Chapter 2: The Replacement
October 10, 2000
Harris Home
Dawn said next to Buffy as they, Riley, Xander and Anya sat in Xander's basement bedroom relaxing on and around Xander's sofa, watching movies. Buffy had a history textbook, and was completely absorbed in it. Dawn on the other hand had one of the Books from Buffy's Slayer training shopping list and was reading it.
"Wish I had something food-like to offer you guys, but the hot plate's out of commission," Xander admitted.
"We think the cat peed on it," Anya added.
"I do have Spaghetti-os. Set 'em on top of the dryer and you're a fluff cycle away from lukewarm goodness," Xander told the other couple and Dawn.
"I, uh, had dryer-food for lunch," Riley quipped.
From upstairs they heard a door slam
"Huh, guess the folks are back," Xander sighed.
From upstairs they heard the muffled sound of Xander's parents arguing, punctuated by the sound of a plate hitting the wall.
"No, No. I was wrong," Xander said obviously embarrassed. "Just incompetent burglars."
The heard a door slam and then Tony Harris's voice. "…like I'm going to listen to your friends sober…"
Something heavy hit the floor above them and dust shifts down from the rafters. The muffled fighting stopped for now.
"Maybe it's time to start looking for a new place…Something a little nicer. Buffy, you've been to Hell. They had one-bedrooms, right?" Xander asked as he looked at his best friend. He waited for answer but none is forthcoming.
"Hey, Buffy…how's that book?" Riley asked glancing down at the sisters who sat at his feet. "What about you, Dawn? How's yours? Full of zippy dates and zesty names?"
"I'm fine," Buffy and Dawn replied absently.
Riley gently tugged first Buffy's book away from her and then Dawn's away from her.
"Hey!" Dawn scowled.
"We were enjoying the studying!" Buffy added. "Right, Dawnie?"
"Right," Dawn said as she stood up. "Give them back. Or face the wrath of the White Zeo Ranger."
Riley rolled his eyes. "Okay, Buffy, who are you lately? You've even turned your sister, who has been home just a little over a week into a mini you," he told the sisters ignoring Dawn's threat. He knew Dawn wasn't about to morph just to get the book back. "Both of you give it up and watch the movie."
"Well it has been a long hard day with the crusades," Buffy admitted. "Guess I could take a little break from the violence for some…." She looked at the TV. "Ooh! Fighting!"
"Well I guess your right there, Buffy," Dawn agreed. "I can study up on the history of the Slayer later." She sat back down next to her sister and turned her attention to the TV.
"Incompletely dubbed kung fu," Xander told the sisters. "Our most valuable Chinese import."
"Much more durable than their hot plates," Anya added.
"Both of you, watch the movie and relax," Riley told the sisters. "Buffy, here." He moved Buffy around in front of him and started to rub her shoulders.
"Ooh," Dawn said as she looked up at Riley. "I can't wait to find someone like you, Riley. You treat my sister the best."
"I try," Riley told her as he smiled at Dawn.
"Mmm. So good. More…" Buffy said enjoying Riley's ministrations.
Xander Buffy and Riley's happiness and he took their cue and began rubbing Anya's shoulders.
"What are you doing? I have a dislocated shoulder and I'm trying to concentrate on the kicking movie," Anya told her boyfriend, who instantly stopped what he was doing.
Riley glanced at Xander with sympathy as he stopped what he was doing, not wanting to flaunt their togetherness to the other couple.
"Hey! The rubbing went away," Buffy whined.
"Buffy," Dawn said as she leaned over and whispered in her sister's ear.
Buffy glanced at Dawn nodded. She grimaced at what she saw on the TV. "Oh, give me a break! See you'd hit the big guy first, a flying kick. Then clear out the little ones - bam, bam! Oh! Now with the flying kick?!"
"Talking about flying kick," Dawn said looking at her sister. "When do I get to start in on the training."
"You don't need it," Buffy countered. "You have things I don't, Dawn."
"Fighting demons and vampires isn't like fighting King Mondo's Cogs," Dawn countered. "I need to learn what you know to adequately fight the threats you face."
"I'll talk to Giles," Buffy promised her sister.
"Hey, Buffy…Dawn," Riley said a little rankled. "Maybe you both ought to leave the work behind sometimes. Buffy, you're not always a slayer on duty. And Dawn, you're not always the White Zeo Ranger on duty. You both know."
"Well, it would drive you crazy if this was an army movie and they were all, you know, saluting backwards and, and…invading all willy-nilly," Buffy told her boyfriend.
"Buffy has a point," Dawn agreed as they heard a door slam upstairs.
"…going to run away, huh? 'Cuz that's what you do best…" came Jessica Harris's voice.
The five of them heard the muffled fighting start up again. Everyone tried to ignore what they heard. Riley cleared his throat loudly to try to drown it out.
Buffy piped up, trying to distract Xander, who was clearly squirming. "Anyway, you can't blame me or Dawn for being critical. Willow's the same way when we watch movies about witches, isn't she, Xander?"
"What?" Xander asked focused on the TV. "Oh - yeah… She's all "What's that? A Cauldron? Who uses a cauldron anymore?" He tried to smile, but they could all tell that it was forced.
Toth's Lair
A very tall and imposing demon known as Toth stood in front of a bubbling cauldron. A hooded black robe hid his features. He pushed back the hood, revealing the strips of skin shedding from a black skull underneath. He held a rod that was inscribed with arcane symbols length-wise over the cauldron, letting the smoke curl around it.
"The last step in thy forging is my pain. The price with which I purchase the deaths of the White Zeo Ranger and the Slayer," Toth said in a deep and portentous rumble. He plunged the arm holding the rod into the cauldron up past the elbow and screamed skyward in pain and rage.
October 11, 2000
Apartment Building
Xander led Anya, Willow, Dawn, Buffy and Riley down the hallway of a nice apartment building.
"If you get the apartment, this'll be your hallway," Willow told Xander. "We'll walk down this hall going, la, la, I'm on my way to Xander's."
"Just warning you now, Xander," Buffy countered. "I probably won't be doing that."
"Neither will I," Dawn added.
"Really?" Riley chuckled. "I will."
"Hey, we're just looking," Xander said. "The rent's way high, so don't get your hopes all carbonated."
"But you have references!" Anya protested. "
"No. I have Albert," Xander told his girlfriend. "Which is me doing an important-voice. Xander Harris? An excellent tenant and a very nice - looking fellow…"
Anya sighed as she opened the door as everyone followed her in.
"Ooh. Big," Willow said clearly impressed.
"Nice. And not subterranean. Very… above-terranean," Buffy added.
Anya glanced around the open plan living kitchen dining area once, and turned to him beaming. "I want it. Pay anything."
"Xander Harris?" a woman asked as she stepped out of the kitchen area and approached them. She looked at Riley and Xander. Mistaking Riley, because of how he was dressed for Xander, she shook his hand.
"Oh. No. Riley Finn. This is Xander," Riley told the building manager.
"Hey," Xander told the woman. He wiped his hand on his shirt tail and then offered her the building manager his hand. She shook it, clearly unimpressed. "I brought my friends."
The building manager regarded Anya, Buffy, Riley and Dawn with an uncertain gaze. "I see."
