Introduction
Season:
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh
Other Bodies | Episodes | Dramatis Personae
Ramblings | Links | Fanfic
| Becoming, Part I | Anne |
Buffy looks around and sees the cop pointing his gun at her. He’s backed up by his partner. She has her gun out too. Buffy slowly puts her hands over her head, and rises to her feet.
The cop tells Buffy to back away from the body. Buffy tries to tell him she didn’t do anything, but he isn’t interested.
While the first cop watches Buffy his partner checks Kendra. She’s dead. “What about up there?” he asks, nodding toward the mezzanine. Buffy looks too and sees Xander lying on the floor. She starts to move toward him but the cops grab her and push her toward the library doors.
“Wait!” says Buffy, “Just see if he’s okay! Please!” but the cops push her out the door. The female cop leaves her partner to handle Buffy and goes to check on Xander.
The cop pushes Buffy out into the hallway. “Please! You don’t understand. I didn’t do anything!” she tells him.
“Why do I find that so very hard to believe?” asks Principal Snyder, who has just arrived with a couple more cops. The cop holding Buffy sends the others into the library, and asks Snyder if he knows this girl.
“Buffy Summers,” says Snyder “If there’s trouble, she’s behind it.”
“You stupid little troll,” says Buffy. “You have no idea!”
“Attitude problem,” says Snyder. “Serious.”
Buffy glares at Snyder for a moment, and then turns to the cop. She tells him she just wants to know if her friends are okay.
The cop doesn’t want to hear any more from this girl. He spins her around and pulls out his handcuffs. He starts to explain her rights to her.
Buffy glances around the hallway. There aren’t any more cops in sight. She hits the cop with a backhanded punch, and then grabs him by the scruff of his neck and flips him to the floor. Snyder backs a step away from her, and Buffy runs.
The cop’s partner comes out of the library, and sees Buffy running. She raises her gun and shouts for Buffy to stop. Buffy keeps going. Snyder is between her and Buffy, so she can’t shoot. She shouts at him to get down.
The cop doesn’t get a clear shot at Buffy until she is rounding the corner at the end of the hall. She fires, but misses.
The other two cops come out of the library and she sends them after Buffy while she radios in for more backup. “All units, we have a fugitive on foot at the high school. Homicide suspect. Female, blond, approximately sixteen years old. Suspect is very dangerous.”
Buffy cautiously enters the emergency room at the Sunnydale hospital. She’s changed her coat, and has her hair tucked up under a black touque.
Xander spots Buffy and taps her on the shoulder. She spins around and gives him a hug. “I was so worried, I didn’t know if you were okay. The cops were—”
“Yeah, I heard them chase you out. I was just coming out of it.” Xander holds up his right arm, which is now in a cast. “Souvenir.”
Buffy starts to ask about the others but Xander suddenly grabs her and hugs her again. Buffy’s surprised, but then she sees the cops coming up from behind her that Xander had spotted, and she hides her face against his shoulder.
They let go of each other after the cops are gone. “Okay,” says Buffy, “That was about equal parts protecting me and copping a feel, right?” Xander doesn’t seem to find her joke funny. He looks at the floor. “What is it?”
Xander shows Buffy into Willow’s room. She’s still unconscious, and the doctors don’t know how long she is going to stay that way. The longer she stays out, the less hope they have.
“I never should’ve let her try to do that curse,” says Buffy. “Angel must’ve known.” She asks where Willow’s parents are, and Xander tells her that they were visiting relatives in Phoenix. They’re on their way back now.
“Does Oz know?” asks Buffy.
“Oh, man. I didn’t even think,” says Xander. “I’ll call him.”
Cordelia comes into Willow’s room and Xander goes and gives her a hug and a kiss. Cordy asks how Willow is. Xander tells her they’re waiting to find out. Buffy asks Cordy if she’s okay.
“I ran,” says Cordelia. “I think I made it through three counties before I realized nobody was chasing me. Not too brave.”
“It was the right thing to do,” says Buffy.
“Did Giles keep up with you?” asks Xander.
“I didn’t see Giles,” says Cordy.
