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Potential

Prologue

Rona and Vi move through a cemetery at night, looking around nervously. They each have a stake. Vi has hers clutched with both hands. They hear a twig snap behind them, and spin around.

Something hits Rona, knocking her to the ground. It’s Spike, in full vamp face. Vi raises her stake, and attacks him. He blocks her easily, grabs her arm, and twists it around and up behind her back. His teeth move toward her neck. She cries out.

Spike stops, and he morphs back to his human face. Vi is still cringing, waiting for the bite. “Eeeep!”

“Okay. These two are dead,” says Spike. “Why?”

Rona climbs back to her feet. “’Cause the black chick always gets it first?”

Spike is still holding Vi, and her arm is in some pain. “Ow! Ow!”

“What was that, Rona?” asks Buffy. She is standing by watching, along with Molly and Kennedy. Molly has a pad of paper in hand, and is taking notes. Kennedy is sitting on a headstone.¹

“I’m dead because he’s a vampire,” says Rona. “I don’t have Slayer strength, Slayer speed. It wasn’t a fair fight.”

“Vi?” Spike is still hasn’t let go of her. “You think I care if it’s a fair fight?”

“N-no. No—no, sir,” says Vi. “You don’t play by the rules, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson of some sort.” Spike twists a little harder. “Ow!” ²

Buffy tells Spike to let go of Vi. She pulls away from him, rubbing her sore arm. She and Rona walk back over toward the others. Buffy addresses the Slayers in training. “You’re right. You don’t have Slayer strength. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not strong. You have inherent abilities that others do not have.”

“Not like you do,” says Molly.

“No. Not yet,” says Buffy. “But it’s there. You have the potential. You have strength, speed, instinct. You just have to learn to trust yourself. Rona. What’d your instincts tell you to do just then?”

Rona tries to come up with the ‘right’ answer. “Block his attack. Keep him off balance. Gain the…advantage?”

“No, they didn’t,” says Buffy.

“They told me to run,” admits Rona.

“Vi?”

“They told me to run.” Vi glances nervously toward Spike. She’s still rubbing her arm. “They’re still…sort of tellin’ me to run.”

“Don’t fight on his terms,” says Buffy. “Your gut’s tellin’ you to run, run. Okay? Regain the higher ground. Make the fight your own.” She turns around. “Spike. What did your instincts tell you to do just then?”

“Hunt,” says Spike. “Kill.”

“Come at me. Full speed.” Buffy turns back toward the girls. “He needs to kill to live. That tells you everything you need to know.”

Spike suddenly charges at Buffy. He leaps at her back. Buffy ducks, and dodges to the side. Spike sails over her, and smacks face first into a headstone.

Buffy is on him in an instant, straddling his waist, a hand around his throat, and her stake raised, ready for the kill. “Instinct. Understand his, but trust yours. You were chosen for a reason.”

Spike gasps in pain. Buffy looks down at him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…fine,” says Spike. Buffy can see that he isn’t. “Couple of ribs ain’t quite set right since— I’m fine.”

Buffy lifts Spike’s shirt, and starts to run her hand up inside it to feel at his ribs. “Let me see.”

“No.” Spike tries to sit up.

Buffy is still trying to get a look at his ribs. “Spike.”

He grabs her hand, and pulls it away. “Buffy, I’m okay.” He sighs. “I’m going to be okay.”

The girls are watching Buffy grope Spike. “That’s hot,” says Rona.

Molly looks up from her notepad. “So, we’re supposed to, like, make out with him or somethin’?”

“Careful, Buffy,” says Vi. “Just when you think it’s part of the lesson, he’ll…hurt your arm.”

Buffy looks embarrassed, and climbs to her feet. She pulls Spike up too. “Molly, Kennedy, let’s go. You’re up. Next lesson.”

Buffy looks at Spike as he disappears back into the darkness, and sighs.

Act I

Buffy paces back and forth in the basement of her house early the next morning with a battle axe in her hand. The potential Slayers are all there babbling about their exercises, and nutrition and a lot of other things. They aren’t paying any attention to Buffy. Dawn sits on the stairs behind her, watching.

Buffy throws the axe at the archery target stuck on the opposite wall from her. All the babble ceases instantly.

“You’re all going to die,” says Buffy. “But you knew that already, ’cause that’s the cool reward for being human. The big dessert at the end of the meal. Don’t kid yourselves, you guys. This whole thing is all about death. You think you’re different ’cause you might be the next Slayer? Death is what a Slayer breathes, what a Slayer dreams about when she sleeps. Death is what a Slayer lives. My death could make you the next Slayer.” The girls are all still just watching her. “Oh, goody. Rapt attention. I love that so much.” Buffy walks across the room and pulls her axe out of the target.

Buffy returns to the front with the axe. “Now, where was I? Ah.” She puts it down, leaning against a post. “If we go with what Anya’s resources are telling us, then the First is in remission for a while, which we think means advantage, us.”

“Well, what does that mean?” asks Rona. “About the First?”

“Best we can tell, he—or more precisely, it—was putting a lot of stock in that uber-vamp thing,” says Buffy, “the… Chaka Khan.”

“Turok-han,” says Dawn.

Buffy doesn’t even seem to notice that Dawn had spoken. “So when I kicked its ass, the whole Firsty Circus decided to back off for a while. Good news: it means we probably don’t have to worry about it pulling Spike’s strings for a while.”

Buffy pauses for a moment before continuing. “Here’s the half-empty: time away means time to regroup, and part of that regrouping is coming back stronger than ever. The odds are against us. Time is against us, and some of us will die in this battle.” She looks at the girls in front of her. “Decide now that it’s not going to be you.