"They wouldn't always be around," Xander uttered.
"But we're quiet and clean," Willow added.
Dawn watched as Buffy and Riley walked into one of the bedrooms.
"We could have Scooby meetings in the living room," Anya told Xander, Dawn and Willow. "Giles can explain the boring things over here."
"Hey!" Willow said from the kitchen area. "There's a microwave in here! It would be like having hot-and-cold running popcorn. Only hot," she said as Xander started looking around.
"Phone and electricity are hooked up," the building manager told Xander. "There's a private balcony, ceiling fan, closet space…"
Xander was about to open the bedroom door when Dawn pulled him back, whispering in his ear to let him know Buffy and Riley were in there.
"And the bedroom is behind that door," the building manager finished. "I brought an application for you to fill out."
"An application? I can't just, like, tell you my references? 'Cuz there's Albert—" Xander told her as he smiled.
The building manager rolled her eyes. "We run your credit check based on the application."
"Oh! Credit check." Xander laughed nervously. "Little check on the credit. See how credible my checks are."
"And we'll be asking for first, last, security and a small cleaning deposit," she told him. "The totals at the bottom of the sheet."
Xander looked at the total as Dawn looked over his shoulder. Behind them Buffy and Riley came out of the bedroom. He did a good job of not reacting.
Dawn glanced at her sister and shook her head slightly.
"He'll take it!" Anya told them. "Xander, go get the furniture, I'll wait here." She looked at the building manager. "He lives in his drunken parents' basement where something urinated on the hot plate."
"Um, let's talk quietly over there," Xander said to Anya. "Excuse us." He pulled her to one side.
Dawn glanced at her sister and Riley noticing the same awkward smiles on their faces.
"We…um…we like the ceiling fans," Riley said as Willow joined them.
"Very, you know, kind of Old south," Willow admitted.
"But without unpleasant slavery associations," Buffy said quickly.
"Buffy, I'm going to have a look around," Dawn said as she walked into the bedroom closing the door behind her. "Maybe this will help Xander," she told herself. "It's Morphin' Time! Zeo Ranger Six White!"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The White Zeo Ranger beamed into the living room area in front of the building manager whose eyes went wide. "Good day," she said as Xander, Buffy and Riley all looked at her with raised eyebrows. "I thought I would introduce myself. I am the White Zeo Ranger. I didn't think Xander mentioned I was one of his references."
"N—No he didn't," the building manager stuttered in surprise.
"I didn't think so," the White Zeo Ranger replied smiling. "Some people obviously feel a tad bit embarrassed to know one of us personally. Xander is a good friend. He's one of the few people who knows my true identity. I trust him implicitly. He would make an excellent tenant."
The building manager turned and looked at Xander and Anya. "We would still have to do a credit check. But with one of the Power Rangers as a reference. I think you might just be the perfect tenant."
Xander's eyes went wide as he looked at the White Zeo Ranger. "Thanks, Dawn," he mouthed as the White Zeo Ranger nodded.
They watched as the White Zeo Ranger beamed out. A second later Dawn walked out of the bedroom.
Xander turned back toward Anya. He sighed. Even with his friend's glowing recommendation. He still had a problem that his construction job was coming to an end. He reluctantly told Anya so.
"So, when I want to visit you, I have to be in that awful basement?" Anya asked.
"Not forever," Xander replied. "Just until things come together…"
"Which is when, Xander?" Anya said getting shrill and upset. "Because right now things are looking pretty un-together and you can't expect me to just wait around—"
Xander tried to her quell her rising tone. "Quiet, please. Anya, what is this? What's going on with you?"
"What's going on is my arm is hurt and I'm tired and I don't really feel like finishing the tour of beautiful things I can't have," Anya told him as she spun around and stormed out.
Embarrassed, Xander turned to the building manager. "Guess I'll just start on that application," he told her forcing her a smile. "Think you'll like it. I've been told I have lovely penmanship."
Looking very skeptical, the manager handed him the application.
The Magic Box
Giles stood alone in the closed shop, dressed down, sleeves rolled up for a day of inventory and clean-up. Most of the shelves were empty, but there were some dusty books, some jumbled vials of powder, and other miscellaneous strewn about. Giles rummaged around in the contents of a cardboard box, hauling out handfuls of amulets, their chains all knotted together. On the side of the box was a black magic-marker scrawl: Charms, Orbs, Misc. Curses.
"Miscellaneous curses," he said with a resigned sigh. "Brilliant. Be lucky not to curse my hands right off." Giles picked up the box, turned, and found himself face-to-chest with Toth, who was carrying his rod-device.
"Gahhhh!" Giles screamed in shock.
"The White Zeo Ranger and the Slayer are not here," Toth declared, as he took in the shop.
Giles held the box with one arm and started frantically pawing through it. He seized on something, held up a rabbit's foot. Rabbit's foot. No, wait," he said as he came up with a heavy sculpture of a deity just as Toth swatted the box out of his hand. Giles held the sculpture up in front of him.
"That is a fertility god," Toth informed him. "Feeble man, you are not likely to strike mortal fear into—"
Giles hit Toth with the fertility sculpture again and again! The beating drove Toth back for a moment.
Toth was more surprised than hurt. He swatted Giles casually, smacking him against a wall. "You are not White Zeo Ranger or the Slayer. You do not concern me." He swept out, his robe all billowy and evil behind him.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow paged through some of the shop's collection of books as Dawn, Buffy, Riley, and Xander watch as Giles demonstrated how he fought off the demon.
Giles swung the sculpture wildly. "Like this… and this!"
"That's thing's pretty heavy," Riley said looking at the sculpture.
"It's Oofdar, Goddess of Childbirth," Willow told them, having recognized the sculpture. "Got some nice heft to her."
"How badly did you hurt him?" Dawn asked.
Giles set down the sculpture. "Well, hurt… maybe not hurt…"
"I'm sure he was startled," Willow offered helpfully.
"Yes, yes," Giles agreed. "I imagine it gave him rather a turn."
"He ran away, right?" Buffy asked.
"Sort of, more… turned and swept out majestically, I suppose. Said I didn't concern him," Giles replied.
"So, a mythic triumph over a completely indifferent foe?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I'm not dead or unconscious, so I say bravo for me," he replied.
Willow handed Giles one of the books. "Good demons in this one. See if your guy's in there," she suggested as Giles started looking through it.
"So, you bought the magic shop and you were attacked before it opened," Xander commented. "Who's up for a swingin' chorus of the 'We told you so' symphony?"
"Owning this place does seem kind of dangerous," Riley admitted as he took a few practice swings with the sculpture.
Giles looked up from his book looking blankly at Riley. "Toth," he murmured.
"What?" Riley asked confused.
"He called you a toth," Buffy told her boyfriend. "It's a British expression. It means, like, a moron."
"No. Toth is the name of the demon," Giles explained patiently. He rested the book he was studying in his arms. "Ancient demon… very strong… last survivor of the Tothic Clan. It also says that for a demon he's unusually sophisticated."
"Sophisticated?" Dawn asked. "Buffy and I talk men's fashion with him while one of us cuts his head off?"