“You mean he’s not in the hospital?” asks Buffy.
Giles wakes up with Angel lying on the floor in front of him, looking at him.
“Hi, Rupert. I wasn’t sure you were going to wake up. You had me worried.” Angel hops to his feet.
Giles gets up much more slowly. “What do you want?”
“I want to torture you,” says Angel. “I used to love it, and it’s been a long time. I mean, the last time I tortured somebody, they didn’t even have chainsaws.” He walks over to where the stone Acathla is standing, and looks at it. Giles is not happy to see it.
“Oh, yeah. Acathla. He’s an even harder guy to wake up than you are,” says Angel. “I mean, I performed the rituals, said all the right phrases…blood on my hand. Got nothing. Big doughnut hole for my troubles. I figure you know the ritual. You’re pretty up on these things. You could probably tell me what I’m doing wrong. But honestly, I sort of hope you don’t, ’cause I really want to torture you.”
Detective Stein and some other cops go to Buffy’s house looking for her. One of the officers comes down from upstairs, and hands Stein a framed photo of Buffy.
Joyce doesn’t believe that Buffy could have anything to do with this. Detective Stein asks her is she knows where Buffy might be, and Joyce tells him that she said she was going to her friend Willow’s.
“Is that Willow Rosenberg?” asks Stein.
“Yes.”
“Second victim,” says Stein to the officer standing beside him.
“What?” asks Joyce.
“Your daughter has a history of violence, doesn’t she Mrs. Summers?” asks Detective Stein. He hands Joyce his card. “You call us. Okay? If she decides to stop by. Be best if she just comes in.”
Buffy goes to Giles’ apartment to look for him. Giles isn’t there. Whistler is though. He’s been waiting for her.
“Why?” asks Buffy.
“’Cause I need a date to the prom,” says Whistler.
Buffy is in no mood for jokes. She grabs Whistler by the throat and slams him against the wall. “I have had a really bad day, okay? If you have information worth hearing, then I am grateful for it. If you’re going to crack jokes, then I’m going to pull out your rib cage and wear it as a hat.” She lets go of him.
“Hello to the imagery! Very nice!” Whistler straightens his jacket. “It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. Nobody saw you coming. I figured this for Angel’s big day. But I thought he was here to stop Acathla, not to bring him forth. Then you two made with the smoochies, and now he’s a creep again. Now, what are you going to do? What are you prepared to do?”
“Whatever I have to,” says Buffy.
“Maybe I should ask: what are you prepared to give up?”
Buffy isn’t in the mood for riddles. “You don’t have anything useful to tell me, do you? What are you, just some immortal demon sent down to even the score between good and evil?”
“Wow,” says Whistler. “Good guess.”
“Well, why don’t you try getting off your immortal ass and fighting evil once in a while?” asks Buffy, “’Cause I’m sick and tired of doing it myself.”
“In the end, you’re always by yourself,” says Whistler. “You’re all you’ve got. That’s the point.”
“Spare me.” Buffy starts to go.
“The sword isn’t enough.” Whistler calls after her. “You got to be ready. You got to know how to use it!”
Buffy slams the door on her way out.
Buffy is walking by the park when she’s spotted by a passing police officer. He sounds his siren, and gets out of his car, gun already drawn. It’s the cop Buffy took out in the school, and he isn’t taking any chances this time. He orders Buffy to stop, and to put her hands on her head.
Buffy slowly raises her hands as she turns to face the cop. The cop is suddenly attacked by someone who kicks the gun out of his hands, and then kicks the cop in the head, knocking him out. The assailant tosses the cop onto the hood of his car, and turns to face Buffy.
“Hello cutie!” says Spike.
Buffy gives Spike a couple of quick punches to the head. He tries to grab her by the shoulders, but Buffy punches him in the stomach.
Spike pushes Buffy away. “Will you hold on a second!”
Buffy pulls out a stake.
Spike puts up his hands. “Hey! White flag here. I quit.”
“Let me clear this up for you,” says Buffy. “We’re mortal enemies. We don’t get time-outs.”
