Chapter 7

Halloween Pt. 1

Voice over of Kendra as she runs in the rain at five o'clock in the morning.

Vo: All me life I've trained. Trained for de big moments.

Cut to her whaling on a punching bag in the library later that day.

Vo: Now William de bloody is in town. I have to defeat him. He made me feel like an amateur fighter when we first fought. I just feel so...distracted. She thought as she glanced up at Giles. Maybe dat's why de Watcher's took de potentials away from dare families and made sure dey didn't have friends. So dey wouldn't be distracted.

School the next day.

Sign-ups are being taken for the volunteer safety program for Halloween. Principal Snyder takes one of the clipboards and looks around the hall. He grabs the next girl that walks by and pulls her aside.

"Hey!" the girl shouted in protest.

"You're volunteering." he informs her as he holds out the clipboard and pen to her. Willow, Kendra, and Xander come in from the other hall.

"But I have to get to class." Snyder just shrugs. The team walks past him.

"Snyder must be in charge of the volunteer safety program for Halloween this year?" Willow asked looking over at Xander.

"Note his interesting take on the volunteer concept." Xander quipped.

"What's going on?" Kendra asks as they reach Willow's locker, while she works the combination.

"Oh, a bunch of little kids need people to take them trick-or- treating." Xander informed her. "Sign up and get your own pack of sugar-hyped little runts for the night."

"But I like children." Kendra said without thinking. Snyder puts his hand on her shoulder, and she spins around to face him.

"I'm glad to hear that Miss Giles." he said with a smug smile.

"But...but... I can't be distracted from me school work." Kendra said quickly.

"I hate to admit it Miss Giles." Snyder said with a sneer. "But you are an exceptional student. Now stop complaining and sign the paper."

Kendra reluctantly grabs the pen and clipboard and signs herself up. Xander thinks it's funny and smiles back at Willow. Willow has a concerned look on her face. Snyder holds pens out to Willow and Xander, too. They both look at him, begging not to be put through this. Willow gives in and takes the pen.


"I can't believe that costumes are mandatory." Xander said as they walked into the school lounge.

"I don't know, I think it'll be kind of fun." Willow said as she got herself a drink out of the vending machine. "Besides Giles said that halloween is going to be quiet."

"Halloween quiet?" Xander questioned. "Oh, I figured it'd be a big old vamp scare- apalooza."

"Not according to Mr. Giles." Kendra said as she sat down near a table. "He swears dat tomorrow night is, dead for de undead."

"Kendra can I ask you a question?" Willow asks as she sits beside her. Kendra nods, so Willow continues. "Why don't you ever call Giles father...or...or daddy?"

"Because I tink dat me and Giles should stay professional." she said after a few moments.

"Me and him had a talk and we both decided that it's for de best. It'll be like putting a big target on his back, if de demon's tink dat he's me family."

"I can't believe Giles agreed to that." Xander said as he sat down beside them. "You should have seen him at the Bronze that night when Spike first attacked. I thought he was totally going to lose it when he thought that you were in danger."

"I know dat Giles cares for me."

"It's more then caring Ken." Willow says as she puts a hand on her shoulder. "Giles loves you. Can't you see that, everytime he looks at you?"

Seeing that Willow might have put Kendra in an awkward spot, especially after she had just lost her father figure not to long ago, Xander decided to change the subject.

"So what do you have planned on wearing, tomorrow?" Xander asked Kendra.

"I don't know." she said honestly. "I've never celebrated Halloween before."

"What?" Willow asked as she almost choked on her soda.

"I said I never celebrated Halloween before." she shamefully admitted.

"Getting free candy, egging car's, you've never done any of that?" Xander asked.

"No."

"Well I promise you one thing." Xander said as he put an arm around her shoulder. "We're going to make sure that you have the best Halloween ever."

"Yeah." Willow agreed as she took her friends hand. "We'll do eveything we can to make tomorrow a happy day for you."

Little did they know but tomorrow would bring only disaster and chaos.

Ethan's Costume Shop

The next day

The store is full of mothers with their kids looking for Halloween costumes. Willow is handling a plastic pumpkin when it suddenly lights up and screams. She quickly puts it back on the counter. Kendra then comes over to her.

"So what did you get?" Willow asks as she notices the wide smile on Kendra's face.

"Come with me." Kendra says excitedly as she grabs Willow's hand and leads her to the superhero section of the store.

"What do you tink?" Kendra asked as she held up a scantily clad leather costume.

"Oh um...who are you supposed to be?" Willow asked as she began to fidget. Kendra would be showing off a lot of skin.

