Chapter 21.

Loving the reviews! Thank you all so much. And my Kali friend read my story! == does a happy dance== I'll never be as talented as her (her stuff is amazing trust me) but I feel a whole lot better about this story now. Just some random info, if it wasn't for Kali this story would have never been posted. Tobert, you deserve a medal for your loyalty in sticking around to read this. This is another hard chapter to write so I hope it comes out OK for everyone.

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Preview: Giles gets personal with Emerald about her family.

Giles woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringing.

"Bloody hell!" He exclaimed "Why didn't anyone wake me? There's still work to do."

"Sorry Giles." Dawn said sweetly "But you looked so cute and it's not like you've slept very much since we got here."

Giles smiled sheepishly at the truth of that statement and fumbled for his phone.

"Yes?" He answered quickly "Angel? Is everything OK?"

The group turned and looked fearful until Giles put his hand over the phone and told them

"Everything is fine. Cordelia is still manacled to the floor."

"Only in our world does that mean everything is fine." Xander commented shaking his head. The Watchers all chuckled and went back to researching. The rest of the group listened to Giles side of the conversation with Angel.

"What? Who came?" Giles asked. "Your kidding? How?"

The group started to figet at the cryptic words.

"Well yes that must have been an eye opening experience." Giles continued "Your on your way over? But what about Cordelia? Oh I see. Yes well thats fine. Yes. I'll see you in a bit then."

Giles hung up the phone and stared at his papers for a minute.

"Giles?" Dawn said after exhausting her patience waiting for him to speak. "What's going on?"

Giles thought before saying slowly "It seems Angel had a visitor sent from the Powers and now he is on his way over."

"What kind of visitor?" Fred asked hesitantly.

"Spike." Giles said simply. "It seems he was sent to make fun of Angel enough to break his recent moodiness."

"Well it seems to have worked." Andrew said "I mean if he's on his way over."

"Yes." Giles said wryly "If there was one thing Spike could do better than anyone in the world it was baiting someone to either a fight, or a realisation."

"So he is on his way over?" Gunn asked. "What about Cordy? Should some of us head over there to keep an eye on her?"

"No." Giles said "Apparantly Angel has some of his new employees coming over to keep an eye on her."

"Giles?" Dawn asked "Should we go wake up Buffy?"

"No. I would let her sleep awhile longer." Giles said thoughtfully.

"What you think I'm getting lazy now?" Buffy said entering the room. A yawn escaped her mouth before she could stop it and she smiled guiltily "OK maybe I am a little."

"Angel is coming over." Xander informed her and Wesley who had also come in behind her yawning also.

"He is?" Wesley asked, now wide awake. "That was unexpected."

"Yeah to us too." Gunn said "I guess your former boyfriend visited him and kicked some sense into him."

Buffy looked confused.

"What? Riley is in town? And he won in a fight against Angel? Was Angel asleep?" She asked.

"No, no" Dawn said "It seems Spike payed him a visit courtesy of the Powers."

"Oh" Buffy said "That makes more sense. Wait. What?"

"The Powers must be angry that their champion has been sitting around feeling sorry for himself and decided to step in." Emerald said thoughtfully.

When everyone looked at her she said defensively

"What? I told you I can feel what others feel.I felt him feeling sorry for himself."

"And the score stands in the game of knowing whats wrong with people: Emerald 1, the rest of us nothing." Xander commented.

"Yes why didn't you mention his feelings before Emerald?" Giles asked curiously.

She shrugged "Well I heard a lot about him before I came here. I just figured that was normal."

When everyone kept staring at her she shrugged again and went back to her book.

"Yes.Well" Giles said breaking the silence. "Could someone find Willow please? We may need her in our discussion of Cordelia."

"I'll get her." Andrew offered "She was working on a barrier spell for the house that could be activated by the presence of evil."

"Wow." Fred said impressed "That's a great idea."

"Yeah Wills full of them." Buffy said proudly.

Andrew ran off to find Willow while Giles observed Emerald out of the corner of his eye.

"Is there something you wish to discuss with me?"

Emeralds voice entered Giles mind with these words.He looked at her in surprise before nodding and saying back telepathecly

"Maybe we could talk somewhere more private?"

After a few more thoughts transferred they both excused themselves and walked outside to the fountain and sat down on one of the benches. They were both silent before Giles said softly,

"Do you know I knew your mother?"

Emerald smiled before saying

"Yes the Coven told me of your attempt to try and save her. Thank you for that."

"Don't thank me." Giles said bitterly "I failed."

