Replacing the Zippo

Sometimes what you really need is an escape from the ridiculousness your life has become. It's easier around Marcie. She was in a single episode of the show. She doesn't expect you to be the Xander that the others used to know, and there's no concerns about what might be in the future. It's fun to spend time with her and just talk about regular stuff without thoughts of what could happen to her in the future hanging around in your head.

Your new talents of observation have made people watching much more fun than it was before. Marcie seems just as delighted to sit beside you and guess about what's going on with them. You do your best to be accurate, but it's easy to get carried away and come up with more and more ridiculous things that's going on. Hey, some of them might even be correct! Life is far stranger than fiction after all.

You almost missed seeing Kendra walking through town. This vampire slayer was destined to have a tragically short life. With Drusilla at full health there was an even greater risk to her. Marcie frowned. "Xander? What is it?"

"That's the second slayer," you blurted out.

"I thought there was only supposed to be one? That it was a whole big deal that way?"

"Yes, but I brought Buffy back when she wasn't supposed to be. The next slayer activated when that happened." You had just forgotten that it wouldn't be Faith who you would be seeing as the next slayer. Guilt churned in your gut. Faith's life had been terrible, but Kendra's had been little better. She hadn't been as lucky as Buffy. She had been raised as a weapon by the Watcher's Council. And if Faith was to become a slayer, Kendra had to die first.

[ ]Tell Giles about the second slayer being here
[ ]Talk to Kendra directly to warn her about Drusilla
[ ]Write-in

You hurried down to Giles' home and knocked on the door. The man was mildly peeved at being bothered, but let you in. "There's a second slayer in town."

"I beg your pardon?" Giles asked.

"A second slayer. The next slayer is called whenever the previous slayer dies. That doesn't account for slayers dying for a few seconds before being revived like Buffy was. So there's now two slayers. And the second one is here."

"I-good grief." Giles paled as the implication of my words struck him. His slayer had died. He had thought he had been doing well managing everything unusual attached to her, and yet the truth was she was meant to be dead. Would be dead, were it not for the particularly stubborn boy now standing in his home talking to him. "And you're sure you're not mistaken?"

"I'm not going to say that my visions are perfect, but she fits what I saw way too well." You took a deep breath. "She won't die here, but she will die young." And that stung to think of.

"Where is her Watcher? Why is she here?" Giles demanded.

"She's here to do Buffy's job. When Kendra activated it was assumed Buffy was dead. So she's here to take her position on the hellmouth."

"The Council knows she's not!"

You shrugged. "I don't know what happened there. But there's a second slayer in town, and she doesn't know about Buffy or yourself."

Giles was a reliable man once he got going. He headed out the door to find Kendra and deal with a secondary slayer in town.

Buffy and Kendra got into a fight over Angel, one which only worsened when Drusilla and Spike showed up to play. The girls settled on a truce to hunt Spike and Drusilla. Giles found himself realizing that he far preferred Buffy's liveliness over Kendra's robotic obedience. Kendra was the slayer Giles had hoped to have, but Kendra struggled without orders and had little to live for. You knew that was part of what would kill her. Slayers fell easily when they didn't have a reason to live.

It was bothering you. You knew Kendra would die, but you didn't know what would kill her. You knew that it was because she was too 'traditional' following the Council's rules. You didn't know if speaking up would help at all. If it did help, if you did save Kendra, would Faith never come?

Were you even qualified to make that choice?

You had tried with Jesse, and look how well that had turned out. You had saved Marcie, but things were still so similar to how they had been in the show. You couldn't even split up Angel and Buffy, even if you did get him closer to the group so it was easier to keep an eye on him. Should you even try?

[ ]Write-in

It felt awkward to consider it, but you had made a decision. You wanted to try and give Kendra something to hold onto. A way for her to keep fighting even after she was recalled once more from Sunnydale. There were too many monsters in the world for the Watchers' Council to allow the Slayers to remain in the same town together. It had only happened with Faith because they had lost control over her entirely.

You awkwardly invited Kendra to come out for the usual after battle take out. The dark Slayer was timid about accepting, but came along with the group. Willow was fascinated by her existence, and you did your best to keep Willow from completely overwhelming the girl. Buffy seemed happy herself, curled up together with Angel in their seats.

It wasn't bad. You went to movies together, and told Kendra about your favorite comics. When she was recalled back to her original Watcher it was with a smile on her face. You hoped that would be enough to help her live longer.

You were still working on a solution for the Inca Mummy girl. Researching it was slow. You just weren't particularly academically inclined. It was difficult. You could think of so many things, so many ways to solve things, and yet reading and searching through books had you slogging away like a moron. You silently told yourself that you weren't one. You didn't need book smarts to be capable.

It was during a tech hangout with Ms Calendar going over new things for Willow and Cordelia that Buffy showed up in a flurry. "Something's wrong with Giles," she announced.

Your heart sunk. You knew what this was. The dream demon that Giles had summoned with his dark magic friends as a teen. It was here to complete the contract, and take Giles' life.

Originally the dream demon would find an opening to possess Ms Calendar. It would be defeated by being tricked to try and claim Angel, finding it killed by the demon already occupying what it had mistaken as a corpse. It would give Buffy more understanding of why Giles was as strict as he was, and Angel would become more accepted for the aid he offered. You knew however, that Giles' old friend Ethan from Halloween would try to offer Buffy as a way to buy time for himself, and Giles was currently under suspicion for murder.

It was fairly harmless, and part of you did like Ethan. He had been a fun character on the show, never truly aligned with evil but more than happy to leave death in his wake with the chaos he stirred up. Always independent. But this wasn't the show, and you needed to decide what you wanted to do.

[ ]Help the others find out about the dream demon early
[ ]Leave them to research it alone
[ ]Find another way to trap the dream demon-maybe the Incan Mummy?
[ ]Write-in