Title: And the rest is.
Author: Charlie Timeline: Post BtVS S7 & AtS S5. Sequel to "Best Laid Plans" and "A Fair Exchange.
Summary: The face we see isn't always the one that is visible?
Feedback: Coin of the realm.
Author Notes: Round and round, the ship goes. Where it lands, the Author doesn't know. Will it be (A)my, (B)uffy, (C)ordelia, (D)awn, (F)aith, (F)red, (H)armony, (K)ennedy or (W)illow that wins the Xandman? Vote now.

Streets of Cleveland

Angel stared across the seat at the man sitting in the passenger seat. He certainly resembled the man he once knew, eye-patch and all. But his actions certainly were not the same as those of Alexander Harris.

"Who are you?"

His passenger stared out of the window with a bored look on his face, "Not this again. What's your problem corpse-o."

"My problem is you just fed a man to a vampire."

"I didn't feed anyone to anything. I stopped the vamp before it could feed. Besides, if memory serves, you're a fine one to be accusing others of feeding people to vamps." He turned and stared at the former detective behind the steering wheel, " Or have you forgotten those lawyers you gave to Darla and Drusilia."

"I made a mistake."

Xander leaned closer to the vampire, "Buffy was willing to feed Faith to you. She was willing to feed Wood to Spike. Tell me did they make mistakes?"

"Buffy isn't the issue here."

"Oh she isn't? You know she may have been your girl but she grew into Spike's woman."

Angel's face was unreadable as Xander continued, "I bet it just eats you up inside that Spike was inside her only a few hours after you came to save the day."

"You know I'm beginning to wonder if you're the one with the Buffy probl-". Xander snatched him around the throat and yanked him across the seat.

"Problem? She was my dream girl. A perfect, shining light in my crappy life. She was the one I looked to when things were bad, when I was scared, I asked myself what would Buffy do. Turns out she would rather fuck the demons then kill them."

"And you resent her for it."

"Naww... See people never really change, they just grow. Buffy was a minor screw-up. Now she's a major fuck-up."

"And yet you still love her."

Xander's smile sent shivers down Angel's spine and his answer set off alarms inside his head.

"Love her? I don't love Buffy. I will NEVER love Buffy. If I had to choose, it will NEVER be her, Angel. It will never be her."

He let go of Angel's throat and sat back in his seat. "Back to the manor Jeeves. I got some thinking to do."

Elsewhere

"That should be the last piece." As soon as he spoke the man backed away as bolts of red and purple energy ran through the creature's body. Sparks erupted briefly when separate bolts crossed paths. At length the energy faded and nothing happened for a time. Then slowly the thing's eyes moved and it seemed to draw breath. It's eyes opened to reveal red irises as it sat up, examining the room around it.

A movement toward it attracted the creature's attention. It watched as a strange man walked up to it smiling. Reflexively the creature reached out and touched his chest. It seemed surprised when it did so.

"Something wrong?"

"You cannot be burnt. There is no humanity within you."

The man smiled, "Of course not. I am far beyond anything you have ever seen or known."

"Why did you restore me?"

"It is said that you were brought forth to separate the righteous from the wicked and burn the righteous down. I was somewhat disappointed in your previous efforts so I made some improvements to you. You are no longer the Judge as you were, now you are the Judge as it will be."

"What do you ask of me?"

"You shall assist me in my mission, you shall be the one that burns the truly righteous to ashes."

"Yes... My Master."

"Excellent." The man smiled as the bluish demon moved off the table. He watched as the Judge's gaze fell upon the other men within the room. Silently it approached them and laid it's hands upon them, after a second it removed them.

"There is no humanity within these men."

"No there is not, I found the locals to be a bit lacking and created more suitable help."

The larger man with a twisted face and yellow eyes growled slightly as he spoke, "We serve Master Taurkass, with our lives."

"So to then shall I."

The Library at Crestview

Willow was poring over various books, when the library doors banged open. Xander strode in with an air of confidence around him even as Angel silently followed behind him. He smiled as he spotted Willow, Kennedy, Amy, Travis and Andrew sitting around reading. Faith was off to one side tending to Robin who had a bandage wrapped around his head.

"I tell ya folks, the traffic out there is murder." He chuckled lightly at his joke. "Right Fangface?"

Angel made move to answer and Xander frowned, "well fine sulk if you want to. I'll you around."

The ensouled vampire watched him leave before turning to the others. Travis was the first to speak, "Is there a problem?"

"That's not Xander. It maybe wearing his face and speaking in his voice but that's not him."

"You seem pretty confident."

"The Harris I knew would never strike a woman. Let alone Buffy or Faith."

"And you know this how?"

"I didn't spend all my time in Sunnydale Mooning over Buffy. I saw some things."

"And yet you didn't act on what you saw? A pity, if you had perhaps this entire situation might not have come about."

"What are you guys talking about?"

"What we are discussing Kennedy, is that Angel apparently was and observed Mr. Harris during his formative years yet never acted to help the boy. A mistake that perhaps led Alexander to his current spiteful state."

"Kinda doubt that 'T'. X maybe fucked up in the head but the guy I remember wouldn't attack us."

"Oh yeah right like you said two words to him the whole time."

"Willow, I just watched him use a human as bait to lure out a vampire and kill it and the bait. I think it's safe to say that's not the man from Sunnydale."

The room grew very quiet after that.

Willow's voice was shaky when she spoke again. "Xander would never do anything like that."

"He wouldn't," Everyone's attention turned to Robin, "But Cole would. You can see it in his eyes. He's a cold son of a bitch."

"Cole..." Travis repeated, "He attacked Faith and Buffy earlier. He said he was stronger then any slayer. Strong enough to break a vampire's back."

"Oh god, the spell..."

Angel's gaze flickered to Willow, as did everyone else's. A hardened look came over Amy's face as she glared at the smaller witch. Travis interceded before she could do anything, "What spell Willow?"

"The enjoining spell."

"What?"

She looked up at him, "When we were fighting ADAM, he was too strong for any of us. He handled Buffy easily. Xander talked about making a 'combo Buffy' to beat him."

"'Combo Buffy'?"

"Yeah, Giles found the spell, it joined Me for my magic, Giles for his brains and Xander in Buffy's body."

"Giles was used for his brains?"

"Yeah there were some spells that I couldn't read because they were in Sumerian and other stuff. He could read but couldn't cast them. So we needed the enjoining spell."

"And Alexander was what?"

"He was Animus, the-"

"The heart."

The half demon looked back at Amy. The brunette witch continued speaking, "He was the most important part of all."

"And why is that Ms. Madison?"

"The heart is the support of the enjoined. Without it to support and keep the others separate they wouldn't have been able to work right and might never have been able to leave Buffy's body."

Amy took a deep breath and let it out. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the redhead. "Willow, what exactly did you do with the enjoining spell Mr. Giles showed you?"

"I used it..." she hesitated before continuing in a meek voice, "I used it as a template to create a spell to give Xander a boost from Cole."

"Except it didn't give him a boost from Cole." Angel moved closer to the group, "It merged him with Cole. Xander and Cole are now one individual, combining both of their personalities, traits, skills...feelings."

"So it's not really Harris anymore." Travis finished for the vampire.

"Oh so should we call him Cander now? Or maybe Xole?" Andrew saw everyone staring at him strangely.

"What?"