"No you didn't." Emerals stated earnestly. When Giles looked up at her she continued.

"What happened to her, it was fated. To try and change a fate because you don't like the outcome will lead you to anger.Because it won't work. To mess with fate is a dangerous and foolish thing. She knew you tried to save her and for that she loved you."

"How can you know that?" Giles asked "You were a child."

"I asked her." was the answer.

"You asked her? How?" Giles asked carefully.

"Mr Giles, I grew up surrounded by powerful witches. I talked to my mother more dead than she talked to me when she was alive." She said simply. "How did you think I learned the inner workings of the Council? How to know enough so they couldn't dare refuse me?"

"But why?" Giles said suddenly "Why did you even want to be a part of it? After what they did?"

"The Council needed changing." Emerald said with some force. "How could I bring those changes about if I wasn't part of it? It was just... something I had to do, to join."

"If I may ask." Giles said "What other gifts do you have? Besides the being able to read even a vampire?"

"Well I try not to use them quite honestly." Emerald said hesitantly "People tend to fear some of them. I convinced the Council I had very limited gifts so not to cause the fear my Mother did."

"That makes sense to me." Giles said. "Please, I don't want you to fear us, or us fear you."

"Well.." Emerald said thinking "Besides the reading and simple witchcraft there is the shapeshifting. I don't like to do it and it's painful but if I have to I will."

"So you can shift into another person?" Giles asked.

"No. Not a person. At least I don't think so. I've never tried. I have managed to shift into animals. Mostly cats but I did manage a crow one time." Emerald said slowly. "Theres also the fact I can enter a persons body."

"Like telepathecly like you did with me?" Giles asked.

Emerald shook her head and looked back at the house before saying

"No. That girl we talked about with the demon taking over her? The one in a coma?"

Giles nodded before Emerald continued

"I entered her body to try to help her human self defeat the demon. It didn't work. Her human self had already given up and I was too limited in power to get her moving.I managed to get the demon out hoping she would take back over for me. She didn't. And I failed."

Giles looked at her sadly and sqeezed her hand sympathetically. Emerald laughed bitterly.

"Whats the use of magic and powers if people just give up and won't even try?" She asked Giles.

"I don't know." Giles said finally. "I wish I could tell you different but not everyone is a true fighter I suppose."

"Like your Slayers." She said in approval. "I'm extremely impressed with Buffy most of all. She's a true leader. After her amount of loss I'd expect her to give up but she doesn't. You must be proud."

"If I had children they would despise me because I couldn't imagine being prouder of even my own flesh and blood than I am of Buffy." Giles said sheepishly.

Emerald laughed.

"Oh it sounds like you have all the child you need."

"Yes it rather does, doesn't it?" Giles commented proudly. "Emerald, would you mind if I told the others of your gifts?"

She looked nervous before straightening her spine and saying "Not at all. They should know. Maybe I should start treasuring and using my gifts instead of hiding them."

"Emerald. I knew your mother well and she didn't posess any of these gifts of yours. Where did they come from?" Giles asked carefully.

"I asked the Coven once." Emerald said. "The only thing they would say was that they were a gift from my father."

"They didn't say who he was though?" Giles asked.

"They said it wasn't important and better if I didn't know." She replied.

"I have to be honest. The gifts you have that are natural to your being are traits normally associated with..."

Giles stopped talking and glanced at her uncertainly.

"A God?" Emerald asked. "Yes, I thought so to for a long time. It makes sense really. No father when I did a spell to contact him if he was on earth. No response when I tried to contact my father from the dead. The shapeshifting, the Coven guarding me as they did. It makes sense."

"But you are umm, mortal?" Giles questioned.

"Very." Emerald assured him. "I got hit by a car once and nearly died. I'm definately both human and mortal."

"Maybe we shouldn't tell Buffy about a God that could be your father part." Giles said thoughtfully.

"After her run in with Glory?" Emerald said. "Definatly we should leave that part out."

"So that's agreed on then." Giles said. "And with perfect timing I believe. I think that's Angels car coming up the drive. Shall we rejoin the group?"

"Good idea." Emerald said before teasing him "Unless you want me to show them my power by turning into a panther and running into the room. I could possibly scare the green off Lorne."

Giles grinned wickedly

"Perhaps we could do that the next time he bursts into any form of disco song." He said.

"Deal!" Emerald said reaching to shake his hand. "Any Gloria Gainor and I'm kitty bound."

They both laughed and went over to greet Angel.

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Sorry if this is a little short but I realized I needed to get some things set up for the next couple of chapters. Coming up. Angel confesses and Willow learns something about the house.