Halloween, Part 4

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Halloween: Kendra

Because it was not full dark when the trick or treating hours began, Kendra was not out patrolling when the chaos began. That changed very quickly when the screaming started. She grabbed a stake and hustled out the door within seconds.

Sam, as was proper for a Watcher, merely looked up from his books briefly before returning his attention to them.

Once outside, Kendra found herself quite confused. While her life may have been regulated and controlled to a fare thee well, she was not totally ignorant of normal everyday life things, including television shows and movies. Mostly, she was aware of those that were popular enough to have become a part of everyday life - the stuff people reference in casual conversation without even thinking about it. It had been deemed prudent by Sam that she understand - and be able to use in appropriate circumstances - such references in order to not draw undue attention to herself. So to that end, he'd briefed her on the basics of each.

So she recognized a few costumes ... and quickly realized that the people wearing them were acting like the person they were dressed as. Unfortunately, she was unfamiliar enough with Halloween that she assumed the 'realism' with which people were 'acting' was normal. She wasn't even all that wrong, either, as some people did imitate whoever they were dressed as on Halloween. They just couldn't normally reach these levels of 'real'.

Even the screaming and running, at first, seemed like it might just be an extension of 'appropriate behavior' on this night. It wasn't until Kendra had walked for a while that she figured out something was truly amiss. At that point, she spotted what looked like some sort of demon clawing at a kid in a clearly home made costume. What clued Kendra in was the fact that wounds were opening under the claws, and blood was flowing.

Immediately she hurried over. Her sudden, aggressive movement startled the demon, who shot a look at her and bolted away. She stopped just long enough to make sure the kid's wounds weren't serious - which they weren't - and tell the kid to go home. The kid seemed only to happy to do so, and ran off.

Kendra continued on her way, keeping a sharper eye out now that she knew something was truly amiss, even if she couldn't quite figure out what, or why.

It was inevitable that tragedy would strike.

About fifteen minutes into her unscheduled patrol, Kendra spotted a demon she recognized. Unfortunately, unknown to her, it wasn't actually that demon. It was, in fact, a kid in a bespelled costume that had borne a close resemblance to said demon by sheer chance. Or maybe not. It was possible that someone had encountered and remembered that particular demon, then wrote about.

The 'demon' had a triad of kids that were barely more than toddlers cornered. One of the three was on the ground, bleeding from several cuts made by the 'demon's' claws. The 'demon' was paying no mind to its surroundings, far too focused on its helpless prey.

So Kendra did what she was trained to do.

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Halloween: Joyce and Giles

Giles had elected to stay at the Summers' house for the trick or treating. While the previous Halloween had gone by without a problem, Giles was no longer willing to take such chances. So he and Joyce had planned to take turns answering the door and handing out candy. When the screaming started, Giles immediately bolted for the basement and armed himself, then raced back upstairs.

He poked his head outside cautiously, and watched for a minute. It didn't take all that long before he realized what the problem was. Far more familiar with television shows and movies than Kendra, he rightfully identified several costumes, and the fact that the folks in them were both acting like who they were dressed as and acting VERY confused. He pulled back into the house briefly.

"Something's going on with the costumes." He told Joyce. "Some of the kids are acting like the characters and creatures they're dressed as." Giles frowned in thought for a few moments. "We need to figure out the hows and whys of this."

"And find the kids, and see if they're affected too." Joyce said. "They were all wearing costumes."

"Blast, I hadn't thought of that." Giles said, then sighed. "Well, Xander and Jon will be safe enough, as they're both dressed as soldiers. Buffy and Willow, however, are a concern. Especially if Buffy doesn't remember she is a Slayer." Giles' face went grim. "Right, need to find them. You stay ... " He started.

Joyce didn't let him finish. She gave him a death glare. "If you think I'm staying here and minding the house while my daughter is out there, possibly not even aware of who and what she is, and in danger from both costumed folks that feel like beating up on her and actual demons, you're crazy. I can handle myself, Giles."

