Distribution: If you had permission to take any of my other stories, you can use this one as well. Just let me know where it's going. Others, just ask and I will most likely give permission.
Feedback: I don't wanna beg....but I will. Despite the 60+ people who wrote in and asked me to continue my series, I got a grand total of 5 people feedbacking my last story. Please tell me there're more people reading this than that.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss, the WB, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, (the evil)FOX, and whoever else came up with them. If they belonged to me the show would be drastically different. Please don't sue, I'm only a high-schooler without a job anyways. All transcripts belong to the wonderful people who spend their time on them, I only borrowed them to make a few changes. Many say they're copylefted and that they may be used as needed or wanted by other fans. Those that don't I'm hoping the transcribers won't mind. In some cases I've altered the form that it was presented in and have changed things to fit my needs. Much of these stories are exactly the same as the episodes and are probably under direct copyright by all the people and company's listed above. But I'm not making any money from this so I'm hoping they won't mind.
Rating: Same as the TV show
Spoilers: All fourth season really, just not exactly. You'll see what I mean...
Author's Notes: Okay, this is going to be interesting. I've decided that instead of rewriting season 4 in the same manner as I did season 3, I'm going to do this somewhat differently. I've gotten transcripts of every episode in the fourth season, and I'm going to alter, butcher, add and subtract from them to fit my needs. So the general stories are the same, but conversations have been added, removed, or changed to fit my B&A needs. So I'm actually re-writing the entire season and all it's storylines, not just the Buffy&Angel one. Also, characters thoughts, especially Buffy's, have been added. Both the characters of Riley and Tara have been altered slightly and will play different roles in the series. And since I know many of you said you refused to watch the season anyway, it won't be like you're reading transcripts of something you've already seen. It'll be all new to you and much better than watching. And for those of you who have seen the episodes, try to figure out how much I've changed them. Some won't be changed much, some will be almost totally rewritten. And since I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible and since Angel does have his own show and all, he's not gonna be in these very much, at least not at first. But they're still much more loyal to the characters than Joss's S4 was and all, so I really think you're gonna like this. Well, enjoy!
This series was inspired by Ducks' comment, "Season Four? What do you mean, Season Four? There was a Season Four?"
My answer: "Yes, Ducks, there was a Season Four. And it goes like this....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The group is in Xander's basement carving pumpkins.
Xander turned his jack-o'-lantern around to show to Buffy who's laying on his bed. "What do you think, Buff?"
"I was just thinking about the life of a pumpkin. Grow up in the sun - happily entwined with others, then someone comes along, cuts you open and - rips your guts out."
The three of them looked at her for a beat, than glanced at each other in concern. Instead of getting better the more time passed, she was steadily getting worse.
"Okay, and on that happy note...." Xander began, then realized he had nothing to cheer the Slayer up with.
"There's that thing at Alpha Delt." Willow thought quickly.
"What thing?" Xander asked.
"The scary house? Sounds kinda lame." Buffy looked over at her friends.
"It actually borders on fun. You have to go through the scary house maze to get to the party. Which is usually worth getting to. Those guys go all out." Oz had been to the party the year before with some of the guys in his class who went to college.
"As witnessed last Friday." Willow noted.
"Very true." They both remembered last week's party.
"There is a party?" Xander was still out of the loop.
"We didn't tell you?"
"No, it's cool. You guys got your little college thing. I'm fine. I mean, I got better things to do than tag along to some Fraternity." Xander said immediately.
"You can come." Willow grinned at him.
"Okay. But only because I lied about having better things to do."
"A blast will be had by all." Oz promised.
"I'm gonna get going." Buffy suddenly stood up.
"Now? Tonight's still..." Xander glanced at his watch. "Okay, it's a little mature, but still."
"I'm sleepy. You guys have fun."
"You want me to come with?" Willow asked in concern.
"No I'm fine." The Slayer said as she left the basement.
"Sad Buffy." Xander commented after she was gone.
"She didn't even touch her pumpkin. It's a freak with no face."
"She's still suffering a little post-Parker depression." Oz noted.
"Yeah, lying about the Buffster. Does anyone else want to smack that guy?" Xander said with a glare.
All three raised their hands.
Cut to Buffy walking down the street alone.
A demon jumped out at her screaming and she hit it in the face, knocking it down. It pulled of a mask to reveal a young kid. "Jeez, that hurt! What the hell is wrong with you, lady?" He slowly got up and looked at her slightly fearfully as he backed away.
"That's what I'd like to know." Buffy said softly to herself as she headed towards campus.
When she got into her dorm room she changed into pajamas and quietly slipped under the covers after turning on her CD player. She hit the "repeat" button after setting it on a certain song.
She hugged Mr. Gordo to her and slowly drifted off to sleep as she listened to the haunting refrain.
~You're in the arms of an Angel~
~May you find some comfort here~
Cut to UC Sunnydale the next morning. Willow and Buffy are walking into the cafeteria.
"I've got the basics down - levitation, charms, glamours. I just feel like I've reached a plateau Wicca-wise."
"What's the next level?" Buffy asked with interest.
"Transmutation, conjuring, bringing forth something from nothing." Buffy nodded as her friend spoke even though she wasn't sure what all those were. "Gets pretty close to the primal forces. A little scary."
"Well, no one's pushing. You know, if it's too much don't do it."
"Don't do it? What kind of encouragement is *that*?" Willow looked shocked.
"This is an 'encouragement' talk? I thought it was 'share my pain'."
"I don't know. Then again, what is college for if not experimenting? You know, maybe I can handle it." She smiled a little. "I'll know when I've reached my limit
"Wine coolers?" Oz asked as he came up to them.
"Magick." Buffy explained as Oz sat down next to Willow.
"Ooh, you didn't encourage her, did you?"
"Where is supportive boyfriend guy?" Willow looked a little hurt.
"He's picking up your dry cleaning, but he told me to tell you that he's afraid you're gonna get hurt." Oz retorted.
