Notes For purposes of this Fic the events take place before episode 71, "This Year's Girl"

I have also placed a challenge on TTHM for this concept.

Challenge-8460

Ok this challenge is simple. Xander and magic do not go together see the love spell or Willow trying to kill Xander on Kingmans Bluff. So why would the Ferula Gemini simply split Xander into weak and strong as intended? This is a opportunity to pull some of those YAFH Xanders from mixed verses into the Buffy verse without writing up a whole YAFH.

Rules.

1. Xander's double is not the vanilla Xander. He is from a different verse. Could be a Marvel or DC version of Xander. Could be from another fanfiction all together. He could be crossed with any of them. But he has something unique to him that in terms of the Buffy Verse make him more than normal.

2. No permanent Slash. Please if the alt Xander is gay thats cool but Xander from Buffy Verse was not and so the thought of himself being gay should wig him out. Or finding out that his double hit on someone and having to deal with the fallout.

3. Resolution is not simple this is Xander so something will be left behind but not as strong as the Alt Xander. IE to use rule two after merge he might find himself bi curious but wigged by it. Or if he was Superman Xander the left over would be at best something along the lines of Superboy a.k.a. Conner Kent.

4. Since this episode was really a filler it can take place at anytime prior to its place in season five. Although please have it be post Kendra. Her character was just too wooden. And Faith was a lot more fun.

5. Alt Xander should have drastically different reaction to the situation he comes from another universe where things that are normal for him are missing. IE if he was from Dresden Verse there are no white cloaks or the council enforcing the rules of magic and uh oh Willow has broken those rules.

Pairings.

No Buffy/Xander if it is post Angelus. Or Willow/Xander anything else good to go.

Preferred pairings Xander/Cordy or Xander/Faith.

Disclaimer .. I do not own Buffy The Vampire Slayer nor any of the Characters associated with it. I do not own M.A.S.H. nor any character from it. I do not own anything you might recognize. If I did I probably would not be doing this.

Plea: This is my first fanfic for Buffy please be gentle. I appreciate constructive feedback but if you really want to flame please just don't. It won't help me write a better story and just makes everyone feel bad.

Chapter One; Not with a Bang, But with a White Light.

"Watch Out!" Xander yells diving between Buffy and whatever the demon was firing. The blast hits him causing a blinding white light. Xander wavers for a moment before falling to the ground.

"Xander" Buffy yells rushing towards him. The others quickly follow. Helping him up Riley asks, "You OK?"

"I'm Fine, except for the blinding white spots, and feeling a bit wiggy." Xander answers. "What was that? I mean as weapons go I don't think it would take you out Buffster."

"Yeah Giles, What was that? I mean was it supposed to do more than the blinding white light? I mean really, sure, some garbage got splodie but it didn't seem to do much to Xander."

"Yes quite. I imagine that it may either have been designed to only really harm you Buffy or perhaps the previous shots depleted its power." Gile responded. "Still I believe more research is in order. Perhaps we should meet at the Magic Shop early tomorrow to keep researching."

As the others look at each other it is obvious that this is not a great idea.

"Sorry Giles but I have work tomorrow and if I ever want to get out of my parents place I need this job."

"Yes and Buffy and I have classes tomorrow so early is out," Willow responds. " But how about in the afternoon? We could do it then."

"Fine I will expect you all in the afternoon, whilst I will try to see if I can find anything about this particular demon and this weapon before you arrive."

"Great, you're the best watcher a slayer could ask for Giles," responds Buffy. As the group continues walking out Xander stumbles almost falling. Willow looking concerned quickly grabs Xander's arm "Xander what's wrong."

"I..Just a little dizzy I guess that hit was harder than I though. But you know me a bit of sleep and I'll be raring to go."

Willow still looking suspicious glares at Xander, "You better be. If you feel any worse make sure to call me, mister! I mean it!"

"Sure Wills no problem you know me I'll be fine just need some sleep." Willow looking partially mollified continues walking out with the rest of the gang. "You better Mister!"

As the gang leaves no one sees behind them on the same spot where Xander was hit a glowing blue light shimmer briefly before a battered and bruised Xander Harris appears. He is staggering and bloody and manages to call out "Faith" right before falling unconscious to the ground.

As Xander sleeps that night he tosses and turns and moans in his sleep, " Faith no, Watch Out!" Anya hearing the moaning wakes up and hearing Xander call Faith's name, shakes him trying to wake him up. "Xander!" Getting no response she Shakes him harder yelling, "Xander Wake up!" As Xander startles awake, from upstairs the Drunken voice of Tony Harris yell, "Shut the Hell up! If I have to come down there I will beat your ass you worthless peice of Shit."

