'All right I need something cheep but cool,' Xander thought silently as he poked around 'Ethan's' the new costume shop in Sunnydale.
"Hey Xander," Willow said as she walked up behind her best friend with Buffy.
"Hey Wills, Buff," Xander said in greeting to the two girls.
"You're not still mad at me about helping you out earlier are you?" Buffy asked.
"No, just don't do it again alright," Xander said.
"You got," Buffy replied.
"So what are you looking for?" Willow asked the dark haired boy.
"Don't know yet," Xander responded.
"Well, we're on our way out but we'll stay if you want us too," Buffy said.
"You guys go ahead, I'll meet up with you later," Xander said, the two girls then said goodbye and made their way out of the store.
Xander then returned to his search but was soon interrupted again.
"Can I help you with something?" A British voice said.
Xander turned and say that the voice belonged too the man that had sold Buffy her dress.
"Well, I'm looking for something nice yet cheap," Xander replied.
"I believe that I may have something that will suit you," The man responded with a gleam in his eye as he led Xander to the back of the shop.
"Wow," Xander said as he saw the gleaming armor and sword.
"Amazing isn't it," Ethan said.
"Yeah, but there's no way I can afford this?" Xander asked.
"That's not true, I'm sure we can come to a price we both see fair," Ethan responded, ten minutes later Xander walked out of the store with his purchase.
"I can't wait till the girls see me," Xander said as he walked up to the door of Buffy's house while adjusting the white wig on his head.
When Xander reached the door he quickly rung the bell and soon the door was open by Buffy.
"Wow Xander you look great," Buffy said as she let her friend in.
"Thanks Buff, you too," Xander responded.
"Just wait till you see...Casper," Buffy said as she and Xander looked up the stairs and saw Willow come down with a sheet over her head.
"Hi," Willow said.
"Hey Wills, nice boo you got there," Xander said, wondering if his friend would ever outgrow the ghost costume.
"What are you, a knight?" Willow asked as she finished descending the stairs.
"Something like that," Xander responded with a grin.
Xander staggered as the magic wave hit him but was quick to recover, when he looked around he saw very unfamiliar settings.
'Where am I?' The knight thought as he looked around.
"Xander!" A voice yelling from the side caused the man to turn in the direction of the voice and saw a red haired girl running up to him.
"Xander, are you alright," Willow asked as she ran up to her best friend.
"I don't know who this Xander is, but he sure isn't me, my name is Cecil," The knight responded.
Cecil was very confused as the red haired girl in front of him started babbling on about how he was someone else, so instead of listening he went about checking his equipment.
After a quick run through he saw that his Crystal armor, shield, helmet, and gauntlets were equipped as well as his Legend Sword and that he had three cure potions and four phoenix downs in his side pouch.
"Hey are you listening to me!" The red haired girl yelled at him.
"I am sorry, I was not," Cecil responded.
"Well start, you are not Cecil, your name is Xander Harris and you and I have been friends since we were little kids, got it," Willow said.
"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about," Cecil responded.
"Alright we'll handle this later, right now we need to find Buffy," Willow said as she turned and looked around the street.
"Very well," Cecil responded as he thought about how he came to this place when the last thing he remembered was departing for the moon to fight Zemus.
"There she is!" Willow yelled as she saw her friend on the other side of the street and quickly ran over to her with the paladin close behind.
"Buffy are you ok?" Willow asked as she and Xander reached her.
The slayer in turn simply stared at the pair in shock for a moment before she fainted.
"Oh great," Willow muttered.
"This is your friend?" Cecil asked.
"She's your friend too, now wake her up," Willow said to the knight.
"Why can't you?" Cecil asked.
"This is why," Willow responded as she ran her hand through a nearby tree.
"You're a ghost," Cecil stated.
"Kinda, now wake her up and lets get moving," Willow said.
"Very well," Cecil responded, pulling out a Phoenix Down and sprinkling a few drops over the comatose slayer.
Soon Buffy had woken up and the trio was able to make it to Buffy's house after much whining and screaming from Buffy.
"Alright we should be safe here," Willow said as Cecil closed the door.
