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The Warrior and the Witch
Halloween
By Jeconais
Xander was excited.
No, Xander was ecstatic.
In fact, as far as Xander was concerned, he was every word he could think of beginning with E. Not that that was many, and he certainly wasn't egalitarian, not that he was even sure what that meant. Egotistical, well, that one was probably true. Eccentric? Well, maybe, after all, he was excited and ecstatic. Effluvia? Where the hell had he heard that one, and wasn't it near Poland?
The reason for this excitement? He had his Halloween costume. Now, some might imply that he was a little old to be excited by such things, a little too mature. Well, he definitely stuck his tongue out at them. Halloween was the best time of the year, when people pretended to be the things he normally helped kill. Any further thought was completely halted as he arrived at his destination.
"Buffster, Duchess of Buffonia, Buff-Meister, Buff-field heights," he started with a grin, only to be met by a firm face that wasn't showing any amusement.
"Stop," the blonde Slayer demanded. "Hand over any and all sugar on your person at this moment, before saying another word."
"But," Xander prevaricated, desperately thinking how he could escape.
"Now! Xander." The face turned from stern to a glare.
Reluctantly, the brunet boy reached towards his pockets, when there was a knock on Buffy's door.
"Buffy," Dawn, her younger sister, shouted through the door. "Willow's on the phone."
Xander was forgotten, as Buffy jumped to her feet and dashed out of the door, cursing the fact that her phone was broken.
"Quick, Xan," Dawn said, poking her head around the door. "She won't be distracted for long. Willow's not on the phone."
Xander grinned and followed the pretty girl out, and into her bedroom, where she locked the door behind them. He sat on the floor, while she perched happily on the end of her bed.
"Half," she demanded instantly.
Xander nodded, figuring that half his candy stash was better than none of his candy stash. Besides, nothing annoyed Buffy more than him on a sugar high, than him and Dawn on a sugar high.
"I have taught you well, young one," Xander intoned in a level voice.
"Yes, Sensei," Dawn smirked, having seen Karate Kid way too many times with him.
"Dawn, Xander, you better not be eating candy! I am SO not in the mood for that right now."
The two looked at each other and giggled silently.
"I swear, sometimes I don't know which one of you is more mature. My twelve year old sister or my seventeen year old supposed best male friend."
"Dawn is," Xander yelled back through the door without hesitation. "But I'm corrupting her nicely."
"Xannndddeeerrr," Buffy groaned. "I'm gonna kill you, then Mom is gonna kill you."
"No, she won’t," Dawn argued, trying hard not to laugh as Xander impersonated the faces he thought Buffy would be making. "Mom loves Xander."
"Yeah," Xander agreed, shoving a Twinkie in his mouth, so it came out muffled.
"Gaaarrgggghhhh," the Slayer yelled, only the cost of replacing the door locks keeping her from knocking the door down.
"Why don't you go and get a shower, cool off a bit, then I'll come out and we'll finish off the plans for tomorrow night?" Xander said hopefully.
After a few minutes of silence, they grinned at each other as they heard the shower start.
"So, what's her problem today?" Xander asked.
Dawn looked guilty. "I think she should tell you."
"Dawn? Come on, it's me, the Xander-man, you can tell me anything."
She sighed, and looked down at her feet as they bounced on the edge of the bed she was sitting on. In a rush, she explained, "Mom's been told to work tomorrow, and we had to cancel the party, Mom told Buffy that she would have to take me with her, and Buffy's upset about it."
Xander paused, blinking as he tried to slow the words down mentally and make sure he understood.
Dawn held her breath, knowing he could rip out her heart right now.
"Cool," he said with a grin. "We'll get so much more candy if you are with us."
Dawn sighed happily, Xander was so wonderful.
"Some people object to giving candy to me, but with a cute girl around, we'll rake it in."
The young girl laughed happily.
"Who are you going to go as?" Xander asked curiously, un-wrapping a Jolly Rancher.
She blushed, "It's a secret."
"Ok," Xander replied, looking appraisingly at her. "I'm going as a soldier. I actually came over to show Buffy this." He pulled out a medium sized pistol, "It looks just like the real thing, but it's a water pistol."
"Cool," Dawn said. "What's Buffy going as?"
Xander smirked widely, making Dawn's heart miss a beat. "Aristocracy, she's got an old style ball gown, and a black wig."
Dawn fell back on to her bed, laughing hysterically.
"She's trying to impress her boyfriend," Xander explained.
Dawn smiled internally, "What does she see in him?"
"Dunno, tall, dark and mysterious?"
'Score!' Dawn's mind yelled. She had seen Angel once, and he had pretty much ignored her, but she knew that Xander hated him, so insulting him would get her on Xander's good side.
"Xander," Buffy interrupted, sounding a little better. "My room, now!"
Xander jumped to his feet and smiled at the girl, before dropping her a wink and vanishing.
Dawn sighed happily, and then looked depressed. 'Great, you get him alone, in your room, and you make a complete fool out of yourself, blush bright red, then laugh hysterically at your sister. Way to prove that your mature and grown up. How is he supposed to get the message that we belong together and kiss me?' She tried very hard to ignore the voice that pointed out the five year age difference, the fact that she wasn't quite sure what kissing involved, and the fact that he only thought of her as his best friend’s little sister.
"I take it little miss talk-a-lot has told you?" Buffy asked with a pout.
"Yep, don't worry about it though, it'll be fun."
"Xander, she's an annoying brat."
"She's not that bad, she's fun," Xander protested. Having someone he could act like a kid with tomorrow would not be that much of a hardship. At least she talked to him, not at him.
Buffy rolled her eyes, and changed the subject. "Angel’s going to be busy tomorrow night, something about a vampire holiday. It will just be me, you, Willow and Dawn."
Xander threw her a trademark grin, "Two hotties, one definite pre-hottie and me. Perfect!"
"It kinda disturbs me when you call my sister a pre-hottie," Buffy said with a frown.
Xander shrugged, "Well, in just a couple of years she's gonna be one, Buff. She’s gonna leave a trail of men in her wake, all with broken hearts. Kinda like her older sister."
