Author's Notes: This is one of those canon intense chapters. Please know that I kept what I kept for a reason...

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all recognizable characters, locations, and dialogue belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the various writers. Show writers and any other quoted authors have been credited in individual chapters. I'm making no money from this—it is purely in the name of fun.

Credits: This chapter contains dialogue adapted from the episode "The Replacement" written by Jane Espenson.

Betaed by Phuriedae

Banner art by Phuriedae

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Chapter 3
Divide


Things go back to normal. Or as normal as things can ever be on the Hellmouth.

Harmony is a no show, and the vamp population is relatively quiet. With any luck she's decided to go to Paris, where she can be officially no longer my problem.

Giles purchased the magic shop. I guess he was really impressed after looking over the books there. Says that the high death rate keeps the rent down, and maybe with us occupying the place it'll keep the death rate down. I think it'll be good for him. You know, give him something to do now that he's no longer Mr. Librarian Guy.

And, hey, bonus: the back room is big enough we might be able to turn it into a training area. Clean it up a bit, put in some equipment... I'm kinda excited. I haven't had a real place to train in a long time. Ever, really. High school libraries and gymnasiums don't exactly count. Plus, since it's a magic shop we'll be able to keep all kinds of books there for research, and supplies will be on hand if we need magic for anything. It's kind of perfect, actually.

We spend part of a Saturday helping Giles move boxes over to the shop. Which sounds like more fun than it is, especially since with my super Slayer strength I get stuck doing most of the heavy lifting. Who would have thought boxes full of books would be so heavy? By the time we're done with the books I feel like I've gone a few rounds with a pack of Fyral demons. Then we start on the supplies.

When we're finished, Riley and I go over to Xander's place for a much needed pizza and movie night. I even do some studying while I'm there. I can be totally studious when I want to be, even though it makes my friends look at me like I'm a pod person when I get caught up in my history text book.

Xander, I think, is getting fed up with living at home. I don't blame him. His parents are horrible, and the place smells like cat pee and dirty socks, no matter how often he does the laundry. We spend half the movie trying to ignore the fighting going on upstairs and when I get back to the dorm I have to shower all the ceiling plaster out of my hair. It looked like I'd been snowed on.

It's no surprise at all when Xander calls the next morning to ask if we'll go with him and Anya to check out an apartment that he found advertised in the paper. It's a great location, and the building is gorgeous. It's not huge, but it's a good size for Xander and Anya. Not to mention, it's got a great bedroom.

Not, you know, that Riley and I had really intended to try it out.

Not that we really got to anyway.

Xander doesn't seem all that confident about getting the place, though, and Anya's whining doesn't really help much. You know, for someone who is over a thousand years old you'd think she'd develop a little patience or something. So then we have to try to ignore them fighting. Xander fills out the application and we all promise to cross our fingers for him. He deserves a place of his own.

One that does't smell like cat pee.

Funny, I didn't even know he had a cat.

***

We stop by the magic shop on our way back through town. Giles is sitting at the counter with a plastic bag full of ice against the back of his head.

"What happened?" I ask. It kind of looks like there was a fight. There's stuff scattered on the floor, and some of the furniture is smashed up.

"A demon," he says. He fills us in on the sitch: creepy looking demon, blah blah blah, looking for the Slayer, blah blah blah, stinky robes and weird stick, blah blah blah. Finally he demonstrates how he fought it off using some big, ugly statue.

"That's Oofdar, Goddess of Childbirth. She's got some nice heft to her," Willow says. She's not wrong. That statue looks like it could take out a small army. I'm pretty impressed Giles could even lift it.

"How badly did you hurt him?" I ask. Giles stammers and looks embarassed.

"Well, hurt... uh, maybe not... hurt," he says, not really meeting anyone's eyes.

"Well, I'm sure he was... startled," Willow says, loyally.

"Uh, yes, yes I'd imagine it gave him, uh, rather a turn," Giles says. He's so transparent sometimes I'm surprised birds don't fly into him.

