A/N What we know about the Watchers Council from canon is contradictory, something I've noted before. Some 'revelations' in season 7 and apparently in the comics contradict information given as far back as season 1. The Guardian, who came out of nowhere, told Buffy the Scythe had been used to kill the last pure demon by a Slayer. But in season 1, Giles said the Slayer came after the creation of the vampires, who were created by the last Old One, before it was driven out. Granted, how did either the Watchers Council or the Guardian know either way? Neither explained how exactly they knew. They could both have been wrong or maybe it was just their beliefs with no facts to back up their claims. And the Guardian told Buffy the so-called wise men she met were the ancestors of the Watchers. An Organization that prior to that I understood to have been started something like 12 centuries or so before, based off a statement Quentin made during Buffy's Cruciamentum. Those 'revelations' haven't been made yet and for the purposes of this story, will never be made. I've got a somewhat different back story for the creation of the Slayer and the Watchers Council. 😙

And I did promise a competent Giles, eventually he'll get there. First I've got to get him to face a few facts.

Besides, I think Buffy's power speech during season 5 is actually closer to the truth. 😊

######

"We need to talk." Jenny grimly informed her boyfriend when he answered the door at her knock.

"I take it you went against my advice and told Buffy's mother the truth?" He asked, stepping aside so she could enter.

"Yes and she shares the kids' and my opinion that the creation of the Slayer is the act of cowards." Jenny said angrily. "I knew the Slayer existed, I grew up with Magic, but I never knew specifics until I met Buffy. Who the Hell gave anyone the right to do that to a child?! Who the Hell thought it was remotely a good idea?!" She demanded to know.

"Don't you dare judge what you don't understand." Giles warned. "Buffy's attitude baffles me, how she can not understand the honor of being Chosen - how any of you can fail to understand that honor -."

"What honor? Where's the honor of being a sacrifice?!"

"Not a sacrifice, humanity's defender!"

"She's both! And it's totally unnecessary, you should understand that. You know some Magic, you know the kind of power it would take to create the Slayer line. Anyone who had that kind of power was perfectly capable of fighting themselves! Anyone without power is perfectly capable. You've destroyed vampires and you're a middle age man with only a small amount of power, which you didn't even use when you destroyed said vampires, so how can you possibly justify what's been done to all those little girls?"

"Back when it first started they weren't considered little girls, they were considered adults."

"Not the point and you know it! Explain it to me, Rupert! Explain to me your justification for doing this to them!"

"There was a time when anyone chosen to be sacrificed would've considered it an honor. History alone tells us many faiths involved human sacrifice to safeguard the community." Giles tried a different tactic.

"It's a belief that no faith still holds to! And it still doesn't explain why!"

"The Council fights evil. The Slayer is the instrument with which we fight. The Council remains. The Slayers...change. It's been that way from the beginning."

"Please God, tell me that's not actually your belief! That you honestly believe the Slayer is an instrument, a tool, to be used and discarded? No more than a weapon you can aim at the demons? She's a human being!"

"There was also a time when human females weren't really considered human." Giles muttered.

"You want to throw history lessons at me? There are plenty of examples of matriarchal societies too, Rupert. I will grant that at one time what we consider a child today would have been considered an adult centuries ago and I will grant that some societies considered girls to be less than human, but none of it justifies turning anyone into a living weapon! Where is the logic in that!"

"That one with power, with strength, can do more than many without power or strength."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one or the few, to quote Spock of Vulcan."

"Who?"

"Soldier, philosopher, ambassador, scientist. Very attractive alien. Really, Rupert, leave the middle ages and come into the present. We have cookies!" Jenny tried to joke, but this attitude of his was just so frustrating. "From what I can see, you wanted someone else to do the actual fighting and for whatever reason, you chose a young girl. An endless stream of young girls denied a voice and only allowed to scream their pain as they die. It's sick and it's wrong and that you could ever be a party to it sickens me. You sound like a brainwashed fanatic in a cult! Buffy isn't an instrument. Buffy isn't a tool. Buffy is a sacrifice! Buffy is a human being, deserving of respect and love, not a disposable piece of trash! Take a good long look at what your so-called Council has done to the girl you're supposed to be guiding and tell me it's not a crime! And think about whether you really are fighting the war or continuing the crime." With a final glare Jenny Calendar slammed out of Rupert Giles' condo.

######

*A/N Direct quote by Quentin Travers to Buffy during the Council's review of Buffy.

"I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute...Alone."― Sineya, the first Slayer, describing what she became.