Buffy smiled, placated. "What did you want to show me, anyway?"
"Oh," Xander grinned. He pulled out his gun again, "What do you think?"
"Err, where did you get that?" The Slayer looked a little nervous.
"Relax, it's a water pistol," he laughed. "It's for my soldier boy costume tomorrow, I'm gonna pretend that it’s a never ending gun with anti-vampire bullets."
Buffy laughed, "Kay, so we'll meet here at six?"
"Sure," he gave her a hug on his way out, shouting a bye to Dawn and Joyce as he left in a hurry.
In her room, Dawn was twirling with happiness. Somehow, Buffy still hadn't figured out that she could hear everything that her sister said, thanks to an air vent. All she had to do was stand on her chair and listen hard. He thought she was a hottie! Well, would be, but that wasn't relevant. All she had to do was make sure the only heart she didn't break was his.
Xander arrived at Buffy's house earlier than arranged, since they had been grabbed by their troll of a principal, Snyder, and forced to escort a bunch of kids through tonight’s festivities. He wasn't too worried, if having Dawn would be good for his candy collection, having a bunch of even younger kids would be even better.
He adjusted his beret, and strode through the door. "'Ten Shun," he yelled.
Buffy and Joyce both jumped; then shot twin glares at him. "So you're saying that I should stick with 'Hey'?"
They both nodded, moderating the glare only a little bit. Joyce was dressed in a tailored women’s business suit, while Buffy was looking fantastic in her Noble Woman’s costume. He fell to his knees, and repeated his greeting from the day before, adding, "I'm in awe of such beauty, and I completely renounce spandex!"
Joyce laughed, while Buffy blushed.
"Dawn ready?" he asked, raring to go. He could hear the candy calling his name, or maybe that was the men in white coats, either way - he was ready for business.
"Dawn," Buffy screeched, causing both Xander and Joyce to wince. "It's time to go!"
The first thing that Xander saw was two black shoes, followed by two legs encased in black pantyhose. He frowned as he tried to guess the character, a black dress followed, and his eyes widened with pleasure as he saw the large square silver belt buckle. His suspicion was confirmed as the large white collar came into view. Her face was unnaturally pale, her lips enhanced by a little of her mothers lipstick, and her hair was braided tightly into two plaits on either side of her face.
Xander applauded.
"Hello Alexander," she said, expressionlessly.
"Wednesday," he greeted with a smile.
"Buffy," she looked at her sister, staying in character. "It is time for us to leave. Goodbye, Mother."
Joyce laughed softly, and restrained the urge to ruffle her youngest’s hair. "Be good," she called to all three, and left for work.
"Ok," Xander said enthusiastically, "Let's go get Willow, then pick up the kids."
"What kids?" Dawn asked.
"Snyder volunteered us to baby-sit a bunch of kids tonight," Buffy explained with a frown.
"Excellent. They will make perfect victims," Dawn said, keeping in character.
"You're really good at that," Xander grinned at her.
"Don't you encourage her, Xander!"
Dawn broke character long enough to poke her tongue out at her sister.
They picked up Willow, who was dressed as a ghost. "That's not the costume I picked out for you!" Buffy announced, sounding a little upset.
Willow blushed, "It was too revealing, people could see my...you know."
"That was the point, Wills. You know, showing a different you."
Their argument continued between themselves, leaving Xander and Dawn to joke about in the back.
In a costume shop, the proprietor smiled to himself, his spell was ready.
With everything in place, he intoned "Janus, I invoke your spirit. Hear my plea. Seize the night for your own reason. Come, appear and show to us that which is infinite power. The mask transforms itself into flesh and blood. Your holy presence curdles the heart. Janus! Take the night!"
"What the hell?" Xander looked around, "Where the hell am I?"
Up the road, a beast turned and looked at him, snarling. Xander calmly pulled his gun from his holster, dropped to one knee and prepared to shoot. He had been taught to shoot first, and ask questions later, but he had taken that a step forward after the FUBAR a few weeks ago. His new motto was "Shoot first, continue to shoot, shoot last, then maybe get some answers from the corpse."
He was about to fire, when a soft hand touched his arm.
"No. The blood of an innocent shoots through the heart of the beast."
"What?" he asked, staring at the young girl standing next to him.
"The creature is not what it seems," she said serenely.
"Who the hell are you?"
"My name is irrelevant. You will put down the gun now."
He put his gun away, almost without thinking about it. The girl was looking at him through impossibly black eyes, piercing his soul. She looked to be about twelve, at least until you saw her ageless eyes, eyes that had seen as much as he had, that had faced the same darkness and bathed in it.
"We will find the others," she pronounced, as a scream suddenly echoed through the air.
Hearing it, Xander started to run, only to be stopped by the strangely gentle touch that had the power to command him. He was not used to listening to anyone, never mind some midget girl.
"We will go together."
She turned and started to walk towards the scream, hardly seeming to move, yet Xander had to jog to keep up with her.
They were stopped by a couple of vampires, who had been informed by Spike that the pickings would be good on their usual night off, so had decided to see what was going on."
"There is no innocence in these hearts, you may kill them."
Xander's gun was in his hand before she had finished speaking. It barked twice, and the heads of each vampire exploded.
"What the hell was that?" Xander asked, staring at his pistol as the bodies disintegrated.
"What sort of bullets have I got in here?" He tried to remove the clip, but found it was welded in place. He looked worried - it was an *extremely* bad plan to go into a hostile situation and not know how much ammunition you had.
"The bullets will last, as long as you need them," the girl said calmly, and started moving again.
"Wait," Xander grabbed her, spinning her around. A second later, she was free, without seeming to have moved.
"You do not have permission to touch me," she said quietly. "Do not make that mistake again."
"Who are you?"
She sighed. "My name is Wednesday." She then turned and walked off again, causing Xander to jog after her, shaking his head.
