Oz decided that the best way to tell everyone he was still alive was to simply walk in and tell them... while holding a large wooden cross and wearing a bullet proof vest. Just because a wooden stake or crossbow bolt wouldn't permanently kill him didn't mean it was something he wished to experience. Entering the library carrying a huge wooden cross half his size he simply said, "Hey."

Buffy and Faith reached for weapons but paused on seeing the cross and exchanged glances.

"Who are you?!" Giles demanded, grabbing a crossbow.

"Oz," he replied, setting the cross on the table while Willow stared at him in shock.

"Oz died," Giles snapped out, "try again!"

"Still Oz," he replied. "Fire isn't silver."

"B-but Xander killed you!" Willow moaned.

"Is that like some zen shit?" Faith asked, confused. "Fire isn't silver?"

"I can't believe we missed that," Giles said setting down his crossbow.

"Giles?" Buffy asked, her tone demanding answers.

"You can't burn a werewolf to death," Giles explained. "Well, not unless you completely cremate the body or possibly just a significant portion of it."

"So..." Buffy asked hopefully.

"Oz!" Willow threw herself at him, tears running down her face.

"It's me," he promised as he held her. "Though technically I am my own cousin now, as 'Oz' died too publicly to cover up."

"I'm just glad you're back," Buffy said as Willow cried in his arms.

"What's with you thinking Xander killed me?" Oz asked.

"The thing with Willow and him and then both your bodies were found in the basement," Buffy said uncomfortably.

"Xander's head was pulped and body so badly burned no prints were left, but he did drop his wallet, plus they ID'd him as the wheel man where they bought the stuff to make the bomb you busted up. By the way, thanks for that. The fire we could deal with, thanks to some mojo, but if the bomb had exploded we'd have been toast," Faith explained, when it became apparent no one else was going to.

"That's not what happened," Oz disagreed.

"What?" Willow asked as she stopped crying.

"My Aunt had me doing a bunch of meditation to help deal with dying," Oz said slowly. "A side effect of all that, was getting a pretty clear memory of what happened while I was... changed."

"So Xander didn't become get all jealous and raise a bunch of zombies to kill you?" Buffy asked.

"Psycho Jack and his friends set up the bomb," Oz said, ignoring Buffy's confusing explanation. "They were all zombies, but Xander was there trying to stop him. The wolf... I attacked them and the barrels got knocked over. Xander got covered in oil somehow and then everything was fire and my next memory is waking up after the next night."

"Then why was he seen with the zombies while they stole all the bomb stuff?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know," Oz said with a shrug.

"He could have gotten cold feet, only to find the zombies he'd raised had broken free of his control," Giles offered, recalling his own days as a rebellious youth and some of the stunts he'd pulled.

"More likely he stumbled across them and they forced him to help them," Buffy said, knowing what Xander's luck had been like.

Faith shrugged. "Doesn't really matter at this point, he's gone and not coming back."

"I suppose you're right," Giles said with a smile. "Still at least we know he was trying to stop it, regardless of whether he had a hand in creating it and no one else was permanently harmed."

"And he's in a better place now," Buffy said.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Xander dodged wildly as sparkling pink blasts shattered the ground around him. "Hurry up and free them already!"

"Working on it!" Cyborg yelled back as he and Mammoth pounded away at the mass of pink crystal that had trapped both their teams.

"Crack damn you!" Mammoth roared as his blows simply bounced off the crystal.

"Physical force ain't doing it," Cyborg said as he paused to take a breath.

"So we keep pounding until we find the right rhythm!" Mammoth roared angrily.

"Rhythm... that's it!" Cyborg yelled excitedly. His right arm morphed into a sonic cannon as his skin took on a black scaled patter like a reptile.

"What the hell?!" Mammoth asked, staring at Cyborg in shock.

Cyborg ignored the super powered teen as he adjusted the sonic cannon's frequency on the fly and fired it at the crystal.

Mammoth clapped his hands over his ears as the frequency hit a pitch that drove him to his knees.