"Okay, Brutus." Willow looked at them with a smile but neither face showed any recognition. "Brutus - Caesar?" Still blank faces. "Betrayal - trusted friend?" Willow made stabbing motions with her banana. "Back stabby?"
"Oh, I'm with you on the reference, but - I won't lie about the fact that I worry." Oz said finally. "I know what it's like to have power you can't control. I mean, every time I start to wolf out, I touch something -deep - dark. It's not fun. But just know that what ever you decide, I back your play."
"See? Concerned boy, sweet boy." Buffy said with a grin.
"I kinda like him - worrying anyway."
Buffy was about to comment when she heard laughter coming from the next table. She looked over to see Parker with a few of his friends.
"You know I, uhm, I forgot - to be hungry." Buffy quickly fled the scene.
"Wait, Buffy." Willow ran off after her, leaving Oz with all their stuff. "Buffy. Don't let jerky Parker chase you away."
"He didn't. I just don't want to deal with this right now. I'm taking a holiday from dealing, happily vacationing in the land of not coping." Buffy stopped her march and turned to her best friend.
There was more than just Parker that Buffy didn't want to deal with, and Willow knew it.
"You know what, you'll feel better at the party tonight. Maybe you'll even meet someone." Willow grinned.
"Willow, I don't want to meet someone. I've reached my quota on someones. I thought you understood that. Besides, I think I'm gonna have to patrol anyway."
"Tonight, but - it's Halloween!"
"I'll double check with Giles, but I'm sure he's going to think I should be on active Slayer duty. He doesn't care about Halloween." Buffy said with certainty.
Cut to Giles opening his door dressed up like a Mexican holding a big bowl of candy.
"Happy Hallow - Buffy?"
"Oh - my - God." Buffy just stared at him.
"It's a sombrero."
"And it's on your head."
"It seemed festive. Uhm, come in. Candy?" Giles offered her from a huge bowl.
Buffy looked around at the decorations. "What's going on here? You hate Halloween."
"I never said any such a thing. As my Watcher's duties took precedence, I simply haven't taken time to - well, to embrace its inherent charms - until now." Giles turned on a Frankenstein puppet hanging from the ceiling. "Look, look! It's alive!" He laughed.
Buffy just stared at him.
"See - how he shakes?" Giles glanced back at her and noticed her face. " Is - is there something you wanted?"
"I was thinking that I should patrol tonight. You know, possibly the cemetery or if you had a better su..." Buffy trailed off as she stared distractedly at the fringe dangling from the edge of his sombrero. "Could you please take that off?"
Giles set down the bowl of candy "Oh, yes, of course. I see, is there some specific danger you were sensing?" He asked as he removed the hat and placed in on the table.
"No. But then you know we were all caught of guard when Ethan turned everyone into their costumes."
"True, but what happened then was anomalous. Creatures of the night shy away from Halloween. They find it all much too crass."
"Hard to believe." Buffy said sarcastically.
"Well, I-I promise you - there is little likelihood of any supernatural activity tonight." Giles again offered her the bowl of candy. "You sure you don't want one?"
Cut to the Alpha Delta Fraternity house. A group of guys are decorating the haunted house.
A guy walks down the hallway and a plastic skeleton with a knife in its hand swings out in front of him, making him jump. The guy laughs and holds up a bag to the guy standing next to the skeleton. "I come bearing spiders."
"Great, but the sound system is not going to cut it. Nothing but lame."
"You want me to call Oz? He can probably hook us up."
"Do it. If we do not scare the young women, they will not fall into our arms. We'll have womanless arms. Halloween isn't about thrills, chills and funny costumes, it's about getting laid."
"Is there any holiday that's not about getting laid?"
"Arbor Day. Call Oz, dude."
"Done. And oh, you wanted a symbol to paint upstairs, something mystical?" He holds up a magick book that contains a symbol including, among other things, a pentagram. "Check this out."
Both guys nod in agreement. They love it.
Cut to Xander putting on a jacket in his basement, he turns and there is Anya standing on the stairs.
"Anya? You really have to get this knocking thing down. - How did you...?"
"You're uncle Rory let me in. Does he always smell like peppermint?" Anya asked as she walked closer to him.
"The man likes his schnapps. What are you doing here?"
"You haven't called. Not once."
"You said you were over me." Xander stated.
"And you just accepted that? I only said that because I thought that's what you wanted to hear."
"That's the funny thing about me, I tend to hear the actual words people say and accept them at face value."
"That's stupid." Anya said as she sat down on a chair.
"I accept that. - I can't say seeing you falls into the realm of a bad thing." Xander finally admitted with a small smile.
"Really? - I thought - maybe we could go out tonight, for our anniversary."
"Anniversary?" Xander looked at her in shock.
"It's been exactly one week since we copulated." She said simply. "Did you forget?"
"Oh, no, of course not. It's just I already have plans with Buffy, Willow and Oz. It's Halloween, you know."
"I don't understand." Anya got up and walked over by him.
"Well, every October 31st, we mortals dress up in masks..."
"No, no, I understand that inane ritual." Anya dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "It's those people. You continue to associate with them though you share little in common."
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean they go to college, you don't. They no longer live at home, - you do."
"Oh, hey, those things... The bonds of true friendship transcends... Could we just change the subject?" Xander asked, just a little insecure.
"Okay, okay. Don't get upset with me. I just wondered."
"If you want you can come with me tonight to this party."
"You mean like a date? - Is that what this is? Are we dating?" Anya looked at him in excitement.
"There are definitely date-like qualities at work here." Xander admitted. "Oh, and you'll need a costume."
"A costume?"
"Dress up, you know, something - scary." Xander advised her.
"Scary. Scary how?" Anya looked at him in real confusion.
"Anya! You, ex-demon, terrorized mankind for centuries. I'm sure you'll come up with something."
Cut to Psyche-lecture room at UCS. Buffy walks up to Prof. Walsh and Riley as they get ready to leave.
