Not long after, another note appeared.

'Buffy went on a date with Principal Robin Wood, her boss. Turns out, he's the son of Nikki Wood, a Slayer from the seventies. He knew who Buffy was before he hired her. I also went on a date. My date turned out to be a demon in disguise. She tied me up over the Seal of Zanzalthar in an effort to let more Ubervamps into our reality, but hey I had company for the experience. Spike. Buffy arrived and cut Spike loose and took him back to her place. He's now living in her basement, chain free. She told Giles he could be a good man, he just needs someone to believe in him. Why the Hell doesn't anyone ever believe in me? Oh, and I hate dating.'

"Nikki Wood." Giles said, ignoring the dating information. "This is not good information. Nikki Wood was one of the Slayers Spike killed. If Robin Wood was aware of that fact and given that he knew who Buffy was before he hired her, it certainly makes it easy to believe he did, he most likely had an agenda himself. If he found Spike, the vampire who killed his mother was around and being harbored by Buffy, he posed a significant risk himself."

"I believed Spike could be a good man?!" Buffy exclaimed. "Based on what evidence? So far I haven't read anything about his behavior that warrants other me believing that! She's jumping way ahead and what did other Xander mean about no one believing in him? That doesn't make any sense either. Why weren't we believe in him? At this point he would have been fighting beside us for seven years! What would it take to prove to other me he was worth believing in?"

"I don't know, Buffy. It does seem odd. You believe in Spike on no evidence at all and not believe in Xander given an abundance of evidence." Willow said. "There had to be a reason for that. Something else must have been going on and other Xander hadn't figured out what it was as of the date of this note. Hopefully he eventually did figure it out."

The next week brought another note.

'I forgot to mention, Giles consulted the Beljixas Eye Oracle about the First. It told him the reason the First can manifest without being summoned is because Buffy exists again. Buffy exists because we resurrected her. He decided it's our fault the First has declared war on the Slayers and is killing Potentials. I wanted to remind him that I fought against resurrecting Buffy, but I was overruled. Both Willow and Tara were convinced it was the right thing to do, because Willow had become convinced Buffy had somehow become trapped in Hell. We later learned, she never bothered to check. I reluctantly agreed to help. I wish now I'd stuck to my guns.'

"I would never!" Tara exclaimed. "To violate the dead like that!"

"Why didn't I check?" Willow asked. "That makes no sense, how could I be so convinced without evidence?"

"And I'm wondering what it is about Buffy's resurrection that would make it possible for the First to manifest without being summoned? Other Xander doesn't mention in this note if I ever investigated that. I hope I did investigate it and he mentions it in a future note. Was the spell Willow used, I believe the note Xander first told us about Willow resurrecting Buffy, in that note he said she used the Ritual of Osiris. Was it using that spell on a Slayer that made it possible? Or some other reason?"

"Giles." Faith said. "I had another thought. Back when other Xander told us not to let Buffy sacrifice herself, you called me Slayer Primus and Buffy, Slayer Secundus. I think I know what you meant, but I want to be sure."

"It means Buffy is no longer part of the Slayer line. The line passes though you. When you die a new Slayer will be Called. When Buffy dies, no new Slayer will be Called."

"How do you know Buffy dying again won't Call another Slayer?" Faith asked.

"Because she no longer holds the Essence of the Slayer. When she ran away, I used the Slayer detection spell to try to locate her and couldn't find her. Xander suggested she didn't register because she no longer had what the spell detected. He's right, she doesn't."

"She doesn't now, because she hasn't died again." Cordelia pointed out. "But in the other timeline she did. And then Willow resurrected her. What if in doing so, she Called Buffy again? Buffy dug her way out of her own grave, Giles. A normal human couldn't do that. We've been assuming she simply resurrected as a Slayer. What if she wouldn't have? What if she would have come back as a Potential and something about the spell or the way Willow did it, made her a Slayer again? Could that damage what makes a Slayer in the first place, given that technically, there would now be two The Slayers?"

"Yes, it could." Giles felt ice move through his veins. "It could potentially cause a great deal of damage. The Slayer Essence is incorporeal, like the soul, but has no consciousness of its own. It could actually make The Slayers weaker, for instance. Like halving the output of a power station."

"And that would be a very bad thing in a storm." Xander said. "And the First was unleasing a storm on them. And if they didn't know they were at half power during that storm. Well the term, lights out, comes to mind."

"I'm more convinced then ever that we're on the verge of discovering what led other Xander to want to change the timeline." Giles said. "And I'm very much afraid that we did whatever it was that caused it."