“You want to go around, pet, I’ll have a gay old time of it,” says Spike. “You want to stop Angel, we’re going to have to play this a bit differently.”
Buffy doesn’t believe what she is hearing. She figures that this must be another one of their tricks.
“He’s got your Watcher. Right now he’s probably torturing him,” says Spike.
That is enough to get Buffy listening. “What do you want?”
“I told you, I want to stop Angel.” Spike laughs. “I want to save the world.”
“Okay, you do remember that you’re a vampire, right?”
“We like to talk big. Vampires do.” Spike feels at his pockets looking for something. Whatever it is, he can’t find it. “‘I’m going to destroy the world.’ That’s just tough guy talk.” He glances over at the unconscious police officer lying on the hood of his car, and goes over to him. “Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world.” He takes a pack of cigarettes out of the cop’s shirt pocket, pulls one out and tosses the pack back on top of the cop. “You’ve got…dog racing, Manchester United. And you’ve got people. Billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It’s all right here.”
Spike lights up the cigarette and takes a drag from it. “But then someone comes along with a vision. With a real passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye Picadilly. Farewell Leicester Bloody Square. You know what I’m saying?”
“Okay, fine. You’re not down with Angel. But why would you ever come to me?” asks Buffy.
“I want Dru back. I want it like it was before he came back. The way she acts around him…”
“You’re pathetic,” says Buffy. Spike pokes a punch at her, and she hits him back.
Buffy is not in the mood to accept help from a vampire. “I lost a friend tonight! And I may lose more! The whole earth may be sucked into Hell, and you want my help ’cause your girlfriend’s a big ho? Well, let me take this opportunity to not care.”
“I can’t fight them both alone, and neither can you!” says Spike.
Buffy punches Spike again, harder. She almost knocks him off his feet. “I hate you!”
Spike straightens up again, feeling his jaw and checking for blood. “And I’m all you’ve got.”
Buffy is finally convinced. She will listen to whatever it is Spike has to say.
The cop starts to groan behind Spike. “I’m just going to kill this guy.” Spike turns toward him.
Buffy clears her throat loudly, and Spike looks back at her. “Oh, right.”
“Let’s get inside,” says Buffy.
Xander sits by Willow’s bedside. Cordelia asks him if he wants any coffee, but he doesn’t want to leave Willow in case she wakes up.
“I’ll get it,” says Cordy. Xander thanks her, and she leaves the room.
Xander takes Willow’s hand. “Come on, Will. Look, you don’t have a choice here. You got to wake up. I need you Will. I mean, how am I going to pass trig, you know? And who am I going to call every night, and talk about everything we did all day? You’re my best friend. You’ve always…” He pauses, struggling with his emotions. “I love you.”
Willow’s head moves slightly, and her hand tightens in Xander’s. “Willow?” he asks.
Willow starts to wake up. “Oz?” she asks, “Oz?”
Xander lets out a surprised breath.
“I’m here,” says Oz.
Xander looks up. He hadn’t noticed Oz come in. He quickly tells Oz that he’s going to go get a doctor, and leaves the room. Oz takes over the chair Xander had occupied at Willow’s bedside. He asks her how she’s feeling.
“My head…feels big,” says Willow. “Is it big?”
“No. It’s head sized.” Oz leans over and gives her a kiss on the forehead.
“Is everybody else okay?” asks Willow.
Giles is sitting in a chair with his bloody hands tied behind him.
Angel sits nearby cleaning Giles’ glasses. He is really impressed with Giles’ endurance. He gets out of the chair and puts the glasses back onto Giles’ face. He kneels beside him and reaches around behind Giles’ back. “Now, tell me when it hurts.”
Buffy and Spike walk up into the front yard of her house, each of them keeping a wary eye on the other, neither letting the other get behind them.
Joyce drives up, and gets out of her car. She has been out looking for Buffy. She wants to know what is going on, where Buffy has been, and who this strange man is. Buffy just wants to hurry her mother inside before another cop spots her.
Joyce isn’t in a hurry, she wants an explanation. “Buffy, terrible things have happened. What were you doing?”
