Introduction
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| Fool for Love | Listening to Fear |
Joyce lies on the table as it slides into the CAT scan machine at Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. She is trying hard not to look scared, but it is a losing battle.
Dawn fiddles with her bracelet nervously while she sits in a chair in the waiting room. Buffy brings her a cola. They sit and wait together. Dawn asks Buffy what a CAT scan is.1 Buffy doesn’t really know. It’s some sort of X-Ray machine. Dawn keeps asking questions. Do they call it that because they tested it on cats, or does the machine look like a cat?
Buffy starts to get a little annoyed by all the questions. “Dawn, I’m really—” She stops. Dawn is just scared. Buffy gives her a hug.
Tara checks out Giles’ advertisement for the Magic Box in the new release of the Sunnydale Yellow Pages. She likes his slogan: Your one-stop spot to shop for all your occult needs. She thinks it’s catchy, even if it is a little hard to read.
Xander, Willow and Anya enter the shop, fresh from the cemetery where they have learned that Riley hadn’t waited for them before cleaning out the vampire nest, like he told them he would. Xander is not pleased. He thinks it was rather rude of Riley. “When a person makes a ‘destroy all vampires’ date, it’s simple courtesy to wait for your co-destroyers. Am I right, Giles?”
“I’m almost certain you’re not,” says Giles. “But to be fair, I wasn’t listening.”
Tara tells them that the new phone book is in with Giles’ ad in it. Anya is very excited by that, until she learns that it doesn’t mention her. Xander tells Giles about them having an appointment with Riley to clean out a vampire nest. “So we get there, and guess what?” he asks. “Tell him, Will.”
“Tomb go boom,” says Willow.
“Yep, Captain America blowed it up real good,” says Xander. “All by his lone wolf lonesome.” Giles agrees that was rather reckless of Riley, but thinks that they should be happy to have missed the confrontation.
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” says Anya. “I mean, I for one didn’t want to start my day with a slaughter.” She pauses and realizes what she just said. “Which really just goes to show how much I’ve grown.”
The group goes back to trying to discover something about the demon woman that Buffy fought. So far they have had no success. “It’d be nice if we knew where she was, where she’s hiding out,” says Willow.
“No doubt lurking around some sewer or condemned church or rat-infested warehouse,” says Xander. “You know, the usual haunts.”
“Most beauteous and supremely Magnificent One,” says the demon Dreg. “this dark spell I hold in my worthless and scabby hand is our gift to you, most tingly and wonderful Glorificus.” He is kneeling on the carpet in a luxury penthouse apartment, holding a rolled parchment out before him.
The Blonde Beast is reclining on her bed, trying on shoes. She tells Dreg to just call her Glory, and to get up off his knees. Looking down at him is making her neck hurt.
Dreg gets quickly to his feet. “Forgive me, Shiny Special One. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue.”
Glory holds out her hand. “Gimme.”
Dreg slowly approaches Glory, and sticks out his tongue. Glory snatches the parchment out of his hand. The demon lets out a bit of a nervous laugh in relief. “You should know, your Elaborate Marvelousness, that this dark incantation has been lost for eons and great dangers have been faced—”
Glory isn’t paying any attention. She extends her leg up into the air so she can get a better look at the shoe she’s trying on. “Does this pump make my ankle look boney?”
“No. No. No, your Terrifically Smooth One,” says Dreg “It is the epitome of ankles. To touch such an ankle would be— but I’m not touching. I’m backing away.” Glory kicks off the shoe, and it hits him in the head. “Ow! Thank you.”
“Look, just so we’re clear, this spell’s going to work, right?” Glory gets off her bed, and goes over to the windows for a look outside. “I mean, nothing worse than a gift that doesn’t work. Then I’d have to get all mad and kill you. It’s this whole big thing.”
“It will work, your Extremeness,” says Dreg. “Provided you have the other items you need.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll have them all right.” Glory walks across to the phone table. There is a new copy of the Sunnydale Yellow pages lying open to Giles’ ad. She rips out the page. “I’ll have it all.”
