Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Twilight, Labyrinth, The Wizard Of Oz, Return To Oz or The NeverEnding Story, but I kind of wish I did. Also, if you see what you think are spelling mistakes on words such as 'favourite' and 'colour' remember that I am British and I do spell it different to Americans! (Sorry if you already know this but I have been accused of spelling words 'wrong' before.) Other than that - Enjoy! Or not, whatever!

Buffy and the Twilight Labyrinth Return To Oz in a NeverEnding Story

Introduction

Our story begins the same way all stories begin - with a boy named Bastian. Now, this isn't to say that you'll ever come across him whilst grazing through the pages of your latest Mills & Boon, but believe me when I say, he'll have been the one who came up with the idea, and he'll have been the one who dared to dream up such erongenous acts that a boy of his age shouldn't even know about let alone dream of!... But it wasn't all passion and romance. It was horror, and it was science-fiction. It was crime, and it was fantasy. Now, fantasy was Bastian's all-time favourite. Memories of beautiful dragons and fire-breathing fairies flittered across his mind as the shy, lonely 10-year-old traced the image of the Auryn with his fingers. He placed the book on the floor and stood up. He seemed a little nervous to open the hardback novel he had already embarked upon so many times before. Maybe this time he knew the tale would be far worse than any other he had read before. For the date was Friday the13th, and spooky things tended to happen on Friday the 13th!

But the time of year wasn't all that panicked our young pariah as he gazed warily out of the attic window at the fateful fullness of the moon. The lines on his forehead creased when he caught sight of Toby, the neighbourhood black cat, who so bluntly crossed his path. Bastian was a superstitious young boy and was usually wary when Toby came around. There was something about that cat that gave him the willies, and it didn't help that the feline continued along the street only to walk straight under the ladder that was leaning against the wall of Bastian's humble abode.

'Stupid cat!' Bastian scowled, watching the feline strut about liked it owned the place. Black cats were nothing but evil minions that belonged to gruesome witches. He knew this after reading many stories about how blacks cats were portrayed as the witches servants, and helped to scratch out the eyeballs of children that the witches wanted to devour. Sometimes, when it was a really good story, the cat actually turned out to be the witch! This was all great for Bastian's stories, but not for real life. He sneered at the wretched creature that seemed so unaware of its current watcher.

Bastian's attentiveness was suddenly shaken though, when out of the blue came a great clap of thunder, and splatters of rain began to splash along the sidewalk. Bastian groaned in angst when he realized his book had been placed precisely underneath one of the many cracks in the roof where the rain had already started to drip on its cover. Quickly, he ran over to the storage cupboard and pulled out an umbrella which, to his surprise, sprung open before his eyes. If only Bastian hadn't opened it so close to the wall, causing one of its corners to collide into the hanging mirror which, evidently, shattered into a million pieces!

Any sane human being wouldn't dare begin to read the next NeverEnding Story after experiencing such a series of unfortunate events on Friday the 13th, but after all the snide comments and side eyes he received from his father in the past, Bastian had indeed gone a little bit insane. He walked over to the book, sat down and turned to the first chapter…

Chapter 1:The Final Crack Of Dawn

The wind howled in the streets of Sunnydale as two sisters sat comfortably in their living room chairs on a cold Friday evening. Tonight was "game night." This was when Dawn Summers and her older sister, Buffy, spent some actual quality time together, though their ideas of "sisterly bonding" differed greatly. It was Dawn's time to choose a game and she had put a lot of effort into setting it up. She had even baked cookies and made each one of them have a distinctive smiley face. Buffy hadn't even noticed, much to her sisters frustration. Dawn groaned as she watched her sister fiddle around with an extremely dangerous-looking crossbow. She winced every time Buffy pointed it her way. Dawn had dealt with enough dead folk to know that she didn't fancy becoming one of them herself.

'Buffy!' She yelled for the fourth time, waving her arms, trying to locate any signs of life left in her sisters eyes. Buffy flinched, but still gave the impression she couldn't care less about playing silly games with her attention-seeking little sister. Its not that she didn't love Dawn, and its not that she didn't want to make her happy, but playing tedious board games for hours on a Friday night really wasn't here cup of tea. Where was the danger? Where was the blood?