“I know you’re all tired, far away from home, anxious. But you’re all special. Most people in this world have no idea why they’re here, or what they want to do. You do. You have a mission. A reason for being here. You’re not here by chance. You’re here because you are the Chosen Ones.”

Buffy ends her lecture. She turns away, and walks up the stairs past her sister. “Dawn, you better hurry up and eat something so you’re not late for school.”

Buffy sits at her desk, talking on the phone. “Xander, I know, I’m sorry. … If you’re going to take a shower at my house, lock the door. … Of course they’re curious.” She sees that Amanda has arrived at her cubical entrance, and waves her in. “Hey, I got to go. Uh, has Giles checked in yet? I thought he was picking up that Chao-Ahn girl in Shanghai yesterday. … Okay, well, let me know if he does. Bye.”

Buffy hangs up the phone, and smiles. “Amanda, right? I’m all yours.”

Amanda sits nervously in Buffy’s visitor chair. “Do people ever think you’re weird?”

Buffy is a little surprised by the question. “Uh, I guess, sure, I mean, in a…charming, endearing, lovable—” Buffy blinks. “Yeah.”

“I feel like people think I’m weird,” says Amanda, “and so they pick on me, but I might be…weird.”

“Amanda, why do you think that you’re weird?”

“One of the boys who picks on me— I kind of— See, if a guy picks on you, is it weird to think he’s cute?”

Buffy understands where this is going. “Oh.”

“It’s just the last few times I’ve seen him, I’ve wanted to, you know, pick on him. Extra. More,” says Amanda. “The thing is, I can’t tell. My mom says when a guy teases you, it means he likes you.”

“Sometimes that’s true,” says Buffy.

“Is it weird?” asks Amanda. “We’re mean to each other, and we like each other.”

“Well, it depends,” says Buffy. “Sometimes that’s how people relate—being mean to each other. Even mortal enemies— Then with the— And that leads to no good, absolutely no good and much confusion, and then it’s over, absolutely, seriously, definitely over, and that’s confusing, too, the over part—which it is—over.” Buffy realizes she isn’t helping here. “So…maybe.”

Buffy sees that she has just managed to confuse Amanda even more.

Buffy returns home and finds a shouting match going on in her living room between Xander, Rona, and Vi, with Andrew looking on. The research table and chairs are overturned, and pictures are knocked askew on the walls.

“Why do we always have to yell?” screams Andrew over the noise. Everyone falls silent.

Buffy looks at the mess. “I was only gone a couple of hours.”

Willow comes in from the dining room. She looks upset. “Buffy.”

“Hey, everybody, look,” says Buffy. “It’s Willow, perhaps with a blunt weapon of some sort.”

“Buffy, we just got news,” says Willow.

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Anya sit around the dining room table. “And she’s sure?” asks Buffy.

“Positive,” says Buffy. “Althenea said the seers located another potential Slayer here in Sunnydale, someone that already lives here.”

“Oh, god,” says Buffy.

“All these girls flocking to town, and this one’s already here and under our noses?” asks Anya.

“Wait, the seers couldn’t find out her name or, like, her address or anything?” asks Xander. “Am I getting the definition of ‘seer’ wrong?”

“I was going to take the girls out tonight for a little show-and-tell,” says Buffy, “but maybe now I shouldn’t.”

Andrew has been leaning against the buffet, watching. “They were so excited. You’re going to break their little hearts.”

“This town is lousy with Bringers,” says Buffy. “I don’t want to risk that they find this new girl first.”

“No, you should go,” says Willow. “I can do a spell to find her tonight. I just have to get together a few ingredients, but you shouldn’t skip your training. It’s too important.”

“You think you can handle it?” asks Buffy.

“No problemo,” says Xander.

Dawn is leaning against the wall by the base of the stairs. “Yeah. You guys have more important things to do.”

“Okay, I’ll take ’em.”

Andrew pumps his fist in the air. “Yes!”

Buffy looks up at him and shakes her head. “Andrew, you’re not going.”

Dawn cleans up the dinner dishes while Rona, Molly and Vi examine the weapons laid out on the kitchen island. Molly picks up one of them. “Ooh, crossbow. Gotta love it. Feels like I’m stormin’ a castle.”

“You do a lot of that, do you?” asks Rona.

“I might if I had a beauty like this.” She turns around until she’s pointing it at Dawn. “Halt!”

“Okay, see, that’s why we don’t point the weapons in the kitchen,” says Dawn.

“It’s not loaded,” says Vi.

“That’s always the lead quote under the headline: ‘Household crossbow accident claims teen.’” says Dawn

Vi picks up a weapon for herself. “Oh, a mace.”

Dawn turns back to the dishes. “Yeah, that’s better.”

Rona selects her own weapon. “Gotta go with the stake. It’s classic. I like the feel of wood in my hand.”

Kennedy joins the girls around the island. “Lost me there. Hey, are we gearing up already?”

“Oh, right,” says Dawn. “You guys are going on your little group patrol.”

“More than that,” says Vi. “It’s an outing.”

Kennedy picks up a knife. “I’m thinking tonight we might actually get to kill things.”

“I’ve killed things sometimes,” says Dawn.

Buffy comes into the kitchen with Andrew following right behind her. “I’m not begging!”

“You’re like a small dog dancing for snausages,” says Buffy.

“You don’t want me coming along because you think I’m evil,” says Andrew.