He frowned, really not liking this. He was alone, with no backup and an unknown amount of ammunition for his pistol, in a strange place, with strange creatures, accompanied by a girl that scared him more than a platoon of gooks. All he could do was sigh; he felt that she would not hurt him, as long as he did what she said.
They arrived at the house the scream had come from, and a blonde dressed in a ball gown came sprinting out. It impressed him how she managed to scream and run at the same time. He reached out with one arm, and easily caught her, lifted her and placed her in front of them.
"What's the problem, Ma'am?" he asked.
"M-M-M-M-Monsters," she shivered eyes bright with unshed tears. She took a deep breath, and prepared to scream again.
"Do not scream, you will only attract their attention."
The serene voice was the same as a slap across her face, causing her to look down at the girl standing calmly next to the large, handsome, rugged man who had stopped her. For some reason, the girl scared her almost as much as the monsters did, but she was obviously with her burly protector, a man who would save her virtue.
"I don't like it here," she fluttered her eyebrows at him.
Xander shrugged, unconcerned, while Dawn restrained the urge to roll her eyes.
"We will get you to a safe place, Ma'am, and any others who need help."
"My Hero," Buffy simpered.
"Come," Dawn said, turning and gliding off once more.
"I don't like her," Buffy whined. "Can't we leave her?"
"No," Xander replied sharply. "She seems to be the only person who knows what is going on, and I trust her. Come on," he to turned and moved off.
Buffy frowned, unhappily, and gathered her long skirts up a little, and walked after them.
"Do we have to save her?" Dawn asked quietly.
Xander just laughed.
Another of the demons, smelling them, stopped. Its eyes glowed with an eager lust for death and violence. With a loud growl, it bounded towards the three.
Buffy screamed and hid behind Xander, shaking, grabbing hold of him. He struggled to throw her off, trying to get his hand free so he could pull out his pistol but she was a lot stronger than she looked. He heard the girl sigh lightly, and step in front of him. He looked on with horror as the beast got closer, and managed to finally free his hand, reaching for his gun.
It wasn't needed. As the beast approached them, the girl knelt daintily on one knee, and stared at the approaching animal.
It continued to approach, till it got near enough to meet her eyes. It yelped, and stopped running, skidding to a halt next to her. In fear, it looked into the dark eyes and saw something it couldn't understand. She was its master, its lord, its pack leader. It did the only thing it could do, and rolled onto its back in a display of submission.
She lightly scratched the beast’s stomach, and then whispered, "Come." Dawn stood again, threw a glance at her companion and the irritating woman, and continued to walk, leaving the animal behind.
Xander shrugged Buffy off. "How am I supposed to protect you if you get in the way?" he demanded, disgustedly.
Buffy, a noble woman to the core, did the only thing she could do, burst into tears.
"You heartless beast," she cried dramatically. "Here I am, miles away from home, lost, surrounded by demons of the night, my virtue at danger at every turn, and my knight turns into an ill mannered ruffian."
Xander rolled his eyes. "Your virtue’s perfectly safe from me," he muttered under his breath. He couldn't think of anything worse than getting involved with someone so useless and clingy.
"Buffy!" A voice called to them. A man dressed all in black, with slicked down hair, approached them in a hurry.
Xander looked at Dawn. "Kill him?" he asked, hopefully.
She looked undecided, so Xander pulled his gun, just in case. "I can feel the blood of nations staining his soul; he is both evil and good."
"Stop!" Xander demanded, pointing the gun at the stranger.
"Xander, this is not the time," the man yelled back, still heading towards them.
Xander fired once, and the fence next to the man exploded into fragments.
"Perhaps it is the time," Angel muttered quietly, changing his mind and halting in his tracks.
"The girl says you are both good and evil; explain quickly."
"I'm a vampire, I killed, but I was cursed with a soul, I regret everything I did." As cliff notes versions go, it was superb.
He looked down, and the dark haired girl nodded. "You may approach."
Angel restrained the urge to sigh, and walked straight to Buffy. "How are you?" he asked, his voice warm and caring.
Buffy squealed and hid behind Xander again, "Protect me from the beast."
He looked down at Dawn. "This is getting tiresome."
She nodded in agreement. "You love the woman?" she asked.
Angel nodded. "Yes, I do."
"Take her, keep her safe."
"What?" Buffy demanded. "You can't leave me with this loathsome creature of the night."
Dawn looked into her sister’s eyes, "Would you rather stay with me?"
Buffy gulped, opened her mouth, closed it and gulped again. "No," she said meekly.
The very faintest hint of a smile touched her face. "I thought not."
"Do you know what is going on?" Xander asked the vampire.
"A little," he admitted. "I ran into Willow, she's a friend of yours. She's a ghost, and says that something has turned you all into your Halloween costumes."
Dawn nodded quietly, while Xander said, "Oh. Who by?"
"We don't know. Willow has gone to meet Giles, he may know."
"The eyes of Janus point over there," Dawn announced quietly, moving her hand to the west.
Xander nodded, "We'll go and recon it." He looked at the vampire again, "How do I kill your kind?"
"Wooden stake to the heart, or decapitation," Angel said. He had noticed the air of competency in Xander, put it down to his costume, and so treated him with more respect than he might have normally. Besides, it never paid to annoy a man with a large gun, a short temper and explosive bullets.
The brunet boy nodded, "Do you have any spare stakes?"
Angel nodded and handed him a stake. Xander twirled it lightly in his fingers, then turned suddenly and threw it hard over Dawn's shoulder. It hit the vampire he had spotted sneaking on them perfectly in the heart, where it exploded into dust a second later.
He jogged over and retrieved it, ignoring the stunned looks of Angel and Buffy.
"If you fail to protect her, your death will be slow and painful," Xander told Angel calmly. The girl’s attitude was rubbing off on him, and he liked it.
If it had been possible for the vampire to pale any further, he would have. For the first time, Xander scared him, and it wasn't a feeling he liked.
Dawn lightly touched his hand, "Come."
Xander nodded, and together they moved away, him moving silently through years of training, her hardly seeming to move at all, but managing to set the pace.
"Seven vampires are coming, you are capable of killing five, I will deal with the other two."