Riley arrives at Buffy’s house and finds that the door is ajar. He knocks on it, and enters, calling out for Buffy. He doesn’t get an answer from her, or anyone else. He notices a blanket lying on the floor in the front hall and hears something moving upstairs. He goes up to investigate. He finds Spike in Buffy’s room, sniffing her pink sweater with his back to the door. “What are you doing in here?” asks Riley.
Spike spins around, and tries to hide the sweater behind his back. “What, me? I was, um, uh… What are you doing here?”
Riley is looking for the girl who’s going to rip Spike’s arms off when she finds out he was in her bedroom. Spike thinks that’s quite a coincidence. He’s looking for her too. Riley wants to know what Spike is doing smelling Buffy’s sweater. Spike tries to pretend it’s just predator thing, getting the scent of his enemy and all that, but Riley doesn’t believe him. He takes Buffy’s sweater away from Spike, and drags him toward the door. Spike grabs a pair of pink frilly panties hanging out of Buffy’s dresser drawer as he passes it and stuffs them into his pocket without Riley noticing.
Riley drags Spike down the stairs and toward the front door. Spike tries telling him that Buffy wouldn’t mind him being there. After all, they spent much of last night together. Buffy was buying him drinks. And if Buffy doesn’t like him, how come she hasn’t had the loverwiccas do the un-invite spell to keep him out of her house?
Riley has a little problem with that one. “Because you’re harmless,” he says rather weakly.
“Oh, yeah, right,” says Spike. “Takes one to know, I suppose. Least I still got the attitude. What you got, a piercing glance? Face it, white bread, Buffy’s got a type, and you’re not it. She likes us dangerous, rough, occasionally bumpy in the forehead region. Not that she doesn’t like you, but sorry, Charlie, you’re just not dark enough.”
Riley has had enough of Spike. He grabs him by the collar and drags him out onto the front porch. Bits of sunlight filter through the leaves of the trees, and Spike starts to smoulder. “Am I dark enough for you now?” asks Riley.
“Bloody pull me back in, you sod! I’m starting to sizzle.”
“You don’t know anything about Buffy,” says Riley. “You never did. I’m the one that knows what she needs.”
“Oh, yeah?” asks Spike. “That’s why you’re with her at hospital right now giving her what she needs.” Riley pulls Spike back inside, and asks him what he’s talking about. Spike tells him that Buffy took her mother into the hospital for some tests. The bite-sized one went too. “It’s funny her not calling you about that. I’ve known since last night.”
Riley throws Spike back out the door. “Blanket! Blanket!” yells Spike. Riley kicks it out the door to him.
Buffy dithers outside an examining room in the hospital, not really wanting to go in. Someone places their hand on her shoulder, and she spins around. It’s Riley. He apologises for startling her. “I thought maybe you’d need…”
Buffy goes to him for a hug. She’s glad he’s there, but she hadn’t wanted to bother him until she knew more. He asks how her mother is doing. Buffy doesn’t know yet. She was just about to go find out. She asks him to go keep Dawn company in the waiting room while she does.
Buffy enters the examining room where her mother has been talking with Dr. Isaacs. He excuses himself to go check on the status of the operating room. Buffy asks her mother what they found.
“A shadow,” says Joyce. “I’ve got a shadow…somewhere. Over there.” She points at the CAT scan results stuck up on the light boards on the wall. “He showed it to me, but, um, they have to do a biopsy to find out exactly what it is.” She gives Buffy a hug. “The doctor says it’s too early to be concerned.”
“Right,” says Buffy. “No concern.” She smiles bravely.
“Right,” says Joyce, echoing her smile. “Just a shadow.”
Willow, Xander and Tara sit around the book covered table in the Magic Box. Giles and Anya are there too, servicing customers. They are getting even more frustrated trying to learn about the demon woman Buffy fought. They feel like they are just going in circles.