"He ran away, huh?" I ask, trying hard not to grin. I love him, but man, Giles is such a book guy. Hard to believe he was ever seriously called Ripper. He tries to look dignified—which actually works since he's British and sort of tweedy to start with.

"Um, sort of more... uh... turned and swept out majestically, I suppose. He said I didn't concern him."

"So, a mythic triumph over a completely indifferent foe?" I sum up, smiling.

"Well, I'm not dead or unconcious, so I say bravo for me," Giles says, looking a little insulted.

Willow finds a book full of demons and hands it to Giles so he can start looking for his majestic enemy.

"So you bought the magic shop and you were attacked before it opened," Xander says dryly. "Anyone for a rousing chorus of the 'We Told You So' symphony?" Giles just shoots him a pained look.

Riley picks up Oofdar and swings her experimentally. Riley's shoulders look really good when he does that. There is just something about a guy with great muscles swinging weapons...or, you know, fat statues.

"Owning this place does seem kinda dangerous," Riley points out. No kidding. I can't really count how many times this place has changed hands, or how many times we've found dead bodies here. Something about it just seems to attact the bad guys. It's almost more Hellmouthy than the Hellmouth. Like a mini-mouth.

"Toth," Giles says.

"What?" Riley asks.

"He called you a toth,"I tell him. "It's a British expression. It means, like, moron." I think. Most weird British words seem to mean moron.

"No, Toth is the name of the demon," Giles says. He warns Xander not to play with his crystal balls…and ew.

He puts the book down to show us the picture, which, thankfully is creepy enough to wipe out my previous mental image of Xander and Giles' crystal balls. "Ancient demon, very strong, last member of the Tothric clan. It also says that for a demon he's unusually sophisticated," Giles paraphrases for those of us who don't speak Really Old Book.

"Sophisticated," I say. "So I should discuss men's fashions with him before I chop his head off?"

Giles sighs. "They're referring to the fact that he does not fight bare-handed. He uses tools, devices," he explains. "Oh, he's also supposed to be very focused, and since he mentioned the Slayer, I think we know what the focus is."

Great. Riley's suddenly got his dander up and is ready to charge to my rescue. It's sweet, if completely unnecessary. I don't point that out to him, though. I'm more than capable of taking care of one fancy dressed demon on my own. Hunting him down might be a problem.

"...I have an idea, though," Giles says, coming out of book mode. "He had a very specific olfactory presence."

"Well, I guess we're off to the ol'factory. I hate that place," Xander says, trying to be punny. We all just groan. "I'm just joking. I know what it means. He smelled, right?"

Willow suggests that the demon might be using sandalwood, but Giles has someplace a lot smellier in mind than a perfumery.

***

Which is why, a few hours later, we're all taking a lovely stroll through the city dump—where smells go to relax and be themselves. I don't usually patrol out here, thank god. Most demons seem to avoid it. Probably for the same reason vampires hate garlic: too stinky when you've got a nose sharper than most bloodhounds.

Of course, there's always one exception to the rule. I've watched him eat Indian food before, so it's no surprise that if garlic doesn't bother Spike, neither will the stench of the junk yard. When his white head pops up out of a mound of garbage it's hardly a shock. Guess trash knows where it belongs.

"What are you doing here, Spike," Riley says. His fingers look a little twitchy on his crossbow.

"Oh, there's a nice lady vampire who set up a charming tea room over the next pile of crap," he says. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm scavenging, ain't I?" He holds up a lamp in one hand and a shade in the other.

"Very pretty," Willow tells him. He just shrugs and puts the shade in a nearby shopping cart that's full of junk. I guess it's technically not stealing, and I'm pretty sure that Spike can't exactly shop at Goodwill. The name alone probably wards off vampires.

"Spike, we're ... um, we're looking for a demon. Ah... tall, robed, skin sort of hanging off, deep voice?" Giles says.

Spike looks thoughtful. Probably a strain for him. "You mean a great, tall, robe-y thing like that one?" He points behind us. We spin.

And there he is. Giles neglected to mention the glowy teeth. Ew. I guess hanging out in the dump means that dental hygiene is low on the priority list. He's got some kind of stick thingie and he points it straight at me. "Take cover!" Riley yells, and we all dive out of the way just as he fires a bolt from the stick thingie.

