Summary: On that fateful Halloween night. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn, Cordelia, Harmony, Giles, Jenny Calendar and Oz would be given a new destiny. Along with that destiny they would be given a 3 space going vessels in which to help fight the Goa'uld.

A/U: BTVS Season 2 Ep: Episode Halloween and Stargate Season 2: Episode Serpent's Lair

Pairings: Buffy/Xander (before you complain, there is a plot point later in the story that requires at least a male/female pairing, and Xander is the likely person for this plot point), Giles/Jenny Calendar, Dawn/Faith, Willow/Oz (later Willow/Tara or maybe Willow/Oz/Tara), Cordelia and Harmony not yet chosen

Disclaimer: BTVS owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Stargate owned by MGM. Battlestar Galactica owned by Universal

Author's Note: This is my response to the TTH challenge Ship of the Line but with some changes to make it work. Also this is a reworked version of my original Stargate Galactica story. It also incorporates items from my cancelled Stargate A New Hope story.

Chapter 1: Halloween Part 1

Jan. 30th, 2033 – Office of the President of the Intergalactic Republic

A young woman with blonde hair and in her early thirties sat before the assembled reporters and historians. She smiled and waited for the go-ahead for this conference to begin. She looked toward her advisor a thirty year old man by the name William Giles. William had followed in his father's footsteps and had become her friend, mento and even confidant just as his father had done with her parents. He gave her a small nod letting her know it was time.

"My name is Celia Joyce Harris," the woman said, "you know me as the President of the Intergalactic Republic. Over the last thirty years since the formation of the Republic, stories have been told of that formation and with each retelling they have grown more and more exaggerated. Some of the events that happened have been lost in those retellings. Today I am here to set the record straight and tell the true story of the formation of the Republic. Some of this will be hard for you to believe while other things you could very well dismiss out of hand. Regardless if you believe or not, it is all true. It's starts on the day before one fateful Halloween night, in the year nineteen ninety-seven."

Oct. 30th, 1997 – Sunnydale High School, 1 PM

Volunteers Are Winners, the signs read. Safe and Sane Halloween.

The halls of Sunnydale High were thronged with students moving to and from class. Halloween decorations were plastered everywhere, and a long table had been set up, manned by several kids and their neat rows of sign-up sheets. Principal Snyder stood by, arms clamped across his chest, beady eyes surveying the crowd. He looked even sneakier than usual today. It was obvious he was on the prowl.

An unsuspecting girl almost made it past the table before he grabbed her.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. She tried to wriggle free, but his grip was relentless.

"You're volunteering," he ordered.

"But I have to get to class—"

His grip tightened even more. He steered her over to the sign-up table just as Buffy, Willow, and Xander walked by with curious stares.

"Snyder must be in charge of the volunteer safety program for Halloween this year," Willow observed.

Xander hunched his shoulders, hands dug deep into his pockets. "Note his interesting take on the 'volunteer' concept," he said dryly.

Buffy warily eyed the table. "What's the deal?"

"A bunch of little kids need people to take them trick-or-treating," Xander explained, sounding less than thrilled. "Sign up and you get your very own pack of sugar-hyped runts for the night."

"Yikes. I'll stick to vampires—"

Buffy broke off as a hand fell to her shoulder. Principal Snyder was looking down at her with an undisguised sneer.

"Ms. Summers. Just the juvenile delinquent I've been looking for."

"Principal Snyder," Buffy said, trying to sound polite. She always found it really hard to keep a straight face around the man. With his balding head and huge ears, he looked amazingly like a troll.

"Halloween must be a big night for you, huh?" the principal continued sarcastically. "Tossing eggs. Keying cars. Bobbing for apples. One pathetic cry for help after another. Well. Not this year, missy."

Before Buffy could respond, he walked her firmly over to the table, Xander and Willow reluctantly following.

"Gosh, I'd love to volunteer," Buffy said, her mind racing for an excuse, "but I recently developed ... carpal tunnel syndrome and, tragically, I can no longer hold a flashlight."

Principal Snyder handed her a pen. Willow began to look worried. "The program starts at four, and the children have to be home by six tomorrow," he instructed. "Costumes are mandatory."

Buffy stared down at a long list of names.

Xander and Willow stared at each other, and then at the pens Principal Snyder handed each of them.

