Review Responses:

Freezyboncoolipants: Thanks. Keep reviewing!

DragonThorn: You're wish is my command. The scene with Spike and Dawn wasn't part of the original so it hasn't been betaed I'm afraid. Dru will most definitely freak out! Thanks for reading!

Pigeonofdoom: Thanks for reviewing. I hope your English essay went alright! ;)

BuffyFan: I'm glad you liked it- I hope you like this chapter too.

Godessa39: This'll be B/A as long as the show was (probably a bit longer cause I hate Riley and his part in this story will be minimal) and that's most of this fic, so I hope that's enough! Thanks for reviewing.

Saved-artist87: I'm glad you enjoyed. I will keep going but see authors note for more details. Thanks for reviewing.

Note for Matt: Thanks for beta-ing and just so you know, I added a scene with Dawn and Spike- I hope it doesn't suck to badly :)

A/N: I have a few important exams at the end of this month as well as being the main part in a school panto. This means my time is very stretched at the moment. If I can update before the beginning of February (it's quite unlikely though) then I will, if not- I'm sorry. If you'd like to be emailed when I get around to writing the next chapter, then leave you're email in a review or email me at kiaraz87hotmail .com

CHAPTER 9: HALLOWEEN

"How about this one?"

"No."

"This one?"

"No."

"This one?"

"No way."

"Dawn will you just pick a costume!" Buffy said agitated.

"Janice said Halloween is stupid." Dawn sulked.

"So you're not going trick or treating? You're gonna stay at home all night on your own?"

"Yes." Dawn said, but her certainty was wavering.

"You're not going to get loads of free candy and go on a sugar high?"

"Well, maybe I could- for the last year though."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Of course. What do you want to go as, a monster?"

"Eww! No way!"

Buffy clicked her tongue in irritation. "You have the whole shop to choose something from- go, have fun."

Dawn ran off between the shelves that covered the shop floor to find her costume. Buffy shook her head and turned to Willow.

"Do you have any idea how much I wish I was an only child? So, what did you get?"

x?x

Dawn wondered through the stacks of costumes. She knew that she didn't want a mask or anything too babyish- that ruled out all the princess costumes that she'd been wearing every Halloween for her entire life.

She found a pair of leather trousers with a red jumper which looked fairly normal. It had cool weapons too, much like the ones she'd found when snooping in Buffy's room. Two stakes, one on each thigh, a sword strapped to the back, two pistols on a belt around her waist and two daggers on the tops of her arms.

"Cool!"

"You like that do you?" A strange voice said.

"Yeah- who are you?"

"I'm sorry, I'm Ethan. I own this shop. I can make you a good deal on that costume- it centres around a myth that very few people have heard of anymore."

"Really? What?"

"The slayer."

"T-The what?"

"The slayer, see I told you no-one had heard of it! It's a girl who fights
for good."

"Really?" Dawn said, grinning knowingly.

"Yes, are you interested?"

Five minutes later Dawn held her bag secretively to her chest and went back over to Buffy who was admiring some old dress.

"I'm ready." Dawn announced, expecting them all to be. "Hello Ethan!"

The shop owner looked surprised to see her standing there.

"I'll be ready in a minute Dawn. There's no way I could afford this."

"Nonsense." Ethan said. "I feel quite moved to make you a deal you can't refuse."

x?x

Buffy, dressed in her medieval ball gown costume, opened the door to find herself on the end of a plasticy rifle.

"Private Harris reporting for... Buffy! Lady of Buffdom, Duchess of Buffonia, I am in awe! I completely renounce spandex!"

"Thank you, kind sir. " Buffy said with a curtsy.

"Hey Xander!" Dawn said bounding over.

"Hey- it's the Dawnmeister! That's a great costume Dawnie…what is it?"

Buffy rolled her eyes as Dawn beamed at the attention she was getting. "Yeah, yeah, it's great. She's a frigging slayer, isn't that great? It's not like I've got a secret identity to keep or anything. Anyway, wait till you see-"

Willow appeared at the top of the stairs, her hand picked outfit completely covered with a white sheet with 'Boo!' on it.