“What? Your mom doesn’t know?” asks Spike.
“Know what?” asks Joyce.
Buffy scrambles for an explanation, and doesn’t come up with one of her better ones. “I’m in a band. A rock band, with Spike here.”
Spike tries to back her up, but Joyce clearly isn’t buying it. Buffy tells her again that they should go inside to talk about it, and she and Spike start to walk toward the front door.
Joyce starts to follow them. “I’m not sure how I feel about this.”
Buffy looks back toward her mother. A vampire appears behind Buffy. It snarls, pushes Buffy out of the way and goes for Joyce. Joyce screams, and backs away from it.
Buffy grabs the vampire and tosses it toward Spike. Spike gives it a couple of punches while Buffy pulls a stake out of her pocket, and then he knocks the vampire back toward her. Buffy plunges her stake into the vampire’s chest. Joyce gasps as the vampire explodes into dust.
Spike recognised the vamp as one of Angel’s. He must have been there to watch Buffy. It doesn’t matter now, he won’t be talking to anyone.
Joyce has been watching and listening with a growing level of confusion. “Buffy, what is going on?”
Buffy looks at her mother. Then she looks at Spike, who just looks back. She takes a couple of steps toward her mother. “Mom, I’m a Vampire Slayer.”
Joyce blinks, and shakes her head.
Willow talks with Buffy on the phone while Oz brings her some jello. Her doctor thinks that she’s going to be all right. She can count fingers just fine, and knows who the president is, so he doesn’t think that she suffered any permanent damage. She’s just sorry that she didn’t get to cure Angel. Buffy tells Willow not to worry about that. She knows she will never get Angel back the way he was. This just makes things simpler. Willow asks if Buffy has had any luck finding Giles.
“Yep,” says Buffy. “I got a lucky break.”
“What?” asks Willow.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” says Buffy.
Joyce sits on the sofa in the living room with a drink in her hands. Spike sits in a chair. Neither of them is saying anything, or looking at each other. Joyce takes a sip from her drink.
Buffy gets Xander on the phone, and tells him where the vampires are. She plans to hit it at daybreak. Xander asks if she needs backup, but she tells him she’s covered.
“Do you… Do you think Giles is still alive?” asks Xander.
“I think he is,” says Buffy. “I just wish he was here to tell me what to do.”
Joyce looks at Spike curiously. “Have we met?” she finally asks him.
“You hit me with an axe one time.” says Spike. “Remember, um,” He holds up his hands as if he were brandishing an axe. “‘Get the hell away from my daughter!’”
“Oh,” says Joyce. They lapse back into silence for a while. “So do you live around here?”
They are saved from more smalltalk by Buffy’s return. Joyce asks her how Willow is. Buffy tells her she’s fine, and then turns her attention to Spike.
Spike lays out his deal for Buffy. “You let me and Dru skip town, I help you kill Angel.”
“Angel, your boyfriend?” asks Joyce.
Buffy ignores her. “Forget about Drusilla. She doesn’t walk.”
“There’s no deal without Dru.”
“She killed Kendra,” says Buffy.
“Dru bagged a Slayer!” Spike laughs. “She didn’t tell me. Hey, good for her!” He pauses and looks at Joyce and Buffy who are staring at him, not amused. “Though not from your perspective I suppose.”
Joyce is relieved to hear that Buffy didn’t kill that girl. “Did she explode like that man out there?” she asks.
“She was a Slayer, Mom!”
“Like what you are?” asks Joyce.
Buffy nods.
Spike tries to move Buffy away from more interruptions from Joyce, and tells her that they only way Buffy is going to get his help is if she let’s Dru go. He’ll take her out of the country, and with any luck they will never see each other again.
“Honey, are you sure you’re a Vampire Slayer?” asks Joyce.
Buffy and Spike try to ignore her. Buffy tells Spike he’s got his deal.
“I mean, have you tried not being a Slayer?” asks Joyce.
“Mom!” says an exasperated Buffy. She tells Spike to be ready to back her up.
Spike starts to go, but Buffy has one final warning for him: “If Giles dies, she dies.”
