"Where do I start? If you're watching this video tape then that means that you once again managed to save the world. Well, kinda. It's still in a sorry state it's it? Wars happening all over the place, humans killing humans. Parents abusing their children, homeless wandering the street. People going hungry. But no one is ruling over them all and bringing peace, of a sort, to them. I mean if they don't have to make decisions for themselves, isn't that a kind of peace? You stopped me. I defeated every single challenger from Balthazar to the Master, when I imprisoned him 70 odd years ago. Well, until the blond Slayer let him out. So how did a group of plucky little teenage do-gooders manage to stop me?"
Xander paused the tape and stared at the screen. "Please tell he's not about to do the villain monologue!"
"I think he's doing something a little more involved than that." Wesley said, staring at the screen himself. "Because he's right, it's ironic that a group that consists of mostly teenagers managed to stop a man who's defeated countless challengers, especially powerful challengers, over the course of a century. What made our group different than any of them?"
Silence from two stoney faced people as they contemplated Wesley words and then Xander pushed play again and the Mayor's monologue continued.
"You're probably wondering why I didn't use any of the substantial power and resources I had available to me to stop you in the two and half years since your group was founded. Take, for example, you Mr. Harris. Only child of two drunks, one of whom is abusive. Obviously I'm aware of those facts, so why didn't I have Social Services remove you from that unsavory environment and placed in foster care, perhaps in Los Angeles? Perhaps another me, in another reality did. You're a self professed scifi geek, you know that's entirely possible. Or had Miss Rosenberg's parents arrested for their near total abandonment of her? Had her placed in a different foster home. Cause you loose the only home you've ever known and the girl you consider a sister, not long after you lost the boy you considered a brother. You wouldn't have been able to save Miss Summers from her own folly, if I'd done that. She would have stayed dead and I would have destroyed old Heinrich myself, after all, I've gained in strength since I imprisoned him and he's stagnated."
Xander paused the tape again. "It doesn't make sense that he didn't do that, actually."
"You're right." Wesley agreed. "If he's that confident that he could have handled the Master himself and he thought your group, even in the early days, was a potential threat, why didn't he move to do something about you?"
"Let's see if he tells us or if we have to figure it out ourselves." Cordelia said and pushed the play button herself.
"And than there's the legal power I could have brought to bear against your group personally, not just to your families. Miss Rosenberg is a hacker, after all and that's a federal crime. Locked up in a federal security prison for a good decade, unable to get a job in anything computer related after being released. Or the crimes the rest of you are guilty of, trespassing, theft of a rocket launcher from the National Guard Base, illegal use of it, breaking and entering. Miss Summers could be charged with the deaths of Catherine Madison and others. So again, the question becomes, why didn't I have you arrested? Obviously I knew what you were doing and I could and may very well have, collected evidence of those crimes, just as I did for Angel and linked him to Angelus' crimes. But again, Mr. Harris' inspired idea to use that rocket launcher against the apocalypse demon known as the Judge saved the world. The very badly messed up world, with parents like yours, Mr. Harris, that get drunk and beat you and Miss Rosenberg's that leave her alone for months at a time. Is the world really worth saving with parents like that?"
This time Wesley paused the tape. "He's playing psychological games with you. Trying to undermine us, make us doubt ourselves, we can't let him. Focus on the good things about the world, what makes it worth living in and try to ignore the doubts he's creating."
"Should we stop watching it?" Xander asked.
"As hard and as painful as what he's saying is to hear," Cordelia said. "We do need to know why he didn't use the options he says he had available to him, why he didn't try to destroy our group when he had the chance."
"Cordelia is correct." Wesley nodded. "We just need to hold it together. Xander, I will share with you the fact that yours is not the only abusive father, mine was as well and he was not a drunk, he chose to be cruel. I refuse to let that dictate my life."
Xander nodded and held Cordelia's hand, she'd helped him deal with so much already and her tight grasp told him, she would help him deal with this as well. He pushed the play button and the Mayor's monologue continued.