"No harm at all," he replied quietly -- even wistfully. Jack liked the softer sides of Buffy Summers. He used to crave them after so much hardness. But they were, he knew, just a part of her. Just a facet.

"But I don't think being soft means you're not the best you. Is there a best Annie? You're you. You're her."

He reached up to touch her cheek. "And you'll be you when you're all old and wrinkly with no teeth. Or if you lost a leg like Sal. Or....other things."

He thought of Lorelai on the draft and almost smiled. That woman, he knew, had remained purely assuredly herself no matter what physical changes she had endured.

Still -- power caps -- Jack couldn't deny it. Those? Scary. Truly scary. The only biting fear he'd felt on any given draft or experiment or mission -- ever since the farmlands battle -- had been that Buffy Summers would lose her supernatural advantages and be at another's mercy.

And those others? Were not merciful.