“It’s because you didn’t have a strong father figure, isn’t it?” asks Joyce.
“It’s just fate, Mom,” says Buffy. “I’m the Slayer. Accept it.”
Joyce still isn’t ready to accept it. She wants to call the police, now that they know Buffy is innocent.
“What? You thought I was guilty?” asks Buffy. “Jeez, feeling the love in this room!”
“No, I didn’t think that. It’s just…now we have proof,” says Joyce.
“We have my word, Mom. Not proof.”
Joyce still wants to call the police. She walks toward the kitchen with Buffy following her. She’s sure they will understand. She picks up the phone.
“Get them involved, you’ll get them killed.” Buffy puts her hand on the phone to keep her mother from dialing. “Cops can’t fight demons. I have to do it.”
“Do what?” asks Joyce. “Buffy, what is happening?”
Buffy doesn’t want to deal with this now. “Just have another drink,” she tells her mother, and starts toward the back door.
Joyce throws her glass across the kitchen. “Don’t you talk to me that way! You don’t get to just dump something like this on me and pretend it’s nothing!”
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I don’t have time for this.”
“No!” says Joyce. “I am tired of ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘you wouldn’t understand.’ I am your mother, and you will maketime to explain yourself.”
“I told you,” says Buffy. “I’m a Vampire Slayer.”
“Well, I just don’t accept that!” says Joyce indignantly.
“Open your eyes, Mom,” says Buffy. “What do you think has been going on for the past two years? The fights, the weird occurrences. How many times have you washed blood out of my clothing, and you still haven’t figured it out?”
“Well, it stops now!”
“No, it doesn’t stop!” says Buffy. “It never stops! Do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or, God, even studying! But I have to save the world. Again.”
“No. This is insane.” Joyce grabs Buffy by the arms. “Buffy, you need help.”
“I’m not crazy!” says Buffy. “What I need is for you to chill. I have to go!”
“No. I am not letting you out of this house,” says Joyce.
“You can’t stop me.”
Joyce tightens her grip on Buffy’s arms. “Oh yes I—”
Buffy shoves her mother away, walks to the back door and opens it.
“You walk out of this house, don’t even think about coming back!” says Joyce.
Buffy gives her mother a long look, and then walks out the back door. She doesn’t close it. Joyce leans onto the island counter in her kitchen, and puts her face into her hands.
Cordelia paces back and forth in Willow’s hospital room. Xander has told them all that Buffy is going to face Angel. “Wish we could help,” says Cordy. “You know, without dying.”
Willow tells the others that she wants to try the curse again. Xander doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Willow is still too weak, but Willow is determined. “There’s no use arguing with me. Do you see my resolve face?” Willow scowls at Xander. “You’ve seen it before. You know what it means. This can help Buffy. If we turn Angel back soon enough, we can stop him from ever awakening Acathla.”
Oz gets out of his chair. “Okay, I pretty much missed out on some stuff, didn’t I? Because this is all making a kind of sense that’s…not.”
Willow tells Oz to go with Cordy to collect her things from the library. She can explain what’s going on on the way. She tells Xander to go find Buffy. “Tell her what we’re doing. Maybe she can stall.”
Xander still doesn’t think this is a good idea, but Willow points at her face. “Resolve face.” Xander gives in.
“You know, I can stop the pain.” Angel tells Giles. “You’ve been very brave, but it’s over. You’ve given enough. Now let me make it stop.”
“Please!” says Giles.
Angel kneels in front of him. “Just tell me what I need to know.”
“In order, to be worthy…” Giles says quietly.
Angel leans in closer so he can hear him.
“You must perform the ritual…in a tutu. Pillock!” says Giles.
Angel jumps to his feet. “All right! Someone get the chainsaw!”
Spike rolls in. He advises Angel to hold on to his temper. If he starts chopping Giles up now he will never get his answers.
“Since when did you become so levelheaded?” asks Angel.
“Right about the time you became so pig-headed,” says Spike. “You have your way with him, you’ll never get to destroy the world. And I don’t fancy spending the next month trying to get librarian out of the carpet. There are other ways.”