"I'm going as Xena de warrior princess." Kendra said happily. Ever since Xander and Willow had shown her the show, she became addicted to it. "And dat's not de best part." she said as she held up another equally scantily clad outfit. "Will you please be me Gabrielle."

Willow let out a sigh. She had made a promise that she was going to make sure that Kendra had a good time this Halloween, and she didn't want to disappoint her by saying no. With her decision made she nodded her head.

"Okay." she said nervously. "But only if I change over at your place?" she didn't want her parent's catching her in such clothes.

"Alright. I'm sure Giles want mind." Kendra said as she and Willow started to gather the accessories to the costumes. Neither of them noticed a man listening to their every word.


Xander let out a long suffering sigh, as a kid snacthed up the last toy gun. His plan of being a soldier for tonight was ruined. Looking about the room he saw that he couldn't afford any of the costumes. Saddened he was about to walk out of the shop, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

As he turned around he saw an older man, with the look of a weasel. Something about the guy just screamed don't trust him.

"Welcome to my shop, young man." the weasel said in a british accent. "My name is Ethan Rayne. Do you need any help with anything?"

"Not unless you have any more toy guns, because I don't have enough money to afford anything else." Xander shamefully admitted.

"Nonsense." Ethan said as he put a hand on Xander's shoulder. "Now I don't have anymore toy gun's, but I have something that I think you will like even better." he said as he led him to the backroom.

"I haven't had time to put this out on the shelf yet..." he said as he pulled a costume out of a crate. "but I think that it'll look perfect on you."

Xander's eyes widened as he saw the costume. It was so detailed, so perfect; he reached out hesitantly and touched the fabric. It was soft in a few areas, but a little firm. Rubber, latex maybe. This was his comic book idol.

"It looks like the same costume that's in the movie."

"That's because I have a friend that worked on the set and through some persuasion..." he said with a wolfish smile. "I was able to acquire the costume."

"I would love to take it but this thing must cost a fortune."

"Nonsense young man. Everyone that visits Ethan's costume shop leaves a satisfied customer. I tell you what if you tell people where you got this costume I'll let you take it for free."

"Really?"

"Really." Ethan confirmed.

"Does this thing have any attachments or special items?"

"Of course it does." Ethan answered as he gathered them. As Xander walked out with his costume in hand, Ethan smiled at his retreating form.

"Soon Ripper, very soon."


Xander walked up to Kendra, his costume wrapped in plastic and hung on a coat hanger. Willow noticed the bounce in his step and the twinkle in his eye.

" You find a costume?"

"Oh yeah," he answered. He then cut off her next question. " You'll see it tonight when we have to take out the kids. How 'bout you?"

"Yeah we did." Kendra answered with her costume in a bag, much like Xander's. "And you'll just have to wait to see our costumes tonight."

"Alright I'll meet you guy's at Giles' place." he said as he walked off.

Later that night

Kendra's Room

Kendra's at her long mirror wearing her Xena armor and looking at her plastic Xena sword. Satisfied with what she see's she put's the sword in it's back sheath and picks up her chakram . Willow is in the bathroom across the hall changing.

"So what did Giles think of your costume?" Willow asked through the door.

"He said dat I looked fine, but I could tell dat he didn't like it." Kendra answered as she put the chakram in it's holster by her side.

"You know how Giles is." Willow says with a nervous laugh. "He get's all british and thinks everything is unproper."

"Are you ready yet Willow?" Kendra asked as she checked her watch. "Xander will be here soon and we have to get to de children."

"Okay, I'm coming."

Willow opens the door and comes out wearing boots, a short, burgandy skirt and a green V-necked, midriff-baring top. She feels uncomfortable because of the amount of her body that's showing.

Willow tries to hide herself with the sheet on Kendra's bed, but Kendra takes it from her and tosses it aside.

"How do you expect Xander to notice you if you alway's try to hide yourself?" Kendra asks.

Before Willow can answer someone knocks on the downstairs door.

"Oh! That's Xander." Kendra said as she walked out of her room. "Are you ready?" she asked looking back at Willow.

"Yeah." Willow says nervously. "I'll be down in a sec. I just have to get a few things."

Kendra comes down the stairs and opens the door for Xander, only to find a big black demon with black pointed horns. Sending out a rainbow kick, that the demon slid under, Kendra was about to let lose a series of punches when finally the demon spoke.

"Kendra it's me." Xander said.

"Xander?" Kendra asked still in her fighting stance as she looked the demon over.

"Yeah it's me... this is just a costume, relax." he said frantically.

"Sorry." Kendra apologized.

