Introduction
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| Something Blue | Doomed |
Buffy sits in psychology class listening to Professor Walsh lecture on different modes of communication. Walsh calls Buffy down to the front of the class for a demonstration. She instructs Buffy to lie on her desk, and calls Riley over. Riley seems to be a little nervous. Maggie tells him to be a good boy.
Buffy leans back, and rests on her elbows. Riley leans over her and puts his hand on Buffy’s waist.
“This feels very strange,” says Buffy.
“Don’t worry. If I kiss you, it’ll make the sun go down.” Riley kisses Buffy while the rest of the class watches. Buffy kisses him back. The room darkens, and all the other students disappear. Riley pulls away. “See?”
Buffy sits up. “Fortune favours the brave.” Before she can follow up on that she hears the sound of a little girl humming. “Do you hear that?”
Buffy follows the sound out into the corridor. She sees a young girl with long blonde hair, about ten years old. She’s holding a small carved wooden box in her hands and singing.
Can’t even shout.
Can’t even cry.
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows.
Knocking on doors.
They need to take seven,
And they might take yours.
Can’t call to Mom.
Can’t say a word.
You’re gonna die screaming,
But you won’t be heard.
Riley comes up behind Buffy and places his hand on her shoulder. Buffy turns around to look at him, and he transforms into a humanoid creature. It’s tall and skinny, with grey skin. It’s wearing a black suit, like an undertaker, and it’s bald. Its face is fixed in a rictus smile revealing metallic teeth.
Buffy wakes up as psychology class is ending. It’s the second last class of the term. Professor Walsh promises that the next lecture will be a final review of the course.
Willow tells Buffy that it was a really exciting class. Especially the last twenty minutes where Professor Walsh told them everything that was going to be on the final exam. Buffy hopes that she didn’t snore too loudly.
“Very discreet, minimal drool,” says Willow.
Buffy starts to tell Willow about her dream as they are leaving the class. It was pretty intense.
Riley comes up behind them. “Really? ’Cause you seemed so peaceful.”
Willow breaks away from Buffy and Riley, telling them that she has a meeting of the campus Wicca group to go to, but she hangs around to eavesdrop on them as they keep talking. Riley wants to know about Buffy’s dream. As a psychology major he’s qualified to say “Hmm.”
Buffy tells Riley that she doesn’t really remember the dream, but under cross examination she reveals that he had a featured role in it. This pleases him. Their conversation switches to what they are going to be doing that night. Without really thinking about it Buffy tells Riley that she is going to be patrolling.
“Patrolling?” asks Riley.
Buffy tries to cover her slip. “Uh, petroleum.”
“Petroleum?” asks Riley. “Tonight you have crude oil?”
“And homework,” says Buffy, “What about you?”
“Oh, you know, grading papers.”
“Ah, that’ll be fun.”
“Not petroleum fun, but it passes the time.”
They continue to exchange non-meaningful small talk for a while, and then Riley leans toward Buffy, as if he were about to kiss her. “What papers?” she asks.
“Papers?”
“Grading what papers? We only have the final.”
Riley scrambles for an explanation. “Oh, yeah. No, I—late—late papers I got to look at.”
“Oh, okay,” says Buffy. “Neat.”
The moment is lost, Riley and Buffy separate, saying they will see each other next class. “Fortune favours the brave.” Buffy says to herself, as she walks away.
Buffy phones Giles to tell him about her dream. She repeats the rhyme the girl was singing to him. It sounds familiar to Giles, but he can’t place it. “Well, it could definitely be one of your prophetic dreams. Or it could just be the eternal mystery that is your brain. I’ll check it out, and I’ll let you know if I find something.”
Giles asks Spike if he has ever heard of a group known as The Gentlemen. He hasn’t. Spike is no longer tied up. He’s in Giles’ kitchen looking for something to eat. Giles is out of Weetabix again. Spike settles for some cookies, with peanut butter.
Giles starts searching his bookshelves. “I thought vampires were supposed to eat blood.”
Spike takes his cookies and peanut butter to the couch. “Yeah, well, sometimes I like to crumble up the Weetabix in the blood.” He lies down. “Gives it a little texture.”
Giles is so disgusted that he says he will never touch food again.
Xander and Anya arrive outside Giles’ apartment. Anya is upset. “You don’t care about what I think. You don’t ask about my day.”