Vi looks Andrew over. “He doesn’t seem evil exactly.”

“He’s not…evil,” says Buffy, “but when he gets close to it, he picks up its flavour like a mushroom or something.”

“But I’m reformed,” says Andrew. “I’m like Vegeta from Dragonball Z. I used to be a pure Sayan, and now I fight on the side of Goku.”

“Still not coming,” says Buffy.

“It’s not fair,” says Andrew. “Spike just killed people, and he gets to go.”

“Spike didn’t have free will,” says Buffy. “You did.”

“I hate my free will,” says Andrew.

Spike enters the kitchen. “This where you’re all hiding? We ready to go or what?”

The girls all say “Hi” to him.

“Let’s go, girls.” Buffy starts out of the kitchen. “Grab your weapons.”

“Alright, let’s do it,” says Rona. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to kick some serious…” her voice fades away as she and the others follow Buffy and Spike, leaving Dawn and Andrew alone in the kitchen.

Andrew looks at Dawn. “Do you want to play Dragonball Z?”

Willow sits at the dining room table, inventorying her ingredients. Dawn and Andrew are watching. “Okay, I got my tumbleweed, my eggs, got my chrysalises— chrysali? My butterfly transformer pods.” She looks around. “Hey, where—where’s my snake skin?”

Andrew has been playing with it. He holds it up. “At your ssservice, Misss Rosenberg, Sssir,” he hisses. He sees the way she’s glaring at him, and hands it over. “Can you imagine if every once in a while people just wriggled out of their skin and left it behind them, like, on the sidewalk? Talk about embarrassing.”

Dawn ignores him. She’s wondering if this Potential is anyone she knows. “Could be anybody. Could be that glamazon in gym class. What’s her name? Oh! My lab partner, Margo ‘the Freak.’ Boy, I hope not, because she totally fainted right in the middle of our fetal pig dissection. Somehow I just don’t think she’s cut out for the slayage biz.”

“Killing pigs is just so wrong,” says Andrew. “And also hard.”

“Well, we’ll know soon enough who the next Potential is,” says Willow. “Somebody’s life is about to change.”

“How long will it take?” asks Dawn. “Will we find out who it is right away?”

“Pretty much,” says Willow. “The spell will conjure up this brilliant light, and the light will find the Potential, and it’ll illuminate her with a glowing aura.”

“Cool,” says Andrew.

Willow shoves aside her box of ingredients, revealing a map on the table. “I have enchanted this map so that we can track her basic location. We’ll have to hotfoot it, but I’m betting we find her tonight.”

“You know, if it is Margo, she is so going to faint,” says Dawn.

Dawn, Xander and Anya watch as Willow sits with her ingredients in front of the fireplace in the living room. It has a fire burning in it.

Orange smoke starts to billow out of the fire place. They all recoil away from it. “Oh, good god! What is that smell?” asks Xander.

Anya is holding her nose. “Fairly sure that’s the smell of a hard-boiled egg being thrown into a fire.”

“Uh-huh,” says Xander.

“The smell will lead us to the Potential,” says Willow. The smoke is coalescing in the middle of the living room, and starting to glow.

“Or some poor soul who ate too many chimichangas,” says Xander.

“She’ll also be lit with a brilliant aura,” says Willow.

The glowing cloud doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It just floats in the air weaving back and forth. “Is it supposed to be shimmying all over like that?” asks Dawn.

“I don’t know,” says Willow. “I—I—I don’t think so.”

“So you messed up the spell again,” says Anya. “At least it smells otherworldly.” She sees the look Willow is giving her. She waves toward the glowing smoke. “Oh, look. Pretty.”

Willow is completely dejected by her failure. “I suck. I’m sorry, you guys. Maybe we could figure something out on the computer?”

“Good call.” Dawn tries to wave the stench away from her face. “I’m going to open the door and let this place air out.” She moves toward the foyer.

“Don’t worry, Will,” says Xander. “It’s really no big.”

“I just— I was sure that it was going to work.” Willow sees the glowing gas suddenly contract and move toward the door. “Dawn!”

Dawn spins around just in time for the glowing cloud to hit her in the chest. She’s knocked back against the door, and the cloud vanishes into her. She’s left with an orange glow coming from her chest.

“I think it worked,” squeaks Willow.

Act II

Xander rushes toward the door. “Dawn!”

“Dawn, are you okay?” asks Willow.

Dawn is sitting, leaning against the door. The orange glow is fading away from her. Xander helps her get to her feet.

Dawn walks back into the living room. She starts to pace around. “Maybe you did it wrong. Was it ambiguous in any way? Did you maybe say ‘Potential Sailors,’ ’cause I-I do like the water.”

“I did it right,” says Willow.

“Wow!” says Xander. “She— You’re a Potential. You could be the next Slayer.”

Dawn sits down on the sofa. “Oh!”

Anya sits on the coffee table facing her. “Wow, it’s like… One second you were this klutzy teenager with fake memories and a history of kleptomania, and then suddenly you’re a hero. A hero with a much abbreviated life span.”

“This is huge,” says Xander. “We have to think about this.”

“I—I can’t think about this.” Dawn gets up and starts pacing again. “It doesn’t fit in my head.”

“A Slayer,” says Willow. “Makes sense, I guess. Remember that thing about they share the same blood or whatever.”

Anya looks around at Willow. “Yeah, I never got that.”

“She has to die.” Dawn sits in the chair. “I mean, if I was ever…the Slayer, it would mean she died.”