"Where is here?" Buffy asked.
"Your place," Willow responded as she looked out the window.
"That is absurd, I would never live in such lowly accommodations," Buffy responded.
Before anyone could say anything else a scream was heard outside. Without thinking Xander ran out of the front door toward the source of the scream. Upon arriving there he saw a brown haired girl wearing a skintight suit running away from a large hairy monster.
The paladin then unsheathed his sword and ran forward. After a quick slash to monsters arm it ran away, Xander then grabbed the girl and ran back into the house with her.
"Would you let me go," The girl said as Xander pulled her into the house and closed the door behind him.
"Okay Cordelia, your not a cat your a human and we're your friends, sort of," Willow said to the girl.
"What the hell are talking about Willow, of course I'm not a cat," Cordelia responded.
"Your hurt," Cecil said as he walked over to Cordelia and raised his hand.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing!" Cordelia yelled as Xander placed his hand over the injury.
Soon small sparkles of light came from his hand and danced over the cut until it faded away leaving only a small amount of blood.
"Wow," Cordelia said in awe as the light faded.
"How did you do that?" Willow asked.
"I'm a paladin, it's what I do," Cecil responded.
"You think you could use that magic of yours and fix my costume, Party City is so not going to give me back my deposit," Cordelia complained.
Before anyone could say anything else Angel came in from the kitchen a little scratched up.
"Glad I found you guys, its total chaos out there," Angel said.
"Who are you," Cecil asked as he raised the Legend sword.
"They've been turned into their costumes, It's okay he's a friend, " Willow explained to the two men.
"So what do we do know?" Cordelia asked.
"You guys stay here, I'll go talk to Giles and see if we can figure out what's going on," Willow said before turning and running through the wall.
"Alright, we have to make sure that we are safe here, cat woman you come with me, you two secure that room," Cecil said while gesturing toward the kitchen.
The group of four then split off into groups of two in order to secure the house.
"So let me get this straight, your a holy knight now?" Cordelia asked as she and Xander checked the upstairs.
"Yes I am," Cecil responded.
"And Willow is a ghost and Buffy some noble woman from the seventeenth century?" Cordelia continued.
"Apparently so," Cecil responded as he closed and locked a window.
Cordelia was about to continue with her questioning but a scream from the downstairs drew their attention. The two then turned and ran back down the stairs and into the kitchen where they saw Angel fighting with another vampire.
Xander wasted no time and quickly grabbed the vamp and pulled it off of Angel and then ran his sword through the vampire's heart, the holy blade making short work of the demon.
"How did you do that?" Angel asked as Cordelia help him up.
"I don't know, usually monsters don't turn to dust when I kill them," Cecil responded as he sheathed his sword.
"We have to find Buffy, she ran off," Angel said.
"Lets get going then," Cecil said while walking out the door.
In the Sunnydale High library Giles was starting to organize the card catalog as Willow suddenly walked through the wall.
"Good lord Willow how did you do that?" Giles asked as he got over the shock.
Willow then quickly launched into an explanation of what had happened so far that night.
"So you have all turned into your costumes?" Giles asked.
"Yep, except Cordelia," Willow said.
"Why didn't Cordelia?" Giles asked.
"I don't know," Willow replied.
"Where did she get her costume and where did you get yours?" Giles asked.
"She got hers at Party City and we got ours at a new place called Ethan's," Willow replied.
After hearing the name of the store Giles expression grew darker as closed the book he had been reading.
"Show me where it is," was all Giles said as he reached for his coat.
Angel, Xander, and Cordelia were having a simply time of tracking Buffy due to the vampire's heighten sense of smell. When the group found her a pirate was attacking her. Xander, not wasting any time, quickly ran forward and bashed the pirate over the head with the flat of his sword.
"Are you okay?" Cecil asked, turning to face the terrified girl.
"Yes, thank you for saving me," Buffy responded.
"Anytime," Cecil said back.
"We need to get moving," Angel said as he saw Spike and a group of demons heading towards them.
"I think you're right," Cecil said as he grabbed Cordelia's arm while Angel grabbed Buffy's, they then ran down the alley, trying to put more distance between themselves and the demons.
