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| Grave | Beneath You |
Istanbul
A teenaged girl runs through the dark streets and alleys of Istanbul. She’s being chased by a couple of robed figures. People close and lock their doors when they hear them approaching.
She runs into an alley, and discovers it’s a dead end. She looks around desperately for an escape and sees a drain pipe. She starts to climb it. One of the figures grabs at her ankle, but she pulls free.
She climbs to the rooftop, and scrambles up to the roof’s peak. One of the robed figures got there ahead of her. It pushes her off the roof.
The girl lands on her back in the alley. While she’s lying stunned on the ground one of the robed figures grabs her wrists and pulls her arms up over her head. Its companion pulls a curved knife out of a scabbard. It plunges the knife toward her chest.
Sunnydale
A vampire pushes its head through the earth over its grave, and looks around.
Buffy is kneeling beside the grave. “It’s about power: who’s got it, who knows how to use it. So…” She tosses a stake to Dawn, who’s standing at the foot of the grave. “…who’s got the power, Dawn?”
“Well, I’ve got the stake,” says Dawn.
“The stake is not the power.”
“But he’s new,” says Dawn. “He doesn’t know his strength. He might not know all those fancy martial arts skills they inevitably seem to pick up.”
“Who’s got the power?”
Dawn sighs and lowers the stake. “He does.”
Buffy gets to her feet, and walks toward her sister. “Never forget it. It doesn’t matter how well-prepped you are or well-armed you are. You’re a little girl.”
“Woman,” says Dawn.
“Little woman,” says Buffy.
“I’m taller than you!”
“He’s a vampire, okay?” says Buffy. “Demon. Preternaturally strong, skilled with powers no human could possibly ever—”
“Excuse me,” says the vampire. “I think I’m stuck.”
Buffy looks back at the vampire who’s still mostly buried, just its head and shoulders above the ground. “You’re stuck?”
“My foot’s caught on a root or something,” says the vampire. “I don’t even know how I got down there. If you girls could just give me a hand.”
“So, he’s got the power,” says Dawn.
Buffy rolls her eyes. “Zip it.” She goes over to the vampire. It doesn’t seem to know what it is, or how it came to be buried. Buffy grabs it by the collar of its suit coat, and pulls it out of the ground with one hand.
“Whew! Thanks. That was a help,” says the vamp. It turns toward Buffy and bares its fangs. “Unfortunately, it was the last—” Buffy’s hand clamps around its throat. “…thing you’ll ever do!” it gasps.
“Listen up,” says Buffy. “I’m the Slayer. You don’t want to get into it with me. You want blood? You can have hers.” She points the vampire toward Dawn, who is holding her stake ready, and has a steely gaze in her eyes.
The vampire moves toward Dawn.
“Power,” says Buffy, “He’s got it. He’s going to use it. You don’t have it, so—”
Dawn steps back as the vampire moves toward her. She stumbles and falls. The vampire trips over her and goes head first into a gravestone.
“Use that,” says Buffy. “Perfect.”
Dawn scrambles to her feet and plunges her stake into the vampire’s chest. She straightens up with a smile on her lips, until she notices that the vampire isn’t going poof. She missed the heart.
Dawn tries again, but this time the vampire is ready for her, and it’s pissed. It blocks her attack, and knocks her away.
Dawn loses her stake and falls to the ground. She scrambles to Buffy’s weapons bag and pulls out another one. She gets back to her feet and tries to stake the vampire again. This time it grabs her arm, and twists her around.
Dawn looks around desperately. “Buffy!” Buffy’s vanished.
The vampire’s teeth start to close on Dawn’s neck. Buffy grabs its shoulder and pulls it away from her sister.
Buffy takes a quick glance at Dawn as she falls to the ground to make sure she’s okay, and then turns her attention back to the vampire. She hits it with a couple of quick punches and kicks.
Buffy swings a back handed punch at the vampire’s head. It grabs her arm, and tries to throw her away. Buffy keeps hold of its arm and uses it as a fulcrum for a flip. She uses her momentum to flip the vampire over onto the ground. She drops and kicks the vampire in the head as it’s trying to get back to its feet.
Buffy grabs a sword out of her weapons bag. She spins around and decapitates the vampire as it stands up again.
Buffy turns back to her sister. “It’s real. It’s the only lesson, Dawn. It’s always real.” Buffy helps Dawn get to her feet. “Let me see.”
Dawn pulls her hand away from her neck, revealing two small puncture wounds. “It’s nothing. It’s just a scrape. Plus, I had a plan the whole time.”
“Really?” asks Buffy.
“Yeah,” says Dawn. “I planned to get killed, come back as a vampire, and bite you.”
“You wanted to be trained.”
“Well, just the next time when you’re going to—”
“You did pretty well,” says Buffy.
Dawn starts to smile, pleased to hear the approval in her sister’s voice. “I did?”
“Yeah.”
“’Cause, you know, with the whole rolling thing, I was actually using his strength,” says Dawn, “and it was very tai chi. Plus, I nearly got the heart.”
