Introduction
Season:
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh
Other Bodies | Episodes | Dramatis Personae
Ramblings | Links | Fanfic
| Out of Mind, Out of Sight | When She Was Bad |
“You know how I feel about you,” says Xander. “It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? There’s never been anyone else for me…but you.” Willow sits with him in the Bronze listening intently. “And we’re good friends, and it’s time to take the next step. Would you, um…date me? Oh that’s good! ‘Date me!’ It’s terrible, right?”
“Huh?” asks Willow, “Oh, no! Oh, yes, ‘date me’ is silly.”
“See, what I should do is I should just start with talking about the dance,” says Xander. “Y’know, Buffy, Spring Fling just isn’t any dance. It’s a time for students to choose a mate and then we can…observe their…mating rituals and tag them before they migrate! Just kill me!”
“You’re doing fine!” says Willow.
“Why’s it so hard? I should just walk up to her and say, ‘Hey, I like you. Let’s go to the dance together.’”
“Direct and to the point.”
“I’m ready. I wanna do it now. I gotta do it now.”
“Buffy’s not here,” says Willow. “You can practice on me some more.”
“No, no, I can’t wait until tomorrow, I’ll be thinking about it too much. Why didn’t Buffy show up tonight? What’s she doing?”
“Oh, you know: the usual.”
Buffy gets thrown to the ground in the park. In a nearby car with steamed up windows, Cordelia pulls away from her new boyfriend, Kevin, wondering what the noise was. Kevin didn’t hear anything.
The vampire steps toward Buffy. It’s confident that this little girl won’t present any problems. It smiles.
Buffy rolls to her feet, pulls a stake out of her jacket, and smiles back. The vampire sees her smile and the stake, and realizes that it may have seriously miscalculated. It snarls and charges at her.
Buffy gives the vampire a couple of quick kicks to its head, and then plunges her stake into its heart. The vampire explodes into dust.
Buffy has a quick look around to see if there were any witnesses, or any more vampires in the vicinity. “Three in one night,” she tells herself. “Giles would be so proud.”
Giles is working late in his office, reading from the Pergamum Codex. He becomes excited as he translates a passage from the Greek text: “Yes, yes, this is it! ‘The Master shall rise, and the Slayer…’” He really doesn’t like what it says next. “My god!”
Giles reaches for the cup of tea sitting on his desk. He stops when he notices it vibrating. The strength of the vibration grows, and the tea cup slides off his desk. His office bookshelves start to rock as the earthquake grows in intensity.
Willow and Xander take refuge under the stairs in the Bronze.
Cordelia and Kevin stop kissing in her car.
Buffy looks around as the trees in the park sway around her.
Giles goes to stand in his office doorway. A crack opens up in the library floor, and several of the bookshelves in the library stacks fall over.
In his lair beneath the school the Master is ecstatic. “Yes! Yes! Shake earth!” He raises his hands up over his head. “This is a sign! We are in the final days! My time has come! Glory! Glory!”
The Master looks over at the Anointed One, who is sitting nearby looking considerably less enthusiastic about what’s happening. “What do you think? 5.1?”
Buffy drops by the library next morning to report on last night’s patrol, and finds Giles in the book cage sorting through some of his older volumes. She notices the damage to the library, and asks if they’re safe in there. Giles looks at her with a strange expression on his face. Buffy wonders of she has something on her face.
Giles tells Buffy that her face is fine, and that they are safe, but it is probably best if she stays out of the stacks. He goes back to looking through his books. Buffy notices that Giles didn’t get much sleep last night. He tells her he’s been working.
“Me, too. I went hunting last night, and it is awfully sweet of you to ask.” Buffy tells him about killing the three vampires, one of which was almost on school property. Vampires have been getting more numerous lately, and Buffy is getting worried.
Giles isn’t paying much attention to her. His mind seems to be somewhere else.
“Giles, care? I’m putting my life on the line battling the undead.” She holds up a finger. “Look, I broke a nail, okay? I’m wearing a press-on. The least you could do is exhibit some casual interest. You could go ‘hmm.’”
“Hmm?” asks Giles, and Buffy rolls her eyes. “Oh, sorry. Um, yes, I’m very glad that you’re all right. I need to verify, um…I just can’t really talk right now.” He turns back to his books.
“Fine,” says Buffy. “That’s okay. I can’t put it off any longer. I have to meet my terrible fate.”
Giles spins around. “What?”
“Biology,” says Buffy.