"It's okay, Xena." Xander said recognizing her costume. "You look great by the way."

"Tank you." Kendra said as she stepped to the side to let him in. "Who are you again?"

"My dear." Xander said pitching his voice so it would sound deeper. "I am the redeemer of the night. I am Batman.' he said as he furled his cape. Kendra just looked at him, not comprehending who Batman was.

"We really have to get you out more." Xander said as he began to look around. "Hey where's Willow?" As he says this they hear foot steps.

They turn to look up the stairs at Willow, wearing her Gabrielle outfit with a staff in her hand.

"For the first time in my life I'm actually speechless." Xander says as he takes in Willow's costume. This is the first time Xander had seen Willow in clothes like this and he had to admit it himself. Willow was looking very hot. "You look great Willow. I mean Gabrielle." he said pitching his voice down low again to sound more like the Dark Knight.

"T...Thanks." Willow said as she took a good look at Xander's costume. It was a form fitting black bodysuit complete with cape and cowl. Just like in the movies. In the center of the chest piece was the standard yellow and black bat oval. Around his waist was a yellow plastic utility belt with several black plastic items. "Batman."

"Yeah." Xander said with a huge smile. "Ethan really went all out with these costumes. I still can't get over how realistic they look. So are you girl's ready to go?"

Looping their arms in the crook of Xander's arm the three walked out of the apartment.

The back room at Ethan's Shop

Sametime

He comes through a curtain and kneels before his statue of Janus. He presses his hands together and winces in pain. When he pulls them apart there are wounds in his palms, and blood flows freely from them.

Before he can start the ritual he here's a noise behind him. He hear's the chime of his front door opening.

"Bloody hell." he says as he get's off of his knee's. "I thought I had locked the door."

As he walked out of the backroom he saw a large figure by the door. Approaching him warily he coughed to get his attention.

"I'm sorry mate, but the shops closed." As he said this the figure turned around and stared at him. It was somebody Ethan thought didn't exist.

"Oh my God!"

"Not quite." the demon hissed as it approached him. Ethan's screams fell the shop as the demon grabs a hold of him. As Ethan falls to the floor from the demon's punch he suddenly goes unconcious.

With a feral smile the demon crouches down before him and turns into a dark shadow, As the shadow hovers about the room, it suddenly enter's Ethan's body. After a few moments Ethan sit's up with a huge smile on his face. As he opens his eyes they are pitch black like ink.

"It's showtime." Ethan says in a possessed voice.


As Kendra and Willow lead their kids down a street, a mysterious wind suddenly begins to blow. Kendra senses something isn't quite right. Before she can say something to Willow a wave of vertigo suddenly strikes all of them sending them to the ground.

Two streets over

Xander is standing there watching all the parents and children running around him. Things are being thrown and windows are being broken.

"Hey you kids get back here!" He yells out to his group as they run from him.

Suddenly he jerks back like he's just been hit by something. He bends over slightly, looks down and lowers his hand. Slowly he straightens back up and surveys the scene around him.

"What in hade's happened." Xena says as she stands to her feet and rubs at her sore head.

"Xena?" someone says from beside her. As Xena looks over she see's a redhead girl wearing Gabrielle's clothes. She looks as if she's in a daze and she still has her eye's closed.

"Miss." Xena says as she stands to her feet. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am Xena." Gabrielle says as she opens her eyes and see's the woman she's talking to isn't Xena. "Who are you?" she asks as she eyes the black woman suspiciously.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Xena replied as she helped her to her feet. "And how do you know my name?"

"Listen lady you're not Xena. For one Xena isn't black. I should know because I'm her partner Gabrielle."

"Black?" Xena asked as she looked down at her hands and arms. "Son of a..."

"So if you are Xena then where were you born?" Gabrielle asks.

"Amphipolis." Xena answered. Startling Gabrielle by her answer.

"And if you're Gabrielle then what's the name of my horse?"

"Argo."

"Gabrielle?" Xena asks finally excepting the other girl as her friend.

"Yeah." Gabrielle said as they hugged each other. "What's going on here? The last thing I remember doing was going to Japan."

"I don't know." Xena said as she let out a sigh.

"Do you think Ares has something to do with this?"

"No. This just isn't his style. Whatever's going on has the stink of magic on it though."

A monster suddenly comes around the tree behind Gabrielle and roars, fangs bared and claws raised to attack. Gabrielle screams and backs off. Xena jumps in and whacks the monster across the face with the butt of her sword, knocking it down and out.

"Where ever we are, we have to help these people though." Xena says as she see's the chao's going on around them.