"They're referring to the fact that he does not fight barehanded," Giles explained to the youngest member of the Scoobies. "He uses tools, devices. He's also supposed to be very focused. And since he mentioned both the White Zeo Ranger and the Slayer I think we know what the focus is—"
"He mentioned Buffy?" Riley said grim. "Where do we find him and how hard can I kill him?"
"I second that," Dawn added. "I think he needs a visit from the White Zeo Ranger."
"There's no mention of the types of places he might frequent," Giles admitted. "But I have an idea. He had a specific… olfactory presence."
"So, it's off to the old factory. I hate that place," Xander said as everyone looked at him. "I'm joking. I know what it means. He smelled."
"Some demon rituals involving anointing with oils. Was it kind of sandal-woody?" Willow asked looking at the former librarian.
"Hmm," Giles replied. "Not even remotely. But it was very… distinctive."
"Then Its Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out. "Zeo Ranger Six White!"
Everyone watched as the morphing sequence covered Dawn in the Zeo Ranger armor. No matter how many times they saw it, they still managed to look at it in awe.
City Dump
"The city dump, where smells go to relax and be themselves," Buffy remarked as the Scoobies arrived at their destination.
"People say they're recycling," Riley said sadly. "They're not recycling."
"I found a spell so you can't smell anything. But it does it by taking your nose off. So, no," Willow told them.
"One thing I am thankful for," the White Zeo Ranger told them. "My suit filters out some of the smells."
"Okay," Buffy glared at her sister. "Flaunt that your Power Ranger, Dawn."
"Sorry, Buffy," the White Zeo Ranger remarked as they rounded a corner, startling Spike, who was rummaging through some discarded items.
"What are you doing here, Spike?" Riley asked as he glared at the vampire.
"Oh, there's a nice lady vampire who's set up a charming tea room just 'round the next pile of crap—what do you think I'm doing? I'm scavenging, ain't I?" Spike said as he indicated a small pile of salvaged items. They noticed a broken table and part of what looked like a mannequin. He held up an attractive old oil lamp.
"Very pretty," Willow admitted.
"Spike, we're looking for a demon," Buffy told the vampire. "Very tall, robe, skin kind of hanging off, deep voice…"
"What, you mean a great tall robe-y thing like that one?" Spike asked as everyone turned and looked behind them.
Toth loomed over them from a nearby hill of garbage, holding the black rod-device. "Die well, Slayer…White Zeo Ranger." He rushed forward as Giles and Riley circle around behind him, axes ready as Toth raises the rod.
"White Zeo Power Sword!" the White Zeo Ranger called out as the sword was beamed into her hand.
"Hey, big guy! Kick their ass!" Spike said.
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger saw the rod in Toth's hand. Buffy picked up a length of pipe.
"Watch out!" Xander cried as he saw that Toth was aiming the rod at Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger.
Toth fired a strange beam missing both Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger and hitting a pile of garbage next to them.
"Take cover!" Riley ordered as he grabbed Willow's arm pulling her away from the action.
Toth fired the weapon again this time hitting Spike's new lamp, shattering it in the vampire's hand. "Oh, very nice," Spike told him. "I was on your side!"
Toth aimed again, this time having Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger dead in his sights. Xander jumped knocking both Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger aside as he was hit by another blast of Toth's weapon. He was flung to the ground in the shadows.
"Xander!" Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger called out at the same time.
The Scoobies rushed over to their fallen friend. "Man, you okay?" Riley asked as they helped him up. "Easy, easy."
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger looked around for Toth, but found he was gone.
"I will beam Xander home," the White Zeo Ranger told her sister.
"I'm okay, Dawn," Xander told the Power Ranger. "I'm fine, you don't need to beam me."
"Take it slowly," Giles urged as they walked out into the streets.
Behind them, the pile of garbage that Xander had risen from shifted, to reveal another Xander Harris.
October 12, 2000
City Dump
Morning came and Xander woke. "Anya ... you trying to use the hot plate again?" Opening his eyes, he realized where he was. "Uh-oh."
Rapidly he got up from the trash and made his way from the rubbish site. "So, you take the bullet for the swinging Scooby-friends and what do you get? A pat on the head? A tasteful medal? No! You get left for dead under a light layer of moldy socks and banana peels!" He slipped as he said the last word and fell.
Harris Home
Xander trudged down the outside stairs to the basement door. He tried it, but it doesn't open. "Anya! Ahn?!" he called out as he rattled the lock. Nothing. He kicked the door and hurt his foot as a result.
He climbed back up the stairs and went around to the basement window. Laying on his stomach in the dirt he looked inside. "Oh, my god!"
Inside, oblivious, another Xander continued to get dressed. Outside, Xander continued to stare. "What? No way! Who is ... me?" Hurriedly he back away. "What am I doing in there? Buffy. Dawn. Need Buffy and Dawn." Rapidly he checked his pockets, only to see that the other Xander had his- or was it their -cellphone. "Damn."
He made his way over to the nearest payphone. His pockets also revealed little money, but he tried a quarter anyway. When nothing happened, he settled for calling the operator. "No, it ate my quarter. Uh-huh. But see, I'm sort of having this aggressively bad day. Ooh! I found a quarter! I found a quarter! ... Well, ma'am, for me it is worth getting excited about." He hung up and dialed Buffy's cell.
"Come on," he uttered as the ringing began. "I really should ask Dawn if we can't get wrist communicators like she gave to Buffy." He glanced around, only to see the other Xander, looking suave and smart, walking past him. Hurriedly he put the receiver down and followed.
Summers Home
Dawn watched as Buffy hung up her phone. "Wrong number?" she asked.
Buffy shrugged. "They hung up." She turned back to her weapons bag and began loading weapons into it. "You know, Dawn. I wish I had your powers. I wouldn't have to worry about hauling around a bag full of weapons."
"I don't want to toot my own horn, Buffy," Dawn said as she smiled at her older sister. "But I do agree it's nice that I only have to call out for mine and their beamed into my hands."
"Part of the perks of being a Power Ranger," Riley told the younger Summers sister. "By the way, when do you start school? I'm just curious."
"A couple days ago," Dawn answered. "When it's vampire or demon related. Buffy, pretending to be mom, calls in sick for me. That's the problem with being a teenager and a Power Ranger."
"Anyways," Buffy said looking over her bag. "The guy wants to fight with weapons, I've got mine covered from A to Z. From ax to…ze other ax." She smiled at her sister and Riley. She noticed that her boyfriend was forcing his smile. "Relax. Another day, another demon."
"Right. It'll be good," Riley said unconvinced as Buffy kissed him. He smiled as he returned her kiss.
"Okay, not to spoil the moment," Dawn said. "It's Morphin' Time! Zeo Ranger Six White!"
Buffy and Riley watched the morphing sequence for a moment. "Dawn's right. We should go. I'm thinking maybe the guy actually likes smelly places. So, we're going to do a whole tour de funky, starting with the sewers."
"I'm coming with you two," Riley told them.
"Um," Buffy said glancing at the White Zeo Ranger before looking back at her boyfriend.
"I never told you this about me, but I love the sewers," Riley told them. "Probably get a place there when I retire."
"Riley, this Toth guy walks softly and carries a big blasty rod," Buffy reminded Riley. "He almost hurt Xander. I'm not going to let him hurt you. And if not for Dawn's Ranger powers, I wouldn't risk her either."