“Well, it’s a lot like being the Pope in that way, except you don’t have to be some old Catholic.” Anya smiles at her analogy, and looks around at Xander. He just looks down and shakes his head.

“We’ve got to call Buffy,” says Willow. “She’s going to be so excited.”

“No, we can’t,” says Xander. “She didn’t bring her cell phone.”

“Well, sure, ’cause all the important people are with her,” says Dawn.

“You’re important now,” says Xander

Dawn starts to pace again. “What—what— what happens now?”

“Well, you could start by maybe sitting still for a sec,” says Anya.

“I—I can’t,” says Dawn. “I need to know what happens to my life.”

“Well, I guess Buffy trains you,” says Willow.

“Right,” says Dawn. “I train with the Potentials— other Potentials. Learn to do the stuff they’re learning.”

“We also have to protect you from the eyeless guys,” says Anya. “The ones with the sharp, sharp knives.”

“Bringers,” says Dawn.

“It’s okay,” says Willow. “We’ll protect you.”

“What if they saw the spell?”

“Saw the spell?” asks Xander. “Dawn, they can’t see flash cards, big ones.”

“We did a big, orange, powerful spell!” says Dawn. “What if they sensed it? What if they’re on their way?”

Andrew comes in from the kitchen. “Are we going to replace the microwave? ’Cause I was thinking some Orville Redenbacher with fresh butter flavor.” He sees the looks on everyone’s faces. “What’s going on?”

“Dawn’s going to be a Slayer,” says Anya.

“Holy crap!” says Andrew. He sees the way everyone looks at him. “Excuse me. Plucked from an ordinary life, handed a destiny—”

“Say ‘Skywalker,’ and I smack you,” says Xander.

“Does Buffy know?”

“She didn’t take her phone.”

“Incommunicado,” says Andrew.

“We’ll tell her as soon as she gets back,” says Willow.

“Let’s not,” says Dawn quickly.

“What?” asks Willow. “Dawn, she has to know.”

“I know,” says Dawn. “Just…not right away. Guys, when Mom appeared to me, she said—”

“Dawnie—”

“No! Please. She said something about Buffy, and I’m thinking… I’m just not so sure Buffy will be happy for me.”

“Of course she will,” says Willow.

“Will she?” asks Dawn. “I mean, I’m not even sure I’m happy for me. Everything’s different for me now.”

“That’s because you’re a part of something larger,” says Anya. “Like being swallowed by something larger.”

“This—this is too much for my head again.” Dawn runs out of the living room. “I—I can’t take— I need to be—” She runs up the stairs to her room.

Xander turns back to Anya. “Nice job with the getting swallowed analogy.”

“Well, it is a mixed bag, you know,” says Anya. “If she gets to be the Slayer, then her life is short and brutal, and if she doesn’t, then it smells of unfulfilled potential. My swallowed analogy looks pretty sweet right now, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not like that,” says Willow. “It’s like she’s part of this huge power. I know what that feels like. It feels wonderful.”

“Yes, Willow so captured it,” says Andrew. “It’s like— well, it’s almost like this metaphor for womanhood, isn’t it? This sort of flowering that happens when a girl realizes that she’s part of a fertile heritage stretching back to Eve and—”

“I’ll pay you to talk about Star Wars again,” says Xander.

“This isn’t about womanly power,” says Anya. “This is about the fact that Dawn might have bought herself an early death.”

“We don’t know that!” says Willow.

“Right,” says Xander. “All we know is that everything just changed.”

Dawn has left her door open a crack, and she can hear Willow, Xander and Anya arguing downstairs.

“Someone should go find Buffy,” says Willow. “I still think she needs to know.”

“Hey, Willow, what if she doesn’t like it?” asks Xander.

“Are you worried about what Dawn said?” asks Willow. “About the ghost? Xander, we don’t even know if that really was Joyce, and we don’t know what she meant about Buffy.”

“I’m not talking about that,” says Xander. “I mean, what do you think Buffy’s going to do with this information? Jump up and down? Teach Dawn the secret handshake? She knows what this means.”

“Short, brutal life,” says Anya. “Sharp, sharp knives— I covered this.”

“Right, you think Buffy really wants that for Dawn?” asks Xander. “And, besides, Dawn doesn’t want us telling her yet.”

“Dawn’s freaking out,” says Willow. “Her input: not worth that much right now.”

“She’s a child,” says Anya. “Of course she can’t handle this.”

“Hey, something out there says she can handle this and a hell of a lot more,” says Xander. “Something out there chose her.”

Dawn looks at herself in her mirror, trying to see herself as the Slayer. “I’m chosen.”

“Sure, she can handle it,” says Willow. “Is that why she’s hiding in her room right now?”

Dawn deflates.

“She’s just getting used to it,” says Xander. “Let it happen. She doesn’t have to rush.”

Dawn gets her jacket out of her closet, goes to her window and opens it.

“He’s right,” says Anya. “We shouldn’t rush her. Rushing’s only going to get her killed.”

Dawn climbs out her window.

Buffy and Spike lead the potential Slayers down some stairs.

Rona looks around. “This is a bar.”

“Best damn field trip I ever took!” says Kennedy.

Molly notices the clientele. “Look. They’re all—”

“They’re demons!” says Vi. “It’s a demon bar! It’s like a gay bar, only with demons.”

Several of the demons look around at this group of intruders. A large one with tentacles growing from its face gets up from the bar. “Spike! Long time.” It looks at the girls behind him. “Nice of you to bring snacks.”

Spike looks up at the demon that towers over him. “Touch them and lose your privates.” After a moment the demon returns to its seat.

