Xander couldn't believe what he found at Ethan's store when he and the rest of the Scoobies had gone costume shopping for halloween. In fact judging by the confused look on the man's face as Xander approached him with the item in question at the counter, the man didn't realise what Xander had found either. Starcraft had been out for just over a year and, being the geek he rather proudly professed himself to be, Xander had just about managed to afford the game second hand from one of his friends.

The bracer would have been impossible to link with the game had it not been for the large green emerald, probably glass given the shop, placed decoratively near the upper end of the thing. Xander had seen enough art from the game, both official and fan based, to recognise the bracer as being a cast of Zeratul's warp blade. All thoughts of being a soldier on Halloween left his head instantly, especially when Ethan offered him less than five bucks not only for the bracer but the tattered almost black purple robes that Xander had found near it.

He imagined nobody else would get his costume, but that didn't matter, in his mind the chance to be the enigmatic anti-hero that was Zeratul could not be cast aside like this. Besides, if he modified the rest of the costume a little bit, people would probably just think he had dressed up as a shinobi or something.

Little did Xander know that as he walked out of Ethan's shop, a small figure who had been watching from the corner of the shop smiled before disappearing in a light haze of smoke. The gift had been given, now all there was to do was wait, it was up to Xander to do something with it...

!"£$%^&*

Zeratul awoke quite sharply, not something he had expected to ever do again given his last memory was of the end of his final fight with the corrupted Artanis, the sharp pain of his chest wound still burning deep in his chest. Looking round, he recognised he was in what looked to be a Terran dwelling, though the architecture and materials of construction seemed more in tune with some of the pictures friend Raynor had shown him of The Terran's original home planet Earth.

"Xander! Whoa..." The voice startled him slightly, spinning round and activating his warp blade only to find himself looking at a young Terran redhead that was quite similar to the pictures of Kerrigan before she became the Queen of Blades. The ignition of the warp blade made the girl jump, though she made no sound as she landed, explaining why Zeratul hadn't been alerted to her approach.

"Xander? Please tell me that you are still in whatever it is you are dressed as? Something hellmouthy is going on..." Zeratul realised two things at this point, firstly that the redhead thought he was one of her comrades and therefore almost definitely meant him no harm, and that he could feel a second psionic presence in his mind.

It was weak enough that Zeratul hadn't felt it at first, but when this redhead had appeared it had started trying to take control of his body, even though it was weak enough that Zeratul could probably crush it in moments if he wanted to. He didn't know what was going on, but if his time fighting against Amon had shown him anything, it was that fate rarely made things happen for a reason.

"Peace young Terran, I apologise for my earlier aggression, the circumstances of my arrival were quite... Jarring." De-igniting his warp blade to show his good faith, Zeratul felt the presence inside of him calm as well, this Xander's desire to protect his comrades was strong indeed if he had been prepared to fight an obviously superior psionic being in an effort to save this redhead.

"So... You're not Xander then? Do you have any idea where you are? Who I am?" Zeratul didn't have any idea in regards to either question, but luckily for the girl he was rather proficient at mind reading due to extensive practice with Terran's and the Queen of Blades.

The boy's memories came with only a modicum of resistance, Zeratul's ire aroused more by the brief memories of this Xander's childhood before the memories swiftly shifted to more recent events. He recognised the Terran in front of him now from those memories, the love this Xander felt for her only matched in his experience by Jim Raynor and his feelings for Kerrigan, though Xander didn't seem to realise what his love meant yet.

"No, I am not Xander young Willow, I am Zeratul of the Protoss dark Templar. I have psionic abilities that have allowed me to glean most of the pertinent information from the boy, but the present situation has me at a loss. Is my arrival here something to do with this Hellmouth you spoke of?" Zeratul suspected it was, given what he had seen in Xander's memories of the events linked to this Sunnydale, but the boy's rather simplified memories of how the Hellmouth worked meant he couldn't be sure.

