"Twilight? Why do you ask?"
"Because we found an extensive study the Watchers Council had done after Wesley Wyndham-Price attempted to request help for Angel after he was poisoned by Faith. That was when they first realized a Slayer was actually involved with a vampire. Mr. Wyndham-Price had reported a vampire cursed with a soul was helping Miss Summers occasionally but he hadn't realized they were involved until then. They refused because they hoped he'd be destroyed by the poison, it didn't occur to them that Miss Summers would try to feed Faith to him or end up feeding herself to him. Someone apparently remembered a reference made to a prophecy involving a Slayer and a vampire and they researched it."
"It's a fairy tale, nothing more." Giles assured him.
"One you did your Masters Thesis at your Watchers Academy on. Yes, our investigation has been very thorough. They had decided Buffy couldn't be the Slayer in the prophecy because such a Slayer would be the next metaphysical step. Aaron had to explain that to me. Basically it would mean she'd have to be a higher level being."
"Buffy's human, not a higher being."
"Yes, a very damaged human. Seems there's a good number of them around you. The Echo of Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg and Buffy Summers. You ignored the Echo and Miss Rosenberg, well you allowed her to become a monster and you abandoned them after Buffy died and you buried her. But you came racing back when you heard she was alive again."
"She's very important to me."
"And yet you haven't visited her in the facility she's being treated in."
"I've been quite busy with the job I'm not allowed to quit with Demon Command."
"You haven't even called her or asked about her. It makes one wonder, after all, she's no longer a Slayer and Angel, the vampire with a soul, has been destroyed. If you thought they were the ones the prophecy spoke of, you must be so disappointed to know they're no longer able to fulfill it. But I'm wondering why you'd even think Buffy was the Slayer in the prophecy. Why would you think she was a higher level being?"
"I never said I did."
"No, you didn't. The debriefings have been very thorough, you know. I was very annoyed over the fact that Buffy was dealing with the Master herself, after all, it was her being there that allowed her blood to wake up the Seal and that allowed the First to form a connection between them. I questioned Corporal Harris as to how she came to be there in the first place. His answers were quite surprising."
"How so?" Giles shifted uncomfortably.
"You spoke to Angel about a supposedly lost book of prophecy about the Slayer, known as the Pergamon Codex, one he conveniently knew the location of. Very interesting coincidence, especially since the Watchers Council thought the Master had it, given his avid interest in prophecy. Add in the fact that Angel was part of his line and knew that and quite possibly knew where the book was. That whole thing screamed set up, but who set it up? Did the Master plant a false prophecy in the Codex? Did Angelus influence Angel? Or did you use the book and a supposed prophecy that no one else ever saw as a ruse to get Buffy to face the Master? You were the one who called Angel about the prophecy you supposedly found in the Codex, the one Buffy overheard you telling Angel about."
"I needed to discuss it with someone."
"Interesting you'd choose him, someone you barely knew and shouldn't have trusted, but she did. And the study the Watchers Council did mentioned that 'the queen is dead'. They wondered if that was a reference to Buffy dying at the hands of the Master, supposedly according to the prophecy in the Codex, but she was revived by human means. Their conclusion was that if she's a higher being, she'd have been able to revive herself, wouldn't she?"
"That's possible, I suppose. But being a higher being could be expressed in other ways."
"Yes, I'm sure they could. So on to the second time she was brought back to life and dug herself out of her grave. She was even more damaged and yet, once again, you chose to abandon her, someone you supposedly care about."
"I felt she was too dependent on me, she needed to learn to take care of herself and her sister."
"Just after crawling out of her grave, interesting that there was a second vampire hanging around when you left. After all, the study the Watchers Council did of the prophecy never said the vampire involved with the Slayer had to have a soul, did it?"
"No, I don't believe it did."
"And then Spike was flash fried in a pillar of fire and you found out your Slayer had been manipulated for years. Well, by some one besides you, that is."
"Why would you think I was manipulating her?"
"The study of the prophecy says the Slayer who would bring about Twilight would destroy the current world and give birth to the new world. Willingly. What sane person would willingly destroy the world? But a very damaged one might see it as a chance to start over. And there's the fact that this Slayer would supposedly be a god in this new world. What kind of person not only believes they'll become a god, but willingly destroys the current world to make it happen? Not a sane person, that's for damn sure."
"If I actually believed Buffy is the Slayer in question and helped her become such a person, what reason would be sufficient to make me do so?"
"Oh, Mr. Giles, you know exactly what reason would supposedly make it worthwhile, after all, you did your Masters Thesis on the prophecy. Apparently this new world, bought with the blood of seven billion people, would have no vampires, demons or Hellmouths in it."