They then heard a bit of an evil laugh. It was coming from Buffy's fraternal twin sister, Dawn. She walked up and casually grabbed the paper while pulling a book from her bag and she began to read, "Many legal principles have been created to protect the rights of minors, the infirm, and the coerced. Including the inability for said groups to enter into binding legal contracts."

Dawn proceeded to rip up the sheet and started looking right into Snyder's eyes, unblinking she pulled out her book again and continued to read, "Despite what they may think or feel the authority to discipline students by administrators extends only to official and mandatory functions regarding classroom behavior, attendance, hygiene, and potential criminal acts dangerous to the institution writ large during the time in which official school business is to be conducted. To whit to threaten or attempt either discipline or expel students for not agreeing to participate in volunteer events and activities is patently illegal and grounds for beginning the process of dismissal and other professional and legal discipline for the administrator in question."

She smiled at Snyder as he saw his two least favorite faculty members Rupert Giles and Jennifer Calendar standing behind the younger of the Summers twins. Dawn had been born exactly six minutes after Buffy. "If you wish for us to participate," Dawn continued, "we'd be more than willing to volunteer for a program that had actual legal parental approval on all levels and granted us extra credit toward our GPA and attendance and gave us extra time to plan out our costumes would be perfect unless you would like a majority of us here at Sunnydale High to say take and pass the GED next weekend and force the school to be closed down for the rest of the year and the excess and unnecessary staff laid off for lack of a reason to be employed."

Snyder fumed knowing she had him over a barrel, he snarled, and went over to the loudspeaker and picked it up. "Anyone who wishes to participate in this year Halloween Youth Safety walk from four to six pm tomorrow for extra credit may leave school at the present time with my permission to collect costumes. I will also need signed parental permission slips filled out, prepared and signed by four o'clock today," he said.

Ethan Rayne's Costume Shop – 1:20 PM

Xander looked around the costume shop, he had already found what he had been looking for and listening to Buffy gush over the noble woman's dress and how it would impress Angel was making him nauseous. He was just about to make his way to the check out when an older gentleman approached him.

"Hello, my name is Ethan and I am the proprietor of this shop. Is there anything I can help you find?" the gentleman asked.

"No thank you, I have what I need." Xander replied, lifting the plastic rifle for the man to see. "This plus the old army uniform I have at home and instant soldier."

"Are you sure? That does not sound very original." Ethan replied.

"It's not, but it is all I can afford at this time." Xander said.

"I know just what you mean. I too, come from a less the prosperous beginnings. " Ethan said, "Allow me to pass on a favor done for me when I was your age."

"What kind of favor?" Xander asked.

"Why a boost in the right direction." the man said, "Now I can not lend you one of the costumes on the floor, but I have something in back that I think you may like. If you would follow me?" Turning the man headed towards the door mark staff only, after a brief moment of thought Xander decided to follow him. Once they were in the store room he followed Ethan to the back corner. "Here we go." Ethan said.

"What is it?" Xander asked, opening the box that Ethan had given him. In the box were three navy blue uniforms and what looked like possibly two toy guns and what looked like possibly a new style of walkie talkie.

"They are costumes from a new Battlestar Galactica show that they were going to make." Ethan explained, "however, the production has been delayed indefinitely so I was able to get hold of a costume."

"Why are you doing this?" Xander asked.

"Like I said, someone gave me a boost when I needed it and now I am passing on the favor. Besides no one was interested in a costume that no one would recognized and this way I get it out of my store." said Ethan. "I do have one concession. As you see there are three costumes in that box. Get your friends to wear the other two and there yours."

Out front Buffy gazed at the red victorian gown draped over the mannequin, knowing that was the costume she needed to make Angel putty in her hands. Suddenly Xander thrust a costume in front of her face. She looked at it, it was a uniform. "A uniform?" she said as she looked at the picture of the costume.

It definitely looked like some kind of sci-fi uniform, but it was extremely form fitting, it looked like it would hug all of her curves. She sighed as she looked at Xander. She had saved him from getting pummeled which had turned out as far as Xander was concerned to be a bad thing. If this would make him happy she would forgo her desire to wear the gorgeous red dress she had picked out and would have made Angel putty in her hands.

"Okay," she told him.

Just then Willow came over with a ghost costume.

"No way, Will," Xander said as he snatched the ghost costume out of her hand. "Not this year, not again." He put the costume on a rack and handed her another of the uniforms the proprieter had given him. "Here you go."

