Cold Iron Thoughts

There was a balance to all things and for favors asked favors were granted as well, so Ethan relaxed and allowed the presence to push him aside.

"What costume would work best for protecting someone if you had to blend in to help keep them safe?" Ethan asked.

Xander's eyes lost focus as he scanned the racks of costumes before mechanically reaching in and pulling out an outfit that hadn't been there a second before.

"You and your companion's costumes are already paid for," Ethan said, passing a receipt to Xander who blinked and turned to see what Dawn was calling him for.

"Jubilee is kinda lame, Energizer is pretty young, but what about Kitty Pryde?" Dawn asked, holding up a loose blue jacket, greyish-blue tights, with a black domino mask and plastic tanto.

"Kitty was always one of my favorites," Xander said. "Looks like post-Ogun where she gained some major fighting skills."

"Let me see how much it is," Dawn said.

"No, need," Xander said holding up a receipt. "You are helping me keep an eye on the munchkins, the least I can do is cover the cost of the costume."

Dawn felt the fifty her mother had given her and had an idea. "Then I get to spring for dinner. How about we hit the local IHOP after we drop off the kiddies?"

"Sounds like a plan," Xander agreed.

Dawn barely stopped herself from squealing, she had a date!

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dawn examined herself in the mirror and touched up her lipstick. She looked old enough to be in high school, but something was missing. She spotted a fake tattoo she'd bought at hot topic, it was almost too pretty to use, an intricate black dragon tattoo with its wings outstretched. Opening her jacket she placed it over her left breast so the head was just peeking out of her shirt. Perfect!

"You've gone all out," Joyce noted as she looked in on her youngest daughter.

"I've got a date," Dawn said proudly.

"Who's the lucky guy?" Joyce asked, not recalling Dawn saying anything about any of the boys in her class.

"Xander," Dawn said with a smile.

Joyce thought about that for a moment. He was about three years older than her, which was just barely acceptable, but she was also pretty sure he was interested in Buffy. "And how did he ask you out?" Joyce asked.

"He paid for my costume to thank me for helping him keep an eye on the kids we're escorting, so I asked him out to dinner afterwards," Dawn explained.

"He may not think of it as a date," Joyce warned, not wanting her daughter to get her hopes up and be disappointed.

"I know," Dawn assured her. "But it's a foot in the door and I can slowly get him used to the idea before making an obvious move on him."

"Sounds like an excellent plan," Joyce offered. "Just take it slow."

"I will," Dawn promised.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"What happened? Where am I?" Kitty Pryde asked, head swiveling to look for threats.

"My memory appears to be damaged," the young man next to her said tonelessly. "I have no knowledge of how we came to be here or what is currently going on around us."

"Who are you?" Kitty asked.

"I am a Cyberdyne T-850c experimental cyborg, designated Alexander Lavelle Harris," Alexander replied.

"Cyborg?" Kitty asked, wondering if passing through him had somehow managed to scramble her memory instead of just scrambling his, as her power usually affected machines.

"Living flesh over a metal alloy endoskeleton," Alexander replied.

"I'm familiar with the concept," she replied. "Why are you here?"

"My orders are to find, protect, and obey, Dawn Anastasia Summers," he replied.

"Xander, Dawn!" a redhead yelled running up to them.

Alexander stepped protectively in front of Kitty.

"It's chaos out here!" the redhead complained. "People have turned into their costumes and they're running wild!"

"Who are you?" Kitty asked, peeking around the protective cyborg.

"Oh no, it got you too!" She groaned. "Ok, listen carefully, you aren't who you think you are. You are Xander Harris, my best friend and you are Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister."

A distant scream caused the redhead to spin around. "That sounds like, Buffy! We have to save her!"

"I'm Dawn Summers?" Kitty asked doubtfully.

"That is correct," 'Xander' said, "you are one Dawn Anastasia Summers."

"We have to hurry!" the redhead said reaching out for Xander and passing a hand through him.

"Watch it!" Kitty snapped moving protectively in front of Xander.

"What?" the redhead asked. "I can't hurt him, I can't hurt anyone; I dressed as a ghost, see?" She swung her hand at the two only to have it batted away by the irate brunette. "That's impossible, I'm immaterial!"

"Do not pass any part of your body through him!" Kitty ordered.

"My body is on a porch two blocks away!" the redhead exclaimed. "Can we rescue Buffy now?!"

"Fine, but remember what I said," Kitty ordered.

Xander followed the two keeping up effortlessly even as the two passed through physical barriers as if they didn't exist. He'd just ran through a picket fence, leaving a hole when they came upon a dark haired woman in medieval dress, cowering against a tree and being menaced by several small demonic figures.

"Get away from her!" the redhead yelled running through them and scaring them off.

Kitty spun around at the sound of a shotgun being cocked. "Minimal force only," she ordered. "They may be children and these ones are in retreat and no threat."

"Affirmative," Xander replied, standing at ready.

"Oh please, good sir, you must protect me, my father will pay you handsomely for my safe return!" Buffy swore.

"It's me Willow," the redhead said, "Don't you remember anything?"

"Willow?" Buffy said. "I most certainly don't remember any camp followers such as yourself, I am a lady of breeding."

