Title: You Can’t Go Home Again
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: I don’t own Buffy or Profiler, and I don’t claim to. No copyright infringement is intended so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway. Also, let me say that I know absolutely nothing about the Wicca religion. Everything in this story has either come from things I’ve observed on Buffy and other TV shows, or from my own mind (Yes, that’s right, I just made it up. Deal with it). No offense is intended.
Summary: Xander’s frustration about being the Zeppo finally comes to a head mid season 4, so he takes off intent on proving himself to those he feels don’t believe in him. He comes to some realizations on his own, and he makes some new friends in the FBI. But a series of murders in Sunnydale forces Xander to come home sooner then he would have liked. Can he use his newfound wisdom to patch things up with his old friends while keeping the secret truth about vampires from his new friends, all while trying to catch a killer?
(BtVS/Profiler, W/X)

December 17, 1999

“What!”

“It’s just…I mean, I don’t really think that we’re right for each other.”

“You’re breaking up with me! How can you do this!” She shot up from her seat on the couch.

“Anya, please calm down. Let me try and explain.”

“Oh, you don’t need to explain. You’re just a typical man, you just used me for physical gratification. I guess I should have known this was coming. Ooh, you are so lucky I don’t have my powers anymore…”

“Anya please, it isn’t anything like that. Can I please try and explain.” She sat back down, but she wouldn’t look at him. “When we went to the prom together, I’ll be honest, it was because no one else would go with me. I mean, former vengeance demon with a grudge against men wouldn’t have been my first choice for a date. But it turned out good. Great actually, I had a wonderful time that evening. For the first time in a long time I felt normal again. I was finally starting to let go of all the animosity I had towards Cordeila, but I was starting to question myself. I realized that Cordy and I weren’t meant to be, and I started wondering if I was meant to be with anyone. That night, we talked and danced, and I had fun for the first time in a long time, apart from all the stories of torture and mutilation of adulterous men throughout the ages of course.”

She smiled a little bit at that. “I was just trying to make conversation,” she mumbled.

Xander smiled back. “You were there for me at a time when I really needed someone. And then, before the Ascension when you came back for me, I was really touched. I know it might not have seemed like it at the time, but I knew you were still new to humanity. I knew you had all these feelings you were trying to sort out. I’ll admit, there was a part of me that was very tempted by your offer, but I just couldn’t leave my friends. And then you came back, and all of this just kind of happened. So fast that it took me by surprise. Suddenly, I had somebody that cared about me, and I cared about them too. It was new to both of us. Anya, I just think that we fell together for the wrong reasons. I know that you care about me, but these are the first feelings of humanity you’ve had for eleven hundred years. It’s easy to let yourself be carried away by them. Deep down, I don’t think you’re in love with me. And I love you, but I’m not in love with you. I guess in a way you were right. I was being a typical male. I was in an intimate relationship for the first time in my life, and I let myself get carried away by those feelings too. But it isn’t fair to either of us. I’m sorry Anya.”

Xander’s voice was clearly pained. And where Anya’s first instinct had been anger, she could hear the torment in his voice. She reached up and wiped a tear from her eye. She turned back to look at him again, and for the last time she gazed deeply into his chocolate brown eyes. “Goodbye Xander,” she said softly. She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. Then she stood, and ascended the stairs out of the basement.

Xander reached up and wiped a tear from his own eye. It was the right thing to do, he knew that, but it still hurt. He did care for Anya, but he wasn’t being fair to her. His heart did, and always would truly belong to someone else. “Goodbye Anya.”

*

Buffy was getting ready to make her second sweep of the campus when she heard a rustling behind her. She clutched Mr. Pointy firmly and spun around expecting an attack. What she saw instead was Xander, backpedaling and tripping over his own feet when he saw the slayer in battle mode.

“Buffy, it’s me!” he said as he hit the ground.

“Jesus, Xander! You scared the crap out of me, I could have killed you!”

“Sorry Buff,” he said returning to his feet again.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Xander looked slightly hurt by the question, but he shrugged it off. “I just thought I’d drop by. You know, help you out on patrol or something,” he said in his normal lighthearted voice.