Giles had the grace to look abashed. "Quite right. My apologies. It would seem that I have not yet managed to fully silence certain parts of my Watcher training."

Joyce grinned at him. "You're forgiven. I'll just go get some things to protect myself with, and then we can go find the kids." She hustled down to the basement and armed herself as well, choosing a crossbow as her main weapon, and a KA-Bar as her backup. Then she headed back upstairs.

"If I remember right, both Xander and Jon planned to take their kids around on this side of town, correct?" She asked. "And Buffy and Willow were going to head to the far end of town."

"Yes, that's correct." Giles said.

Joyce nodded. "Right, I'll see if I can track the girls down. You go find the boys. We'll meet up near Willy's Bar - that sound good?"

Giles nodded. "Unless you figure out how this is being done. In that case, come find me immediately, and I'll try to figure out how to stop it from there." Giles didn't really think Joyce would figure this out before he did, but he wasn't willing to completely dismiss the possibility.

The two of them headed out immediately.

Giles headed towards the high school, intending to find Xander first. He knew that Xander had intended to head down towards the Summers' house on his trick or treat route, so he was likely to be closest. Unfortunately, he didn't spot Xander anywhere on his proposed route.

Damn. Where could he have gotten to? It was pointless to search for him in the chaos. If he was affected, he could be anywhere. If he wasn't, he could still be anywhere, chasing after a real demon taking advantage of the situation, rescuing those not affected, or trying to find out what the heck was going on and fix it. Giles would waste entirely too much time seeking him out. Better to try to find Jon.

Jon, Giles managed to find fairly easily. He was down a road with a lot of apartment buildings on either side, alternating between beating up monsters and the odd real demon and grabbing those not affected and bringing them to a relatively defensible spot he'd found.

Watching Jon for a few moments, Giles realized that he was acting ... very much like his older self. Jon, while he had all of Jack's memories, hadn't had the either the muscle memory or the cumulative damage of a long, colorful life that had resulted in how Jack moved. As a result, while Jon had quickly re-familiarized himself with much of Jack's training after he'd been stabilized by Thor, Jon didn't move like his older counterpart.

Right now, however, Jon was moving remarkably like his older self, just minus some of the stiffness caused by bad knees. At one point, Jon looked right at Giles. At that point it became blatantly clear that Jon was affected by whatever was going on, because there wasn't so much as a flicker of recognition in Jon's expression, nor did he greet Giles, ask what was going on, or ask for assistance with his young charges.

Giles grimaced, but eventually decided to leave Jon to it. Whatever was going on, he was unlikely to accept assistance from a stranger. Giles would be better served trying to figure out what was going on. Jon could handle himself.

Instead, Giles headed for Willy's Bar. Joyce arrived a few minutes after he did.

"Found Willow. She's wandering around looking for Xander. I pointed her back towards the high school." Joyce said. "Didn't see Buffy, but that could mean anything. And Willow was definitely affected. She didn't recognize me."

Giles frowned. "I didn't spot Xander, but I did find Jon. He was affected as well. Hmm. Two of them, both with costumes from the same shop. I do believe that is a good enough place to start, even if it isn't the cause of the problem."

"Want me to come with?" Joyce asked.

Giles shook his head. "No, keep looking for Buffy and Xander, make sure they're all right. I do appreciate the offer, however."

"Right, will do. Fortunately, the 'fake' demons are easy to scare off, and not a whole lot of real ones around, so Buffy hopefully won't be in too much trouble." Joyce said, then smiled. "Then again, this is my daughter we're talking about. If there isn't trouble to find, she'll make some."

Giles gave Joyce an amused look before they went their own ways again.

It didn't take Giles long to find the costume shop, shut up tight now that the trick or treating had begun. From the outside it looked like only the security lights were on. Giles, however, wasn't fooled. A regular person might have been, but to anyone who had training in magic, the shop practically had flashing neon signs. So that was definitely the source of the problem. What Giles hadn't quite been prepared for was to *recognize* the magic in question.