"Excuse me, Professor Walsh? I came to get today's assignments. I, uh, couldn't make it to class for personal reasons." Buffy said rather nervously.
"Right. I count four limbs, a head, no visible scarring; so I assume your personal issue wasn't a life threatening accident of any kind and am therefore uninterested. You got problems, solve them on your own time. Miss another class and you're out." Prof. Walsh walks past Buffy and out the door.
"She means it, you know." Riley said with a frown.
"Yeah." Buffy said. "I got the impression she wasn't saying it to make me laugh."
"You've got to be aware your work's taken a little down turn lately. I can't remember the last time I've seen your hand up." He continued to talk even as she tried to leave.
"Does stretching count?"
"Look, things get pretty intense Freshmen year, as I dimly recall. Too much fun or not enough?" Riley asked her.
"Fun? What's that?" Buffy said, her eyes growing sad.
"Look, Buffy, if you're...."
"Let's just not go there, okay. I'll be fine." Buffy said, not wanting him to pry more into her personal life.
"Yeah, well, you just got to keep your priorities." Riley said after a moments silence. "Professor Walsh is worth your time." He handed her some papers.
"Thanks, I'll get this done tonight." Buffy took them from him.
"Tonight? It's Halloween! You're not going to dress up and go party?"
"I have a lot of work to do." Buffy said shortly as she again tried to leave.
"I may be out of line here, and it's not really my business, but you seem like the kind of person that makes things really hard on themselves. Halloween isn't a night for responsibility." He grinned stupidly. "It's when the ghosts and goblins come out."
"That's actually a misnomer." Buffy said before she thought about it.
"Well, I didn't mean real ones." He looked at her oddly. "But hey, there is some good scary fun to be had on campus tonight."
"Yeah? What are you doing?" She asked, knowing she would make it a point to miss whatever party he was going to.
"Well, I'm going to sit here and grade papers."
"Scary." This time she gave him the odd look.
"Very."
"Well, thanks for the pep talk, coach." She said as she turned to leave the room.
"Don't make fun. I worked long and hard to get this pompous."
Buffy couldn't think of any comment she could make to him on that, so she kept her back turned and walked out.
"Don't I know it." She mumbled once she was out of his hearing range.
Buffy slowly walked down the hallway towards her dorm, totally lost in thought. Halloween brought up lots of memories, most of them good. But the best one was definitely from junior year. She grinned at the thought of her and Angel making out on her bed. And of falling asleep in his arms.
If she could have had one wish, it would have been that he would be in her room when she got back.
But of course, when she opened the door to her dorm room, she found the room dark and empty. Just like her life had become.
Cut to the Alpha Delta Fraternity house. A guy is painting the symbol from the book onto the floor. Oz and Xander carry in a speaker.
"Okay, watch your step, boys. Paint's still wet in a few spots." One of the frat boys told them.
"Thanks for the loan, man. Our sound system sucks." Another one said..
"Mi casio es su casio." Oz replied with a grin.
"Well, that's an interesting little design." Xander pointed out the pentagram-like symbol on the floor. "What does it mean?"
"No - clue. I got it out of this book. There is a lot of really cool stuff about..."
"Ooh, grapes!" Xander ignored him and moved towards a table with food. "Wow, peeled. You guys know how to spoil your guests."
"Eyeballs, man. Blindfold chicks and have them stick their hands in the bowl and tell them it's eyeballs. They love that." The frat boy replied with a grin.
"And here I was wasting time buying them flowers and complimenting them on their shoes. So, you go through the whole house of horrors downstairs and it ends up here. Sweet." Xander was impressed. "You fratly guys have a nice setup."
"Hey, mighty, mighty Alpha Delts. You should think about pledging." The boy replied.
"Oh, Xander is a civilian." Oz said as he connected another speaker.
"Ah! Townie, huh? Didn't know. He looked so normal. You sure we should let him come to the party, Oz?"
"Hey, standing right here." Xander protested just as Oz cranked the speaker and scary sound effects started to play loudly. Oz looked at the speakers unhappily.
"Cranking." The frat guys said.
But Xander knew Oz's facial expressions, and knew that there was something he didn't think was quite right. "You're sensing a disturbance in the force, master?"
Oz pulled out a folding pocketknife. "Ah, the left speaker is crackling a little bit."
"And you feel stabbing it is the proper solution?" Xander took a step back.
"I'm just going to trim the wire. It might be a short."
Xander nodded and turned back to pop another grape into his mouth.
"Ah!" Oz suddenly moved away from the speaker with a slight yell.
"Oz?" Xander asked in concern.
"Cut myself. It's okay." He walked over, shaking his hand. Some blood dropped on to the symbol on the floor.
"Playing with knives, fun, yes, but not safe. And when you bleed to death I've got dibs on your equipment." Xander teased when he saw that the cut wasn't that bad.
What they all failed to notice was the ripple that ran over the symbol when the blood hit it, and that fact that one of the plastic spiders at its edge suddenly came alive and started to crawl away.
Cut to Joyce altering a red cape on her sewing machine.
"Thanks again for doing this at the last minute." Buffy said from behind her mom.
"I'm just glad I could find it. There. Try it now. I let down the hem and loosened it a little around the hood."
"Oh, it feels better." Buffy said as Joyce smiled at her. "Oh, no. Someone is getting nostalgic face."
"I'm sorry. I'm thinking about the little girl who wore that." Joyce grinned and thought back to easier times. "What is it? Five? Six years ago."
"Yeah, little red riding hood was the cutting edge in costumes."
"Your father *loved* to take you out." Joyce laughed.
"He was such a pain! 12 years old and I can't go trick-or-treating by myself?"
"He just wanted to keep you safe."
"No, he wanted the candy. I was just the beard." Buffy said with a frown.
"Oh, that's not true actually. The candy was for me." Joyce said with embarrassment. "Your father loved spending time with you."
"Not enough, I guess." Buffy looked down at the floor.
"Buffy."
