Truth and Myths
Chapter 1
Early November 2003
Los Angeles, California

Angel walked into a secret room in Wolfram and Hart. He wondered momentarily just how many of these rooms existed, how many he didn't know about. Angel observed through one way mirror a young unconscious woman in a room lying on a hospital bed. She was on a breathing machine and feeding tubes. The woman had long dark blonde dyed hair with light brown roots beginning to show. She was noticeably pregnant but not late term.

"An attractive girl, Angel. I can see why you fell for her." Eve said.

Angel grimaced and chose not to respond directly to her comment. "Her Watcher brought her here you said? Is he here now? I'd like to ask him some things."

"He said he would be returning momentarily. Yes, there he is now." Eve said as a seam suddenly opened in the wall behind Angel. It revealed an elevator he hadn't known about.

"Ah, you are here now, Angel" Rupert Giles stated. "I'm certain you have a number of questions. I am prepared to answer them, on one condition, you must not tell Spike of this no matter what. It is imperative he not know, both for the world and although I have doubts about this word applying to him, his own good."

Angel nodded and smiled blandly. Part of him leaped with joy that he knew Buffy Summers actual location now, and Spike would not. His kinder side though, felt it was somehow wrong for Spike not to know- especially if what he now suspected was true.

"As I'm sure you have guessed by now Buffy somehow became pregnant with Spike's child. My guess was it had something to do with that amulet you gave her." Giles frowned at Angel.

"Nevertheless what's done is done. Buffy kept this pregnancy secret from all of us until her condition became obvious. Then she announced it with an inexplicable giddiness that I found disturbing." Giles shuddered at the memory of that moment.

"I immediately began researching for some cause of this shocking event and what it could foretell. I'm afraid the prophecies are possibly quite bad, if this child is born, as I suspect, as a demonic human mix. If allowed to maturity it could possibly be an agent of cataclysmic destruction. I knew Buffy would never agree to get rid of this possibly dangerous offspring of Spike's. With help I was able to sedate her and bring her here. I knew no reputable hospital would agree to keep her under sedation for the term of this pregnancy. I am allowing the pregnancy to go to term here because it is possible the child may be normal, or perhaps beneficial if with the change in the Slayer line, the trait is now fully genetic." Giles smiled faintly.

"We have determined the fetus is female. From the prophecies that lessens the chances that it is a danger, and heightens the possibility that it is normal or beneficial. I have made you aware of this because you, unlike Buffy or Spike, would see the reason in this, and understand the need to destroy the creature if it is demonic." Giles looked Angel straight in the eyes with look of a man who had killed when he deemed it necessary. A look Angel knew he had worn many times.

Angel nodded at Giles again, but without a smile. He understood Giles' position, and saw the wisdom in it, but something about it seemed a bit off. Giles seemed a bit off.

Years ago Buffy had said something about Giles' strange past, and Angel had checked it out. Giles' had a wild youth and had adopted a persona called "Ripper" . Angel wondered if that this old self of Giles, when he had played with a dangerous demon that he allowed to regularly possess his body, had reinfected his soul. Perhaps Giles wasn't completely human anymore.