Just as they were going to kill some of the monster's terrorizing the people on the street, they hear a girl scream. Looking up they see a woman with a catsuit on, running for her life. The girl falls on an uprooted tree branch and falls face first on the ground. As they look up they see a tall black demon with horns sticking out of it's head, looming over her.

"Son of a Bacchi." Xena says as she unclips her Chakram.


A catsuit wearing Cordelia screams as she runs from a sasquatch.

"Somebody help me!" she yells out. She looks back at the monster chasing her and screams. When she turns back around again she runs into Xander.

"Xander!" she yelled recognizing him in his costume. "Help me!"

"Move aside miss." The Dark Knight said as he ran forward.

As he does this more demons show up and encircle him.

"Do you mind if we kick your face in?" one of the demons sneered.

"Sure," Batman says with a hint of amusement in his voice. "and please, don't wait your turns." a red demon charges Batman head on. Batman sidesteps and trips it into another kick. The demon gets back up completely un phased and charges Batman again. Batman sidesteps tripping the demon through a car window.

Troll pulls out a ball and chain and begins swinging it above his head. Batman stands, waiting patiently. Troll swings it at him with incredible force, Batman rocks his head back and the momentum of the missed swing sends Troll twirling around.

Batman grabs the spiked ball and swings Troll around, slamming him through a water truck. Batman turns just in time to see the other two demons holding a small car above their heads, ready to throw. As he spins, Batman sends two Batarangs flying, each hitting a demon in the face. They drop the car on their heads and hit the ground. The red demon steps out of car window and takes out an axe. Batman stands easy.

As he charges Batman, he sidesteps sending the demon sprawling to the ground, where it impales itself on it's on axe.

Troll takes two water jugs from a water truck and charges Batman. Batman hits his stance, dodging the swinging water jugs. In a quick spin he lands a kick across Troll's jaw sending him flying into the broken jugs.

Looking up the red demon see's Cordelia and runs for her. As he gets ten feet to her a batarang wraps his legs and he slams face first into the pavement. Batman begins dragging the demon back with the rope, when Troll and another demon charge him. Batman charges straight at them then dives to the left, clotheslines them both with the rope. Before they can stand Batman ties both of they're arms and legs.

As Batman looks up, two more demons show up. Seeing him they run towards Cordelia instead. Batman drops down in front of one of them with his cape off like a matador. He throws it over his face, and then wraps around him with the rope throwing him to the ground. While holding the demon in a choke hold he puts a small tranquilizer into his neck.

Looking up he see's that the other one is chasing Cordelia. Taking a batarang out of his utility belt, he throws it at the demon. The batarang hits the demon in the back instantly killing it as it ran.

"Miss!" Batman yelled out to Cordelia. "You should stay close to me. It's not safe on the streets." seeing that she was to scared to listen, he ran after her. As she tripped over a uprooted tree branch, Batman crouches down to see if she's alright.

As he does so he hears a low whistling sound. As he looks up he see's a metal disk like object coming straight towards him. Knowing that he isn't able to move in time he simply snatches it out of the air.


"Xena did you see that?" Gabrielle asked. "That thing just grabbed your chakram out of mid-air."

"Yeah I saw it." Xena said as she unsheathed her sword. With her warriors yell, she charges toward the demon.


As Batman looks up from examining the chakram he see's a beautiful black girl, running towards him with a sword. Standing to his feet he blocks the sword swipe with the strange weapon.

"I believe that's mine." Xena says as she snatches the chakram out of his hand, runs up his body, does a flip in mid- air and kicks him in the face. The Dark Knight staggers back, but he's able to keep his footing.

Looking back at her with cold eye's, he spit's some blood out of his mouth.

"You've just made a big mistake." he says as they charge each other.

There was a sharp metallic clang as Xena's sword crashed against Batman's guanlet's. Xena swings her sword at Batman again, but he ducks. With a well placed kick, he knocks the sword out of her hand and hits her in the chest.

As they continue to fight, Gabrielle finally makes it over to Cordelia.

"Are you alright?" Gabrielle asked as she crouched down before her.

"Yeah." Cordelia said with a wince. " I just think I twisted my ankle." she said as she looked at her questionably. "Willow, why the hell are Xander and Kendra fighting each other?"

"Who's Willow?" Gabrielle asked. Then she thought about her situation. "Is that the name of this body?" she asked.

"Yay, you figured out your own name." Cordy said sarcasticly. "Now why are all of these demon's running around and why are Xander and Kendra fighting. I thought they were friends?"

"You mean that demon, is this bodies friend?" Gabrielle asked, pointing over at Xander.