“My first time out, I missed the heart, too,” says Buffy.
“No way!”
“Just the once,” says Buffy.
“Well, the next vampire I meet—
“The next vampire you meet, you run away.” Buffy starts to pack their stakes and sword back into her bag. “I just wish that was all we had to worry about.” She picks up the bag, and starts to walk back toward home. “Vampires, demons… They’re nothing compared to what’s coming.”
Dawn falls in beside Buffy. “I know. I just can’t believe it’s back.”
“Believe me, I thought I was long past it,” says Buffy. “I guess you never are. Just a few more days till it starts, and then we’ll never know what’s coming next.”
A small group of people is gathered in front of a new building with an imposing pink stone facade.
A man holds an oversized pair of scissors around a large red ribbon. “It is my great pleasure and privilege to announce the official opening, on the very ground that it first stood upon, of the brand-new, state-of-the-art Sunnydale High!”
He cuts the ribbon.
Westbury, England
Giles rides a horse slowly across the English countryside, looking around for something. He leaves the horse at the foot of a steep hill, and climbs to its summit.
Willow is sitting at the base of a tree, looking at the patch of grass in front of her. The shoot of a plant rises out of the ground, and quickly blossoms into a large purple flower.
“That doesn’t belong there,” says Giles.
Willow keeps looking at the flower. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Passafloracourulea,” says Giles. “Native of Paraguay if my botany serves.”
Willow smiles and glances up at Giles. “Is there anything you don’t know everything about?”
“Synchronised swimming. Complete mystery to me.” Giles climbs the last few feet up to Willow, and squats down for a closer look at the flower. “Yep, Paraguayan. Where’s it come from?”
Willow smiles. “Paraguay.”
“You brought it through the earth?” asks Giles.
“It’s all connected,” says Willow. “The root system, the molecules, the energy. Everything’s connected.”
“You sound like Miss Harkness,” says Giles.
“She’s taught me a lot.”
“Then why aren’t you in your lesson?”
“Sorry,” says Willow.
“It’s all right,” says Giles. “I think she was just—”
“Afraid,” says Willow. “Yeah. They all are. The coven is— They’re the most amazing women I’ve ever met. But there’s this look that they get. Like I’m going to turn them all into bangers and mash, or something. Which I’m not even really sure what that is.”
“They’re cautious,” says Giles. “I trust you understand that.”
“I don’t have that much power, I don’t think,” says Willow.
“Everything is connected,” says Giles. “You’re connected to a great power, whether you feel it or not.”
“Well, you should just take it from me.” Willow gets up, and starts to walk away. The flower withdraws back into the earth.
Giles follows Willow. “You know we can’t. This isn’t a hobby or an addiction. It’s inside you now, this magic. You’re responsible for it.”
“Will they always be afraid of me?” asks Willow.
“Maybe,” says Giles. “Can you handle it?”
“I deserve a lot worse.” Willow stops. “I killed people, Giles.”
“I’ve not forgotten.”
“When you brought me here, I thought it was to kill me,” says Willow. “Or to lock me in some mystical dungeon for all eternity here, with the torture. Instead you go all Dumbledore on me. I’m learning about magic, all about energy and Gaia and root systems.”
“Do you want to be punished?” asks Giles.
Willow thinks about that for a couple of seconds. “I want to be Willow.”
“You are,” says Giles. “In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed.”
Sunnydale
Xander, looking very dapper in a suit and tie, gets out of his new car, with a set of rolled up blueprints in his hand. He buttons the jacket of his suit as he walks up to the front of Buffy’s house.
Buffy glances out the dining room window as she sorts through the morning’s collection of junk mail. She sees Xander coming and shouts for Dawn to hurry up as she goes to the door to let him in.
“You got to eat something!” Buffy shouts up the stairs. “I made cereal!” She looks at Xander in his suit. “You’re unconscionably spiffy.” She starts to walk back toward the kitchen.
Xander follows her. “Client meeting. How exactly do you make cereal?”
“Ah. You put the box near the milk,” says Buffy. “I saw it on the Food Channel.” She puts the mail down on the counter. “You want something?”
“I ate. I’m good,” says Xander. “How are you?”
Buffy picks up her coffee cup off the counter. “My sister’s about to go to the same high school that tried to kill me for three years. I can’t change districts, I can’t afford private school, and I can’t begin to prepare for what could possibly come out of there. So, peachy with a side of keen, that would be me.” She sips her coffee.
Xander waves the rolled up blueprints at Buffy. “Well, here’s a little something for what ails ya. Take a look.”
Xander goes back out into the dining room and rolls out the blueprints on the table as Dawn comes down from her room. “Hey. Check out Double-O Xander.”
“Go.” Buffy points Dawn toward the kitchen. “Talk with your mouth full.”
Xander shows Buffy the plans for the new school. “I’ve got two crews working on this diabolical, yet lucrative, new campus. One here, finishing the science building…” He points to the locations on the plans. “…and one here, reinforcing the gym. There are no pentagrams, no secret passageways. Everything’s up to code and safe as houses.”