Buffy smiled like it was a joke. “Well, thanks anyway Xander, but I think I’ll be okay.”

This time Xander didn’t even try to hide his hurt expression, but Buffy didn’t notice anyway. “Do you mind if I tag along anyway?” he asked.

“I guess so,” she said turning her back on him. “Just try and stay out of trouble, okay?”

Xander followed behind her as she started walking again. “Sure,” he said softly. They walked a while in silence, it was a quiet night. Buffy sighed a few times, and Xander took it as boredom. “Slow night,” he said.

“Yeah,” she answered. “It’s been like this a lot lately.”

More silence. “Anya and I decided to break it off,” Xander said. He purposefully didn’t mention who broke it off with who, he was curious to see what Buffy would say.

“Well, I hate to say I told you so…”

“Then don’t,” Xander interrupted.

She glanced at him oddly. “She dumped you, huh?”

Xander smiled an ironic smile. He had expected this reaction. “Why do you say that?” he asked with seriousness.

“Well, it’s just that…I mean…”

“You mean that I couldn’t have possibly broken it off, because as long as I’m gettin’ some on a regular basis, I don’t care about the quality of the relationship. Same old Xander, thinking with his dick and not his brain. Is that about the size of it?” Buffy just stared at him. “Is it that inconceivable that I could have matured some over the last three years?” Silence. “On second thought, don’t answer that.”

“I’m…I’m sorry Xander,” Buffy finally stumbled out. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I know Buffy,” Xander said softer. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I guess I’ve just been a little edgy lately.” The walked a little further in silence. “It’s just that…well, I realized that we weren’t really right for each other. I mean, I do care about her. I just think that maybe we got together for the wrong reasons. She took it pretty well actually. I think she understood.”

“So you were the one to break things off?”

“Yeah,” he answered simply.

“So, what were the wrong reasons?”

“Hmm?”

“You said you got together for the wrong reasons, what were they?”

Xander was about to answer when he turned to Buffy instead. “Do you really want to know?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Well, we were both at a kind of lonely time in our lives. I think we just relished the intimacy. But it never really felt right, at least not to me. She wasn’t…” he trailed off.

“She wasn’t what?”

“She wasn’t the one,” he answered in a whisper. “The one person for which the world ceases to exist when you’re with them.” He paused. “True love.”

“I don’t think I believe in true love anymore,” Buffy said.

“Oh, but you have to Buff. It might not always be easy, but it’s always true. And you always know it when you find it.” Xander paused again. “Sometimes it feels like it would have been easier if you hadn’t. That way you don’t know what you’re missing when it’s gone.”

“I think I understand.”

“I thought you might,” Xander said.

“You’re talking about Cordelia.”

Xander frowned. “Or you might not,” he said finishing his previous thought.

Buffy was about to ask him what he meant, when she was distracted by a vampire jumping out right in front of them. Xander took a step back, letting Buffy do her thing. But the vampire got the jump on her. It backhanded her across the face before she could even pull out her stake. She recovered quickly enough. She swept his legs from under him and flipped backwards onto her feet to get some distance between them. The vampire scrambled to his feet. He growled fiercely, and saliva dripped from his mouth. “Ick, get a towel,” the slayer quipped as she launched her next assault. What she didn’t see was the second vampire behind her. He grabbed her shoulder and threw her to the ground. Soon she had two vamps on top of her, and she was fighting them both for control. A second later, the second vamp wasn’t on top of her anymore, and the other one was looking to see what had happened. That was all the opening Buffy needed to land a few vicious punches to her opponent. She managed to get out form underneath him. She turned again and delivered a fierce kick to his midsection. Then she spun around and plunged her stake into his chest before he could recover. He turned to ash and Buffy let out a sigh of relief. She turned to see what had happened to the second vampire, and saw him grappling with Xander on the sidewalk. “Xander!” she yelled as she ran over to him. She kicked the vampire in the face and it flew off of him. She jumped on top of it and staked it in a second, leaving nothing but dust.