“You really did turn into a real girl, didn’t you?” asks Xander.
“See?” says Anya. “You make jokes during my pain. You don’t care about me at all.”
Xander tries to tell Anya that he does care about her, but he can’t put it into words. “We’ll talk about it later.” He opens Giles’ door.
This is not good enough for Anya. “I think we should talk about it now!” She follows Xander into Giles’ apartment. “This isn’t a relationship. You don’t need me. All you care about is lots of orgasms.”
This gets Spike’s attention. He sits up, and wants to hear more. Giles doesn’t. He wants to know what they are doing there. Xander tells him that his mother had said that Giles wanted him to swing by.
Giles had meant for Xander to come by after sunset. He wants him to take Spike for a few days.
“What?” asks Xander.
“What?” asks Spike.
“What?” asks Anya.
None of them likes this idea. Giles tells them that he’s going to have a friend visiting for a few days, and he wants them to be alone.
“Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?” asks Anya.
“Yes,” says Giles. “That’s exactly the most appalling thing you could’ve said.”
Spike, Xander and Anya really don’t like the idea of Spike coming to stay with Xander. They all start arguing about it with each other while Giles starts trying to research Buffy’s dream.
The leader of the campus Wicca group begins their session.
“We come together,
Daughters of Gaia,
Sisters to the moon.
We walk with the darkness,
The wolf at our side,
Through the waterfall of power,
To the blackest heart of eternity.”
She opens her eyes. “I think we should have a bake sale!” They need to raise some money for the upcoming dance recital, but one of the other girls thinks that they should concentrate their efforts on the Gaia Newsletter.
Willow finds this all very interesting, but she asks when they are going to get around to doing some spells.
“Oh, yeah,” says the newsletter girl. “Then we could all get on our broomsticks and fly around on our broomsticks.” Several of the other girls laugh.
“You know, certain stereotypes are not very empowering,” says the leader.
One girl at the meeting, Tara, seems to want to support Willow, but she is much too shy to come right out and say it.
Willow tells Buffy about her disappointment with the campus Wiccas as they return to their room together. They are all talk.
“So, no actual witches in your witch group?” asks Buffy.
“No,” says Willow. “A bunch of wannablessedbes. You know, nowadays, every girl with a henna tattoo and a spice rack thinks she’s a sister of the dark ones.”
Buffy understands Willow’s disappointment. She knows Willow wanted to find someone to help her go further with her explorations into magic. Willow switches topics. She wants to know how things are going between Buffy and Riley.
“See above re: talk. All talk,” says Buffy. They have gotten close to kissing a couple of times, but then they just start babbling. “Plus, every time we talk, I have to lie. The Slayer thing comes up one way or another. I wish I could just come clean.”
“Well you can’t.” Forrest tells Riley, following an exercise session in Initiative HQ. They are having much the same conversation as Buffy and Willow. Having to keep his secret from Buffy is bugging Riley. She’s special.
“You think she’s special?” asks Forrest. “Wow, first 486 times you told me, it didn’t register, but now I see that you think she’s special.”
“See?” says Riley. “You’re naturally inclined to talk too much. I don’t have that.”
“Then get with the kissing,” suggests Forrest.
They get into the elevator, and Riley speaks his name for voice print identification. The elevator doors close.
Xander ties Spike into a chair as he prepares to go to bed. Spike isn’t happy to be tied up again, but there is no way Xander is going to leave him loose while he’s asleep.
“Like I’d bite you, anyway,” says Spike.
“Oh, you would.”
“Not bloody likely!”
“I happen to be very biteable, pal,” says Xander as he gets into his bed. “I’m moist and delicious.”
Giles studies the rhyme from Buffy’s dream, trying to figure out what it could mean. He has it written down on a pad of paper which is covered doodles, and notations. He isn’t getting anywhere. There’s a knock on his door. It’s Olivia. He sets aside his notes to greet her properly, with a kiss.
It’s nearly one AM. In the clock tower of an old building some grey gnarled hands place the wooden box from Buffy’s dream onto a table, and open it. The sound of whispering fills the air.
Around town as people sleep, wisps of mist escape from their mouths and swirl away. Everyone is affected, young and old, human and vampire.