“Nothing creepy?” asks Buffy. “Strange? From beyond?”
Dawn comes back out of the kitchen with her bowl of cereal. “Maybe you’re just paranoid,” she mumbles with her mouth full.
“Well, there is one interesting detail.” Xander shows Buffy the second blueprint he has under the plans for the new school. “I managed to scare up the plans from the old high school. You remember the very center of Sunnydale’s own Hellmouth?”
“It’s under the library,” says Buffy.
Xander picks up both sets of plans, and puts them up against the dining room window so they can see the old plans through the new. “Right. So I lined up the plans, new and old, and right exactly where the library was…” He points to the plans. “…we now have…”
“Principal’s office,” says Buffy.
“So, the principal’s evil?” asks Dawn.
“Or in a boatload of danger,” says Buffy.
“Well, the last two principals were eaten,” says Xander. (Principal Flutie, Principal Snyder) “Who’d even apply for that job?”
“I guess we’ll see.” Buffy looks at Xander’s watch. “Oh, we have to leave, though. Do you have everything?” she asks Dawn. “Books? Lunch? Stakes?”
“Checked thrice,” says Dawn.
“Did you give her the…” Xander waves his hand up by his ear with his thumb and pinkie out.
Buffy goes to the dining room buffet and opens the drawer. “I was saving it.” She pulls out a small gift box wrapped in a ribbon.
“What is it?” asks Dawn.
“Back-to-school gift.” Buffy gives the box to Dawn.
“It’s a weapon, isn’t it?” Dawn pulls off the ribbon.
“Yes, it is,” says Buffy.
Dawn opens the box.
Xander pulls his car to a stop in front of the new Sunnydale High. Buffy tells him that she’s going to take a look around as she gets out of the front passenger seat, and Dawn gets out of the back. She wants to check this place out for herself. Xander tells them he’s going to be on-site all day if they need him, and pulls away to go park his car.
Buffy and Dawn start up the steps toward the main entrance to the new campus. “Now, remember, if you see anything strange, or, you know…” Buffy’s gaze tracks a rather sullen looking girl dressed in dark clothes who walks in front of them. “…dead…”
“I got it,” says Dawn.
“And stay away from hyena people,” says Buffy, “or any loser-type athletes, you know, or if you see anyone that’s invisible—”
“Hey, Buffy,” says Dawn, “I think it’s pretty safe to say I’m not going to see anybody that’s invisible.”
“You know, you could still drop out,” says Buffy. “Only nerds finish high school.”
“You know, I don’t really think it’s fair for you to try and scare me on my first day of high school,” says Dawn, “’cause it is so redundant.” They pass through the open gate into the school grounds.
“This place is evil!” says Buffy.
“Tough to let ’em go, huh?” asks a man behind Buffy. She spins around and sees the man who had been officiating at the opening ceremonies. He is a tall, handsome black man in his late twenties. His head is shaved, and he has a neatly trimmed goatee. He has small earrings in both ears. “I’m Robin Wood, new principal.” He holds out his hand.
Buffy takes his hand. “Oh, uh, Buffy Summers. This is Dawn.”
“Nice to meet you,” says Principal Wood.
Buffy gives him an appreciative look. “So, you’re the new principal. I expected you to be more…aged.”
Principal Wood laughs. “You seem a bit young to have such a grown-up daughter.”
Buffy is mortified that Principal Wood could make such a mistake. “No. Uh, uh, no. Sister.”
Principal Wood smiles. “Oh, right. Of course.”
“You didn’t really think she’s my…” Buffy feels at her hair, which is done up in knot behind her head. “It’s my hair. I have mom hair.”
“I actually have heard of you, Miss Summers,” says Principal Wood. “You graduated from the old high school. Am I right?”
Buffy’s surprised. “Uh, yeah. How did you—”
“Well, I better get back to work,” says Principal Wood. “Got to start deadening young minds. It’s really nice to meet you. You have fun,” he tells Dawn, and heads quickly away.
Buffy watches Wood depart. “That was suspicious.”
“You betcha,” says Dawn. “Bye!” Dawn starts to move quickly toward the school herself.
“Oh, Dawn—”
Dawn turns around, but keeps walking backward. “I know! You never know what’s coming, the stake is not the power, To Serve Man is a cookbook. I love you. Go away!” She turns and walks quickly away from her sister.
The halls empty out quickly after the bell rings, and soon Buffy is alone in them. She wanders around the school, looking things over.
Buffy is startled by a basketball bouncing off some lockers ahead of her in a corridor. It bounces back into an intersecting corridor, and is caught by a pair of hands. Buffy hurries up to the intersection, just in time to see a hispanic boy going around another corner at the end of the hall.
Buffy follows him, but when she gets to the next corner he’s vanished. She keeps moving down the hall, past a door leading down to the basement.
Dawn sits at a desk at the back of her first class. There are several small knots of kids all talking together quietly, but Dawn doesn’t seem to know any of them. She’s alone in the crowd.
