The next stage of Xander's mutant abilities will activate tonight.

Buffy episodes Becoming one and two.

'I can't believe it.' Xander thought. 'Willow's never even floated a pencil and she thinks she can pull a soul from wherever it is and shove it in a demon filled corpse and everyone is just fine with it! Buffy wants Angel back, potential consequences be damned. Giles wants to honor Jenny's last wish, when really her last wish was probably to make peace with Giles and Buffy. This has got to be the most asinine idea ever! Earlier, at lunch, she said she was finally ready to finish this fight with Angelus and now her head's back in the clouds. Why the Hell did Willow have to find that damn disc! Can't the dead just stay dead?!'

'Giles talks about perspective. What perspective? Angel or Angelus, it doesn't matter who's in charge of the body, the demon or the soul, the body is still that of a vampire and the soul is the optional part, not the demon or the dead body part. Why is everyone so determined to ignore those facts?'

Later that night as he, Cordelia, Giles and newly arrived Kendra, Vampire Slayer, stood guard over Willow as she attempted the curse and Buffy was meeting with Angelus, Xander was once again musing to himself.

'And why the Hell am I here helping with this insanity? Oh that's right, they're my friends and I don't want them to die, especially because of this insanity!'

Willow was trying and failing to get the curse to work. She didn't seem able to pull the Magic, something that relieved Xander no end. 'If she can't do the damn curse, then Buffy has no choice but to dust Angelus before he can activate that damned demon statue and suck the Earth into Hell. We can help her deal with it all and move on. But I don't know if she can dust him. She's had the chance to several times and keeps stopping herself from finishing it and all the while people keep dying. How many has he killed since she let him go? Since she stopped Giles from dusting him? How many more will die before she either does dust him or lets someone else, like Kendra do it? Kendra did say, he's a vampire, he should die. She doesn't understand anymore then I do.'

And then Drusilla swept into the library and vampires came around the stacks. Xander got hit and fell forward against the rail. He slammed his elbow back and up into the face of the vampire that had hit him. It shook off the pain and grabbed his arm and broke it. He ignored it and hit it again, knocking it out and picking it up with his uninjured hand, he felt a surge of strength and threw it at another vampire that was heading for Cordelia. "Run!" He yelled, as another vampire hit him and knocked him down. Willow, hiding in the stacks, got a bookcase dropped on her head. Just before the darkness claimed him, Xander saw Drusilla slit Kendra's throat. His rage followed him into the black.

Later at the hospital, he got a cast on his arm and went looking for the others. He held Cordelia tight and then asked about Willow.

"She's in a coma." Cordelia said, taking him to Willow's room. "The doctors say it's a light coma and she should wake up pretty soon."

"Where's Giles?" Xander asked. "I didn't see him at the library when I came to."

"I don't think he's here." Cordelia said.

"You don't think Drusilla took him, do you?" Xander asked. "What am I saying, of course Drusilla would do something like that. One more emotional shot to the guts for Buffy."

Willow woke up soon after and to Xander's horror, insisted she was going to try the curse again. And she wanted him to tell Buffy that!

'You've have got to be kidding me.' Xander thought as he headed to Angelus' lair, the Crawford Mansion. 'Willow failed to do it last night and she wants to try again after coming out of a coma! She could kill herself if she does manage to pull this insanity off! And she wants me to tell Buffy? Tell Buffy what, that Willow going to try the most extreme Hail Mary ever? With Giles' life, not to mention, the entire world on the line?! Why do I feel like I'm the only one with even an ounce of sanity left?'

"I'm ready to end this, Xander." Buffy said when he arrived at the Mansion. "Angel is gone, I just have to accept that. You get Giles out and I'll deal with Angelus."

Xander opened his mouth to tell her Willow was going to try the curse again and he knew, he couldn't tell her that. She'd been ready yesterday, then Willow had found the disc and had given Buffy the hope that she'd get Angel back. Now she was ready again after finding Kendra dead in the library. He knew if he told her Willow was attempting a Hail Mary, Buffy would loose focus again. The world itself was on the line. He couldn't justify giving her that hope.

"Willow said to kick his ass." He told her, even as he was beating himself up for saying anything at all. 'Should have just kept my mouth shut.'

'Good luck, Buffy.' He thought, as he went in to find and help Giles. It would be a while before he knew Willow had managed to do something tonight. And months before he knew the soul had been restored at the last minute.