"So what are you going as, Willow?" Buffy asked, trying to deflect the conversation from her relationship with Angel. Not that she minded the topic, but she got the distinct feeling her redheaded friend wasn't planning much of a night for herself.

"Oh, I don't know... probably a ghost; it's what I do best on Halloween." The reply was almost canned in it's offhandedness.

"A ghost." Buffy repeated, flatly. Setting the book they'd liberated from Giles' secret stash, the Slayer looked her friend in the eye and said "I'm supposed to find something like that," she motioned towards the book with a flick of her wrist, "while you're going to cut two holes in a white sheet? I don't think so."

Willow, not having expected so forceful a response, sat there with her mouth hanging open before shutting it with a little click as her teeth met. She'd been about to protest, but saw the look in her friend's eye, and realized it would be useless. At least, useless now. Maybe she could say she couldn't find anything later?

Buffy climbed to her feet, glancing down at her quiet friend for a moment, before nodding to herself. "Come on. I know what I'm looking for, lets go see what we can find for you!" And without waiting, the blonde walked out of the library officer, followed shortly by her now-worried friend.

A little while later found them sitting in Willow's room, various books and magazines spread out on both the bed and the floor, and two girls sitting in front of an impressive little PowerBook.

"Come on, Will, you've been glancing at this thing ever since we started looking here. There's obviously something on it you think would work!" Buffy said.

Willow fidgeted nervously in her chair, before reaching for the mouse. Before her hand landed on it, however, she turned to Buffy, her expression changing from one of nervousness and worry to utter seriousness. "You can't tell anyone about these... how I got them... wasn't exactly..." she trailed off, thinking about how best to describe it.

"Illegal?" Buffy asked, somewhat surprised. While she knew Willow on the computer was quite a far cry from the Willow she saw at school, she hadn't really thought the things she'd done for them in the past had been blatantly illegal.

"Not quite," Willow shook her head, trying to find the best way to describe the lawlessness that resided on the internet. "Well... okay, I suppose that works best, but it's not so clear-cut."

Buffy just shrugged. "I won't ask, and I won't tell."

Willow nodded, and turned back to the computer, opening up an image viewer and displaying some of the concept art she'd acquired from a game developers less-than-adequately protected file servers.

"Hey, she could work. It's sort of... not detailed enough to tell much, but I think I have some swimming goggles-" Buffy's speech cut off as Willow tapped a key, and the image changed to one that was obviously hand-drawn, but in relatively high detail. She could tell the character was the same as before, but where as the previous one had had red hair peeking out from behind a pair of tech-looking goggles (which would fit Willow) this one had... things. They almost looked like insect legs. Sickly-looking skin, with the occasional protruding nodule, was exposed in a rather risque-manner by a suit that looked both insect-like and organic. But most impressively were the bony wing-like protrusions from her back, looking fairly menacing and utterly deadly.

"Oh, wow... I can see why you hesitated..." Buffy said, finally.

Willow nodded. "It's okay. I don't think I could pull that off. You can tell some guy drew that, I don't... well, I couldn't... I wouldn't know where to begin. Maybe the first one?" Willow went to close the image, but Buffy surprised her by jumping to her feet.

"Are you kidding? Willow, it's Halloween! Come as you aren't! That first one might be you, but this... we have to do it! It's so out there... Can you print that picture? I need to get my mom's help, but trust me. You'll be the talk of the town when Halloween is over."

Willow, her skin already light, paled at this. "Umm.. Buffy? I don't really think-"

"No! I've decided. We've got to make Snyder pay for forcing us to dress up, and I say the best way to do that is to throw it in his face by having fun! This... This is perfect for that! I think I have some fairy wings we can start with for those... things... and we can search the town's shops for a way to make that suit, but seriously, you're going to be an awesome-looking bug-lady thing!"

Willow winced, wondering why she'd bothered showing Buffy the picture in the first place, and knowing now she was committed. As The Slayer headed for the door, she glanced over her shoulder at her friend, and asked "what's that... person? Demon? What's the name?"

Willow, watching her printer slowly spit out a piece of paper with the image permanently inked on it, didn't bother to look up as she replied. "Kerrigan. Infested Kerrigan."

A/N: You're kidding, right? NOBODY'S done this before? Geeze, you'd think someone would have thought of it. I posted the premise a few months back in the spacebattles forum for plot bunnies or whatnot, but that was me. Since this is a collection of ficlets that may or may not be expanded, I figure I should explain while I'm down here. I hate YAHF fics that cross Buffy Halloween with things that weren't out/invented/thought-up when the season aired. I'll read them, but there's a real challenge in suspending my disbelief when Xander plays World of Warcraft in 1998. I'm also a stickler for accuracy. Today, we have Macbooks and imacs and all that, back in '98, there was the PowerBook. I know Willow used Apples, and she had a laptop. Unless she hacked the system and had Steve Jobs send her a MacBook prototype, it was a Powerbook. EOD. That said, Starcraft was being created/worked on in '98, and it's reasonable to assume that someone with the technical skills, free-time, and interest could have found some unsecured network connection and raided a folder of concept art. Too big a stretch? Maybe. But at least Starcraft was shown at E6 1996 (albeit a crappy version using the Warcraft 2 engine) so there was reason enough to know about it. Anyway, I digress; from here, Willow pulls it off, is Kerrigan for a night, and starts to paint Sunnydale red. She also has a little zergling larva that she orders into a drone, then a hatchery, in an attempt to start up a powerbase on earth, before the spell ends. Of course, the hive remains, slowly growing without its leader, while season 2 continues, and oh, Willow's magic abilities are now Psionic/Ghost abilities. Eventually the zerg attack, and it's up to the scoobies to stop them.

And then there's the whole next season, where something has survived. And is subservient to Willow. Because I'd like to see the Initiative versus Willow's Zerg. The Initiative, and others.