"-Casper." She finished disappointed.

"Hey, Will! That's a fine boo you got there."

Willow smiled nervously. Dawn giggled. Buffy looked annoyed. All her hard work for nothing!

x?x

"This is your group, Summers. No need to speak to them. The last thing they need is your influence. Just bring them back in one piece and I won't expel you."

Buffy rolled her eyes at her principals retreating back and turned to the group of children she was helping. "Hi."

Snyder span around. "Ah, ah!"

Xander was having much better luck. His group, which included Dawn, was all lined up in front of him.

"Okay, on sleazing extra candy: tears are key. Tears will normally get you the double-bagger. You can also try the old 'you missed me' routine, but it's risky. Only go there for chocolate. Understood?"

The row of children nodded their heads.

"Okay, troops. Let's move out."

x?x

What was happening? One minute…actually, she didn't even know that. But now she was on a street surrounded by all these weird creatures that she had an urge to fight, but they were deformed- they looked like monsters.

She didn't know who she was or where she was, but it was like she still knew some things, just not the usual stuff like who she was or why she was there. More that although she had no idea what all the scary looking monsters running about were, there was some kind of instinct to kill. As she looked around, she saw what looked like a hooker go straight through an army guy- she was a ghost!

The army guy turned to the ghost and pointed his gun at her. "What are you?!

"Xander, listen to me. I'm on your side, I swear! Something crazy is happening. I was dressed as a ghost for Halloween, a-and now I am a ghost. And you were supposed to be a soldier, and now I guess you're a real soldier."

"You expect me to believe that?" The soldier guy, Xander, said.

She thought for a moment. Part of her was totally freaked out; the other part accepted the explanation almost as if weird stuff like this would be part of her life. The red headed hooker looked around and caught sight of her and started running over.

"Dawn! Dawnie!"

Moving on instinct, she dived in some kind of flip that should not be anatomically possible to avoid the attack.

When the girl got to where she had been standing the minute before she turned around looking surprised. "What the…oh! You're the slayer! This is useful, very useful. Dawn? Don't you remember me? It's Willow. Buffy's best friend, remember?"

So, if this Willow could be trusted, then she was called Dawn. Huh, pretty.

A thought struck Willow. "Uh-oh. If you're the slayer, then Buffy is... We have to find her."

Both Xander and Dawn looked at her in confusion. "Who's Buffy?"

Willow tried to explain whilst looking around anxiously for her friend. "She's blond, short. She's…right over there. Buffy! Buffy, are you okay?"

Two monsters charged at them as Willow helped Buffy to her feet. Dawn, again acting purely on instinct, jumped forward and kicked them away.

"No, that's still a little kid!" Willow protested.

Xander raised his gun and took aim as more monsters approached. "This could be a situation."

"Buffy, what do we do?" Willow asked the frightened slayer.

Dawn looked at the blond who promptly fainted. "Well that's helpful!"

x?x

"Buffy, are you alright?" Willow asked. The monsters had been fought off by Xander

"What?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Buffy, are you hurt?" Willow repeated.

"Buffy?" She asked sitting up.

Willow helped her friend up. "She's not Buffy. Oh, this is such fun. What year is this?"

"1775, I believe. I-I don't understand. Who are you?" The blond said confused.

"We're friends." Willow said as Buffy started to hyperventilate.

"F-friends of whom? Y-your dress... Everything is strange! How did I come to be here?"

"Breathe, okay, breathe. You're gonna faint again." A thought occurred to her so she turned to Dawn. "What do you know about this?"

She blinked rather stupidly. "About this? Nothing! I didn't do it!"

Willow smiled recognising a bit of the old Dawn in this new one. "I know, but what do you think we should do?"

"How should I know?"

"Well, you are the slayer."

"What's a Slayer?" Dawn asked confused.