"Oh, that just paved right over memory lane, huh?" Buffy asked with a grimace.
"Our divorce had nothing to do with you."
"I don't know. I'm starting to feel like there is a pattern here. Open your heart to someone and he bails on you. Maybe it's easier to just not let anyone in."
"I thought it might be easier." Joyce admitted, bringing up her own problems as she tried to ignore Buffy's. She knew exactly what her daughter was talking about. Angel. What Buffy didn't know, and Joyce wasn't going to tell her, was that she had been a huge part in getting Angel to leave her daughter. "You must have noticed that I am not exactly the social butterfly I was when I was with your dad. I don't think I made a single new friend the year we moved to Sunnydale."
"Why not?"
"Fear. I didn't believe I could trust anyone again. It's taken time and a lot of effort, but I've got a nice circle of friends now. - I mean, don't get me wrong. I - I'm still a little gun shy. It certainly didn't help that my last boyfriend turned out to be a homicidal robot." Joyce sat down on the couch next to Buffy, thanking God that her daughter didn't know she had sent her boyfriend away. "I will *always* be here for you. And you've got Mr. Giles and your friends. Believe me, there is nothing to be afraid of."
"What about being alone?" Buffy whispered. "Willow's got Oz, Xander's got Anya, Giles is even going out with some woman now...I think. And I've got no one."
"So find someone. I'm sure there're some great boys at the college, and..."
"And I don't want any of them. I know..." Buffy decided to bring up the subject her mom hated most, simply because she was pretty sure all her other friends were sick of hearing about it. "I know you didn't exactly like Angel, but he was everything to me. He still is. There's no way any immature college boy can compare to what we had."
"But Buffy, if you just give yourself some time...." Joyce tried to look her daughter in the eye but was almost to guilty to do so.
"It won't matter, Mom. I've known true love." Buffy smiled sadly as she got up to leave. She should have known her mother wouldn't understand. "I'm not going to settle for any less. And the problem is, no one will ever be able to give me any more."
"Buffy..."
"Thanks for altering the costume." Buffy said in a small voice as she picked it up and left, closing the door softly behind her. Then she leaned her weight against it and burst into tears.
And on the other side of the door, her mother did the same thing. "I'm sorry." She whispered, wishing she hadn't done what she had.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cut to Willow in Joan of Arc costume.
"No, I just meet you at your place." Willow said into the phone. "Yeah, Buffy said she was coming but I haven't seen her. We have to make sure she has fun. We have to force fun upon her. And if Parker shows up we just - ax-murder him. That's halloweeny! Okay, I'll see you in a little bit."
Willow hung up the phone and went into the hallway. It was full of college kids in costumes.
A tall black guy in drag wearing a blond wig came up to her. "Willow, you've got to stop by the room."
"I'm late for a battle or I would. I love your outfit though."
Cut to the haunted house. It's in full swing.
A guy leads a blindfolded girl to the bowl of peeled grapes. "Okay, Rach, what's in the next one?"
"You guys are sick!"
"Here, give me your hand."
"This is gross." Rachel giggled as she felt what was in the bowl.
"Eyeballs, Rachel, they're eyeballs! Muahaha!" The guy did his best evil-guy impersonation.
Rachel giggled again and took her blindfold off to look at what she picked up out of the bowl. She is holding eyeballs. Her scream echoed through the room.
Cut to Buffy, dressed like little red riding hood, standing with a basket in her hands. Xander walks up behind her wearing a tux.
"Hey, Red. What you got in the basket, little girl?"
"Weapons." Buffy said in a business-like tone.
"Oh."
"Just in case. Like the tux, Xander."
"Bond. James Bond." Xander faked a deeper voice. "Insurance, you know, in case we get turned into our costumes again. I'm going for cool, secret agent guy."
"I hate to break it to you, but you'll probably end up cool head waiter guy."
"As long as I'm cool and wield some kind of power."
They met up with Willow and Oz.
"Willow. Medieval Will." Buffy said with a grin.
"Hail, ye olde – vareletty – thou." Xander tried to come up with old English words.
"I'm Joan of Arc. I figured we had a lot in common, seeing as how I was almost burned at the stake, and plus she had that close relationship with God." Willow grinned as she said the last part.
"And you are?" Xander asked Oz as he took in his street clothes.
Oz pulled his jacket open to reveal a "Hello my name is..." tag that said, "God."
"Of course. I wish I'd thought of that before I put down my deposit." Xander grinned as they started to walk towards the party. "I could have been God."
"Blasphemer." Oz said simply as two guys wearing ski masks and carrying guns stepped out of the bushes in front of them.
"Nice costumes. Very stealthy." Buffy said as the figured slunk by them.
"What are they supposed to be?"
"NATO?" Oz answered his girlfriend's question.
"Oh, yeah, I, ah, invited Anya to join us, but she's having some trouble finding a scary costume, so she's just going to meet us there." Xander said suddenly.
"Perfect, everybody's got a date but third-wheel Buffy."
"You're not a third wheel." Willow tried to comfort her friend.
"Technically speaking you're a fifth wheel." Xander said with all the tact of Cordelia.
Willow pushed him aside impatiently and put an arm around Buffy. "We're going to have the best time."
Cut to the inside of the haunted house.
All the kids are run around, screaming. There are strobe lights going, giving everything a creepy look. A voice rumbled "Release me!"
Cut to Willow and Oz smiling and holding hands as they walk up to the door.
Oz turned around in front of the door, "Let the horrors begin." He said with a grin.
Cut to the kids running and screaming inside the house.
A Frat boy ran down a corridor, "God, help me!" He fell down the steps and landed in a lifeless heap at the bottom.
"Release me!" The voice rumbled again.
Cut to Buffy and Co. entering the silent haunted house.
"The joint's not jumping. Where is everybody?"
They suddenly heard mechanical laughter from a head with one eye hanging from its socket sitting in a punch bowl on a table.
"Follow the signs." Oz said from experience.