Xander looked a little nervous, palming his pistols. The vampires burst into view from around a corner, rushing him before he could get more than two shots off, leaving him with a three against one situation. He hoped the girl could do what she said, as he took two steps forward and launched a powerful kick into the stomach of the lead vampire. He followed it up by smoothly staking it in the back as it bent over.
The vampires were almost rabid in their hate, they had been cut to ribbons by a mere human. They swore vengeance on him first, and Spike second. The lead vampire, a dark haired biker type with a straggly beard, growled and leapt forward, swinging his claws at Xander's face.
Xander swayed back the exact inch needed to avoid the swipe, and grabbed the hand. In a smooth movement that spoke of many years of training, he jumped, pressed his feet against the vampire’s chest and twisted his whole body. To his surprise, instead of destroying the shoulder, the arm ripped off in his hands, leaving him to struggle for a second to keep his balance as he half-fell to the ground.
The vampire roared in agony, and dropped to his knees.
Xander swung the arm, using it as a weapon to hit the second vampire. As his second opponent fell to the ground, he staked the first, and then grinned evilly. "One on one, my sort of odds."
The vampire looked over Xander's shoulder and seeing what had happened to his colleagues, turned and ran, as hard as he could.
Xander dropped to one knee, took aim, and removed the vampire’s head from its shoulders. He then turned, and smiled in amazement.
In front of him, was a bonfire, of the sort used to burn witches during the Salem trials. The last two vampires were tied to the post in the centre, begging for mercy.
Dawn finished pouring the gasoline over the wood and looked at Xander.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette lighter, offering it to her.
She graced him with a smile, and ignoring the vampires’ frantic pleas, knelt and struck the lighter, igniting the gas.
The fire raced around the outside of the gathered branches, the gas igniting the dry wood quickly. The flames started to creep up the bonfire, edging inexorably towards the two struggling vampires.
Dawn looked up, wondering what this Xander thought about her torture.
He looked down at her. "I could do with some marshmallows."
She graced him with another hint of a smile, and opened her hand. In it were two fluffy pink marshmallows.
He grinned at her, picked up a couple of sticks, took the candy and toasted it carefully. When it was suitably crisp on the outside, he offered one to Dawn, and ate the other himself.
The girl ate it innocently, almost smiling as the flames touched the feet of the vampires. A second later it was over, as the vampires burnt themselves to dust.
As one, the warrior and the witch turned and walked down the street.
"This place looks familiar," Xander said with a frown, as they stopped outside an old fashioned costume shop.
Dawn nodded, and opened the door.
They were greeted by a tall man, with a long face and short brown hair. "Ahh, the soldier and the TV star," he greeted them mockingly. "Having a good night?"
"Shoot him in the leg," Dawn said calmly, and before Ethan could react, Xander drew his weapon and did exactly that, destroying the Englishman’s knee.
He screamed in agony, falling to the floor, and fainting.
Working together, Xander and Dawn cleared his counter. Xander opened the till and pulled out the money tray, discovering a surprisingly large amount. He split it into two roughly equal parts and offered one to his young companion.
She looked a little surprised, or maybe she didn't, maybe he was just reading her better. Her eyes seemed to talk to him in a way he had never experienced before.
"Keep it for me," she whispered.
Xander lifted the unconscious man to the counter, and grabbed some rope to tie him down.
As Dawn watched on approvingly, Xander moved to the back, filled a bucket with water and dumped it over the man, waking him.
"What are you doing?" he yelled.
"The eyes of Janus say that you are guilty," Dawn intoned.
"What?" If possible, he suddenly looked more scared than before.
"You have caused this, and now you will tell me how to stop it."
"No," he spat defiantly.
"What is your name?" Dawn asked gently.
He looked at her, his eyes filled with hate.
Dawn reached out and touched his damaged knee lightly, then squeezed hard. "Your name?"
"Fuck you."
Xander growled and took a step forwards. He smacked the man across the face with the back of his hand. "Mind your language in front of the lady."
"She ordered me shot, and is now torturing me, and you’re concerned about my language?" The man asked incredulously, his eyes brows shooting into his hairline. "I don't believe this."
"Your name," Dawn whispered again, squeezing once more.
He screamed, and then whimpered, "Ethan, Ethan Rayne."
Dawn's face seemed to smile, although her expression didn't change.
"You like chaos," she whispered, a voice so quiet that it should not have been able to be heard, yet it filled them both, louder than a shout. "You like how it feels, don't you? I can give it to you, I will call chaos down on to you, and watch while it rips your soul into a thousand little pieces. I can make it put you back together and do it again. You can be the new Prometheus," she suggested.
Ethan's eyes went impossibly wide; the last thing he had expected was his creations to turn on him.
"How do we stop it," Xander demanded quietly. "You're better off telling her. She scares me and I'm on her side."
Dawn's fingers probed the wound, and then suddenly dug in, her nails sliding into the wound.
Ethan screamed.
"Look," Xander said desperately, "tell me how we end this, and she'll stop, I'll be able to make her stop."
Dawn took Xander's lighter and lit it; she passed the flame from the lighter to her thumb, and moved her hand back down to the wound.
Ethan screamed again as the sound of sizzling flesh reached his ears, a mere second before the pain did.
As Dawn stopped, Xander leaned in. "If you tell me how to stop it, I'll let you go, and hold her back. You'll be able to get out of town, you'll live."
Ethan was breathing heavily; his face was white and drenched in sweat. He looked down, and saw that Dawn had found some industrial solvent and was calmly undoing the lid. She moved the bottle over his leg, and slowly started to tip it.
"Stop," Ethan yelled. "I’ll tell, I'll tell you," he cried. "You have to make a sacrifice to Janus at midnight; the only way to stop it is to offer him a broken heart."
He collapsed back down on to the counter, and panted. "Now let me go," he begged softly.
Dawn turned slowly, placing the solvent down on the floor, kicking it over, knocking over other chemicals as she found them. "Kill him," she whispered.