Tara suggests that maybe what they are looking for just isn’t in the books. “What if she’s not a demon or a sorceress or a spirit or whatever these books cover? What if she’s something else altogether?”
Giles comes over to them from the cash counter. “Something new, you mean?”
“Something old,” says Tara. “So old it pre-dates the written word.” The Dagon Sphere was supposed to repel something that couldn’t be named. Maybe this something even pre-dates language. Xander considers this to be good news. It means he can quit reading.
Giles is much less optimistic. “If Tara’s right, then we’re blind. There’s no way we can determine her moves, her habits, where she’ll turn up ne—” he turns around and sees Glory standing right behind him. “Oh, I beg your—”
“Uh-huh.” Glory holds up a couple of objects in her hand. “I want these.”
Giles is happy to oblige her. He rings up the items in the cash register, writes out her receipt, and collects her money. He places the objects into a bag, along with a complimentary lollypop. He and Xander watch her back as she leaves the store, then Giles turns back to the others. “She could be anywhere. But if she’s as powerful as Buffy says, I imagine it won’t be long before she makes herself known.”
Dawn has fallen asleep in her chair in the waiting room. Riley puts his jacket over her and returns to sit beside Buffy. He puts his arm around her, and she rests her head on his shoulder. Buffy looks up and sees Dr. Isaacs coming through the doors at the end of the corridor. She leaves Riley to go talk with him about how the biopsy went.
Dr. Isaacs tells her that it went fine, and suggests that they go sit down, but Buffy has had enough sitting. She just wants to know if the results are in.
“Your mother has— the term is low-grade glioma,” says Dr. Isaacs. “It’s a brain tumor. The clinical name is oligodendroglioma. It’s in the left hemisphere of the cerebrum. In your mother’s case, the tumor seems to have started there. In other words, it hasn’t spread from another part of the body, which in a way is good news.”
Buffy sits talking with Dr. Isaacs while he tells her more about her mother’s illness. Things may progress quickly, and Joyce might exhibit a variety of symptoms, including loss of vision, appetite and muscle control. She may also experience mood swings. They don’t know yet if the tumor is operable, but even if it isn’t there are several other treatment options.
Buffy wants to know if there is anything she can do to help, and he tells her that there really isn’t much she can do. There is some literature he can give her to read. “Your mother’s prognosis is a lot better today than it would’ve been only a year ago,” he tells her. “Even if the tumor’s not operable, she has a real chance.”
“What’s a real chance?” asks Buffy.
“Nearly one out of three patients with this condition does just fine.” Dr. Isaacs has several questions for her about Joyce’s insurance coverage, and various things about Joyce’s lifestyle, and environment which may have contributed to her condition. Buffy can’t really answer them.
They are interrupted by the intern Ben, who tells Dr. Isaacs he’s needed in ICU. When Isaacs is gone Ben takes the seat beside Buffy. “Thought you looked like you needed a break. Guy’s great, but he doesn’t have that bone in his head that tells him when to back off.”
“You…I mean, they didn’t need him?” asks Buffy.
“Well, I’m sure someone does somewhere. They always do. He really is a good doctor. Your Mom’s in good hands.” Ben suggests that Buffy take a break. Get out of the hospital for a while. Joyce is going to be unconscious for another six or seven hours. Buffy should go get some air. She can talk to the doctor some more when she gets back.
Ben leaves, and Riley comes over to Buffy and gives her a hug. He already knows that the news is not good. Buffy tells him that she has to go do something. Maybe a healing spell.
Riley doesn’t think that is a good idea. “Buffy, people get sick. I don’t think magic—”
“That attitude’s not helping! I have to try.” Buffy wants to go talk with Giles. She asks Riley if he can drop Dawn off at school, and to tell her that Buffy will meet her at the magic shop after school lets out.
Riley can do that, but he wants to know what he should tell Dawn about her mother. Buffy says to tell her that they don’t know yet.
Anya is looking through the receipts in the Magic Box. She sees something she doesn’t like. “Hey,” she says. No one notices. “Hey!” she says louder. She still gets no response. “Hey! Hey!” she yells.