Xander awake now, just shakes his head while mumbling sarcastically, "Wow love you too Dad." Anya looks at him with a glare, "Why were you calling out that psycho slut bombs name? I mean really she's in a coma and I know you think I don't know but I know you visit her. I mean why? Why would you visit her. Your planning on cheating on me aren't you? You bastard MALE!" As Anya gets more into her diatribe Xander looks stunned and disbelieving as he tries to quiet her down.

"Ahn, Ahn what are you talking about. I am not leaving you or cheating on you. I swear. Ok calm down please. What do you mean I was calling out Faith's name?" Even as he speaks, Xander freezes up as bits and pieces of his nightmare flash through his mind. Faith laughing and kissing him, then a something a Demon of some kind materializes out of nowhere and it has something in its hand,.. a glowing ball? It throws it at Faith, who had her back turned, and he hears himself yelling, "Faith no, Watch Out!" He pushes her out of the way and then he feels pain as the glowing, energy hit him. Suddenly he is screaming. Anya looks at him his entire body is frozen in pain as his screams tear out of his mouth. It seems to continue forever as he suddenly falls back and begins to twitch violently, his eyes rolling up and his body spasming.

From upstairs the sound of Tony Harris comes, as he opens the door yelling, "I warned you, you useless bastard." Anya looks up at him as Xander continues to convulse, " "Shut up," She screams. "Something is wrong with Xander. Call an ambulance. Now!" Tony looks like he is about to argue then seeing the look in Anya's eyes something inside of him quails, as if the small hindbrain is saying, "No No don't want to die. Better do what she says."

While waiting for the ambulance Anya quickly calls Giles. After the fifth wring a tired and slightly upset Giles answers. "What, who is this calling me at four in the bloody morning?"

Anya, Quickly responds, " Giles its Anya, something is wrong with Xander! He was screaming and now there is twitching and the ambulance is not here yet. How long does it take for them to get here?"

Giles quickly finds his he hears what was happening to Xander. As Anya continues to babel he interrupts. " Anya calm down please now tell me again what happened to Xander and why are you waiting on an ambulance?" This cuts through Anya's panic and she starts again.

"Xander was moaning and dreaming and he called out Faith's name and then when I woke him because obviously he was cheating then he started screaming and passed out. And it probably serves him right because he is a cheating Bastard. Obviously he was cheating on me with Faith."

As Anya continues to rant Giles breaks in again. ""Anya I am sure that Xander was not cheating on you. Did he tell you why he called out Faith's name? Perhaps he was remembering something."

Anya really not listening just snorts as she says, "Sure I bet he was remembering something. Like the time that slut had her way with him." The more she thinks about it the angrier she gets. As she is talking the ambulance arrives. As the paramedics come in she can hear Xander's dad yelling about the no good worthless piece of shit is downstairs and something in her resonates.
"He is a no good worthless piece of Male. Obviously he wants to cheat on me. ME ANYANKA. No that is not happening."

Giles not hearing anything asks, "Anya please what is going on?"

"What is going on Giles? I'll tell you what is going on I am done with this cheating worthless MALE. If or when he wakes up I won't be here anymore!" Anya yells into the phone as she hangs up on Giles.

Giles from the other end, can only stare mutely as the call disconnects. As quickly as possible he tries calling back but Anya does not answer. Realizing that the former vengeance demon might have left Xander helpless he quickly gets dressed and as he is dressing calls Joyce.

Whilst she might not be the boy's real mother he knows that she cares deeply for him. She can also call the others and get them to the hospital.

Fifteen minutes later a rough looking Rupert Giles pulls up to Xander's house. Not seeing the ambulance there he quickly rushes to the door and pounds on it. A few moments later Jessica Harris opens the door. She looks half asleep and half drunk. "What do you want?" she slurs.

"Yes sorry to disturb you but I received a call saying that Xander was in trouble something about an ambulance."

Jessica snorts and says, "They're already gone and you can get the hell out too. Also if you see that useless bastard at the hospital tell him he's not welcome here anymore." The last is finished with a yell as Jessica slams the door shut on Giles. Giles shakes his head as he walks back to his car baffled at the way Xander's parent seems to be acting. Whilst he had suspected that Xander's home life was not ideal he never thought it could be as bad as his brief introduction to Jessica Harris made it appear.

Arriving at the hospital Giles is slightly surprised to see Buffy, Joyce, Willow and Willow's Friend Tara heading in as he gets out of his car. Quickly walking inside Giles is assaulted by Buff, Willow and Joyce. Buffy and Willow talking at once, " Giles what's going on" "What happened to Xander?" "Was he attacked by something?" "Is this because of what happened earlier?"