"You don't know? But I thought we all turned into our costumes! How can the slayer not know about slayers?" She babbled. "Buffy always knew about slayers…except that she didn't. Oh fudge, we gotta newbie."

"Huh?"

"It's alright Dawnie, I promise."

Strangely enough, Dawn didn't find the promise from the babbling stranger very comforting.

"I suggest we get inside before we come across anything..."

"DEMON! A DEMON!" Buffy screamed, pointing to a sports car that was driving up the street.

"That's not a demon. It's a car." Willow explained.

"What does it want?" She asked peaking out from behind Xander where she'd taken cover.

Xander shook her off his shoulder. "Is this woman insane?"

"She's never seen a car, she's from the past."

"And you're a ghost." Xander said still sceptical.

"Yes! Now let's get inside."

Xander shifted his gun into one hand, using the other to pull Buffy along. "I just want you to know that I'm taking a lot on faith here. Where do we go?"

x?x

Willow opened the front door and called out. "Hello? Mrs. Summers? Good, she's gone."

Dawn looked around curiously. "Where are we?"

"Your place. Now we just need to..." she was interrupted by a banging at the door. "Don't open it!"

"Could be a civilian." Xander reasoned.

"Or a mini demon." Willow countered.

Buffy picked up a frame standing on a nearby table and stared at the picture in it. It was two girls, one who looked exactly like her and the other one looked like the violent brunette girl that was in the house with them.

"Wass'at?" Dawn asked. "Woah- very freaky."

"This... this could be me." Buffy said softly as Willow joined the confused sisters.

"It is you. Buffy, can't you remember at all?"

"No! I, I don't understand any of this! Uh, uh, this... This is some other girl! I would never wear this, that low apparel, and I don't like this place, and I don't like you, and I just wanna go home!"

"Seconded…apart from the low apparel part."

"You are home, both of you."

Buffy was almost in tears. Willow turned away losing her patience with the wimpy slayer. "She couldn't have dressed up like Xena?"

x?x

The guy, Xander, suddenly ran outside and then came back in dragging another girl behind him.

"Cordelia!" Willow exclaimed.

"What's going on?" The newcomer- apparently named Cordelia- demanded.

"Okay, your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school, and we're your friends. Well, sort of."

"That's nice, Willow. And you went mental when?"

"You know us?"

"Yeah, lucky me. What's with the name game?"

"A lot's going on-" Willow started.

"No kidding. I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume! Do you really think that Partytown's gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely." She ranted still examining the ripped sleeve.

"Here." Xander draped his shirt around her shoulders

Cordelia looked at him pleasantly surprised. "Thanks."

"Okay. You guys stay here while I get some help. If something tries to get in, just fight it off." Willow said.

"Well, i-it's not our place to fight. Uh, surely some men will protect us."

Cordelia gestured to the blond former-slayer "What's that riff?"

"I-it's like amnesia, okay? They don't know who they are. Just sit tight." Willow left, walking through the wall behind Cordelia.

"Who died and made her the boss?"

"You! Check upstairs. Make sure everything's locked up." Xander ordered adding another chair to the barricaded door.

Buffy followed Xander into the living room. "Surely there's somewhere we can go. A safe haven."

"Lady said stay put."

"You would take orders from a woman? A-are you feeble in some way?"

"Ma'am, in the Army we have a saying: sit down and shut the... " He was distracted by a picture sitting on the table. " Whoa! She must be right. We must have some kind of amnesia."

"I don't know what that is, but I'm certain I don't have it. I bathe quite often!"

"It's a memory loss dummy!" Dawn injected with an eye roll- okay so at first the accent was funny, but after a while the whining started to get on your nerves.

"How else do you explain this?"

"I don't! I was brought up a proper lady. I-I wasn't meant to understand things. I'm just meant to look pretty, and then someone nice will marry me. Possibly a Baron."

"This ain't no tea party, princess. Sooner or later you're gonna have to fight!"

She crossed her arms stubbornly. "Fight these low creatures? I'd sooner die."

"Then you'll die." Xander said simply.