"Big guy! Kick her ass!" Spike yells, cheering from the sidelines. Stupid vampire. I try not to grin when Toth's next bolt shatters Spike's new old lamp. "Oh, very nice. I was on your side!" He throws out the lamp. I wonder if it counts as littering if you're already in the junk yard? Spike glares back at me, smirking, and for a moment all I want is to punch him in his stupid, smug face.

"Watch out!" Xander yells, pushing me out of the way just as Toth looses another bolt of light. It hits Xander right in the chest, throwing him several feet back into a garbage pile. We all rush to his aid, and by the time we haul him out of the junk, Toth has disappeared.

I have a feeling things aren't over.

Xander seems okay, if a bit sore, so we help him home. Spike passes us as we leave the junk yard. He's got his feet on the base of the shopping cart and he rides it past us, down the hill, with a wicked grin on his face and his black coat flying behind him like bat wings.

***

My dream vamp is doing his grumpy routine tonight. He slinks in after I'm in bed, then stands at the side without getting in. I can feel him watching me. I half want to talk to him about Toth, but I'm getting twitchy vibes off him, so instead I pretend to sleep. After awhile he climbs in bed, then flops back against the pillows on his side. I feel the bed jiggle, but don't say anything. How weird is it that my imaginary vampire has moods?

***

"I just don't like the idea of this guy out there, hunting you down," Riley says the next morning, as I'm going through my weapons chest at Mom's house.

"There are always demons out there trying to hunt me down. His sticky thing didn't do much damage to Xander," I point out. "And he's pretty damageable. I think I can take him."
The phone rings, but when I answer it, whoever's on the other line hangs up. Probably a wrong number.

I pick up one of my favorite axes and heft it, liking the feel. I really don't get to axe too many bad guys. "Well, if this guy wants to fight with weapons, I've got it covered from A to Z. From axe to...," I can't think of a weapon that starts with z. Crap. "...zee other axe."

Riley doesn't even laugh at my bad joke.

I put the axe in my stylish weapons bag and then focus on him. He's got that line between his eyebrows that always makes me think a little of Angel and his pondering face. I know it's not a fair comparison, but there it is. Riley's face isn't as classically handsome as Angel's. It's... squarer and...serious but not as broody. Sweet. Normal. Can someone be normally handsome?

"Relax," I tell him. "Another day, another demon."

"Right," he says. "It'll be good."

"Hey," I say softly, and kiss him. I like kissing Riley. So maybe it doesn't give me the same vampire tinglies as Angel, or the magic induced fireworks I got kissing Spike that time when Willow screwed up a spell (only a spell could make kissing Spike anything other than repulsive)... but it's still damn good. Riley's lips are warm, and I don't have to worry about him getting fangy afterwards. All of Riley's bumpies are thankfully below the belt. He slides his hands up my sides and pulls me into him.

Things might have gone further if Mom hadn't come out of her room right about then.

Guess next time we ought to close the door.

***

To make Riley feel better I let him take me to lunch, then we stop at a couple of the local demon bars to see if anyone's heard anything about our new demon pal and his magic stick. No luck, but I get to threaten Willy, so it's not a total waste. I have one class in the afternoon, so Riley drops me off and agrees to pick me up after.

And hey, I don't think I did too bad on my Crusades test. It's sort of surprising how much I like reading about all these old dates and times. Sometimes I feel like I've been there, thanks to some of the Slayer dreams I had when I was first Called. I'm pretty sure there were a couple of Slayers, at least, who were around for the Crusades. I'd like to think that maybe they joined some holy fighting order, maybe disguised as boys, like the Knights Templar. I wrote my essay on the Templars, though I probably should have left out some of the details about how they were accused of secretly worshipping the demon Baphomet. At least I managed to refrain from pointing out that it's a real demon.

***

It's pouring rain by the time class is over, a real actual thunderstorm. We don't get many of those here in Sunnydale, but the weather's been a little cool for autumn. Maybe it's an El Nino thing. Riley picks me up and we stop by Giles' to see what the glowy demon sitch is. Nothing new on the demon front, but Giles is hunting through his books, reshelving them, and muttering to himself about poltergeists.