Buffy, Xander and Willow walk down the steps from the balcony overlooking the school courtyard after an especially boring Biology class. Even Willow had been bored by it. Xander reminds Willow that she has a “thing” she has to go to. Willow gets the message, and departs, leaving Buffy and Xander alone together.
Xander tells Buffy that there’s something he wants to talk to her about, and leads her to a bench in the courtyard. He evicts the guy who is sitting on it and they sit down.
Xander starts into one of his prepared speeches. “You know, Buffy, uh, Spring Fling is a time for students to gather and…Oh, god!” He gives up on the speech and switches to the direct approach. “Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date.”
Buffy is taken totally by surprise. She doesn’t know what to say.
Xander takes that for a good sign. At least she didn’t laugh. “Buffy, I like you, a lot. And I know we’re friends, and we’ve had experiences. We’ve fought some blood-sucking fiends, and that’s all been a good time. But I want more. I want to dance with you.”
“Xander, you’re one of my best friends,” says Buffy. “You and Willow…”
“Well, Willow’s not looking to date you. Or if she is, she’s playing it pretty close to the chest.”
“I don’t want to spoil the friendship that we have,” says Buffy.
“Well, I don’t want to spoil it either, but that’s not the point, is it? You either feel a thing or you don’t.”
Buffy looks away from Xander for a moment. She doesn’t want to hurt him, but she can’t lead him on either. She looks back at him. “I don’t. Xander, I’m sorry. I just don’t think of you that way.”
“Well, try,” says Xander. “I’ll wait.”
“Xander.”
“Nyah. Forget it.” Xander gets up off the bench. “I’m not him, and I guess a guy’s gotta be undead to make time with you.”
“That’s really harsh,” says Buffy.
“Look, I’m sorry,” says Xander. “I don’t handle rejection well. Funny! Considering all the practice I’ve had, huh?”
“Xander, I’m sorry,” says Buffy. “I don’t know—”
“Hey, you know what? Let’s just not.” Xander turns and walks away. Buffy watches him leave.
Giles is on the phone in his office when Jenny Calendar comes in. She stands in the doorway behind him, holding a file folder, waiting for him to finish.
“I need to see you,” Giles tells the person on the other end. “No, I realize that. Come after sundown. … Good. I’ll see you then.” He hangs up the phone.
“You know that outfit looks just like the one you wore yesterday,” says Jenny. “Only wrinklier. Were you here all night?”
Giles looks around and sees her. He tells her he really isn’t in the mood for socializing right now.
That’s fine with Jenny. She’s there on business. “Something’s going on, Rupert, and I’m guessing you already know what it is.”
Giles looks at Jenny in surprise, and asks what she knows.
Jenny puts her folder down on his desk and starts pulling items out of it. She has been surfing the net, looking for unexplained incidents. People are always sending stuff her way, they know the occult is her turf. “Now, here is the latest: a cat last week gave birth to a litter of snakes. A family was swimming in Whisper Lake when the lake suddenly began to boil. And at Mercy Hospital last night, a boy was born with his eyes facing inward.” She looks up at Giles. “I’m not stupid. This is apocalypse stuff. Throw in last night’s earthquake, and I’d say we’ve got a problem. I would say the end is pretty seriously nigh.”
Giles has taken all this in without any comment. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“I helped you cast that demon out of the Internet,” says Jenny. “I think that merits some trust. Look, I’m scared, okay? Oh, plus, I’ve got this crazy monk emailing me from Cortona about some Anointed One?”
That gets Giles’ attention. “The Anointed One? He’s dead!” He tells Jenny to get in touch with this monk, Brother Luca, and learn all she can from him.
“Look, Rupert, you haven’t told me jack, so what’s with the orders?”
“Just do it!” says Giles. “I’ll explain later.”
“You better,” says Jenny.
Cordelia is organizing things for the Spring Fling. The Bronze isn’t letting them use their sound system so she arranges for Kevin and some friends to move the equipment from the school’s AV room. She spots Willow coming around the corner. Cordelia calls out to her and says bye to Kevin as Willow comes over to see what she wants.
“Willow! I really like your outfit!” says Cordy.
“No, you don’t,” says Willow.
“No, I really don’t, but I need a favour.” Cordelia tells Willow that she needs someone who knows how to set up the school’s sound system at the Bronze. “If you could just show up tomorrow morning I’d be really, really grateful! I mean, I’d talk to you at the dance and everything.”
