Introduction
Season:
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh
Other Bodies | Episodes | Dramatis Personae
Ramblings | Links | Fanfic
| Graduation Day, Part I | The Freshman |
Buffy watches the truck disappear into the night with Faith lying in the back, and slowly gets to her feet. She leaves Faith’s bloody knife on the parapet, and climbs down the fire escape ladder.
The Mayor arrives in Faith’s apartment just as Buffy’s leaving. He looks at the wreckage from the fight. He’s worried about Faith. “We have to find them,” he orders the vampire who came with him. “Put everyone on it. Do it now.”
“But Sir, the Ascension—”
Mayor Wilkins whirls around. “Find them!”
The vampire leaves. The Mayor stays and paces around Faith’s apartment. “Faith’s a good girl. She can take anything they’ll throw at her. She’s going to be all right. She’ll be all right. She’ll be all right.”
Xander brings Giles some coffee while they continue to research the Ascension and wait for news from Buffy. Cordelia comes into the library. She demands an explanation for Wesley.
“Uh…inbreeding?” asks Xander.
“So very funny,” says Cordy. “Any minute I am sure to laugh. I just got off the phone with him. He could hardly speak he was so upset. He said there was something about a fight? And he is leaving the country.”
Giles passes on the news that Buffy has quit the Council. Cordelia doesn’t think that’s an excuse for Wesley to go. Giles got fired and he still hangs around like a big loser.
“Cordelia. We’re trying to stop a massacre here,” says Xander. “Want to give us a hand?”
“Sure.” Cordelia takes off her jacket, and hangs it on the back of a chair. “This is such a Buffy thing to do. She’s always thinking of herself.”
Angel wakes up. Willow is tending him. He takes her hand and kisses it “I thought…I thought I’d never see you again. I can’t leave you. I was wrong. I need you.”
Willow pulls her hand away. “Oh! You mean you need Buffy!”
Angel squints his eyes, and lifts his head a bit. “Willow?”
Willow is relieved that Angel isn’t that far gone. Angel asks her where Buffy is. Willow tells him she’ll be back soon. Angel fades out again.
Willow leaves Angel’s room. Oz is waiting outside. She tells him what happened. Oz understands. Angel mistook him for Buffy too. Willow feels so guilty. This started out as the best night of her life, and now everything is going so wrong. She and Oz kiss.
They break it off when Buffy comes in, without Faith. Willow quickly tells Buffy that she had just been in checking on Angel. Buffy asks how he is.
“He comes in and out,” says Oz. “I think the pain is…less…now.”
Buffy knows what that means. She asks them to leave. She wants to be alone with Angel. Willow promises to try to find another cure as they go out.
Buffy goes in to see Angel. He’s glad to see her. He didn’t want to die without seeing her one more time.
Buffy sits down beside Angel on his bed. “Angel, I can cure you. Angel listen to me.” Buffy pulls Angel up into a sitting position. “You’re going to live. You have to live. Drink…” Angel looks puzzled. Buffy takes off her jacket. “Drink me.”
Angel refuses, but Buffy tells him it’s the only way. Angel gets out of bed and pushes her away. He isn’t going to drink from Buffy. It’ll kill her.
“Maybe not,” says Buffy. “Not if you don’t take it all.”
Angel still refuses. She can’t ask him to do this.
Buffy refuses to let him die. “Angel, the blood of a Slayer is the only cure.”
Angel looks at Buffy. “Faith…”
“I tried,” says Buffy. “I killed her.”
“Then it’s over.” Angel walks away from Buffy, and stumbles out into his living room. He collapses onto his coffee table, and knocks a metal pitcher onto the floor.
Buffy grabs Angel by the arms, and pulls him to his feet. “It is never over! I won’t let you die. Drink!” She punches him.
Angel straightens up, and Buffy hits him again, and again. Angel nearly falls, but Buffy’s grip won’t let him. He straightens up with a snarl, showing his vampire face. Buffy pulls her shirt collar down onto her shoulder, and pulls Angel’s face in against her neck. Angel tries to resist his demonic urges, but they’re too strong. He bites into her neck.
