"Buffy, I don't know what to do. I mean.....I know what I have to do but I can't do it. It would just be so hard for me to do it. I need help." Xander said, as he sniffled a little.

Buffy stood up and looked out the window. Xander had just made it to Buffy's house as she was getting ready to go to bed. They had spent half an hour talking about what Xander was feeling.

"Maybe you should leave Sunnydale"

Xander wiped some tears from his eyes and said "Oh come on, you know I can't do that."

Buffy nodded slowly and said, "Yes......I know....."

Xander fell back onto Buffy's bed and stared at the ceiling.

"You know Buffy...sometimes I wish that the sky would just not be right above us. That we could just be here or anywhere else without too much work. I always hope for that to happen. Then one thing or another brings me back here."

Buffy leaned up against the window and nodded. "I know exactly how you feel Xander."

Xander breathed out heavily and said "Buffy.....I don't want it to go on like this. I know your waiting for him so I'll just go now so I don't run into him."

Buffy didn't say anything, She just remained silent as a tear ran down her eye. Without looking back or saying anything else, Xander got up and walked out the door.

40 minutes later..........

A loud pounding came from the front door, pulling Buffy out of her sleep. She hastily put a robe on and ran to the front of the house. From the window she could see that it was Xander. She made her way to the front door and opened it.

"Buffy!!! Your not going to believe this." Xander said as he walked in past the slayer.

"Not believe what?" Buffy said as she closed the door and turned to face Xander.

"Your not going to believe that I was killed."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I was walking home from the Bronze when I noticed these police cars...well actually there was this guy in black...but forget him, the point is......"

Buffy put her hand on Xander's motorboat mouth and said "NO! I was asking what you meant by me not believing you."

Xander shook his head and began saying "Thats not important, what is is that there was this black tarp and I looked under it and...."

Buffy moved so fast that it took Xander a few moments to realize that he was face flat on the floor and Buffy had her foot on his back while pulling on his arms.

"I was asking you why you thought I wouldn't believe you 'cause I would and I do."

"But I haven't told you what...." Xander screamed in pain as Buffy kicked his head.

"I do believe you Xander. Maybe you should shut up."

The next day at school......

Anya yawned and streched out in her desk. Math class was fast becoming not only a yawnfest but the yawnfest of yawnfests.

"Well Anya, since your so bored maybe we should let you teach the class," Mr. Hodges said as he put his chalk down and approached her.

"I'd rather not Mr. Hodges," Anya said with the most innocent face she could manage.

"You think your so smart. Well that won't do you any good unless you pass this class cause you won't graduate."

'I wouldn't need to pass this class if I had my powers back.' Anya thought bitterly to herself. "I'm sorry Mr. Dodges but I'm just not very good at this stuff."

"Well then maybe you should rip your scalp off and ask me for an 'A.' "

"I don't want an A, I want out of this place."

"Well that's too bad, you're stuck here missy."

"Well this certainly is a serious situation. Do you have any idea how it happened?" Giles asked as he walked over to the table where the gang was gathered around. Xander's hands were over his eyes, he seemed ashamed of what had happened. Everyone else tryed not to look over at him knowing he must be extremely self conscious but their eyes just seemed to wander on to him by their own.

Buffy glanced over at Xander and smiled. No one knew what had happened last night and it was likely to remain that way. Xander wasn't going to tell, Buffy had put the fear of her into him and so now he was just going to concentrate on discovering who his murder was.

"Wait...please forgive me if I don't understand but can't Xander just tell us who killed him?" Cordelia said with no tone of concern as she looked over her fingernails. She seemed to be taking Xander's death pretty well...of course she was a bit sad that Xander hadn't been killed. You couldn't blame her, after all Xander and Willow had been....doing that......thing that teenagers so often do.

Giles pushed the bridge of his glasses up and said "Well, uh.......uh.....its not quite that easy. You see the two Xanders are two people, they don't share memories. So the only person who can tell us who killed Xander is Xander and the person who killed him."

Cordelia smiled and said "What if it was a suicide....then only Xander would know.......wait.....what if Xander had killed Xander.....wouldn't that be a suicide?" Cordelia smirked at Xander who was glaring at her with a face that just screamed 'That's it, just give me an excuse.'

Giles leaned forward and said "I think we should stick with the point." Buffy jumped up in agreement, saying "I agree with the G-man. The sooner we start looking for this scumbag the more likely we will be able to find him."

Giles nodded and said "Buffy has an excellent point. Now I want Willow to get into the Police computer and see what she can turn up. Xander can take Buffy to the site where..."

Xander saw the hesitation on Giles's face and said "Where I was found."

Xander was on his way to his next class when out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw something. He turned and saw the man in black standing next to a garbage can. The man was waving and had an all knowing like smile on his face. Xander droped his stuff and ran over to him.

"Hey! I want to talk to you!"Xander yelled angrly. The man nodded and said "What do you want to talk about, maybe some topics of intrest? Because thats what people sometimes talk about."

Xander leaned over the garbage can, looked the man in the eyes and said "I want to know what's going on. I want to know how you know what you know and if you don't tell me. I am going to kill you in a very painful way.

The man shook his head and said "I think your parents are in pain."

The man then reached into the garbage can and pulled out a newspaper. We opened it up then folded it so only a fraction was showing. Xander looked at the headline of the article which said "Local Youth Murdered." Xander leaned forward a little more to read the rest of it but the man pulled the paper away.

Xander pounded his fists on the garbage can and said "I want to see the rest of it!"

The man smiled at that and held the paper in front of Xander. Xander reached out for the paper but as soon as he touched the surface of it, the whole thing went up in flames. The man let go of it and the paper was carried off by a sudden breeze.

Xander watched the paper glided away until it was out of sight. He turned towards the man and said "How did you do that?"

The man shruged his shoulders and then pulled out a cellular telephone. He handed it over to Xander who took it cautiously.

As Xander lifted the phone to his ear he heard crying. "Hello?" he said to the oddly familar voice. After some sniffles the heartbroken voice of Xander's mother spoke. "Oh god Alex....I'm so sorry. We didn't know what happened until your father went over the paper. I'm so sorry we didn't know......why didn't you tell us at breakfest...listen Alex...your father and I......"

There was the sound of quiet whispering in what seemed like an argument. Finally a voice came back out of the phone again, only it was Xander's father. "Hello son. Now I want you to rest assured that I'll find the people who did this to you and so help them!!!" The phone went dead.

"Who are you?!?!" Xander demanded. The man grabed the phone out of Xander's hand and said "I am my phone's hand. I serve the phone alone."

The man then turned around and walked off. Xander did not follow him.