Willow has noticed Xander in a nearby classroom, sitting on desk, bouncing a ball off the blackboard. She absent mindedly agrees to meet with Cordy at the Bronze the next morning. Cordelia leaves, and Willow goes to talk to Xander. She asks him how it went.
Xander continues to throw his ball. “On a scale of one to ten, it sucked. Well, I guess it could be worse. I could have gangrene on my face.”
“Well, what’d she say?” asks Willow.
“Apart from ‘no’, does it really matter?” asks Xander. “She’s still jonesing for Angel, and could care less about me.”
“At least now you know,” says Willow.
“Yeah, you’re right. The deal’s done. The polls are in, and it’s time for my concession speech.” Xander gets a new idea. “Hey, I know what we’ll do! We can go! Be my date! We’ll have a great time! We’ll dance. We’ll go wild. What do you say?”
“No,” says Willow.
“Good!” says Xander, then what she said registers. “What?”
“There’s no way,” says Willow. “You think I wanna go to the dance with you and watch you wish you were at the dance with her? You think that’s my idea of hijinks? You should know better.”
“I didn’t think.”
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. I’ll see you on Monday.” Willow leaves the classroom.
“That’s okay,” Xander tells himself. “I don’t wanna go. I’m just gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music. The music of pain.”
Buffy prepares to leave school that evening. She stops in the washroom to clean up. When she turns on the tap, blood comes from it.
“Giles, you are not gonna believe this!” Buffy tells herself as she enters the library. She hears Giles talking with someone in his office so she pauses to see who it is before barging in. She is pleased to see it’s Angel. They don’t notice her.
“It can’t be.” Angel tells Giles. “You’ve got to be wrong. There’s got to be some way around it.”
“Listen,” says Giles. “Some prophecies are a bit dodgy. They’re mutable. Buffy herself has thwarted them time and time again, but this is the Codex. There is nothing in it that does not come to pass.”
“Then you’re reading it wrong,” says Angel.
“I wish to god I were!” says Giles. “But it’s very plain! Tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master, and she will die!”
Buffy laughs. What else can she do? Giles and Angel turn, and see her standing in the doorway. Buffy turns away from Giles’ office and walks out into the library. Giles and Angel follow her.
“So that’s it, huh?” asks Buffy. “I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, next one’s called. Wonder who she is?” She turns back and looks at Giles. “Will you train her? Or will they send someone else? Does it say how he’s gonna kill me? Do you think it’ll hurt?”
Angel tries to go to Buffy, to give her a hug, but she pushes him away. “Don’t touch me!” She looks at Giles. “Were you even gonna tell me?”
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to,” says Giles. “That there was… some way around it. I…”
“I’ve got a way around it,” says Buffy. “I quit!”
“It’s not that simple,” says Angel.
“I’m making it that simple!” says Buffy. “I quit! I resign, I’m fired. You can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over!”
“I’m not sure that anyone else can,” says Giles. “All the signs indicate—”
“The signs?” Buffy grabs a book off the table and throws it at the door frame beside Giles’ head. “Read me the signs!” She throws another book. “Tell me my fortune! You’re so useful sitting here with all your books! You’re really a lot of help!”
“No, I don’t suppose I am,” says Giles.
“I know this is hard,” says Angel.
“What do you know about this?” asks Buffy. “You’re never gonna die!”
“You think I want anything to happen to you?” asks Angel. “Do you think I could stand it? We just gotta figure out a way—”
“I already did,” says Buffy. “I quit, remember? Pay attention!”
“Buffy, if the Master rises…” says Giles.
“I don’t care!” Buffy rips her cross necklace from around her neck. “I don’t care,” she says again, trying to convince herself. “Giles, I’m sixteen years old. I don’t wanna die.” Tears fill her eyes. She throws her necklace onto the floor, turns, and walks away. Giles and Angel don’t know what they can do. They just watch her go.
Willow sits at her desk at home reading a book. Her mind isn’t on it though. She looks at a photo of her and Xander she has set on a shelf, and picks up her phone to call him.
Xander is lying on his bed listening to Patsy Kline’s I Fall to Pieces when his phone rings. He just picks the receiver up, and sets it back down again, cutting off the call. He takes the receiver off hook.
Buffy sits on her bed, listening to sad music, and looking through a photo album. Joyce comes in. “Hi, honey. You all right?”
Buffy doesn’t look up. “Sure.”
“Probably just full from that bite of dinner you nearly had.” says Joyce. “Feel like telling me what’s on your mind?”