“Thanks Buff,” Xander said, trying to catch his breath.

“Damn it Xander! I told you to stay back, you could have gotten killed!”

Xander was a bit taken aback, but he responded immediately. “And so could you! What, would you rather I hadn’t tackled him and let them both kill you?”

“I could have handled it!” she yelled back.

Xander stayed silent for a moment. “Fine,” he said it just above a whisper. He turned around and started to head off. “I’ll see you later Buff,” he said.

Buffy could hear the hurt in his voice, but she didn’t understand. She was just trying to protect him. ‘But that’s all he was trying to do too,’ a voice inside her said. ‘Protect you. And you yelled at him. You didn’t even say thank you.’ Buffy shrugged of her conscience’s voice, even though she knew it was right. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” she said to herself as she started to head back to her dorm. “There’s always tomorrow.”

*

Xander was walking home, his hands tucked deeply into his pockets, when he heard a twig snap behind him. He slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets. He had a stake up his sleeve, his wrist bent back and the point of the stake resting in his palm. He could hear footsteps now against the pavement behind him. He whirled around and saw a vampire with his game face on, growling at him. “Oh my god! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll give you whatever you want!” Xander crouched down on the sidewalk, rolling up into a fetal ball, but his feet were still on the pavement. He watched from between his crossed arms as the vampire approached slowly, a wicked grin on his hideous face. Fear was like an aphrodisiac to vampires, Xander knew that. Finally, when the vampire was close enough, he reached down and grabbed Xander’s head forcefully and pulled it up from where it rested on his crossed arms. At that exact moment, Xander lunged forward and plunged his stake into the heart of the unsuspecting bloodsucker. The vampire had a half a second before he was dust. He looked at Xander in utter shock. Xander just smiled as he exploded into ash. “They fall for it every time,” he said to himself as he replaced his stake up his sleeve. He turned back on his path, and continued walking.

*

Xander walked into the Bronze and scanned the crowd. As usual, things were hopping. A band played on stage and the dance floor was packed with teenagers dancing and having a good time. Xander was surprised when he spotted Willow seated alone on the couch closest to the stage. It was their usual spot, one they had taken up so she could watch Oz when he played. In fact, the way she looked at the stage almost reminded Xander of those days. The only difference was that the once cheerful smile of a happy girlfriend had been replaced with the forlorn gaze of a woman with a broken heart. Just seeing her like this made Xander feel as though someone had ripped out his own heart and stomped on it, it killed him. He approached the couch. “Hey Willow,” he said just loud enough to be heard over the music. “I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

She looked up. “Oh, hey Xander,” she said distantly. He could tell that her thoughts were a million miles away, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out on what, and on whom they were centered. Xander just sat down next to his best friend in silence. Her gaze wandered up to the stage again. Xander looked to see if he knew the band, he didn’t.

He waited until the music ended and the room was a bit quieter before he spoke. “So, Willow, how’s college life treating you?”

“Hmm?” she looked back at him. “Oh, okay I guess.”

They were both silent again, until Xander spoke. “Actually I’m glad I ran into you tonight, I wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“I want to apologize for the way I’ve been acting recently. I mean, you’re going through this time in your life, and you need your friends around you. I haven’t exactly been very supportive lately.” He paused. “I haven’t been a very good friend.”

“Oh, Xander. It’s not your fault. You have your own life to live, you don’t have to apologize for that.”

“But I do Wills. And I don’t just mean since your breakup with Oz. We haven’t been the same for a while. I mean, we used to be best friends. We used to hang out all the time, have fun. We used to call each other every night and just talk for hours.” He paused. “I miss that Will.”

“That happens Xander. We grew up, other people came into our lives. That’s just how things go.”

Xander knew that she didn’t really understand what he was trying to say. Yes, they did grow apart. And yes, maybe that was the way most childhood friendships went. But what he was trying to say was that he didn’t want that to happen to them. Willow was his best friend, and no matter how many other people entered his life, she always would be. He had hoped that she felt the same, but he was becoming doubtful. “I guess so,” he mumbled. “But you’re still my best friend Wills. I don’t think that will ever change.”