They fall to the floor together as Angel sucks Buffy’s blood. Angel lies on top of Buffy and continues to feed. Buffy reaches out and grabs the pitcher. She crushes it in her hand. Buffy cries out in pain, and kicks out with her foot. She knocks over the table.
Angel suddenly pulls away. The feed is off him, and his strength has been restored, but Buffy is lying unconscious on his floor.
Angel carries Buffy into the hospital emergency room. He tells the doctor that she’s been bitten by an animal, and she’s lost a lot of blood. The doctor starts asking him a lot of questions about what happened, and Angel grows impatient. He rips the doorknob off a door in frustration.
The doctor grows suspicious. “You two been doing drugs? You want her to live, you have to be straight with me.”
Angel insists that Buffy’s clean, and the doctor sends him out.
Angel goes to a phone to call Giles.
A doctor fills the Mayor in on Faith’s condition in the next emergency room. It’s not good. He has set the bones, and the bleeding and internal injuries are under control, but she has suffered severe head trauma. He does not expect her to regain consciousness. He thinks it’s a wonder she’s alive at all.
The Mayor gently brushes the hair away from Faith’s bruised face. “It’s your day.” He caresses her cheek.
A nurse comes in and reports to Faith’s doctor that they have another girl with severe blood loss. His help is needed.
Mayor Wilkins knows who that must be. He slowly walks out of Faith’s room and into Buffy’s. He puts his hand over Buffy’s mouth and nose, and tries to suffocate her. The nurse comes in and sees what he’s doing. She tries to pull him away from Buffy, and when that doesn’t work she calls for security.
Angel arrives before security does. He grabs Mayor Wilkins and pulls him away from Buffy. “Don’t do that!”
The Mayor is furious. “I will. I’ll do that and worse. Murderous little fiend! Did you see what she did to my Faith?”
“Hadn’t made plans to weep over that one,” says Angel.
“Well, I’d get set for some weeping if I were you.” says the Mayor. “I’d get set for a world of pain! Misery loves company, young man, and I’m looking to share that with you and your whore!”
Angel hits Wilkins in the chest. He knocks him across the emergency room, and into an observation window. The window shatters, and the Mayor falls to the floor. He sends a tray of instruments flying.
The Mayor slowly picks himself up, but now he’s laughing. “Looks like somebody has been eating his spinach.” He looks around at the small crowd that has gathered. “No, its okay, folks. Its all right. The show’s not over, but there will be a short intermission.” He starts to leave. “Don’t want to miss the second act,” he tells Angel as he walks past him. “All kinds of excitement!”
“I’ll be there,” says Angel.
Giles arrives at the hospital with Xander, Willow and Oz. Angel reports on Buffy and Faith’s conditions. They can’t help but notice that Angel seems to be feeling much better. They are not pleased with the implications.
Angel can’t bring himself to look them in the eyes as he tells them what happened. “Buffy cured me. Made me…”
“You fed off her,” says Giles.
“Yes.”
“How much?” asks Giles.
“She’s going to be fine,” says Angel.
“Well, its just good to know that when the chips are down and things look grim you’ll feed off the girl who loves you to save your own ass!” says Xander. Angel doesn’t have anything to say to that.
“You better go, Angel. We’ll watch over her,” says Giles.
“I don’t want to—”
Giles is in no mood to argue. “The sun will be up soon!”
Angel hesitates for a few more seconds. He looks around at Buffy’s friends, and back toward her room before he reluctantly leaves.
“Gosh, I’m really going to miss him when he leaves town,” says Xander.
They go to check on Buffy’s condition for themselves.
Buffy walks through Faith’s apartment. All of Faith’s belongings are packed up in boxes, ready to be moved out. A grey and white tabby cat jumps up onto Faith’s bed.
“Who’s going to look after him?” asks Buffy.