Spike calls for Drusilla. “Do you want to play a game?”
Buffy returns to the library. She pulls the crime scene tape aside and walks around the chalk outline of where Kendra’s body had lain on the floor. She stops at the table and looks at the paraphernalia from the curse still laid out there. She reaches under the table and pulls out Kendra’s bag.
“You do know this is a crime scene, don’t you?” asks Principal Snyder. Buffy looks up and sees him walking toward her. “But then…you’re a criminal, so that pretty much works out.”
“You know I didn’t do it,” says Buffy. “The police will figure it out.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid,” says Snyder. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Whatever they find, you’ve proved too much of a liability for this school. These are the moments you want to savour. You wish time would stop so that you could live them over and over again. You’re expelled.”
Buffy draws the sword from Kendra’s bag and looks at it. Snyder looks a little worried about what she plans to do with it. “You never ever got a single date in highschool, did you?” she asks him.
Snyder doesn’t take his eyes off the sword. “Your point being?”
Buffy ignores Snyder, and walks out of the library.
Snyder pulls out his cell phone and makes a call. “It’s Snyder. Tell the Mayor I have good news.”
Drusilla examines Giles and runs her fingers through his hair, getting inside his head. It doesn’t take her long to find his weakness. She gasps. “Of course!”
Drusilla moves in front of Giles, and waves her fingers before his eyes. “Look at me. Be in me. See with your heart.” She places her hand over Giles’ eyes.
When Drusilla removes her hand from over Giles eyes, he sees Jenny in front of him.
Jenny starts asking Giles about the ritual, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. They have to get out of there. They have to get Angel away from Acathla.
“It’s all right,” says Jenny. “We’ll be together, finally. We’ll have everything we never got to have. Never got to feel. Just tell me what to do.”
“We have to get Angel away from Acathla,” says Giles.
“Angel himself? He’s the key?”
“His blood,” says Giles. “He mustn’t—”
Jenny silences Giles with a kiss.
Angel now knows what he was doing wrong. The blood on his hands when he draws the sword must be his own. He is done with Giles now. “Okay, kill him,” he tells Spike.
“But what if he’s lying?” asks Spike, knowing what Buffy will do to him if Giles dies.
“Good point. Okay, don’t kill him.” Angel is somewhat surprised by this new helpful Spike. It’s kind of like old times.
Spike and Angel notice Drusilla is still kissing Giles. “Uh, Drusilla? We are finished here Ducks,” says Spike.
Dru pulls away from Giles and turns to smile at them. “Sorry, I was in the moment.”
Dru’s spell is broken, and Giles realizes what he has just done.
Buffy returns to Giles’ apartment to speak with Whistler. She finds him searching Giles’ kitchen for something to drink. She needs him to tell her how to use the sword.
“Angel’s the key,” says Whistler. “His blood will open the door to Hell. Acathla opens his big mouth, creates a vortex. Then only Angel’s blood will close it. One blow will send ’em both back to Hell, but I strongly suggest that you get there before that happens, ’cause the faster you kill Angel, the easier it’s going to be on you.”
“Don’t worry about me,” says Buffy.
“It’s all on the line here, kid,” says Whistler.
“I can deal. I got nothing left to lose.” Buffy walks out of the apartment.
Whistler watches Buffy leave. “Wrong, kid. You got one more thing.”
Buffy approaches Angel’s house at sunrise. She’s startled by Xander suddenly appearing out of the bushes.
“Cavalry’s here.” Xander holds up the rock in his hand. “Cavalry’s a frightened guy with a rock, but it’s here.”
Buffy hands Xander a stake, and he tosses his rock away. She gives him his orders: he is to get Giles and run. He is not to try and help her fight Angel.
“Willow!” Xander pauses for a second before continuing. “Uh, she told me to tell you…” He stops again.
“Tell me what?”
“Kick his ass,” says Xander. 1
Angel begins the ritual to awaken Acathla again, with Spike, Dru and a couple of other vampires looking on. “Acathla, mundatus sum pro te necavi. Sanguinem meum pro te effundam quo me dignum esse demonstrem.” 2
Willow is ready to start the curse, with help from Oz and Cordy. Cordelia is ready with the incense.
