A/N Ep, I think you may have misunderstood the last paragraph, no decision has been made, all Giles said was that Fred could discuss her idea with Xander and the others, that's all. It's up to them to decide and it has nothing to do with the Watchers Council as Giles will not be telling them anything because it's not their business.
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"What about the books?" Fred asked.
"The pictures on the front of each book don't just represent Earth animals. When placed in order they are a wolf, a ram and a hart." Giles showed them the closed books, pointing at each picture on the covers.
"That's not a heart, Giles." Buffy corrected him. "That's some kind of deer, with those horns and all."
"Antlers and Hart, spelled hart." Giles corrected and informed her. "It's an archaic way of referring to a deer, usually a red deer, to be precise. And that's significant."
"Why?"
"Because the Wolf, capitalized, the Ram and the Hart, both also capitalized, are the names of old, very old, demons."
"Demons?" Buffy frowned. "How can demons have the name of animals?"
"I have no idea why they choose to call themselves that, Buffy." Giles replied. "But what is known is that those three demons specialize in corrupting people."
"And the demons of Pylea know about them?" Fred asked. "Maybe even are the reason there are humans in Pylea in the first place? And if they're known on Earth as well, than they might be how the slave collar equipment got to Pylea in the first place?"
Giles nodded, remembering Fred telling him about the slave collars and Hi-Tech equipment with a manufacturing mark from an Earth company.
"Possibly. I'd like to take these with me, back to the Council and see if their linguistics people can crack this language, it's possible these books contain information about those demons and their plans. Something that might help keep them from influencing and corrupting humans."
"Sure, I was just beginning to pick up the spoken language, I hadn't gotten anywhere on the written language yet." Fred agreed. "I knew the fact that they had pictures of Earth animals meant they had some kind of significance."
"Indeed, how much though we won't know until we can get them translated. Anyway, Fred, if you are interested in staying in Sunnydale and trying to help Xander and his friends, may I suggest you apply for the Librarian position I'll be vacating as of today?"
"Actually that's a great idea, I was working at the Library where I found the book that landed me in Pylea in the first place. Oh, you might want to have your people check for it, see if it's still there. To make sure no one else tries to read it and ends up in Pylea."
"Yes, an excellent idea." Giles agreed and Fred told him where in the Library she'd found it. "I'll recommend you as my replacement to the School Board today, Fred. And as for Xander and his friends, well Xander normally spends his free period studying here in the Library with Cordelia. It used to be just him studying, but since they started seeing each other, they study together. So they should be here shortly and you can discuss it with him then. Buffy, I'm sorry I've failed to be the Watcher you need me to be, if the Council gives me a second chance, perhaps in time I can make it up to you."
"Do you even want to, Giles? Don't you blame me for Ms. Calendar's death? I let Angelus go and I stopped you from destroying him, just like I stopped Xander. Xander's certain that you're not grateful that I stopped you, that you would have preferred to die if it meant you could take Angelus with you. Is that true?"
"I don't hate you, Buffy. You're right, I'm the adult, I should have made the decision to keep him out of your life and saved us all the pain Angelus inflicted on us. And Xander is also correct, I would not have minded dying to avenge Jenny if I could have taken Angelus with me."
Buffy silently absorbed that statement. She'd told Giles she needed him to help her, to help with everything and here he was telling her that he'd have welcomed death to avenge Ms. Calendar. She needed Giles because he was the only adult that she could depend on who knew the situation and all the players. Which was because Giles wouldn't let her tell her mother about any of it. If her mother knew, she could help her. She didn't know Sam Zabuto and she didn't know if she could trust him, he had made Kendra into that roboSlayer that told her emotions were weaknesses.
Fred was an adult who knew her situation and Fred was trying to figure out how to tell her parents why she'd been missing for months, how would she tell them when she finally did call them? Maybe Fred could give her some advice on talking to her own mother, because things couldn't go on the way they were. Her mother deserved answers and Buffy needed an adult she could depend on and her mother wanted to be someone she could depend on.
Maybe that started with trusting her mother with her biggest secret.