Xander shrugged and pulled out his gun. "You said you would let me go," Ethan said, trying to squirm away. "Don't you want to know why I did it, what I was getting out of it? I have more information."
"I don't care," the soldier informed him quietly, and pulled the trigger.
He joined Dawn outside, and watched as she threw a flame through the doorway, igniting the gathered chemicals and causing the building to explode.
They walked away, Dawn still gliding effortlessly.
"Why are you still here," Dawn asked quietly. "I am evil."
"No, you're not," Xander replied quietly. "You're grey, like I am. You see the world how it is, and act accordingly."
He could tell she didn't believe him, so continued. "Ethan was evil; he caused this just for the chaos it would bring. He wasn't going to tell us, so we persuaded him. The vampires before were evil, so we killed them. The beasts at the start, you said "the blood of an innocent shoots through the heart of the beast". We've killed the evil, done what we have to do. We will continue to do that."
"I like you," Dawn said softly.
"I like you, too."
"What have you done that is grey?"
"Assassinations, dodgy missions, even worked as a Merc once," he shrugged.
"Xander, Dawn," a voice yelled.
Xander turned, pulling his gun out and pointing as fast as he could blink.
A red headed ghost, wearing a revealing outfit that emphasized her chest and flat stomach, ran over to them. "Guys," she panted softly. "We know who's doing this. It's the guy who rented us our costumes; Giles is coming now to stop him."
"It's too late," Xander said quietly.
"What, why?" Willow asked, talking faster as her breath came back.
"Ethan is dead," he told her, keeping up with Dawn, presuming that she knew where she was going.
"What!" Willow asked again, stopping. It took her a few seconds to realize that her best guy friend and other best friend’s sister had not stopped.
"Wait," she tried to grab Xander and Dawn on their respective shoulders.
Her hand went straight through Xander without stopping, but as she touched Dawn, she yelled as a sudden burst of pain hit her.
"You do not have permission to touch me," the girl said quietly, without stopping.
Xander didn't even look to see if Willow was ok.
As soon as she realized she was ok, she caught up with the two of them. She was relieved as Giles walked up the road, fire in his eyes.
"Giles," she yelled, attracting his attention. "Xander says that Ethan is dead."
The Watcher ran over to them, "What?"
The two looked at each other, neither of their expressions changing, yet they exchanged a smile.
"He’s dead," Xander said once more.
"How?" Giles asked.
"Bullet to the brain, followed by a quick cremation."
"Who shot him?"
"I did."
"Why?"
"He caused this, because he loved the chaos. We gave him permanent chaos."
"But he is the only one who can stop this lunacy." Neither of them knew that the cockney accent he was using was not his normal one.
"He told us how to stop it."
"What?" Giles blinked. "Will you two stop moving and tell me what’s going on?"
"No," Dawn replied quietly.
"I didn't think Ethan would give up his secret very easily," Giles said, struggling a little to keep up with them.
"He didn't want to, we persuaded him." Xander was starting to get slightly irritated with the endless questioning.
"How?"
"You don't want to know," Dawn hissed, pinning him with her eyes. "The eyes of Janus said he was guilty and demanded that he pay. Pay he did."
Giles gulped, the ageless dark eyes before him scared him.
"Ask no more questions, son of Eyghon."
Giles did as he was told, wondering exactly who the hell Dawn had turned into.
Xander lightly touched her arm; somehow he knew he had permission to touch her now.
She turned and looked at him, they communicated silently for a minute, before she nodded.
"Where are the vampire and the annoying lady?" Xander asked.
Giles looked confused for a second, before Willow said, "Angel and Buffy?"
Xander shrugged.
"They are at Joyce's art gallery, it's down that road."
Without a word, the two turned and walked towards it.
Willow and Giles hung back a little.
"Who is Dawn?" Giles asked, referring to her costume.
"Wednesday Addams," Willow replied quietly. "She was the oldest daughter on the Addams family, her mother, Morticia was a witch."
"I think we can assume that she is a witch as well. Have you seen her eyes?"
Willow shook her head. "I tried to touch her, and it hurt."
Giles nodded slowly, "She is a witch, and she's dealt with things no one her age should ever be exposed to. I've seen that look before, when I was younger. Was the character evil?"
Willow thought for a second. "Not really, no."
"What about Xander? What is his costume?"
"It's just a generic soldier outfit," Willow said, confused.
"I don't think so," Giles said thoughtfully. "A normal soldier doesn't kill without any remorse like that. He's been trained that way."
"Isn't that Angel?" Willow asked suddenly, as a tall man ran towards them
He arrived in front of Dawn and Xander, but before he could speak, Xander grabbed his arm, stepped into his chest, and flipped the vampire onto his back. In the same movement, he pulled out his gun and pressed it against the vampires head. "You left her, why should I let you live?"
Angel gulped, looking into Xander's eyes. They clearly told him that if he struggled, or gave the wrong answer, he would be dead. Again. "She wouldn't let me near her, kept screaming, then demanding stuff. I left her with her mother while I went to get her a drink. When I tried to go back in, Spike had taken them hostage, along with at least twenty other vampires. I came here to get help as soon as I could."
Xander looked at Dawn, she thought for a second, and then nodded. Xander released the vampire and re-holstered his weapon.
"Who is Spike?"
"A master vampire; he runs most of the un-dead part of the town, along with his girlfriend, Drusilla."
Xander turned back to Dawn and raised one eyebrow. To the others, the girl’s expression didn't change one iota, but to him, he saw surprise, followed by a period of thought, followed by something that almost looked like pride in him.
She reached up and gently touched his face, smiling expressionlessly as he didn't move.
They turned and continued onwards.
"Ok, that is really spooky," Willow said quietly. "What the hell is going on between them?"
"Their souls match," Angel shrugged, not really concerned about it.
"Xander's seventeen, Dawn's twelve. How can their souls match?"
Giles removed his glasses, absently polishing them. "At the moment, she's a witch who's seen more than I have, and he's a soldier trained to kill. I don't believe age has anything to do with it."
"What happened to Ethan?" Angel asked.