"I don't know," Riley said looking at the two women. "While I am glad you have backup. I don't like you two facing this creep whose gunning for you both. I mean, first it was Dracula—"
"You actually met Dracula?" the White Zeo Ranger asked in clear surprise.
"Yeah," Buffy said glancing at her sister. She was sure Dawn was having a fangirl moment beneath the helmet. She looked back at Riley. "Dracula wasn't the first guy to come Buffy Hunting. Lots of baddies want the slayer trophy kill."
"Same with the Rangers," the White Zeo Ranger added. "We can handle it."
"I know... And if you both want me to stay out of it, that's cool," Riley admitted. "But you can't blame me for worrying about both of you."
"Both of us?" the White Zeo Ranger asked.
"Your Buffy's sister, Dawn. Which means by that relationship you mean something to me as well," Riley explained looking at said sister, wishing in that moment she hadn't already morphed so he could see her face. "Because I don't want to see Buffy hurt simply because something happened to you."
"Thank you, Riley," the White Zeo Ranger told the man who, like the rest of her sister's friends, had become one of her friends.
Buffy smiled at her boyfriend and kissed him again. "You know how much I love you for saying that?" she asked.
"I'm fairly certain," Riley replied as he returned Buffy's kiss.
Construction Site
Xander followed his doppelganger at a distance. He watched as the other Xander approached the hardhats Xander saw the foreman exit his trailer.
"Harris!" the foreman called out as the doppelganger didn't react. "Harris!"
The doppelganger turned and looked at the foreman. "Harris," he replied. "Sorry. Yeah?"
"In my trailer, okay? I'm talking to all the guys today. Job's winding down," the foreman explained.
The doppelganger nodded. "Yeah. Right with you," he replied.
Xander who was half-hidden by a porta-potty watched as his doppelganger followed the foreman. "Welcome to payback, mister evil-plan face-stealer. You take my life; you get my being-fired absolutely free!" He watched as the doppelganger entered the trailer.
Suddenly a worked exited the porta-potty and door whacked into Xander, who rubbed his head. "Harris? Where's your hardhat?" the worker asked.
In the trailer the doppelganger took off his hardhat as the foreman sat behind his desk. "Sit down," the foreman ordered as the doppelganger sat down.
Outside Xander stepped up outside the window of the foreman's trailer. He quickly realized he would need something to stand on if he was going to see what was going on inside. He quickly rigged a platform of particle-board over some planks. He got up on the platform and looked into the window.
Xander saw the doppelganger sat facing the foreman and was playing with some kind of coin-like object. The doppelganger turned the object casually in his fingers.
"How long you work here, Harris?" the foreman asked.
"Huh. I'm not sure," the doppelganger answered.
"Three months?" the foreman pressed.
The doppelganger shrugged. "I guess—yes."
"And you haven't done much construction before this, is that right?" the foreman asked.
Outside Xander cringed at the question. "I knew they were going to notice that..."
"I got to tell you that's surprising, because your work's been first rate," the foreman admitted as the doppelganger continued to play with the disk. "We've got another job lined up in Carleton when we finish here. You ever think about staying on full time?"
Outside Xander looked at the foreman and his doppelganger shocked. "What? Why isn't he firing me- him?"
"I was thinking I'd have you head up the interior carpentry crew. See how it goes," the foreman told the doppelganger. "It's more responsibility, but the pay is better."
"That would be great," the doppelganger said obviously pleased.
"A promotion?! But he... I mean, I didn't—Doesn't he see the shiny thing?!" Xander said clearly agitated. Suddenly his makeshift platform broke beneath him and he fell to the ground.
The doppelganger and the foreman stood and shook hands.
"Good. Congratulations Harris," the foreman said. "You and your girl should go out and celebrate."
"I already have an idea how," the doppelganger replied smileing slyly to himself.
Apartment Building
The doppelganger stood at the kitchen counter with the building manager, signing the lease.
"I was going to call you, Mr. Harris," she told him. "Let you know your credit checked out fine. Couple that with the glowing recommendation from a Power Ranger. Sadly though I really didn't think you'd be back."
Outside in the hall Xander was on his knees listening at the door. "Mr. Harris? Yeah, right."
Inside the doppelganger finished signing the lease. "I'm sure you'll like the building," she said as the doppelganger took out his disk and began playing with it. "I think someone said you're currently in your parents' basement?"
The doppelganger nodded. "Right. And there's just a point where you either move on or you just buy yourself a Klingon costume and go with it."
She laughed obviously charmed. "Well, I hope you'll be happy here, Mr. Harris," she told him. "We're certainly happy to have you." She took a step closer. "And if you need anything, day or night, please call me. I... um... I'm leaving my home number here..."
"Thank you," the doppelganger replied.
"Call me. Even, you know, for non-business stuff... we could maybe do something..." she suggested.
"She's coming on to me!" Xander said clearly appalled. "Him! Please lady, that is so not me! He's too clean for one thing and his socks are all matchy and—"
Suddenly the door started to open and Xander toppled over backward. Noticing that the building manager was leaving he quickly moved out of her way before she saw him.
"Remember... any time!" she said looking back at the doppelganger.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Anya? You there?" the doppelganger said into his cell phone, having dialed Anya's phone number. "Look, I know you're still mad. But I figure you're probably sitting there, pretending you're not home, but listening anyway. But I have something to show you. Meet me at the apartment. You know the one. Nine o'clock."
He hung up and then proceeded to leave the apartment. As he headed down the hallway, he tucked the lease papers in his inside jacket pocket.
Xander jumped him from behind, knocking him off balance. "Yaaaa!"
The doppelganger shook Xander off, who collided with the hallway wall, hitting his leg. The doppelganger turned ready to fight. It was at that moment he saw Xander for the first time. He froze for but a moment then hauled off and decked Xander.
Xander went down as the doppelganger stood over him ready to bring on the violence. He froze when he heard a noise further down the hallway startling him, someone may be coming.
"I won't let you do this!" Xander said as he slowly began to stand up. "You can't do this to me!"
The doppelganger turned and ran as Xander collapsed flat on his back on the ground again.
"Oh man. I need Buffy and Dawn," Xander groaned.
Giles' Apartment
Xander stumbled toward Giles' apartment. He looked in a window when he heard his own voice.
"No, no. He looked exactly like me!" the doppelganger said.
Xander slumped against the wall, next to the window listening.
Inside Dawn, Buffy, Giles and Riley stood listening as the doppelganger told them about Xander. "It stole my face," the doppelganger told them. "We have to find it and we have to kill it!"
Outside Xander stood at the window looking inside. "They see it's not me. C'mon Buffy...Dawn…resist his spell...do this for me."
"Don't worry, Xander," Buffy told the doppelganger. "Whatever stole your face—it has to deal with the Slayer and the White Zeo Ranger now.
Xander's face fell as he realized that Buffy and Dawn were under his doppelganger's hypnotic control.
Willow and Tara's Dorm Room
Xander made his way across the campus lost and confused in the rain as he searched for Willow's dorm. "Stupid dorms, all sitting there, being all the same looking," he scoffed. "Where are you, Willow?"