The mist swirls through the night sky, into the clock tower, and into the box. When the last wisp has entered the box, the Gentleman from Buffy’s dream closes it. His first night’s work is complete.
Buffy wakes up next morning, and goes to the bathroom for her morning ablutions. It is unusually quiet in the dorm, but she doesn’t really notice it. On her way back to her room she’s passed by a girl running down the hall, sobbing silently. Buffy is concerned, but continues back to her room.
Buffy enters her room, and sees that Willow is starting to get up too. She tries to say “Good morning.” but no sound comes out.
“Hi.” mouths Willow, with the same result.
Buffy feels her throat. “Good morning.” she tries again. Still no sound. She and Willow are starting to get worried. Buffy tries clearing her throat. “Willow, can you hear me?” She exaggerates her mouth movements so Willow can read her lips.
“No.” mouths Willow. She puts her hands to her ears. “I’ve gone deaf!”
“I don’t think so.” mouths Buffy. “We can’t speak!” She and Willow both try to yell, but they can’t make a sound.
Buffy opens their door, and looks out into the hallway. It’s starting to fill up with anxious people, none of whom can say anything.
Xander is having exactly the same problem. He thinks it’s Spike’s fault, but Spike can’t speak either. Xander doesn’t believe him, but Spike doesn’t really care about that. He just flips Xander a bird.
Xander goes to his phone, and dials Buffy.
Buffy picks up her phone, but she can’t say anything. She just looks frustrated.
Xander figures out that he can’t tell Buffy anything over the phone anyway, and hangs up. Spike just gives him a “Well, duh!” look.
Everyone in Lowell House is in the same condition. Riley and Forrest head for the elevator. They pass the retinal scan to get into it. As the elevator goes down Forrest writes “It’s all over town,” on a pad of paper and shows it to Riley.
The elevator stops, and a computer generated voice asks for a vocal identification. Both Riley and Forrest get “Oh shit!” expressions on their faces. Riley tries breathing into the microphone but it does no good.
“Vocal code not accepted,” says the computer. “Unauthorized beings will be considered hostile. Please commence vocal identification in the next twenty seconds to avoid countermeasures.”
“Countermeasures?” mouths Forrest.
Riley opens a panel hidden in the elevator wall, and swipes a card through a reader. He tries to enter the override code on a keypad. He can’t remember what the right code is.
“Lethal countermeasures engaged,” says the computer, and orange gas starts to come out of vents at the base of the elevator walls.
The elevator doors open, and Forrest and Riley rush out. Forrest comes to attention when he sees Professor Walsh is standing there. She doesn’t bother trying to say anything. She just rolls her eyes and points to the sign beside the elevator doors. “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY USE STAIRWAY.”
Tara enters a student lounge and looks around. There are several people there, all just standing around, looking scared. Most of them are alone, but one boy is hugging a girl who’s crying silently. The silence is shattered when a boy drops a bottle of fruit juice.
Whatever Tara is looking for isn’t there. She continues on through the lounge, and outside.
People wander the streets of downtown Sunnydale looking lost and confused. The bank is closed, but the liquor store is open, and doing a brisk business. Buffy and Willow walk down the street holding hands. They pass a man dressed in a business suit, holding a briefcase. He’s sitting in the middle of the road.
Farther down the block a minister silently stands before a group of people. They are all holding open bibles. A woman is standing beside him holding a chalk board with “Revelations 15:1”1 written on it.
Across the street from the minister an enterprising young man is selling message boards. $10 each.
Buffy and Willow arrive at Giles’. They each have a message board. Xander and Anya are already there, watching TV with the volume turned down low. Olivia is sitting in a chair in the corner with a drink. Xander waves hello to them, and Giles puts a reassuring hand on Buffy’s shoulder.
Buffy points to the open books scattered around on Giles’ desk. “Anything?” Giles just shakes his head.
“Hi Giles,” writes Willow on her message board. He goes to her and gives her a hug.
Buffy sees the notepad on which Giles has written out the rhyme from her dream. She sets down her message board, picks it up and points to the first two lines: “Can’t even shout. Can’t even cry.” Giles just shrugs. He still hasn’t figured it out.
Xander snaps his fingers for attention, goes over to the TV set and turns up the volume. There’s a newscast on, and the news anchor is reporting on the situation in Sunnydale. The official explanation is that there is a city wide epidemic of laryngitis. The suspected cause is a recent series of flu vaccinations. The Centers for Disease Control has placed the entire city under quarantine until the cause is known, or the symptoms go away.