"Dawn and Xander got there first, they know how to stop this, and he is dead."
Angel thought about it for a second, and then shrugged. A vampire, even one with a soul, didn't feel much sympathy for a chaos worshiper who cast a spell on a bunch of children.
The two stopped a couple of shops up from the gallery. Xander leant down and listened as Dawn whispered into his ear. He thought about it for a second, and then made his own recommendations, based on the training he had received in hostage retrieval.
"Willow, come here," Xander demanded.
Reluctantly, the ghost nodded and approached them.
"Hold out your hands."
Willow did, then gasped in pain as Dawn ran her own hands over the tips, before nodding with satisfaction.
"You're going to help us take out the lesser vampires," Xander said.
"I'm a ghost, no touching," Willow argued, reminding them of her incorporeal state.
Xander smirked; he ran his hand straight through her arms. He then pulled back the sleeve of his left arm, and slid his arm over the tips of her fingers. Four thin trails of blood appeared.
"Looks like you have claws, now." The grin was pure Xander, and for a second, Willow forgot about the possession. "You can fight them, but they can't touch you."
Willow looked stunned; her knowledge of magic, gleaned from reading some of Giles’ books, didn't even hint that this was possible, never mind that it could be done by a young witch so easily.
Dawn reached out, and lightly took Xander’s arm. She touched her fingers to his scratches, removing the blood and healing the wounds underneath.
He nodded slowly, answering the question long before it was asked. She took her finger and lightly tasted the blood. The moment was endless for the two of them; something changed a little more, the same thing that had been changing since the start of the evening.
"Angel, you will protect the annoying woman and this Joyce. Giles, you and Willow will concentrate on the lesser vampires. Spike and Drusilla must be kept alive." Xander didn't move his eyes from Dawn’s for a single second as he gave the orders.
"I don't thi..." Angel started, before he was interrupted.
"It doesn't matter what you think," Dawn hissed. "You will do as Xander told you, or you will die. The choice is yours." Like Xander, she didn't look away for a second.
Reluctantly, the souled vampire nodded.
Angel and Giles both pulled out stakes, wondering when the attack would start.
They both missed it.
Xander and Dawn stopped their soul searching and turned as one, Xander sprinting, Dawn was keeping up with him, hardly moving.
A second before they got there, Xander felt a tingle as Dawn boosted his strength. Using his advanced technique, Xander jumped, spun a full 360 degree rotation and launched the most powerful kick of the soldier’s life against the locked aluminum doors.
The doors had no chance at all, the lock snapped instantly, the two panels swung on their hinges then snapped free, each flying into the nearest wall.
Xander landed, crouched, and took off again. The noise attracted Giles, Angel and Willow. Giles swore, and took off, Angel and the ghostly Willow a second later.
It took the merest glance for Xander to take in the scene; the annoying woman and her mother were tied together in the middle of the large display room. A bleached blonde vampire, and a dark haired vampire dressed in black were taunting them, the other vampires standing around and laughing.
Six vampires died almost before the sound of the door exploding hit them. Xander, still moving at full speed had pulled his pistol and squeezed off six shots, each one hitting a vampire perfectly, before the sound he had been expecting hit him. The gun was empty. He discarded it to one side, pulled out his stake and set to work hand to hand.
The boost he had been given meant that he was operating at the same speed as the vampires, something he found it truly exhilarating. He was barely aware of Willow and Giles joining him, nor of Angel protecting the Summers ladies.
A couple of the vampires moved towards Dawn, assuming that the girl was an easy target. She smiled at them, and then ducked. Over her head a large variety of knives, swords, daggers and cleavers rushed towards them, cutting them to pieces before they could blink. Those that had seen her reaction, decided to avoid her for now. She was grateful, keeping up Xander's boost was hard on her body, and she cursed herself for being young. A full grown witch would have not had this problem.
Spike was starting to worry. His poof of a sire was protecting his hostages and his forces were being decimated by a ghost and a soldier. He had long ago decided that discretion was the better part of valor, so he grabbed Dru, and threw the two of them towards a window, to escape.
With a wave of her hand, Dawn placed a barrier next to the window, causing the two vampires to bounce off.
Dawn was starting to get worried, her power was almost gone, and she couldn't keep the vampires away and still protect Xander. Her face was completely expressionless, as it had been all the time. Her eyes met Xander’s for a second, as he used a vampire as a shield from the punches of another one.
Worry flashed through his eyes, followed by understanding, followed by an order.
Dawn thought about it for a second, she had never been given an order before...Well that wasn't *quite* true, she had been given orders - but that had normally been just before that person's death. She nodded imperceptibly, and released Xander's boost.
Xander felt the tingle leave his body, but wasn't concerned; after all he had been too well trained for that. He immediately switched styles, from the power based Special Forces to Aikido and continued the fight.
Willow had started taking the direct, if icky, route to killing vampires. She walked into them and cut out their hearts. It wasn't pleasant but it was very effective.
With the last minion gone, Xander looked as his watch. He moved next to Dawn, not sparing a glance for the others.
"One of you will die." Xander informed them quietly. "Which one will it be?"
"One must sacrifice the other. I promise I will not kill the one who chooses, they will be free to go," Dawn echoed.
Spike looked at the expressionless faces of the two weakest members of the Scooby gang and shivered. Their eyes were so old, they reminded him of an ancient vampire he had once met, one that had seen everything hell had to offer, and matched it with the hell he had been through.
"Take her," he said quickly.
"I thought you loved Mommy," Dru protested, almost shocked into sanity by his betrayal.
"I do," Spike admitted, "But not that much."
Dawn waved her hand, and Spike found himself rooted to the spot. "Err, I thought you said I could go? And all things considered, I think I would like to leave now," he noted, almost politely.
He was ignored, as Xander and Dawn advanced on the scared female vampire.
"Miss Edith is scared," she whimpered.
Dawn ran her finger lightly down the vampire’s face. "So she should be."
Dru turned to Angel. "Daddy, help me," she pleaded.