Xander shot streamers of web into the air around his foe. "What is it with us and ancient mummies? Or us and ring wielders?"

The ancient Egyptian Queen, restored to full beauty and power by the pink ring she wore yelled something at Xander that caused him to blush and respond in the same language. With a scream of rage, she flew out of range of attack and started charging up her ring for a mammoth blast, before the sound of crystal shattering rang out across the battlefield.

"What did it do to me?" Gizmo demanded, the young bald supervillain now wearing a pink outfit better suited to a woman with a V-shaped split that went all the way down past his belly button exposing half his hairless chest.

"To you?" one of the many recently freed Billy Numerous' demanded in a high pitched voice as she fondled her own chest. "I'm female!"

"Damn, we look hot as a girl," one of the male Billys said with a whistle.

"I think I gained a cup size," Jinx noted as she tried to pull the front of her pink outfit together to cover herself up more.

"Where the hell is my utility belt?!" Robin demanded as he tried to remove the wedgie the pink outfit gave him.

"This is quite nice," Starfire said as she stretched and twisted to make sure the outfit fit well.

"Ring challenge!" Xander called out, causing the building blast to dissipate and lowering the resurrected Queen to the ground while she howled and fought her ring every step of the way, her supernatural vitality allowing her to force it to stay active somehow.

"Dude, pink does not go well with green," Beast... Girl complained.

"Hah, you're a chick!" Gizmo laughed.

Beast Girl smirked and shifted back to male. "Dude, that's like first day shapeshifting lessons."

"Aww," Gizmo groaned, disappointed.

The multiple Billy's vanished one by one until only two were left, one male, one female.

"Looks like we're stuck at two," Billy noted.

"At least we got a kick ass rack," Billie replied, unfazed as she hefted her breasts thoughtfully.

In the background, Xander and the Egyptian Queen could be seen standing each with a hand outstretched, but while the Queen's ring glowed slightly brighter than Xander's, her body was rapidly aging as she fought her ring for dominance rather than submit to the challenge.

"Um... guys," Jinx said nervously as she noticed Raven standing absolutely still, dressed in the same ridiculous pink outfit as the others, the formerly blue jewel on her forehead a matching pink and her four red eyes glaring balefully at everyone.

"Ahhh!" Beast Boy took cover behind Mammoth.

"This is bad," Robin said.

"Thanks Captain Obvious, I didn't think we could have figured that out for ourselves!" Gizmo snapped.

"WHERE IS MY CLOAK?!" Raven roared.

The Egyptian Queen crumbled into dust as Xander caught her ring and combined it with his own before falling to his knees exhausted.

Cyborg quickly wove together a cloak out of webbing and flung it at his pissed off teammate who seemed to regain control as she donned it, her eyes no longer glowing and only two in number once more.

"No offense, but I really think everyone should change before we tangle again," Jinx said, tugging at the front of her costume.

"Tell us what this was all about and you have a deal," Robin replied.

"We were paid to do a resurrection ritual on..." Jinx turned and looked at the pile of dust and bones where the Queen had stood. "Anyway we were paid to wake the dead and we're done now and no, we have no idea who was footing the bill and wouldn't tell you if we knew."

"Guess we're done here then," Robin said, all his evidence of Hive being involved pretty much destroyed with his belt.

Xander made a bag out of webbing and started collecting some of the larger crystal fragments.

"What are you doing?" Cyborg asked.

"Alien crystal," Xander said. "I'm going to cut them into gems and sell them. I'll make a mint!"

"Frag it, why didn't I think of that?!" Gizmo yelled.

Xander made a bag out of webbing and tossed it to him.

"That was very nice of you," Starfire noted.

"I got all I need and there's plenty left over," Xander replied with a shrug.

"Let's get back to the tower, I feel exposed," Robin said as Hive collected all the remaining crystals.

"I wonder if I can get one of these in green," Beast Boy said posing in his new outfit.

Typing by: Abyssal Angel