"Terrifying." Buffy looked about her, "If I were Abbott and Costello this would be fairly traumatic."
Willow walked into a cobweb decorating a doorway and screamed. "Uh, ah! Cobweb!" She pulled it off her as she made a face. "Okay, that part was realistic."
"Frat boys aren't too obsessive with their cleaning. Might not be decoration per se."
Just then, a plastic skeleton with the knife swung out at Xander and he jumped. "I wasn't scared, I was in the spirit." He said quickly.
"And we back you up on that. Even if they question us separately." Willow teased.
Oz looked back at Willow and noticed a real tarantula on her shoulder. Upon seeing what he was looking at, Willow screamed, "Uh, get it off!"
Oz brushed at it and checked her over. "It is gone."
"Okay, that is not sanitary!"
"Yeah, lets get to the party part of the – party." Buffy said hesitantly. Her Slayer-senses were going off in a huge way but she tried to ignore them, telling herself she was being silly.
"Are you sure it's off?" Willow turned to Oz, nervously brushing at her clothes.
"Yeah."
They walked into a room and found Buffy bent down to examine a spot on the carpet.
"I thought this led to..." Oz trailed off in confusion.
"What is it?" Xander moved over by Buffy.
"Blood." Buffy put a finger in it and raised it to her nose. "Real blood."
"Okay, actual creeps have been given." Xander said unsteadily. "Bravo, frat boys!"
"Shh! Do you hear something? Like a squeaking noise?"
"Oh, it's these rented shoes, patent leather. I asked the guy to..."
"No, no, I – wait. It's something else. I hear it, too. Something like..." Willow trailed off as they all slowly looked up at the ceiling. It was covered with real bats. All of them screamed and covered their heads as the bats suddenly dropped down and flew off down the hall. Oz walked over and picked up a bat that was laying on the floor.
"No, Oz, don't it might be..."
"Rubber. It's made of rubber." Oz said in confusion.
Buffy looks around. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Look, maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just a neat trick. You know, something done with wires or..."
"Release me!" A voice rumbled.
"Or it might be something else." Xander continued his sentence, altering without pause what he had been about to say.
Cut to Anya walking up to the house wearing a furry, white bunny suit. There is a welcome mat laying in front of a solid wall.
"Where is the door?" Anya knocked on the wall. "Hey! Hello!" She sighed and walked back out to the street. She suddenly heard a scream coming from the house and looked up to see a girl banging against one of the upper story windows.
"Help me! Help me!"
The stones surrounding the window suddenly expanded to cover it up.
"Xander!" Anya whispered in fear as she turned to go and get help.
Cut to Buffy and Co. walking back into the entrance room. You can hear all kinds of screams and creepy sound effects.
"Where are the stairs?" Xander asked.
"Where is the door?" Willow had a better question.
"This is the way we came in, right? We just went in a circle?" Buffy spoke loudly to be heard over all the sound effects. They suddenly cut off as Oz flipped a switch on the wall. "Thank the Lord!" Buffy sighed.
"You're welcome." Oz replied with a slight smirk. Buffy shot him a look. "Hey, I have a neat idea: lets get out of here!" Willow said suddenly.
"And you were so anxious for me to come."
"I'm serious, Buffy. We don't know what we're dealing with."
"My turn. Does anyone hear that?" Xander suddenly spoke.
"As soon as we start dealing with it I'll know what it is we're dealing with. Do you hear something?" Buffy countered Willow's statement.
"Like I said. Sounds like a hissing."
"It's like a 'ssss' noise?" Buffy set down her basket and tried to listen harder.
"I thought the word hissing kind of covered that nicely." Xander said loudly.
Buffy pulled open the door to a closet. There is a guy in there rocking back and forth.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm sorry."
Oz crouched down in front of him. "Chaz?"
"I didn't know." Chaz repeated.
"What's happening?"
Chaz rocked harder. "It ah..."
"What is it?" Buffy said impatiently.
"It's alive. It's alive."
Cut to the plastic skeleton. Cut to the knife in its hand. As the camera pans back up the bones are suddenly real.
There was an eyeball in one of its sockets. It straightened its head and looked at the camera.
"What's alive?" Buffy asked the boy.
"He's in shock." Xander came closer.
"Chaz, what happened here?" Buffy tried a different question.
Chaz looked up at her and screamed as he saw the skeleton come up and stab Buffy's shoulder from behind. Buffy turned and knocked its head aside, then kicks it in the middle. It landed on the ground, once again plastic. Buffy stared at it, and then checked her shoulder.
"I think the cape took most of it." She said with relief.
"Let me see." Xander tried to get a look at her but she turned away.
"Could need stitches. You should at least get a bandage or something."
A girl screamed and Chaz crawled back into the closet and closed the door.
"Cowering in a closet is starting to seem like a reasonable plan." Willow glanced around.
Buffy looked back over her shoulder. "What closet?" There is only a wall there now. "I'm gonna make my way upstairs and see if there are any people up there. You guys find a way out of the house and use it."
"You're telling us to run away and leave you behind?" Willow asked in amazement.
Buffy pulled a loaded crossbow out. "We need help. We need the only person that can make sense of what's happening."
Cut to Giles sitting with his bowl of candy, looking bored. There is an insistent knock on the door and he gets up.
Giles swallowed his candy. "Just a minute! - Coming!" He opened the door with a flourish. "Happy Hallo..."
Anya walked past him. "Xander is in trouble. We've got to do something, right now!"
Giles stared at her with his mouth hanging open. "Anya?"
"Are you listening? Xander is trapped!" Anya paced the room.
"Uh, ah, where is Buffy and the others?"
"They're trapped, too, but we've got to save Xander!"
Giles took off his sombrero and sat down. "Slow down. I need you to be more specific."
"Uhm, ah, we were supposed to meet at this house, and I got there and there was no door where a door should be. And then I see this girl standing in a window, and then--poof--she's gone."
"She vanished from the window?" Giles looked at her strangely.
