Some weeks later

On the morning of Halloween Buffy and Willow found the cafeteria decorated with Jack o' Lanterns, cardboard skeletons and plastic spiders. As they were picking up fruits and yogurt cartons for breakfast, Buffy glimpsed Parker sitting at a table facing away from them. She stood still for a moment before realising that seeing him didn't raise any emotions whatsoever within her. She allowed herself an extra apple as a reward for being completely over him. With a new lightness in her heart, she continued listening to Willow's enthusiastic oratory.

"The breakthrough with Air really helped me see magic in a new light. I have now got all the basics down – charms, glamours, telekinesis."

"So, what's the next level?"

"Transmutation, conjuring, bringing forth something from nothing. It gets you pretty close to the primal forces. A little scary but not as scary as all the prospects in Elemental Magic."

"So, now that you have mastered Air..."

"Buffy," Willow interrupted the Slayer with a short laugh as they stepped out of the building into the sunny morning air. "I'm nowhere near mastery. It could be said I've barely just begun."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked frowning. "I've seen you do some pretty amazing stuff already."

"Let me put it this way," Willow started to explain once they had found an empty table on the patio. "I've just been thrown into an Olympic size swimming pool and can barely dog-paddle. Compared to that Rowan, for example, really does compete at the Olympic level – in all the four major styles plus freediving."

"Freediving?"

"Yeah, Spirit. That's like a whole new ballgame with unknown depths."

Their discussion was briefly interrupted when Xander suddenly plopped into a vacant seat at their table.

"Hey, how are my two favourite girls this fine morning," he greeted them.

"You're up early," Buffy commented with barely hidden amusement. Then it occurred to her that Xander was looking unusually clean-shaved and dressed in pressed slacks and a sleek button-down shirt. "Look at you!" she complimented approvingly. "What's the occasion?"

"My ladies, you're looking at the new bartender of the newly renovated Neonderthal Club, née Jack's Pub. I'm finally an essential part of your college-y life. No more looking down on the townie."

While Buffy was still gaping at this revelation, Willow had recovered more quickly. "Aren't you too young to be a bartender?"

"Behold!" he announced like a stage magician and held out an ID card showing him with a very porn-movieish moustache and three years added to his age. "My magic ticket out of my parents' basement."

"I don't believe this is entirely on the up and up," Willow looked back and forth between the small plastic card and Xander's face with clear disapproval written on her features.

"Hey! Nobody complained when Rowan got his passport making him 21," Xander reminded her indignantly.

"Well, technically he is over eighty," Willow reminded him back. "Besides, his passport was not a forgery, even if it was issued by a shadowy agency working clandestinely within the British government."

"A little help from my friends here would be appreciated," Xander huffed, knowing he had lost the argument. "I'll have you know I went through a brutal weeding process which made my suitability for the job undisputable."

"Wiping the bar desk?"

"Exactly!" Xander beamed and then frowned. "Hey!"

Xander decided to stay with the girls when they started on their assignments after having finished their light breakfast. Letting them work in peace for a while he started idly watching the students passing by their table on the other side of the low patio wall. He let his gaze lazily follow a few nicely shaped, jeans-covered female butts until a group of three older students caught his attention.

"I didn't know UC Sunnydale had an ROTC program," he commented idly as the trio eventually entered a building.

"They don't," Buffy replied without raising her eyes from her paper. "Why do you ask?"

"Hmmm... no reason," Xander muttered with a furrowed brow. The trio hadn't been marching in step or even worn fatigues, but they might as well have been carrying M16's as far as he was concerned. A military presence at the campus could mean anything, but he was well-versed enough about past clandestine projects like MKUltra that the CIA had carried out in various colleges and universities in the past to just shrug off an anomaly like that. A sudden thought made her grin. People always acted more relaxed around a bartender.

"So," Willow broke the long silence, simultaneously banging her book shut. "The Alpha-Delt party tonight. We still doing that?"

"I'll check with Giles first, but, yeah," Buffy nodded.

"Xander?"

"I kinda have to be there but in a slightly altered capacity," Xander answered smugly. "Too bad I already paid the deposit on the tux, but hey..."

