He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, vampires did have that gross smelling thing they did. However what did surprise him was Buffy attacking him, she slammed her small fist into his face and his head snapped around. Blood splashed onto the checkout desk and Buffy swung again, only for Xander to catch her fist in his hand and shove her away from him. "I didn't come here to fight with you, Buffy, but word of warning, you really don't want to go a round or two with me."

"What have you done with Xander?" She hissed as the blood on his face seemed to flow back into his body and the wounds healed as they watched.

"I am Xander, I'm just not the same as I was last night." He answered, touching his jaw. "You didn't even give me a chance to explain, did you? Just attacked me, after everything I've done for you. What the Hell has changed, Buffy? When did you stop trusting me? I've saved your life repeatedly, more then anyone else. I've helped you fight since the day you got to Sunnydale and sometime in the last couple of months something changed and I'm going to figure out what it is."

"What are you?" She demanded. "Some kind of demon?" A cawing sound drew everyone's attention to the stacks as a large bird landed on top of the first one. "What's that?" Buffy asked.

"He's with me." Xander informed her. "We're a package deal."

"Deal? You made some kind of deal?!" Buffy stared at him, shocked. "Why the Hell would you make a deal with a demon?!"

"I didn't say I made any deals, Buffy and certainly not with a demon. Tell me something, Buffy, the lastest round of Buffy stupidity, that game you did with Faith last night? You sent me to find Angel with a message and you knew he was with Faith, didn't you?"

"She's gone bad, Xander, we suspected and last night we proved it."

"No, all you proved is that you're all morons. Faith hasn't gone bad, you guys just managed to convince a very damaged girl that an accident somehow made her evil. She needed help and you destroyed what little trust she had with your idiotic ideas."

"What are you talking about?" She glared at him.

"Giles abandoned her on the streets and I'm betting she hasn't had a decent night's sleep in months. You, Angel and probably Willow too, since she practically lives in your back pocket, all knew she didn't have a safe place to live and said nothing. Killing Finch was an accident, which Giles was quite willing to tell all of us. Except her, the one person who needed to hear it. And just to make things as absolutely as bad as they possibly could be, the two of you kidnapped her, chained her to a wall and compared her to Angelus. Given the state of her mind at that point, it was easy for her to believe you. So, yeah, she got a job with the Mayor, because she thought that's what she was supposed to do! Why the Hell couldn't any of you actually help her?"

"You found her at the Motor Lodge." Angel pointed out. "I stopped her from killing you."

"Yeah, you're a real prince of a guy. You left me barely conscious in a room, in a building vampires could get into, with the door wide open. Which, incidentally, is the second time you, Angel, personally endangered my life. Good news, you finally succeeded. As of last night, you got me killed."

Silence as they stared at him. "You're not a vampire." Angel said softly.

"No, but a vampire did tear out my throat after you knocked me out and left me there. All night. Didn't any of you wonder why I didn't come back after delivering Buffy's message? I knew, considering the number of times Angel's deliberately endangered my life that he doesn't give a shit if I live or die, but when the Hell did the rest of you stop giving a shit?!"

"What's happened to you, Xander?" Willow asked plaintively. "How could you have died and not be a vampire and be standing here talking to us?"

"The crow -." Angel looked at it and it cawed at him, extending its wings. "I remember a story about a crow. Sometimes someone dies and their soul carries a lot of pain and a cry for vengeance with it to the other side. If it's great enough, it could attract the attention of the embodiment of vengeance, the Spirit of Vengeance and if the Spirit is moved by the reasons for the pain and the cry of vengeance, it will send the crow to bring the soul back to its body and empower the person for a mission of vengeance. Is that what's happened to you, Xander? The Spirit of Vengeance empowered you?"

"Yes."

"Against me, for being the reason you died?"

"You can't kill him, Xander, I won't let you!" Buffy glared at him angrily.

"You couldn't stop me and he is part of the problem, but apparently I have some sort of ability that no one's noticed. According to my buddy over there, I know something that I don't know I know, confusing as that sounds. Some betrayal that subconsciously caused the pain and need for vengeance, part of the mission is to figure out what it is."

"What kind of ability?" Giles asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"To see the truth, to see what's hidden. Apparently I would eventually have even gotten a title because of it, The One Who Sees, all dramatic and everything."

"Sounds like an Oracle." Giles murmured. "A very rare and extraordinary calling."

"Of course Xander sees the truth." Dawn said impatiently. "So can the Xander I know."

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce you." Giles apologized. "We got caught up in this situation. Everyone, I found her asleep in the stacks, she says she's from another reality and her name is Dawn. Dawn Summers, Buffy's sister."

"What?!"