Just above him on the second floor, warm and dry inside the glass lobby of the dorm, Willow passed by, carrying a few books. "Willow!" he yelled having spotted her. When he realized she hadn't heard him, he ran trying to catch her attention. But the glass wall was long and he kept tripping over rocks and shrubs. "Willow!"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow entered her room and put down her books. Suddenly Xander burst into the room, dripping wet.
"Don't be scared, Will. Just listen," Xander begged. "It's me, Xander. And I can prove it."
"Um... okay," Willow said obviously confused on why Xander needed to prove that it was him.
"Let's see... stuff only you and me know," Xander said. "Okay, for my seventh birthday I wanted a toy fire truck and I didn't get it and you were really nice about it and then the house next door burned down and real fire trucks came and for years I thought you set the fire for me. And if you did, you can tell me."
He took a moment to think of another example. "And for a while last year I thought I was lactose intolerant but it was just some bad brie. And, by the way, if I had time to prepare, I'd have way better material than this." He took another moment searching for another example. "Oh! Every Christmas we watch Charlie Brown together and I do the Snoopy dance!"
Still dripping wet, Xander started to do the Snoopy dance.
"Are you just going to keep going?" Willow asked.
"Yes! Yes! I will keep going until I have you convinced!" Xander confirmed.
"Xander, stop dancing!" Willow ordered and he stopped.
"A-ha! You called me Xander!" Xander said excitedly.
"Xander, shut up," Willow told him. "Why wouldn't I think you were Xander?"
"Oh. Huh," Xander said realizing that Willow didn't know that he had a doppelganger.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Okay. I woke up in the dump this morning—" he explained.
Willow shook her head. "The basement isn't a dump," she reminded him. "It's more like a really nice... hovel."
"No," he countered. "The dump. The city dump. Got hit last night. Fell down boom. Woke up in the morning."
Willow looked at him confused. "Nuh-uh. We walked you home last night, remember?"
"You walked..." Xander said obviously scared. "Will, did I do anything weird? Did I wave any shiny things around?"
"Shiny things?" she asked wondering what he was talking about. "What are you talking about?"
"Last night. That wasn't me," he explained. "There's a double out there. Some... thing that's stolen my face. It's going around pretending it's me and it's hypnotizing people. It even got to Buffy and Dawn and Giles and Riley. It's with them right now and they have no idea."
Giles Apartment
Dawn and Buffy sat quietly thinking as the doppelganger, Giles and Riley talked.
"What's intriguing is that there are any number of demons with the ability to mimic a simple form, but this sounds like more than that—" Giles told them.
"Hold up," the doppelganger interrupted. "Do we really have to figure out what it is? Let's just go kill it."
"Yeah," Riley agreed liking the plan. "When the imposter is killed, the body will probably turn back into whatever it really is, and then we'll know."
"Toth," Buffy interjected. "The demon with the creepy-stick."
The doppelganger looked at Buffy, shooting her and Dawn a hard gaze. "Toth."
"I see where Buffy is going," Dawn said looking at her sister. "It had that rod device that fired some form of energy that hit you. It's possible that the energy it fired was a form of scan. He could have access to the morphing grid. Using the morphing grid, he could potentially take your form."
"Giles, is what Dawn saying what the stick-thing did?" Buffy asked.
"Dawn would know more about morphing and the morphing grid than I do," Giles answered. "But yes, I think that's possible that is what the device did."
"It does make sense," the doppelganger said carefully. "It must be Toth."
Willow and Tara's Dorm Room
Willow spread newspapers on her bed allowing her wet friend to sit on those, wringing out his socks into the waste basket.
"It's a robot!" he said remembering Willow's first boyfriend. "An evil robot constructed from evil parts that look like me and are designed to do evil!"
"Uh-huh," Willow interjected. "Or, it's Toth."
"Or, it's Toth!" Xander added.
Giles Apartment
"Well, Dawn and I were looking for Toth anyway," Buffy said. "I guess now we'll start, you know, looking for you," she told the doppelganger.
"Should I go with you two?" he replied looking at his friends. "I told Anya to meet me. I'd feel a lot better knowing she's safe from this creep."
"Go be with her," Dawn told him.
"Dawn's right," Buffy agreed. "If you were running around looking for the double too...well, let's just say neither Dawn or I want to run into you and kill the wrong one."
The doppelganger nodded as he headed for the door. "Good thinking. When you two kill the guy you'd better make sure you've got the one who's actually—"
Willow and Tara's Dorm Room
Xander paced listlessly, flapping his wet shirt-tails to dry them. Willow flinched occasionally as water drops were flung on her. "A demon. A demon has taken my life from me," he said. "And he's living it better than I do."
"But we're working on it," Willow told him. "There's got to be a way to get to Buffy and Dawn, to un-hypnotize them. I'll find a spell to snap them out of it."
"Right. Whatever," Xander said numb.
"Xander, you sound a little—You have to help me figure this out, you know," Willow said looking at her friend with concern.
"But I never help. I get in trouble and Buffy saves me," Xander reminded his best friend.
"That's not true!" Willow countered. "Sometimes we all work together to save you! And sometimes you're not in trouble."
"I'm just... another great humiliation," Xander said sounding tired. "And this time it's even worse. This demon, he's like, taking my life and, everyone's treating him...everyone's treating him like a grown-up. Well, I'm starting to feel like..."
"Like what?" Willow wondered.
Xander sighed. "Like, it's doing everything better, it's smarter and... I don't know. Maybe I should just let it have it. Take my life, please."
"Xander, no!" she immediately objected. "You're just tired and all soggy, that's why it seems so hard. But you can't let him take your whole existence!"
"Why not?" he wondered. "It's not like I was doing anything so great with it. When I get to the pearly gates, I don't think the guy's going to go - "What a kick ass comic book collection, come on in!" He looked at his best friend pointedly. "What have I got that's even worth..." He stopped as it hits him. "Anya."
Willow's eyes went wide in realization. "You think he's after her?"
"She won't know, he can just..." Xander said as he rallied himself. "No. No way. He can take anything he wants, but not her. I need her."
"Really?" Willow asked wrinkling her nose.
Xander nodded. "He could be with her now..." He stood up. "Figure out a spell. Something revealy. I got to find her."
"Xander, you already knew he was taking over your life. You didn't think about Anya 'til just now?" she asked as Xander walked out of her dorm room.
"Hey, wait 'til you have an evil twin, see how you handle it!" he called over his shoulder before heading toward the building exit.
"I handled it fine," Willow said remembering of her senior year in high school when she had met her evil vampire doppelganger.
Anya's Apartment
Xander burst into Anya's apartment, sweaty and frantic. "Anya? Ahn?" he called out, receiving no reply in response. He noticed the light on the answering machine signaling there's a message. He hit play listened."
"Meet me at the apartment. You know the one. Nine o'clock," the doppelganger's voice came from the machine.
Xander genuinely shaken started searching for something anything he could use as a weapon. "Got to be here. Where is it?"
Apartment Building
The doppelganger and Anya stood in the middle of the apartment. He had champagne chilling in a bucket on the counter next to a picnic basket. A blanket was spread out on the floor.
Anya looked around her, trying to absorb what the doppelganger had just told her. "You're lying. It's a trick," she told him.
The doppelganger smiled. "No. Trust me."
