All is Hallow this Eve

Distribution: If you or someone you know would like to host this fic on your site or know of a place you think it should be, go ahead. Just email me and let me know so you don't get blasted for stealing it.

Warning: The following is an unbetaed work. If you or someone you know would like to take time and beta it for flow and/or grammar, please do so and let me know.

Disclaimer: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer is owned by Josh Whedon through his subsidiary company, Mutant Enemy. No infringement is intended, nor is money being made, on this free fan-based project. Any deviation from canon is intentional on my part, as part of artistic license. The aforementioned also applies to James Cameron's Dark Angel.

Summary: What if, at the last minute, Willow picked a new costume. Something more assertive and slayer-like.

Thanks: a 20lbs box of Sees Dark chocolates and tons of Kodos bar go to Cutiepie for being a great beta for this.

All is Hallow this eve

By:

DeMa Davis

It was October 31st. There were only a few hours before the Trick-or-Treat program that Principal Snider had assigned her and her friends to would start. Willow Rosenberg knew that she didn't want to wear the costume that Buffy had picked out for her. She still had the ghost sheet, but it would only be a last ditch thing, the fall-back plan that she didn't want to resort to.

On a whim, Willow returned to the new costume shop to see if maybe there was anything that she could put together for a decent outfit. Ethan was starting to put things away as she came in, but stopped when he saw that he had another customer. He didn't seem at all disturbed by additional business, even though most shopkeepers would be anxious to close up and go home at the end of the day.

She thumbed though the racks and shelves until she saw an open box. On the top was a temporary tattoo kit and a portion of a television script. Her curiosity peaked, the red-head walked over and took a closer look at the box. Willow nearly squeaked with glee when she opened the script. It was from a show that she had gotten to see as part of a focus group. She had loved the show and had even continued to communicate with the creator of the show via email as he tried to sell the series to a network. With any luck, more episodes of Dark Angel would be produced and on TV in only a year or two.

"I see you found something that interests you," Ethan said with a smile as he watched the Slayer's little friend go though the audition script, the tattoo kit in hand. "Got a good idea for a costume?" He didn't have a clue what the script was for, since it had just been in a huge box that he'd gotten from a television costuming house, and he hadn't bothered to look. "It would be a shame to be without a costume on Halloween."

"I'll take both of these. I saw a preview of this show three or four weeks ago, and it was great. This character named Max is so cool!"

The smile on Ethan Raine's face widened. Not realizing that "Max" was female, he was imagining the fun of a male character in the slight female's body. Chaos would be plentiful tonight, he thought. It would turn out to be beyond even his imagination's limit. "Well seeing how it is Halloween and nobody wanted those, I'll give them to you for ten dollars."

A smirk overtook his face as the girl dug out a ten and handed it over to him without ever looking up. She was out of the shop before he could even reach the register.

With her purchase firmly in hand, Willow ran home and up to her room. She pulled out the tattoo box and read the directions as she booted up her computer. She would be able to print out whatever she wanted on the "tattoo blank" and just transfer it to her skin. This was where being a computer geek would come in handy.

The school board had ordered the use of a bar code checkout system for the library, something that Giles had neither the desire nor the skill to implement. However, to maintain compliance with the board, he simply asked Willow to handle making computer bar codes for the books, promptly handing all the software and supplies for the job to her.

After a half hour of typing out highly detailed information for her desired costume, she sent it though the bar code software and loaded the printer with the film for the tattoo. Then she scrambled into the clothes she'd decided to wear. If nothing else, she at least would be able to use the black boots that Buffy had talked her into buying earlier. After she was dressed, she filled a black backpack with all the "Manticore avoidance necessities" she could think of, including a few high energy heath food bars, and all the cash she had on hand.

Finally, Willow cut out the tattoo bar code, moistened the back, and applied it to a small area at the base of her skull where her hair would almost always cover it (unless she had her head shaved). She was now X1-598, bar code 330417291598, a.k.a. Subject Willow.

FIN?