Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse or anything else you may recognize

So this was inspired by the latest chapter of LycoX's 'Of Stakes and Prophecies' and also Bl4ckHunter's 'The Watcher's Punishment', and this won't be friendly to Giles.

Giles walked back to his office, and closed the door, only to see a woman in blue patches of skin and hair standing in front of him, and backed off in fright.

"Hello Rupert."

He paled at the voice and turned to see Wesley getting up from a chair, his voice full of venom. Giles had seen this new dark and unshaven Wesley before when they had stayed at Hyperion after Sunnydale's destruction, but he had never seen him this angry.

"Wesley", Giles said, trying to keep his voice even.

"I see you've met Illyria", Wesley then said, as Giles' eyes widened in horror, and he looked her up and down, realizing this was an Old One.

"Why did you bring her here?" Giles asked.

"He takes me nowhere, I came with him, because he is my guide in this world", Illyria simply said while tilting her head.

"Yeah, without me she would do a lot of damage", Wesley agreed there. "But then again, that's what I am here for."

Before Giles could respond, a strong punch from Wesley sent him down, breaking his nose as his glasses fell off too, and then he grabbed Giles by the collar. "Do you have any idea how much Fred suffered as I watched her die in my arms and be consumed?"

Giles paled, realizing what this was about as he started. "I'm so-"

"Her soul was destroyed too, and YOU are party to that! Had you allowed Angel to explain instead of letting your distrust in him and the rest of us affect your judgment, you would have known that", Wesley said with a sneer, and then started pounding on Giles.

The door opened as Buffy appeared, looking at Giles in shock, and then saw Wesley. "Stop!"

She moved to stop him but Illyria grabbed her and lifted her by the neck, and to her horror, Buffy couldn't budge from the grip, as Illyria tilted her head. "A Slayer." She threw Buffy down as she coughed. "A disappointment."

Buffy staggered up and rasped out. "What are you doing?"

"Fred's spirit was consumed by an Old One who took over her body, and you are looking right at her", Wesley informed Buffy, as she looked at Illyria and her eyes widened in horror, now recognizing Fred's face finally.

"Oh my God!" Buffy said.

"We called Rupert to help, but he just cut the call because he hated us for working in Wolfram and Hart", Wesley then revealed, as Buffy looked at Giles in disbelief.

"How could you?" Buffy asked, not believing this one bit, but knowing it was true due to Giles' ashamed look.

"Buffy", Giles rasped out. "It's Wolfram and Hart, run by your Vampire ex. Their influence will corrupt you."

"That is not your decision to make!" Buffy snapped at him, clutching her fists. "First trying to help Wood kill Spike behind my back, and now this? You may be my Watcher, but you do not control me! The rest of the Council didn't, and you wouldn't either."

"Based on your behavior, I do not believe you told Andrew to tell us that we weren't trusted anymore", Wesley noted, and now Buffy was even more surprised.

"I never said that! That creep", Buffy decided Andrew needed a verbal too. "Putting words in my mouth."

"He was sent by Rupert though", Wesley remembered, and looked down at Giles. "I believe you told him."

"What happened to you, Giles?" Buffy shook her head sadly. This man was her father in all but name, her mentor, she had looked up to him. She considered him the greatest man she had ever known. Yes, even greater than Spike and Angel.

And now he had turned into a bitter old man with controlling tendencies.

"I would kill you, but the others will hate you when they find out what you have done, that is punishment enough", Wesley sneered as he decked Giles hard again, knocking him out.

"I would rip out his spine for punishment", Illyria shrugged casually, as if she was telling someone the price of a product they were buying. "Or just break everything."

"We don't do that here", Buffy muttered before turning to Wesley. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened, I know this won't bring her back, but I'm willing to make it up to you guys for what Giles did. His and Andrew's actions do not reflect the rest of us."

"Thank you Buffy, it is appreciated", Wesley assured her and thought. "Perhaps you can lend us a team of 10 Slayers, and I want Faith to be part of it, the team can help us out in some situations."

"Sure", Buffy said in agreement.

And so 10 Slayers, Faith included, were sent to Wolfram and Hart. Faith had actually wanted to go to Wolfram and Hart to help Angel, but had eventually decided not to due to having just redeemed herself, so working at Wolfram and Hart would be some shaky morality.

But after the recent events, Faith decided it was best to stay with Angel now.

So when Angel made his final plan against Wolfram and Hart, Faith and 2 more Slayers accompanied Wesley to Vail, and ambushed the sorcerer during his conversation with Wesley, ending his life.

And Faith during that time had placed a discreet call to the Slayer Organization so Buffy, Willow, Xander and Dawn came to help out in the battle in the alley as well, ending the threat of Wolfram and Hart at last.

Andrew was kicked out of the Organization while Giles was no longer head and replaced by Xander, who, in spite of his issues with Angel and Spike, would never go so far as to tell them they weren't trusted or let Fred die, and they were all too angry to speak to Giles again.

The end of this battle also saw the Shanshu fulfilled so Angel became human again, while Buffy was allowed a wish by the PTB and decided to bring back Tara for Willow, and Cordelia did something the PTB did not approve of- she found Fred's spirit, which wasn't consumed, rather broken into fragments and spread throughout Dimensions, and she remade Fred's spirit, allowing Fred to have an afterlife at last.

And thus, this one action by Wesley had positive consequences in the long run.

I loved Giles up until Buffy Season 5 but after that his character went on a downward spiral, and in this moment in 'Shells', he was as bad as Travers, so no sympathies for him here.

The thing with Fred's spirit was inspired by fics of boop-oop-ee-doo so thank you to them.

Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with some other update.