That gets everyone’s attention. Giles comes over and tells her to stop. She’s startling the customers. Xander thinks she startled the state.
Anya has noticed that Giles sold someone a Khul’s Amulet and a Sobekian blood stone. “Are you stupid or something?”
“Allow me to answer that question with a firing,” says Giles.
“She’s kidding,” says Xander. “Ahn, we talked about the employee/employer vocabulary no-nos. That was number five.”
Anya ignores him. “You never sell these things together, ever,” she tells Giles. “Bad news. Don’t you know about the Sobekites?”
Willow knows about them. They were an ancient Egyptian cult, and Tara has heard of the Khul’s Amulet. It’s a transmogrification conduit.
“Be that as it may, I still see no reason for concern,” says Giles. “The Sobekian transmogrification spells were lost thousands of years ago. And besides, the young woman to whom I sold them would have to have enormous pow—” He stops.
Willow gets it too. “Young woman?”
“Oh, dear Lord,” says Giles.
“What?” asks Xander. Anya gives him a disgusted look.
Riley doesn’t take Dawn straight to school. He takes her to the park first, where he buys her an icecream. They sit and talk on a bench by the carousel while she plays with it. She isn’t really hungry. She’s too worried about her mother.
She tells Riley how her mother had brought her here for her tenth birthday, shortly after they arrived in Sunnydale.2 Joyce had rented the carousel for an entire hour for Dawn and her friends, but Dawn hadn’t made any yet. It was just her, Buffy and their mother on the carousel. “Over and over and over again…for the whole hour, just so Mom felt like we’d gotten our money’s worth. She’s… She’s not going to get better, is she?”
“Absolutely she will,” says Riley. He leans close to her. “Summers women are tough.”
Dawn is glad that Riley is with her, and she tells him that Buffy’s glad he’s around too. “She sure cries a lot less with you than she did with Angel.”
“Angel made her cry a lot, huh?”
“Everything with him was all ‘yeeee,’ you know,” says Dawn.
“All…?”
“You know, ‘my boyfriend’s a vampire’ crazy crazy,” says Dawn. “Every day was like the end of the world. She doesn’t get all worked up like that over you. I think you’ve been really good for her.” Riley doesn’t look like he likes what he’s just heard.
Buffy tells the others about her idea for a healing spell. Willow isn’t hopeful. They can look, but she doesn’t think they will find anything.
“The truth is,” says Giles, “the mystical and the medical aren’t meant to mix, Buffy. Sorry. The human mind is very delicate. Just too much could go wrong.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard stories about people trying healing spells,” says Tara. “If we did something, it could make things a lot worse, Buffy.”
“We’ve done just about enough making things worse for one day, haven’t we?” asks Anya.
Buffy asks what she means. Xander doesn’t think Buffy needs to hear what happened just now. He tries to cover up by claiming that Anya broke something. Giles backs Xander, but Anya is a little slow on the uptake, and wonders what it is they are talking about before she finally clues in, and goes along.
It’s too late. Buffy asks what happened.
Giles tries to evade the question, telling Buffy it doesn’t matter now, but Buffy insists. He tells her that the demon woman came into the shop.
“It’s no biggie,” says Willow. “She just got an amulet and a blood stone.”
“That can create a monster,” says Anya.
“Okay, biggie,” says Willow.
Buffy is more concerned about her friends. She asks if anyone was hurt. Giles tells her that there was no violence to speak of.
“Okay, so that’s…good,” says Buffy. “How did she get away with this bad mojo stuff?”
An awkward silence falls over the group. “Giles sold it to her.” whispers Anya.
“I-I-I didn’t know it was her!” says Giles. “I mean, how could I? If it’s any consolation, I may have overcharged her.” Buffy doesn’t think that is much consolation.
Tara tells Buffy that Anya figured out what the demon lady is up to. Anya explains that a few thousand years ago there was this cult who worshiped the reptile demon Sobek.