As the girls talk over each other without leaving a pause for Giles to answer Joyce calls out. "Quiet Girls. Let Rupert speak." Both Willow and Buffy look sheepishly as they realize that they had been talking over Giles instead of letting him answer questions.

As everyone looked to Giles he cleared his throat, "Urm, well yes. I received a call from Anya that something had happened to Xander. Although she was not clear on what and then she started yelling about cheating males and hung up." Even as Giles was speaking he realized mentioning Faith's name would not be beneficial and might distract both the girls from the issue at hand. "I suggest we ask the Doctors if they can tell us anything." Everyone nodded headed towards the nurse's desk. While normally you could not get any information out of hospital personnel, this was Sunnydale and even trying the staff of the hospital could not completely block out what happens nightly. This did have an added benefit as they were also marginally aware that the people before them would usually be bringing in people who had been victims of wild animal attacks or barbecue fork accidents.

Walking up to the desk nurse Nakahara, a woman who looked to be in her sixties smiled at them, "How can I help you?" the elderly nurse of asian descent asked.

Joyce smiled at her and said, "Please can you tells us where to find Xander Harris, he was brought in a short while ago and we really need to know if he was alright?"

Nurse Kelly as she thought of herself, quickly asked, "Was this a 'animal or gang attack' ?"

Giles and the girls quickly reassured her that as far as they knew this was not the case. Kelly nodded and picking up several papers looked at them, "Well so far I am afraid I can't tell you much. Xander is still being examined by our paramedics. I am sorry to say ever since Doctor Pierce passed away finding a Doctor to work the night shift has been difficult. But if you wait here I will see what I can find out. I know that it's not policy but I also know you two girls and that young man have brought in a lot of victims who might not have survived if you didn't get them here." Everyone nodded as Kelly finished speaking and Joyce looked both sad and very proud as she looked at her daughter and Willow.

As the nurse left to find out what she could for them everyone was quiet then Buffy looked around and asked, "Giles where is Anya? I thought you said she was with Xander but she is not here."

Taking of his glasses Giles began to polish them, "Yes well I really could not say where Anya is she began yelling about cheating males and hung up on me before I could find out everything that had happened. The only thing I know for sure is that Xander was having some kind of a nightmare shortly before whatever happened to him happened."

Both Buffy and Willow looked shocked and mumbled to each other "Cheating Males?" " No way. Xander would never let something like that happen after the last time." Joyce nodded as she listened to the girls. Tara hearing this but not familiar with the background spoke up. "Ma . someone should fffind Anya and try and learn more about what ."

Giles nodded partially relieved to be able to push off some of the possible problems, "Yes that is a capitol idea Tara. Although I believe it would be best if perhaps Joyce and myself seek to talk to Anya since I believe Buffy and Willow are not the closest to her and if she is truly angry at Xander she may not speak to them as they are his friends first and foremost." As Giles said this Buffy and Willow both had fleeting guilty looks go over their faces, and Joyce nodded. As Joyce opened her mouth the nurse returned.

Walking back into the waiting room Nurse Nakahara, did not look to be the bearer of glad tidings. As she approached the group she started to explain what the paramedics had found so far. " I am sorry but I'm afraid I do not have good news. When the ambulance arrived they found your friend moaning in pain and unresponsive to outside stimulus. Since he arrived here that has not changed, he is passing in and out of consciousness. Pain medication seems to have no effect on him. Currently if something does not change soon we may need to put him into a medically induced coma before irreputable harm comes to him because of whatever is happening." Hearing this everyone was shocked Willow started to cry and turned to Tara, her head buried on Tara's shoulder. Buffy looked angry and Joyce looked stunned.

Giles looked at the nurse and said,"Thank you for letting us know, is there anyway I could try to speak to Xander perhaps he might be able to tell me something that would help."

The nurse nodded. "You know I shouldn't do that but I will sneak you back to talk with him. I may not know everything that goes on in this town but as I know that everything here is not normal." Giles nodded his thanks as Nurse Nakahara lead him back to where Xander was lying in a bed.

As he walked in Xander's entire body was rigid as if he was riding a wave of pain. Giles felt his heart lock up as the boy he considered in many ways a son was obviously in so much pain. Sitting down beside his bed Giles began to speak, " Xander, I know you are in pain my boy, and we will do everything we can to help you, but I need to know anything you can tell me about what happened. Anya said you called out Faith's name before this started. What happened?"

As the wave of pain passed Xander panted and looked up at Giles. In a faltering voice he said," D..don't know." Even while trying to speak it was obvious that the boy was in a great deal of pain. "Ah. ah..Demon attacked."

Giles nodded trying to elicit more information, "A demon attacked you? It caused this?"