“I know, and you’re my friend too.” She paused for a moment. “Maybe neither one of us have been very good friends to each other recently. We’ve been through a lot lately, it’ll get better.”

“Sure,” Xander said softly, but his tone indicated that he was anything but. It was true, they had been through a lot recently, but they’d been through a lot in the last three and a half years too, that didn’t mean anything. They were always still friends. Things like that were supposed to make the bonds of friendship stronger, not push people further apart. Xander could feel it ever since he had returned from his little road trip during the summer. They were all growing up, but they were leaving him behind. He couldn’t be the same old Xander and still remain in their lives. But at the same time, he couldn’t change, because they couldn’t accept that he could be anything other than what he was. The goofball, the comic relief. The Zeppo. It wasn’t anything he felt he could blame them for though. It wasn’t their fault.

*

Xander walked home in silence that night. He was almost hoping for a vampire to jump out, or a car to swerve and hit a tree, or a thunderstorm to start and drench him in a downpour. Anything so that he wouldn’t have to be alone with his thoughts. But he wasn’t so lucky. What the hell was he doing here? They didn’t need him here. Buffy didn’t need him, he was just in the way. Willow didn’t need him, she had grown past him. She had Buffy now to do the best friend thing. And even though he could hold his own, he wasn’t exactly impressing anyone with his mad slaying skills. Almost everyday now one of his parents would say something. What are you going to do with your life? Are you going to live in the basement and work odd jobs forever? They were right. He didn’t have anything keeping him here. His parents had saved some money for him, in hopes of college. But since he didn’t get in anywhere, they were willing to give it to him to help him start his life, if he’d only make a decision as to what he wanted to do. By the time Xander reached his house that night, he had made a decision. If he wanted to change his life, then he had to act. Surprisingly, the preparations weren’t that many. He talked to his parents, packed a few things into his car, and by the next afternoon, Sunnydale was just a distant memory. He thought about going to his friends first, to tell them he was leaving. But he was too afraid that they’d talk him out of it, that he’d loose his nerve and change his mind. He couldn’t afford for that to happen. This was his chance to prove to them, to prove to everyone that he could be something more. He couldn’t be the Zeppo forever. Even if they didn’t believe in him, he believed in himself. And that was all he needed.

*

Except from the journal of AleXander LaVelle Harris
August 2, 2005

It’s been almost six years since I left Sunnydale, and my life is very different. I’ll admit, at first my decision to leave was a bit of a hasty one, but I still believe it was the right one. In the beginning, I was still reeling from all the emotional problems that had caused me to leave in the first place, so I wasn’t exactly on the right track. I wandered around a bit, working at jobs I hated and barely making enough money to afford food and rent. I considered going back home, but I realized something. Everyone back home was already expecting me to fail. They thought that poor, immature Xander would go out into the real world, see how hard it was, and come home with his tail between his legs. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to prove them wrong. I’d faced vampires and demons alike, I could handle this. So I sat down and started asking myself some hard questions. What do I want to do with my life? What am I passionate about? What are my goals? What do I have to do to achieve those goals?

So at the tender age of nineteen, I took all the money I had left and I used it to move clear across the country. All the way to Virginia. Quantico, Virginia to be precise. Yes, that’s right, I joined the FBI. I know that it sounds kind of odd, but it seemed perfect for me. When I asked myself what I want to do with my life, what am I passionate about, I kept coming back to one thing. I want to help people. I know from first hand experience that life can suck beyond the telling of it, and if there’s one thing I missed about living in Sunnydale, it was making a difference. Even if it was just a small difference. So, I took a job to support myself while I attended the FBI Academy, and I worked my ass off. Between my job and the Academy, I had just enough time left in the day to pass out from exhaustion, and then drag my ass out of bed a scant six hours later to do it all over again. Needless to say during that time in my life, I wasn’t a very pleasant person, but I was determined. I was determined not to fail. If I ever did decide to go home again, I wanted it to be as a success. To show everyone what I could do.