"No, the window vanished from the house." Anya yelled.
"Hmm. Matter and reality distortion." Giles pulled a book down from his shelves. "Like a summoning spell's temporal flux."
"What?"
"Hmm? Oh, never mind. I just need to get some supplies together." He looked over at Anya. "I wouldn't worry about Xander. At least he's amongst friends."
"Will, I'm telling you..." Buffy's voice grew louder.
"You're telling me? You're telling me?!?"
"I can't do my job if I have to worry about each of your safety."
"It's not your decision!" Willow shouted back.
"Got to disagree with you there."
"Oh, of course you do."
"Let's all take a breath. Buffy, maybe..." Xander tried to stop the verbal fight.
"Being the Slayer doesn't automatically make you boss. You're as lost as the rest of us."
"What are we talking about?" Oz cut in this time.
"It's a simple incantation, a guiding spell for travelers when they become lost or disoriented." Willow turned to him.
"And how does it work?" Buffy asked without real interest.
"It conjures an emissary from the beyond that, well, lights the way."
"Conjuring. Will, let's be realistic here. Okay, your basic spells are usually only fifty-fifty."
"Oh yeah? Well, - so is your face!" Willow yelled as she stalked off.
Buffy tried to figure out what that meant: "What?! What does that mean?"
"I'm not your sidekick!" Willow turned around and delivered a slightly more reasonable remark as she left the room. Oz ran after her.
Buffy just stood there and sighed.
"Well, that was a bunch of laughs." Xander moaned. Buffy walked by him and picked up her basket as he continued. "Look, Buffy, we are all tired and a *little* edgy. Maybe Willow is over reacting. I'm sure part of it is because of how you've been 'pushing away' girl lately." Buffy picked up her crossbow, ignoring him totally. "But now is not the time to let that stuff tear us apart. What I'm saying is, I'm right with ya. I'm right by your side. I'm..."
"Xander?" Bufy turned around and called out into the room.
"Funny how you still haven't lost your sense of inappropriate humor."
Buffy turned around again and looked right through him. "Xander, where did you go?"
"Buffy, knock it off. Skit's over. I'm right here." Xander said, slightly panicked.
Buffy stomped off down the hall. "This is so *typical* of him!"
"Typical?" Xander stood in shock.
"Xander?" Buffy called down the hall.
"Buffy!" Xander followed her, only to walk into a room lit by candles. The walls were covered with cobwebs. "Buff?"
*Disclaimer: The spell Anya uses is from "Charmed." It's just a really cute little spell that I thought would be neat in this episode. It also establishes Anya as a witch of sorts, which in my season will possibly become important.
"She thinks I'm not ready to be a full blown witch! I can handle the dark forces as good as anyone else. It's not that hard. I-It's just a guiding spell and I'm careful and all." Willow ranted as she marched into a room.
"This floor used to have windows." Oz chose a safe comment.
"Look. We found the stairs." Willow and Oz started up them. "Buffy didn't find the stairs, no sir!"
Oz followed Willow up the stairs. "You guys aren't thinking clearly." He looked down at his hands. They were hairy and his fingernails looked more like claws.
"We just need to get up to the room and maybe we can..."
"Willow, something is happening."
Willow turned back to him. "Something good?" She saw that he was turning into a werewolf. "Oh, no – not good."
"I'm changing."
"But – but you can't! There is no moon tonight."
"I have to get away." Oz backed away from Willow.
"No, we need to find something to restrain you, like a rope or chains, or something."
"There is no time!"
"I can do the guiding spell. I know I can make it work!" Willow pleaded as she moved towards him.
"Will, please."
"No!" Willow tried to grab his hand.
Oz batted her hand away with a growl. "NO!"
Willow looked down at the three red scratches on the back of her hand. Oz turned and ran off in horror as he saw what he had done.
"Oz! – Oz, don't leave me!" Willow's voice seemed to echo throughout the house. "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"
Cut to Xander walking up to a mirror:
"There I am. I didn't go anywhere." He said as he looked at his reflection. "Great. Now I just have to live with the fact that no one else can see me."
Camera pans down a corridor to reveal Oz
He sat in a bathtub, keeping up a mantra of, "You're not going to change. You're not going to change."
Cut to Willow sitting on a table.
"Okay....I can do this." She said slowly as she began to focus and chant her spell. "Aradia, Goddess of the lost: the path is murky, the woods are dense, darkness pervades: I beseech thee, bring the light." She opened her eyes and smiled as she saw a tiny speck of light floating in front of her face. "Woah! I did it! I did you. Hi! - Right, you're waiting for instructions. Lead me to Oz."
The speck of light floated past her, and Willow got up. "Wait! I should try to find the people trapped upstairs first." Willow looked down, not noticing that the light split into two parts as she gave it a different instruction.
"But even if I get them we still need to find a way out of the house."
The sparks kept multiplying. "Okay, here is what we should do." Willow looked up and suddenly noticed there was a whole cloud of sparks. "Hey! What's going on?" The sparks started to circle her. "Stop!"
Willow started to bat at them as they buzzed around her like a cloud of mosquitoes. "Stop it! - Get off! - Oz, help.."
Some of the sparks flew into her mouth and she started coughing, trying to run off. The sparks spiraled down the hallway after her.
Cut to Buffy.
Having heard Willow's yell for help and spun around, she tried to follow Willow's voice. "Willow." She came up to a locked door and burst it open.
There was no floor in the room and she fell down into the basement. She looked up as the door slowly swung shut.
"Basement. - I must be in the basement."
"All alone." A familiar voice said suddenly.
"Who said that?" Buffy pushed herself to her feet and found herself face to face with her beloved. "Angel?" She moved towards him cautiously, something felt wrong.
"They all ran away from you. They always will. Open your heart to someone and they walk all over it. They leave you all alone." The tone in his voice was taunting, and Buffy knew suddenly that this wasn't Angel. His next words confirmed it. "But don't fret Buff, I'll never leave you alone."