The teacher, Mr. Lonegrin, introduces himself to the class. He thinks it would be a good idea if everyone there tells the rest of the class a little about themselves. He looks around for who should go first.
Buffy enters a washroom, and goes to check her hair in the mirror. “It’s not ‘mom hair.’” She starts to reach for the faucet, but stops when she sees a strange object on the counter. She picks it up. It looks like a small bone, fastened to some twigs and feathers by some bits of string.
“You can’t protect her,” says a voice behind Buffy. She looks up at the mirror and sees a girl behind her. She looks very dead, with deep gashes in the rotting flesh of her face. “You couldn’t protect me.”
Buffy spins around, but the girl has vanished.
A man in janitor’s overalls appears beside Buffy. He also looks very dead. “Get out!” he yells at Buffy. “Get out! Get out!”
Buffy drops the object, and jumps away from him. He vanishes.
Dawn stands at her desk, telling the other students about herself. “I love to dance. I like music. I’m very into Britney Spears’ early work before she sold out, so mostly her finger painting and macaroni art. Very underrated. Uh, favourite activities include not ever having to do this again, and, uh—”
Buffy bursts through the door at the front of the class. “Dawn!” Everyone turns to look at her.
“What?” asks Dawn.
“We have to go!” says Buffy. “It’s not safe!”
“But…”
“We, um… I mean, I saw…” Buffy realises that she can’t give any sort of explanation for what she saw that will sound rational to the other people in the class.
Mr. Lonegrin crosses his arms and looks at Buffy. “Can I help you?”
“No. I, uh… Dawn, I just thought you were in danger… of smoking.” Buffy starts to back out the door. “I’ll be around.”
All the students turn back to stare at Dawn. “I also have a sister.”
A duo of folk singers, a guy and a girl, sing a love duet badly in the Espresso Pump.
Anya and Halfrek sit at a table with coffees, watching them. “God, they’re depressing,” says Anya. “Six weeks tops, and she’s calling on me for vengeance.”
“Oo-ooh. He better run for cover.” Halfrek laughs.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asks Anya.
Halfrek thinks Anya knows exactly what it means. “It’s the talk of the order. They’re calling you ‘Miss Softserve.’ Tell me you don’t know this.”
“But… Who?” asks Anya.
“Listen, Anya. I know I’ve always been a little competitive with you,” says Halfrek. “I mean, there was that thing in the Crimean War. We laugh about it now, but the fact is I’ve actually always looked up to you. You were the single-most hard-core vengeance demon on the roster, and everybody knew it. Do I have to mention Mrs. Czolgosz?”
Anya smiles at the memory. “Hmm. Good times.”
“And then you lost your powers. It happens, and you fell for this Xander guy.”
“It was a glitch,” says Anya. “A summer thing. I am so back in the vengeance fold.”
“No deaths, no eviscerations,” says Halfrek, “you’re not goading women into anything inventive, and you’re not delivering when it is.”
“I don’t even know—”
“Waitress downtown,” says Halfrek. “Wished her husband was a frog. You made him French!”
“He’s smelly! And with a little mustache, he—”
“Listen, Anya, if it was just me—”
“What do you mean ‘if it was just you?’” asks Anya.
“D’Hoffryn, the lower beings… They’re all feeling the heat,” says Halfrek. “Something’s rising. Something older than the old ones, and everybody’s tail is twitching. This is a bad time to be a good guy.”
“What is this, an intervention?” asks Anya. “Shouldn’t all my demon friends be here?”
“Sweetie…” Halfrek looks around. “They are.” She takes a sip from her coffee.
Buffy finds Xander supervising some workers at the new science building. “So how’s it looking?” he asks her. “Does the place pass inspection?”
“Oh, it’s great,” says Buffy, “if you’re a zombie ghost thing.”
“So school’s back in session, huh?” asks Xander.
“Seems like old times.”
Xander and Buffy move off a little way, so they can talk without being overheard. He asks if it was zombies or ghosts. Buffy isn’t sure. Zombies can’t appear and disappear like these things have been doing, but these things also seem to be solid. All she knows is that they’re dead, and they’re pissed.
“They’re after you personally?” asks Xander.
“They talked about protecting people,” says Buffy. “Told me to leave.”
“No damage though?”
“I think I may have destroyed Dawn’s social life in all of about thirty seconds,” says Buffy, “but apart from that, no.”
“Ah, being popular isn’t so great,” says Xander. “Or so I’ve read in books.”
“This isn’t a coincidence, you know,” says Buffy. “The school being rebuilt. It means something.”
“As in what?” asks Xander.
The guy sitting at the desk beside Dawn asks to borrow a pencil. She pulls one out of her bag and gives it to him.
“Thanks a lot.” He transforms into a rotted corpse, and jams the pencil into her eye.
Dawn screams, and falls to the floor holding her hands over her eye. Mr. Lonegrin runs over to check on her.
