No one won the bet. Giles did not turn purple or faint. He said 'oh dear' twice and didn't say 'oh boy' at all. He did say congratulations, though and thank you for the honor of being considered the baby's grandfather. Telling him about the Dakara superweapon was another matter, though.
"Essentially they found a way to make Magic artificially and used it to destroy the vampires?!"
"Essentially. Magic and science use different terms, as I've said before, but are still talking about the same thing. Once we have permission from the President, we'll return to Dakara and use the weapon and hopefully destroy all of the vampires."
"And render Slayers nearly obsolete."
"Giles, we've had this discussion before. Slayers are unnecessary. No god did that to them. You know, Earth was seeded before the worlds in Pegasus. And 10, 000 years ago, Pegasus had human worlds on the verge of spaceflight, while Earth humans were still living in caves. The struggle against demons, when the tears reopened, held you back. But then the Watchers Council held humans back."
"How do you figure?" Buffy asked.
"The Ages of Enlightenment and Industry. Intelligence and knowledge are how humans fight best. And just as humans on Earth finally reached a point where they could turn both to not just fighting and holding their own, but to actually being able to eliminate the demons altogether, they suddenly decide they no longer exist. You've said it yourself Giles, the Watchers Council 'says' human are safer not knowing they exist. That's crap. When you know, you can protect yourself, when you don't, you have no idea how to identify a vampire on sight and you die when they easily lure you to your death. The Slayers are unnecessary, but so is the Watchers Council. And at some point, they figured that out. Probably around the same time they stopped supporting the Slayer and started controlling her. Without the Slayer, they don't have their cushy job and without demons, the Slayer doesn't have a job. So you convinced them and yourself, this is how the gods want it to be. Demons killing humans, so Slayers have a reason to exist and therefore, the Watchers Council has a reason to exist."
"In the last three years, I have had to face the crumbling of a number of deeply held convictions, most taught to me as a child. This may be the deepest of all. I think you are correct and nothing shows that more then why they fired Wesley. Because he couldn't get control over Buffy and Faith and they thought you'd both die quickly without their guidance."
"The fact that they've lived longer then any Slayers in centuries counters that belief. The Watchers Council's idea of support means Slayers last maybe a year. With real support, they can last indefinitely. And with all of the demons and vampires eventually eliminated, yes, they will be obsolete."
"Something I am looking forward to." Buffy said.
"I like being a Slayer, but that might be because it gave me a purpose and made me feel special." Faith said. "Gunn fought for years, starting when he was just a kid and didn't need powers. Just like all human demon hunters. They prove what Alexander is saying, Giles. Without vampires, maybe Gunn and I could have a kid too."
"I wouldn't mind." Gunn said. "I'm so tired of loosing people to monsters."
"Oz and I are nearly finished with the satellite. Once we are, we can find the other tears and then it'll just be a matter of closing them and making sure they're never reopened. And once Earth wins the war against the Gou'ald, we can actually start exploring space and creating colony worlds. Eventually Earth could have a civilization that rivals and maybe even eventually outlasts the Alterans." Johnathan said.
"Children reaching their potential is supposed to be a goal of parents." Corda agreed. "And since Alterans seeded Earth, that makes us your parents. Seeing you succeed is reason enough to use that weapon."
"Yes, it is. Too bad I probably won't get to see Quentin's expression when the Watchers Council figures out vampires and demons have become endangered species without the protections afforded endangered animals." Giles agreed.
"That would be a moment worth preserving for history." Alexander agreed.
"What if Slayers continue to be Called though?" Buffy asked. "Without demons and vampires to fight, that could be trouble."
"True. The government doesn't know you exist. That's on purpose. The NID was willing to experiment on vampires and demons, as well as try to control them. Bad enough the Watchers Council tries to control you. What the NID or other unscrupulous humans could do is even more terrifying. We need to add figuring out how Slayers were made in the first place, so we can then figure out how to reverse the potential. My scans of Buffy and Faith, back when we found the dimensional energy in Hope, show Faith has an energy in her as well. One my scanner doesn't recognize. Buffy doesn't have it, which supports the belief that the line passes through Faith now and she is 'the Slayer' and Buffy is 'a Slayer'. The fact that Buffy is still a Slayer without that energy, means Faith would be too, so just pulling it out probably wouldn't do any good. We need to find a way to neutralize it. And that weapon just might be the way to do that too."
"How so?" Giles asked.
"Well maybe not the weapon itself, it's too powerful to turn on a single human, it would defeat the purpose. But the weapon's energy canceled out Anubis. If we can figure out how Slayers were made, we may be able to use that method to reverse or cancel out, what makes a Slayer in the first place. Giles, we need to find out the origin of the Slayer. The first one."