“Just once I would like to run into a cult of bunny worshippers,” says Xander.
“Great,” says Anya. “Thank you very much for those nightmares.”
Xander apologises, and Anya gets back to her story. The Sobekite’s high priest, Khul, forged an amulet with transmogrifying power. It could transform one living thing into another sort of thing. Based on the markings on the blood stone that she left with the demon woman is planning to transmogrify a cobra. Buffy asks what she’s making this monster for, but they haven’t been able to figure that out.
Buffy gets up to go. They can keep working on figuring it out, she’ll go kill it. No one seems to think that is a good idea. “Buffy, this chick creamed you last time,” says Xander.
“That’s because I wasn’t ready for her last time. I am now.”
“But you—” says Willow.
“But what?” asks Buffy. “Will, I can’t just sit here. I have to do something.”
Glory smashes the glass of the cobra enclosure in the reptile house at the Sunnydale Zoo. She reaches in, and pulls out the snake. “Chill, worm. I’m going to make you a star!” She places the cobra into an earthenware urn, takes the Khul’s amulet from Dreg, and holds it over the urn. “Chant!” she orders Dreg.
Dreg starts to chant, reading from the parchment. “Assoorati aaniyatun min jadlldin khuliqat. Firihaabi malkootinal iraadatu uu’tiyat.”3
“Sobek, grant the power,” says Glory, “that it may mold this wretched creature, that it may be reborn, that it may serve! Ah! Dark incantations. Always overwritten. Why can’t they just cut to the—” Something hits her.
“Fight?” asks Buffy, and she kicks Glory in the head.
Glory doesn’t think it’s fair, Buffy attacking when she wasn’t looking. Buffy manages to get in another couple of hits, and grabs Glory by the head, and bashes it against the wall a couple of times. Then it’s Glory’s turn. She grabs Buffy and throws her head first into the wall. Buffy picks herself up and tries to hit Glory again. Glory catches her arm and twists it, dislocating Buffy’s shoulder. She tells Dreg to get on with his chanting, and bounces Buffy off the wall again.
“Yes, Glory,” says Dreg. “Assoorati aaniyatun min jadlldin khuliqat. Alasaasu sakhratun.”
Glory picks up Buffy again. “Hey, hey, work with me here.” She throws Buffy against another wall while Dreg continues to chant. “There, that feels more real, don’t ya think?” She knees Buffy in the head, and throws her against another wall. “Even if I do have to carry your performance.” She tosses Buffy into the enclosure that had been occupied by the cobra, and throws her arms in the air. “Scene!” She turns her attention back to the urn.
“Sir hayyan win-hud!” says Dreg.
“Arise,” says Glory. The urn begins to rock. “Arise!”
“Sir hayyan win-hud!” says Dreg.
“Arise!” yells Glory.
The urn shatters as the cobra transmogrifies into a giant demon snake. It is about thirty feet long with a cobra-like head, and arms.
“He is arisen,” says Dreg.
“’Bout damn time,” says Glory.
Buffy rolls herself out of the cobra’s enclosure while Glory is still distracted. She limps away. “Spawn of Sobek.” Glory tells the snake. “The power is yours to see what is unseen, to find what is shrouded in shadow. Already you know what I seek. I have given you form. Now find for me the Key. Seek it out in the Holy places.”
The snake looks at Glory and hisses. “Yes, yes, yes,” says Glory. “Let your vision guide you to its hiding place and then return to me and tell me where it lies.”
The snake doesn’t move. It keeps looking at Glory. “Now would be good,” she tells it. The snake turns away from her and slithers away. Glory claps her hands. “Fun, fun, fun!”
Giles has to tell a disappointed customer that he doesn’t have a copy of Aleister Crowley Sings. He does have some very nice whale recordings though. He excuses himself when he sees Riley come in.
Riley is looking for Buffy. Giles and Xander tell him that she went to find the monster the demon woman is conjuring. Riley is not happy that they let her go alone.
