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Chapter 21- Break IV

The Scooby Gang sat down, their future selves coming in at exactly one second after they had sat down as Summers asked. "So how far are you now?"

"The one with the Demon Fight Club", Willow said. "And I really think that one was needed."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked her.

"We'll tell you in a bit", Tara told her.

"Yeah, that one sure was", Harris said in agreement, exchanging a look with Summers as they brought out the food and sat down, starting the eating.

"So what is it you all wanna talk about?" Xander asked.

"Please tell me it is not about Wesley being better than me", Giles said.

"No, it's that you, Buffy, have a thing against killing humans", Willow said to Buffy, who looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yes, I do, they are humans, there are different laws for humans and Demons", Buffy defended her point of view. "In the supernatural world, I am the law, but not in the human world, they have their own laws for different people."

Summers sighed, actually rolling her eyes at her younger version's almost naïve view of the world.

"It is dangerously naïve to think a different set of rules applies to Demons and humans", Summers said to her younger self, taking her aback.

"How can you say that?" Buffy asked.

"Not all Demons deserve to die, and not all humans deserve to live", Summers said to Buffy.

"You were against me killing Warren for what he did to Tara", Willow reminded Buffy.

"You were going to lose yourself!" Buffy reminded Willow. "That's why I didn't want you to."

"Yes, you have a point about me, but what about Faith?" Willow asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What about her?" Buffy asked, paling.

"Remember the time she shot Angel? You were perfectly willing to kill her back then", Dawnster agreed with Willow, putting her hands behind her head as she sat back on her chair.

"She hurt Angel", Buffy said.

"And Warren killed Tara", Xander reminded her. "What's the difference? Do you think that humans should be killed off only when someone you love is in any kind of danger? Is that it?"

"It's not about whether Faith deserved it or not, but you didn't practice what you yourself preached later", Dawn said to Buffy, agreeing with her younger self as well as everyone else present there.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak a few times, but couldn't really speak, since no words came to her.

"There is also the issue of Glory", Giles said, looking directly at Buffy as she looked at him. "I never got a chance to say this to you, since first you were dead, then under a depression when I left, and then the First Evil, you let Ben go. It was not a heroic move, it was a coward's move, Buffy, you left Glory alive, and she would have come back for revenge. Killing Ben may not have been the most ethical solution, but it was the only choice left, and you didn't do it, I had to."

"We didn't have a good choice, but we had a choice", Summers repeated Buffy's words to Ford from all those years ago. "And we made the wrong one. We needed to kill Ben, and we didn't, Giles had to do it for us, just showing how dependent we were on him up until he decided to leave."

"So I should just kill every human who pisses me off?" Buffy finally asked.

"No, but not every single human ever is worthy of living", Rosenberg said. "I may have been evil when he killed Warren, but he wasn't really someone who deserved to live either."

"You're saying that because he killed Tara", Buffy told her.

"Killing me wasn't the only thing he did", Maclay said to the past people. "Remember when you were tricked into thinking you killed Katrina? You never knew how it happened, do you?"

"No", Buffy said.

"Warren kidnapped her, and used a device to mind control her into being his slave to fulfill his…needs and fantasies", Dawn summed up, and everyone from the past felt sick to their stomachs as they read through the lines and realized just what Warren had tried to do to Katrina. "But the device failed and she called them all out, fighting off him, Andrew and Jonathan, but Warren murdered her before she could escape."

"She fought back because he was violating her, and he made her pay the price for that by murdering her", Summers said to her past self. "He did not deserve to live, and he isn't the only human who deserves to die."

"Most of the lawyers at Wolfram and Hart for one", Harris muttered.

Buffy was too shaken up to speak back right now. Not because of anything traumatizing, but because of how her viewpoint had been questioned like this, and also because she couldn't defend it due to it being a dangerously thin one. The others were right about this, she realized, but she didn't want to admit it. Her world had mostly been black and white. Not all humans were good and not all Demons were bad, but only Demons were supposed to be killed for their transgressions, while the humans should be imprisoned, since they had their laws.

But what she had seen was also proving that the law was not perfect, and there was always the chance of corruption too. Trevor may not have been outright corrupt, but he had done unethical things, and there was Wolfram and Hart too. It was run by Demons, but the people who worked in it were very much complicit humans, and they made sure bad people got off scot-free, humans or Demons.

Her viewpoint on humans was reliant on every single human being behind the law being an ethical one, and now she had just realized that wasn't the case. She may have had seen a lot, but she, as well as the rest of the Scoobies, had only just grown up after the Battle of the Hellmouth, before that, they all had really only been growing up.

The only mature ones out of them all currently were Willow and Tara, the former due to her experiences with darkness and the latter because she just wasn't a judgmental person and if she didn't like something, she understood the reasons behind it.

And surprisingly, regarding this difference between humans and Demons, even Dawn was more mature than her. And if Dawn was more mature than her regarding something, there was clearly a problem with her way of thinking.

