Xander looked up, and saw a demon with a very pissed-off look in its eyes and several bruises on its face.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where he had seen it before; it was the demon he'd run over, saving Faith the vampire Slayer earlier that night. And now, it was a mere five feet in front of him.

"Ah, crap. Listen, about earlier, you're still not angry about that – are you? Can't we just let bygones be bygones here?"

The demon lunged at Xander. He just barely sidestepped it.

"Guess not..."

Seeing a clear path to the exit, Xander made a mad dash for the door. Just before he made it though, the demon caught up to him. It pulled him around and slashed at his forehead, and then punched him in the face.

The blow was so forceful, it knocked him to the ground. Xander could barely see, as blood from the gash on his forehead dripped into his eyes. He didn't even know where the demon was, much less where he could run.

Fortunately for him, he didn't have to.

Xander heard something coming toward him. The demon suddenly cried out in pain, and then all he heard was something hitting the ground.

The boy managed to wipe enough of the blood away, to see something large and deadly sticking out of the demon's torso.

"Xander!"

It was Buffy Summers, the other Slayer, about 20 feet down the hall. She ran to him, and looked him over. Xander was hurt; his face was in bad shape. The blonde girl pulled a cloth out of her pocket, and tried to stop the bleeding from his forehead.

"Buffy? Where? How did you...?" Needless to say, with the battle going on in the library, he'd never expected anyone to find him until it was too late.

"I heard something, and when I came out I saw that thing giving you a dead body makeover. Let's get you to Giles. Can you walk?"

"I think so...just..." Xander got up, and walked into a locker. He still couldn't see very well. "Ouch!"

Buffy grabbed Xander by the hand. "C'mon, lemme help you."

***

Twenty minutes later in the charred war zone that was the remains of the library, Giles was bandaging Xander's forehead. Having washed out the blood in his eyes, the teenager saw what a pounding his fellow Scoobies had taken.

Shelves and books were thrown about all over the place. Everyone looked ragged; Willow Rosenberg, Xander's oldest friend, was slumped in a chair, looking like she was about to pass out from exhaustion.

Faith and Angel, the souled vamp who was technically a good guy, were in the corner. Their clothes were torn, and stained with blood.

Buffy was pacing back and forth behind Rupert Giles, her former Watcher, with a look of half-worry and half-anger at Xander.

Thankfully, the massive cut was only superficial and the bleeding soon stopped. Giles was finishing with the ad hoc medical treatment on Xander when he said, "There. How's that?"

"It's OK. Thanks, G-man. Well, with this cut I guess I can forget about my modeling aspirations, huh?"

The joke didn't help. The others were trying to figure why in God's name Xander was being this stupid. Buffy piped up first, exploding at the poor Zeppo.

"God, what were you thinking? Do you have any idea how lucky you were tonight?"

Xander instantly got defensive. "Wait a sec. Buffy, you're not gonna believe this but..." he never got to finish, as Buffy interrupted.

"No. No wisecracks. No excuses. No nothing! You nearly got yourself killed! We told you how many times to not get involved," Buffy threw her arms up in the air, "but noooo, you had to show up!"

What Buffy said next shocked Xander to the core.

"Xander, you can't keep doing this. If you got seriously hurt, or worse yet killed...look, you're just not cut out for this. I think you should stop helping us."

Giles felt it necessary to add his opinion; "I have to agree with Buffy on this, uh, perhaps it's for the best..."

Saying Xander was stunned was an understatement. After a taking a few seconds to let it sink in, the shocked expression on his face turned into an angry one.

"So that's it? You're kicking me out of the group permanently?!"

Willow got up from her chair and tried to console him, "Xander, we just don't want you getting hurt..."

It didn't work.

They have got to be kidding! If it wasn't for me, that bomb would've killed everyone in here – and they won't even listen to my side of the story? What, do they think I'm completely useless or something? I can't believe this!