Xander, Struggling to respond, "Vision, demon attacked Faith." As he finished saying Faiths name a scream of pain tore through him as another wave of pain set in. As Giles watched Xander once again slipped into unconsciousness.

The medical staff quickly pushed Giles aside as the Nurse said to him. "It's getting worse. We are going to have to induce a coma or I don't think he will last the night. Do you know who can authorize that?"

Giles sat stunned for a moment, "His parents did not even care enough to come to the hospital with him. If nothing else I will take responsibility. Please do whatever is needed."

Seeing the look on the man's face Kelly nodded. "I think we can do that we will just need to lose some paperwork." She smiled kindly at Giles as she lead him back out to the others.

Everyone looked up as Giles re-entered the waiting room. The question they all wanted to ask was obvious on their faces. Giles spoke softly as they listened. "He is not doing well," Willow stifled a sob as Giles spoke."However he was able to tell me before he passed out that he had a vision of some kind."

Buffy broke in, "A vision? Giles Xander doesn't get visions he's just normal!" The last almost finished in a shout.

"Yes be that as it may he seems to be reacting to something. He said he saw a demon and in this vision it was attacking,"

Once again Giles was interrupted by Willow this time, "Attacking? Attacking who Xander. Oh my gosh why would a demon attack Xander. I mean he can't do anything. Wouldn't a demon want to attack Buffy. Because Buffy is the Slayer and Xander is Just Normal and why would the demon go after Xander.." As the Willow babel got up to speed Joyce broke in.

"Willow please let Rupert finish. Going off half cocked will not help anything." Will paused in mid babel nodding at Mrs. Summers, "Sorry it's just Xander" She said as if that explained it all. Joyce nodded and turned to Giles, "Please continue, Rupert."

Giles taking off his glasses and beginning to clean them said, "Yes well as I was saying Xander said that in his vision he saw a demon attacking," he paused know that neither Buffy nor Willow would react well to the next part. "Attacking Faith"

As expected neither girl's reaction was pleasant. Buffy started looking angry and Willow indignant at the mere mention of the other girl's name. "Faith why would a demon attack Faith? She's evil and bad, and a no good psycho!" Willow stated.

Buffy looked ready to add in her own views on Faith when Tara actually spoke first, "Who's Faith and what did she do that made you hate her so much Willow?" Willow looked startled as Tara asked why she hated Faith. She didn't hate Faith. Faith was just evil and skanky and bad and no good. As she struggled to respond, Giles broke in saving her from possibly embarrassing herself with Tara.

"Faith is a slayer and whilst she may have had problems the truth remains that many demons would be able to find uses for a slayer. Either for rituals or spell ingredients."

"Giles, did Xander say what this demon looked like?" Buffy asked.

"I am sorry Buffy but he was not able to tell me more before he passed out. I believe we need to get to the Magic Shop to start researching. However I am loath to leave Xander and Faith alone if Xander had a true vision then we must watch over them both." Giles answered.

Buffy nodded. "I can stay here tonight while you and Willow go start with the researching."

Joyce spoke up, " I will help as well." Hearing this Buffy opened her mouth to protest but Joyce cut her off. "No Buffy, I am helping Xander has done so much for you and he has always been such a wonderful fine young man. I am helping and that is final."

Hearing her mother's declaration Buffy realized that she was not going to win. Closing her mouth she nodded and then said, "If you like you can stay with me. I think we will have to go back and forth between the two to watch them both." Joyce nodded and smiled.

Meanwhile Nurse Nakahara had been listening the entire time. And finally spoke up, "Are you referring to the young lady Faith? I know Xander visits her regularly." Hearing this Willow, Buffy and even Giles looked surprised. Joyce just looked as if she would expect nothing less.

"Indeed we were referring to Faith Lehane, she and Xander where friends before her accident." Giles replied lying to the nurse.

"Oh I can see that. That young man comes at least once a week and sits with her. Usually reads to her and leaves her flowers." Nurse Nakahara replied. "He really seems to care about her. No one else has ever visited her." The last comment did cause feeling of uncomfortableness in all of them but really only Joyce was honest enough with herself to call it guilt. Because it could have just as easily been Buffy that was lying in a hospital. "While I can't put them in the same room I can move Xander down the hall from her that should help you be close to both of them."

Giles looked relieved at the nurses helpful suggestion. "Yes Quite, that would be very good." He replied. "How soon until Xander is moved up there, Nurse….?" He finished struggling for her name.

"Nurse Nakahara, but please call me nurse Kelly" She replied. "And it may be another hour before we can move him we want to ensure he is stable first." The older woman nodded at the group and then said, "If you wait here as soon as we get ready to move him I will let you know."

Joyce and Buffy nodded. "Thank you nurse Kelly, we'll just wait right here then," Joyce said.