"Altered capacity? Tux?" Willow asked totally mystified.

"Altered capacity, as in my first job as an employee of the Neonderthal Club will be to haul kegs to the Alpha-Delt Halloween party. And tux, as in a safeguard against us turning to our costumes again."

"James Bond, very clever," Willow nodded approvingly. "So, you have to be there in advance or shall we go together?"

"I gotta be there in an hour but, yeah, I can swing by Stevenson later to escort you ladies there."

"Cool," Willow beamed and stood up. "We gotta go to class now, and I'll visit home later. See you before the party."

"Yeah, Buffy nodded and stood up herself. "I'll go see Giles first thing after school and then head home. Mom said she'd alter one of my old costumes to fit me – just in case."

"She means it, you know," Riley told a stunned Buffy after Dr Walsh had glided away with a threat to dismiss her from the class if she handed an assignment late one more time.

"Yeah, I got the impression she wasn't saying it to make me laugh," Buffy muttered. Inside she was frowning. What was the big deal anyway? Midnight or nine a.m. the next morning. Dr Walsh or the TA wouldn't be grading their papers in the middle of the night anyway, would they?

"Look, things get pretty intense freshman year, as I dimly recall. Too much fun or not enough?"

"Both, actually," Buffy half-laughed, half-snorted.

"Yeah, well. You gotta keep your priorities. Dr Walsh is worth your time." He handed out the newest assignment to her.

"Thanks. I'll get this done tonight."

"Tonight." Riley frowned slightly. "It's Halloween."

"I have a lot of work to do," Buffy shrugged, not really comfortable with sharing her non-school activities with the TA.

Not noticing Buffy's hesitancy, Riley continued. "It's not really my business but you seem like a person who makes things really hard on themselves."

"Ok," Buffy drawled and turned to go. "Thanks for the pep talk, coach."

"Don't make fun," Riley called after her. "I've worked hard to get this pompous."

Buffy had seen many horrific sights in her career but the apparition now before her was enough to un-Slayer even her.

"Oh... my... God," she gaped at Giles who stood in the doorway wearing a poncho and a very large, tasselled sombrero. He also had a big bowl filled with assorted candy in his arms.

"Erm... Happy Halloween, Buffy," the Watcher hazarded, seeing the look of absolute disbelief on the Slayer's face. "Yes, well..." he stammered and stood aside, leaving Buffy enough room to enter. "Candy?"

"What's going on here?" Buffy asked suspiciously as she took in the decorations Giles had hung all over the living room. "You hate Halloween."

"I never said such thing," Giles countered quickly. "As my Watcher duties took precedence, I simply hadn't taken time to, well, to embrace its inherent charms. Until now, that is. Erm... Is there something you wanted?"

"I was thinking I'd better ask you if I should patrol tonight... Could you take that thing off your head? It's distracting!"

"Oh, yes. Of course," Giles agreed and threw the large hat on the couch. "Is there some specific danger you were sensing?"

"No, but Xander reminded me today about how off-guard we were when Ethan Rayne turned everyone into their costumes two years ago."

"True," Giles nodded. "But what happened then was anomalous. Creatures of the night shy away from Halloween. They find it all much too crass. I assure you, Buffy. Very little likelihood of any supernatural activity tonight."

"Nice costumes. Very stealthy," Buffy nodded approvingly as two masked and camouflaged men came out of the bushes next to them and moved past the trio with hardly a glance in their direction.

Xander watched their passing speculatively. They moved like real soldiers and their guns looked real enough. 'Maybe deactivated Army surplus,' he mused. 'Some re-enactors really got it down pat.'

"What are they supposed to be?" Willow asked, looking perplexed.

"NATO?" Buffy suggested.

"Uh-uh," Xander shook his head. "Peacekeepers carry different type of gear."

Buffy and Willow just looked at each other in amusement and shrugged their shoulders before moving on. Soon they reached the Alpha-Delt frat house which was oddly silent, and no one seemed to be partying in the front yard.

"Where is everybody?" Xander asked, totally mystified as they stepped inside the building. When he left earlier to pick up Buffy and Willow, the party had been in full swing.

Then the door slammed shut behind them and the screams started.