'Wh…what?' The blonde beauty answered, finally shifting her eyes away from the weaponry and staring hazily at the large chess board ahead of her. She then looked at Dawn with nothing more than a blank expression.

'Don't roll your eyes at me!' Dawn knew that chess wasn't the most exciting of games but it was the only one they hadn't played. Poor Dawn was only trying to make the best out of this dreary night. Things hadn't really been the same since Buffy died and came back to life all in the space of a week or so. She seemed to live in her own world most of the time, and her own world seemed distant and bleak.

'I wasn't!' Buffy assured, attempting, but failing, to appear animated about the hours of sheer boredom she was about to endure.

'You were thinking it! I can tell... Buffy, I thought you wanted to play chess!' Dawn squealed, folding her arms and frowning in a sulk. Really? Dawn thought that. Did she not know Buffy at all? This time Buffy couldn't prevent her eyes from turning to the inside of her head for hope that her brain would give her the words to deal with her sister's teenage mood swings. 'Fine! Just forget it then!' Dawn snapped and angrily began to place all the pieces back inside the box. Buffy suddenly noticed how furious she had made her.

'No, Dawn! Don't!' She grabbed her sisters arm. 'I'm sorry. I do want to play.' Dawn stopped clearing away the pieces and glared at her. She wasn't buying it. 'Really, I do?…Now come on, let's set it back up.' Buffy picked up some of the pieces and began to fiddle about with them, mimicking in a silly voice. 'I am your King. You must bow to me!' She danced the King around the chessboard in a teasing way. Then she picked up the Queen. 'I certainly will not! I'm getting tired of your orders you impotent fool who can only move one square at a time!' Buffy laughed, but none of this helped with Dawn's impatience, as she stood up and crossed her arms, glaring at her older sister in annoyance.

'What's the point! What's the point in even trying to get along when we both know you'd rather be out there slaying vampires than spending any time with me?'

Before Buffy could say anything, Dawn angrily paraded out of the lounge and into the kitchen.

'Stupid sister with her stupid superhuman powers! Thinking she's so special just because she's the Slayer. She's too good to play chess! She doesn't need to waste her time on games because she's so special. Well, I'm special too!' Dawn leant against the counter. 'I wish she'd just…just disappear! I wish there was a spell to take her away, just for one day, so for once she wouldn't be the center of attention!' Dawn looked over on the right side of the kitchen cabinet. On top of the ledge she saw Willow's Magic Spellbook. Her eyes lit up with eagerness and she tip-toed over to the manuscript that she thought might solve all of her problems. Ignoring the Keep Out Or Die! sign she hastily turned the pages, finally pausing on a chapter entitled Goblins! Wish Your Troubles Away! She continued to read, her grin widening with each sentence, and after a few moments she put the book down. Dawn knew what she had to do...

Flipping back her long mousy, she stepped into the centre of the kitchen and held the spellbook up in the air. She bit her lip with uncertainty. Was she really going to go through with this? Did her sister really cause her so much pain that she deserved to be cast away? 'Yes' Dawn decided. She deserved it. Besides, she'd probably be home in time for Saturday-night-television anyway. Buffy always knew how to get herself out of any situation, even death! So, Dawn took a deep breath and began to speak the words only one girl had ever dared to speak before.

'I wish...' Dawn spoke softly and cautiously as the wind grew louder. She was about to continue when a crash of thunder startled her. After taking a few short breaths she regained her composure and spoke again. 'I wish...I wish...' She was hesitating, similarly to the way Sarah Williams had hesitated when she spoke the dreaded words so long ago (but not that long ago) as if to draw out some kind of prolonged suspense that would keep a certain audience or reader on edge, causing them to go crazy and do things like punch their cat or curse the writer for stringing this out so long. 'OKAY! I can bear it no longer. I wish the goblins would come and take my sister away right now!'

There was silence.