Angel wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen, but he had guessed that it was to do with whatever spell Ethan had cast. He met his childe’s eye for a second, and then turned his back on her.
The female vampire felt tears drip down her face, as she realized she had been abandoned by the two beings she loved most.
Dawn punched her hand forwards, passing through the vampire’s rib cage with ease, and grabbed her heart.
She pulled it out, and whispered, "Janus, your sacrifice is complete, let the masks drop."
As Drusilla turned to dust, Willow felt herself become whole again, and Buffy once again found herself the Slayer, and broke her chains with the strength she had never lost, but hadn't used.
Xander and Dawn were motionless, his hand on her shoulder as he lent her his strength.
"What the hell happened to my daughter?" Joyce demanded, looking horrified at the witch who had just ripped the heart out of the vampire.
The two didn't move, but neither could Spike.
In a grey area, that was both nowhere and everywhere, four spirits were talking.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" One of them asked.
Two others nodded, "yes."
"And you?"
The fourth nodded and seemed to smile slightly.
The speaker nodded slowly, and the four suddenly became two.
The grey area disappeared, and Xander and Dawn looked around the room. They smiled at each other, or thought that they did; they were both as expressionless as they had been before.
Xander picked up a stake and moved towards Spike.
"You said you wouldn't kill me," Spike said nervously, trying to work out why he couldn't move. With the witch gone, the spell should have vanished as well.
"Dawn said that, not me."
"Xander," Buffy said. "You said you would let him go."
Xander looked into Spike's eyes for a second, and the vampire saw the answer before the movement.
"Shit," was his last word before he vanished into dust particles.
"No, I didn’t. She said that," the tall teen said to Spike’s remains, indicating the smaller black-clad figure near him.
Buffy looked enraged; she wasn't sure why, but they did not do what he had just done, they kept their word. She walked over and slapped Xander, or at least tried to. Xander simply swayed backwards, tapped her arm to throw her off balance a little, and then pushed her towards Angel.
"Don't try that again," he advised her quietly.
Giles looked closely at the two of them, "Why is the spell still working on you?"
"It's not," Dawn explained, just as quietly.
"You're still a witch, Xander just brushed Buffy off with ease, so I would be inclined to say it was still working."
"We were possessed not by people, but by spirits," Dawn whispered. As before, her voice seemed to echo around the room, bouncing off the walls and into their ears. It was a voice of madness and sanity, everything and nothing.
"Ethan called forth the owners of the masks that we wear. Buffy was caught by the spirit of a 17th century noble woman, and was completely useless, it didn’t matter whose memories she would get. Willow had a ghost’s spirit, and as ghosts do not have memories, kept her own.
"Xan was possessed by the spirit of a soldier, an eternal warrior. The spirit made the decision to give him the most appropriate memories to ensure his survival, a thirty year veteran who had done everything and been trained for everything.
"I got the spirit of the Witch. Wednesday Addams is a fictional character, and does not exist, so I received the powers and ability of a witch who was burned at the stake in the Salem witch hunts.
"As I ended Ethan’s spell, I cast another one to allow me and Xander to talk to the spirits before they left, or rather, the Witch spirit cast the spell to talk to us. The Warrior and The Witch liked each other.
"The Witch and the Warrior offered us a choice," Xander took over, moving next to Dawn. "They could leave us, like the spirits had left all of you, or they could try a merger. They would try and give us the powers and abilities of the people we had chosen as our costumes.
"We chose to merge. We both now have their skills and abilities, along with a bit of their personalities, but the rest is all us. They gave us a huge gift, to allow us to survive on the Hellmouth."
"The spell lasted for five years, and was gone in a second. Xander and I talked to each other. We didn’t need sleep, didn’t need food and we found what the spirits found."
"What is going on between you two?" Joyce asked, not liking the vibes she was picking up between her twelve year old daughter and her older daughter’s seventeen year old male friend.
"Nothing, for now." Dawn replied calmly.
It was not the same as when she was possessed - she could smile if she wanted to, she was in complete control of herself, but the actions she made felt natural to her now. Communicating with Xander without an expression was so much easier, and she knew now that they would be together. "I will start going out with him when I am fifteen. We will turn into a serious couple when I am sixteen, and we will get married when I am eighteen."
Xander nodded in agreement. He too was the same, but different. He could remember assassinations and countless training sessions, he could remember jungles and deserts, and he could also remember growing up in Sunnydale.
The others looked stunned, so the two walked out. Both prepared to wait for what they wanted.
As Dawn had said, they started dating when she reached fifteen, limiting themselves to some kissing, but nothing else. By the American scale, they moved up a base each time Dawn reached a birthday. It was frustrating at times, especially since none of their friends ever accepted the relationship, but they were honest to themselves and to each other.
When Joyce died of a brain hemorrhage, they left town together shortly afterwards, even though Dawn was, technically, underage. They made love for the first time, in a hotel in New York on Dawn's seventeenth birthday, and made plans to get married a year later.
Until her mother died, they had tried to keep fighting with the other members of the Scooby Gang, but things had changed too much for that to continue.
Faith had arrived, broken, and had been saved by having developed a friendship with Xander and Dawn. For the first time, she had been adopted into a family. Dawn was her younger sister and Xander her brother. She had tried to sleep with the tall brunet shortly after meeting him, but he had told her very firmly that he was Dawn's, and only hers, for eternity. That admission ultimately gave her the confidence to confide in him, and in Dawn also, as she realized that despite how very strange the younger girl was, inside, she was still a loving young girl.
Buffy hated their situation, and Joyce reluctantly accepted it.
The Mayor had been defeated; based on the Soldier memories, Xander had procured and used an M136 AT4 anti-tank recoilless rifle. Blowing the snake into more parts than anyone could count. He had been relatively certain that something used to take out 70 ton tanks would probably be effective against a snake creature the size of a school bus.
It had been a very close thing, after all. The others had not really had a plan at all, and had simply turned up at the Graduation to fight. Xander and Dawn had discussed it and came up with a plan. Xander talked to his classmates, organizing them so that they were ready, while Dawn prepared herself.