"What are they?" Dawn asked in a small voice.

He shrugged. "Demons or something. Whatever they are you seemed to be handling yourself before and we need every able body to fight them, alright kid?"

"I'm not a kid." She mumbled. Xander gave her a look that clearly said she wasn't seeing his point. Dawn felt something stir within her, something that felt familiar. "Okay, I'm in."

A dark haired man came in through the back door whom none of them recognised. "Oh, good! You guys are alright. It's total chaos out there."

The confused trio looked to each other and then back to the mysterious stranger. "Who are you?"

"Okay, somebody wanna fill me in?" Angel asked.

"Do you live here?"

"No, and you know that. Buffy, I'm lost here. You... What's up with your hair?"

"They don't know who they are, everyone's turned into a monster, it's a whole big thing. How are you?

The lights went out plunging them all into darkness. Buffy grabbed Cordelia in fright and she sighed in annoyance. "Do you mind?"

"You take the princess and the kid and secure the kitchen. Catwoman, you're with me."

"But I don't wanna go with you! I-I like the man with the musket!" Buffy cried as Dawn muttered "I'm not a kid" once more.

"C'mon." Angel took Buffy's arm and pushed Dawn in the right direction.

"Do you have a musket?" Buffy said hopefully.

Angel moved towards the open door. "I didn't leave that open."

As he looked around for an intruder, the basement door behind Buffy opened and a vampire attacked her.

"A stake!" Angel said as he wrestled the vampire off her.

"A what?"

"Get me a stake!"

Buffy looked around helplessly as Dawn tossed Angel a kitchen knife that was laying on the counter before running to slam the basement door on the other student-vampires trying to get in. "We have to get out of here."

She was so engrossed in her task that she didn't notice Angel turning towards them from his spot still on top of the vampire. Buffy did though and she saw his game face.

She screamed and ran out the back door.

"Buffy, no!"

But it was too late, Buffy had run out into the night all alone and currently helpless.

x?x

"Are you sure she came this way?" Dawn asked scanning the road side nervously.

"No." Angel admitted.

"She'll be okay." Cordelia tried to reassure him.

"Buffy would be okay. Whoever she is now, she's helpless. C'mon!"

Spike looked at the group of mini demons gathered around him "hear that somewhere out here is the sweetest meat you've ever tasted and all we have to do is find her first"

x?x

She'd ended up in an alley. Now there was a pirate in the alley. Things didn't really look good. Buffy turned to try and get away, but tripped over the dress she was wearing. The pirate threw her against a crate and moved to try and kiss her.

Xander ran up and tackled the pirate to the ground. They continued to fight as Angel, Cordelia and Dawn ran over.

"Buffy! Are you okay?"

Buffy yelped and hid away as she saw Angel.

"What's your deal? Take a pill!"

"He's, he's a vampire!"

"She's got this thing where she thinks... Uhhh, forget it. It's okay. Angel is a good vampire. He would never hurt you."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. He's our friend."

"Vampires don't have friends." Dawn said a bit viciously.

"I do." Angel said firmly. He smelt the slayer on her now. He'd have to be careful, not that she'd actually be able to stake him, but he'd hate to have to hurt her.

Xander finally managed to knock the pirate out. "It's strange, but beating up that pirate gave me a weird sense of closure."

"Guys!" A new voice called.

"Willow!"

"Guys, you gotta get inside." She said anxiously looking over her shoulder to where Spike and his gang were coming towards them.

Dawn looked at the rather large gang. "We can't take them all!"

"We need a triage!"

Angel pointed down the alley. "This way! Find an open warehouse."

Xander picked up his rifle again. "Ladies, we're on the move!"

Angel lifted Buffy into his arms and followed the others down the alley.

x?x

Angel kicked in the door of a warehouse. "Over here!"

"Check if there are any other ways in!" Xander closed the door again as the others secured any other exits.

The monsters arrived and started pounding on the door causing Buffy to cling to Cordelia again.

"Oh, faboo, more clinging."