Buffy suddenly turns around. “Mom, let’s go away! All weekend! It’ll be great! You and me, a mother-daughter thing. We can talk about all the embarrassing things you love to bring up.”
“You know the gallery’s open on weekends,” says Joyce.
“Mom, please!”
“Isn’t the Prom tomorrow night?” asks Joyce “Or Spring Fling, whatever they’re calling it?”
Buffy seems to be a little confused. “I-I guess.”
Joyce thinks she knows what’s bothering Buffy. “Nobody asked you?”
Buffy looks away. “Oh, someone…”
“But not the right someone,” says Joyce. “See, sometimes I actually do know what you’re thinking. Well, then, this probably isn’t the best time for this, but…” She goes to Buffy’s closet and opens the door, revealing a white evening gown. “I saw you eyeing it at the store, I figured…”
Buffy stands up and looks at the dress. “Mom, we can’t afford this.”
“The way you’ve been eating, we can afford it.”
Buffy goes to her closet for a closer look. “It’s beautiful.”
“I think you should wear it,” says Joyce. “To the dance.”
Buffy shakes her head. “No, I-I can’t go to the dance.”
“Says who?” asks Joyce. “Is it written somewhere? You should do what you want. Homecoming, my freshman year of college. I didn’t have a date, so I got dressed up and I went anyway.”
“Was it awful?” asks Buffy.
“It was awful,” says Joyce. “For about an hour.”
“Then what happened?”
“I met your father.”
“He didn’t have a date either?”
“He did. And that’s a much funnier story that you will not get to hear. Oh, but it was a beautiful night!”
“You had your whole life ahead of you.”
“Yeah,” says Joyce.
Buffy looks at the dress. “Must be nice.”
Cordelia and Willow arrive at the school next morning. Kevin and the others didn’t deliver the sound system to the Bronze like they were supposed to. Cordelia is surprised by how not-angry she is at Kevin. She thinks it’s cute. They reach the AV room. They look through the window in the door and see The Three Little Pigs playing on the TV, and the backs of the heads of a couple of guy’s sitting on the sofa.
“There they are!” says Cordelia. “They’re watching cartoons. That’s so cu— That’s not cute. That’s annoying. I’m annoyed.”
“Right,” says Willow. “I’m furious.”
“Men,” says Cordelia. “I don’t know why we put up with them.”
“I hear you,” says Willow.
“Obviously, Kevin has underestimated the power of my icy stare.” Cordelia opens the door.
Kevin’s body, which had been leaning against the door, falls out into the hallway at Cordelia’s feet. There are bite marks on his neck.
Cordelia screams. “Oh, my god! Kevin!” She kneels down beside his body. “No!”
Willow steps into the AV room, and looks around. She takes in the details she hadn’t noticed when looking through the window. The two guys who had looked like they were sitting on the sofa watching the TV are dead. There’s a girl’s body lying on the floor in front of the sofa, and another one leaning against the wall at the back of the room. The table in front of the sofa is broken, and there are books and things scattered around on the floor. There’s a bloody hand print on the TV screen.
Buffy is trying on her new dress when her mother bursts into her room. “Buffy! There’s something on the news! Willow!”
The sun is just setting when Buffy arrives at Willow’s. She is still wearing her new dress, with Angel’s leather jacket over it.
Willow is sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up, hugging them. “I’ve seen so much. I thought I could take anything. But, Buffy, this was different.”
Buffy sits down on the end of her bed. “It’ll be alright.”
“I’m trying to think how to say it,” says Willow. “To explain it so you’ll understand.”
“It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re okay,” says Buffy.
“I’m not okay,” says Willow. “I knew those guys. I go to that room every day. And when I walked in there, it wasn’t our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun. What are we going to do?”
“What we have to.” Buffy gets to her feet. “Promise me you’ll stay in tonight, okay?”
Willow gives Buffy a nod, and Buffy starts to go.
“Buffy?” asks Willow.
Buffy stops and looks back.
“I like your dress.”
Buffy gives Willow a bit of a smile. “Take care.” She goes.
The Master’s moment is approaching. He sends the Anointed One away on his mission.
Jenny watches Giles pack weapons into a bag in the library. “Okay, so this Master guy tried to open the Hellmouth, but he got stuck in it, and now all the signs are reading that he’s going to get out, which opens the Hellmouth, which brings the demons, which ends the world.”
“Yes,” says Giles. “That sums it up.”
“The part that gets me though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer,” says Jenny. “She’s so little.”