"You really got this apartment?" she asked hopeful.
"I really did," he admitted. "And you know why?"
"The ceiling fans?" she asked looking up at the fans. "They're very attractive."
"No," he objected as he smiled at Anya. "It's because I knew you wanted it. It's all for you." He moved closer and kissed her. "Anya? You didn't see me today, did you? I mean, we didn't talk?"
"What do you mean?" Anya asked confused. "I got your phone message, that's all."
The doppelganger smiled. "Good," as he kissed her. They sat on the picnic blanket and he took her into his arms.
"So, what happens next?" she wondered.
"Well, at some point we take our clothes off," the doppelganger explained.
"I mean, what's next in our lives?" she asked. "When do we get a car?"
"A car?" the doppelganger asked confused.
"And a boat. No, wait. I don't mean a boat," Anya told him excitedly. "I mean a puppy. Or a child? I have a list somewhere."
"What are you talking about?" he wondered.
"Just, we have to get going," Anya explained. "I don't have time to just let these things happen."
"There's no hurry," the doppelganger told her as he pulled her in for another kiss.
"Yes, there is," Anya said squirming away from him. "There's a hurry Xander. I'm dying. I may have as few as fifty years left."
"Fifty-years—what is this... oh, wait a minute," the doppelganger said. "This is about this." He touched her sling.
"What? About the sling?" she asked confused.
"You haven't been hurt like this since you became human," he explained. "Maybe it's finally hitting you what being human means."
"That's not it," Anya argued.
"Yes, I think it is," the doppelganger countered looking his girlfriend in the eye. "You were going to live for thousands more years. Now you're going to age and... die. It must be terrifying."
Anya sighed. "You don't understand what it's like."
"Being suddenly human?" he asked. "I think I can get what that would be like. And, I think that we can work through it."
"You can't make it any different," Anya told him. "I'm going to get old and you can't promise you'll be with me when I'm wrinkly and my teeth are artificial and stuck into my wrinkly mouth with an adhesive."
The doppelganger nodded. "I can't promise that. But it doesn't sound terrible, and that's saying something," he told her as they kissed. "I promise you, Anya, very soon you won't be thinking anymore about getting older..." He kissed her more passionately.
Suddenly Xander burst into the room. "Get away from her!" he yelled.
"Xander!" Anya said blinking between the identical men. "Xander?"
"Get out! You don't belong here!" the doppelganger said as Anya took a tentative step toward Xander. He grabbed her by her uninjured arm and pulled her back.
"Anya! It's me!" Xander begged looking at his girlfriend.
"It's a demon. He stole my face," the doppelganger told her. "He's trying to trick you." He saw that she was looking back and forth between them, uncertain. "Anya... you know I'm me, right?"
"No!" Xander said as Anya ran to the doppelganger.
"What is it? Make him go away!" Anya begged the doppelganger.
GILES APARTMENT
"It's Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out. "Zeo Ranger Six White!"
Buffy lifted her weapons bag onto her shoulder as she watched her sister morphing.
Riley looked at a map of Sunnydale as Giles paged through a book. "So, you're thinking we split up."
"Right," Buffy answered. "You hit all the places he might go to blend in as Xander. Dawn and I'll keep checking out the places Toth might hang—"
Willow burst in, out of breath, able to do nothing but pant for a second.
"I swear, that time I know I had that locked," Giles said chastising himself if it wasn't locked.
"Buffy! Dawn!" Willow said looking the Slayer and the White Zeo Ranger. "Toth looks like Xander!"
"We know," the White Zeo Ranger replied. Then something occurred her. "Willow, how do you know about the doppelganger?"
"He came to me. I mean, Xander did," Willow answered. She still couldn't believe that underneath the armor was her fourteen-year-old friend. "He's in terrible shape. We need to help him!"
Riley looked at Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger. "He came to us, too," he said.
"No! We each had a Xander," Willow countered. "I mean you didn't have a Xander! You had a demon in a Xander-suit!"
"But, wait, what make you think yours was the right one?" Buffy asked.
Willow smiled. "He knew stuff. He did the Snoopy dance. Dawn…Buffy, it was Xander and he needs us!"
Giles looked up from his book. "Oh, dear lord."
The White Zeo Ranger was the only one either paying attention or because maybe her suit had some kind of advanced hearing capability. Either way she was the only one to react as she moved toward Giles.
"Buffy...Dawn…" Riley said looking between the Slayer and the Power Ranger. "Our Xander. Did he seem a little...?"
"He was kind of... forceful and confident," Buffy agreed.
The White Zeo Ranger looked over Giles shoulder and if he could see behind her helmet, he would see a frown forming on her face.
"That's not Xander!" Willow told her friend.
"Buffy!" the White Zeo Ranger said drawing her sister's attention.
"What?" Buffy asked turning to face her sister.
"Neither Xander is a demon," the White Zeo Ranger replied.
"Um... is one of them a robot?" Willow asked.
"What?" Giles said confused at the question. "No. The rod device, it's called a Ferula-gemina. It splits one person into half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. As near as I can tell Toth was attempting to split both the Slayer and the White Zeo Ranger into two different entities."
"Two Dawns and two Buffys?" Riley asked.
"If I am reading this right," the White Zeo Ranger said as she looked at Giles who nodded, letting her take over the explanation. "The device would separate us into our stronger and weaker qualities. For me, that is Dawn Summers and the White Zeo Ranger. For Buffy, that is Buffy Summers and the Slayer."
"For both of them," Giles said. "Dawn and Buffy would have everything that belongs to them alone. And the White Zeo Ranger and the Slayer would have everything that belongs to them alone. In the White Zeo Ranger's case that would be the White Zeo Powers. In the Slayer's it would be the strength, the speed, the heritage."
"So, when it hit Xander," the White Zeo Ranger said with a sigh. "It very likely did exactly what it intended to do to Buffy and I. Separate him into his strongest qualities and his... weakest."
"But which one is the real one?" Riley asked.
"They're both real," Giles answered. "They're both Xander. Neither of them is evil. There's nothing in either of them that our Xander didn't already possess."
Riley looked at the White Zeo Ranger and Buffy. "I still don't get the original plan. Why do it? The Slayer and the White Zeo Ranger halves would be pretty unkillable."
"But the two halves can't exist without the other," Giles informed him. "Kill the weaker Buffy and Dawn halves and the Slayer and White Zeo Ranger halves die."
"So, same thing for the Xanders, right?" Buffy asked looking at her sister as the White Zeo Ranger nodded. "Both of them need to stay alive or they both die." She looked at sister. "Is there a way to scan for Xander?"
"By myself, no," the White Zeo Ranger answered. She brought her wrist communicator to her face and spoke into it. "Zordon."
"Yes, Dawn."
"I know the distance from Angel Grove to Sunnydale isn't exactly close, but is it possible for Alpha to scan for someone in Sunnydale," the White Zeo Ranger told her mentor. "It's an emergency and we need to find him fast."
"Aye, aye, aye!" came Alpha Five's voice from the wrist communicator. "I will do my best, Dawn."
Apartment Building
Xander and the doppelganger faced each other warily as Anya stood at the doppelganger's side.
"He's the demon! Or possibly a robot!" Xander cried. "Look at me Anya! Look in my eyes! Can't you see it's me?"
