"With Spike dusted and no enemy for Buffy to fight, I can see about getting her some help with her own emotional issues." Giles said.
"Well, it's about time." Cordelia said. "In hindsight I'm wondering why you let so much crap happen, Giles."
"What crap?" He asked, puzzled.
"Anya had protections on herself, why didn't it ever occur to you to have protections on all of us? Especially after Xander was possessed by the Hyena."
"Or researching the soul curse." Xander said. "Or finding out if it had had an effect on Willow."
"Or letting Buffy be involved with Angel or Spike."
"Or abandoning her after she dug her way out of her own grave."
"That one might have been Willow." Cordelia pointed out.
"You might be right." Xander said. "Giles was pissed at her for resurrecting Buffy in the first place. But the rest of it's on you, Giles. You're the one who chose to be passive with all of Buffy's and Willow's choices prior to Willow learning Magic. And you knew the effects of possession first hand. And let's not forget, your Book Man. You love research, but when it's most important, you can't be bothered. It wasn't like we knew anything about any of that until later on. And we learned it piecemeal. And by the time us learning about any of it happened, Willow was already mind raping people. How much, we may never know. She's kept it hidden for four or five years now, do you really think she's going to admit to everything she did?"
"Probably not and my only defense is that none of that is part of standard Watcher training. But that doesn't change the fact that you are correct, I knew protections existed and did nothing to see to any of you being protected."
"More proof that the Watchers Council didn't actually care about Slayers, as if we needed anymore. And don't blame Anya." Xander added. "She was busy trying to figure out how be to human at all, so it wouldn't have occured to her."
"I wasn't planning on it." Giles assured him.
"Well, we're going to get going." Xander said. "Think about what I said about maybe bringing in the Xavier Institute to help with finding and training Potentials."
"I will and please keep in contact. I wish to know more about your abilities."
"Apparently, at least according to Willow, I heal too fast. Which was what made her convince Buffy to try to keep me out of things. Buffy would have noticed eventually."
"But that would have made you more useful, not less." Giles protested.
"Exactly, Giles. Willow wanted Buffy depending on her, not anyone else. It gave her an excuse to use Magic more."
"It did, didn't it? And if we did notice, she'd just do something to our memories to stop us from looking too closely."
"And yet she didn't make us forget about when she messed up with Magic." Xander pointed out. "She could have made us forget she mind raped Tara or intended to mind rape Buffy and ended up doing it to all of us. Most of what she did intentionally seems to be aimed at covering up me being a mutant. At least in regards to me. What she did to Faith and Cordelia, she did because she hates them. No matter how she tries to justify it, it doesn't change the fact that she hates them. And she never made any secret of that fact. Mostly she tried to get others to hate them too."
"Given how it seems that how Buffy and I treated Faith can be laid at Willow's door too and what has happened to Cordelia was the result of Willow driving her away, it seems you are correct about Willow's feelings regarding them."
With a nod of his head, Xander headed out to find Willow.
"Pack a bag, Willow." He told her. "I'm going to make arrangements for a flight out to New York. The Xavier Institute is in Salem, New York. I hope to be able to get a flight booked today, even if we have to go to Los Angeles to catch it. You're not getting out of this. You've caused enough trouble and we need to know your status as well. I'll be back in an hour, I expect you to be ready."
"I will be." She promised. "Have you seen Kennedy?"
"No, but she's probably around here somewhere. One hour, Willow."
Cordelia was waiting by the front door for him when he came back down the stairs. He spotted Kennedy in the dining room.
"Kennedy, Willow's looking for you." He told her.
"She can keep looking. I have no way of knowing if she did any of that crap to me. Her power may be gone thanks to that power stripping thing your double had, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't trust her anymore."
"You're not the only one." Xander assured her.
"Fast growing club." Cordelia agreed.
An hour later Xander and Cordelia returned to pick up Willow and headed to Los Angeles. It had cost Xander a considerable amount of money, but he'd manged to get three seats on a red eye flight bound for New York. It wouldn't be much longer before they finally arrived at the institute.