Dawn sits up, and lowers her hands. Her eye is uninjured. She looks around at everyone staring at her. The dead guy has vanished. “I’m sorry. There was a bee. It flew in my eye. I’m… I’m very allergic.”
Mr. Lonegrin looks around. “I think it’s gone.”
“Can I go to the bathroom?” asks Dawn.
“Of course,” says Mr. Lonegrin.
Dawn leaves the room. The students all look around at each other. “Guess it runs in the family,” says one of the guys.
Dawn enters the washroom, and goes into one of the stalls. She sits down on the toilet. She hears someone crying softly.
Dawn leaves her stall, and looks around. The washroom seems to be empty. She crouches down on the floor, and looks under the stall doors. She doesn’t see any feet.
Buffy has gone back to prowling the corridors of the school. She runs into Principal Wood, literally.
Wood is surprised to see Buffy’s still there. “I thought in general, it was customary for a person who’s graduated to, um…you know, go somewhere else?”
“Well, it’s a new campus,” says Buffy. “Just getting to know it. You know, make sure it’s safe. For my sister.”
Dawn moves down the row of stalls, pushing the doors open. They’re all empty until she gets to the last one. The girl Buffy had noticed as they entered the campus is in it, crouching on top of the toilet. She looks terrified.
“Hey. What’s wrong?” asks Dawn.
“There’s someone in here,” says the girl.
Dawn looks around. “It’s only me.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You know, I, um…have to be honest,” says Principal Wood. “I actually know a little bit more about you than I let on before.”
“Isn’t that interesting?” asks Buffy.
“Oh, it really is,” says Principal Wood.
Dawn thinks that they should just get out of the washroom, and get some air. She introduces herself to the girl.
The girl steps down off the toilet. “Kit.”
“Saw something pretty creepy, huh?” asks Dawn.
“You wouldn’t believe me,” says Kit.
“I kinda sorta think I will,” says Dawn. “Was there a pencil involved in any of—”
Dawn sees the three dead people in the mirror. The girl with the gashed face, the janitor, and the boy who jabbed the pencil into her eye. The lights overhead start to explode.
Dawn and Kit scream, and run for the door. Hands start breaking through the floor and grab at their ankles. The floor gives way completely underneath them, and they fall through it.
Westbury, England
Willow collapses to the ground, gasping for breath. Giles holds her. “Just breathe.”
Willow lies on the ground, gasping. “I can’t— Goddess.”
Giles holds Willow. “Just breathe.”
Willow gets her breathing under control. “What happened?”
“What do you remember?” asks Giles.
Willow pushes herself upright. “We were talking. And I felt—” She suddenly jerks her hands away from the ground. “I felt the earth. It’s all connected, it is. But it’s not all good and— and pure and rootsy. There’s deep…deep black. There’s— I saw— I saw the earth, Giles. I saw its teeth.”
“The Hellmouth!”
“It’s going to open,” says Willow. “It’s going to swallow us all.”
Sunnydale
Kit sits up among the rubble on the basement floor. She looks around and sees that Dawn is unconscious. She gently shakes her shoulder. “Hey. Hey, wake up. Oh, please wake up.”
Dawn groans and sits up. She asks Kit if she’s okay.
Kit doesn’t answer the question. She thinks they should get out of the basement.
“You’re not wrong.” Dawn climbs to her feet. “Come on. There’s got to be a staircase.”
“The school board recommended I spend a little time reading your record,” says Principal Wood. “It’s, um…quite a page turner. Kind of a checkered past.”
Buffy smiles. “More like a plaid. Kind of a clan tartan of badness, really. Uh, you know, but there were factors.”
Dawn and Kit move through the basement. Dawn asks Kit what she saw.
“A girl,” says Kit. “She said she died here and that everybody dies here and that we would, too.”
“Here I was worried about not fitting in,” says Dawn.
Dawn and Kit round a corner, and run into a guy. They all scream.
It’s the guy Buffy saw with the basketball. “Who are you?” he asks.
“Who are you?” asks Kit.
“Are you dead?” asks Dawn.
“Stop saying that!” says the guy.
“Whoa, we’re not dead,” says Dawn. “We saw creepy dead people, and we’re just trying to get out.”
“I just came down here for a smoke,1 you know?” says the guy. “And I saw— it was a janitor. He was yelling at me. I thought he was just pissed, but… I saw him in the light.”
“Wait,” says Dawn. “You came downstairs? Where?”
“Man, I got no clue,” says the guy. “I ran away like a girl. I don’t know this place at all.”
“Okay,” says Dawn. “So we could run around in circles or—”
The dead janitor appears in front of them. “You really think you can run away?”
Kit starts to back away from him. “It’s not real.”
“Lesson one,” says Dawn. “It’s always real.”
The dead student appears behind them. “I tried to run, too.”
The dead girl appears. “I tried to scream. Doesn’t matter how much you scream. Nobody ever hears you.”
Dawn starts to get an idea. “Hear me. Right. Oh!” She gets it. “I got a present!” She reaches into her belt at the small of her back.
“What is it?” asks Kit.