We're barely there for fifteen minutes before Xander comes in the door, looking oddly spiffy for Xander. Maybe he and Anya have a date later. "I thought I locked that," Giles says.

"You never used to lock it before," I point out.

"Yes, well that was pre-Spike," he says. "Not that locks stop him. Do you think he might be sneaking in at night and shuffling my books about just to toy with me?"

"Spike?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. I know Spike is hard up for evil since he's been chipped, but reshelving books just to mess with Giles is sort of a stretch. Giles sighs.

"You're right, I suppose. Far more likely that he'd just steal my Scotch. In any case, one can never be too careful in Sunnydale."

"Guys, forget Spike. I need help," Xander says, pacing. "I just got attacked by my evil twin."

"You have a twin?" Riley says, leaning back against the dining room table. "I didn't know that."

"No," Xander says, frowning. "I mean, I got attacked by something that looked exactly like me, only stinkier. It ambushed me outside of my new apartment."

"You got the apartment? That's great!" I say, grinning. I know how badly he'd wanted it. Maybe that's why he's dressed all Mr. Serious. I bet he's going to take Anya out to celebrate their new cat pee-free apartment.

"Can we focus on the evil me part?" Xander says, looking exasperated. I do my best to look sheepish.

"Are you certain it was a... a doppelganger?" Giles asks. "It's rather dark, with the rain. Perhaps he merely bore a passing resemblance."

"No, no. He looked exactly like me," Xander insists. "It stole my face. We have to find it, and we have to kill it." He looks really upset. I don't blame him. The last time we had to deal with an evil twin it was a vampire version of Willow running amok. I try to imagine a vamp Xander—and shudder. Xander tends to be ruled by his stomach. A vamp Xander would probably be even worse.

"Don't worry, Xander," I tell him. "Whatever stole your face, it has to deal with the Slayer now."

"How like you was it?" Giles wants to know.

Xander sits, then stands again and paces. "Very. It even was wearing the clothes I had on yesterday. Just... you know, dirtier and stinkier. Like me crossed with Pigpen. It talked like me, walked like me..."

"Okay, Patty Duke, have a seat," I tell him. "We'll figure this one out. Did it say what it wanted?"

"Not really," he says, sitting and looking frustrated. "Mostly it babbled. Also like me, might I add. Then it attacked."

"So maybe it's a doppler-banger, like Giles said. What do they usually want?" I ask Giles.

"Doppelganger. They're largely fictional," he says, looking thoughtful. "Though many people have reported seeing them, usually before some tragic event. They tend to be harbingers rather than sentient creatures. What's intriguing me is that there are any number of demons with the ability to mimic a simple form, but, uh... this sounds like more than that."

Something about that twigs my Slayer senses. Demons... Mimic...

"Hold up," Xander says, standing again. "Do we really have to figure out what it is? Let's just go kill it."

"Yeah," Riley agrees. "When the imposter's killed, the body'll probably turn back into whatever it really is, and then we'll know."

"Toth!" I say, putting it together. The testosterone brigade all turn to stare at me. "The demon with the creepy stick thing," I explain. It just happened yesterday. God, boys can be dumb.

"Toth...," Xander says thoughtfully.

"It's gotta be! He hit Xander with that blast, and somehow it allowed him to take Xander's form. Couldn't that be what the creepy stick thing did?" I ask.

"Yes," Giles says, taking off his glasses for a polish. "I suppose, yes, yes, it makes sense. A shape-shifting device." He wanders back to the bookcases. Toth did disappear right after the blast hit Xander, so it makes sense. Even Xander agrees that it's the most likely explanation.

"I was gonna go look for Toth anyway. Guess now I start... looking for you," I say as I grab my sweater. Outside it's still pouring. Ugh. So not looking forward to treking through Sunnydale in the cold rain looking for another Xander, but it's gotta be done. It's different when it's someone you care about being threatened. Neither rain nor snow nor sleet will prevent this Slayer from... er... slaying.

