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“What? No! I can’t be!”

“Believe me, you can.”

“But…no. I mean…my dad…”

“Isn’t your real father.”

“But, mom…”

“Isn’t your real mother.”

“How is that poss-…she…they would have told me.”

“They aren’t entirely aware of it,” Giles said gently, sensing a need for softness and tact. His charge was about to have a breakdown if he wasn’t careful. And honestly, he wouldn’t have blamed her if she did completely shatter.

“So you’re saying…what exactly?”

“I’m saying that you’re in an incredible amount of danger right now,” Giles said softly.

Buffy swallowed hard, somehow managing to keep her tears at bay.

“Why?”

“Because, he’s risen again,” Giles said. “For years, he had no form. He could only work through emissaries to keep him…well, alive for lack of a better word. But, he’s been restored to full health. And it is believed that he will begin searching for his daughter.”

“Will he…try to kill me?” she asked. She couldn’t believe that she was actually petrified of the idea. Here she was, the Slayer…except that wasn’t really true was it?

Giles shook his head. “No. He won’t.”

Buffy narrowed her eyes. She hated when she wasn’t being told the full story.

“You said I was in danger,” she said.

“You are. But not of being killed by him. He…surprisingly enough, by all accounts, he was uh…rather fond of you,” Giles said.

“So what? He’d want me to…take over where he left off? Killing people?” Buffy asked, completely sickened by the thought of it.

Giles nodded, grateful that he hadn’t had to spell that part out to her. It was difficult enough to try and explain this to her to make her understand.

“But…I don’t…I mean, I couldn’t…that’s…it’s horrible,” Buffy said.

“It is horrible. Which is why you were raised without knowing any of that life at all. There were people at the Ministry…when Voldemort was defeated so many years ago…there was talk of…well, of…”

“Killing me,” Buffy finished quietly.

“Rather,” Giles said. “But…no one could quite bring themselves to do it. It was decided that you would be sent to a family who wanted a baby but couldn’t have any. To be raised as a normal child. Without knowledge of magicks or anything like that.”

“But…why tell me that I’m a Slayer?” she asked. “Why train me to fight if you didn’t want me to know anything about that world?”

“We needed to make sure that you would stay good. That you would fight for the forces of light rather than the darkness. The Ministry of Magic is rather closely connected with the Watcher’s Council, and…someone thought of the idea of training you as Slayers are trained. Merrick was sent to you to begin your training.”

“And he died because of it,” Buffy said bitterly.

Giles nodded sadly. He knew that the death of Buffy’s first Watcher had been hard on her.

“But…the vampires…they all think that I’m the Slayer,” Buffy said. “Evil tends to follow me around.”

“It follows you because of your lineage. And the vampires call you the Slayer because, for all intents and purposes…you are one.”

“But you just said-”

“I know what I said. But you believe yourself to be the Slayer. You have the heart, the courage of one…but you were never called,” Giles said.

Buffy swallowed hard, trying to understand what Giles was saying. She was the daughter of a vicious wizard who had killed thousands of people purely because they weren’t magickal. And now her father wanted her to be under his wing. There was something seriously disturbing about that.

“But…Kendra…”

“Was called about two weeks after your uh…encounter with the Master. The Slayer, a girl named Lydia Montano was killed, which activated Kendra as the Slayer,” Giles explained. “The timing was uh…rather coincidental.”

“So…why tell me now? Why tell me at all?”

“Because he’s risen again. Because you need to be somewhere safe,” he explained.

“Safe?”

He nodded. “I hardly think the hellmouth constitutes as safe, do you?”

Buffy shook her head. She had a sudden thought.

“If I’m not really the Slayer…why have me posted on the hellmouth?”

“Because…when the Council realised that you had more strength and skill than most Slayers have, they realised they could use your ability to their own advantage,” Giles explained.

“So why did they wait until I was fifteen to start my training? Why not raise me with it, like Kendra was?” Buffy asked.

“Honestly…because no one thought of it until you were about twelve,” he replied. He winced, realising there was more that he had yet to tell her.

“What?” she asked, seeing the pained look on his face.

“Well…you were uh…called when you were fifteen yes?” Giles asked.

“March 3rd, 1996,” she replied. She had never been able to forget that date.

“Well…in all honesty…you weren’t fifteen.”

“Again I say…huh?”

“Well…you’re not…you’re not exactly seventeen,” Giles said.

“When you say not exactly…what exactly do you mean?” she asked.

“Well uh…a lot of people wanted you…”

“Dead,” Buffy finished calmly.

“Uh…yes. And…the Ministry thought it would be prudent to change your age so that…so that no one would be suspicious.”

“So how old am I then?”

“About eighteen months younger than you think you are,” he replied.

“Eighteen months?” Buffy repeated. “Giles, that’s like a year and a half!”

Giles nodded and watched his Slayer take it all in. He mentally chastised himself. She wasn’t his Slayer. For he wasn’t a Watcher. He shook his head, wondering whether he would ever give up thinking of her as his Slayer. He doubted it.

“So…you’re saying that I’m about sixteen?” Buffy asked.

“Well…only just.”

“Sixteen,” Buffy repeated quietly. She laughed a little. “I always wondered why I was so much smaller than the others. Uh…when…”

“The first of July,” he replied.

“Uh huh…not a Capricorn then,” she said inanely. “1983?”

Giles nodded.

“This is…again, I say a lot,” she said. She looked at him, fear in her eyes. “Giles…I’m not…I don’t want to…I’m not a bad person. Am I?”

“No! God, no,” he cried, quickly closing the distance between them to pull her into a hug. She finally broke down for the third time that day, sobbing into his shirt. “You’re not bad Buffy. You are so wonderful…kind and brave and loyal. Buffy…it doesn’t matter who you’re father is. You’re so much better than that.”

“I’m scared Giles,” she whispered, her voice muffled by his shirt. “I’m so scared.”

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