Dawn pulls out a cell phone. “A weapon!”
Buffy tries to tell Principal Wood that Dawn is much worse than she ever was. A real trouble maker. “Expulsion is really the only way to go. You know, or you could suspend her for three years.”
Principal Wood laughs. “Well, how about we give her a chance first? Just as long as she keeps her grades up and—”
Buffy’s cell phone rings. She reaches back into her belt for it. “Boy, that’s loud.”
Principal Wood isn’t pleased. “That’s part of why we don’t allow cell phones in—”
Buffy holds up her hand to stop him. “Excuse me.” She turns away. “Yeah?” she says into the phone. She looks back at Principal Wood. “Uh, sorry. My dog— uh, dog walker.”
“They’re really dead?” Buffy whispers into her phone.
“Oh, my god. Your dogs are dead?” asks Principal Wood.
“No. I’ll be right there.” Buffy tells Dawn.
“And, Buffy?” says Dawn. “Isn’t this reception amazing? I’m in the frickin’ basement!”
Buffy tells Principal Wood that she has to be going.
“Yeah—no. Of course!” says Wood. “And good luck with that…dog tragedy.” Buffy is already running away.
Buffy opens the washroom door, and sees the hole in the floor. She jumps down through it.
Dawn tells Kit and the guy—Carlos—that help is on the way. “We’ve just got to figure out—” Dawn looks around. The dead guys have vanished. “Where did they go?”
Dawn turns around, and one of the dead guys grabs her by the throat.
Buffy moves through the basement, calling out for Dawn. She doesn’t get any answer. She pulls out her cell phone and hits the speed dial for Dawn. She hears Dawn’s phone ringing. She quickens her pace and moves toward the sound.
Dawn’s phone stops ringing. Buffy lifts hers to her ear. “Dawn? I’m close by.”
“You’re too late,” says a voice on the phone. “But then, you’re always too late, aren’t you?”
Buffy runs around a corner and sees the dead janitor. “Sure as hell didn’t save me,” he says.
“Where’s my sister?” asks Buffy.
“I think she’s lost,” says the janitor.
“If I’m the one who let you die, why take it out on her?” asks Buffy. “I’m right here. Come on. What are you after? Fear? Revenge? Tasty brains?”
The dead student steps out of the shadows. “I think I’d like Dawn to be my girlfriend.”
“Again, wrong sister,” says Buffy. “I’m the one that dates dead guys. And no offense, but they were hotties. I mean, I’m sure you had a great personality.”
The dead girl appears. “Were you busy making out with your dead boyfriend while I was ripped to death by a werewolf? Is that why you let me die?”
“I was screaming for help when they pulled me down,” says the guy.
Buffy makes a time out gesture with her hands. “Hello! Not making myself clear. I don’t care how you died. I’m sorry for your loss, but where is my sister? Dawn!”
“She’s not going to hear you,” says the janitor. “This place is like a maze.”
“This place is ours now,” says the girl. “It was built on our graves.”
“All we want is for you to leave,” says the janitor, “so we can rest again.”
Buffy has noticed how all the dead people have placed themselves between her and a particular door. “Actually I’m thinking all you want is to get between me and that door.” Buffy shrugs. “Who’s for finding out why?”
The dead guy charges at Buffy. She grabs his arm, bounces him off the wall, and throws him at the dead janitor. She makes a break for the door.
The dead girl jumps onto Buffy’s back. Buffy throws herself backwards onto the floor, pounding the dead girl between it and her body. She jumps back to her feet, and turns back toward the door. The three dead people are standing between her and it again.
“If at first you don’t succeed…” Buffy rushes the dead people. She jumps over them, and rolls toward the door. “…cheat.”
The dead people grab Buffy’s arms, but she elbows them away, and reaches for the door. “Dawnie! We have to get o—”
The door slams open. Spike is standing in it.
Buffy is stunned. “Spike? Are you real?”
Spike starts to giggle. He’s looking like a bit of a mess. He hasn’t bleached, or cut his hair for months, and its a straggly tangle of brown, with white tips. He’s looking even gaunter than usual.
Spike stops giggling, and looks at Buffy with an expression of terrible sadness on his face. “Buffy…” He reaches out and touches her cheek. “Duck.”
Buffy is still too shocked to really understand what Spike’s saying. “What? Duck? There’s a duck?” The dead janitor bashes her on the back of her head with a pipe, and she falls to the floor.
Spike steps back into the room he come out of. “No visitors today. Terribly busy.”
The janitor tries to bash Buffy again, but she blocks this blow, and kicks his legs out from underneath him. He falls to the floor, with his head in the open doorway as Buffy springs back to her feet. Buffy follows Spike into his room, and starts to pull the door shut behind her. It’s stopped by the janitor’s head, so she gives it an extra powerful whack with the door that knocks his head out of the way.
Buffy latches and bolts the door, but she doesn’t really expect it to keep the dead guys out.
“Nobody comes in here,” says Spike. “It’s just the three of us.”