Xander's concerned about this dopple-thingie going after Anya, so he heads over to meet up with her. Hopefully that'll keep me from accidentally running into him and thinking he's the demon. That would be bad.

"We need a plan," Riley says after Xander leaves. "Giles, do you have maps of the area? Places where the demon might go? If we can narrow it down, we can figure out a search and sweep pattern."

Sometimes there are benefits to a boyfriend with a military brain. My ideas are usually just... you know... wander around until I find the thing I need to kill. Or it finds me. Usually it finds me. Giles digs out a map of Sunnydale for Riley to pour over. I glance at it curiously.

"Wow, you can really see how much real estate is occupied by dead people from above, huh?" I say. Riley gives me a curious look. "Lot of cemeteries in Sunnydale." I count them out. Twelve, if you include Mission out at the edge of town. Not to mention the number of churches, police stations, fire departments and the size of the hospital. I wonder if you looked at maps of Sunnydale over the last decade or so if you'd see these things growing like tumors.

Consequences of living over a Hellmouth, I guess.

"So where would evil Xander go?" Riley asks.

"I don't know. Um, the Bronze, his house, the comic book store, the video store, his job site...," I say, thinking. "Or maybe he'd go where Toth needs to go. Evil demony places, to do whatever evil demony things he needs to do. The hellmouth, maybe, or the cemeteries. Maybe the hospital if he's looking for people to eat or something?"

"So you're thinking we split up?" he asks.

"Yeah, you check the places where he might try to go and blend in as Xander, and I'll check the places where Toth might hang out."

Riley doesn't look pleased. What's the big?

The door bangs open. "I swear, this time I know I had that locked," Giles complains as Willow comes in looking totally panicked.

"Buffy, Toth looks like Xander," she tells me.

"We already know," Riley says. "We're on our way."

I frown. "Wait a second, how did you know about this?" Xander hasn't been gone very long, and why wouldn't he have told her that he'd already talked to us?

Willow claims that the real Xander came to her for help, and that the Xander we talked to was just a demon in a Xander shaped suit.

"What makes you so sure yours is the right one?" I ask, even though my brain is already replaying the scene from a few minutes ago and coming up with some wiggy conclusions. He was all with the serious clothes... and even though he claimed he'd been attacked he wasn't even bruised, and Xander tends to bruise like a peach.

"He knew stuff! He... he did the Snoopy dance. Buffy it was Xander and he needs us," she says. Crap. Why didn't we ask our Xander to do the Snoopy dance? I've always wanted to see it.

"Oh, dear lord," Giles mutters behind us. So he's not the Snoopy dance appreciating type.

"Buffy," Riley says, with his thinking face on. "Our Xander... did he seem a little..."

"He seemed kind of forceful and confident," I say, and now that I've said it—it seems even weirder.

"That's not Xander," Willow says.

"I said, 'oh, dear lord,'" Giles says. He's still got his nose stuck in some moldy book.

"You always say that," I point out.

"Well, it's always important," he says. He puts his book down. "Neither Xander is a demon."

"Um," says Willow, "Is one of them a robot?"

"What?" Giles says, looking surprised she'd even jump to that conclusion. Clearly he's forgotten Ted. "No. Um, uh, the rod device. It's called a ferula-gemina. It splits one person in half, distilling their personality traits into two seperate bodies. As near as I can tell, Toth was attempting to split the Slayer into two different entities."

"Two Buffys?" I say. That'd be weird.

"Yes, one with all the qualities inherent in Buffy Summers, and the other with everything that belongs to the Slayer alone. The, uh, the—strength, the, uh, speed, the heritage. And when it hit Xander, I think it seperated him into his strongest and his... uh, weakest."

"But which is the real one," Riley asks.

"They're both real," Giles explains. "They're both Xander. Neither one of them is evil. There's nothing in either of them that our Xander doesn't already possess."

Riley frowns. "I still don't get the original plan. I mean, why do it? The Slayer half would be like Slayer concentrate, pretty unkillable."

