Disclaimer: BtVS and nothin' else mine. 'Cept the plot. Sorta. Eh… General Xander costume something else Halloween episode fic. Also note that some of the characters may sound a bit off as I haven't watched Buffy in a long while and am running off memory of what they sound like as well as fanfics. Chapter titles come from all three DMC OST's.

Chapter 2 – Flock Off!

"Jesus fuckin' Christ! Take a hint, you God damn gnats!" shouted Dante as he kicked a demon in the gut hard enough to send it flying twenty feet then turned to bash Ivory's butt down on a vampire student's head. He then turned towards Willow, who was frantically trying to calm down the Buffy chick.

The half devil sighed and scanned the area before looking back at the two females. It hadn't taken long to find the Slayer and when they had, they'd had to save her from a horde of demons and vampires. 'Course some of the vamps were actual one's and they'd gotten a nice piece of Ebony and Ivory's insides (with a bit of devil power mixed in) but the rest he'd had to deal with physically.

And still more were coming.

The pattern was beginning to annoy the half devil.

"DEMON!" shrieked 18th century Buffy suddenly and Dante turned in time to get a big, scaly demon fist in his jaw. He flew through the air but tucked his body and rolled, hitting the ground in a crouch. The big demon blinked then let loose a roar, charging at him.

Dante grinned ferally and growled, "Yeah. C'mon, big boy. Let's play."

"Dante!" shouted Willow warningly as he charged at the demon, guns at the ready.

Fuck, thought the half devil, remembering that this demon was just another hapless student. He then shrugged it off and stopped, planting one foot and swinging the other up and around in a roundhouse kick. His steel-toed boot caught the demon underneath its jaw and the momentum of the kick sent the beast flying across the road to land atop a parked car. Immediately the machines alarm began to wail but Dante was happy to see the demon was down for the count.

As long as it was out of the picture, he was fine with the damned alarm.

Turning, he holstered Ebony and Ivory then walked over to help Buffy off the ground. She flung herself onto him a second later and he had a hard time separating her from him again.

"Please help me!" she screamed.

Dante growled and shook the teenager forcefully, snapping, "Calm down!"

The whimpering from earlier immediately ceased and green eyes looked up at him in a fearful way. He frowned then grabbed her wrist and snapped to Willow, "C'mon, Red. We've got to find some shelter."

"The school isn't too far away," said Willow, jogging to keep up with the fast pace he set. Dante grunted in response and motioned for her to lead but beyond that was silent. Behind him, he could hear Buffy whining something about him being a beast but really didn't care. He'd heard the same thing over and over as a child whenever someone found out about his devil blood. He could ignore it.

A shape loomed up out of the dark as they approached the school and the half devil shoved Buffy completely behind him, jerking his guns from their holsters to point them at the shape. He'd have shoved Red behind him too but as she was kind of immaterial…

Willow 'eeped' and took a step back away from the shape…at least until it talked.

"Willow? Is that you? And…oh my God, Xander?"

"Dante," growled the devil hunter, grabbing Buffy's wrist again to her complaints. He slung her around so she was in front of him and spat, "This'd be your Slayer?"

Giles looked from Dante to Buffy then his expression fell.

"Oh dear…"

"Giles, everyone's turned into their costumes!" exclaimed Willow, waving her arms in the air. "And-and Buffy doesn't know who she is and Xander's…well, he's…"

"No time for mindless ramblings, Red," growled Dante, clamping a hand over her mouth and focusing a bit of his devil powers into his hand in an attempt to touch her. To his surprise, it actually worked. He then looked at Giles and said, "Think you can figure this out?"

"We can try," replied Giles. He then frowned and looked quickly at Willow, who was staring over Dante's gloved hand. "Willow…everyone didn't turn into their costume's, did they?"

The redhead frowned then shook her head, which prompted Dante to drop his hand.

"No," replied Willow. "We met Cordelia coming over her and she was okay. Well…for Cordelia at least."

Giles' frown deepened at this and he glanced at Dante before asking, "Where did the three of your get your costume's?"

"A new shop run by Ethan…um…Raze? No, Rays? Um…"

"Rayne?" suggested Giles.

"That's it!" chirped Willow.

What happened next made Dante smirk.

"I'll kill him!" snarled Giles, spinning on a heel. "I'll rip out his intestines and…" The Watcher's voice trailed off as he marched away into the night, leaving the three of them standing there.

"I think I like him," commented Dante, earning an odd look from Willow.

"That wasn't Giles," she muttered.

Dante shrugged and said, "Hey, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Whatever it was, we've not got the time to ponder over it."

"Why's that?"

"Trouble, Red," replied Dante, tugging a still whining Buffy along. He needed to get them away from the vampire that was chasing them and hide them so he could deal with the beast himself. "Trouble."

"Ethan," growled Giles as he entered the back of the shop to find the statue of Janus and the man knelt in front of it.

The man in front of the statue straightened up and turned slightly to smile at the sword-wielding man behind him.

"Hello, Ripper."

"So he's okay," said Dante to Willow for the third time after Angel had joined their little party.

The redhead nodded and the devil hunter turned slightly to study the vampire for a moment before he shook his head. First it was the Slayer now it was souled vamp's helping the Slayer. What next?

At that exact moment, a pirate came lurching up behind Buffy and grabbed her, causing her to shriek in protest. Dante whirled, Ivory flying to his hand then swooping down to smash the pirate into unconsciousness. Behind him, he heard Angel wrestling with a vampire.

"Stake!" shouted the vampire, glancing over his shoulder, only to succeed in causing Buffy to shriek and run away in terror at the sight of his transformed face.

"Nice job, Dead Boy," spat Dante before he sprinted after the 18th century noblewoman stuck in the Slayer's body.

