Ever since the Sunnydale collapse had scattered the Scooby Gang around the world, these brave men and women continued to safeguard the world from supernatural menaces. Over the years, this had included some more really weird stuff in their already strange lives. Such as at one time or the other, an astonished Scooby had come across somebody who appeared to be absolutely identical to them.
The first time it'd happened, a hasty reunion of the whole surviving core members - Giles, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Faith - had been organized. They'd next gone into full investigative overdrive, led by an alarmed witch determined to get to the bottom of this. Nobody even dared to mention the First, despite seeing for themselves a restaurant chef wearing cook's whites bustling around in his workplace. This man had Xander's matching face, down to the very last detail before their friend lost his left eye in Sunnydale.
In their group conference around a table at this same restaurant a day later, Willow started to explain what she'd discovered using her magic. Only to quickly interrupt herself to reassure Dawn now feeling horribly guilty. It wasn't her fault in any way, Willow stressed to this downcast younger woman, but rather the unforeseen outcome of what some fear-stricken monks had done years ago.
Think of it this way, Willow suggested to the puzzled others. Take a rock, hold it over a puddle, and let go. The rock falls, splashes into the water, and makes ripples moving away from where the rock landed. Now, the monks of the Order of Dagon had taken an immaterial essence of pure energy known as the Key, transformed it into a real human girl, and sent this newly brought forth person into the care of someone able to protect Dawn Marie Summers from an hellgoddess. It was a tremendous feat of magic, and the end result had been to land that same girl right into the middle of the most powerful Hellmouth in millennia. Unfortunately, it hadn't stopped there.
From what Willow learned, this action also unintentionally sent mystical ripples of magic throughout time and space far and wide from the Boca del Infierno. These ripples subtly warped reality to bring into existence even more people, aside from Dawn. All of whom then went on living their lives, along with anyone else around them, as if they'd always been there. Just as the Scoobies had done with Buffy's kid sister for the first few months of her stay at 1630 Revello Drive. But, even though the truth had finally come out in Sunnydale, this hadn't occurred elsewhere. Away from the corrupting influence of the Hellmouth, the magic which created Xander's counterpart never failed, and this other man still assuredly believed himself to be exactly like the rest of humanity.
The witch then reluctantly divulged to the others that there wasn't anything else her own magic could find out. The natural subtlety of the inadvertent spell made it impossible for her to locate any more lookalikes out there. It wasn't like searching for a needle in a haystack; it was trying to find the sole haystack in farming country which might have a needle in there. Because the reality-altering spell hadn't just affected the whole world, it'd also involved time. So, there could in all probability be younger Scoobies somewhere. Or older, who'd now passed away. Or maybe even both.
It was at that point when the entire table of former Sunnydalers, including a suitably disguised Xander, grabbed for their drinks ordered earlier, and they simultaneously downed at one gulp various glasses of booze.
Patting a coughing Xander on his back, Willow raspingly delivered to her friend a little more bad news. Namely, it wouldn't be wise to ever meet in person his mirror image over there being yelled at by another chef. Like the rest of those seated at their table, who'd survived the Hellmouth's collapse, they still bore within themselves traces of this dimensional nexus' magic from living there. So, if Xander ever came face to face with his double, it was possible this would result in the unraveling of the spell keeping Seth Richman, pastry chef, unaware of his true nature-
"Don't you dare!" hissed Dawn from across the table to a surprised Xander. She paused to blink away abrupt tears, with the entire table seeing the equally sudden haunted expression on her face. A somber mood descended upon the others sitting there, who all knew about the Key's mental trauma after learning the specifics of how she'd become human, with Dawn not taking this very well at the time.
Xander reached past his plate to compassionately clasp his hands around Dawn's trembling fingers. "Hey, Dawnstar, settle down. I'm not gonna, okay?" soothingly spoke the man with a glamour spell cast on him earlier that evening.
Gently squeezing her hand in real love, Xander then released his grip, and he leaned back in his chair. Glancing over into Willow's worried gaze, Xander directed his next statement to this witch, "Wils, if you say don't do it, that's good enough for me. I've been through this kind of thing before, anyway. Remember me being split into two people? Not all that interested in going through it again. Besides, he's a complete stranger, not my twin broth- Wait a minute! Is he, uh, related to me, like Buffy and Dawn are?" These last words came rushing out from a startled New Council member over this worrisome possibility.