"Hello." Cordy said as she waved her hand in front of Gabrielle's face. "That's just a costume. Why are you guys acting so strangely?"

"Xena...Xena stop!" Gabrielle yelled as she stood to her feet and ran to get in the middle of the two combatent's.

"Gabrielle get out of the way." Xena told her. "I have to kill this demon." But Gabrielle just stood her ground.

"I'm not a demon." Batman said as dropped out of his fighting stance. As he did so his cape fell across his armour, making him look every bit of a shadow.

"Then why were you chasing that girl?" Xena asked as she pointed over at Cordelia.

"I was trying to get her to safety."

"Xena listen. That girl in the cat clothes said that we are all friends." Gabrielle informed her as Cordelia limped over to them.

"Kendra what's going on?" Cordelia asked as she looked at her. Xena just looked back at her blankly.

"My name is Xena."

" Xena." Cordelia said in a huff. "Aren't you guys taking your costumes a little to seriously?"

"Costume?" Xena asked in confusion.

"I think we need to go and see, Giles." Cordelia said noticing the strangeness of the night.

"Whatever we go, we need to do it now." The Dark Knight said looking over her shoulder. Cordelia then turned around and saw a horde of demon's coming straight for them.

"Oh crap, let's go." she said as she tried to run, only for Batman to scoop her off of her feet.

"Xander what the hell are you doing?" Cordy asked.

"With the way that you're limping you'll only slow us down." he said as the group started to run.

"Just tell us where to go." with that the group ran off into the night.


As they got to Giles apartment, they found that the Watcher wasn't there.

"Damn he must be at the library." Cordelia said as she prepared to leave.

"Wait." Batman said as he grabbed her arm. "We should be safe here for the time being, so I think you need to explain yourself."

"Explain myself?" Cordelia asked. "What do you mean?"

"Three times tonight you called me Xander, why?" he asked.

"And you called me Willow and Xena, Kendra." Gabrielle added.

As Willow said this a few things started to dawn on Cordelia. The first thing was how good their costumes looked. They looked almost identicle to the one's on tv and the movies. The second thing she noticed was Xander's fighting skills, earlier that night. She knew that Giles was training him, but there was no way he trained him to be that good.

And the final two things that she noticed was that Kendra's accent was gone. And that Willow kept calling Kendra, Xena and herself Gabrielle. They had to be under the influence of a spell.

"Man we so have to talk to Giles." Cordelia muttered. "Listen you guys are under some sort of spell. Your name is really Xander Harris, yours is Willow Rosenburg, and yours is Kendra Giles." she said as she pointed to them all in turn.

"I believe you." The Dark Knight said. He'd seen stranger things in his life as the caped crusader. Xena and Gabrielle only nodded. Then Xena thought of something.

"Giles." Xena said as she cocked her head to the side. "You've said that name before. Is this body related to him?" she asked.

"Yeah here's a picture of him." Cordelia said as she walked up to a dresser and picked up a framed photo. It was a picture of Giles, Xander, Willow, and Kendra in the park. All of them had smiles on their faces as if it were a peaceful day.

Xena's finger lingered on the face of the older man on the picture. In her minds eye she had a stray memory of the older man training her and then another one of her crying on his chest about something.

"So is he a sorcerer or something? Can he put us back were we belong?" Xena asked as she looked up at Cordelia.

"He's Kendra's Watcher." Cordelia replied. "And if anybody will know what's going on, he will."

"What's a Watcher?" Gabrielle asked.

"They're some old guys in England that watch over the Slayers." seeing that Gabrielle was going to ask another question, Cordy quickly added. "A Slayer is a mystical warrior destined to fight vampires, demon's and blah blah blah." Cordelia said.

"No wonder this body feels so strong." Xena said looking down at herself.

"Yeah well... come on let's go. Since Giles isn't here he has to be at the library. Come on Xander." She said as she looked around the room, not seeing him anywhere. "Xander." she called out again.


Batman stood on a high building and launched a grappling line. He tugged it to make sure it was secure, then he leapt off the roof and swung over Sunnydale's streets. As the girl Cordelia droned on with her babbling, The Dark Knight looked into his utility belt and saw a tag that read "Property of Ethan's Costume Shop." Thinking it was as good a place as any, he headed to that direction to start his investigation.

Meanwhile

Sunnydale Library

Giles was in the middle of reading a very old tome, when he heard the library doors swing open. Looking up he saw the last person he ever expected to see.

"Ethan." Giles sneered as he closed the book.

"No my friend." Ethan said in a deep possessed voice. "The names Lucifer."

TBC...

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