CHAPTER 3
At the Magic Box, everyone was gathered around waiting for Buffy to arrive. In the corner, Xander sat sulking. He was less than thrilled to learn that Spike was back in the picture. Helena walked up and tried to cheer him up, but it was no use. She had quickly learned that when Xander was like this, it was best to leave him alone. Willow was looking for a book among the stacks and volumes, when she suddenly noticed a tear running down her cheek. Xander noticed it also, and thought maybe the cure to his depression would be helping his best friend deal with hers.
Xander knew exactly why Willow was depressed. It was Kennedy, her former girlfriend. When they had moved to Haridon, Kennedy had wanted to come, but she was chosen by the new Watcher's council to be their liaison with the group, which necessitated her moving to England. Secretly, Xander was happy she was gone. He had never forgotten how Kennedy had gone against Buffy several times leading up to the big battle with the First last year. Not to mention, he didn't really think Kennedy was the right girl for Willow. He still thought it was strange that Willow was a lesbian, but he much preferred Willow's first girlfriend Tara to Kennedy. But Tara was gone now, felled by an assassin's bullet.
"Penny for your thoughts, red." Said Xander jokingly. "Just a penny?" Asked Willow. "Is that all I'm worth to you?" Xander smiled at that. He liked it when he and Willow could joke around, like the good old days at Sunny Dale High. "You really look like you could use a hug, Willow." Willow pushed back a strand of red hair, and swallowed hard. "Yes. Yes, I could." Xander looked sympathetically at her and said "I know I'm not exactly your type these days, but will I do?" Willow smiled and gave her friend a long hug, as they shared in each other's grief.
As they finished their hug, they could hear Buffy's chipper voice echoing through the shop. Soon, Buffy the vampire slayer appeared. "All right everyone," began Giles. "Now that Buffy's here we can get started." However, before anyone could say anything, Buffy raised her hand to ask a question. "Giles, I have a question." Giles thought there was something a little…strange with Buffy, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Reluctantly, he let her ask her question.
"Well, it's just that, we shut down the hell mouth last year, didn't we?" Giles looked a little stupefied, but replied "Yes. Yes we did, Buffy." Buffy now had a real confused look on her face. "Well, I was just wondering. I mean, in the last few weeks we've had a tremendous rise in vampire activity. And also…all these dead bodies piling up around the city are starting to get on my nerves!" Giles was flabbergasted by this. "Well, Buffy…if you'll look around, you'll see the reason for that is that we are not in Sunny Dale! We're in Haridon."
Suddenly, another Buffy walked into the room, and upon seeing her doppelganger there said "What in hell? When did we get another Buffy-Bot?" Xander and everyone else suddenly did a double take. "Is it me, or are we seeing double?" Willow chimed in "No. I'm seeing it too." The Buffy Bot just stood there smiling. Giles walked up to it, and investigated it. "This is bizarre! The Buffy Bot was destroyed two years ago!"
Then Helena walked in, and, seeing both Buffy's asked "Buffy?" Of course both Buffy's replied simultaneously "Yes?" Willow was by this time starting to lose patience, and said "Enough! Which one of you is the real Buffy?" Both raised their hand. Then Xander had an idea. "Hey, easy way to solve this. Buffy?" "Yes?" They both replied. "What do you think of Spike?"
At the mere mention of Spike's name, Buffy Bot jumps on him and starts kissing him passionately. The real Buffy grabs her by the hair and yanks her off of Spike. "Hey! He may not be much of a man, but he is mine!" Suddenly, a strange noise came from the Buffy Bot. "SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM ACTIVATED. 10---9---8" Xander jumped up quickly. "So…ummmm…does this mean we should run?" Giles gave him one of his sarcastic British looks. "Yes, I think that would be quite appropriate!" Everyone scurries out of the building and took cover as the Magic Box exploded.