“It’s a she.” Faith walks up behind Buffy. “And aren’t these things supposed to take care of themselves?”
“A higher power guiding us?” asks Buffy.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not what I meant.” Faith walks over to the broken window.
“There’s something I’m supposed to be doing,” says Buffy.
“Oh yeah,” says Faith. “Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from seven-three-oh.”
“Great,” says Buffy sarcastically. “Riddles.”
“Sorry. It’s my head,” says Faith. “Lot of new stuff.”
Faith looks out the window. The cat sitting on her bed disappears, and Faith appears lying in the bed in her hospital gown for an instant. Faith vanishes from the bed, and the cat reappears.
“They’re never going to fix this, are they?” asks Faith.
“What about you?” asks Buffy.
“Scar tissue.” Faith waves her hand before her face. “It fades, it all fades.”
Buffy looks down at her hand. Faith’s bloody knife appears there for a moment, and then vanishes.
Faith turns away from the window. “You want to know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Even his.”
“Is this your mind or mine?” asks Buffy.
Faith gives a half laugh. “Beats me. Getting towards that time.”
Buffy looks around the apartment, at all the packed boxes. “How are you going to fit all this stuff?”
“Not going to.” Faith slowly walks toward Buffy. “It’s yours.”
“I can’t use all this.”
“Just take what you need. You ready?” Faith reaches out and touches Buffy on the cheek. She vanishes.
Buffy wakes up in the hospital. She gets out of bed and walks into the next room where Faith is lying. Buffy stands looking at Faith’s battered face for a few seconds. She leans down, gently kisses Faith on the forehead, and goes.
Buffy gets dressed and walks unsteadily out to where the others are waiting in the hallway. They jump to their feet and start asking how she is.
“Is Angel here?”
“He had to go,” says Oz. “It got kind of sunny.”
“Get him,” says Buffy. “Get everyone.”
“What exactly is up?” asks Xander.
“Buffy, are you sure you’re all right?” asks Giles.
“I’m ready,” says Buffy.
“Ready for what?” asks Willow.
“War.”
Principal Snyder makes one more check to make sure everything is ready for the graduation ceremonies in the school courtyard.
Buffy sits in a chair pulled a little way back from the library table around which her friends are gathered. She has filled them in on her plan for stopping the Mayor. “So, am I crazy?”
“Well, crazy is such a strong word,” says Willow.
“Let’s not rule it out though,” says Giles.
“You don’t think it can be done?” asks Buffy.
“I didn’t say that,” says Giles. “I might…but not yet.”
“I personally don’t think it’s possible to come up with a crazier plan,” says Cordelia.
“We attack the Mayor with hummus,” says Oz.
“I stand corrected,” says Cordy.
“Just keeping things in perspective.”
Crazy or not, Buffy’s plan is the only one they’ve got. And Buffy is the Slayer, so Cordy’s in favour.
Buffy is going to need all of them, especially Xander to pull this off. He’s the key guy. They are going to need to draw on his ‘military experience’ again.
Giles points out one of the weak points in Buffy’s plan: she is a little vague on how she is going to get the Mayor to do what she wants him to do. Buffy tells them that Faith told her to play on his human weakness.
“Faith told you?” asks Willow. “Was that before or after you put her in a coma?”
“After,” says Buffy. This does not reassure anyone.
“His weakness,” says Giles. “Which is?”
“You know, I do all this planing,” says Buffy. “I’m in charge here even though I am really not at my best…”
The rest of them start trying to come up with an idea. Oz asks Angel. He has seen more of the Mayor than any of them. Angel’s first thought is the Mayor’s aversion to germs. Cordy thinks that’s great. They get a box of Ebola virus and chase the Mayor with it. They don’t even need real Ebola. Just a box with “Ebola” written on it. Xander thinks that Oz’s hummus plan is starting to sound better.
“He’ll never see it coming,” says Oz.
“Faith,” says Angel. Everyone looks at him. “At the hospital he was grieving. Seriously crazed and not just in a homicidal ‘I want to be a demon’ way. She’s his weak link.” That is something Buffy thinks she can work with.