Soon the group made it to an open warehouse that they quickly ducked into and closed.
"That won't hold them for long," Angel said as he and Xander began stacking crates in front of the door.
"Then it looks like we will have a fight on our hands," Cecil said as he unsheathed the Legend and Angel picked up a pipe from the ground.
It wasn't long before the makeshift barrier broke and Spike and the demons came rushing in. Cecil and Angel fought to the best of their abilities but were soon overwhelmed by the mass of demons.
"Well, well, guess I win," Spike said in a mocking voice as he walked over to Buffy. "I'm really gonna enjoy this," Spike laughed as he pulled back Buffy's head.
Before Spike had a chance too sink his teeth into Buffy's neck a loud scream was heard behind him, turning Spike saw Cecil break free from the vampire that was holding him, grab his sword, and spin around cutting off the vampire's head.
"Let her go," Cecil said, fire burning in his eyes.
"Whose gonna make me?" Spike asked.
"Me," Cecil responded before running forward and attacking the vampire with his sword.
Spike was caught off guard by the sudden attack and barely had time to duck under the swipe that was meant to take off his head. Recovering quickly, the blond vampire punched the paladin causing him to fly back into a wall.
"You know, I think I'll drain you first," Spike said as he walked over to the fallen warrior and picked him up by the throat.
Meanwhile on the other side of town Giles and Willow had just arrived at Ethan's.
"This is the place," Willow said as she walked through the wall with Giles following through the door.
The two made their way to the back of the ship where they found a statue of a head sitting on a makeshift alter surrounded by candles.
"Janus, I should have known," Giles said as he inspected the statue.
"Yes, you should have," a voice said from behind them.
Turning around Willow saw that the voice had come from the man that had sold them their costumes.
"Willow go find the others," Giles said as he eyed the man.
"But what about you?" Willow asked.
"Go!" Giles said back in an angry voice.
Willow, knowing that arguing would be futile, turned and ran through the wall.
"How do I end the spell?" Giles asked, turning back to Ethan.
"Now why would end my fun by telling you?" Ethan responded with a grin.
Giles then walked over the grinning man and punched him in the gut causing him to double over in pain. The watcher then brought his fists down on the back of the shopkeeper's head causing him to fall to the floor.
"Now, how do I end the spell?" Giles asked again.
"You didn't say please," Ethan responded.
Giles then kicked the fallen man in the kidneys causing another grunt of pain to escape from the shopkeeper.
"The bust of Janus, you have to break it," Ethan grunted out in pain.
Giles then turned around and picked up the statue before slamming it back into the ground causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces. Turning around again to face the fallen man Giles saw that Ethan was nowhere to be seen.
Once again Spikes meal was interrupted, but this time from a blond haired girl that sent him flying into a wall.
"Hi honey, I'm home," Buffy said with a grin as she ran over to the vampire and punched him the face, causing him to fly back into the wall again.
Spike, seeing that his chances of winning had greatly decreased, got up and ran away through the open doors and disappeared into the night.
"You okay Xander?" Buffy asked, helping her friend up.
"Yeah I'm fine, how about you?" Xander asked as he regained his footing.
"I'm good," Buffy responded, then walked over to Angel.
As Buffy and Angel walked out of the warehouse with Cordelia and many crying children in tow, Xander went to retrieve the prop sword, seeing as he had dropped it when Spike punched him.
After a moment of looking Xander saw the sword on the far side of the warehouse and then walked over to get it. After picking up the sword Xander noticed that it was heavier then it was before and felt like real metal.
After a closer examination of the blade Xander saw that the sword had not reverted to what it was before the spell happened but stayed real.
"Weird," Xander said as he walked out of the warehouse.
Later that night Xander was sitting in his room eyeing the sword that was sitting on his desk.
"I wonder," Xander thought out loud as he picked up the sword and cut open his hand causing blood to fall to the floor.
Xander then raised his other hand and concentrated hard. After a few seconds small sparkles of light came out of his hand and danced over the cut, quickly closing it, then disappearing.
"I get the feeling that life just got way more complicated," Xander sighed as he fell back on his bed.