Disclaimer: As always, if you recognise it, it's not mine.

A/N: '....' = thoughts

Trauma. One word for something which by its very nature involves a huge amount of variation. Something which is utterly traumatic to one person may hardly affect another, likewise while some are rendered so utterly broken by their experiences, others continue to function and may even give the appearance of normality despite their internal torment. In the post-Halloween, a rather crude but brutally effective form of natural selection has left mainly the latter. Those that are still capable of functioning and adapting to the new dangers and difficulties are more likely to survive, those who are utterly broken generally end up as monster food unless there's someone to look out for them. Simple, unpleasant but true. In many ways, survival in the world under the Red Sky was a test of mental fortitude as much as muscle since even powerhouses met their ends when their minds, be they the pre-Halloween personas or those that replaced them, were unable to cope with the horrors that surrounded them. Some fell victim to Heroic BSOD, while others slowly had their judgement, wills and sanity eroded by more realistic forms of shell-shock.

Somewhere Outside Alnwick, About Twenty Seven Miles from Lindisfarne

Kieran was not a happy camper. Despite all expectations the past three quarters of an hour had gone by with barely a hitch. Nothing blocking the road, no attacks, and no major weirdness apart from a few forlorn ghosts and the ever present boiling red sky. Ironically this was the cause of Kieran's misery. Since Halloween he'd done his best to stay occupied for the simple reason that if he was busy then it's was harder for his mind to go places he'd rather it didn't. Like the fact that the man sitting next to him wasn't really his brother, that his brother was gone and Nero was what was left in his place, with the occasional bit of John shining through Nero's personality both taking the edge off the situation and serving as a bitter reminder.

'He's not dead. It's like that thing I saw on TV about the guy who got his head bashed in and ended up losing his memory and getting a different personality, but his friends and family still stuck with him because he was still him, just different. This isn't even as bad as that, he remembered being John, well bit and pieces anyway, and he still acts like John sometimes. I mean, he still does that weird thing with ketchup for crying out loud. Yeah, he looks different, but so do I.'

'He's still not John.'

'Shut up.'

'You know it's true. You just won't admit it because Mum's dead, everyone else you know is either dead or gone and Nero's all you have left of John, even though he's the one who's taken his place.'

A quiet anger rose inside him and he stomped down on that traitorous part of his psyche with a vengeance.

'Sod off. That's bollocks and you know it.'

'Family's family. Even if he's not the same person as John, he's still your brother. You've fought together, lived together, watched out for each other, patched each other up after fights. You trust him with your life and I'm pretty damn sure he trusts you with his. If that doesn't make him your brother I don't know what does'.

Kieran frowned slightly. No way was something like that something he'd come up with. Thoughts that didn't seem to be his own had become a regular occurrence since Halloween, the result of sharing his head with the character of his own creation, although he was sure he hadn't been that insightful when he'd been writing him. It usually bothered him but this time it was almost reassuring, not least because it had well and truly shut up the more depressing side of his psyche. He was pretty sure that this was probably a sign of something but right now he didn't really care.

But even though it had been silenced for the time being, the part of his mind he'd rather not have had managed to bring up another thing that he spent a lot of time and effort not thinking about, his mum. Her absence gnawed away at him. She shouldn't have died the way she did. She shouldn't have died at all, at least not until she was very, very old and surrounded by grown-up grandkids. Logically he knew that there wasn't anything he or Nero could've done, but emotionally it was a different matter. Pointless guilt mixed in with grief and vague, undirected anger.

'It's not fair.'

'Nothing ever is, it's just the way of the world,' chimed in the newest addition to his mental peanut gallery.

'I know. It still sucks.'

'I'll have to take your word for it. I've never had any parents.'

It was stuff like that that made Kieran wonder if he was losing it.

'I think you've already lost it.'

'Shut up.'

When the rattling started it was all Kieran could do to stop himself from sighing in relief. As distractions go it wasn't much but he'd take what he could get.

"What's that noise?"

"What noise?"

"The one you apparently can't hear over those headphones, even though they're round your neck."

Nero shot him a dirty look but straightened up from his usual slouch and listened. After a moment he shrugged.

"Maybe there's something loose?"

"Like what?"

"How should I know?"

Kieran sighed. On one hand it might be nothing to worry about or worth risking getting out of the van for. On the other hand there wasn't anything obvious lurking out there at the moment (which was surprising given the amount of Northumbrian folklore) and for all they knew it could be something major that would come back to haunt them if they got into trouble later on. He concentrated for a moment, trying to pin down the source of the rattling and decided that it was to the left, on the exterior of the van rather than anything to do with the engine. Still, it might be a good idea to check. He put it to a mental vote.

'Are you nuts? Stay in the van where it's safe.'

'Better to check know then leave it unknown and possibly have it bite you in the arse latter.'

'Better to be on the safe side and know what the problem is. Besides, the rattling is getting annoying.'

Checking it was then. Kieran stopped the van but left the engine running.

"Why're you stopping?"

"I need to see what's making that noise. Knowing our luck it's the first sign that the wheels are about to fall off. Watch my back for me will you?"

"Don't I always?"