The Mayor had made his speech, then started to change. The students followed Xander’s orders to the letter, fighting the vampires and giving him, and through him, Dawn, the time they needed.
Dawn cast her spell; all it did was hold the giant snake still.
Xander had aimed the AT4 and the now ex-Mayor had exploded into small bits, scattering his bloody remains across the school walls and lawn. With a slight smile on his face, Xander had dumped the weapon, drawn his handgun, a Glock .357 and aimed carefully. A second later, the Mayor’s toady, the troll known as Snyder was dead, another casualty of the endless wars between the gangs on PCP that haunted Sunnydale.
He turned, and then ran forward as Dawn’s eyes rolled into the back of her head; blood was pouring from her nose, and she collapsed.
Xander caught her, and carefully picked her up. He held her close as he carried her first to his car, then from the car to her room.
He carefully wiped the blood from her face, and placed her into bed. Using very few words, he explained to Dawn’s mother what had happened, and why her daughter was unconscious. He had then refused to leave her side till she awoke.
Willow and Joyce had both pleaded with him to eat, to move, to do something: he refused. Buffy tried ordering him, and he had ignored her. She tried violence, and found herself staring at expressionless brown eyes over the barrel of his gun. She was left in no doubt that he would pull the trigger.
Dawn awoke two days later, coincidentally at the same time the rest of her family was in the room. She looked at them for a second, and then turned to Xander. They looked at each other for a brief second, before Xander nodded, stood up and slowly walked out of the room. Ten minutes later, he was asleep in his bed.
"He needs to sleep, he’s been up for nearly three days without rest," Dawn explained quietly, her voice was slowly returning to normal. "He knows I am OK, so he’s gone to lie down."
After Buffy had left, Joyce had stayed and sat down on the bed next to her youngest daughter. This was a conversation she really wasn’t ready to have with her oldest daughter, and most definitely not her pre-teenage youngest.
She asked if Dawn had meant what she had said, that night. Her daughter had tilted her head to one side, and then spoke calmly, as one adult to another.
"Yes. I told you that we spoke for the equivalent of five years. I grew up then, Mom. I know Xander, now; I know how he thinks, what he thinks, why he thinks. I know everything he has done, and why he did it. I know about Buffy, Angel, Willow, Giles, Owen, the hyena, the mantis, everyone who has died, everyone who has lived. I wasn’t the only one, Mom, Xander grew up as well.
"We had to work to control the memories we both received.
"I can remember being burnt at a stake, and Xan can remember being shot in the back.
"I can remember being married, giving birth to a wonderful boy. He never had anyone special.
"We agreed to wait when we got back, not because of a lack of love, or our age, but because of you. Because of our friends and family. I stopped being twelve the same time Ethan cast the spell, and Xander stopped being seventeen. We will do things by the book, because we have all the time in the world.
"I will never go through being a teenager again; I already have done so, twice. Once hundreds of years ago, and once again, inside a formless grey bubble.
"I will never wonder about boys, about whether or not I am attractive. I am, and I know it now. I have a man who loves me. I have nothing to worry about, except Xander.
"He is the one who will be called a pervert for the next five or six years. He is the one who will be celibate, who will not kiss another girl for years to come. He is the one who will have to turn down people his age. He is the one who will sleep alone, in that awful house, with no one to turn to when his nightmares start. He is the one who will wake up, drenched in sweat, and know that the girl he loves is asleep in a pink bed, across town, trapped in a body too young to help him.
"But, I know I will be there when I can, I will pick him up when he falls, I will console him, I will make sure he doesn’t retreat.
"We are putting ourselves through hell, so you better believe that when I can, I will make it up to him in every possible way."
It had been a very different Joyce who walked downstairs afterwards, poured herself a whiskey and spent the entire afternoon and night trying very hard to come to terms with what had happened to her youngest daughter. The only thing she had concluded was that she hated Ethan Rayne more than she thought possible, for what he had done. She was both glad and angry that Xander had killed him. Glad, because it meant he would not ruin any more lives. Angry, because she wanted to kill that monster herself, as slowly and painfully as she could, to really make him paying for destroying the innocent and trusting young girl her daughter had been.
With a great deal of reluctance, she had given Xander her trust once more, and when Dawn reached fourteen, a standard gynecological exam had proved that he was worthy of that trust.
Faith had left Sunnydale with Angel, not because she loved him, but because she felt she could do more good away from Buffy. She still drunk and flirted, but never lost control.
Willow found Tara, after Oz had come and gone, and became happy, and Buffy started dating a vampire called Caleb, who was dark and mysterious.
Glory, a hell goddess, had been easy to defeat. The spell that made people forget that she was Ben had no effect on Dawn, and when she told Xander, he had simply walked up to Ben one night, and shot him point blank in the face.
That had been the beginning of the end of the Scooby Gang. Willow and Buffy, who had been slowly pushing the two away since that Halloween, said that they could not fight alongside them any more, that they were not fighting the good fight, and being white hats. It hurt them both, but they drew on the experiences of their spirits, and simply moved out on their own and continued to fight evil wherever and whenever they found it.
They traveled the country; no one questioned the two of them being together. One look into Dawn's eyes and people realized that she was older than she looked. They saved the world, a lot, and grew closer, yet never seemed to smile or look happy.
And now, now they were heading back to Sunnydale. Faith had called them and requested their aid. The Scoobies apparently had an enemy they couldn't beat, Buffy seemed to be going around the bend, a load of potential Slayers had been gathered in one place, and the Watchers Council was in ruins. Hearing that, they had decided to help out.
Dawn was finally reaching the peak of her powers. The lifetime of training the Witch had given her meant that she understood the threefold rule, and knew how to use magic far better than Willow could ever dream off. Xander, too, had continued to train, and while no where near as strong as a Slayer, (without Dawn's boost anyway), he was easily skilled enough to win any fight that might occur.
"What are you thinking about, love?" Dawn asked softly.
Xander could have smiled, but didn't. "I was thinking we should send Ethan a thank you note one of these days."