"We've received a message from Anise," Sam reported to the increasingly anxious O'Neill, "Xander is alive, but she's going to need a couple of days to recover before she can bring him back."

A cheer went up around the Gate room, startling SG1.

"Your nephew has touched a lot of lives," General Hammond offered. Word from above had ordered him to stop looking into Sunnydale and its people, but Xander's name had appeared in a surprising number of reports.

"I'm just relieved he's OK," Jack said. "I should probably call his cell and let him know he's alright."

"Him?" Sam asked, wondering if he knew how little sense that sentence made.

"Classified," Jack replied with a grin, "beyond my security clearance."

"That's not even the craziest thing to be said around here," Hammond grumbled, shaking his head. "I need a vacation."

"Don't we all," Danny agreed absently.

"I gotta go make a call," Jack said, departing with a spring in his step that had been absent for the last couple of days.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Xander you have a phone call," Willow said, lightly shaking his shoulder.

Xander blinked and stretched as far as his hands would allow before waking up enough to take in his current situation. A naked Tara was sleeping on his left, a near naked Dawn was sleeping on his right, and someone had laid a blanket over them. He considered panicking, but Willow wasn't upset so he didn't bother. "Hello," he said into the phone Willow held to the side of his head.

"Xander?" Jack asked cautiously.

"Probably," Xander replied. "I was out of it for three days, so we're figuring out a way to check still."

"Hope you didn't wake up in the morgue," Jack offered with a smile in his voice, "that would take some serious explaining."

"Not around here," Xander replied. "So why isn't my other half on the phone?"

"A friend of ours took him away to try and revive him," Jack explained, skirting the issue as much as possible, "but while she was successful it'll take her a couple of days to recover and bring him back here."

"Glad to hear he's OK," Xander said. "Tell my other to stay there when he arrives; we're still working on some things here."

"Do I want to know?" Jack asked.

"Probably not," Xander replied honestly. "I know I don't."

Jack chuckled. "I know how that is. Well, I need to go tell the Doc to toss the death certificate, unless you want it?"

"Get it framed, he'll love it," Xander replied. "Talk to you later, bye."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Did I miss something?" Buffy teased as she came down the basement stairs with Giles and found Willow had joined the three.

"There was an open spot," Willow replied, from where she laid atop Xander.

"Aren't you gay?" Buffy pointed out.

Willow rolled her eyes. "Just because I am cuddling with my best male friend, who is naked and chained to the bed, doesn't... I can't even think that without giggling," she admitted. "This is mostly just for comfort."

"She's also trying to tease me and make me blush," Xander added.

"I said mostly," Willow pointed out, laying her head back on his chest.

"Well the spell I'm going to attempt is a simple diagnostic," Giles explained, "though modified to expand the scope and duration."

"Do we need to move?" Dawn asked, revealing she was awake.

"No, you're fine," Giles assured her.

"Cast away then," Dawn said.

Giles nodded, held out a hand above the bed, and began chanting. Everyone stayed quiet and still until he finished with a word that sounded like a bird taking flight and the room was bathed with light.

"Whoa!" Buffy exclaimed as she saw the rainbows surrounded everyone on the bed.

"I have a lot of darkness in my aura," Willow said in shock.

"Yes, and that is something we will have to deal with later," Giles said, "however you have an equal amount of light."

"What's mine mean?" Dawn asked, as she looked at the glow around herself.

"The green is the Key's energies and the white is your soul," Giles explained, pointing at the largest bands of color.

"And the red?" Buffy asked curiously.

"I have a soul?" Dawn exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course you have a soul," Giles told her. "What made you think you didn't?"

"I'm a ball of energy made flesh, why would I have a soul?" Dawn replied with a shrug.

"No, the monks altered reality so you were born and then jammed the Key into you," Xander replied. "At least, that's the way I always figured it happened."

"That is a good summation," Giles agreed.

"You're my sister, of course you have a soul," Buffy assured her. "It may be small and dirty because you never do the dishes, but it's there." Dawn stuck her tongue out while everyone laughed.