"But the two halves can't exist without each other. Kill the weaker Buffy half, and the Slayer half dies," Giles says. Uh oh... not good.

"So the same goes for the Xanders?" I ask. "We lose one, we lose them both?"

Giles nods.

Crap. We need to find Xander before he finds himself.

***

I can't help but think about what Giles said, about the two possible Buffys. Sometimes I try to remember what it was like, before I was the Slayer. It gets a little harder every year. That girl was so different from what I am now. Shallow, deliberately vapid, entirely focused on boys and parties and clothes. But... she was also the kind of girl boys really fell in love with. The kind that needed a boyfriend like she needed to breathe. Maybe that's not such a good thing, but... sometimes when I'm with Riley I can't help but think that what he really wants is a normal girl.

"Riley, do you wish—"

"No," he interrupts. We're speeding through the streets of Sunnydale in Riley's version of a penismobile. Men and their cars... The rain streaks the windshield, making patterns on his face like dark tears.

"No? You don't even know what I was gonna say," I protest.

"Yes, I do," he tells me. "You wanted to know if I wished you got hit by the ferula-gemina. Got split in two."

I sulk a little. "Well, you have been kind of rankly about the whole Slayer gig," I remind him. "Instead of having Slayer Buffy you could have Buffy Buffy."

He grins. "Hey, I have Buffy Buffy. Being the Slayer's part of who you are. You keep thinking I don't get that..."

"It's just... I know how... un-fun it can be. The bad hours, frequent bruising, cranky monsters..."

"Buffy," Riley says, "if you led a perfectly normal life, you wouldn't be half as crazy as you are. I gotta have that. I gotta have it all. I'm talking toes, elbows, the whole bad-ice-skating movie obsession, everything. There's no part of you I'm not in love with." He grins at me.

I want to believe him. I really do. But I can't help but think about the expression on his face this morning when we were talking about the demon. I feel like... like he's far away from me, sometimes. Or, or like he's watching me and wishing... wishing I were something else.

Being the Slayer has changed me in so many ways, but... it's like Giles said about Xander, even if you separated out the Buffy half from the Slayer half... I'm not sure either would be able to survive on it's own. The Buffy part of me... is just a silly blonde girl with no other ambition in life other than to be pretty and have a perfect boyfriend. The Slayer part of me is strong, but hard, cold. A machine. Together, the two parts kinda balance each other out, I guess.

But it still makes it hard for me to be normal. I'm not sure I like that Riley thinks of me as crazy. Wouldn't it be better if he thought of me as... I don't know, sweet? Beautiful? Strong? Intelligent? And don't think I didn't notice he didn't mention anything Slayery when he was listing the parts of me he wants to have.

"We better get there soon," I say, instead. "If Xander kills himself, he's dead... You know what I mean."
***

We make it to Xander's apartment just in time to keep him from shooting himself. Or... I mean, his other self. And why the hell does Anya own a gun? Doesn't she know guns are bad?

It takes a little while, and a lot of confusion, before Riley and I manage to explain to Xander that he's both... himself. The Xanders need some convincing, of course. Although once we sort out the whole Xander-One-wasn't-brain-melting-people-with-a-flattened-nickle-thing, it gets a little easier.

At least until Toth shows up with his creepy stick thing and tries to kill me again. Riley and I both attack, but he tosses Riley off like a bug. I beat on him for awhile before he body slams me like a wrestling pro. Jeez, where do these guys learn to fight? The WWF?

I kick him hard in the chin, landing him flat on his back, and Riley manages to toss me a sword.

Then it's over, way too quick, and we're all left staring down at Glowy Face's slowly dimming teeth.

"Oh, yeah, that cleaning deposit's gone," says Xander One.

"I was thinking the same thing!" says Xander Two. "Do you suppose we're both Xander?"

***

We all head back to the Magic Box, where Giles and Willow have been busy looking up how to smush our two Xanders back together again. In the end it proves to be pretty easy. Almost... anti-climatic. At least, once we get past Anya's sudden urge to be the meat in the middle of a Xander sandwich... and, ew... there's a mental picture I never, ever, ever want to have again.

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