“I didn’t like him,” says Vi.

Spike looks back. “Nice job of blending in, girls.”

“We’re a bunch of fifteen-year-olds in a demon bar,” says Rona. “How much blending did you think we were going to do?” Kennedy holds back a laugh.

“Look, it’s okay,” says Buffy. “Usually you come to a place like this, you want to be seen. You want to scare someone or make contact.”

“Or have a strong drink?” asks Molly.

“Not usually that,” says Buffy.

Kennedy looks dubious. “You don’t drink?”

“Sure, I do,” says Buffy, then she remembers that she’s supposed to be setting an example. “I mean, no. That’d be wrong.”

“Do they card?” asks Vi.

“Nope.” Buffy points them toward the bar. “Go ahead. Down all the yak urine shots or pig’s blood spritzers you like.”

The girls all look revolted by the beverages available. “Gross,” says Vi.

“Got that right,” says Spike. “Prices they charge, you could get human blood straight from the body.” All the girls look at him. “Vampire,” he reminds them.

“Look, if I come here, it’s because I got to wring information out of something large, scary, drunk, and with a room full of friends that don’t care very much for the Slayer. Remember that. Not a being in here that wouldn’t gladly rip your throat out.”

“Buffy?” asks a voice from behind her. “Girl, how you been?”

Buffy spins around. “Clem! You look great! So toned!” The skin isn’t hanging quite as loosely from his arms anymore. Buffy grabs Clem and hugs him.

Kennedy leans toward Rona. “He’s ripping out her throat right now,” she says quietly.

“My god, it is so good to see you,” says Clem. “I saw this great show on the History Channel the other night that I knew you would love, and then something went all flooey with my Tivo.”

Buffy realizes that she has just blown the heck out of her “rip your throat out” speech. “You know what? Can I talk to you for a second over here?” She gestures Clem aside for a bit of a quiet chat.

“You think she dated him, too?” asks Kennedy.

Buffy whispers something into Clem’s ear, and then they return to the others. “Okay, everyone. These are the girls.”

“Howdy.” Clem waves to the girls. “So you girls are going to deal with demons, huh?” He leans forward. “Just let me tell you this…” He gestures them closer. They all lean in to hear what he’s going to say.

Clem’s face suddenly explodes, sending out a squirming mass of tentacles. The girls all scream, and jump back before it returns to normal.

“I could use a shot of that yak urine, right about now,” says Vi.

Dawn walks down the street. It’s cool out, and she has her arms wrapped about herself for warmth. She sees someone coming the other way. She recognises her. It’s Amanda. They both stop. “Hey.”

Amanda is wearing a light sweater, but she doesn’t seem cold. “Hey, Dawn. Whatcha doing?”

“Uh, just walking,” says Dawn. “You?”

“Um, yeah. Just walking, too,” says Amanda. “Okay, well, have a good walk. I guess I’ll see you Monday morning?”

“Yeah,” says Dawn. They start moving again, and brush past each other.

Amanda stops again, and turns around. “You all right?”

Dawn stops and turns back toward her. “Sure. Just walking. You know?” She sees Amanda brush some loose strands of hair back behind her ear, revealing a cut on her forehead. “Are—are you all right?” Dawn points to her head. “You’ve got a thing.”

Amanda feels at her cut. She seems a little surprised to see blood on her fingertips when she pulls them away. “I guess I— I had a bit of a— It’s been a bizarre night.”

“What happened?” asks Dawn. “Who did that to you?”

Amanda licks the blood off her finger tips. “Uh…nobody…exactly. I don’t think you’d exactly believe me.”

“Try me.”

“I was at school late because of, you know, Swing Choir, and I tore my sweater, you know, the striped ones we wear, so I went to Home Sciences to sew it up—”

“Uh-huh.”

“And by the time I was finished, the place was empty, so it was all echoey and lonely and… Then there was this guy, or thing and it was— It scratched me, and I kinda dodged it, and it kinda hit its head.”

“What kind of…thing?” asks Dawn.

“I don’t know. It was messed up. In the face.” Amanda points to her forehead, and bridge of her nose. “Around hereabouts.”

“And when it scratched at you, um, did it…” Dawn isn’t sure how to ask this. “Was it scratching with its teeth?”

“Is it real?” asks Amanda. “Was it really a vampire?” She looks down. “I bet you think I’m crazy.”

“I believe you,” says Dawn.

“Yeah? Well, cool,” says Amanda. “The thing is: after it hit its head, I kind of freaked out. I trapped it in a room, and it’s still there, and now I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay,” says Dawn. “This is totally dealable. Don’t worry.”

“Well, I was thinking of getting your sister,” says Amanda.

Dawn is surprised by that. “You know something about my sister?”

“Well, I’ve heard people talking,” says Amanda. “A lot of them think she’s some kind of high-functioning schizophrenic…” Dawn closes her eyes and shakes her head a bit at that description of her sister. “…but… I also heard that maybe, like, maybe she could help with this kind of thing. Do you think we should go get her?”

“She’s out,” says Dawn. “I’ll take this one.”

Amanda helps Dawn climb into the school through an unlocked window in Principal Wood’s office. “Whew!” says Dawn, once she’s inside. “I think I strained something. Maybe something I’ll need later in life.” She flexes her back, trying to work out the kink.

“Come on. The— the vampire is upstairs,” says Amanda. She starts out of the office. “Are you spooked out?”

“No. I’m all right,” says Dawn. “I can do this. It’s mostly instinct. I think.”