Anya hesitated, at first, she thought she knew who her boyfriend was, but now… "I don't know," she admitted.
"Please!" Xander said desperately. "Look at him! Listen to him! He's all smooth! You have to know me!"
The doppelganger pulled Anya to him, possessively. "Don't worry Anya. I'll get rid of this thing," he told his girlfriend. He then looked at his duplicate with a frown. "I'm thinking this is going to last about fifteen seconds." He released Anya and took a threatening step toward Xander.
"I'm thinking less," Xander said as he pulled out a gun and pointed it at his doppelganger.
"No! Don't shoot him!" Anya cried as she rushed to Xander and knocked his arm aside. She and Xander grappled over the gun.
Giles Apartment
"How long is it going to take?" Buffy questioned looking at her sister.
"Alpha?" the White Zeo Ranger said into her wrist communicator.
"Hey, Riley. Do you wish—" Buffy said looking at her boyfriend, deciding to distract herself as they waited for an answer from the Power Chamber.
"No," Riley interrupted.
"No?" Buffy replied looking him in the eyes. "You don't even know what I was going to say!"
Riley smiled at Buffy. "Yes, I do. You wanted to know if I wished you got hit by the Ferula-gemina. Got split in two."
"Well, you have been kind of rankly about the whole Slayer gig. Instead of Slayer Buffy you could have Buffy, Buffy." Buffy admitted.
"I have Buffy, Buffy. Being the slayer is part of who you are," Riley told his girlfriend. "Just as being a Power Ranger is part of who Dawn is. You keep thinking I don't get that, but—"
"I just know how unfun it can be," Buffy admitted. "Bad hours, frequent bruising, cranky monsters—"
"Buffy, if you led a perfectly normal life, you wouldn't be half as crazy as you are," Riley told his girlfriend. "I got to have that. I'm talking toes, elbows, the whole bad-ice-skating-movie obsession, the fact that your excited that your sister is a Power Ranger, everything. There's no part of you I'm not in love with."
Buffy looked at Riley as she thought over what he had said and then she smiled. She then turned toward her sister. "Dawn? We need to know where he is soon. If Xander kills himself, he's dead." She pondered what she had just said. "You know what I mean."
"Alpha," the White Zeo Ranger said speaking into her communicator. "We need that location."
Xander's New Apartment
The doppelganger watched as Xander and Anya grappled over the gun. "Let go!" Xander told his girlfriend. "I have to kill the demon-bot!"
Anya wrenched the gun from his hand and it fell to the ground. The doppelganger scooped it up and pointed it coolly at Xander.
"Anya, get out of the way," the doppelganger said.
And that was when they heard the ringing sound, that announced the arrival of a Power Ranger. The White Zeo Ranger, Buffy and Riley materialized out of the beam with Riley carrying Buffy's bag of weapons.
"Xander!" Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger shouted looking at the two Xanders.
"It's all right Buffy…Dawn, I have him," the doppelganger said.
"No! Buffy! Dawn! I'm me! Help me!" Xander added.
"That's my gun!" Anya told the two women. "He has my gun!"
"You own a gun?" Riley asked looking at Anya with a raised eyebrow.
"Xander," the White Zeo Ranger said as she held out her hand to the doppelganger. "The gun. Hand it over."
The doppelganger hesitated, his finger hovering over the trigger. Finally, he flipped the gun expertly in his hand, expelling the bullets onto the floor and handing the White Zeo Ranger the now-unloaded gun. The White Zeo Ranger handed the gun to Riley. "Make sure you get rid of that," she said.
"First chance," Riley told the Power Ranger as he tucked the gun into his waistband.
"Buffy! Dawn!" Anya said looking at the Slayer and White Zeo Ranger. "Which one's real?"
"I am!" Xander cried.
"No. I am," the doppelganger countered.
Xander, infuriated, launched himself physically at the doppelganger.
"White Zeo Power Sword!" the White Zeo Ranger called out as the sword beamed into her hand. She thrust it between the two men. "Back away from each other, Xanders. Now!"
The Xanders looked at each other and then down at the sword between them and then at the White Zeo Ranger. They were sure without seeing Dawn's face that she meant business. They stepped back away from each other by several feet.
"Okay, look, Xanders," Buffy said as she looked at the both of them. "You've been split in two. You're both Xander. And you can't kill each other. I mean you can, but it would be bad."
The Xanders looked at each other.
"No way," the doppelganger said.
"He can't be me. He's all... fancy," Xander agreed.
"We can prove you're both Xander." Riley told the Xanders.
"Yes!" Buffy agreed. "How?"
Riley shrugged. He was clearly stumped on the how. "Well, there has to be a way," he reluctantly admitted.
"What number am I thinking of?" the White Zeo Ranger asked.
"I don't think that's how to—" Riley started.
"Eleven and a half," Xander and his doppelganger said at the same time.
"Power down!" the White Zeo Ranger called out and a second later Dawn stood before the two Xanders. "That's wrong. But I think you both see."
"No," Xander objected. "We're not the same. We're all different."
"Different properties went into each of you, but you're both Xander," Riley informed the two Xanders.
"Different properties?" Anya asked confused.
"What different properties?" Xander asked.
"Toth's weapon. It is meant to split me and Buffy into our strongest and weakest qualities," Dawn explained looking at the two men. "For me it would have been the Zeo Powers. One of them would not have them, while the other would. The same for Buffy, one of her would be normal while the other would have the Slayer powers."
"But he has a thing! In his pocket!" Xander told his friends. "A shiny disk that stuns and disorients!"
The doppelganger pulled out said object from his pocket. "What disk? This?" he asked.
Xander screamed and clamped his hands over his eyes. "Cover your eyes! It'll melt your brain!"
Buffy took the disk from the doppelganger and pried Xander's hands away." Look," she said showing him the object.
"It's a nickel someone flattened on a railroad track," the doppelganger explained. "I found it on the construction site and I thought it was cool. It's not magic."
Xander took the flattened nickel and examined it. "No! It- Huh. It is kind of cool. Washington's still there, but he's all smooshy. And he may be Jefferson."
Suddenly, Toth burst into the room using the rode device to blow open the door. He swept in through the resulting smoke. "I will not miss again, Slayer! White Zeo Ranger!"
Buffy glanced at Dawn. "I think…" she said as Dawn nodded.
"It's Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out. "Zeo Ranger Six White!" Within seconds she had morphed into the White Zeo Ranger.
Xander quickly stepped behind the doppelganger. "The gun! Pick up the little gun-pieces!"
"White Zeo Power Sword!" the White Zeo Ranger called out as the sword beamed into her hands just as Toth aimed at her and Buffy. He fired just as she swung her sword. She deflected the blast which hit the rug charring it.
"Hey! I just made a small cleaning deposit!" the doppelganger yelled.
Toth aimed again as Riley came out of nowhere and jumped him from behind, attempting to disarm him. He threw Riley aside easily, but the distraction allowed Buffy to catch him by surprise. She caught him with a flying kick, followed up with a punch...and finally swept his feet out from under him. "Dawn! Sword!" she told her sister.
The White Zeo Ranger tossed the Power Sword to her sister who drove the sword down into the demon's chest.