Willow glanced at the costume and then Buffy for help

"If I have to wear this," Buffy said holding up the uniform he had given her. "You have to wear that."

Willow sighed as she looked at the uniform then at Xander. "You owe me," she told her best friend.

At that moment Dawn came up to Buffy and showed her sister the costume she had picked out. "Since you're more into fashion what do you think, Buffy?"

Buffy rolled her eyes and then looked at the desert nomad/mechanic style costume her sister had put together. She looked at her friends as if asking for their help.

Xander winked at Buffy as he took the costume out of Dawn's hands. "We're going as a theme, Dawnie," he said using his friend's nickname. He handed Dawn the last of the costumes the proprieter had given him as he put the desert nomad costume on a rack.

Dawn looked toward her sister and sighed. "You owe me, Buffy."

Buffy smiled at her sister but otherwise said nothing.

Across the store they did not see Cordelia Chase or Harmony Kendell picking out two costumes themselves and muttering about Party Town burning down in a fire the day before.

As Cordelia and Harmony came up to the register together behind the self titled "Scooby Gang" they discovered, the English proprietor one Ethan Rayne had a large group of costumes piled up on the counter that had been purchased via a creative goods lease and exchange by Buffy and Dawn's mother Joyce Summers.

Joyce turned to her daughters and their friends and smiled. "Girls, Xander, could you help deliver these to the shop?"

"Of course, mom," Buffy said.

As Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Xander left they passed Jenny Calendar entering the store.

Joyce's Antiques, Rare Books and More - 2 PM

Joyce returned from the costume shop and was surprised to see an old friend standing by the counter looking at her rather esoteric collection of star and astronomy themed artwork and books. Since her friend was often shy and more of an academic type she decided to begin the conversation as if she was just another customer and see how her friend reacted. "We have perhaps the best collection of early to medieval manuscripts on early stellar theory and concepts on the entire west coast."

The woman turned to Joyce and smiled. "Of that I have no doubt, however I'm here hoping to pick up some of your custom science fiction vessel models as gifts for some of the younger members of my family who I haven't seen in a long time."

Just then the door opened and in filed Joyce's two daughters along with Willow and Xander. Joyce smiled motioning to her daughters to place the bags of clothing in her office. Once the items had been put away she motioned over her daughters.

"Buffy … Dawn, I would like you two to meet someone," Joyce said motioning to her guest, "this is Elizabeth Shiri Parker-Evans, the doctor who delivered the two of you. She's the reason it reads Elizabeth on your birth certificate instead of Buffy, Buffy. What was it you said, Liz, about hedging bets and that by invoking the almighty was never a bad way to hedge a bet." She looked at her daughters and smiled. "That's also why you both have more than one middle name on your official birth certificate girls because if you honor your friends, family and the divine you're usually on your way to a successful life."

Liz chuckled. "Or as you stated at the time really long names help when your yelling to get your kids really tend to make them squirm."

Joyce laughed. "There is that for sure. Well Xander, girls would you be willing to help Mrs. Evans with the design and construction of the pieces she desires."

Willow to the surprise of all raised her hand. "I'd love to what do you have in mind?"

"Well everyone likes the styles and designs of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica generally?" Liz asked.

There were a murmur of approvals from around the room. "Well I'd like to see some new design of the ships seen in Battlestar Galactica. I would like them to be one of a kind just like the people receiving them."

It took the collected group nearly two hours but they completed the nearly two dozen designs and put their own unique touches on them.

Back room of Ethan's Costume Shop, Time sometime after midnight

Ethan Rayne stepped beside an altar. One by one he lit black candles that encircled it. Directly in front of him, in the very center of the circle, was a marble bust of a woman. Her features were beautiful and serene. Kneeling before her, Ethan began to speak, squeezing his hands tightly closed, then opening them again.

His palms began to bleed. They bled thickly and freely, from stigmatalike wounds on his hands.

"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit," Ethan chanted. "The peace that ignores thee, thou corrupt."

He dabbed his blood upon his eyelids. He smeared a bloody cross upon his forehead.

"Chaos," he murmured. "As ever, I am your faithful, degenerate son."

He knew the true power of the statue.

He knew it, and he called upon it now.

For the back of the statue was quite different from the front.

It wasn't beautiful, nor was it peaceful to look at.

It was a hideously horrifying male visage.

A mask of pure evil.