The window they had propped open suddenly slams shut. Both girls yelp, and jump at the noise. Amanda giggles nervously.

They move out into the hallway together. “So if he scratched me with a tooth, am I— I’m not going to turn into one, am I?” asks Amanda.

“Only if he slashed open one of his own veins and led you to drink deep of his blood,” says Dawn.

“Nope.”

“Good. You’re lucky he didn’t hurt you way more than that.”

“Right. He can do that.” Amanda stops at the base of the stairs. “So I was thinking— we don’t have to kill the vampire, do we?”

“What?” asks Dawn.

“Just suppose he got out and was maybe, like, ‘encouraged’ toward the gym while the marching band was playing,” says Amanda. “Because the way they look down on the swing choir it might be, you know, funny.”

Dawn crosses her arms and just looks at Amanda.

“I’m just sayin’.”

They reach the classroom where Amanda left the vampire. The door is still closed. “Well… He didn’t break down the door, anyway,” says Dawn.

“Yeah,” says Amanda. “Can they do that?”

“They’re very strong, and, although they feel pain, they don’t hold back because of it.”

“I guess you’re some kind of monster expert, too.”

“Let’s just say it runs in the family.” Dawn reaches out for the doorknob. The door swings open. “I thought you said it was locked.”

“It— it was,” says Amanda. “It was here!”

Dawn steps into the classroom, and looks around. “Amanda. It got out.”

The vampire didn’t leave though. It’s perched in an alcove over Dawn’s head, looking down on the tasty treats below it.

Act III

“Where’d it go?” asks Amanda.

Dawn starts to back out the door. She’s looking around, hoping not to see the vamp. “I don’t know, but we have to get out of here.” She starts to pull the door closed.

The vampire drops down in front of Dawn and Amanda. They scream. Dawn tries to pull the door shut, but the vampire grabs it, and pulls it off its hinges. Dawn and Amanda run.

They run down the stairs, and toward an exit from the school. They crash against the doors. The doors don’t budge, they’re locked shut. Dawn looks back and sees the vampire coming toward them. She looks around desperately for something to use as a weapon. She sees a fire extinguisher behind a glass door. She smashes the glass with her elbow, and pulls it out.

Amanda watches Dawn fumbling with the fire extinguisher. “What are you doing?”

Dawn is trying to pull the pin. “I can never remember. Does it have to be right-side up or upside down to work? Which is it?”

Dawn runs out of time to figure it out, the vamp is on her. She bashes it in the face with the fire extinguisher, knocking it right off its feet. It gets back up, and she hits it again, knocking it against the wall. She throws the extinguisher at its head, grabs Amanda, and runs. The vampire is a little slower getting back to its feet and following them this time.

Buffy shines her flashlight around a crypt. The place is a mess, and there are mattresses and trash scattered around on the floor. “The vampire is an animal. Sometimes they run in packs, sometimes alone.” She turns off the light, and turns back to the Potentials. “Who can tell us where we are?”

“It’s a nest,” says Rona.

“How can you tell?” asks Buffy.

“Only a vamp could live like this,” says Kennedy.

“Some, yeah,” says Spike. “I mean, as a group, we’re not known for our tasteful decor, but in all fairness to the race…” He looks around. “This place is seriously lacking in style.”

“Thank you, Spike,” says Buffy.

“Merely saying.”

“He has a point,” says Buffy. “Vampires can live anywhere, any way they want. Tastes, fashions, living conditions: they can vary. The animal inside? Always the same.”

“Where’d you live?” asks Molly.

Spike seems a little surprised by the question. “What, you mean before? A crypt, actually, but nicer. A bit more— I don’t know if posh is the right word, but it was more like—”

“Comfy,” says Buffy.

Kennedy raises her eyebrows. “Excuse me? When did you find it ‘comfy?’”

“Moving on,” says Buffy. “You want to stay alive? You have to spot and identify a nest on sight. Look around, all of you. Look for signs that just last night maybe a dozen— two dozen vampires were right where we’re standing. Go ahead.”

The girls spread out around the crypt, looking things over.

“Work, work, work,” says Spike. “This little excursion was just in danger of being interesting.”

“You know something, Spike?” Buffy sees that Rona and Molly have found something. “Interesting’s not a problem.” She goes over to them.

“Buffy, I think we found something,” says Rona.

“It’s a body,” says Molly.

Buffy bends down, and partially rolls the body over. Enough to see the bite marks on its neck. “It’s not a body. It’s leftovers.” She drops it back to the floor.

It isn’t leftovers anymore either though. The new vampire wakes up.

“In here!” Dawn pulls Amanda into a Chemistry classroom, and slams the door shut. She leans against it. “Help me. We need to barricade this.” Amanda grabs one of the lab stools. “It’s too small.”

Dawn looks around, and sees a metal cabinet. She starts trying to pull it toward the door. Amanda joins her, together they can barely budge it.

“Too big!” says Amanda.

Dawn keeps pulling on the cabinet, and it starts to move. They push it up against the door.

“Stay down.” whispers Dawn. She sits on the floor with her back against the cabinet.

Amanda sits beside her. “Think we’re safe?”

The vampire smashes against the door.

Buffy holds her stake ready as she slowly backs away from the vampire. “No one’s safe.. Not here… Not ever.” The vampire’s big. It towers over her. “See this guy?”

“B-but he was dead a minute ago,” says Kennedy.

“That was a minute ago. Now?” Buffy punches the vamp. “He’s the enemy.”

The vampire lunges at Buffy. She catches it and throws it across the crypt.

