Hey there.  Ok this is a bit weird 'cause this was actually my first ever fic but it got so disjointed that I've started re-writing it.  Hopefully when I'm done with the re-write it'll make sense.

Setting: Very important.

Everything happened exactly as the show tells right up until 'Chosen' when the only difference is that the spell to activate the potentials was only temporary, they are no longer actual slayers.  Spike's story continued in Angel and I don't watch it so I don't know exactly what happens to him but for this story he's back and you can just pretend he left Wolfram and Hart at some point to fight with Buffy.  Angel didn't and you will see why shortly.  Buffy, Giles etc are living in Cleveland about 15 years after 'Chosen' which makes Buffy in her late 30s and Giles kinda old.  Since Cleveland's the other hell mouth you can just imagine that things have been largely the same; vampires, demons, not too much major stuff since the First was defeated except for one event that will be explained as the story develops.

Disclaimer:  Absolutely not my characters, storyline and setting maybe but damn I wish I owned such amazing characters!

Summary: Jess is Faith's teenage daughter, now Buffy's adoptive daughter after Faith's death.  Can the gang stop Jess's future being like her mother's past?

            Two voices could be heard emanating from the kitchen.  Willow Rosenberg tried hard not to eavesdrop but couldn't help hearing most of the argument.  Then, without warning, one of the voices yelled, "Screw that!" and stormed out, slamming the back door so hard that the windows rattled despite Xander's careful craftsmanship.

            Buffy walked into the living room, where Willow sat with a witchy something, looking shell-shocked and as pale as if she had just seen a ghost.  In some way she had.  Jess, who had stormed out was so similar to someone else Buffy had known, someone else who had once left after an unwelcome revelation with the two words Jess had chosen to use.  It was hardly surprising Jess was much like Faith, she was her daughter after all though no-one would have thought Faith to be the first one to turn maternal.  Jess had inherited so much from the dark slayer, her looks, her wild, sassy character and lack of inhibition but also her strength and power.  Though they didn't understand how, Jess had been born with the birthright of the slayer but unlike potential slayers it was almost immediately active.  Jess had then spent thirteen years on the streets of various US cities, honing her skills with Faith as her mentor.  While this meant Jess was brilliant in combat it also made her a dangerous slayer.  Faith had taught her many lessons and Jess had clung to her every word, loving and trusting the only person who was always there for her.  The problem however was exactly how much like Faith Jess was becoming.  Jess's childhood had been brief, she had been too keen to grow up, to grow into Faith but she didn't know that to become the Faith she knew she would have to become the Faith she didn't.

            Jess was a slayer, she knew that and she knew her power was for killing demons.  What she didn't always know was where the line fell between the bad and the demonic.  Faith was always so wrapped up the fight, in the kill that Jess had become the same and paid less attention to who the opposition was than how to fight it.  It was drilled into most slayers from the moment of their calling that they should NEVER, without exception, kill a human.  Faith had broken that unwritten code and her self-loathing for doing so had prevented her from sharing the force of it with Jess and from sharing the story of evil that had followed her actions.  Buffy knew this and she knew that though Jess had not yet overstepped the mark, some day soon they would all see the results of Faith's omission.  Unless she managed to re-direct Jess's path which, if the previous quarter of an hour's screaming was anything to go by, wasn't very likely.

            "Didn't go well then?" Willow remarked as Buffy collapsed into a chair.

            "About as well as a mission to stop Giles from reading would go." Buffy replied and even Willow couldn't hide a smile as she thought of the impossibility Buffy had just described.  Despite his increasing age Giles was as determined as ever to learn as much as her could, and seemingly to collect as much literature as he could if only to continue aiding Buffy who continued to fight, with almost as much agility as when Willow had first met her, an bubbly teenager so different from the woman she had become.

            "It's tough Buffy, you're kinda trying to undo everything she knows." Willow saw the distraught look on Buffy's face and hurriedly added, "But it's right.  Of course you have to do this."

            "I know.  She can't carry on like this or we'll end up in the same situation all over again.  It's just so…"

            "Hard." Willow supplied.  "Buffy you've faced things ranking impossible.  You've saved the world.  Hard is nothing."  Buffy shook her head slightly.

            "It's so much more complicated than that though.  I just don't know what to do.  I have no right to do anything.  She does things Faith's way and I can't tell her not to.  It's the only way she trusts, I can't just tell her she's got it all wrong.  I don't even know if I have it right."

            "You do Buffy.  You have to convince her.  It's been a year since…well since Jess came here.  We can't risk it happening again, she's too powerful.  I've done the evil thing remember and it was bad, bad bad."

            "I know Will it's just that I can't tell her any of the stuff that happened.  Faith's her idol, she died to save Jess, to save everyone, there's no way she'll believe me but she has to change or…I'm scared.  Willow I'm scared of what she could do with all that power." Buffy paused for a moment, realising what she had said and acknowledging fully that it was true, she was scared of the young girl she was supposed to look after.  There was not much Buffy was afraid of, when you saw monsters and demons every day it didn't do to be a scaredy cat but there were certain things Buffy had experienced, or could imagine, that sent shivers down her spine and one of them was the memory of a dark alley and a man slumped against a dumpster with blood pouring from a stake wound to his heart.  "Will," Buffy started slowly looking up at the face of the friend who had accompanied her through treacherous journeys and had still travelled so many of her own.  "Could you get rid of her power, can you somehow stop it? 'Cause if she doesn't have the power she can't abuse it right?"  Buffy was thinking desperately, praying for Willow to say yes, that a simple spell could stop Jess's power growing, that it could be controlled before it controlled her.

            "Buffy I know how bad too much power can be, I mean really really know but I can't do that.  I wouldn't."

            "Will please.  It's to help her.  It could save her.  You know what happened to Faith, you know what damage it did."  Buffy pleaded with the flame haired wiccan whose eyes were filled with compassion.

            "Buffy I can't.  Slayer power, it's just so …beyond me, beyond anyone on earth."  Willow added the second statement knowing Buffy wouldn't believe she couldn't do it if anyone could.  Though Willow took care to restrain her use of powerful magics the ability was inside her and she no longer needed to worry about dark roots being a side effect.  "Besides who am I to say who deserves to be a slayer?  Faith made a mistake but she was a good slayer.  What if you made her mistake?  Would you deserve to be a slayer?"

            Buffy was silent for a moment.  Willow's question was based on one she had asked herself many times.  What if she had killed the deputy mayor?  Would she have followed Faith's path?  They had been young, it wouldn't have been impossible.  They both had slayer instincts, the need to battle personal and physical demons with weapons and fighting, they were not that dissimilar…in some ways.

            "See Buffy." Willow said as if she had read Buffy's mind which the slayer knew was possible and not only by magical means.  "There's a bit of Faith in all of us.  You have the same urge for taking action; you want to be able to take charge, to get things done, she just went too far and that's what you have to stop Jess doing."