Why do people, especially smart people, who find out that a secret has been kept from them immediately believe that the reason they weren't told was because the person with the secret didn't trust them? When in fact the main reason for most secrets being kept from people is that the more people that know the secret, the less likely it is to remain a secret. Trust only comes into play when making the decision about a person's need to know the secret comes about. And it is the person with the secret who has to weigh the factors about if a particular person needs to know. Granted, mistakes can be made whether the decision is to withhold or reveal the secret since the person making the decision is human, at least in our world, and prone to making errors.

"Official Janitor for the Mouth of Hell" - an odd way to describe Buffy's job, but an accurate one.

Most interesting. It seems to me that willy-nilly they will need to draw in Willow. Despite everything, they need her reserach ability.

Thanks for writing

I like the concept of allowing Xander to see what would have happened had he not been born. One issue that I have is the fact that it is about Xander observing what life would be like without him, yet there is very little written about his reactions to it. I understand that you are going through particular scenes before having him comment on it as a whole, but knowing the character of Xander I don't think he would be able to keep his mouth shut for very long watching these things happen.

In sheer volume, it would be possible for Xander to say a lot more. He might announce the identity of everybody who appears at each occasion, for example. Readers are free to imagine him doing that, but I don’t see any point in writing it into the story—if the text has told you it’s Buffy and Giles (or whoever it is), you don’t need narration from Xander repeating that on each occasion. Again, Xander might commentate Buffy’s battles—but again, if the description’s in the text you don’t need it repeated in a character’s narration (and my feeling is not that it would work better coming from a character’s mouth, but rather the reverse, although by all means tell me if you disagree). So I’m not clear on what sort of comments from Xander you’d expect to be worth having reported, beyond what’s already there. The official site statistics calculator (however that works) tells me that Xander’s accounted for about 5% of the character focus so far, which seems a reasonable proportion for somebody who is, after all, not actually doing anything in the story.

If you think Xander should be cutting in to interrupt scenes with his comments, remember that he’s not only older but dead, and death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down.

Bye bye Angel... That's gotta hurt. I do agree with Xander that it's ironic. Nicely done.

He really is being paranoid about Marcie. As a character in canon, she was ignored until she snapped. He really SHOULD remember that she was as much a victim of the Hellmouth's influence as anyone else, and if nothing else, be glad that Buffy preemptively prevented that from happening.

Anyway, good chapter, and it continues to be an interesting premise.

Her expression probably was not much different from when you said 'Kick his ass', Xander. Small changes, but they do mound up. Interesting. Willow and Amy might be drawn in more but with some of the attention she's getting you'd think that Marcie would become slightly more visible.

Thanks for writing

...And the team begins to come together. Buffy for the action, Willow for research (even if she doesn't know what she's researching - yet), Marcie for analysis, and Giles for information on the supernatural. I'm not sure what role Jesse will or can play, but it looks like Xander isn't going to be happy, because they're doing pretty well without him. In fact, the way they're going, they may not need Giles much longer.

It's intriguing how events from canon are developing, but slowly shifting away from the tightly intertwined plotline of canon at the same time. This is well done. *hits Tracking button*

Thanks. That's one of the effects I was hoping to achieve.

Looking forward toward the next update!

Can't see Xander's view on Marcie - personally, I understood where she's coming from. Maybe a bit defensive, seeing that Marcie did more in less time than he did in the same situation? Her idea of being introduced to Joyce right off the bat so that in the future she could be used as a gofer alone was simple, but brilliant.

As I said in an earlier review, I don't think that Xander is going to like what he sees during this version of 'It's a Wonderful Life'....

Next time out, Marcie gets a crossbow. Psycho or not, the girl has a real talent for this. In a different story, she'd be related to Bruce Wayne.

Ah Xander, you just believe that. Just continue to believe that...

Interesting that you brought Marcie into the loop. She was pretty much a throwaway character on the show, but she definitely has the potential to be more. I'm looking forward to seeing how AU scoobies work out.

As far as the planning I’ve done to date goes (and it covers more than I’ve actually written), it doesn’t include introducing any completely original characters. But it does include much expanded roles for some characters (naming no names) who played little part in the original (as well as much reduced roles for some other characters, also naming no names). So handling some of them is very nearly the same as developing original characters. The challenge is to make them at least minimally consistent with the little information we already have about them, to make them interesting to read about (obviously), and to avoid having them turn into simple duplicates of other characters. It would be possible, with Xander absent, to have another character (and I think everybody should be able to see that the obvious candidate for this would be Jesse) assume most of his role, playing much the same parts in the plots and exhibiting much the same qualities of character. I see that as a trap to be avoided. I don’t want to produce a substitute Xander, because I don’t see the point or the interest in that kind of story. And I also don’t want to produce a second Willow--or a second Cordelia, or a second Oz, or ... well, you get the idea.

So that’s the intention. The results remain to be seen.

Very interesting way of looking at a big "what if". Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Suspect the "future" that Xander is being prepared for is as an angel 2nd class (after all, he would be new to the job, and that this is why he is being shown this by Clarence.