Dawn and Amanda keep their backs pressed against the cabinet, trying to hold it as the vamp batters on the door. “Amanda?”

“Yes?”

“Listen.”

“I’m listening.”

“We’re going to get out of this—” says Dawn. “Both of us…ali—” The vamp hits the door again, really hard, and the cabinet moves out a few inches. “Oh! Alive, do you believe me?”

Amanda nods. “I believe you.”

“Good. ’Cause I got a plan,” says Dawn.

The vampire hits the door again, and it opens a couple more inches. They aren’t going to be able to keep it out much longer.

Buffy throws the vampire across the crypt. “You can’t think too much. Reacting’s better. Could be the difference between staying alive and that other thing.” She swings her stake, but the vampire blocks it, and knocks it out of her hand.

The vampire kicks at Buffy’s head, she ducks, spins, and knocks it away with a back handed punch.

Kennedy starts to move forward, to join the fight, but Spike grabs her arm. She looks back at him, and he shakes his head.

Buffy charges at the vampire.

“Okay, this plan of mine— I’m not guaranteeing it’ll work,” says Dawn.

“Better than mine about him eating the marching band,” says Amanda. “Besides…your plan’ll work!”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t know what I’m doing here,” says Dawn.

“You’re getting it done.”

The vampire’s arm smashes through the window, raining glass down around the girls. They scream.

Dawn and Amanda jump up, and run to the lab benches. Without them holding the cabinet, the vampire forces open the door. It starts toward Dawn. She dodges around a bench, and it moves to block her.

Buffy punches the vamp back onto a sarcophagus. “The question is never ‘what do you think?’” The vamp kicks out at her, and she grabs and holds its leg. “It’s always ‘what do you know?’ You got to know…” The vamp tries to sit up, and she punches it. “…’cause if you don’t, if you make one mistake…” She flips the vampire over backwards.

“It takes just one vampire to kill you, so you got to know you can take him. Know your environment, Know what’s around you, and how to use it.”

Dawn shoves one of the lab stools at the vamp as she backs away from it. She grabs an empty flask off a bench and throws it. The vampire barely reacts. It keeps moving slowly toward her. Dawn reaches for beaker, and flips on one of the gas nozzles on the bench as her hand passes it. She throws the beaker.

Dawn grabs a bottle of acid off another bench. She throws it too. The acid burns the vampire’s skin, and clothes.

“In the hands of a Slayer, everything is a potential weapon, if you know how to see it. When you’re fighting you have to know yourself, your brain, your body.”

Dawn runs up to the front of the class, and grabs the state flag pole. It’s about eight feet long, with the big flag on the end. It’s too long for her to be able to use it as a weapon. She tries to break it over her knee. She can’t.

“Know how to stay calm, centered. Every move is important.”

Dawn smashes the pole against one of the benches. This time it breaks, and she’s left with a four foot piece of wood with a sharp end. She swings it at the vampire.

“Every blow’s part of your plan. Because you make that one mistake…then it’s over.”

Dawn swings again, and she slips on the floor. The vampire is on her in an instant, pinning her down, its fangs moving toward her neck.

“You’re not the Slayer… you’re not a Potential.”

Buffy grabs her stake off the crypt floor. “You’re dead.” The vampire comes at Buffy, with a quick series of kicks and punches. She backs away toward Spike and the girls as she blocks them. “So what do you know? Right now the only thing you know for sure…” Buffy grabs the vampire and throws it away across the crypt. “You’ve got me.”

She drops her stake on the floor. She and Spike leave the crypt, and close the doors behind them.

The vampire starts back across the crypt, smiling at the four girls.

Willow knocks on Dawn’s bedroom door. “Come on, sweetie. Open up.”

“Want me to kick down the door?” asks Anya.

“Anya,” says Xander.

“What? It’d be funny,” says Anya. “And besides, she’s been sulking inside there forev—” Xander reaches out, and turns the knob. The door opens. “Oh.”

They all go into Dawn’s room, and look around. They don’t see Dawn.

“Crap,” says Anya. She sees the open window. “Double crap.”

“Gone,” says Xander. “We’ve got to find her…before the Bringers do!”

“I can do a locator spell, but we got to hurry.” Willow turns toward the door. “And find Buffy.”

Dawn struggles to keep the vampire’s teeth away from her throat. “Amanda, help me!”

Amanda is crouched down cowering against the wall. “I—I can’t.”

“Amanda!”

Three Harbingers smash through the class window. The vampire is startled and looks up, giving Dawn the chance to kick it away.

The Harbingers ignore Dawn. Two of them grab Amanda’s arms and pull her to her feet.

“No!” cries Dawn. “You don’t want her!” The third Harbinger draws its knife. “You want me.”

Act IV

The two Harbingers hold Amanda’s arms while the third closes in on her with its knife. Dawn grabs a flint lighter, and uses it to ignite the gas from the nozzle she’d turned on while fighting the vamp. The explosion of gas catches the Bringer with the knife, and makes the two holding Amanda let go of her

“Amanda!” Dawn recovers her broken flag pole staff. The two girls run for the door.

Dawn and Amanda run down the hall to the top of the stairs. “What were those?” asks Amanda.

“Amanda, listen to me,” says Dawn. “Do you remember when you said I was special? Well, I’m not, but the thing is: you are. This is your battle, Amanda.”

Amanda looks back to see if anything’s coming yet. “No, I can’t!”

“You can! You’ve got to. Look, I’ve got your back, but this is something you have to do. It’s something you’re born to do.” Dawn gives the staff to Amanda. “Here. This belongs to you.”