Buffy takes Willow’s message board from her and writes “Keep researching I should be in town tonight,” on it.
“Why?” mouths Giles.
“Because there will be chaos,” types Maggie Walsh onto a computer keyboard. An artificial voice echos her words. “You will help keep order. Dress as civilians. A military presence would only increase panic.”
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” writes Riley on a notepad, and shows it to her.
“We are looking into it,” types Maggie. “Go. Help maintain order. We will find an answer.”
A car has hit a water hydrant across from the Sun Cinema. Water fountains into the air, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. A few people look at it curiously.
Buffy spots a couple of men starting to shove at each other. She starts toward them, but before she gets to them, Riley appears. He pushes the men apart, and steps between them. One of the men tries to get past him, but Riley pushes him off, and gives him a “stay back!” warning glare. The man backs off a bit, and Riley turns his attention to the other man, straightening out his suit.
The guy Riley pushed away isn’t giving up. He bends down behind Riley and picks up a piece of pipe which is laying in the street. He doesn’t see Buffy coming up behind him. She grabs the man’s wrist and gives it a twist. His wrist snaps, and he drops the pipe.
Riley sends his guy on his way and turns and sees Buffy. They give each other a hug. “Are you okay?” he mouths at her.
Buffy nods. “And you?” Riley gives her an “I’ve had better days, but I’m okay” kind of shrug. They hear some garbage cans being overturned. Riley indicates that he’s going to go check it out. Buffy points in the opposite direction. They start to part, but Riley suddenly turns back, grabs Buffy, and kisses her.
After several seconds they part again, each going off in their own direction.
At ten minutes to two in the morning the Gentlemen leave the clock tower. There are six of them. They don’t walk. They float, with their feet about a foot off the ground. They travel in pairs, accompanied by their minion demons who are wearing strait jackets, with the sleeves untied, flapping about as they caper along the ground. One of the Gentlemen in each pair is carrying a small black bag, like a doctor’s.
Olivia can’t sleep. She gets out of Giles’ bed, puts on a robe and goes downstairs. She hears a noise outside, and looks out the window. She sees one of the Gentlemen floating by on the street. She gasps and jumps back from the window as another of them floats by, just outside it. He looks right at her.
Two of the Gentlemen float up the walkway toward the front door of a house in a residential neighbourhood.
Two more Gentlemen float through the UCSunnydale campus, accompanied by a pair of their minions. They float into Stevenson Hall. They pass silently up and down its halls, examining and rejecting several doorways. They pass by room 214 where Buffy and Willow are sleeping.
The Gentlemen come to a halt outside room 118. This is what they’re looking for. They knock on the door. The boy sleeping inside gets up and opens his door. He’s horrified by the sight of the creatures in front of him.
The two minions grab the boy and push him back onto his bed. They hold him down as he tries to call for help, but he can’t make a sound. The two Gentlemen follow them into the room. One of them opens his bag, and pulls out a scalpel which he hands to the other. The Gentleman takes the scalpel, and examines it. It meets with his approval. He leans down over the silently screaming boy, and slices into his chest.
The Gentlemen return to the clock tower before dawn. They are pleased with their night’s work. They have three human hearts in jars laid out around the box on the table. They still have four empty jars.
Buffy spots a campus security guard keeping people away from room 118 on her way out of Stevenson Hall. While he’s distracted by some other students, she ducks behind him and into the room to see what it’s about. She sees the boy’s body lying on the bed.
Olivia puts the finishing touches on a sketch of what she saw the night before while Giles collects the morning paper. On the front page is a story about a 15 year old girl who was brutally murdered, with her heart removed. It seems to trigger a memory.
Olivia shows Giles her drawing. It’s quite a good likeness of one of the Gentlemen. That clinches it for Giles. He now remembers where he has seen this sort of thing before. He goes to his bookshelves and pulls out a volume of fairy tales.
Xander closes the blinds while Giles prepares the overhead projector in a UCSunnydale lecture hall. Willow, Buffy and Anya are there too. Anya is looking a little bored, and is munching on some popcorn.