"The Key is linked to your existence, but that's not all that you are," Giles assured her, noting the way the colors of her aura brightened as he explained it.

"Oh, Baby," Willow said sadly as she looked at Tara's aura.

"That's not good," Xander said as he stared at the many holes in Tara's aura cutting through numerous shades of color.

"It'll take time, but we'll fix this," Willow promised. Tara slept on, blissfully unaware of what was going on around her, the small lines of darkness in her aura completely eclipsed by the brightness of even the most damaged portion.

"We will," Giles agreed, "but back to the purpose of this spell." At a gesture Xander's aura extended above him, a complex pattern of light and dark with their tangles of color woven throughout, that seemed out of place, and a golden glow that rubbed against the aura's of the girls' surrounding him, dimming slightly as it touched Tara's.

"What does all this mean?" Xander asked. "And is Tara eating my soul?" he added, sounding more curious than upset. Everyone turned their attention to Tara's sleeping form where one of the holes shrank slightly accompanied by a dim in Xander's golden glow.

"Possibly, but that appears to be a good thing," Giles explained after a close examination of the effect, "as that is most definitely divine energy she is drawing out of you and using to heal herself. As long as Tara is... feeding, I do not believe we need fear Glory manifesting."

"That is great news," Willow said, squeezing Xander tightly.

"Healing Tara, not being a vamp," Xander listed off with a grin. "Almost a shame I'm still going to kill her, preferably without killing myself again, but no promises, Glory has got to go."

"No rushing off," Buffy ordered, "we have time to figure out a plan to fix things safely."

"I'm not going anywhere," Xander promised, rattling the chain on his right arm. "We can unchain me now, right?"

"Nope," Dawn replied before anyone else could. "Gotta wait at least another day or two to measure everything to make sure it isn't increasing as the bitch recovers."

"Language," Buffy warned, "but that's a good point."

"I need crayons," Giles said thoughtfully. At Buffy's look he explained, "To draw a chart of Xander's aura. I'll be back shortly."

Buffy laughed. "Only you, Xander."

He and Willow shared a smile as they recalled the day they'd first met. "So you aren't going to complain or ask questions about why I'm naked and we're lying here?" Xander asked Buffy, after Giles had departed to get a drawing pad and some crayons.

"You have no idea what is was like when you were dead. I'd join the pile if more clothes were involved," Buffy told him.

"I'm still wearing my pajamas," Willow pointed out.

"That's why your efforts to tease Xander have failed," Dawn joked.

"Oh really?" Willow said with an evil grin.

"Look at the time, I gotta go!" Buffy said quickly retreating.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Xander checked on Anise and Freya with a sigh. The alien bed thing was doing its job, they both were fine. Of course, that left him with nothing to do but stare at the walls or poke around alien equipment which he knew nothing about. "Shiny gizmos it is," Xander decided, knowing two days with nothing to do would be murder on his sanity. "Hope my other self is having an easier time of it," he muttered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Anniversary?" Tara questioned.

Willow froze unsure of what to say, as she'd discarded her pajama top and was on top of Xander, but how could she explain that to Tara in a way she'd understand?

"Silverware drawer," Xander said, hoping that a little word association would help.

"Fork?" Tara asked looking interested.

"Spoon!" Xander quickly replied.

"Spatula," Tara answered, wrapping an arm around Willow and hugging them both with a smile.

"I kinda followed that," Dawn offered.

"It's either cute or kinky," Xander agreed.

"Probably cute even if it is kinky," Dawn said, "Tara is adorable."

"We are all bad influences on each other," Willow decided, wrapping an arm around Tara.

"The effect on our auras says differently," Dawn replied. "When I'm with Xander, my soul glows!"

"You are a wonderful person, your soul would glow anyway," Xander assured her.

"Yes, but it glows brighter when I'm with you, Giles proved that," Dawn said smugly.

"And you can actually see Tara improve as you fill all her holes," Willow told Xander, only to groan as she realized what she'd said. "You are a good-bad influence!"

"No tantric rites until she's better," Xander joked.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be teasing you!" Willow complained.

"Are you all decent?" Giles called down.