Xander sees the girls from the bottom of the stairs. He starts to run up toward them. “Buffy, up here!”

The three Bringers come charging down the hall toward them, with the vampire following close behind. Amanda deflects two of the Bringers with the staff, and Dawn kicks the feet out from under the third. It tumbles down the stairs, past Xander and Spike, and into Buffy. She takes its knife and stabs it.

The vampire charges at Amanda. She hits in the head, and the gut with her staff.

Buffy tosses the knife up the stairs to Spike. He stabs one of the other Bringers.

The vampire kicks at Amanda’s head. She ducks, spins, and knocks it against the wall. She drives the point of her staff into its heart. The vampire explodes into dust.

The surviving Bringer comes at Amanda from behind. Buffy grabs it, and snaps its neck.

Amanda looks around in confusion. “Okay. One minute I’m in Swing Choir, and the next— What the hell is going on?” She looks at Buffy. “You tell me to come to you with problems. Turns out a vampire attacked me. Problem. So I go to your house, only when I get there, this orange cloud hits me.”

Dawn looks up at Xander. “She was at the doorway.”

“And I don’t know if you’re into the drugs, but that’s not my deal, all right?” says Amanda. “That cloud hit me, and I got a little dizzy and discombobulated.”

“It was Willow’s spell.” Dawn tells Buffy. “She’s the potential Slayer.”

Epilogue

The five potential Slayers sit around the coffee table in Buffy’s living room, talking excitedly about the previous night’s events.

“I’m sure the vampire thought we were, like, what? Four helpless girls,” says Rona. “And then Vi— Vi actually yells: ‘We’re just four helpless girls!’”

“That was part of my plan,” said Vi.

“When it all started going down, it was like we knew what we were doing for real,” says Rona.

“Yeah, like when you dodged that first attack and then cracked him across the jaw,” says Molly.

“No, no, no. See, I wouldn’t have been able to do that if you hadn’t took his legs out.”

“I hurt his arm,” said Molly.

“Yup,” says Vi. “And an arm could be as lethal as a mouth.”

Rona looks at Kennedy. “When you staked him? Seriously, the rush was like—”

Kennedy turns to the new member of their group. “So…You took one out solo.”

“Yeah. What was that like?” asks Molly.

Dawn comes out of the kitchen, and leans against the door frame, wistfully watching this group that she’s not a part of.

“I don’t know,” says Amanda. “I mean… When I saw the vampire— vamp?”

“Vampire’s good, too,” says Kennedy.

“Cool,” says Amanda. “Yeah, when that vampire attacked me, I felt this kind of charge. You know?”

“Like you realize in one instant that your whole life is different,” says Kennedy.

“Exactly,” says Amanda. “It’s that rush you’re talking about.”

Buffy and Xander come up behind Dawn. “Hey. You okay?” asks Buffy.

“Yeah,” says Dawn. “I was thinking of hitting the books, do some research on the First. It’s in retreat mode right now, but you’re still going to need to know how to fight it.”

“Great. Sounds good.” Buffy turns to the Potentials. “Hey, you guys? You want to head downstairs, get our newest arrival up to speed?”

The Potentials all get up, and follow Buffy toward the basement stairs. Amanda and Dawn exchange a smile as she passes.

Dawn sits down at the research table, and starts to read one of the books. She notices that Xander is still there behind her, watching her. She looks around. “What’s up?”

“Oh, I’m just thinking about the girls.” Xander moves around to the other side of the table. “It’s a harsh gig, being a Potential. Just being picked out of a crowd. Danger, destiny, plus, if you act now, death.”

“They can handle it.” Dawn looks back to her book.

“Yeah. They’re special, no doubt.” Xander sits down. “And the amazing thing is: not one of them will ever know. Not even Buffy.”

Dawn looks up from her book. “Know what?”

“How much harder it is for the rest of us,” says Xander.

“No way.” Dawn shakes her head. “They’ve got—”

“Seven years, Dawn,” says Xander. “Working with the Slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful— A witch, a demon. Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit, but come a full moon, he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful, all of them.” Xander stands up, and points to the front of the living room. “And I’m the guy who fixes the windows.”

“Well, you had that sexy army training for a while,” says Dawn, “and… and the windows really did need fixing.”

Xander is still looking at the windows. “I saw what you did last night.”

“Yeah, I— I guess I kind of lost my head when I thought I was the Slayer.”

Xander turns around to face her. “Well, you thought you were all special, Miss Sunnydale 2003. And the minute you found out you weren’t, you handed the crown to Amanda without a moment’s pause. You gave her your power.”

“The power wasn’t mine.”

“They’ll never know how tough it is, Dawnie.” Xander sits down again. “To be the one who isn’t chosen, to live so near to the spotlight and never step in it, but I know. I see more than anybody realizes because…nobody’s watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You’re not special. You’re extraordinary.” He gets up, leans across the table and kisses her on the forehead. He starts to leave.

“Maybe that’s your power,” says Dawn.

Xander looks back at her. “What?”

“Seeing. Knowing.”

“Maybe it is,” says Xander. “Maybe I should get a cape.”

“Cape is good,” says Dawn.

“Yeah.” Xander smiles, and leaves the living room. He keeps going out the front door.

Dawn sits for a moment, and thinks. Then she goes back to her research.

Death Toll

Notes

1. Chloe seems to be MIA this week. She doesn’t even get mentioned.
2. So why isn’t Spike’s chip doing anything?