Xander tried to stop the monsters from getting in, but he had no chance against the demon mob. Xander fired his gun at the monsters, but their super-strength gave them the necessary advantage to hold him still as his friends fought on.

Angel kicked one of the monsters into a stack of crates and another against the stone wall before several monsters simultaneously attacked him and managed to hold him.

Dawn went after Spike first; her instincts telling her that he were the leader and should be taken out.

"Hey, vamp!" Spike turned around only to receive a punch in the face.

"Bloody hell! There's another buggering slayer!" He exclaimed as a trail on blood trickled down from his nose. "Leave the fighting to the grown ups, kid."

"I don't know who you are or what you're talking about, but I am NOT a kid!" She punched him again, this time in the gut so he doubled over. Dawn moved behind him and kicked his ass so he nearly toppled over.

"I'm warning you, kid-" Spike started, but Dawn planted a kick in a particularly tender area so he was forced to stop.

Dawn giggled. Spikes eyes had crossed and he rolled about on the ground groaning. It was really quite comical.

Three of his minions moved in to capture Dawn.

They captured her easily, she may have had the strength and speed, but she had no idea how to use it and the only reason she'd got Spike was because she'd caught him off guard.

Spike got up from the ground slowly; he licked the blood from under his nose as he approached Dawn. "You'll pay for that you stupid little bint…but you're not the one I want. She's the one I want. The real slayer, no substitutes accepted."

Buffy tried to hide in a corner but it was no use. They were forced to watch as Spike approached the terrified Buffy.

"Look at you. Shaking. Terrified. Alone. Lost little lamb… I love it."

Angel struggled against the monsters holding him. "Buffy!"

Xander managed to shake one monster off and then punched the other in the
face. He turned to where Spike had Buffy pinned up against the crates.

"Now that guy you can shoot." Willow said.

He grabbed his gun, but it had turned back into a toy rifle. "What the..."

"I'm scared! I want my mommy!" One of the newly returned children cried.

Spike looked over as his army of monsters turned into children but then
remembered the slayer before him. He tried to yank her up by her hair, but
only got a wig in his hands.

Buffy got up off the crate and smiled at him sweetly. "Hi, honey. I'm home."

She punched him in the gut and whacked him with a bit of pipe. "You know
what? It's good to be me."

Spike didn't stand a chance. He soon made a hasty retreat, much to the
slayers satisfaction.

Xander grinned and went over to his friend. "Hey, Buff. Welcome back."

"Yeah! You, too."

Cordelia approached them. "You guys remember what happened?"

"It was way creepy. It's like I was there, but I couldn't get out." Xander
said.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. This outfit's totally skin-tight. "

"You okay?" Angel asked as he and Dawn joined the group.

"Yeah."

Dawn rolled her eyes at her sister's breathy voice and followed the couple
out of the warehouse when Angel slung his arm around Buffy's shoulders.

Neither of them noticed the small girl following them and they didn't seem
to hear the gagging sounds that had both Cordelia and Xander smirking.

x?x

Buffy entered her room wearing more comfortable clothing; Angel however
looked distinctly uncomfortable at the questions being fired at him by the
youngest Summers sister.

"Tada; just little old 20th-century me." She interrupted.

"Sure you're okay?" Dawn asked.

"I'll live. What about you- you don't have slayer healing."

"I'll live." Dawn mimicked. "Buff, chill- I'm fine."

"You did good tonight."

She perked up. "Really?"

"Well, not as good as I would have, but still okay."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to bed before you two go all
mushy and make me throw up."

"Lovely." Buffy muttered as her sister left.

Dawn shut the door behind her smirking. Buffy had a boy in her room, after
curfew. Their mom would kill her if she ever found out, that was definite
blackmail material.

She heard Angel ask if Buffy was okay and shook her head in disgust. He was
so boring, not like Xander. Xander was cool, and hot too…

x?x x?x x?x

That was harder than I thought it would be. Oh well, it's over. Please review (and don't forget to leave/send me you're email if you want to be informed about the story's progress)