Buffy asks Spike if he’s seen Dawn, or the other kids, but he’s stopped paying attention to her. “Don’t you think I’m trying?” he shouts. “I’m not fast, not a quick study. I dropped my board in the water, and the chalk all ran. Sure to be caned.” He laughs. “Should’ve seen that coming.”
Buffy sees that Spike’s shirt is open, and there are scratches on his chest. Spike notices her looking at them, turns away, and pulls his shirt closed.
Buffy slowly steps toward Spike, reaches out, and pulls open his shirt. He’s covered with cuts and scratches, the deepest cuts are on the left side of his chest. “What did you do?”
“I tried… I tried to cut it out,” says Spike.
Buffy is interrupted by her cell phone ringing. She pulls it out. “Dawn?”
“Buffy, where are you?” asks Dawn.
“I—” Buffy looks back at Spike, and sees that he’s now down on his knees on the floor. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know,” says Dawn. “In a room by the furnace. Near where we fell in. They dragged us in here, and then they disappeared.”
“Yeah. They came after me, too,” says Buffy.
“What do they want?”
“So far, to piss me off.”
“Please, tell me it’s working,” says Dawn.
“Oh, I’m damage-bound,” says Buffy. “I just can’t figure them. Ghosts can’t touch you, and zombies can’t disappear, so I don’t know what—”
“Not ghosts,” says Spike.
“Who was that?” asks Dawn.
“Hold on.” Buffy closes her phone and turns back to Spike. “You know what they are?”
“Manifest spirits controlled by a talisman, raised to seek vengeance,” says Spike. “A four-year-old could figure it.”
Buffy opens her phone again. “Hang tight. I’ll find you,” she tells Dawn. “These things can hurt you. You can hurt them, too. Find a weapon. I’ll come for you.”
Buffy disconnects, and asks Spike if he’s going to help her.
“This is my home,” says Spike. “I belong here. Always been here. Cheers for stopping by.” He salutes Buffy, and turns away from her. “It’s in the wall.”
Buffy looks at Spike for a moment. “I’ll…get back to you.” She turns and unbolts the door.
Buffy steps out of Spike’s lair, and looks around. “Guys? Resentful dead guys?” There’s no sign of them. “This can’t be good.”
Buffy quickly heads back the way she came, trying to figure out what’s going on. “Come on. Manifest spirits, raised up, controlled by a…” She gets it. “…talisman.” She pulls out her phone and hits a speed dial number. “Xander!”
Dawn tells Kit and Carlos that they need to find some weapons, and they start searching shelves and things. Carlos finds some bricks.
Dawn gets an idea, and asks Kit for the large bag with a sturdy strap she has slung over her shoulder. Dawn dumps Kit’s books and things out on the floor, and puts the bricks into the bag.
“Do you think they’re going to come back?” asks Kit.
“‘Do you think they’re going to come back?’” mocks the dead girl. “We never left. We’ll always be here. Just like you.” She’s back with the dead student, and janitor.
Kit backs away from them. “No.”
“Why do you think we picked you?” asks the dead girl. “The ones no one will miss. The ones that don’t belong. Spend all your time trying to get out high school, and now you’ll never, ever leave.”
Dawn growls, and rushes forward. She swings her bag of bricks at the dead girl’s knees. It connects, and she goes down.
The dead janitor hits Dawn. Kit screams.
Buffy hears Kit, and starts to run.
Xander opens the door into the girl’s washroom, and sees the hole in the floor. “Whoa! Contracty goodness!” Then he remembers what he’s there for. “Talisman, talisman.” He starts to skirt around the hole.
The janitor grabs Dawn by the throat. “You can thank your sister for this.”
Buffy breaks open the door and ducks under a swing of the pipe from the dead guy. She rolls across the floor and kicks the janitor away from Dawn.
“Thanks, Sis!” says Dawn.
Buffy sits up beside Dawn on the floor. “We just need to keep them at bay.”
The dead guy rushes Buffy with his pipe. Buffy ducks under it again.
“The bag!” Dawn tosses the bag of bricks to Buffy.
Buffy flips back to her feet with the bag of bricks in her hands. She starts to spin, and whirl like a dervish around the basement room, kicking and bashing dead guys with the bricks whenever they come close to her.
The dead guy swings the pipe at Buffy again, but she blocks it with the strap of the bag, and knocks the pipe out of his hands.
Xander crawls around on the washroom floor, looking for the talisman. He finds it under the sinks. He gets to his feet, and grasps it in both hands.
The dead girl jumps onto his back.
The janitor manages to knock the bag of bricks out of Buffy’s hands. Dawn grabs the loose pipe off the floor, and tosses it to her sister. Buffy catches it without even looking. She looks at the janitor. “You really want to keep this up?”
“What are you going to do,” asks the janitor, “kill us?”
Xander struggles to get a good grip on the talisman, with the dead girl hanging off his back. When he does, he breaks it in two. The girl dissolves into green mist.
The dead people in the basement dissolve into green mist too.
“Are they gone?” asks Carlos.