He'd know Ethan's magical signature anywhere. Giles gave the shop a flat, almost evil glare, then rolled up his sleeves. Whatever Ethan was up to with this big a magical event, he wasn't going to make it easy to stop him. Giles briefly regretted allowing his magical training to lie dormant and unused for so long. He was about to get an unplanned workout.

He quietly cast a spell that would tell him if there were any lethal magical booby traps or other spells waiting for him. He didn't think there would be, but there was no telling when Ethan was involved. Thankfully, the spell came up empty. Well, at least this wasn't going to be *that* sort of difficult.

The spells that Giles encountered when he forced the door open sent him reeling back out into the street briefly. He, in point of fact, came to within a whisker of vomiting.

"Hmmm." He muttered to himself. "Definitely a disorientation spell. Well, that's dealt with easily enough." A whispered incantation and he headed back in.

Only to end up back out in the street again, this time because the 'forget why you're there' spells had gotten him. Giles growled in aggravation. "Ethan, I am going to beat you bloody for this." He warned. He didn't know if Ethan could hear him, of course, but it was the spirit of the thing.

Another incantation, and this time Giles managed to stay in the shop once he was in the door. Without the disorientation spell muddling his perceptions, he was able to realize that the shop ... looked a bit larger than it possibly could be. That was easily enough taken care of.

Which still left him with a shop that reeked of magic, and no Ethan in sight. Giles glanced around briefly ... and spotted one of the fake totems. He quickly recognized it as a totem to Janus, which wasn't wholly unexpected at this point. He didn't need to look at it closely to know it was a fake, either. Not because it was visibly wrong, but because Ethan would never put the actual totem in such a prominent, relatively unprotected place. No, the totem would be somewhere a bit more secure than that. The only question was *where* exactly, it could be.

Unfortunately, Giles didn't really get a chance to figure that out, as Ethan came out of the back of the shop, an almost - almost- friendly smile on his face.

"Ripper." He greeted. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up, old friend. You're getting slow on the uptake. But I suppose that's what becoming a Watcher does to you."

In another time, another place, Giles might have verbally remonstrated with his erstwhile friend. He might have tried to talk sense into the man and get him to tell Giles what he needed to know. But that was not here, and it was not now. While Giles might still be struggling with a few of the behaviors encouraged in him during his Watcher training, both his history as Ripper and the interventions of Jim, Jack, and Jon had seen to it that attempting to talk sense into someone that he knew wouldn't be willing to *see* sense never even crossed his mind.

Knowing that at this point, Ethan was the stronger, better trained magician, Giles didn't try to make it a magical battle either. Nor was he willing to give Ethan the time to think to make it a magical battle. Despite feeling it was slightly uncouth, Giles just closed the distance between the two of them in a rush and applied his foot where it would do the most good. When Ethan crumpled forward, Giles swiftly punched him in the face, breaking his nose and making speaking difficult. He then shifted his leg and brought his knee into Ethan's stomach while he was still bent forward, depriving him of the air necessary to speak. From there, it was ridiculously simple to force Ethan to the ground.

One knee on Ethan's chest, one hand clamped around a wrist and the other around Ethan's throat so that he might cut off the man's air if he tried to speak a spell or get loose, Giles glared down at Ethan.

"Tell me where the totem is." Giles commanded, more than a little of the Ripper leaking into his tone.

"Well hello ... " Ethan started, only to cut off with a faint noise as Giles tightened his grip on Ethan's throat briefly.

"Tell me where the totem is." Giles commanded again, his tone implacable.

Ethan must have seen something in Giles' expression, because he caved. "Under the floor just inside the front door." He wheezed.

Giles promptly knocked him unconscious, then headed for the indicated spot. Sure enough, he found the totem. One hard fling and it shattered on the concrete just outside the door. At the same moment the totem broke, Giles, in close proximity to it, felt the spell break, and a few seconds later the screaming stopped.

Giles breathed a sigh of relief, then returned to Ethan to tie him up and drag him ... well, somewhere. Not the Summers' home. The two of them needed to have a chat, old friend to old friend.