Out of breath and victorious, Riley walked over to Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger. The demon Toth lay dead at their feet, the Power Sword imbedded in it.
"Oh yeah, that cleaning deposit's gone," the doppelganger said.
"I was thinking the same thought," Xander said as he looked at the doppelganger. Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey- do you suppose we're both Xander?"
The Magic Box
Dawn, Giles, Buffy, Riley, both Xanders, Anya and Willow had congregated to end Toth's spell and put the Xanders back together. Giles drew a pentagram on the floor with chalk as everyone else looked at the two Xanders. The doppelganger now wore the duplicate of Xander's outfit, and was just finishing buttoning his shirt.
Dawn, Buffy and Willow examine their faces close up, comparing. "Look and admire, ladies," Xander said, jovial.
"It's like... there's a little scar here, then there it is over there," Buffy said pointing at a scar on both Xanders.
"It's all doubled. This zit, and this kind of funny dippy place and this weird little hair that grows the wrong way—" Willow told her friends.
"Okay, back off, ladies," Xander said looking at the three of them. Dawn, Buffy and Willow oblige him and backed away.
"Psychologically, this is fascinating. Doesn't it make everyone want to lock them in separate rooms and do experiments on them?" Riley asked as everyone looked at him, as if to say what. "Just me, then."
"So, you Xanders, you really do have all the same memories, all the same... physical... attributes?" Anya asked looking at her boyfriends.
"We're completely identical," the doppelganger said.
Xander nodded. "Yeah, we checked over some stuff in the car on the way over," he said as he noticed the girls looking at him with interest. "Fingerprints."
"Maybe we shouldn't do this reintegration thing right away," Anya suggested. "See, I could take the boys home, have sex with all of us, then we could just slap 'em back together in the morning."
"She's joking," the doppelganger said smoothly.
"No, she's not!" Xander countered. "She entirely wants to have sex with us together! It's wrong, and, and...it would be very confusing!"
Giles finished the pentagram and stood up. "Now, we need to arrange the candles," he said. "Also, we can continue to pretend we heard none of this disturbing sex talk."
Dawn rolled her eyes.
"Check. Candles and pretense," Willow agreed.
Willow, Buffy, Anya, Riley and Giles each take a candle, lit it, and placed it on a point of the pentagram.
"It's not like it'd be cheating," Anya told herself. "They're both Xander."
"Now, hold on a sec," Xander said looking at the doppelganger. "If you weren't putting the whammy on people with the shiny thing? How did you do it? How'd you get the promotion?"
The doppelganger smiled. "Well I'm good at that stuff."
"I am?" Xander asked surprised.
The doppelganger nodded. "Yeah."
Xander smiled. "Hey, how about that girl, the apartment manager?"
"How weird was it when she called me 'Mr.'?" the doppelganger asked.
"We're ready. We should do it now," as she placed the last candle.
"What do we do if it doesn't work?" Anya asked.
"Kill us both, Spock!" the Xander laughed, cracking each other up.
"They're kind of... the same now," Dawn admitted.
"Yes. He's clearly a bad influence on himself," Giles agreed
"Summon the goddess, chant the chant. Let's do it," Xander told his best friend.
Willow nodded. "Actually, it's not that hard. See, your natural state is to be together. Toth's spell is doing all the work of keeping you apart. I just have to break it. You two stand here. Side by side. Don't want you to end up with two fronts, do we?"
Dawn rolled her eyes as the Xanders stand where Willow positioned them. "Really, Will? Is that what you think any time I morph?"
Willow looked at Dawn and shrugged sheepishly.
"You sure you know how to do this?" Xander asked looking at Dawn, agreeing with her sentiment.
"Here we go. Brace yourselves," Willow said as she smiled at the Xanders. "Let the spell be ended."
There was a flash of light and when everyone could see again, they saw there was only one Xander. "You've got to be kidding. Let the spell be ended? That's not going to work! Oh." He looked around and realized that there was only him.
"I liked it the other way. Put 'em back," Anya begged.
October 12, 2000
Harris Home
Buffy, Riley and Dawn were helping Xander pack his things. Anya, finally out of her sling sat on the workbench, watching everyone work.
Buffy carrying an armload of clothes, approached Xander as Dawn packed a box. "You look good, Xan," she told her friend. "Clothes, hair...I think you came out ahead in this whole thing."
"Have to agree there," Dawn added.
"Well I got a job and an apartment," Xander told the Summers sisters. "If the hair's grooving along with the new vibe, I'm okay with it."
"I guess maybe we should of kept both of you 'til we had all the heavy lifting done, huh?" Buffy joked.
"Nah," Xander said looking at Dawn pointedly. "If you sister would just…"
"I told you I can't do that," Dawn sighed. She looked at her sister. "I give him a glowing recommendation as the White Zeo Ranger and he now expects me to morph for every little thing."
"I was joking, Dawn," Xander said as he smiled at the Power Ranger.
Dawn smiled. "So was I, Xander," she said. She picked up her box and walked out to his car.
Riley was following Dawn when he noticed that Xander stood at the bottom of the stairs looking around the near-empty room. "Getting nostalgic?" Riley asked.
"I don't know. At first it's just a place, and then you start to make memories and then it's like... that's where Spike slept, and there... that's where Anya and I drowned the Separvo demon and right here, here's where my heart got all ripped out...I really hate this place," Xander said.
"Hey, Anya, I see you've joined the not-sling-wearing crowd," Buffy said as she moved over by the ex-Vengeance demon.
"Yes. I'm feeling better and I anticipate many years before my death, excepting disease or air bag failure," Anya told the blonde Slayer.
"Ah. That sounds... good?" Buffy asked as she headed out with a box.
Xander walked over and handed Anya a box. "Oooh, a present!' she said.
"Not unless you want my collection of Babylon 5 commemorative plates," he told her. "Which you cannot have. I just thought you could help carry a little."
"Me?" Anya said looking at Xander with wide eyes. "Buffy and Dawn have super strength, let's just load them up like one of those little horses."
Dawn who had come back in to get another box. "I only have super strength when morphed. Otherwise I'm normal. For someone who said she used to be a Ranger I would have thought you would remember that." She grabbed a box and headed back outside.
"Anya. Please," Xander begged his girlfriend.
"Fine. I'm just your slave," Anya said as she grabbed a box and followed Dawn out.
Xander turned to Riley and smiled wryly. "How is it that she can always make me feel like Suave Xander has left the building?"
"You two have your friction, but she digs the whole package. It's obvious," Riley told his friend.
"Still, I do envy you sometimes. I mean, for the sanity. Not that I'm still into Buffy," Xander replied. "Not that I ever was."
Riley smiled. "Hey, I'm well aware of how lucky I am. Like, lottery lucky. Buffy's like almost nobody else in the world. When I'm with Buffy, it's like I'm split in two—half of me is just on fire, going crazy if I'm not touching her. The other half is so still and peaceful, just perfectly content. Just knows: this is the one." He paused in his reverie as he turned to Xander. "But she doesn't love me."
"You got more for us to carry?" Buffy asked as she and Dawn came back.
"You can help me pack this, Buffy," Riley suggested.
"Sure," Buffy said as she gave Riley a quick casual kiss and then they start packing the box together as Dawn and Xander watched.