Xander could feel the strength of the preacher. He'd definitely been souped up. Maybe even more then the him in the Protectors reality. In his current form, he wasn't a match physically. So Xander relied on his martial arts training from Duncan. He moved fast and avoided the preacher's hits. All the preacher had going for him was strength. But as they fought Xander realized the preacher had something else. Endurance. He could outlast Xander in a fight. Without Magic or his hyena form, he wasn't going to win. Time for a different strategy. It was time for a weapon. The middle of a fight wasn't the best time to try using a weapon he was untested on, but Xander had a feeling, it was going to take something big to finish the preacher. He reached into his dimensional pocket and pulled out his Hammer.
"A Hammer? Are you going to nail me on the head with it?" The preacher joked.
Buffy hadn't followed other Xander's instructions. She, Spike and the girls were watching the fight. Then she saw him pull out the Hammer from seemingly nowhere. How was this Xander doing Magic? Willow always said he didn't have the gift for it. Then her eyes widened at the other Xander's answer to the preacher's bad joke.
"As a matter of fact, I'm going to use it to call something that can kill you." Xander said.
"And what will that be?" The preacher asked.
"Lightening." Xander raised the Hammer and from seemingly nowhere, a bolt of lightning hit the preacher in his chest, right over his heart. Xander followed up by slamming the Hammer into the preacher's face, smashing it. He drew back and hit the preacher on the side of his head, crushing it. The preacher swayed for a moment as the realization that his brain had been reduced to mulch registered with the body and then he collapsed. Xander slid it back into its pocket and turned.
"I thought I told you to do something Buffy. You're really bad at following orders."
"I give the orders here! I'm in charge! I'm the Slayer!"
"Actually no, you're not. Faith is the Slayer. The title passed from you when you died. A seer in another reality, reportedly told another version of you, you're not meant to be in charge of anything, you're meant to be dead."
"Look, Droopy." Spike said. "You don't talk to her that way."
Xander readied a fireball. "Don't test me fangless 2.0. Apparently no one bothered to check on your claims of having a soul or how you got it, just like they didn't check with Angel. And apparently you also haven't managed to figure out, the curse didn't break because Angel was happy. It couldn't, it's not him. It broke because Angelus got something out of screwing you, Buffy. Let's go."
"I have something I want to say, before you go." Another version of Buffy was standing there.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Xander asked, eying the image that looked like Buffy, but definitely wasn't.
"I'm the First, I created evil."
Xander looked around at the girls and realized they actually believed this thing's claims.
Xander laughed and it was definitely a hyena laugh.
"Just when I think people can't get any stupider. Nothing invented evil. Evil is a balance to good. Good and evil exist in all of us. Heaven is balanced by Hell. And. I. See. You."
The image of Buffy twisted in an ugly expression of anger. It morphed into Jenny Calendar. "And we're supposed to believe a boy who barely passed my class is smarter then a Slayer?"
"Neat trick. Can you pretend to be anyone else?"
"Anyone who's dead. Or died and come back, like the little miss I'm in charge here."
Xander grinned. "I'm waiting."
"For what?"
"You said you can look like anyone who's died."
"I can. Would you like to see your dead grandmother? What was her name, Abigail?"
"I want to see myself actually."
"I can't take the appearance of the living."
"You said you can look like anyone who's died and that, that's why you look like Buffy, because she died and I revived her."
"Actually she died a second time and Willow raised her from the dead."
"Ah, that explains a few things. But I'm still waiting for you to look like me."
"And I said, I can't look like the living."
"I've died three times this week. I just don't stay dead. If you can look like any person that's died, as well as dead people, then you should be able to look like me."
The First stared at him, clearly confused. "You died?"
"You can't tell?"
"No."
"There's a reason for that."
"And what is it?"
"Buffy is the only person who's died and come back that you can look like, because you're tied to her. You're not some great evil being. You exist because of Buffy. We're leaving. Everybody get the Hell out of here now! The time for stupidity is over!"
The girls scrambled for the entrance.
"Help me with the dead." Other Xander said to local Xander. They each picked up a one of the two dead girls and mounted the steps out of the cellar. Buffy and Spike trailed behind them, wondering what was going on.