Wesley comes in. Buffy tells him that she doesn’t want to hear anything from the Council.
“I’m not here for the Council,” says Wesley. “Just tell me how I can help.”
“That is so classy!” says Cordelia. “Isn’t he just so classy!”
Buffy can use all the help she can get. She starts to pass out assignments.
The Mayor briefs his vampires while Buffy briefs her team. The Ascension is due to start at exactly 3:28, just after he finishes his speech. “You know, it’s too bad you fellows have to miss that, because I think it speaks to every one of us. I mean, heck, I’ve been working on it for a hundred years. It better be good.”
One of the vampires points out that it will still be daylight.
“Not a problem,” says the Mayor.
Wesley reads from a piece of paper predicting an eclipse. Angel is happy to hear that. He’s back in game. He will have to work with Xander though. Neither of them is pleased by that.
“Oh, that’s good!” says Buffy. “Start bickering. That’s going to work great for us. You guys are like little old ladies!”
The Mayor tells his vampires that they must contain the students. He has to feed in the first few minutes to sustain the transformation. “No snacking. I see blood on your lips, it’s a visit to the wood shed for you boys! Kill! Don’t feed.”
Willow and Oz have worked out the recipe for their ‘volcano.’ Xander knows where to get the ingredients. Oz asks who’s going to stoke it. Buffy looks at Giles.
“Ah, I suppose it should be I,” says Giles. “It’s strangely fitting in a grotesque fashion.”
Buffy tells the others it’s time for them to start reaching out for more help. She looks at Giles. “Giles: weapons, weapons, weapons.” She leaves the library. She has to go get something.
Mayor Wilkins completes the briefing to his troops. “Remember: fast and brutal. It’s going to be a whole new world come nightfall, don’t want to weaken now.” He has one last order for them as they file out of his office: “And boys? Let’s watch the swearing.”
Xander recruits Harmony to help.
Willow recruits Percy.
Wesley and Cordelia are packing up books in the library.
“Cordelia,” says Wesley. “You know that…when this is over, um, well, should we prevail, I’ll be going back to England.”
Cordelia turns back to the bookshelves. “I know.”
“With Buffy no longer working for the Council, there really is no place for me here.”
Cordy turns around again. “I guess not.” She takes a small step toward him.
“No…reason to stay.” Wesley inches toward Cordy.
Cordy takes another step. “No.”
“No…cause to hope that I might be needed?” Wesley removes his glasses.
“Needed?”
“Or wanted…”
“Wanted…”
Wesley and Cordy start to kiss. He has no idea of what to do with his hands, especially the one holding his glasses. Cordy doesn’t seem to be doing much better, in spite of all her experience. After a few seconds they pull away from one another. Cordy wipes her lips. They look at each other for a second and then try again. It doesn’t go any better. They break apart.
Cordy wipes her mouth again. “Good luck in England.”
Wesley nods and puts his glasses back on “Yes, um, I’ll drop you a line some time.”
“That’d be neat,” says Cordy.
They turn away from each other, and go back to filling boxes with books.
Oz’s van is parked outside the school. Jonathan and Larry help unload some bags of fertilizer from it into a shopping cart. Oz tells them to put it with the rest of the stuff, and not to touch anything.
Larry has a quick look around to make sure the coast is clear and he and Jonathan push the cart away, leaving Oz and Willow alone in the van.
“I guess that’s it,” says Willow. “Won’t be long now.”
“You nervous?” asks Oz.
“Only in a terrified way.”
Oz takes Willow’s hand. “We’re going to make it through this.”
“Are you sure?”
“I sound pretty sure, don’t I?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I must be sure.”
“Is that just a comforting way of not answering the question?”
Oz has an expression. Willow leans forward and kisses him. After a few seconds she pulls back a bit. “How long till graduation?”
“A little while,” says Oz.
Willow starts to kiss him some more.
