Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc are the properties of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. This fanfic is not for profit and no copyright infringement is intended. The premise for this fanfic was inspired by and is basically a rip off of the Forever White Knight series by DanaShort that can be found on the website.
Warning: Extremely AU. There will be character deaths. Most characters will be extremely noncanon after a certain point. This is a super! Xander story. Xander/Multi. Possible smut, definitely sexual situations and vulgar language. You have been warned.
AN: Dawn is the Key, but when the monks cast the spell to send it to the Slayer they screwed up the incantation and sent it back in time. Dawn Summers is biologically the child of Joyce and Hank Summers and she is 1 year younger than Buffy rather than 5. Meaning that she is a sophomore at the time this fic starts.
Chapter 1
Spike's warehouse.
A tall pale vampire, who was once a 19th century aspiring poet named William Pratt, stood with short bleached hair wearing a black leather trench coat in an abandoned warehouse in front of a television. He watched a video that showed a pretty blonde girl fighting multiple opponents in a graveyard at night.
"Here it comes…Rewind that. Let's see that again." The British vampire now feared throughout the world as Spike, for his glee in torturing his victims with railroad spikes, said in his trademark Cockney accent. A dark haired vampire stood next to him and used the remote control to manipulate the video. The vampire once known as William the Bloody chuckles to himself as he commented, "She's tricky. Baby likes to play."
A particularly viscous exchange of blows occurs on screen between the teen and her opponents ending when she rams a signpost through one of the vampires dusting him. As he watched the Slayer kill his minions Spike laughed before commenting, "You see that? The way she stakes him with that thing? That's what you call resourceful that is. Rewind it again."
As Spike finished speaking, a beautiful vampire with long dark hair walked in from the other room and stated in a languorous voice with a refined British accent, "Miss Edith needs her tea."
Spike held his hand out to her as he said, "C'mere, poodle."
The vampire Drusilla took her childe's hand and rested her head against his shoulder as she asked. "Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?"
"Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet. That's why I've got to study this Slayer. Once I know her I can kill her. And once I kill her you can have your run of Sunnyhell. Get strong again."
"Don't worry. Everything's switching. Outside to inside. It makes her weak." She commented idly.
"Really? Did my pet have a vision?" Her lover asked eagerly.
"Do you know what I miss? Leeches."
"Come on, talk to Daddy. This thing that makes the Slayer weak? When is it?"
"Tomorrow."
With a disgusted look on his face Spike incredulously spoke. "Tomorrow's Halloween. Nothing happens on Halloween."
"Someone's come to change it all. Someone new."
As she left Spike's side, the mad seer danced to music only she could hear, all the while cradling her doll.
Back room at Ethan's.
A handsome, dark haired man in his mid 40s comes through a curtain wearing a purple robe. As he knelt before a bust of a 2 faced statue, one male and one female, used to represent Janus, the Roman god of doorways, change, and chaos, Ethan Rayne bowed his head. He pressed his hands together reverently and winced in pain as the blade he'd trapped between them cut into his palms. When he pulled them apart the wounds bled freely. Moving his hands in a gesture of supplication he began speaking in a reverent tone.
"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit."
The Chaos mage dabbed the blood from his left hand with his right middle finger and smeared it over his right eyelid, before continuing.
"The peace that ignores thee..."
And after dabbing the blood from his right hand with his left middle finger he smeared it over his left eyelid.
"...thou corrupt."
He dabbed the blood from his left hand with his right middle finger again and finished the rite by smearing a cross onto his forehead.
"Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
1630 Revello Dr.
Xander Harris walked up to the front door of the Summers' house sporting a black leather trench coat he'd bought at the new costume shop Ethan's paired with a blue dress shirt over a plain white tee shirt and a pair of loose fit jeans with steel toed boots that Uncle Rory had worn when he was deployed for Operation Desert Storm to complete the outfit. The hilt of a sword was left just-visible in scabbard sown in to the lining of the left side of the coat. Stepping onto the porch, Xander rang the door bell with the back of his left hand as his fingertips were covered in puncture wounds from his sewing attempts. After the pleasant chime sounded he waited for one of the lovely ladies that lived there to open it. After a moment an attractive blonde woman dressed as Little Red Riding Hood answered the door.
"Xander," Joyce greeted him, smiling as she opened the door wider. "Please come in. Buffy and Willow are still upstairs. But Dawn's ready to go so you can keep us company while you wait."
"Mrs. Summers, first let me just say I'm really wishing I'd gone with the Big Bad Wolf costume all of a sudden." The teen said with his trademark smile. "And you really shouldn't invite anybody in after dark in this town. It may only be a superstition but you're really asking for bad luck if you keep that up." Xander answered as he followed the woman who was rapidly becoming more of a mother to him than his own into the house.
"Xander, it's rude, not to invite someone in. But for you I'll try to get out of the habit." She said with an answering smile. "And thanks for the compliment."
"Thanks. I know it's weird but this isn't a safe town. You should be more careful."
"Ok, Xander. I'll try to be more rude if it will make you feel better." the woman said, shaking her head at the weirdness of her daughter's friends. "Girls! Xander's here!" Joyce called as she sat back down next to her younger daughter on the couch. "So, what are you dressed as?"
"Xan where's your costume?" Dawn asked at the same time as her mother when she looked up from her magazine. It still gave her a thrill whenever the boy she was crushing on walked into her living room.
He stopped dead in his tracks and it took the lanky young man a moment to pick his jaw up off the floor and control his hormone driven urge to check out the Slayer's little sister. Her silver toga like dress with golden spectacles was a perfect replica of one worn by a guest star on one of his favorite TV shows in a recent episode. Dawn's costume showed off her curves and legs to devastating effect, and the shield and spear next to her only made it harder for Xander to control his instinctive reaction to drool.