Now, the best part was that it wasn’t long before I started working for the Bureau and getting paid for it, even though my training was far from over. At the Academy, I majored in Weapons and Tactics, putting all that soldier boy experience to good use. I thought that between that, and the small amount of training I did with Buffy, it would be a breeze. Man, was I ever wrong. But I stuck to it, and when it was all said and done, I came out a new man. How new, well let’s just say I know sixteen different ways to kill a man with a ballpoint pen. Okay, I’m just kidding about that. What I really learned was how to fight and how to strategize, along with extensive firearms training. Once I entered the field though, I transferred to the Behavioral Sciences Unit. I thought that since I spent so much time fighting demons in high school, I should learn a thing or two about what makes the human mind tick. That’s where I met Rachel Burke; she was the instructor for the orientation class set up for new agents. From her I learned more about the human mind then I thought possible. She had quite a gift of insight. We ended up becoming friends. In fact she was my first real friend since Sunnydale. Unfortunately however, our time together was short. It wasn’t long after I met her that she was assigned to the Violent Crimes Task Force in order to solve the kidnapping of Dr. Samantha Waters. And after Dr. Waters was recovered and the infamous serial killer ‘Jack of All Trades’ was killed, Rachel stayed on as the team’s profiler. I remained in the Behavioral Sciences Unit for a while after that, working cases and keeping my skills sharp. But even though I was finally starting to feel good about myself and the life I had made, I felt like there was something missing.

It was at that point that I realized I hadn’t seen a vampire or a demon in years. I hadn’t even thought about it. It was like, as soon as I entered the real world, I totally forgot. I became one of those people I used to be so angry about for not seeing the truth when it was right in front of them. It was about this time when I saw a story in the newspaper about a serial killer down in Miami. I had heard that the VCTF was on the case, so I decided to check it out. Well, after reading the article, my curiosity was definitely peaked. It seemed that the press was blaming the crimes on a satanic cult or something, because of some odd markings found near the bodies. So I started looking into the actual evidence and reports over the FBI’s computer network, and the deeper I got into it, the surer I was that the person they were looking for was not a person at all. The bodies were so badly mangled that it had been originally thought to be an animal attack, and I managed to trace the markings to an ancient text that spoke of a prophecy of a demon, reeking havoc throughout one major city at a time, brutally committing murders. I knew that this demon wouldn’t be caught by the FBI through conventional means, and I knew that I was the only that could do anything about it. So I caught a plane to Miami.

Once there I realized that I wouldn’t be able to conduct an investigation and track this demon down without the VCTF noticing, but I tried anyway. Sooner or later, our paths crossed and I had to explain to the head of the VCTF, Agent Bailey Malone, what I was doing there. I knew I couldn’t tell him the truth, he would think I was crazy and my short career in the FBI would be over. So I told him an amended version of the truth. Instead of telling him that this was a demon fulfilling a prophecy, I told him that it was a man who thought he was a demon fulfilling a prophecy. From that standpoint, all of my evidence was still valid, and it also appeared to match the profile that Rachel had created. The truth is, if it hadn’t been for her vouching for me in front of Bailey, I probably would have been disciplined for not following procedures and on the next plane back to DC. Using Rachel’s profile and my research, we ended up one step ahead of the demon. We got to him before he got to his next victim. Of course, he wouldn’t be taken alive, and of course, he didn’t reveal himself as a demon, but I knew the truth.

