"Buffy." Joyce said, after the Scoobies had left. "We need to talk about what other Xander wrote in the most recent note."

"How messed up is it that other Willow tried to end the world?" Buffy offered.

"Not that and you know it." Joyce said.

"What can I say, Mom? It wasn't me."

"In a way, it was you. A Buffy Anne Summers made those choices. To have sex with a second vampire and allow him to get away with attempted rape."

"I'd never choose to have sex with Spike and I'd sure as Hell never let him get away with rape!"

"No, but you have faced certain facts that she never did and you have never experienced the traumas she did.'"

"Why do you think she had sex with him?"

"Because she was deeply confused and hurting after loosing me, dying and bring yanked back into life against her will."

"Oh, you make it sound understandable."

"It is, when you look at certain facts. She probably felt like an alien in her own life after being resurrected and Spike offered her some outlet for her feelings. Then she began to understand why she was behaving the way she was and made a conscious decision to stop. He refused to accept that decision and tried to force a return to the status quo."

"Why wouldn't she let other Xander dust him then? That doesn't make sense!"

"Actually, yes it does. Because she blamed herself. Rape victims often do. If I hadn't worn that dress or smiled at him or did whatever it was that made him think I wanted it. Except, a rape victim doesn't want it. That's what makes it rape. And regardless of what the aggressor thought, the moment someone says no, he should stop. And if he doesn't, it's on him, not his victim."

"And other Xander?"

"He felt helpless. In the note, he said he found you just afterwards. He probably had no idea how to help you. But he did know how to dust vampires. It would be a logical decision for him to make. You stopping him would not be understandable to him and he'd feel angry on top of helpless. And he knows what it's like to be a victim. Tony Harris is an abusive asshole, after all. The parallels would not be lost on him. No one helped him, but he would very much want to help you. Other Xander lost alot, Buffy and he was watching you and Willow slip farther and farther away. I have no doubt, he tried to help, but was probably as clueless as Rupert on how to. And unlike Rupert, who needs a two by four to the head to even see that there is a problem, Xander is very good at seeing problems, partly because of his clairvoyance and partly because he at least tries to pay attention."

"Mom, I'm very much afraid I'm the reason things got so bad that other Xander sacrificed himself to try to fix it."

"You may well be right. Hopefully, we can still avoid whatever it was that drove other Xander to take the measures he has to fix it."

The middle of November another note came and it was very disturbing, to say the least.

'The dead were talking to us today. A vampire who turned out to be a guy we went to school with, Holden Webster, a psych student at the time of his death and turning, psychoanalyzed Buffy. He told her she has a superiority complex because she told him our, as in the Scoobies, opinions don't matter because we're beneath her. Then she told him she felt bad about feeling that way and he said she had an inferiority complex about the superiority complex. Then he told her Spike sired him and she dusted him. Cassie Newton, a friend of Dawn's who died of a heart condition, appeared to Willow and tried to get her to commit suicide. Joyce appeared to Dawn and told her Buffy wouldn't chose her. And Jesse appeared to me and asked me why I never avenged him. I pointed out the fact that Angel dusted Darla to save Buffy before I could. He said I was too afraid to try. If the dead appear to you today, ignore them.'

"Those sound like more then hauntings." Giles said. "A haunting, like the student and teacher at the High School, often try to resolve issues. This is more like psychological warfare."

"The opening shot in a war?" Xander suggested.

"Very likely." Giles agreed. "Please let me know if any dead people do attempt to talk to any of you at any time. The same thing may not happen in this timeline, because of all the changes other Xander has made, but it's best to be on our guard."

The Scoobies agreed before heading out for their daily patrol.

A/N I read that Joss want Jesse to be in the episode Conversations with Dead People, Eric Balfour's schedule meant he couldn't commit to it, which is why it's the only episode Nicholas Brendon as Xander doesn't appear in. In this story Jesse did appear.