Giles turns on a portable stereo which starts playing Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens. He puts his first slide on the projector. “?NEMELTNEG EHT ERA OHW” Everyone starts waving their hands at him, and pointing at the screen.
Giles looks back, and then flips over the slide. “WHO ARE THE GENTLEMEN?” He takes it down, and puts up the next slide “THEY ARE FAIRY TALE MONSTERS” with a cartoon drawing of a Gentleman, holding his black bag. This drawing wasn’t done by Olivia.
Giles switches to the next slide. “WHAT DO THEY WANT?”
Willow knows the answer to that one. She excitedly raises her hand and then starts pointing at her chest. Xander looks puzzled. He cups his hands in front of his chest and mouths “Boobies?” Everyone looks at him in disgust and Giles puts up the next slide. Willow points Xander to the screen.
“HEARTS” it says, with drawings of three valentine hearts. Xander is enlightened. Anya is still bored.
Giles quickly shows a series of slides, with more cartoon illustrations. “THEY COME TO A TOWN” “THEY STEAL ALL THE VOICES SO NO ONE CAN SCREAM” “THEN”
Giles holds up a finger for emphasis before putting up the next slide. A cartoon of one of the Gentlemen standing over someone in bed, slicing into their chest with a knife. He used a red marker to draw in copious amounts of blood. The next slide is even gorier, with more red splattered around the body, and on the Gentleman who is happily holding up the heart he has removed from his victim. Buffy and Willow look a little disturbed, but Anya is starting to enjoy the show. She munches happily away on her popcorn.
Xander starts to write a question as Giles puts up his next slide “THEY NEED SEVEN, THEY HAVE AT LEAST TWO.”
Xander holds up the message board with his question: “How do we kill them?!”
Buffy makes a rapid up and down motion with her fist in front of her. Everyone looks at her. They’re puzzled, and a little disturbed. Buffy looks disgusted and reaches into her bag. She pulls out a stake and repeats the gesture. Now they understand her.
Giles puts up his next slide. A picture of happy Gentleman, with various swords and things sticking out of him. “IN THE TALES NO SWORD CAN KILL THEM.” He puts up the next slide “BUT THE PRINCESS SCREAMED ONCE…AND THEY ALL DIED,” with a picture of a screaming girl, and dead Gentlemen at her feet.
Willow gets an idea. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a CD. She mimes holding her hands over her ears, and dying. Giles puts up his next slide. A picture of a happy dancing Gentleman beside a phonograph. “ONLY A REAL HUMAN VOICE.” Willow deflates.
Buffy writes a question on her message board. “How do I get my voice back??” Giles just shrugs. He doesn’t have a slide for that one.
Giles puts up his last slide. “BUFFY WILL PATROL TONIGHT.” It has a cartoon Buffy, armed with a bow and arrow. Buffy is not flattered by the picture. Her hips aren’t that wide.
Giles gathers up his materials, and waves for the others to come along with him.
Riley and the rest of the UCSCS suit up in preparation for the night in Initiative HQ. They aren’t out to maintain order tonight. They are going hunting for whatever killed those people.
Buffy patrols along one of Sunnydale’s residential streets with her crossbow slung over her shoulder.
Riley is patrolling tonight too. He passes by the old clock tower. It is 2:25 AM. Riley sees shadows moving in the clock tower windows, and goes to investigate.
Tara has looked up Willow’s room number in the campus directory. She also has a book open to a chapter entitled “Spells of Speech and Silence.” She gathers up her notes and books and heads out of her room.
Tara walks across campus, nervously looking around her. She’s so busy looking back over her shoulder she trips over a curb and falls to the pavement. While Tara is picking up her books she hears a noise behind her. She looks around and sees two of the Gentlemen, floating through the campus with their minions.
Tara forgets her books, and runs. The Gentlemen and their minions chase her.
Buffy spots one of the Gentlemen floating by across the street. She starts to creep up on him. She’s attacked by one of his minion demons.
Tara runs into Stevenson Hall and starts banging on doors, trying to find someone who will let her in. Everyone is too frightened to open their doors. She tries shouting for help but it’s futile. The Gentlemen float into Stevenson Hall, followed by their minions.
Tara runs for the stairs up to the second floor.
Buffy fights with the minion that attacked her. It’s joined by a second one. These things aren’t very strong, but they’re tough. They seem to shrug off everything Buffy does to them. Finally Buffy snaps one of their necks, which seems to put it down.