Giles wants to know if Jenny had any luck contacting Brother Luca. She hasn’t. She did get one last message from him, a short one.
“What did it say?” asks Giles.
“Isaiah 11:6,” says Jenny. “Which I dutifully looked up.” She picks up a Bible and opens it to a page she has bookmarked.
She needn’t have bothered. Giles has that one memorised. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf, the lion and the fatling together, and the little child shall lead them.”
Jenny thinks it sounds a little warm and fuzzy for a message of doom.
“That depends on where he’s leading them to,” says Giles. “Aurelius wrote of the Anointed One: ‘The Slayer will not know him, and he will lead her into hell.’”
Jenny thinks that they should warn Buffy that the Anointed may be a kid, but Giles doesn’t plan to involve her at all. He’s going to go up against the Master himself.
“No you’re not!” says Buffy. Giles spins around and sees her standing by the book checkout counter. “So I’m looking for a kid huh? And he’ll lead me to the Master?”
Giles tries to tell Buffy that he isn’t going to let her go out to die. “You were right. I’ve waded around in these old books for so long, I’ve forgotten what the real world is like. It’s time I found out.”
“You’re still not going up against the Master,” says Buffy.
“I’ve made up my mind!” says Giles.
“So have I,” says Buffy.
“I made up my mine first!” says Giles. He realizes how silly that sounds, and switches to a different tack. “I’m older and wiser than you, and just do what you’re told for once! All right?”
“That’s not how it goes,” says Buffy. “I’m the Slayer.”
“I don’t care what the books say,” says Giles. “I defy prophecy, and I am going. There’s nothing you can say will change my mind.”
“I know,” says Buffy. She turns away from him. Giles is a little surprised that Buffy has given in so easily. Buffy hasn’t given in though. She has just stopped arguing. She spins back around, and lands a single punch to Giles’ jaw. Giles goes down.
Jenny rushes to check Giles, while Buffy picks up her necklace off the table and puts it back on. She looks down at Jenny and Giles on the floor. “When he wakes up tell him…I don’t know. Think of something cool, tell him I said it.”
“You fight the Master, and you’ll die,” says Jenny.
“Maybe.” Buffy picks up the crossbow and looks at it. “Maybe I’ll take him with me.”
Buffy leaves the school. She finds the Anointed one waiting outside for her. “Help me!” he says.
“It’s okay,” says Buffy. “I know who you are.” The Anointed One offers Buffy his hand, and leads her away.
Willow and Xander join Giles and Jenny in the library. Giles is holding an ice pack against his jaw. Xander wants to know what they’re going to do.
“We stay clam,” says Giles. “First thing.”
“Calm?” asks Xander. “I’m sorry, calm may work for Locutus of the Borg here, but I’m freaked out, and I intend to stay that way. How could you let her go?”
“As the soon to be purple area of my jaw will attest,” says Giles. “I did not ‘let’ her go!”
Willow wants to find some way to help Buffy, but Jenny points out that they also have an apocalypse to avert.
“How come she’s in the club?” asks Willow.
“Hey!” says Jenny. “Once the Master gets free, the Hellmouth opens, the demons come to party, and everybody dies.”
“I don’t care,” says Xander. “I’m sorry, I don’t. Right now I gotta help Buffy.”
“We don’t even know where she’s gone,” says Giles.
“No,” says Xander. “But I can find out.” He leaves the library.
The Anointed One shows Buffy through the tunnels to the entrance to the Master’s lair. He stays outside when she enters it.
There’s a knock on Angel’s door. He opens it. “Well, look who’s here.”
“Mind if I come in?” Xander walks in without waiting for Angel’s answer. He tells Angel that Buffy has gone to fight the Master.
“He’ll kill her,” says Angel.
“Rumour has it,” says Xander. “Only we’re not gonna let it happen.”
Angel wants to know what Xander plans to do about it. Xander tells him that he wants Angel to lead him to the Master’s lair. He is pretty sure Angel knows where it is.
Even if Angel agrees to lead Xander to the Master’s lair, he doesn’t think much of Xander’s chances. “The Master’ll kill you before you can even breathe. If you’re lucky.”
“How can I say this clearly?” Xander pulls out a cross and shoves it at Angel’s face. “I don’t like you.” He advances toward Angel, who retreats until he’s backed up onto his sofa. “At the end of the day, I pretty much think you’re a vampire.” Xander lowers his cross. “But Buffy’s got this big old yen for you. She thinks you’re a real person. And right now I need you to prove her right.”