"I assume so, I kind of just assume that anything crazy is Hellmouth related now. We seem to have turned into what we dressed up as. Let's find Buffy, she's the Slayer so she will know what to do... Unless she's changed as well." Deciding it was probably not a good idea to voice Xander's question, what kind of ghost she was meant to be given the halter top and very short skirt, Zeratul instead cast his eyes around for the blonde that Xander's memories conjured at the mention of this Buffy character.

"Over there, but it would probably be best if you approach her first, if she has also changed then she will probably be... uncomfortable with my presence." A slight understatement given the looks of shock and horror on Terran's faces back in the Korpulu sector, and those were humans who knew Protoss existed.

"Good idea, no offence Mr Zeratul but the whole glowing blade thing and the whole non-human thing probably doesn't help, not that I'm saying you are scary or anything... I'm rambling, I will go grab Buffy..." As the redhead moved off towards Buffy, who was obviously distressed as she looked around at the others who had been transformed with abject horror, Zeratul summoned the shadows closer to him so that he could be a little less obvious.

It was a lot harder than it usually was, but that made sense as this wasn't his actual body and he definitely wasn't on Aiur anymore, Zeratul was just pleased he could pull it off at all. Seeing Willow speak to Buffy for a couple of minutes without much success, Zeratul decided it would be a good idea to get their official meeting out of the way now before anything else happened. Walking up from where he had covertly been listening in, Zeratul knelt to one knee and spoke quickly, an idea from Xander appearing in his head that would probably work best.

"My lady, I know my appearance frightens you but I mean you no harm, I am a shinobi from Japan." To Zeratul's surprise Buffy looked him over for a moment before nodding her head in understanding.

"Father always said the Far East was filled with all types of wonders and monsters, no wonder he wasn't keen on me accompanying him out there. But he had good things to say about the shinobi he hired, so I will diregard your appearance for now, I'm sure it is some kind of mask meant to terrify your enemies. What of these demons though? And how did I get here?" Despite her obvious terror and confusion, this woman Buffy had turned into obviously was still rather intelligent, meaning Zeratul could appeal to her logic and reason above anything else.

"We have all been kidnapped by dark forces my lady, this land is as unfamiliar to me as it is to you, though with our local guide to help us find safety and my blade as protection we will remain safe until we work out what has occurred here." Not exactly the truth, but Zeratul thought it better than trying to convince the girl that they were just costumes, they didn't have time for those arguments.

"Very well Shinobi-san, I will trust your judgement in these dark times. Young guide, I did not get your name, where is safe for us to wait out this madness?" Zeratul smiled even as look of shock passed over Willow's face, and he felt the mental force that was Xander try and get him to high five, he missed Terran interactions...

!"£$%^&*

Zeratul twisted in the air as gracefully as he could manage, impaling another one of the vampires that had attacked them directly in its open maw, the fiend exploding into a rather unsavoury pile of dust a moment later.

"How are you all getting defeated by one man... Well thing, and the glowing sword is pretty cool, but there are at least a dozen of you and he's all alone whilst I dealt with the traitor... How is he still kicking your arses?" Landing with the softest of thuds, Zeratul wished this was his actual body and not some strange transformation of a Terran's.

He had only been able to shadow walk 3 times before the strain had become too much, he could probably pull off one last blink before he did some serious damage to Xander's body. This blonde vampire, Spike, had managed to catch the group off guard as they attempted to track the course of the spell. And whilst nearly all of the civilians had made it inside, the young lady Buffy had been caught by the vampires before that could happen, Angel being captured after fighting both Spike and half a dozen vampires at the same time.

"Perhaps it is because they fight more like younglings than warriors, their attacks are so predictable I could defeat them even without my blade... Given your arrogance, I wouldn't be surprised if you were no better, Spike was it?" Zeratul knew he had to keep the vampires distracted, it was like many of the missions he had helped run against the Zerg and The various dark powers that controlled them at one point or another.