The other minion runs away. Buffy chases it.
Riley cautiously enters the clock tower. He’s armed with a strange looking weapon. It looks something like a rifle, but its barrel is much wider, and there’s a copper point at the end of it. As Riley looks around he’s jumped by one of the minions. It knocks Riley’s weapon away from him.
Riley recovers quickly. He gives the minion a kick, and pulls a baton from his boot. Riley knocks his first attacker to the ground as another comes at him from behind.
Tara runs up the stairs to the second floor and starts banging on the door to room 219. The noise wakes up Willow, who had gone to sleep at her desk in her room down the hall.
Tara keeps pounding on the door, while Willow slowly gets to her feet and goes to her own door.
The door to 219 opens. One of the Gentlemen is inside. He has a heart in his hand. Tara backs away from him and looks down the hall to where two more Gentlemen and their minions are coming out of the stairwell. She runs the other way and collides with Willow, who has just stepped out of her own room. They both fall to the floor.
Willow looks down the hallway, and sees the Gentlemen and their minions coming toward her. She gets to her feet with Tara, and they head for the doors at the other end of the hall. Willow is limping.
Riley tosses off his second attacker as the first is getting back to its feet. They are soon joined by a third which comes running in the door. Riley is being overwhelmed. He tries to reach for his weapon on the floor.
Buffy crashes through the shutters covering one of the windows, and attacks first one, and then a second of the minions, leaving only one on top of Riley, He manages to toss it aside, and reaches his weapon. He picks it up as Buffy unslings her crossbow. They each bring their weapons to bear on the other before they recognise each other. They freeze, weapons pointed at each other’s heads with identical “What the hell are you doing here?” expressions on their faces.
Buffy and Riley stand with their weapons pointed at each other for several seconds. Then the demon minions start getting back to their feet. Riley ducks as Buffy spins around with a kick that passes over his head and into one of the demons. She follows the kick up with a shot from her crossbow, while Riley shoots a second with his ‘gun.’ It delivers a powerful electric shock to the minion he aimed it at.
The minion Buffy shot barely notices it, but Riley’s demon is stunned by the shock.
Riley starts to wrestle with one of the demons, while Buffy squares off against the second one still on its feet. Buffy kicks it several times in its head and then tosses it to the floor. As it is getting back to its feet she grabs a rope and swings across the room at it, delivering a two footed kick which knocks the demon twenty feet across the room, through a large wooden post. Riley is impressed.
Giles is still researching. He prepares cups of coffee for the others with him in his apartment.
Spike is back there now too. He goes to the fridge and gets out his cup of blood. He takes a swig, and reverts to his vampire face. He takes his cup of blood back out into the living room.
Anya is taking a nap on the sofa. Spike looks for something to read on the coffee table. He knocks a couple of books off the table and kneels down to pick them up.
Xander comes in. He sees Anya lying on the sofa. He sees Spike kneeling beside her, in vamp face, with blood on his lips. Xander goes postal and attacks Spike. He knocks Spike to the ground and punches him repeatedly. Spike’s implant makes it impossible for him to fight back. The noise of the fight wakes up Anya, and brings Giles and Olivia into the room to see what’s happening.
Anya understands why Xander is beating on Spike, and taps him on the shoulder to get his attention. Spike sees her standing over them and points at her too. When Xander finally notices her, he lets go of Spike and grabs Anya for hug and a kiss.
Spike slowly gets to his feet, and Xander stops kissing Anya long enough to shrug an apology at him. He goes right back to kissing her. Spike looks disgusted by the display, but Olivia and Giles seem to be amused.
Anya and Xander stop kissing but continue to gaze in each other’s eyes. “Hey you want to…” Anya makes an ‘O’ with the fingers of one hand and pokes the index finger of her other hand into it. She grabs Xander by the hand and leads him away. It’s Giles and Olivia’s turn to look disgusted.
Tara helps Willow down the stairs, chased by the minions. Willow is limping badly. They make their way to the basement and lock themselves in the dorm’s laundry room. They try to push a soft drink machine over against the door, but they can’t budge it.
Willow falls back against the washing machines, and tries to will the soft drink machine to move. She makes it tremble a bit, but it still won’t budge.