"Athena, my goddess your divine presence has blessed me this night." He replied as he made a show of kneeling at the youngest Summers' feet and genuflecting the way he imagined the ancient Greeks might have upon meeting with their goddess. As he stood up Xander didn't notice the furious blush that lit up the younger Summers' face. He made his way to lean up against the recliner and continued, "This is my costume Dawnster. I'm an ancient immortal from the Highlander franchise." He opened the coat a bit to flash the sword he was carrying. "Have you ever seen it?"
Neither teen noticed the sudden speculative look on Joyce's face as she thought to herself, 'I have no idea why Buffy turned down such a cute boy but it looks like he's over her finally. Now that Xander's noticed she's a girl maybe Dawn will stop being such a jealous brat to her sister.'
"Oh right, I've seen that show. There can be only one. The guy that plays Duncan is gorgeous." 'He's almost as hot as you' Dawn thought to herself, while pretending to be interested in her magazine. She was still trying to stop blushing at his over the top greeting.
"Right…I didn't need to hear that. I'd much rather have you concentrate on me." Xander replied with his trade mark goofy grin shining through. At that moment, the sound of someone making their way down the stairs could be heard which distracted the teen from seeing the blush that had started to die down erupt across Dawn's face. And while the boy missed it, her mother most certainly didn't.
As the class clown watched his Slayer friend make her entrance in a beautiful old styled dress he thought to himself, 'She looks beautiful. Too bad her taste in men goes more towards the dead and demony.' Not allowing himself to dwell on that thought he greeted her. "Buffy! Lady of Buffdom, Duchess of Buffonia. I have to admit, after seeing you in that getup I completely renounce spandex." The only male Scooby said as he admired the apparent 18th century noblewoman.
"Why thank you kind sir." The object of his once upon a time crush responded. "You're looking very trenchcoatey tonight." Buffy commented. "Wait till you see Willow she looks…" Buffy trailed off as someone came down behind her. She turned, "like Casper." She finished with a questioning look at her female friend, who rather than showing off her sexy outfit was covered head to toe in a white sheet.
"Wow Will that's a fine Boo you've got going on tonight." Xander said. "I'm not surprised that you don't recognize it Buffy. As to the untrained eye it would appear that I am in fact not wearing a costume. But the ignorant people who thought that would be wrong because I am actually dressed as an Immortal from the Highlander TV show."
"Oooh, the one with the hot pony tail guy and the really bad sword fighting?"
"Uhm yeah, that's the one." He then turned to his childhood friend as he continued with a disappointed look on his face. "I AM surprised that you don't recognize the costume Willow."
"OH! Xander you're Alaksandu of Wilusa!" Willow said in her excited voice. As the three Summers women looked on in confusion Xander grinned at his childhood friend.
"There's a game we used to play called the World of Darkness. It's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons but instead of playing characters that are elves, dwarves, and clerics you play characters that are werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and mages. Anyway, a couple of years ago a fan of the game who was also a fan of the TV show decided to create a game using the rules of in the World of Darkness to play as a Highlander style Immortal." Willow explained. "Xander is dressed as the character Jesse would always play. His name is Alaksandu of Wilusa and before his first death he was a king in what's now Turkey 4,000 years ago. Jesse always wanted to get him added to the show, but he was never able to get a hold of those darn producers."
"How did you know he was dressed as Jesse's character and not yours or his own?" Buffy asked.
"Because I always played a female mage and Xander always played a vampire."
Seeing the strange look on Buffy's face Xander quickly explained, "Vampires weren't really evil in the game. They still had souls and everything. They had an inner Beast they had to fight to control their bloodlust but they weren't really bad unless they let themselves be."
The young man then went on to describe the made up character as the four women surrounding him looked on in bemusement at his enthusiasm. "He's been a slave and a king and everything in between, even a shaman, not to mention a priest in quite a few religions. He's traveled all over the globe and speaks a huge number of languages. Alaksandu or Alexander Wilson as he's called these days is a certified genius with perfect recall and a childlike curiosity about everything, which he hides behind well honed cynicism and a sarcastic smart-ass demeanor. Good in a fight and with a nifty little trick of suppressing his Quickening so other Immortals can't detect him; Alex is never seen by the others unless he wants to be seen. He's currently living in New York and working as a Professor of Engineering at NYU."
"Wow Xander. Your friend obviously put a lot of thought into this." Joyce commented.
"Yeah you look great Xander." His yellow crayon buddy said.
"What can I say? I figured this was a good way to honor my brother."
"Good for you." The slayer's mother replied.
"Yeah Xander, I think your costume idea is really cool." Dawn jumped in.
Flashing a grin at Dawn to thank her for the compliment, Xander asked. "Is everybody ready to go? I really don't feel like giving the Troll an excuse to hammer us some more." When everybody indicated that they were ready to face the evening, including their troll-like principal, the teens wished Joyce fun at her party and headed out.
Once at the High School each of the friends picked up their group of kids and led them off on a trick or treat adventure. As Xander walked with his group of kids he advised them on the best ways to get candy. "Okay, on sleazing extra candy: tears are key. Tears will normally get you the double-bagger. You can also try the old 'you missed me' routine, but it's risky. Only go there for chocolate. Understood?" All of the kids nodded their heads. "Okay, troops. Let's get started."
The backroom at Ethan's costume shop.
The chaos mage knelt down and genuflected before he began the night's work. As he chanted in an old language, Ethan Rayne made offerings to the two headed bust of his patron god. "Janus, evoco vestram animam. Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas."
He completed the spell with a shouted, "Janus, evoco vestram animam! Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro! Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas!"