Willow blinked at Dante's use of one of Xander's nicknames for Angel then rushed after him, leaving Angel to follow when he could.

"What, no hug? No kiss? Ripper, I'm hurt."

"I should have known," said Giles, glaring daggers at the other man. "This stinks of your work."

"Mmm, it does, doesn't it? Genius, don't you agree?"

Giles growled from somewhere in the back of his throat.

"It harms the innocent."

"Oh yes," snarled Ethan, "you're a champion of the innocents now, aren't you? Quite the act."

"It's not an act."

"Really? You think the sniveling little Watcher is you? I don't think so. I know the real you, Ripper. But they don't, do they?"

Giles glared over the frames of his glasses at Ethan and hissed, "Break the spell, Ethan."

"Or what?" asked Ethan with a crossing of his arms.

"I'll kill you."

"Oh, Ripper, you're scaring me…"

Giles snarled and his fist whipped out to catch Ethan in the cheek, sending him stumbling back into a wall. The worshiper of Janus lifted a hand to his injured cheek then looked up with a grin on his face – which wasn't what the Watcher had expected.

"There you are Ripper," purred Ethan before Giles' next punch sent him sprawling onto the floor.

"Close the fuckin' door!" bellowed Dante over his shoulder at Angel, who was shoving a struggling Buffy into the warehouse behind him.

"Dante!" shouted Willow from somewhere near him and he jerked his head around slightly to look at her. He saw her flinch away from him in his devil form but she didn't run. Brave, foolish little Red…

He then swung back around to land a hard punch on the side of a demon's head, sending it flying. Two more attacked him and he slashed at them with his claws, driving them back enough that he could use two sharp kicks to send them packing.

Another demon crept up from behind him and he hurriedly dispatched it with a blow to the head from Ebony's butt before turning to face the vampire that'd been following them earlier. The beast's nearly white blonde hair made him think of bleach, so he decided to call the vampire 'Peroxide' for the time being.

Grinning ferally, he flapped his wings and motioned the vampire forward with a taloned hand, red eyes glowing.

Spike blinked at the tall, black armored creature standing in front of him, its scarlet eyes seeming to bore into his soul – at least where it would have been if he still had one. Then it motioned him forward and he grinned before springing forward to attack.

A second later he found himself flying backwards to land in a garbage dumpster. Enraged, he leapt out of the bin and rushed at the armored creature. It grinned and took a step back then shuddered.

A moment later it was nothing more than a man barely taller than him with a shock of white hair and an outfit of red and black. Spike blinked at this change but kept his eye on the objective.

The Slayer was in the warehouse.

And he'd tear apart this wannabe protector then kill her.

On the floor of the back room of his shop, a beaten Ethan coughed and sat up slowly, tilting his head back to look at the man towering about him.

"And you said Ripper was gone…"

"Tell me how to stop the spell."

"Say 'pretty please.' "

Giles growled and kicked Ethan hard in the side near his kidneys, causing the man to yelp in pain. He then reached down and grabbed his collar, jerking him up onto his knees.

"Spell," he snarled. "Now."

"I just want the bint," growled Spike as he wiped blood from his split lip. He glared at Dante and asked, "Can't we come to a bloody agreement?"

"No," replied Dante coldly. "We can't."

"And how are you going to stop me from taking her?"

There was a whisper of metal against cloth and then Dante held his sword in a two-handed grip, eyes narrowed at Spike.

"C'mon then, Peroxide," he taunted. "Let's rock."

Spike sneered and charged, which made Dante grin and pull Alastor back for a deathblow to the vampire. Oh, he was going to enjoy this one…

"NOW, ETHAN!"

"The statue!" shouted Ethan, flinching away from Giles. "Smash the statue!"

Giles spun, freeing his sword from its sheath and swinging it down hard. The expertly honed blade tore through the statue's feeble makeup and its remains fell to the floor in a spatter of stone.

Dante grinned and let loose, aiming Alastor at Peroxide's neck. Then he heard a squeal behind him from Red and he felt disoriented.

A second later he was being jerked forcefully from the kid's body, all the while trying to get back and finish off the vampire before Peroxide got the kid. As he was being pulled away, he felt a little piece of himself that was still anchored to Xander separate from his…well, whatever he was right now…and apparently slide back into the kid.

Then he was completely out of range of them.

Take care, Red. And you too, kid, was his last thought before he found himself back in his body with Trish shaking him awake and demanding to know what had the Hell was going on.

"What the bloody…" mumbled Spike as the red clothed man collapsed in a heap, the redhead standing a bit away rushing over to drop to her knees beside him. He then turned to run…only to find the Slayer standing there with fire in her eyes.

"Bollocks," he muttered before Buffy landed an uppercut that sent him sprawling. He staggered up as she stalked towards him, anger boiling in her green eyes.

Spike glanced about to see if the monsters he'd dragged along with him were still there but they were kids and students again.

He then looked at Buffy, who was now armed with a length of pipe and coming speedily at him despite the heavy skirt she was wearing. That was when Spike's fight-or-flight reflex kicked in.

He ran.

"Humph," said Buffy, slapping the pipe into her other hand. She then turned and smiled at Angel, saying, "It's good to be me."

"Good to have you back," murmured the vampire. He then looked over at the collapsed Xander and was surprised to find Willow in tears.

Buffy noticed this as well and took a nervous step forward.

"Will?"

"Something's wrong," whispered Willow as she cradled Xander's head in her lap, her fingers brushing over the white wig…wait a minute…

"Oh my God," breathed Buffy, staring down at her unconscious friend. "But…the spell broke!"

The spell had been broken, all right. But for some reason Xander hadn't turned back.