"Oh well, I'm sure you wouldn't be so confident of that mate if you didn't have that bloody thing on." Zeratul sighed mentally as he saw a couple of vampires trying to break into the building the others had gone into, the problem with being the distraction was that he always had to put himself at such a disadvantage...

"Well then... 'Mate.' How about you come prove me wrong?" With a shake of his hand Zeratul deactivated his blade, sweeping up a stone at the same time from the ground and launching it at Spike.

"What the... Get the bastard, and make sure he dies slowly." Spike had dodged the rock, but he hadn't been the target, the sharpened edge of the stone slicing into the face of one of the vampires holding Angel and causing him to loosen his grip, just as Zeratul had intended.

The other vampires didn't notice as they charged towards him with a small group of possessed Terran's in various forms moving to assist them, Angel freeing himself from captivity with a sharp elbow to his other captor's face. Zeratul was not worried about the vampires, even without his blade they were no match in comparison to Kerrigan, the various hybrid he had combatted or Artanis in his last fateful battle. The possessed Terrans were also easy to deal with, their minds easy to influence into leaving this place even as he flying kicked the first vampire in the chest, several bones shattering audibly as the vampire flew backwards into one of the others.

Ducking under a claw swipe and deflecting a punch, Zeratul let himself become enveloped in the glorious feeling of battle once more, unleashing a beating on these vampires that they definitely weren't expecting. He was tiring though, Zeratul knew that even as Spike finally joined the fight, he had to give the mouthy vampire credit for being a cold strategist at the very least. His dodges had turned to deflections which turned into bone numbing blocks as he weathered the vampire's furious assault.

Finally one of the white haired vampire's strikes made it past Zeratul's guard, sending him flying back against a car with a thud. Angel would be of no assistance to him as Spike stalked up with a smirk on his face, the friendly vampire barely preventing himself being buried under the weight of possessed Terrans attacking him, but as a pulse of yellow light erupted from the shop behind Spike Zeratul couldn't help but feel satisfied even as Spike picked him up.

"Not so cocky now are you? I wonder what your blood will taste like, though I suppose I shall wait till I have dealt with the Slayer before trying yours, though I can break a few bones before the pretty little maiden is ready to be served..."

"Aww, you called me pretty..." The high heeled boot to the face definitely surprised Spike, Buffy spinning in the air to land in a ready stance, though even Zeratul had to admit it was a lot less intimidating in the ridiculous dress she was in.

"Fuck, that hurt bitch... Well I think that's a signal for us to scarper then..." To his credit Spike actually stayed until his injured followers had managed to hobble away, though whether that was to spend more time glaring at Buffy Zeratul didn't know.

"Thank god, I really would not have enjoyed fighting in this thing... Xander, you in there? The spell is broken, why haven't you changed back?" Buffy was looking at him with honest concern in her eyes, so Zeratul felt he should explain what he was doing before he fully faded.

"I am still here because I am maintaining the change with my own strength now young Slayer. The road you all walk is dangerous and I can see that young Xander will do his best to stay by your side regardless of his own lack of skills, so I am giving him a gift that should help with his desire to fight by your side." The fact that Xander wanted to do more than that with the young slayer went unsaid, primarily because Zeratul felt the young man had to build up the courage to explain that himself.

As he condensed the last of his memories to do with combat and fed them to Xander's subconscious, Zeratul felt his control slip and his sight faded, Zeratul relaxing into the welcoming void that awaited him after sending one last message to Xander's mind.

"Learn well, young Terran, it will be interesting to watch the legacy of my kind be passed unto yours..."

A/N: I can already see the reviews asking me predominantly why did I bother, my question is... Why not? I think the introduction of Zeratul to the Buffy universe, as well as passing along his combat style for Xander to learn would be quite interesting. Maybe it's just me, but let me know what you think guys!