"That device the demon shot you with you must have duplicated you somehow." Giles theorized as he cautiously approached it. "We need to figure out what it is and how to fix this."
"Giles," Buffy managed to get up. "I think I sprained my wrist when I fell, it's swelling up. Something feels off." Tara helped her over to the table and Buffy took a seat, pushing a book out of her way. She stopped and looked at it funny and then tried to pick it up. "Giles! My strength - it's gone! I can't even pick up this book!" She could only tilt the thick volume partway up with her spare hand as the one with the injured wrist hurt too much to try. "Where is my strength!"
Giles looked at the odd device and then at the girl in the containment circle. She seemed unable to speak, just make noises and was clearly strong. Stronger even than Buffy really, as Buffy would have been hard pressed to literally tear a head off. "How long will that containment circle hold, Tara?"
"I don't know, we might need to reinforce it." The energy vibrated as the second Buffy pounded on it.
"I think reinforcing it would be a good idea." Giles decided. "You work on that and Willow, I need you researching demons. Somehow, this device has split Buffy into two people. One a normal human and the other, the Slayer."
"But she's stronger than me, Giles, how can she be the Slayer?" Buffy stared at the other her as Tara worked to reinforce the containment circle.
"I don't mean what makes you the Slayer, Buffy. The human body has limits not even Magic can overcome. The older a Slayer gets, she gets stronger as the human body adapts and can draw on more of the Slayer. She's you with no limitations, separated out from you and leaving you with a normal human body."
"And now we know it did target Xander." Tara finished reinforcing the containment circle. "The demon thought Xander was protecting Buffy. If it separated Xander into a normal human and whatever else he might be, the whatever the memory spell is keeping you from remembering, the normal human part would be vulnerable."
"But that would only affect the stronger part if there's still a linkage between them." Giles stated. "And there is, they're the same person, just distilled into different forms. Destroy the weaker form and the stronger one dies. Willow, we need to identify the demon." Giles moved quickly, pulling new books. "The memory spell will have to wait, both Buffy and Xander are vulnerable right now. This device may be the key to putting them back together and it's likely something that demon created. We ID the demon and we might find information on it at the same time. Tara, you seem to have your memory intact and know more about Xander right now than we do, including where he works. Go find him and tell him what's going on and try to protect him with your Magic, see if you can get him to come back here. As for the second Xander, good heavens, I have no idea what Xander's other self, his power concentrated, for lack of a better description, could be or where we might find him. The Slayer part of Buffy can't even speak, the second Xander might be in the same condition."
"Whoever wanted us to forget must know what Xander is." Willow began frantically searching for a picture, all the demons in their books had, at the very least, a drawn picture of the creature. "By making us forget, it made us push him out of the Slaying, thinking he was just going to get hurt or endanger us by having to protect him. It couldn't attack him directly either because whatever he normally is, they thought he could protect himself, so it found a way to separate him. Take out the weak, normal human part and the strong, whatever else, goes with it. The same with Buffy, if the weak you dies, the Slayer concentrate over there dies too. It probably couldn't resist the opportunity to take you out while it had the chance."
"I'll need your keys, Willow."
"In my purse." Tara found Willow's purse behind the counter and dug out her keys and hurried out to Willow's small car, intent on finding Xander. If the others had forgotten his contributions, did that include how he'd defended her from her bullying brother months ago? Because she hadn't, he hadn't hesitated, anymore than the others had, to protect her. Plus, he'd always treated her with care and gentleness, recognizing her skittishness for what it was, fear caused by her abusive family. Xander hid his own fear behind jokes, but that hadn't stopped her from recognizing it either.
As Willow and Giles researched the demon and its device and Tara went looking for Xander, whitelighter Xander was convincing Faith to go with him to find Buffy and the others and begin finding a solution to the many problems facing them. Including getting them to understand that Faith wasn't responsible for everything that led up to Buffy putting her in a coma. Faith wasn't too optimistic that they'd listen, but she kept remembering seeing 'her' Xander in the viewing pool, trying to make her hospital room cheerful and visiting her.
And whitelighter Xander's belief that it was because 'her' Xander cared. He was in trouble and he'd tried to help her once. She owed him. The rest, she'd figure out later.
######
A/N Yes, the timeline doesn't match canon, as Tara's family came to visit in season five and this is set in season four. Just acknowledging it for the reviewers who always get upset when I don't follow canon, just remember, different realities, different decisions. 😊