“You’re in love with her,” says Angel.
“Aren’t you?” asks Xander.
Giles, Jenny and Willow are working in the library, trying to figure out just what will happen when the Master rises.
“Okay, here’s my question,” says Jenny. “The Hellmouth opens.”
Giles looks at her expectantly.
“Where?” asks Jenny. “If he’s underground, and it’s right where he is, where’s it going to open?”
Giles thinks that’s a good question. He hands Jenny a copy of the Black Chronicles for her to look through and asks Willow to search the local histories. “Check on any common denominators, locations of incidents and such.”
Buffy enters the Master’s lair, her crossbow held ready. She looks around but she doesn’t see him.
He’s there though. “Welcome,” he tells her.
Buffy looks around, but she still can’t see him. “Thanks for having me. Y’know, you really ought to talk to your contractor. Looks like you got some water damage.”
“Oh, good,” says the Master. “The feeble banter portion of the fight. Why don’t we just cut to the—”
Buffy spins toward the sound of the Master’s voice, and fires her crossbow.
The Master snatches the bolt out of the air just before it hits his chest. “Nice shot.”
Xander and Angel are in the tunnels, heading toward the Master’s lair. Angel points the way down a side tunnel. He notices the look Xander is giving him. “What?”
“You were looking at my neck,” says Xander.
“What?” asks Angel.
“You were checking out at my neck!” says Xander. “I saw that! Just keep your distance, pal.”
“I wasn’t looking at your neck!” says Angel.
“I told you to eat before we left,” says Xander.
Buffy reloads her crossbow as the Master snaps her first arrow in his fingers. He tells her she isn’t going to be able to kill him with that thing.
“Don’t be so sure,” says Buffy. She glances down at the bow as she nocks another arrow. When she looks up the Master has vanished again.
“You still don’t understand your part in all this, do you?” The Master’s voice echos out of the darkness, making it impossible for Buffy to tell where it is coming from. “You are not the hunter. You are the lamb.”
Giles, Willow and Jenny aren’t having any luck.
“Well, let’s think about this, then,” says Giles. “The vampires have been gathering. They know he’s coming. They will be his army.”
“You think they’ll try to gather at the Hellmouth?” asks Jenny.
“Well, the last time the Master tried to rise was the Harvest,” says Willow. “He sent a bunch of vampires to get him fresh blood.”
“Well, where did that go down?” asks Jenny.
“The Bronze,” says Giles.
“The Prom!” says Willow.
“We have to warn them.” Giles starts to get to his feet.
Jenny waves him back. “No! We’ll go. You have to concentrate on demon killing. My car’s in the lot,” she tells Willow.
Giles tells them to stay together, and be careful.
Buffy searches for the Master in his lair. “You know, for someone who’s all powerful, you sure do like to hide.”
“I’m waiting for you,” says his voice from the darkness. “I want this moment to last.”
“Well I don’t,” says Buffy.
The Master appears behind Buffy. “I understand.”
Buffy whirls around. The Master knocks the crossbow away from her and grabs her by the neck.
Willow and Jenny head for Jenny’s old Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot. Willow wonders what they’ll do if the vampires get to the Bronze ahead of them.
Jenny stops. “Don’t need to worry about that!”
“Why not?” asks Willow.
“’Cause they’re not going to the Bronze,” says Jenny. Several vampires have just appeared out of the darkness. She and Willow turn back toward the school, but they see more vampires have cut them off. They’re surrounded.
Buffy breaks free from the Master’s grip on her neck and tries to flee. He stops her with a gesture, freezing her in her tracks. He approaches her, and she still can’t move.
The Master steps behind Buffy and takes Angel’s leather jacket off her shoulders. “You tried. It was noble of you. You heard the prophecy that I was about to break free and you came to stop me. But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don’t tell you everything.” He leans down and whispers in her ear. “You’re the one that sets me free! If you hadn’t come, I couldn’t go. Think about that!”
The Master sinks his teeth into Buffy’s neck. Her blood fills him with power. When he has drunk enough he drops her unconscious body. “By the way, I like your dress.” Buffy falls face down into a pool of water.
There is a brilliant flash of light when the Master bursts through the barrier which has kept him trapped for all these years.
Xander and Angel are just outside the lair, and see the flash.
“What was that?” asks Xander.
“It’s too late,” says Angel. “He’s gone up.”
They run into the lair. Angel sees Buffy in the pool of water and runs to pull her out. He listens for her breath, and puts his hand on her wrist to feel for a pulse. He looks up at Xander. “She’s dead.”
