A/N : Thanx to all those that reviewed chapter two; libraflyter, Amandamanda3, naiya-isis, Faint Hate, freezyboncoolipants, Spuffyfan4eva, Pawn-for-the-Powers-that-Play, zanthinegirl, spikeswife1, pixiecorn, lilmisscookiemonster, sunnyhell, adpi4, Slayergirl1212, Lindsay, Higgy's Red, Terra, you are ll so nice! All questions will be answered in time, including ones about the kids memories, just give me time :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3

"Board up the windows and barricade the doors!" Xander yelled as he and Anya barrelled into Giles apartment.

"Xander?" the Watcher checked, blinking hard. It was no use, his sight had completely left him now, "Really there is no need for over-dramatics"

"No, there really is" Anya told him, "There are demons, they keep coming and coming" she explained.

Giles looked puzzled as Xander rambled on.

"Something seriously weird is going on, Giles, and I don't..."

"Xander!" a little voice shrieked as a small blonde threw herself at the brunette's legs and hugged them tight.

"Hey there, kid" he smiled awkwardly, "Er, where'd you spring from?"

"Ah, yes" Giles said slightly nervously, "There was a reason why I called you..."

"Xander, you don't recognise me" the little girl at his feet looked up at him with wide eyes, her bottom lip trembling, "I'm your best friend"

There was something in those eyes of hers, and in the tone of her little voice. He was shocked when he realised who she really was.

"Buffy?" he asked in astonishment, crouching down to her level.

"That's Buffy?" Anya frowned, "Why is the Slayer a five year old?"

"God I hate that name!" a little British voice called from across the room, and three pairs of eyes turned to look at mini-Spike, cross legged on the carpet with an upside down book in front of him and a scowl on his face, "Bloody Buffy, and her bloody stupid name" he cursed.

"Spike I have told you repeatedly, that language is inappropriate!" Giles bellowed in the general direction of the boy he could no longer see. The bleached blond got to his feet, little black coat swooshing round his legs as a defiant look settled on his face.

"Bloody soddin' buggerin' hell!" he announced in a voice loud enough to wake the dead and Buffy covered her ears with her little hands, determined not to be violated by the boys rudeness.

"Buffy and Spike are five year olds?" Anya asked completely confused. She was the only other person willing to speak right now, as Xander's mouth dropped open in shock and Giles covered his face with his hands, feeling both utterly useless and completely at the end of his tether.

"Giles" the young man beside him croaked when his voice finally came back to him, "You wanna tell me what the hel-heck is going on?" he amended as the little Buffy gave him a look. She smiled when he refrained from what she considered naughty words and proceeded to let out a battle cry, running at the still grinning Spike and wrestling him to the ground once again.

"Anya can you do something with those two" Xander urged her, as he took a seat beside Giles.

"I believe some kind of spell has been cast" the Watcher explained tiredly, "My sight has been deteriorating for the past few hours and shortly after I called you it went altogether"

"And the kids?" he asked, watching as Anya pulled the two apart, earning herself a few small injuries as she did so.

"I don't know exactly" Giles shook his head, "I went into the bathroom, I heard Buffy come in with Spike and they were arguing as usual. I came from the bathroom to here and there they stood, three feet tall and yet still bickering" he sighed, reaching to find himself the glass of scotch he'd poured earlier.

"Ow!" Anya yelped as she hopped over to the two men clutching at her ankle, "That little vamp just bit me!" she complained and Xander's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he looked over and saw that mini-Spike was fully vamped out, eyes glittering gold, fangs protruding from his lips, disfiguring his childish smile.

"What?" he asked innocently as three pairs of eyes looked at him in horror, until his vampiric visage faded away again.

"You went all grrr" Buffy told him, "and you hurt Anya...now I'll have to stake you!" she announced with a sigh.

"You can't do that!" he protested, "I was helping" he gestured to the upside down book on the floor, "Gotta help the Watcher remember"

"Oh, yeah" Buffy nodded madly, suddenly remembering what they'd been doing before, "We're gonna help Giles, just like we promised" she called over her shoulder as she ran back over to where she'd been siting on the floor a few feet from her vampire play-mate. She had her own book, a step up from Spike because at least hers was the right way up, but Xander was fairly certain neither of them could actually read what they were looking at.

Anya looked to her boyfriend for explanation.

"Giles is blind" he told her and she waved her hand in front of his face as if to check, "I'm a demon magnet, and somehow Buffy and Spike are five years old..." he stopped abruptly before exclaiming, "Oh my God!"

"Oh your God what?" little Buffy called, not wanting to be left out of anything.