Buffy backed away in terror, unable to understand how he was here.
"Angelus." She whispered to herself, unable to believe it.
Cut to Giles and Anya standing in front of the house.
Giles ran a hand over the place where the door used to be. He held an open book in his other hand.
"Well?" Anya shifted from foot-to-foot nervously.
"We're gonna have to create a door." He closed the book and walked over to his bag.
"Create a door." Anya repeated. She sounded impressed with his magickal skills. "You know how to that too?"
Giles got up with a chainsaw in his hands. "I can."
Anya looked at him in amazement. "You can't just do it magickly?"
"No, that would be a very difficult...."
With a sigh, Anya stuck her head into Giles's bag, digging around for something in particular. She came up with a small black bag in her hand.
"You just use this."
"That's not mine. Willow must have left it at my house when we..."
"Does it matter?" Anya said with impatience. She walked up to where the door should be and opened the bag. It contained pure white sorcerer's sand, of which she dumped a handful into her open palm.
"N..no, I suppose not." Giles said as he gathered up the bag with the rest of the things.
"When you find your path is blocked," Anya chanted as she traced a doorway with one pointer finger, "All you have to do is knock." She tossed the sand at the doorway she had traced and the outline of a door appeared. Giles looked at her in amazement.
Anya then knocked loudly three times on what would be the doorframe and the door swung open. She looked back at Giles's in satisfaction and headed into the house.
Cut to Buffy staring at Angelus.
"Why do you even bother anymore, Buff?" He said as he moved towards her.
"You know you'll never really be like any of them. You'll never be normal." Buffy stayed motionless as he approached. She suddenly felt unable to move. "Angel. Angel, I know you're in there somewhere." Buffy said in desperation as she was roughly pulled into his arms.
"Buffy?" He said, suddenly sounding like Angel. "What's happening?"
Her mind roughly jerked back in time at his words and memory took her over.
"Shh...don't worry about it." She echoed unconsciously. "I love you."
"Then why did you kill me? How could you? I trusted you. I loved you."
The image of Angel slowly faded away as Buffy began to cry. The words echoed throughout the room. "Why? How? WHY?"
Buffy screamed and ran blindly away, somehow finding a small door which she went through and slammed shut behind her. She was in a big room with a pentagram and other designs on the floor.
"I'm upstairs. The goat room." She said softly as she walked into the room. There were college kids in costumes cowering all along the walls, whimpering.
Buffy looked at a boy cowering in a corner. "Oz?"
Willow came running into the room waving her arms around. "Get them off me! Get them off me!" She drew Oz's attention, and he looked up to find himself suddenly looking human again. "Get'em off! Get'em off!""
Oz took a hold of her. "Willow, Willow, Willow, what's wrong?"
"Couldn't get them off. I wish I'd never come to this party. I should have gone to the Samhein ritual instead." Willow was in tears. "It was like my worst fear come true, I lost control of the magick."
"It's okay. It's okay." He pulled her into his arms. "We're okay."
"We're not okay. We need to get out of here." Buffy shook her head. At least she knew now that it was just her fear of Angelus and of what Angel has said. It wasn't real. But it still hurt like hell to think of what he had said, even if it had really been coming from her own mind.
"I'd offer *my* opinion but you jerks aren't gonna hear it anyway." Buffy walked over to where he was rocking back and forth on the edge of a chair.
"Not that 'didn't go to college' boy has anything important to say. I might as well hang out my new best friend, bleeding dummy head, for all you dorks care."
"What is wrong with you?" Buffy yelled at him.
Xander got up. "You, you heard that? You, you can see me?" Buffy nodded and looked at him strangely. "Good. Oh, God, good!"
"The house separated us. It showed us our worst fears, it wanted to scare us." Oz said suddenly.
"But - we got away."
"No. We were brought here. We all got so scared that we ended up here. Why?" Buffy wanted to know.
Xander pointed at the pentagram on the floor: "I saw them painting that. They were copying it out of that!" He pointed to the book that sat open on the table.
Willow took the book from him. "I think it's Gaelic. Where's Angel when you need him?"
"Can you translate?" Buffy said, ignoring her last question with difficulty.
"Release me! Release me!" A voice rumbled again. The group looked all around but could see nothing.
"Will, give me something."
"Okay, uhm, uhm, the icon's called the-the Mark of Gachnar. I-I think this is a summoning spell for something called..." Willow tried to translate.
"Gachnar?" Xander supplied.
"Well, yes. Somehow the beginning of the spell must have been triggered. Uhm, Gachnar is trying to manifest itself, to-to come into being."
"How?" Buffy asked quickly.
"I-it feeds on fear."
"Our fears are manifesting it. We're feeding it. We need to stop." Buffy tried to calm herself down, but the fears were hitting way too close to her heart.
"If we're close our eyes and say it's a dream.......it'll stab us to death!" Xander suddenly said. "These things are real."
"Release me!"
"Okay, so our fears are feeding it, if we get everyone out of here.." Buffy cut off as the walls started knocking and shaking.
"Good plan. Lets go!" Xander walked towards the door. He screamed when it burst open to reveal Giles with a running chainsaw in his hands. Giles turned off the saw. "Giles? Everyone, it's Giles! With a *chainsaw*."
"It's not my fault I ran out of sand." Anya pouted as she ran over to hug Xander.
"Glad you could make it." Xander finished as he returned the hug quickly.
"The walls closed up behind us." Giles said as he walked over and took a look at Willow's book. "Gachnar, of course. It's presence infects the reality of the house, but it's not managed to achieve full manifestation. We cannot allow this to come into being."
"But if it does I can fight it, right?" Buffy asked with her usual spunk.
Giles walked over and showed her a picture in the book. "Buffy, this is Gachnar."
"I *don't* want to fight that." Buffy took one look at the ugly demon with tons of weapons strapped all over him. "So, we break the spell."
"What ever we do, lets do it fast."