Xander doesn’t want to believe it. Angel tells him that Buffy isn’t breathing.
“But if she drowned, there’s a shot!” says Xander. “CPR!”
Angel looks up at Xander. “You have to do it. I have no breath.”1
Angel lays Buffy on the ground, and Xander takes off his jacket and covers her with it. He blows into her mouth, and then starts the chest compressions.
Willow and Miss Calendar look around, trying to find a way to escape from the vampires that have surrounded them. It arrives in an unlikely form. Cordelia’s car screeches to a halt behind them. “Get in!”
Xander continues to do CPR. “Come on! Breathe! Breathe!” he urges Buffy. “Come on!” She doesn’t seem to be responding.
Xander’s starting to give up hope, when suddenly Buffy’s eyes open, and she gasps for breath. She starts to cough, and spits water out of her mouth.
Xander gently strokes her forehead. “Buffy.”
Buffy looks up at him. “Xander?”
“Welcome back.”
Willow and Jenny hurry to get into Cordy’s car. Miss Calendar wants to know what they should do next.
“We have to get to the library!” says Willow. A vampire jumps onto the roof of the car.
“The library! Great!” says Cordelia, and guns the engine. She spins her car around, throwing the vampire off the roof, and heads for the doors into the school.
“Of course, we generally walk there,” says Willow when she realizes that Cordelia isn’t planning on stopping. A pair of vampires who are standing in front of the school doors figure out the same thing, and leap out of the way. Cordy’s car smashes through the doors.
“What the…?” asks Giles when he hears the car smashing through the doors.
Cordy’s car smashes through a second set of doors, and squeals to a halt in the hallway outside the library. Cordelia, Willow and Jenny jump out of the car and run inside. They close the doors behind them and try to hold them against the vampires who have followed the car into the school. The vampires smash the windows in the doors and try to reach inside.
“What’s happening?” asks Giles.
“Guess!” says Jenny.
Giles lays the magazine shelf onto the floor in front of the doors, and looks for something else to use to barricade them. Willow picks up the library hours sign, and uses it to beat on the arms of the vampires reaching through the broken windows. Giles takes the sign from her and shoves its stand through the door handles, barring the doors closed. He pushes the photocopier over in front of the doors. “Why are they coming here?”
None of them notice a tentacle starting to work its way out through the crack in the library floor opened by the earthquake.
The Master steps out onto the school roof above the library, and has his first look around at the outside world in over sixty years. “My world! My beautiful world!”
Angel and Xander help Buffy to her feet. They tell her that the Master has gone up. Buffy’s ready to go after him but Angel and Xander think she should rest first. She’s still weak.
“No No,” says Buffy, “I feel strong, I feel different.” She looks around at them. “Let’s go.” She leads them out.
Giles, Willow, Jenny and Cordy pile more stuff in front of the library doors. They hear some more vampires coming in the back way through the stacks, and Willow and Jenny go to barricade that route using some bookcases. More start breaking in through the windows in Giles’ office. He leaves Cordy to hold the doors, and goes to stop them.
Willow and Jenny don’t see a tentacle moving toward Willow’s foot as they try to hold the bookcases against the door from the stacks.
A vampire reaches in through one of the broken windows in the library doors and grabs at Cordelia’s arm.
Cordy screams. “Somebody help!”
Buffy, Angel and Xander march toward the school.
“So, how do you know where the Master’s going?” asks Xander.
“I know,” says Buffy.
A vampire appears in their path, and tries to block them.
“Oh, look, a bad guy,” says Buffy. She knocks it aside without breaking stride.
They enter the school, and proceed to the stairway leading up to the rooftop. The door has been broken open. Buffy leaves Xander and Angel there to guard her back. Angel morphs into his game face.
“One way or another, this won’t take long.” Buffy goes up to meet the Master again.
Cordelia bites the hand of the vampire holding her arm. It yells and lets go of her. “See how you like it!” she says.
Vampires batter at the bookcases that Willow and Jenny are trying to hold over the entrance into the library stacks. Willow doesn’t think they can hold them off for long. She soon discovers that the vampires are the least of her worries. The tentacle wraps itself around her foot, and starts to pull her away. Willow screams. Jenny grabs her, and calls for Giles.
Giles runs out of his office in time to see a multi-headed hydra like demon break through the library floor. “The Hellmouth!”
The Master looks down through the library skylight, enjoying the show. “Yes. Come forth, my child. Come into my world.”