Buffy returns to the library, carrying an object wrapped in a towel. Angel is in Giles’ office, preparing weapons. Giles is out rounding up more. Angel tries asking how she is, but Buffy just wants to talk business.
Angel interrupts her. “I’m not going to say good-bye.” Buffy gives him a hopeful look. “If we get through this, I’m just going to go. You understand?” Buffy gives a tiny nod. “There is just too much to—” Buffy holds up her hand to stop him, and slowly clenches it into a fist. Angel turns leaves the office.
Buffy slowly unwraps the item she brought in with her. It’s Faith’s knife. It still has her dried blood on it.
The students file into the courtyard in their caps and gowns for the Graduation ceremonies. Buffy glances nervously around, making sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be. Willow and Oz are missing.
Principal Snyder begins the proceedings. “Congratulations to the class of 1999. You all proved more or less adequate,” he tells the assembled students. “This is a time of celebration, so sit still, and be quiet.” He looks out over the students. “Spit out that gum,” he orders one of them. “Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins the Third.” He addresses another student in the audience: “I saw that gesture. You see me after Graduation.”
Willow and Oz arrive a little out of breath. Oz takes a seat near the back, and Willow comes and sits beside Buffy in the third row. “Am I late? Did we fight?”
The Mayor comes up to the lectern and begins his speech. “Well. What a day this is. A special day. Today is our Centennial, the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids.” He looks out over the students. “Not a darn thing. Because today something much more important happens. Today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement, is finally over, and what’s a hundred years of history compared to that?”
Buffy suddenly realizes the depths of the Mayor’s depravity. “My god! He’s going to do the entire speech!”
“Man just ascend already!” mutters Willow.
“Evil!” says Buffy.
Mayor Wilkins continues with his speech. “But you know what, kids? Maybe the two things are connected. Maybe you have a place in Sunnydale’s history, whether you like it or not. It’s been a long road getting here. For you. For Sunnydale. There’s been achievement, joy, good times…and there’s been grief…there’s been loss. Some people who should be here today, aren’t.” He is looking straight at Buffy as he says this. Buffy stares back at him.
The Mayor suddenly grins. “But we are. Journey’s end. And what is a journey? Is it just distance traveled? Time spent? No. It’s what happens on the way. It’s the things that shape you. At the end of the journey, you’re not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn’t just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend, to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing.”
The sky overhead darkens. The eclipse has begun. Mayor Wilkins grimaces in pain. He tries to go on with his speech. “And so as we look back on…” He grimaces again. Buffy and Willow take off their caps. “…on the events that brought us to this day…” He doubles over in pain.
“Come on.” whispers Buffy.
Wilkins tries to go on. “We…we must all…” He cries out in pain again.
Principal Snyder starts to look around nervously on the podium behind the Mayor, and the students murmur restlessly.
“It has begun,” says the Mayor. “My destiny. It’s a little sooner then I expected. I had this whole section on civic pride…” He shuffles through his cue cards. “But I guess we’ll just skip to the big finish!”
The transformation begins. The Mayor starts to swell, bursting out of his suit, and transforming into a giant demonic snake. Principal Snyder and the others on the podium with the Mayor start to run as the snake grows. The snake raises its head, towering over the graduating class.
The students rise to their feet, but they don’t run.
The Mayor towers high over the graduating class. The teachers and parents attending the ceremony break and run toward the school. The students continue to stand their ground. A group of vampires appears behind them cutting off their escape, but still they stand firm.
“Now!” yells Buffy.
The students take off their robes, revealing the weapons they all had concealed beneath them. Swords, axes, crossbows, spear guns, and an assortment of other weapons. Larry and another student in the front row have flame throwers. They open fire on the Mayor. Xander directs the battle, coordinating their attack. Having the students fire in volleys.
The Mayor lunges down and snaps up one of the front row students in his jaws.
Principal Snyder is still in the courtyard. He looks around at the chaos erupting around him. “This is…this is simply unacceptable!”