Plus, she had just seen that Demons could be victims of humans too. She'd only acknowledged that when Angel had also been taken prisoner, but the rest of the Demons- Cribb, Trepkos, Malish, were all just as much victims of the Ring as he was, and the humans running it were worse than almost every Demon in existence. And unlike Ryan, those humans had souls too.

"Maybe I had it wrong all along", Buffy finally said, looking up at the others. "And I was just too stubborn to admit it."

"Yes, you were, I know because I am you", Summers reminded her. "And it was seeing these recordings that made me realize it. Angel and his team, they almost always worked in a grey area. The Demon Fight Club was just the start, it's going to get much worse, and a time will come when they have one foot on the grey area, and another on the dark side, but sometimes, there is no perfectly ethical way to do something, and killing humans is one of those."

"I'm good with that", Xander muttered.

"No you're not!" Harris said sharply as Xander looked up at him due to his tone. "You may not be against killing humans if they're real bad, but you have a bias against Demons, and you can't deny it, because I'm saying it, and I used to be you once."

"I am just careful!" Xander said. "Angel and Spike used to be murderers once."

"This isn't about Angel or Spike, this is about Jesse", Harris said pointedly, and that silenced Xander. "We lost him, and so we have been taking out our issues regarding him on every Vampire or Demon, especially Angel and Spike. I do think it was wise to be wary of them, they weren't the most trustworthy with how they behaved, so the others were a bit too naïve to trust them easily, but many times, especially in regards to Spike, our behavior went from wary to Larry."

That comparison hit Xander right in the heart. Before outing himself as gay, Larry was one big bully, and Xander had been compared to him, and he couldn't argue, because his future self was right. He never was Spike's fan and treated him like trash, including not letting him drop flowers for Joyce due to his crush on Buffy, even though he hadn't even left a card. And Spike, when he had a soul, had actually saved him from Caleb before he could take away more from him than just an eye, so Spike clearly didn't let personal feelings get in the way of the bigger picture. Spike didn't like him, but he had still saved him due to him being an ally on the side of good.

Plus the recordings were making him like Angel more and more, so he now knew that Angel wasn't a bad guy, and trustworthy.

"So, should I get therapy?" Xander asked.

"I think that would be a good first step", Tara said to him with a nod.

"I did", Harris said, pointing to his head. "Helped a lot actually."

"Okay, I think this calling out was necessary and all that, but now let's just finish our food", Summers said.

"Yeah", Buffy sighed, a bit hurt due to her criticism, but she knew perfectly well that it wasn't unfounded, so she needed to at least understand the other mindset, if not change her own, and well, she would have been hurt much more if the criticism of her had been on the wrong grounds, which wasn't the case here.

Eventually, everyone finished their food and got up as Summers said to the past people. "Now three of the four you see will be, well, hard."

"Will they shake up our beliefs too?" Giles asked.

"One of them might, the other two are just personal", Rosenberg said. "And don't worry, it's not the first one."

"So three in a row", Dawnster muttered.

"Yeah, that would be it", Dawn told her.

"Well, thanks for the heads-up", Buffy said, and with that, the two groups parted ways again.

Now, like I said, I love the Scoobies, and I love Buffy and Xander and Giles, but they all have character flaws.

Buffy won't take a human life even when necessary, like in Ben's case, and she didn't want Willow to kill Warren even though he'd killed Tara when she was perfectly fine with killing Faith when she'd hurt Angel. So it's hypocritical IMO. And regarding the Glory issue, she had killed 10 Byzantine Knights before who were also human, so a little late to play the high ground. And having a different set of rules for humans and Demons is a dangerously thin line.

Then there's Xander, who I think is a good guy, and his wariness of Angel and Spike does come from a place of love for his friends, but his behavior has crossed over to bullying too at times, and it's clear that many times he has taken out his issues with Jesse on other Demons, so he has a bigotry to Demons (Anya being the exception).

Then there's Giles too, and we will get to him as well later, but while I had him praised for killing Ben here, he's not perfect either, and not as grey as thought, due to Angel Season 5 where he refused to help Team Angel because they worked with Wolfram and Hart then, and let's not forget helping Robin to try and kill Spike. He shall be called out later.

So overall, other than Willow, the Scoobies see stuff in black and white, other than Tara who isn't comfortable with grey stuff but would be understanding of it. Giles is inconsistent regarding this IMO. My Top 5 Buffyverse characters- Willow, Angel, Spike, Cordelia and Wesley, have all walked on the grey line, as well as my 8th favorite who is Faith (Tara and Buffy are 6th and 7th respectively, with Giles and Xander on 9th and 10th).

Also, speaking of Warren, I've realized he's basically Joss' self-insert on this show and an exaggerated version of him. Both are misogynistic nerds who abuse people and treat them like trash.

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter. But it's the one after that I can't wait to do, and you all know why *winks* Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!