"Not really," Xander called back.

"But we are good people!" Dawn quickly added.

"Give us a minute to put some clothes on," Willow added.

"I'll go have a cup of coffee then," Giles decided. "I'll see you all in a few minutes."

"I guess we've got to get dressed then," Willow said.

"Fine, but as soon as Giles leaves the clothes are coming right back off!" Dawn swore.

"Tara honey, we have to get dressed now," Willow said.

"No," Tara said snuggling in.

"I... that's the first time she's answered anything directly since Glory!" Willow exclaimed.

"I'll pull the blanket up to our necks and we'll be fine," Dawn decided, reaching down for the blanket.

"This has been one of my better weeks, despite having been dead for half of it," Xander decided. "Did anyone call into work for me?"

"What, call in dead?" Willow asked.

"You still have a week's vacation left," Dawn assured him.

"Good, I kinda enjoy the job I have and would hate to have to find another one."

"Not sure they'll believe you're you," Willow warned him.

"What? Why?" he asked.

"All your scars and imperfections are gone," Willow explained.

"Your muscles are bigger and there's not even a trace of fat on you anymore, and I've looked!" Dawn assured him.

"Pretty," Tara opined, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

"Your hair has changed from a dark brown to a shining black," Willow said.

"Someone re-rolled your fighter so he could play a paladin in the new campaign," Dawn explained.

"I'll just claim I went to a spa," Xander decided.

"You really think they'll buy that?" Willow asked.

"This is Sunnydale," Xander pointed out.

"Good point," Willow conceded, "but while you aren't exactly Derek Zoolander, you could be a male model now."

"It's why I had even less control than normal," Dawn explained.

"Also the being dead and never having a chance to hold him again," Willow said thickly, suddenly squeezing him tightly. "That part sucked."

"Stay," Tara ordered Xander, before closing her eyes and laying her head on him once more.

"I'm coming down," Giles called out.

"We're covered," Dawn called back.

"I'll try not to leave you guys again," Xander promised.

Giles ignore the blanket covered pile and used a handful of crayons and a sketch pad to make sense of Xander's aura. "I can easily see the divine power, but it's... incomplete," Giles explained after a few minutes of work and consulting a color chart from the paint store.

"My other self is also alive, you think he got half of it?" Xander asked.

"Other half?" Giles asked.

"I used the Ferula Gemini to separate out my injured self and sent him to visit my uncle in Colorado," Xander said, realizing he hadn't explained this to Giles before.

"That... Would that even work?" Giles asked frowning. "I mean, the human body is incredibly complex and riddled with systems that become lethal the moment they become unbalanced."

"It worked fine," Xander assured him, "but back to my question. Since I'm not fully here, what effect would that have?"

"It's more that your interactions with the universe are- " Giles began, but stopped. "I really have no idea. I'm relatively certain that this situation has never, in the whole of existence, occurred before."

"Guess," Xander ordered.

"At a wild guess, with absolutely no facts to back me up," Giles warned, "I'll say being separated the way you are has greatly weakened Glory and is slowly dispersing her essence."

"So she can't manifest through me?" Xander asked.

"No, I do not believe so," Giles admitted. "Provided you stay out of any hell dimensions she'd find comfortable and you remain not only separated, but at a distance from one another, I don't believe she can manifest in our world."

"So I don't have to remain chained up in the basement?" Xander asked, just to make sure.

"I'd wait until tomorrow just to be sure, as Dawn suggested, but it does look that way," Giles agreed.

"It'll be hard for me to stay away from Sunnydale, but once I explain it to myself I'm sure I'll understand," Xander said.

"We'll miss you, but at least you'll be here to comfort us about your absence," Dawn told Xander.

"And that's enough Xander for me," Giles said. "I'm going to go tell Buffy and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Think we're too rough on him?" Dawn asked.

Willow and Xander looked at one another and grinned. "Nope!" they chorused.

Typing by: pixelherodev

Typist's note: You stole my line, dogbertcarrol! Actually, you stole it's opposite. "But we are good people!" Whenever someone asks "Are you good?", I respond with "Not morally!"