"Er, nothing Buffster, you keep going with your great researching, 'kay?" he told her with a smile. It would be better to figure all this out without telling her too much, there was no way of knowing how well bite-size Buffy would cope with talk of spells and slay-age, though she'd seen Spike vamp out and not been too freaked...

"Xander do you know what's going on?" Anya wanted to know. Whilst it was intriguing and slightly amusing to see the mighty Slayer and a master vampire reduced to smaller beings, she would rather fix Xander's demon problem and go back to having sex with him as soon a possible.

"Willow, she was at my place, talking about Buffy and Spike" he explained, "She said they fought like kids, specifically acted like five year olds, and she said I was a demon magnet"

"Yes" Giles nodded, "and she said I didn't see anything. Everything she says is coming true" he realised, "It was that Will be Done spell the silly girl tried to do"

"The witch did a spell!" Spike sing-songed, he'd been listening the whole time "This is all your mates fault" he told Buffy, "Girls are stupid!"

"We so are not!" the little girl shot back, getting to her feet. Her hands went to her hips and she glared at him, "Boys are so lame they're not even allowed to be Slayers!" she said with a self-satisfied smile.

"Like any proper bloke would want to be a stinky Slayer!" he shot back, also standing up now.

"Here we go again" Xander groaned as the pair of kids launched themselves into battle against each other. Anya looked thoughtful and then added her own opinion.

"I think they just like to touch each other" she reasoned, "Violence is a classic sign of unresolved sexual tension"

"Ahn!" her boyfriend sounded deeply disturbed by her comments, "For crying out loud, they're five!" he reminded her before he waded in to split up the warring children.

"I cannot cope with this" Giles sighed, finishing off his glass of scotch, "Anya, could you possibly get me another of these" he held up the glass in her general direction and she dutifully went and filled it up again.

"We really must find Willow and soon" he told her as she returned and put the glass in his hand, "There is a reason why I never felt the need to have children of my own, their incessant noise is sufficient to drive the most sane of persons over the edge"

"Any ideas on how to deal with these two!" Xander called in distress as he attempted to hold Buffy and Spike away from each other and failed miserably.

"I have one idea" Anya smiled and nodded.

"Then do it" her boyfriend told her, unable to carry on and letting the two kids go at each other again, "whilst I go find Willow" he said, breathing hard from the exertion of splitting up the little vampire and Slayer. He stumbled out of the door and Giles, more than a little drunk and completely exhausted, took a moment to recline on the couch.

Anya nodded to herself, picking up the length of rope from the floor that Buffy had dropped earlier. She walked over to where Buffy had Spike pinned to the carpet and crouched down to their level.

"Hey kids" she grinned a little too sweetly and they both turned to look at her, "You wanna play a new game?"

- - - - - - -

Xander ran all the way from Giles' apartment to Sunnydale U. It was late now but the halls were still packed with partying students, all still up for a couple more hours of drinking and laughing, kissing and groping, and they didn't care who knew about it.

He pushed past many couples, and those who were suffering from too much alcohol before finally arriving outside his best friends' dorm room.

"Willow?!" he called as he knocked frantically on the door. When he got no answer he tried the door and found it was open. That could be a good thing or a bad thing he realised as he moved inside.

"Will?" he tried again, but she was nowhere to be seen.

It was then he spotted a piece of paper held down by the lamp between the two beds. It had 'Buffy' written on the front in familiar hand-writing - Willow's handwriting. Xander opened up the page and frantically read what it said.

'Buffy, I wanted to talk to you in person before I left but I knew you'd just try to talk me out of it. Truth is I don't know how to deal without Oz. You think you understand because of Angel, and I don't want to sound awful but, you don't. I can't be strong like you, I'm just a girl, I'm not the Slayer. I need to find Oz and make things right between us, then maybe I'll come back to Sunnydale. Tell Xander and Giles I love them and I'll see them and you soon. Love Willow xx'

"Oh no" Xander shook his head unable to believe it, "No, no, no, she can't be gone, not now!" he said running for the door again, only to be faced by two nasty looking demons on the other side.

"Hey" he smiled nervously, "So what do you guys major in?" he asked before slamming the door in their faces and looking around in a panic. The open window caught his attention and he ran over an looked out.

"Ten foot drop" he considered, "Or being torn apart by demons...God save my broken and cowardly body" he said, climbing onto the sill, closing his eyes and swinging his legs over, "Here goes nothing"

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : Review please, and let me know if you still like this! :-) If you've been reading my other fic 'Your Big Day' I'm updating that too tonight. Will hopefully update 'Our Little Family' and 'Innocence' before the end of the week.