Tara looks at Willow, and the machine. She understands what Willow is trying to do. She reaches out and takes Willow’s hand in hers, entwining their fingers together. Under the power of both their wills the machine slides across the floor, blocking the door.
Willow looks at Tara in surprise. They continue to hold hands.
Buffy and Riley are still fighting the minions. These things just won’t stay down when you hit them. One of the minions runs up the stairs. Buffy hesitates for a bit, and then decides that Riley will have to take care of himself. She chases after it. There are more minions upstairs, and the Gentlemen. They have collected six hearts now.
Buffy is badly outnumbered, and she is getting tired. Two of the minions manage to grab and hold her, while a Gentleman approaches her, smiling, with a scalpel in his hand. He thinks he knows where he’s going to get the seventh heart.
Riley fires his gun from the top of the stairs, shocking the Gentleman. A second shot disables one of the minions for a bit, but now his gun is out of power. He wades in, using it as a club. Buffy breaks loose from the minions holding her.
Buffy has her second wind, and is punching and kicking minion butt again, not that this seems to be doing her much good. A Gentleman comes up behind her and stabs her in the back with his scalpel.
One of the minions grabs Buffy from behind. It pushes her up against a reel of rope, with its arm across her neck. Buffy sees the table with the seven jars—six with hearts in them—across the reel, out of her reach. She also sees the small wooden box from her dream.
Buffy beats her hands on the reel to attract Riley’s attention. When she has it she points at the table. Riley seems to understand. He takes his gun, raises it up, and smashes it down on the empty jar, shattering it. He looks expectantly toward Buffy.
Buffy rolls her eyes, and makes an opening lid gesture with her hands. Riley really gets it this time, and smashes the box as the minion tosses Buffy across the room. The clock tower fills with mist, which swirls around and quickly dissipates, except for the two wisps which go into Buffy and Riley’s mouths.
Buffy takes a deep breath, and starts to scream, as only a Slayer who hasn’t made a sound for two days can scream. The Gentlemen put their hands over their ears in pain while their minions go into convulsions on the floor. Buffy keeps screaming, until the Gentlemen’s heads explode.
Riley and Buffy look at each other for a while, but neither of them says anything.
Willow walks into the lounge with Tara next morning. She’s surprised when Tara tells her that she’d come to the dorm looking for her. Tara had hoped they could find a spell to make people speak again. She’d noticed that Willow seemed to be the only one in the Wicca group who actually knew anything about magic. “I think if they saw a w-witch, they’d, um, run the other way.”
Willow asks Tara how long she has been practicing.
“Always,” says Tara. “I mean, since I was little. My mom used to. She, um…had a lot of power, like you.”
“Oh, I’m not,” denies Willow. “I don’t have much in the way of power. Really, I mean, most of my potions come out…soup. Besides, spells going awry, friends in danger. I’m definitely nothing special.”
“No,” says Tara. “You are.”
Giles and Olivia are relaxing on his sofa, drinking wine. She’s lying back with her head in his lap.
Giles takes a sip from his glass. “So, would you say this was, um, your best visit ever?”
“All the time you used to talk to me about witchcraft and darkness and the like—I just thought you were being pretentious,” says Olivia.
“Oh, I was,” says Giles. “I was also right.”
“So everything you told me was true?”
“Well, no. I wasn’t actually one of the original members of Pink Floyd, but…about the monster stuff, yes.”
“Scary,” says Olivia.
Giles considers what Olivia said for a couple of seconds. “Too scary?”
“I don’t know.”
Buffy is folding laundry in her room when she hears a knock behind her. She turns around and sees Riley standing in her open door. She invites him in.
Riley slowly comes into the room and goes and sits on the end of Willow’s bed. “Well, I guess we have to talk.”
Buffy sits on her own bed facing him. “I guess we do.”
The both just sit looking at each other, saying nothing.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A college student | Room 118 of Buffy’s dorm | Heart cut out by the Gentlemen |
| A 15 year old girl | Heart cut out by the Gentlemen | |
| A college student | Room 219 of Buffy’s dorm | Heart cut out by the Gentlemen |
| Three other people | Hearts cut out by the Gentlemen | |
| The six Gentlemen | The clock tower | Their heads exploded by Buffy’s scream |
| Six minion demons | The clock tower | Killed by Buffy’s scream |
15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 15:6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.