After a few minutes of searching Kieran found a possible culprit. A small section of armour near the door had somehow become loose on one side. Kieran was in the middle of doing a temporary repair with gaffer tape when there was a thunk as something hit the van not far from Nero's head, followed by Nero firing his gun in the direction the projectile had come from, which was in turn followed by a frightened yelp.

Kieran's shotgun was off his shoulder and in his hands as soon as he heard the thunk. Glancing down at what had caused it he frowned. Who the hell used a crossbow?

"Hey, whoever took a shot at us. If you haven't noticed guns trump crossbows, so why don't you behave yourself and come out where we can see you?"

There was a pause, then a figure emerged from behind the hedgerow holding the expected crossbow. The duo raised their guns but didn't fire, especially not when they got a good look at their attacker.

"What the hell? She's even more of a kid then you are."

Kieran glared at his partner, before turning his attention back to the girl in front of them.

Nero was right, she was just a kid. Kieran was willing to bet his shotgun that she wasn't more than thirteen at the very most, and by the look of her she was pretty much dead on her feet, not to mention being scared out of her mind.

"Hey kid, you shouldn't shoot at people. It's kinda impolite."

Nero the smartass strikes again, although it seemed to go over the girl's head because she just looked confused instead of irritated. Kieran on the other hand only just managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes and sighing. Plastering a smile on his face, he tried to look friendly or at least non-threatening.

"Hello, what's your name?"

The girl didn't answer, her attention focused on Nero's arm despite his best efforts to keep it out of sight. Obviously he hadn't been quick enough about it.

"Hey!"

The girl jumped slightly.

"Why'd did you shoot at us?"

"He's a demon," replied the girl, a Cockney accent audible even though she spoke with the mumbled, muddled-sounding voice of the chronically sleep deprived.

Nero looked slightly uncomfortable. He may have got over most of his issues regarding his nature, accepting it as a fair price for being able to protect Kyrie (and since he'd arrived in this hell hole, Kieran), but he'd spent too many years hiding it and old habits die hard.

Kieran snorted.

"Devil actually and only a little bit at that. Don't let the arm fool you, he's a good guy, we both are."

The girl gave Kieran a hard look, taking in the gravity mocking vermillion hair and too vivid blue eyes.

"What are you?"

"Human, just with a few alterations. What about you?"

"I'm human."

"Okay, now that's cleared up I think we'd best be moving before something shows up looking for dinner and you'd better get back to whoever you're with before they think you've been chomped."

The girl looked haunted.

"They're gone."

"Oh. Sorry."

An unspoken exchange passed between the two males.

"If you want, we'll be happy to give you a lift to Holy Island. You'll have to promise to leave that crossbow alone though."

The girl nodded.

"I'm Kieran by the way. Blondie over there is Nero."

"I'm Molly."

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Molly didn't talk much after that, which was a bit of a shame since Kieran was curious as to how a Cockney ended up in the middle of the Northumbrian countryside. There wasn't much room in the front so she sat in the back on one of the sleeping bags that Kieran had packed in a fit of Crazy Preparedness and as it turned out his opinion that she was dead on her feet was spot on since she was out like a light within minutes.

"Poor kid."

Nero looked at him.

"She's not that much younger then you are."

"So? I can still call her kid; I must be at least three years older than her."

"Only physically."

"Hmm. Seriously though, she must've been on her own out there for god only knows how long. I don't think she's slept in days and she probably hasn't eaten for a while either."

"Probably."

Nero's mind obviously wasn't on their unexpected passenger. Kieran could guess what was though.

"I'm sure she's fine. Anyone who's gone through all that crap you told me about has got to be tougher then they look."

"That's not the point. I should be there to protect her."

"It's not your fault that you're not. Anyway, I'm sure she'll still need protecting after we find her and until then you've been keeping your hand in by keeping me alive. Thanks for that by the way."

Nero looked at him sideways.

"You're welcome."

The next few minutes passed in companionable silence, well apart from the music coming out of Nero's headphones. When they spotted a sign directing them towards the causeway to Holy Island Nero started to get a bit fidgety and Kieran did his best to ignore him. Honestly, the guy had waited this long to see his lady love, couldn't he wait a few more minutes?

When they got to where the causeway was supposed to be however, their hearts sank.

"What the hell?"

"Seconded."

They could see the island; in fact it couldn't be more than a few miles away. Unfortunately, instead of leading to it the road in front of them vanished under waves turned red by the sky. The two stared in disbelief for a moment.

"Okay, so what do we do now?"

A/N: I've decided that since this is technically a BtVS crossover, I should probably include a few actual BtVS characters. Unfortunatly, due to me being a bit slow off the mark spaceman has already got all the major ones accounted for, so I'm left with the minor characters and I'm not sure which ones are actually going to be worth including, after all, there's no point including characters that no one cares about. So I'd appriciate it if people made some suggestions regarding characters, costumes, and in the case of the ones that everyone dislikes (eg, Watchers), whether or not you want me to put them through the ringer / kill them off as creatively as possible. I'd also appricate suggestions regarding non-BtVS characters that they could run into since I'd much rather use ones that people want to see then ones I've just picked off the top of my head. Unlike spaceman, I'm just as happy to use Western stuff as anime.