Fifteen Slayers in Training and counting. Food was scarce and usually of the junk variety. Training and schooling each of them on a daily basis took a little more care than she was used to. Then, there was some degree of mothering them involved. She mentored them as best she could. And she did it all while raising her own sixteen year-old sister. She tried to remember just when she had signed on the dotted line for all of this. And now, the biggest shock of all. Another Slayer. Not a Potential. And not Faith.

"How long have you known about her?" she asked Giles, playing with her tea bag as it steeped in a plain, white styrofoam cup. Ceramic mugs were a luxury she could no longer afford.

Her Watcher removed his glasses and began nervously polishing them on his sleeve. That pretty much told her that the answer he was going to give her would not be one that she wanted to hear.

"Just tell me, Giles," she said, wearily.

"She's been here for about six months now," he told his ward.

She seemed to be thinking about his response. Another Slayer. Another Chosen One. And she'd been in Sunnydale for six months. And this was the first she was hearing about it.

"With you?" she asked.

He looked at her questioningly.

"She's been staying with you?" she asked again.

"No," he said, his head shaking. "Not with me."

She was quiet again. Chosen One. That was pretty funny. There was a living room full of potentially Chosen Ones just a few feet away from her. There was another Chosen One in an LA prison waiting to be sprung so that she, too, could fight the good fight. And now there was a new Chosen One right there in good old Sunny D. So much for being special.

"How did this happen?" she wanted to know. "When? When I was dead? When Faith was in a coma? When Kendra died?"

Giles took a deep breath. This wasn't like Faith or Kendra.

"Before."

Before? Before what?

"Before you, Buffy. She's the oldest Slayer to date."

This couldn't be true.

"Did Merrick know?" she asked weakly.

"He did," Giles confirmed.

"Then why wasn't she called?"

"She was," he told her.

"She was kept from the Council."

"How is that even possible? Why didn't Merrick force her? He forced me," she said haughtily.

"Because Victoria is his daughter," Giles told her.

Buffy stared at him, not believing what she was hearing. She had been forced to give up her childhood, her dreams and hopes because Merrick didn't want his own daughter to suffer the burden? An angry tear escaped from her eye.

"It isn't as simple as you think, Buffy," Giles assured her.

"You have no idea what I think," she ground out.

"Perhaps I don't," he nodded. "But I do know that had I a daughter of my own, I might have done the same thing. Merrick... he was never married to Victoria's mother. Watchers aren't supposed to be married. And we aren't supposed to have children. We are required to focus on our duties. No distractions. Merrick kept his child a very careful secret."

"And when he found out she was a Slayer?" Buffy wanted to know.

"He didn't tell her. Didn't tell the Council, either," he concluded. "Esme told me that he called in a favor to the coven and they hid her from the Council with a glamour. But Victoria never followed the path Merrick would have liked for her. Her Slayer strength and her special abilities may have not been something she could define, but she turned them to her advantage."

"And how is that? Is she some sort of demon-killing vigilante?" Buffy groused.

"Not quite," Giles said with an amused smirk. "Victoria is a Marine Corps sniper."

Marine Corps? That was so not what Buffy was expecting.

"So, she doesn't even know that her purpose on this earth is to rid it of evil?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, she knows that all too well, my dear," Giles told her. "She's been ridding it of human evil for quite some time now."

"But she has no clue about demons," Buffy finished for him.

"Well, see, the thing about demons is that they can sniff out a Slayer whether she knows she's one or not. She's had plenty of experience with demons of all kinds," Giles explained. "She's enlightened us to some... interesting facts."

"Interesting how? What facts?" she asked.

"Foriegn militaries have no problem integrating demons into their troops," Giles informed her. "Many of the prisoners of war have been given to vampire militants as payment for their services amongst the troops."

"Given as payment? As food, you mean," Buffy guessed.

Giles nodded his answer.

Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Demons in the military? While highly disturbing, it was also a brilliant idea used by the enemy.

"Just how old is she?" Buffy was suddenly curious to know.

"She's 25. And I'll warn you, Buffy, she's not very happy about being here," he responded. "She's listed as MIA right now and is furious with us for taking her from her post. It's taken all this time to convince her that she is very much needed for this apocalyptic battle. She fought us hard every step of the way, but I think we've finally convinced her that we can't do it without her."

We. Us. Buffy had the feeling that Giles wasn't referring to himself and the other council members. They were all dead, she remembered.

"Who is we, Giles?" she asked, getting the feeling she really didn't want to know.

The glasses came off again and Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. He let out a shaky sigh and looked up to meet her dark eyes.

"Spike."

Spike.

She stared at Giles, trying to reign in her emotions. Spike who had tried to kill her. Spike who had tried to love her. Spike who had tried to rape her. She hadn't seen him since that night he attacked her in her bathroom. She knew that she was just as much at fault as he was, but she refused to believe that Giles would allow Spike to go anywhere near another Slayer after that incident.

"Spike," she repeated coldly.

Giles nodded.

"You brought him back," she continued.

"Not exactly. But we need him for the final battle, Buffy. It's written in the prophesy," he explained.

"What prophesy?"

"The one you thought was for you and Angel," he replied. "The one that says that the two who are chosen, forces of dark and light, will close the mouth of Hell."

"Yeah, I got that memo," she snarked. "Now fill me in on how that soulless piece of shit is the one who is supposed to help me."

This was getting more difficult by the minute. Giles set his glasses on the table in front of him and clasped his hands together tightly.

"You're not the Chosen One, Buffy," he said softly.

What? Of course she was the Chosen One. What the Hell had she been doing all these years?

"It isn't you, my dear," he told her again. "Victoria is the Slayer, Buffy. She's the one. As strong as you are, your strength can't match hers. She is the light. And Spike is the dark."

"But he--"

"He went to Africa and won his soul, Buffy," Giles continued to her horror.

"No," she whispered, wide-eyed.

"He called me for help when he returned," Giles told her. "It was... a shock, I'll admit. And I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of helping him after all he had done, but it presented itself as an excellent educational opportunity."

Buffy waited for him to continue. It seemed that the soul was driving him slowly insane. He had nightmares reliving what he'd done since Drusilla turned him.

"But what made me ultimately decide to help him was the very lucid dreams about Victoria. He kept a journal of them. He was very clear on where she was, what she looked like, things she said, and who she was," Giles told her.

"No," she said, more forcefully as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, dear. But this isn't to be your battle. It's hers."