Scythe

A/N: BtVS/GW, I don't own anything except the odd idea. YAHF, but I wanted to try something more in keeping with show canon: the characters only kept memories of who they'd been on Halloween.

Holding her breath, Buffy soldered the last circuit into place. Waited as it cooled, half her attention listening to the emptiness of the warehouse under her little hideaway, to make sure it stayed empty.

Cool enough, the Slayer judged, tossing her braid back behind her shoulder. Test it'll carry current... looks good. Power time.

Housing open, she thumbed in thin cylinders that looked more or less like regular copper-tops. Only these babies would blast out any flashlight unlucky enough to use them. And probably blow up the hand attached in the bargain.

No patents on silicon-foam batteries here. They're going to be mine, all mine...

Making money legally. That was going to be interesting.

But first - test run. Carefully, Buffy closed the housing, listening to the quiet snick. It looked like your average short, black-stained wooden bo staff. Worked as well as one, too; she'd already tested that in a bunch of Sunnydale's back alleys.

Not that vampires were impressed by a wooden staff, even used by a Slayer. No sharp point meant you'd be crazy to try and shove it through a heart. Which was the only thing vampires really worried about, until she got them in position for Mr. Pointy.

Now they're going to have something new to worry about.

Her thumb found the subtle depression, and pressed.

Vrummm...

Buffy smirked into green light, twirling the staff and its glowing blade to check the balance, the heft, the feel.

Yeah. This is right.

Still grinning, she saluted the empty darkness with her new thermal scythe. "Bye-bye Mr. Pointy, hello decapitation."

Don't get cocky. Memories of too many missions gone wrong - missions she'd never run - rippled in the back of her mind. Test it first. Away from the vamps. Make sure you did it right.

After that... Shinigami's going to play.

A/N: Blame Snyder. Everybody went as "embodiments of Death". Xander went as a revenant soldier. Willow, as an ikiryou - living ghost. And Buffy pushed the envelope and went as one of the characters from the post-dusting anime parties the Gang holds when they're stressed out.

And no, no Gundams were left behind. Just memories.