The team was so impressed with my work, and with Rachel’s recommendation, that I became assigned to the VCTF full time, and that’s where I am today, over a year later. I feel like I’ve finally found my place now. Everyone on this team has a job, a specialty. Most of the time, my more conventional skills are the ones that are called upon, my skills with weapons and tactics. Whenever the shit hits the fan, I’m usually there on the front line with a SWAT team coordinating the efforts. But my skills as ‘Research Boy’ have also come in handy more than once, especially when it comes to the occult. The fact is that ninety percent of the time, it’s an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, psychotic human being that we’re after. But that other ten percent, those were the cases they weren’t clearing before I showed up. Those were the vampires, the werewolves, the demons, and the other assorted things that go bump in the night. The rest of the team still doesn’t know anything about the truth though. It’s like a natural reflex, the way their minds just won’t accept things unless the proof is right in front of them, and even then, they usually don’t see it. Sometimes I wish I was ignorant too, but that’s the price you pay for growing up on the Hellmouth. The truth is, I’m an asset to this team because of my knowledge and because of the experiences I’ve had in Sunnydale. So I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, all in all, not a bad life. I have good friends, a job I love and the chance to help people everyday. So, why haven’t I gone back to Sunnydale? Why haven’t I even told anyone there where I am or what I do now? I guess I’m afraid. Even though I haven’t seen any of them for six years, they’re still the people I care about. The people whose opinions I care about too. The fact is, I ran away from that life when things got too tough, and as much as I wish they would understand, I don’t think they will. Maybe someday I’ll have my chance to try and explain it all to them. I’ve come to a few realizations in the past few years, especially when it comes to Willow. She was my best friend, and what hurts me the most is to think that I left at a time when she needed me the most. But, in my mind, I was already losing her. We were growing apart everyday. We used to be each other’s everything, but then Buffy came into our lives and things got much more complicated. I never realized how much Willow meant to me until she wasn’t in my life anymore. More than anything I want the opportunity to make it up to her for all the mistakes I made, but again the fear comes in. Not the fear of seeing her, but the fear that she won’t want to see me. And maybe that’s why I don’t go back, because I’m afraid of being rejected again. Not by the best friend that I left behind, by the woman she is now. The woman I’ve come to realize I love. But hopefully, this is something I won’t have to worry about it for a while yet.

*

Xander sat in his office, trying to finish up some paperwork before the morning briefing when he heard a knock on his door. He looked up to see Bailey Malone standing in the doorway. “Xander,” He said.

Xander took the half a piece of doughnut out of his mouth before he answered. “Hey Bailey, yeah I know, briefing in ten minutes. I just wanted to finish up these reports. If I had to pick one thing about this job that I hated it would be the paperwork.”

“I know what you mean,” Bailey said as he stepped closer. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about before the meeting.”

“Oh?” Xander asked. He motioned for Bailey to sit as he pushed his papers aside to give his boss his undivided attention. “What’s up?”

“Well, I remembered something you once told me about your home town. How you weren’t exactly in a hurry to get back there.”

Xander looked slightly confused. He was sure he must have mentioned something in passing, but he didn’t know what that had to do with anything. “I suppose that’s true,” Xander said. “I kind of left a lot of people behind under some…well, unfriendly circumstances. Why do you ask?”

“What was the name of that town again?” Bailey asked.

“Sunnydale, California,” Xander answered, not liking where the conversation was heading. “Why?”

“I’m sorry Xander, but it would appear that our most recent case…”

“Oh no,” Xander said cutting him off. He hung his head a little. “I knew this would happen someday.”

“Xander, I’ll understand if you’d rather not go. If you’d like, you could stay in Atlanta…”

“No,” Xander said, cutting him off again. “I have a responsibility to the Bureau, and I’ve sworn to never let my personal life interfere with that. I always knew I’d go back someday, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. You can count on me Bailey.”

Bailey smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that, because it appears as though this case is right up you’re alley. We’re going to need you on this one.” Bailey nodded to him one last time, then left his office to head down to the main conference table.

“I suspected as much,” Xander said to himself. Somehow, he always knew that he’d end up back in Sunnydale on business. Buffy couldn’t take care of everything that went bump in the night, there was bound to be some spill over. In fact, he was surprised that it took the VCTF this long to go to Sunnydale. Xander just shook his head, grabbed the last of his doughnut and headed out off his office and to the briefing.

*

“Okay, this is what we know so far,” Bailey started as the members of the team sat around the main conference table. “There have been three murders in the small town of Sunnydale, California over the last two weeks.”

“Three?” John Grant asked. “And we’re just getting the call now?”

“That’s probably the oddest part,” Bailey said. “The only reason we got the call at all was because an agent from the Los Angeles field office happened to run across the story in a local paper. The local police department hasn’t contacted any outside agency, even though they seem a bit overwhelmed.