“Yeah,” says Buffy. “The talisman must’ve been destroyed.”
“How’d you know it was a talisman?” asks Dawn.
“There’s always a talisman.” Buffy tosses away the pipe. “The real question is who put it there?”
Kit gathers up her books and things off the floor, and looks around for her bag. She finds it in the corner, and slings it over her shoulder, with the bricks still inside it and her books in her arms.
“Come on, you guys,” says Buffy. “Let’s go find a way upstairs. Assuming there is one.”
They start to make their way through the basement. “You really weren’t kidding about this place,” says Dawn. “I guess it hasn’t changed.”
Buffy looks around. “I don’t know. It seems smaller.”
Buffy says goodbye to Dawn, Kit and Carlos in the school hallway. Kit has gotten rid of the bricks, and her books are back in her bag.
“You guys are going to be okay,” says Buffy. “School’s intense, but you’ll do all right as long as you’re careful. And you might want to think about sticking together.”
Kit gives Buffy a hug. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, I mean it.” Carlos pats Buffy on the shoulder. “You are the coolest mom ever!”
“O…kay,” says Dawn, as Buffy starts feeling at her hair again. “Come on. Um… We still have a few more classes to live through.” She shakes her head at Buffy, and gives her a kiss on the cheek. She, Kit and Carlos walk away down the hall together.
“Curiouser and curiouser.”
Buffy turns around and sees Principal Wood. “What is?”
“Carlos Trejo and Kit Holburn, right?” Principal Wood glances at the departing students. “Possibly the only two students in this school whose files are as thick as yours was.”
“You really did your homework, didn’t you?” asks Buffy.
“Well, I was looking for one or both of them to actually implode in a fearsome way right before midterms,” says Principal Wood, “But now I see that you got ’em socializing and hugging and actually, if I’m not mistaken,” He looks at them again. “headed to class.”
“Well, we shared an…encounter,” says Buffy.
“I know you were probably more than happy to get out of this place,” says Principal Wood, “but I got to tell you, Miss Summers, I think you belong here.”
Buffy is stunned out of the ability to speak coherently. “Hum, new?”
“Listen, I know this school’s reputation,” says Wood. “What, you think I got this job based on seniority? We got a lot of troubled students here and just enough money to keep this place from caving in.”
Buffy remembers the hole in the washroom floor. “Yeah, you might need a little extra there.”
“Well, we do have a community outreach program, and the money we could pay you…wouldn’t even fold, but it would just be a couple of days a week?”
“Are you asking me to be a counselor?” asks Buffy.
“Oh, we have a guidance counselor,” says Wood, “but I was thinking the kids could use someone, you know, closer to their age who still has some—”
“I’m in!” says Buffy.
“What, you serious?” asks Principal Wood. “You—you did hear the part about the money, right?”
“Yeah, I heard,” says Buffy. “My schedule might be a little funtastic, but, uh, I’ll work it out. I’d like to keep an eye on this place.”
“Well, that’s great!” Principal Wood checks his watch. “Look at that. It’s not even noon, and I’ve already bullied my first family member into helping out.” He starts to walk away down the hall. “I’m going to be the best principal ever!”
Spike squats on the floor in his lair. “The thing is…I had a speech. I learned it all. Oh, god. She won’t understand. She won’t understand.”
“Of course, she won’t understand, Sparky,” says Warren. “I’m beyond her understanding. She’s a girl. Sugar and spice and everything…useless unless you’re baking. I’m more than that.”
Warren transforms into Glory. “More than flesh, more than blood, I’m—you know I honestly don’t think there’s a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone’s lips, assuming their lips haven’t been torn off. But not just yet. That’s all right, though.”
Glory becomes Adam. “I can be patient. Everything is well within parameters. She’s exactly where I want her to be. And so are you, Number 17. You’re right where you belong.”
Adam transforms into Mayor Wilkins as he crouches down beside Spike. “So what’d you think, you’d get your soul back and everything would be Jim Dandy? A soul’s slipperier than a greased weasel. Why do you think I sold mine?” He giggles. “Well, you probably thought that you’d be your own man. And I respect that. But you never will.”
“You’ll always be mine.” Drusilla reaches out and caresses Spike’s cheek. “You’ll always be in the dark with me, singing our little songs. You like our little songs, don’t you? You’ve always liked them, right from the beginning. And that’s where we’re going.”
The Master stands up. “Right back to the beginning. Not the bang, not the Word. The true beginning. The next few months are going to be quite a ride, and I think we’re all going to learn something about ourselves in the process. You’ll learn you’re a pathetic schmuck, if it hasn’t sunk in already. Look at you: tried to do what’s right. Just like her. You still don’t get it. It’s not about right. Not about wrong.”
The Master transforms into Buffy. “It’s about power.” 2
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A teenaged girl | Istanbul | Stabbed with a knife |
| Vampire | Sunnydale Cemetery | Beheaded by Buffy |
| Three manifest spirits | Sunnydale High | Xander destroyed their talisman |