"I would've spared her facing Angelus if I could have," Giles said. "But I doubt at the time I could have managed an effective offensive against a fly, muchless a vampire. I tried to spare her going up against the Master as well." He gave a fond, bittersweet smile. "She knocked me cold with one sucker punch. She never did take well to people trying to decide what's best for her.

"Faith was a different thing," he added, thinking as much about himself and Ethan as about Buffy and Faith. "There are times that not facing something will break you more surely than anything else."