“Well, the Sunnydale PD always was a little inept,” Xander said. He looked up to see the rest of the group looking at him. “Hometown,” he said.

“Anyway,” Bailey continued. “Each victim was attacked and killed with a single stab wound through the heart.” He turned to look at the big scream as the crime scene photos flashed up. “They all had defensive wounds, but it appears like the first one put up the most struggle. The other two seem to have been attacked from behind.”

“So the killer is new at this,” Rachel said. “He’s learning as he goes.”

Xander leaned forward with a slightly confused look on his face. “George, can you put the stats up on the first vic?” he asked.

“Sure thing,” George answered from his usual seat behind the computer. He typed in a few commands and the image on the large screen at the head of the table changed to that of a recent photo of the victim beside her personal information.

Xander slipped on a pair of glasses as he looked up. “She’s 5’4” and about a hundred pounds soaking wet,” Xander said reading from the screen. “Even if she saw the attack coming, how much of a struggle could she have put up?”

“So, what? We’re looking for a small man?” John asked.

“Or a woman,” Rachel said. “What else do we know?”

“Well, all three victims are women, early to mid twenties. They’re physical appearances don’t appear to follow any pattern. Different hair colors, eye colors, build,” Bailey said.

“What about the knife?” Rachel asked.

“Grace?” Bailey asked, turning to the woman to his right.

“Well, the autopsy reports aren’t very thorough. It would appear that the Sunnydale Coroner’s Office is as inept as the Police Department. All I can tell you is that the blade is triangular, about six inches long. The second two victims both received blows to the backs of their heads, and there are other wounds that would indicate a slight struggle, but only a single stab wound, directly through the heart.”

Xander hemmed and hawed a little before he asked his next question, but he felt he had to. “Are you sure it was a knife Grace, I mean you said the reports weren’t very thorough. Could it have been say, a wooden stake.”

They all looked at him oddly, but Grace answered. “No, they were definitely knife wounds. I could tell as much myself from the autopsy photos. A stake would be more rounded, it would leave a bigger wound if it were thrust in that far.” Xander nodded.

“There’s more,” Bailey said. “Near each victim, a symbol was found drawn with chalk. Twice on the street, and once on the side of a building.” Xander looked up as the screen to see three images of the symbol. It was a circle with a pentagram drawn inside of it. Throughout the symbol were also drawn many smaller symbols, each within one of the chambers created by the star shape. Xander leaned in to look closer. “Do you recognize it Xander?” Bailey asked.

“It’s a Wiccan circle,” he said. “They’re used for many things in the Wicca religion, everything from protection spells to curses. I’d have to look into the meanings of all the smaller symbols to get the particular meaning of this circle, but that shouldn’t be too hard.”

Bailey nodded. “What do you think Rachel?” he asked, turning to her.

“Well, I’d say the killer is a woman, white, 20 to 30. She has a strong belief in the occult, she may even believe herself to be a witch. She seems…hesitant about these murders. Look at the smaller cuts near the mortal wound. If I’m not mistaken those are hesitation wounds. Almost like she doesn’t want to kill them, but she feels she has to. I’d say that on the outside she would appear quite ordinary, shy and meek. She has a strong belief system though, and she wouldn’t lie about her beliefs. She’s willing to kill for it, she wouldn’t hide who she is.”

“A witch and proud of it,” John said. “Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

Xander laughed out loud. “I hate to break it to you John, but she just described half the population of Sunnydale. It ain’t exactly Mayberry.”

“Once we discover what that symbol means, it might add something to the profile,” Rachel added.

“I’m on it,” Xander said.

“Good,” Bailey said. “Meanwhile, Grace I want you to keep studying those autopsy reports until we get there and you can conduct your own. George, I want you to keep searching for a way to link these victims. Mutual places of business, friends, family…”

“Don’t forget cults, covens and cadres,” Xander added.

“Right,” Bailey said. “If the killer has an occult connection then the victims may too.”

“Got it,” George answered.

“All right people, the plane leaves in an hour. Let’s get cracking.”




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