The two sisters at the table stared in shock at each other at the very idea, only to relax at Willow's hasty assertion to Xander and the rest of them. "No, no! I checked, both magically and scientifically. They might look the same, but Xan and him back there, they don't have fraternal DNA. There's even different blood types for them."
From where Faith was at the end of the table, switching her bemused gaze back and forth from boytoy to that pie-making guy, this Slayer sardonically tossed off, "Well, that's a damn good thing, right? There ain't no chance now for some stupid soap opera crisis, with either of 'em suddenly needing a kidney from the other guy, or some extra shit like that."
"As ever, Faith," dryly mentioned Giles from his other end of the table, "You've put our minds at ease over something we hadn't even begin to consider." The mature Englishman sent a calm gaze at the young lady childishly sticking out her tongue at him, to then speak to the rest of their company. "Although, this raises another point. We" (Giles deliberately stressed this word to mark its importance) "can refrain from contacting that gentleman over there, but what about anybody else? It was mere chance one of us saw and recognized him, but there's nothing which could prevent in the future another former Sunnydale resident - either human or from that city's demonic population - to think he's really Xander. Which might put Mr. Richman in actual danger-"
Firmly shaking her head, Willow broke in on their leader, "Nope, that's not going to happen. You see, there's a part of the spell on Xander's double which I didn't get to tell you about yet. It's something I want to research further, just to see if I can duplicate it. But right now, Giles, there's almost no chance of what you mentioned, and it all has to do with Sunnydale, strangely enough."
The witch beamed around at the intent stares of her friends impatiently waiting for her to finish, to then happily declare, "It's like this: Xan's double - and maybe anyone else also created by those monks' accidental spell - has a really strong case of Sunnydale Syndrome. Just like all my hometown neighbors, he'll totally ignore any strange stuff he comes across about demons and magic and all that. But what's different is it'll also work just as well in the other direction. Just about any vamp or other demon will pay no attention at all to him, too."
"Dear Lord," was whispered by Giles, mirroring the stunned mood of the other's over what they'd just been told. Eagerly speaking before the rest of the table could join in, the director of the New Council appealed, "Willow, do you indeed think you can recreate that effect on other people? It'd be absolutely wonderful to be able to protect everybody from supernatural harm."
Wryly nodding at this, Willow still cautioned, "If I can do it at all, it'll still take me a long time to figure it out. That darned spell is really complicated. Plus, keep in mind it won't be a cure-all. About Sunnydale Syndrome, some people were never affected by it, or overcame it eventually when the evidence got shoved right into their faces. Like me and Xan," she added matter-of-factly with this latter Scooby grimacing in shared agreement.
The witch went on to point out, "Also, even though Xan's lookalike in this restaurant has some magical protection against demons, it's not perfect either. If there's no other prey at hand, any vamp might be able to target him, despite his Sunnydale Syndrome mirror effect. No, guys, he'll just have to take his chances like the rest of us."
"Well," aggressively began Giles, "We can at least refrain from further putting Mr. Richman in peril, along with whomever else may be out there created by that unintentional spell. For now, I want to keep this absolutely private. Everyone," he raised his voice slightly while sweeping his gaze around the table, "unless this incident repeats itself, merely stay watchful over the possibility, and if it indeed occurs, follow the same principles as this event. Report immediately to myself, Willow, and the rest of us here. Don't ever directly contact this person, save for when their life's in actual danger at that precise moment. If that happens, then we'll just have to deal with it the best we can."
Accepting nods came from Willow, Xander, Faith, Dawn, and Buffy regarding these clear orders. Now that their Scooby Gang business seemed to be done with, the people at the restaurant table reached for their menus, and Giles looked around for a waiter to have their drinks refilled. Casting her eye over the dessert section while idly wondering if Xan's double made those delicious-sounding pastries, Faith absently mentioned to nobody in particular: "Doesn't seem likely this sort of thing is gonna happen again anyway, guys. There's what, like, seven billion other people around on Earth? Findin' Xan's twin hasta just be a weird stroke of luck for us, right?"
Nobody replied to Faith. In fact, an absolute silence fell over the entire table, causing Faith to lift her gaze in surprise. She saw the rest of the Scooby Gang staring sadly at her, with Xander at last breaking the silence to say in a very hollow tone, "You do know that you just totally jinxed us? Ten seconds from now, a busload of our dopplegangers is going to come through that front door!"
"Oh, bullshit," scoffed Faith. Still, ten seconds later, this Slayer's eyes nervously flicked towards the restaurant entrance.