“‘Let’ isn’t really a factor when she sets her mind to something,” says Giles. “You know that.” He goes back to helping a customer.
“She’ll get herself killed.” Riley tells Xander. “It’s crazy.”
“Yeah, crazy,” says Xander. “Going off alone, half-cocked, instead of waiting for much-needed backup. Charging in with a big old hand grenade. Oh, wait.”
“This is different,” says Riley.
“Yeah, it is,” says Xander. “Buffy needs something she can fight, something she can solve. I don’t know what kind of action you’re looking for. Do you?” Riley doesn’t have an answer. “Hey, I’m not trying to get—”
Riley tells him it’s okay, he’s just getting a little crazed. Xander can understand that. Riley starts to go. “If, uh, she needs me…” Riley shrugs, and goes.
The demon snake searches the places Glory told it to look, starting with the churches.
Giles answers the phone in the magic shop. It’s Buffy calling to tell him that she couldn’t stop the demon lady. She couldn’t even slow her down. He asks where she is, and Buffy tells him she’s at the hospital. Giles is instantly worried about her, and tells her he’ll be right over, but Buffy tells him to stay where he is.
“I just wanted to warn you that that thing she conjured— it’s loose,” says Buffy. She snags an icepack for her shoulder off a shelf as she talks to him. “It’s a big snake thing. Not Mayor big, but it’s pretty lethal-looking.” She still has no idea why it was raised.
Giles tells her that he and everyone else will get out looking for it right away, but she stops him. It’s after four o’clock. Dawn will be out of school and should be on her way to him now. “Understood,” says Giles. “We’ll keep her safe here until you arrive.”
Buffy tells him that Dawn still doesn’t know how ill their mother is. She’s kind of fragile right now. Giles promises not to say a word. Buffy is going to stay in the hospital until her mother wakes up. She hangs up the phone, and limps away to the waiting room.
Riley sits at the bar in Willy’s Place, having a drink.
Buffy sits in the waiting room at the hospital waiting for her mother to wake up.
Dawn sits at a table in the Magic Box, doing her homework.
Sandy approaches Riley at the bar and sits down beside him.
Buffy sits beside her mother on her bed while Dr. Isaacs tells Joyce the results of the biopsy. Joyce looks away from Buffy and blinks the tears from her eyes, and then she looks back at her daughter and smiles.
Riley lets Sandy take him back to her place. He knows what she wants. He doesn’t move when her face transforms. He slowly turns his face away from her, exposing his neck. He lets her bite him. His hand comes up and holds on to her head.
Sandy suddenly pulls away from Riley looking shocked. She vanishes in a cloud of dust. Riley is holding a stake as blood trickles down his neck.
The demon snake passes by the carousel. It pauses by the bench where Dawn had sat with Riley. Its eyes glow red.
Buffy enters the Magic Box. Dawn sees her, and instantly goes to her and gives her a hug. “Is she awake yet?” she asks her big sister.
“Yeah,” says Buffy. “She’s waiting for us.”
“Can we take her home now?” asks Dawn.
“We’ll see,” says Buffy. “Go get your stuff.”
Dawn goes to collect her school books while Buffy gets an update from Giles and the others on the snake. They haven’t learned anything. Willow and Tara had done a quick sweep around town earlier that evening and seen no sign of it.
The demon snake smashes through the front windows of the shop. It knocks a shelf over on top of Buffy, and moves toward Dawn. Dawn is too frightened to move as the snake towers over her. Its eyes glow red, and its forked tongue darts out at her. She screams.
Buffy tries to free herself from under the shelf. The snake suddenly turns away from Dawn and darts out of the shop.
Xander rushes to check on Dawn after the snake has gone. Willow and Tara pick themselves up from behind the counter. “Why was the big snake afraid of Dawn?” asks Willow.
Buffy has managed to free herself from under the shelves. “It knows!” she tells Giles, and runs out of the shop after the snake. Giles follows her.
The snake slithers its way down Sunnydale’s main street. People scramble to get out of its way. A car swerves to avoid it. Buffy runs down the street after it. Giles heads the other direction.