“Did I mention I didn’t take Latin?” asks Oz, who has the book Giles used before.
“You don’t have to understand it,” says Willow. “You just have to say it. I hope.”
“Now Acathla you will be free.” Angel draws a knife across his palm. “And so will we all.”
Buffy picks that moment to interrupt. She decapitates one of the watching vampires with her sword. She looks at Angel. “Hello, lover.”
Angel does not appreciate the interruption. “I don’t have time for you.”
“You don’t have a lot of time left.”
“Coming on kind of strong, don’t you think? You’re playing some deep odds here. Do you really think you can take us all on?” asks Angel.
“No. I don’t,” says Buffy.
Spike rises out of his wheelchair behind Angel and hits him in the head with a crowbar. Angel falls to the ground, and Spike keeps pounding on him.
Buffy rushes forward but one of the other vampires attacks her, and knocks the sword from her hand. While Buffy fights it, Spike keeps pounding on Angel. He wants Angel to suffer. Drusilla tackles him.
The vampire Buffy’s fighting knocks her onto a wooden table, smashing it. Buffy kicks the vampire away, and grabs a piece of the broken table to use as a stake. Xander passes through the room looking for Giles and gives the vampire a bash in the head with his cast before leaving again.
Spike stands up and finds himself facing Drusilla. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”
Drusilla grabs Spike by the throat, and pushes him up against the wall. Spike punches her. “Doesn’t mean I won’t.”
Willow casts the stones onto her hospital bed table, and Oz reads from the book. “Quod perditum est, invenietur.” 3
“Not dead, nor not of the living,” says Willow. “Spirits of the interregnum, I call.”
Xander finds Giles still tied in the chair. He unties him, and tries to get him up and moving.
“You’re not real,” says Giles.
“Sure, I’m real.”
“It’s a trick,” says Giles. “They get inside my head, make me see things I want.”
Xander looks Giles in the eyes. “Then why would they make you see me?”
Giles considers that for a second. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
Xander helps Giles to his feet and half carries him out of the room.
Spike and Dru are still fighting, and Buffy is fighting her vampire as Xander and Giles pass through on the way out.
Angel has recovered from the beating Spike gave him, looks up and sees the sword sticking out of Acathla. He reaches for it.
Buffy stakes her vampire as Angel pulls the sword out of Acathla. There’s a brilliant flash of light.
“Oh!” says Drusilla. “Here he comes.” She’s distracted long enough for Spike to get her in a strangle hold from behind.
“Gods bind him,” says Willow. “Cast his heart…from the…evil…realm.” She is starting to falter.
Buffy grabs her sword, and stands to face Angel. “You almost made it Buff,” says Angel.
“It’s not over yet.”
“My boy Acathla here is about to wake up,” says Angel. “You’re going to Hell.”
“Save me a seat.” Buffy attacks Angel with her sword.
The sword fight moves all around Angel’s living room, and Angel seems to be getting the upper hand. One of Angel’s slashes cuts Buffy’s arm. They keep fighting.
“Return,” pants Willow. “I call on…”
Willow stops. Oz and Cordelia are getting worried about her.
Suddenly something seems to pass through Willow. She looks up at the ceiling, and then brings her head down, and resumes the spell with new strength. But she isn’t speaking English any more, she’s speaking Rumanian. “Te implor, Doamne, nu ignora aceasta rugaminte.” 4
“Is this a good thing?” Oz asks Cordelia.
“Nici mort, nici al fiintei,” says Willow.
“Hey, speak English!” says Cordy.
Willow ignores her. “Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el.”
Buffy and Angel’s fight moves out into the garden. Angel totally has the upper hand now. He’s deflecting her attacks with ease, and is steadily forcing her back. He kicks the sword out of her hand and knocks her to the ground.
Acathla is beginning to stir.
Spike finally subdues Drusilla. “Sorry baby. I wish there was another way.”
