xander," Giles said, rubbing his eyes before putting his glasses back in place.

Willow looked worried. "Poor Xander. Poor Alex."

Oz, still in Alex's shape-shifter body, slid his arm around Willow. It seemed to comfort her somewhat, but not much.

Anya looked worried, too. Xander was her boyfriend, after all. "If I still had my powers I would spill their intestines and write my name in their slime."

There were some weird noises in the middle of the living room. Everyone turned to the sound, and Buffy got into a fighting stance, tense and alert.

Three flashes of light appeared before Xander and two other young men materialized in the room.

"Hopefully, there won't be any need for that," Xander told Anya.

"Xander!" Willow and Anya cried. Anya ran toward him, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him, hard.

Then she backed away from him, remembering how he got there in the first place.

"Xander?" Giles asked.

"Yeah," Xander smiled. "It’s me."

"How did you get here?" Buffy asked. She looked behind him at the two other men. "Who are you?"

"Oh, guys, this is Megabyte and Adam," he gestured to two young men. "Megabyte and Adam, this is Buffy, Giles, Willow, Anya, and-" he paused, looking at the form on the couch. "Oz?"

Oz nodded. "Yep." He cocked his head. "But I'm still wondering, like everyone else, how you got in here."

Xander, with the help of Adam and Megabyte, told his story.

"You're a Tomorrow Person?" Giles asked thoughtfully. "You can't kill, yes?"

Adam looked surprised. "You've heard about us?"

"Only through my books," Giles said.

Xander said, "We'll get into more of that later. From what I recall, we were still trying to find out where the warlocks were keeping Alex and where the demons were headed."

"Yes," Giles agreed. "Now, we have nothing concrete as of this very moment, but-"

"We don't know where they are," Anya said helpfully.

Adam said, "There may be a way to change that."

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