Buffy chases the snake into an alley. She hears the sound of a car behind her and looks back and sees Giles’ BMW closing on her. He slows down to let her get in, and then speeds after the snake.
The snake darts through the alleys trying to lose them. It rounds a corner and pulls a dumpster out into the path of Giles’ car with its tail. Giles manages to avoid hitting it, but collides with a pile of garbage bags.
Buffy puts on her seat belt. “I’ve got to stop this monster before it gets back to Glory.”
Giles backs his car out of the pile of garbage. “Glory?”
“That’s what he called her,” says Buffy. “Giles, she’s going to know Dawn’s the Key if we don’t—”
“We will!” says Giles. They speed off in pursuit of the snake.
“Please, please mistress!” Dreg ducks away from a hail of shoe boxes. “Perturbed, yet ultimately Merciful One! Please, No!”
“What is taking so long, Dreg?” asks Glory. “You told me Snakey-Wakey would find my Key. Now, why isn’t he back here with a beautiful message for me?” She climbs up over the arm of her sofa and paces back and forth on it.
“I grovel like a bug, most silky and effervescent Glorificus!” Dreg is hit by a hail of more shoe boxes. “Glory! Glory, your most fresh and cleanness, it’s just a matter of time.”
“Oh! Everything takes time. What about my time? Does anyone appreciate that I’m on a schedule here?” Glory steps down off the sofa and walks toward him. “Tick-tock, Dreg. Tick-fricking-tock!”
The demon snake smashes through a fence into a park. Giles overshoots. He quickly reverses, and backs up to the hole in the fence. Buffy jumps out and chases after the snake on foot. Giles takes off again to try to intercept it on the other side of the park.
The snake smashes through a chain fencing off a pathway. Buffy follows it, grabbing the broken chain as she passes by. The snake slithers into a group of boulders, twisting and turning around them. Buffy goes over top of them. She leaps off the top of one of the boulders onto the back of the snake. She wraps the chain around its neck.
The snake struggles, trying to throw Buffy free, but she hangs on, tightening the chain around its neck. The snake’s struggles weaken, and it collapses underneath her. The nictitating membranes over its eyes close, and it stops struggling.
Buffy relaxes. She lets go of the chain wrapped around the snake’s neck.
The snake suddenly rears back, tossing Buffy off its back. It turns to face her as she gets back to her feet. Buffy attacks. She punches the snake in the head, and knocks it to the ground. She jumps on top of it and keeps punching. The snake goes limp again, but this time Buffy doesn’t stop. She keeps punching the snake over and over. Beating its head into a bloody pulp.
Glory looks out the window of her apartment overlooking the park, wondering what has happened to her Snakey-Wakey.
Buffy asks her mother if she wants her to stay while she talks with Dawn. Joyce tells her no. She wants to do it alone.
“Do I have bed hair?” Joyce feels her head. “I don’t look like Scary Mom do I?”
Buffy tells her she looks beautiful.
“Okay, let’s do this,” says Joyce. “Stay close.”
Buffy goes to the door and lets Dawn into the room. She goes outside while Dawn slowly approaches her mother. She leaves the door open a crack, and watches as Dawn and her mother hug.
“Buffy?” Buffy turns and sees Riley wearing a turtleneck sweater, hiding the bite mark on his neck. “You okay? You look pretty beat up.”
Buffy tells Riley that the physical damage is the least of her problems right now.
“Come here,” says Riley, and Buffy goes to him and hugs him. “It’s okay,” says Riley. “Just let it out. I’m right here.”
“I can’t.” Buffy pulls away from him. “Not now. They need me. If I start now…I won’t be able to stop.” Riley reaches out to touch her cheek.
“Buffy!” calls out Joyce from her room, and Buffy instantly turns away from Riley before he can touch her. She goes back into her mother’s room and closes the door behind her, leaving Riley standing alone in the hallway.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Snake demon | The park | Beaten to death by Buffy |