“I don’t think it’s yours just yet.”
The Master spins around and sees Buffy. “You’re dead!”
“I may be dead,” says Buffy, “but I’m still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you.”
“You were destined to die! It was written!”
“What can I say?” Buffy shrugs. “I flunked the written.”
The Master gestures toward her. “Come here!”
The Hellmouth demon’s tentacle pulls Willow toward one of its many mouths. Jenny tries to hold her back, and calls for Giles.
Giles grabs a battle axe off the table and attacks the demon head that is threatening Willow.
The Master’s power draws Buffy close to him. She tries to hold back, but it seems futile. He puts his hand around her throat. “Did you really think you could best me here when you couldn’t below?” He lets go of her.
Buffy looks up at him, and cocks her head. “You have fruit punch mouth.”
“What?” asks the Master.
Buffy punches him and knocks him down. “Save the hypnosis crap for the tourists.” She gives him a kick in the head as he gets back to his feet.
The Master lashes out at Buffy, raking his claws across her chest, leaving angry red welts. She swings a couple more punches at him, but this time he’s ready, and blocks them. He punches Buffy back against the wall behind her.
Giles swings another blow at the demon’s head with his axe. The demon knocks him flying across the railing. The library table shatters when he lands on it.
Xander and Angel guard the stairway up to the roof. They’re attacked by a vampire. Angel tosses it to the floor. A second vampire grabs Xander from behind and tries to bite his neck. Xander brings his cross up into her face, forcing her to retreat.
Angel stakes the vampire he was fighting, and Xander punches the vampire that had attacked him away.
One of the demon’s heads goes for Giles, who is lying amid the broken wreckage of the table, while a second is still trying to pull Willow into it’s mouth.
Buffy flips over top of the Master, and kicks him in the back. It doesn’t seem to have much effect on him. He spins around and grabs her by the throat. “Where are your jibes now? Will you laugh when my hell is on earth?”
Buffy glances down through the skylight, and sees the broken table. One of the shards of it is very sharp, and pointed straight up. “You’re that amped about Hell?” She grabs the Master by his throat. “Go there!” She flips him over and down through the skylight.
The Master falls through the library skylight, and onto the broken shard of the table, which impales him through the back, and sticks out of his chest. He screams. Giles, Jenny, Willow and Cordy watch as he disintegrates. He doesn’t turn entirely to dust though. He leaves his skeleton behind.
The Hellmouth demon screams with the Master’s death, and withdraws back through the hole in the library floor.
Cordelia pushes aside the last of the items barricading the library doors and lets Buffy, Angel, and Xander in. With the Master’s death, all of the vampires which had been attacking them retreated, and the Hellmouth closed.
Buffy walks up to the Master’s skeleton and stares at it.
Giles asks Buffy if she’s okay. She doesn’t respond. “Buffy?”
Buffy comes out of her daze. “Oh, sorry. It’s just been a really weird day.” She smiles at him.
“Yeah!” says Xander. “Buffy died, and everything!”
“Wow!” says Willow. “Harsh.”
Giles grins. “I should have known that wouldn’t stop you.”
Jenny wants to know what they should do now. Giles just wants to get out of the library. Cleanup can wait. Xander suggests that they go to the dance at the Bronze. Willow and Cordy seem to think that’s a good idea. Willow asks Buffy.
“Sure!” says Buffy. “We saved the world. I say we party!” She looks down at her dress, which is slightly the worse for wear. “I mean, I got all pretty.”
Jenny points at the Master’s bones. “And what about him?”
Buffy looks at the bones. “He’s not going anywhere. Loser.”
They head for the door, all talking at once. Giles doesn’t plan on doing any dancing, but Miss Calendar thinks maybe she can change his mind. Xander wants to know why there’s a car parked in the hallway.
“Oh, that was me!” says Cordelia.
Buffy and Angel bring up the rear. “By the way,” says Angel, “I really like your dress.”
“Yeah, yeah,” says Buffy. “Big hit with everyone.”
They all leave the library, leaving the Master’s skeleton lying amongst the wreckage.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A vampire | The Park | Staked by Buffy |
| Two other vampires | Staked by Buffy | |
| Kevin | Sunnydale High AV room | Killed by vampires |
| Four students, two guys and two girls | Sunnydale High AV room | Killed by vampires |
| A vampire | Sunnydale High | Staked by Angel |
| The Master | Sunnydale High library | Impaled by Buffy |