"Xander, let's escort them to some place safe, or at least safer than standing around out here," Kitty ordered.

"Affirmative," Xander replied and turned to the other two young women. "Come with me if you want to live."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Kitty had taken charge and gotten them to safety, going so far as to make them stop for Willow's body, which provided further evidence that the red-haired ghost was telling the truth.

"That can't be me, I'd never wear such uncouth clothing, Buffy or 'Lady Elizabeth' as she insisted on being called said forcefully on seeing pictures of herself in the Summers' living room.

"Your body is Buffy Summers'," Kitty told her. "Could be an evil mage or something worse that caused this. Try not to fret about it, my personal guardsman will keep us safe until, the Good Lord or one of his servants sees fit to restore us."

"Thank you for your kind words and understanding," Elizabeth said calming down and giving her a small smile.

"The bodies we occupy are sisters," Kitty told her, "I could do no less for a kinsman."

A scream from outside caused Willow to stop trying to re-enter her body and instead stick her head through the door. "Cordelia's being chased by Sasquatch, you have to save her!"

Xander looked to Kitty who nodded. Stepping out on the porch he picked up a potted plant and threw it. The creature's howl cut off instantly and Xander stepped back inside and shut the door. "She has been saved," he reported.

Scarcely a few seconds later there was a pounding at the door that revealed an angry girl in a catsuit. An argument with Willow lead to the ghost running off to inform 'Giles' of what was going on. Meanwhile Kitty and Elizabeth talked, with Elizabeth taking great comfort from Kitty's presence, while Cordelia ranted in Xander's ear and he simply sat there waiting for orders.

Angel was halfway through the door to the living room when he found himself pinned in place with a shotgun against his throat.

"What are you doing? That's angel!" Cordelia complained smacking Xander in the head and shoulders to no effect.

"Xander, report," Kitty ordered.

"He has no pulse or respiration, and his body temperature is currently sixty-eight degrees," Xander replied.

"Vampire with a soul, remember?" Angel asked, wondering what was going on.

"Cordelia seems to know him," Kitty said. "Let him up, but if he makes a threatening move remove his head." Kitty was not a fan of vampires.

"Might we have some tea?" Elizabeth requested.

"Xander, would you please make us some tea?" Dawn asked.

"Affirmative," Xander replied entering the kitchen and taking Angel with him. The sounds of a brief scuffle broke out, but Xander returned a few minutes later no worse for the wear with tea for the three ladies and a stunned looking vampire.

"So, what's the deal?" Cordelia asked, finally taking note of everyone else.

"Everyone turned into their costume, or nearly everyone," Angel said.

"My name is Kitty Pryde and this is the Lady Elizabeth Summers," Kitty said.

"And you?" Cordelia asked Xander.

Xander looked to Dawn who nodded.

"I am a Cyberdyne T-850c Experimental cyborg designated Alexander Lavelle Harris."

Angel and Cordelia shrank back.

"Is that bad?" Kitty asked.

"He's a terminator!" Cordelia exclaimed moving as far away from him as possible.

"Cyborg from the future, sent back to kill the general who saves mankind," Angel summed up recalling the movie.

"His orders are to protect and obey me," Kitty told them.

"I don't recall that from the movie," Angel said.

"The sequel had a terminator sent back to save John Connor," Cordelia said. "The dork would dress as that one."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Are you sure we can't snag the slayer while she's weak?" Spike asked as they listened to the chaos outside, audible even in the normally quiet warehouse district.

"Kitten's all cold now," Dru said sadly. "I can feel his thoughts like spikes of cold iron waiting to be used. You can't drain a car, biting metal just chips fangs."

"The whelp you like has come into his own, has he?" Spike asked, knowing what she'd seen in Xander, despite how he'd hidden it.

"The iron in his blood has become steel," Dru said with a shudder. "Even turning wouldn't make him family now."

"Right, then," Spike decided. "Everyone pack up we're leaving now."

A potential monster had been forged into something even turning wouldn't allow them to co-exist with, that had time-to-go written all over it.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Buffy took off her wig. "Ok, that kinda sucked, but it could have been a whole lot worse."

Willow sat up and pulled the sheet off herself. "I'm alive!"

"Buffy," Angel said stepping up to her and the rest of the world ceased to exist for the two of them.

Dawn rolled her eyes and stepped over to Xander. "I believe we had a date with an IHOP," she said, snagging Xander's hand.

"Have I suddenly turned invisible?" Cordelia demanded.

Willow swallowed the comment she'd been about to make.

Dawn kicked the front door closed behind them. "That wasn't too bad, considering," she said as she recalled how Kitty's dates tended to go.

"It could have been much worse," Xander agreed readily.

Naturally that was the cue for a vampire to leap out of an alley at them.

"Eeep!" Dawn jumped and the vampire stumbled through her.

Xander grabbed the vampire's head and snapped its neck. "Looks like dinner is on him." Xander rolled him for cash and then staked him.

"Still?" she asked, seeing how easily he'd handled the vamp.

"Yep," he agreed, not needing to ask about her, he'd seen her phase through the vamp.

"So..." she said taking his arm, "still have to obey my orders?"

"Dawn!" he groaned.

"What?" she asked innocently. "I'm just askin." She smirked.

Typing by: Stephenopolos