A few students break and run, but they run straight into the Mayor’s vampires, who make quick work of them.
Oz leads a group of students armed with bows. The advancing vampires are met by a volley of fire arrows. They’re taken by surprise and begin to retreat, but they find that their escape is blocked by Angel and Wesley, along with several more students, including Percy. They’re armed with crosses and stakes. They wade forward to attack the vampires. Wesley lasts about three seconds before he gets punched by a vampire and knocked to the ground.
Larry’s flame thrower sputters out and he grabs for a spear that someone hands to him. The Mayor’s tail lashes out. It hits Larry and tosses him through the air. Larry slams to the ground, dead.
“This is not orderly.” Snyder says to the giant demon snake. “This is not disciplined!” The Mayor notices him for first time since the transformation started. “You’re on my campus buddy!” says Snyder, “And when I say I want quiet, I want—” The Mayor lunges down and swallows him in one bite.
“Fall back! Get back!” orders Buffy. “Go!” she tells Willow.
“Good luck!” says Willow.
“Xander! Take ’em down!” orders Buffy.
Xander pulls a stake from his pocket. “Everyone: hand to hand! Everyone! Lets go! Move! Move!” He leads them toward the vampires.
The leader of the Mayor’s vampires orders them to get the kids. They attack up the stairs toward them. They collide with the mass of students coming down, and are overwhelmed. One of the vampires grabs Harmony and bites her on the neck. Another vampire gets tackled by Jonathan.
Xander tries to keep the students together while he wrestles with a vampire of his own. “Right flank close on them! Close!” No one obeys his order. Xander pushes the vampire away. “Justin and Doug, you guys are right flank!” It doesn’t really matter though. The battle is winding down. The vampires have been routed. Cordelia stakes one of their stragglers. Wesley is still lying on the ground, hoping not to get trampled.
Buffy is still in the courtyard. “Hey!” She looks up at the Mayor and shows him the bloody knife. “You remember this? I took it from Faith. Stuck it in her gut. It just slid in her like she was butter. You want to get it back from me, Dick?”
The Mayor lunges at Buffy. She turns and runs down the concourse to the doors into the school. The Mayor chases after her. As Buffy runs down the corridor he takes a shortcut through a wall and the student lounge. Buffy keeps running with the Mayor smashing through walls and doorways behind her. She runs into the library with the Mayor only a couple of seconds behind her.
Most of the books are gone. They have been replaced with dynamite, drums of diesel fuel, and bags of fertilizer. Buffy continues through the library and jumps out through the back window. Giles is waiting with the detonator.
The Mayor looks around at the trap he has been led into. “Well Gosh!”
Giles pushes down on the plunger.
The library blows up.
A series of explosions rips through the entire school, ending with the front entrance being blown out while everyone looks on in amazement.
Wesley is loaded into an ambulance. He’s complaining about being in a great deal of pain. He wants someone to give him an aspirin, or please knock him out.
Buffy wanders with Xander among the fire trucks and ambulances in front of the school. She doesn’t see any sign of Angel. Xander tells her that Angel survived the battle, so at least she knows he’s okay.
Xander starts to walk off as Giles approaches. Giles briefly shakes his hand and tells him “Good show.” Then he goes to talk with Buffy. “Are you all right?”
“I’m tired,” says Buffy.
“I should imagine so,” says Giles. “It’s been quite a couple of days.”
“I haven’t processed everything yet,” says Buffy. “My brain isn’t really functioning on the higher levels. It’s pretty much: ‘fire bad; tree pretty.’”
“Understandable,” says Giles. “Well, when it’s working again, congratulate it on a good campaign. You did very well.”
“Thank you. I will.”
“I ferreted this out of the wreckage.” Giles reaches into his pocket, and pulls out Buffy’s diploma. “It may not interest you, but I’d say you earned it.” He hands the rolled up diploma to her. Buffy accepts it with a smile.
Giles takes a look around at the ruins of the school, and all the fire and emergency people running around. “There is a certain dramatic irony that’s attached to all this. A synchronicity1 that borders on predestination, one might say.”