Spike picks up Drusilla and starts to carry her out. He passes the doors to the garden and looks out. He sees Angel with his sword, standing over Buffy on the ground. “God, he’s going to kill her.” For a second it looks like he actually cares. Then he shrugs and leaves.
Angel stands over the defenseless Buffy, holding his sword before her. “Now that’s everything. No weapons. No friends. No hope.”
Buffy closes her eyes, knowing what’s coming.
“Take all that away, and what’s left?” Angel thrusts his sword at Buffy’s face.
Buffy’s hands flash up and she catches the blade between her palms. “Me.”
Buffy pushes the sword back and its hilt hits Angel in the face. She grabs up her sword and renews her attack. This time it’s Angel who is on the defensive. She forces him to his knees and kicks him in the head.
Spike pulls his DeSoto out of Angel’s garage without bothering to open the doors first. He drives away in his car with the windows mostly painted over, occasionally flinching his hands away from stray beams of light that catch them on the steering wheel. He pulls the still unconscious Drusilla up to his side.
Buffy kicks Angel back into his living room, and continues her assault. She backs him up against Acathla, disarms him, and kicks him in the head. He falls to his knees in front of her.
“Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie!” says Willow. “Acum! Acum!” 5 The Orb of Thesulah before her glows brightly, and then vanishes.
Buffy raises her sword for the final killing stroke. Angel suddenly gasps, and his eyes glow brightly for a second. Buffy stops.
Angel is dazed and confused. He doesn’t know where he is, or how he got there. He sees Buffy standing before him, still holding the sword. He asks her what’s going on.
Buffy keeps her sword raised, but steps back. She doesn’t want to believe what she knows has happened.
Angel gets to his feet. He feels like months have gone by without seeing Buffy. He notices the cut on her arm, and asks what happened.
Buffy lowers the sword, moves forward into Angel’s arms and starts to hug him. Then she looks over Angel’s shoulder. She is horrified to see Acathla’s mouth open and the vortex begin to form. She pulls away from Angel.
“What’s happening?” asks Angel.
“Shh, don’t worry about it.” Buffy kisses Angel, while the vortex expands behind him. “I love you.”
“I love you,” says Angel.
“Close your eyes,” says Buffy. Angel does.
Buffy kisses Angel one last time, steps back and runs her sword through him, and into Acathla.
Angel reaches out. “Buffy?” The vortex surrounds him, and then collapses back into Acathla, taking Angel with it. Acathla is once again dormant, with a new sword sticking out of its belly.
Buffy starts to cry.
Buffy returns home.
Joyce hears a noise, and goes into Buffy’s room. Buffy isn’t there anymore, but she has clearly been there. She has packed up some of her clothes and left her mother a note on the bed.
Joyce picks up the note and reads it. She starts to cry as she sits on Buffy’s bed.
Oz pushes Willow’s wheelchair in front of the school. Giles doesn’t think that she should be out of bed yet. Willow doesn’t think he looks too healthy either. None of them have heard from Buffy.
“But we know the world didn’t end, ’cause…” Oz looks around. “…check it out.”
Giles and Xander had gone back to the mansion to look for Buffy, and found Acathla dormant.
Willow thinks that her spell worked. “I felt something go through me.”
“Plus the Orb did that cool glow thing,” says Cordelia.
Xander thinks that maybe Buffy had to kill Angel before Willow was finished. If that was the case she would want to be alone.
Willow is more optimistic. “Or maybe Angel was saved, and they want to be alone together.”
“Perhaps,” says Giles. He doesn’t sound hopeful.
“She’s got to show up sooner or later,” says Cordelia. “We still have school.”
“Yeah,” says Willow. “She’ll be here in a while.”
Buffy watches her friends go into the school from across the street. She turns and walks away, carrying her bag across her shoulder.
Later that day Buffy rides a bus out of Sunnydale.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Vampire 1 | The Summers front yard | Staked by Buffy |
| Vampire 2 | Angel’s mansion | Decapitated by Buffy |
| Vampire 3 | Angel’s mansion | Staked by Buffy |
| Acathla | Angel’s mansion | Stabbed with a sword by Buffy |