A/N Syg, I tend to blame Giles too, he was the adult with the knowledge, the training and the experience and yet time after time he left them all vulnerable and never suggested protections of any sort. And too many times he was the reason they had a problem to deal with in the first place. When you think about it, how could he not know about something as basic as protections or not even suggest researching protections whenever it was discovered they'd been whammied? If the writers wanted to paint him as either incompetent or complicit they did a damn good job of it. Wesley had the same problem on Angel, he had the same training Giles apparently did, the Watchers established an Academy to teach their children and new members and both of them knew Magic. So why did the demons and bad guys, i.e. Lorne and the Sanctuary spell and Wolfram and Hart have protections but the good guys apparently never did?

Given the entire show involved an incompetent Watchers Council whose sole purpose seemed to be not fighting evil, but controlling a mystical weapon, the Slayer and the Slayer apparently being the only one fighting it makes you wonder if the spiel Wolfram and Hart fed Angel wasn't true, that the Earth on the show was actually a Hell dimension itself.

Which is a seriously scary thought and now I'm going back to my story, where the good guys are compentant, do figure things out, eventually act smart as they learn and grow and eventually win. 😆

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"It's not so much Xander this nebulous someone wants us to forget," Giles rubbed his eyes, hours of reading his journals had left his eyes dry and tired. "but what Xander has done to help with the Slaying, which seems to have been quite a bit." He sighed. "If what we've read in my journals is correct, he helped you more than anyone."

"But," Willow objected. "I don't understand how, I've known Xander since we were little kids, I know him better than anyone and I don't see how he managed these things. He's just not very smart or competent, at anything. He didn't even graduate High School!"

"Yes, he did." Tara held up a year book. "Giles has a copy of your year book, Xander's listed with the graduating class." She showed Willow the information in the book. "Part of the spell is blocking your memories of what he's done to help with the Slaying, which includes the battle against the Mayor. You've convinced yourself he didn't graduate based on the memory of him helping at the battle, which took place at your graduation, being one of the memories that's been blocked. You've likely convinced yourself of other things based on certain memories being blocked. But they're no more true than the belief that he's done nothing to help with the Slaying."

"It looks like it started a week after my Cruciamentum." Buffy grimaced, that was definitely not a pleasant memory, both she and her mother had nearly died because of the Council's damn 'test'. "I remember telling you I couldn't be helpless, a week later we discovered those Jhe demons in a cave outside town. Willow did a clouding spell to hide us from them while we attacked, Faith and I had to protect her. But we mocked Xander and I told him he should be 'fray adjacent' because he got knocked down. He tried to joke, but I remember the expression on his face, confused and hurt. And at the time I didn't care, I absolutely believed he was a problem and that he'd only become a bigger problem. What changed?"

"A clouding spell?" Tara asked. "And there are clouds around you guys heads, what if the spell did something more than was intended. Or maybe someone piggybacked their own spell on to it."

"You're saying I messed up the spell?" Willow growled, annoyed at having her competency called into question.

"You do mess up about half the time." Buffy pointed out. "This could just be one more example of that."

"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence, Buffy!" Willow glared at her. "I did not mess up the spell, it worked perfectly. But Tara could be right and someone might have piggybacked their own spell on it. I suggest research into how to break the spell, once we get our memories back we might know who actually is responsible."

"That's probably the best way to deal with this." Giles agreed. "Memory spells often have a focus, discovering and destroying the focus is the quickest way to break a memory spell. However, the castor likely has it with them and as we do not know their identity, we need to break the spell another way. I suggest we call it a night, as it's late and we're all tired. We can meet at the Magic Box and search through my books on Magic, there should be something that can help us."

"We don't have class tomorrow, it's Saturday." Willow agreed. "And we've all agreed to help run the register at the store, so we can take turns doing that while researching." Still stung over the idea that she'd messed up a spell.

"I need to do a sweep." Buffy stood up and stretched. "That demon that shot Xander may still be in town. And now I'm wondering why he shot Xander in the first place, I mean we thought it was because it saw him as a liability. But that belief is probably connected to the memory spell, so that suggests a different reason for it attacking Xander."

"Hm, yes something else to think about." Giles agreed as the girls trooped out.