“Fire bad; tree pretty,” says Buffy.
“Yes, sorry,” says Giles. “I’ll go and attend to Wesley, see if he’s still whimpering.”
Buffy senses someone watching her and turns around. She spots Angel standing between a couple of fire trucks watching her. They stand and look at each other for a while, and then he turns and walks away, disappearing into the smoke.
Buffy’s friends sit on a bench in the park across the street from the school and watch the last of the fire trucks depart.
“Well, that’s the most fun you can have without having any fun,” says Cordelia.
“What about the part where we kicked some demon ass?” asks Willow. “I didn’t hate that.”
“Hear, hear!” says Xander.
Buffy walks up to them. “You guys want to take off?” She looks back toward the ruins of the school. “I think we’ve done pretty much everything we can.”
“I’m for it,” says Cordy.
Willow looks up at Buffy. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I could use a little sleep though.” Buffy sits down on the bench beside Willow. “If someone could just wake me when it’s time to go to college, that’d be great.”
“Guys, take a moment to deal with this,” says Oz. “We survived.”
“It was a hell of a battle,” says Buffy.
“Not the battle. High school. We’re taking a moment.” Oz takes one last look at the school. The others just get up and start to walk away. “And we’re done.”
“Why do demons even come here anymore?” asks Willow as they walk off. “I mean don’t they know how bad we are?”
Lying on the ground near where they were talking is a charred copy of the 1999 Sunnydale High Yearbook. On the cover is the class slogan: “The Future is Ours.”
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A student | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Eaten by Mayor Wilkins |
| Principal Snyder | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Eaten by the Mayor |
| Larry | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Neck broken by the Mayor |
| Harmony Kendall | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Bitten by a vampire |
| Several other people | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Killed by vampires |
| Vampire | Sunnydale High graduation ceremony | Staked by Cordelia |
| Four other vampires | Sunnydale High graduation Ceremony | Shot with fire arrows |
| Numerous other vampires | Sunnydale High graduation Ceremony | Killed by Angel, Percy, and other Sunnydale High students |
| Mayor Richard Wilkins III | Sunnydale High library | Blown to bits by Giles (along with the library, and the rest of the school) |
Buffy’s friends sit on a bench in the park across the street from the school and watch the last of the fire trucks depart.
“Well, that was the most fun you can have without having any fun,” says Cordelia.
“What about the part where we kicked some demon ass?” asks Willow. “I didn’t hate that.”
“Guys, we blew up the school!” says Xander. “It’s the best day ever!”
“Why do demons even come here anymore?” asks Willow. “Don’t they know how bad we are?”
Buffy walks up to them. “You guys want to take off?” She looks back toward the ruins of the school. “I think we’ve done pretty much everything we can.”
“I’m for it,” says Cordy.
Willow looks up at Buffy. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I could use a little sleep though.” Buffy sits down on the bench beside Willow. “If someone could just wake me when it’s time to go to college, that’d be great.”
“Guys, take a moment to deal with this.” Oz says. “We survived.”
“It was a hell of a battle,” says Buffy.
“Not the battle. High school. We’re all taking a moment.” Oz takes one last look at the school. The others just get up and start to walk away. “And we’re done.”
They head off. As they recede in the distance, they continue talking.
“You know what the best part of high school was?” asks Xander.
“When we blew it up?” asks Buffy.
“Yeah! That ruled,” says Xander. “’Cause you know the thing that made it so special…”
“Was that the school blew up?” asks Buffy.
“Exactly!” says Xander.
“I begin to find you troubling,” says Buffy.
“Oh, come on, you know you’re all thinking it,” says Xander.
“Well…” says Buffy.
“I was.” “Pretty much.” “Uh huh.” “Yeah,” say Willow, Cordy, Oz and Buffy all together.
Lying on the ground near where they were talking is a charred copy of the 1999 Sunnydale High yearbook. On the cover is the class slogan: “The Future is Ours.”