"You're not our Xander?" Willow asked when he'd finished explaining everything to them. "And you're not a duplicate of our Xander?"
"No, I'm not." He said gently, knowing this information was a shock. "Things are very different in my reality, I died as a teenager in the service good and was remade as a whitelighter, a type of guardian angel. My people don't exist here, according to Coyote, the Powers destroyed them and took over and the celestial gods are pissed about it. But because of the Accords they couldn't do anything."
"But I thought the Powers were good guys." Buffy protested. "Angel's a Champion for them -."
"Angel's being manipulated." Whitelighter Xander answered. "The same way he was in my reality, his real purpose is to protect Cordelia until the visions cause so much damage she feels she has to accept the offer to 'demonize' her in order to survive. But Seers are born, not made, which both Angel and Wesley should have been aware of. The Council employs Seers and Angel is well aware that Drusilla was born a Seer. Cordelia would have come in to her power on her own, but it was forcibly activated. Everything that's happened in the last year to her, her and Xander being manipulated apart, loosing her family's money, it was all designed to make her vulnerable so she could be maneuvered into getting the visions, just like in my reality. She didn't survive Jasmine getting herself born from her. And it can be proven by summoning the same demon they did when they finally realized they were being manipulated."
"And this Coyote believes the Powers are playing games with us as well." Buffy asked. "Who is Coyote anyway, I've never heard of him."
"He's a god in several Native American traditions." Giles answered. "Mostly regarded as a teacher and occasionally a trickster. And he told you that both you and our Xander are human descendants of his?"
"Yes and he keeps an eye on his descendants. When I was human I was an Oracle, I never had the chance to develop it because I died so young, but your Xander is much more powerful than I was. He's a living Nexus."
"What's a Nexus?" Buffy asked.
"It's a gathering place of energy." Giles answered. "Mystical, spiritual, there's different kinds. They're sort like batteries, others can draw on that energy and use it. A living Nexus is beyond rare, into legend. He needs to learn to control what's in him and keep others from trying to access it. What kind of Nexus is he?"
"Chaos." Whitelighter Xander answered. "Even without knowing it, he can cause probabilities to shift and that's just the beginning. Magic used on him can be unpredictable."
"Like instead of splitting him into two people, one a concentration of Nexus energy and the other a normal, powerless human, a Xander from another reality is pulled into ours." Giles said dryly.
"Exactly." Whitelighter Xander agreed. "Kill the normal part and the Chaos energy dissipates harmlessly. Attack the Nexus directly and risk ripping a hole in the fabric of reality by turning him into the equivalent of a bomb."
"The demon that attacked him must not have known he was a Nexus." Giles speculated. "Just told that he protects Buffy somehow, maybe with an innate ability. They took a chance that they could split him into harmless Xander and bomb Xander and it backfired."
"I know why they thought it might work." Willow told them. "I found the demon and the device, it's not magical, it's forged. But they may not have realized that probabilities shift around Xander. One in a million might become a near guarantee."
"And they made us forget Xander's contribution so we'd push him out, making him vulnerable. Why?" Buffy asked, winching at the pain in her sprained wrist. Whitelighter Xander reached over and activated his healing power and they watched, awed, as the swelling disappeared.
"He affects their plans for you guys, changes the outcome." Whitelighter Xander answered. "Do you know the odds of being able to revive someone with CPR? In a hospital with equipment, maybe twenty percent, under the conditions Xander revived you under, nearly impossible."
"So I take it that incident never happened in your reality?" Giles asked
"No, we got lucky, an earthquake opened the school and the area above the Master during the day. Instant sun bath. A lot of things are different in my reality, Sunnydale started dying after the Mayor was defeated and within a few years no longer existed."
"Is there a reversal to the device?" Giles asked Willow. "We might as well get the two Buffy's put back together if we can, normal Buffy is vulnerable right now."
"Yes, there is. Buffy, go stand next to - other Buffy, I guess." Willow instructed and Buffy stepped over beside her angry counterpart. Willow adjusted the top of the device and activated it, a blink and there was only one Buffy.
"Now, how exactly do you expect to prove Faith's innocent?" Giles asked.
"You should be able to find evidence that the Mayor influenced her magically." Whitelighter Xander answered. "And those spells on you no doubt included how you treated Faith. At least I'm hoping they are, if they're not than you people have a lot to answer for because you treated her like shit." He said flatly.
The storm of protests over that pronouncement was expected and ended when Faith asked Giles why, given he was her Watcher too, he left her on the streets of Sunnydale and than asked Buffy just what she thought she and Angel were going to accomplish chaining her to a wall and telling her the accident they'd both been apart of made her like Angelus. Since neither of them could provide a reasonable explanation they just looked at each other, confused.
"Perhaps you are correct." Giles conceded. "How do we break the spells on us?"
"I have an idea and I'm sorry, but it's going to hurt."