"I have it, I have it." Giles quickly flips pages. "Uhm, 'The summoning spell for Gachnar can be shut down in one of two ways. Destroying the mark of Gachnar..."
Buffy walked over to the mark and put her fist through it, ripping up the floorboards. She stood up and looked over at Giles with a proud smile.
"Is *not* one of them and will in fact immediately bring forth the fear demon itself." Giles continued to read in a louder voice.
Buffy made a face and looked at the mark that was beginning to glow. "Oops."
"Look!" Willow yelled even as she stepped away.
The floor rumbled as they all stared in horror. Gachnar appeared, all full of weapons and armor. He was one ugly and scary dude.
He was then revealed, from Buffy's point of view, to be about five inches tall.
"This is Gachnar?" Buffy asked with a slight grin.
"Phenomenal, cosmic powers." Xander quoted with a laugh. "Itty, bitty little thing."
"I am the dark lord of nightmares! The bringer of terror! Tremble before me. Fear me!"
Buffy tried not to laugh.
"He – he's no cute!" Willow didn't bother to try, she was laughing so hard she could barely breath.
"Tremble!" Gachnar repeated.
"Who's a little fear demon? Come on! Who's a little fear demon!" Xander teased.
"Don't taunt the fear demon." Giles said as he peered closer at it.
"Why, can he hurt me?" Xander asked with a grin, then suddenly looked at Giles with real fear. "Can he?"
"No, it's just – tacky. Be that as it may, Buffy, when it comes to slaying..."
"Size doesn't matter?" Buffy quipped as she took a step closer.
"They're all going to abandon you, you know." Gachnar repeated his earlier words, still using Angelus's voice. The others looked at him in shock, but Buffy ignored it.
"Yeah, Yeah." She said with an exaggerated sigh and she picked her foot up and squished him like a bug.
Cut to the gang digging into Giles's Halloween candy at his house.
"Some quality treats here, Giles." Oz said as he popped another candy bar into his mouth.
"*Please*, finish them." Giles said, not wanting to get sick if he ate them all himself.
"Uhm, this is much better. There is no problem that cannot be solved with chocolate."
Willow leaned back crossing her arms over her stomach. "I think I'm going to barf."
"Except that." Buffy moaned.
Xander stared at Anya while he ate his candy.
"What?" She finally asked.
"That's your scary costume?"
"Bunnies frighten me." Anya said as if that explained everything.
"Oh, bloody hell." Giles suddenly burst out, looking at the book they had removed from the frat house. "The inscription!"
"What's the matter?"
Giles came over to show her the book. "I should have translated the Gaelic inscription under the illustration of Gachnar."
Buffy looked at it without comprehension. "What's it say?"
"Actual size."
The group took that in and there was a collective moan. Then they all shrugged and went back to the bowl of candy. Buffy closed the book with a thud.
Later that night, Buffy sat alone in her dorm room. Willow was staying at Oz's again.
She sat on her bed and stared at the phone, trying to get up her courage. Finally she picked it up and dialed, hoping someone would answer before she chickened out.
"Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless." A chirpy voice answered.
"Hey Cordy, it's me." Buffy said into the phone, half relieved and half disappointed that it wasn't him.
"Buffy? Is something wrong?" Cordelia asked quickly.
"No, not really. We just had a usual Halloween on the Hellmouth blast, and well....is Angel okay?" Buffy said quickly.
"He's fine, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, there was kinda this demon that prayed on people's worst fears and all. Angelus is apparently my worst fear because he showed up to taunt me some more." Buffy didn't mention the part about what Angel had said. She couldn't. "I just wanted to make sure it didn't actually happen. I mean, I know it didn't because it was just a demon faking it but still I just thought...."
"You're babbling." Cordelia cut her off. "Angel's fine. No sadistic tendencies at all. Unless you count the ones towards that creepy guy who could go all Mr. Potato Head and disassemble himself, but...."
"He could what?"
Cordelia quickly explained about their latest case and how they had solved it.
Buffy was impressed. "So you're all doing real good there." She said softly. "You've come a long way, Cor.
"Yeah, I suppose I have. Oh, by the way, Doyle said if I talked to you to let you know that he had hidden the Gem of Amara for safe keeping. Apparently Angel was going to destroy it but Doyle stopped him and said that he might need it someday. So it's in a real safe pl....Oh, hi Angel." She broke off abruptly.
"Cordelia. Who's on the phone?" Buffy's heart almost stopped as she heard his voice. She could almost tell he had been brooding just by the tone in his voice.
Cordelia didn't say anything, just looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"You can tell him if you want." Buffy finally said into the phone.
"You're sure?" The girl asked her, an eye on Angel as he waited impatiently.
"It can't hurt anything. He'll either want to talk to me or he won't." Buffy said quietly.
"It's Buffy." Cordelia looked up at Angel and offered him the phone.
He hesitated a second, then took it and cradled it to his ear. "Buffy?"
"Hi Angel." She said after a moment.
"Is everything all right?" He asked worriedly.
"Yeah, it's okay. There was just this demon tonight and all and I wanted to check something with Cordy and I did and she said everything was okay." Buffy said in a rush.
"You're sure?" He was obviously worried by the tone in her voice.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Things are as fine as they can be." She said softly.
He picked up the slightly bitter tone in her voice and hated himself anew for leaving. "So, how's college?"
They talked for several minutes about mundane things, just delighting in the sounds of the other's voice. Buffy relaxed into the easy banter that had always been between them, happy beyond anything. She had finally decided to break the careful conversation and actually say something important when she heard a break in the line.
"Ah, there's another call coming in." Angel said slowly. "So, I better...."
"Go. Yeah, okay." She answered in dismay.
"It's been, it's been nice." He said softly.
"Yeah, it has. Been nice." She answered in the same tone of voice as they both hung up the phone at the same moment.
"I miss you." She said into the stillness of the room.
She pulled Mr. Gordo to her chest and curled up on the bed, letting the tears flow.
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