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End of Days |
Buffy breaks off the kiss, and keeps smiling at Angel. “Well, I guess that qualifies as ‘happy to see me,’” he says.
“Angel, what are you doing—” Buffy cuts herself off and shakes her head. “Don’t even. I just want to bask.” She keeps smiling at him for a few seconds. “Okay, I’m basked. What are you doing here?”
“Not saving the damsel in distress, that’s for sure.”
“Oh, you know me.” Buffy leans down and picks up the scythe. “Not much with the damseling.”
“Got your share of distress, though.”
“You heard?”
Angel picks up an accordion file he left tucked in an alcove. “I got coverage on the whole thing. It’s very gripping. It needs a third act.”
“You have to leave L.A.,” says Buffy.
“It’s the First, right?” Angel looks at Caleb’s body, lying on the floor. “The First Evil. The power that tried to convince me to kill myself.”
“Yeah,” says Buffy. “It’s gotten a little more ambitious since then. It’s raising an army.”
“Yeah, well, it failed once, and I’m here to tell you—” Angel is smashed from behind and sent flying across the chamber.
Caleb turns to Buffy, black fluid running down his cheeks and chin from his eyes and mouth. His eyes have gone completely black. He raises the stone cat that he hit Angel with. “Are you ready to finish this, bitch?”
Caleb swings the stone cat at Buffy. She blocks it with the scythe. She gets knocked to the ground and rolls back to her feet. Caleb swings the cat again. Buffy blocks the first blow, but the next one hits her in the head. She’s knocked to the floor again. Caleb throws away the cat.
Buffy scrambles back to her feet. “Okay…how many times do I have to kill you? Ballpark figure.”
“You understand nothing,” says Caleb. Buffy swings the scythe at him, and he catches it. He holds the handle while he punches her a couple of times. Caleb lifts Buffy off the floor, and pushes her against the low ceiling. He drops Buffy back down onto the floor. He grabs her by the throat and lifts her up. “You think you have power over me?”
Buffy breaks Caleb’s grip on her. She jumps into a spinning kick that knocks him off his feet.
Caleb climbs back to his feet. “Stupid girl. You’ll never stop me…” Buffy starts to swing the scythe around. “…you don’t have the ba—” The scythe comes up between Caleb’s legs, into his crotch. He stops and looks down at it.
“Who does nowadays?” asks Buffy. She rips the scythe up through Caleb’s body. Two pieces fall away to the floor on either side of her.
Angel gets back to his feet. “Okay, now I’m pissed!” He turns toward Buffy. “Where is he?”
Buffy looks at the floor to her right, and to her left. “He had to split.” She starts to giggle as Angel looks at Caleb’s pieces.
Spike is still watching from the shadows. “Yeah, she needs you real bad,” the First whispers in his ear.
Angel retrieves the file. “I’ll have the guys go through that,” says Buffy. “See if there’s anything new. Reliable source?”
“Not remotely.”1 says Angel.
“Mm, any port in an apocalypse,” says Buffy
Angel fishes something out of his pocket. “I, uh, brought something else as well.” He holds up a crystal amulet, hanging from a chain.
Buffy looks at it. “I can already tell you, I have nothing that goes with that.”
“It’s not for you,” says Angel.
“Splainy?”
“I don’t know everything. It’s very powerful and probably very dangerous.” Angel looks at the amulet. “It has a purifying power, a cleansing power, possibly scrubbing bubbles. The translation is, uh— Anyway, it bestows strength to the right person who wears it.”
“And the right person is?” asks Buffy.
“Someone ensouled,” says Angel, “but stronger than human. A champion. As in me.”
“Or me,” says Buffy.
“No,” says Angel. “I don’t know nearly enough about this to risk you wearing it. Besides…” He points to the scythe. “…you got that real cool axe-thing going for you.”
Spike has overheard enough. He quietly makes his way to the stairs up out of the temple, unnoticed by Angel or Buffy.
“So you’re gonna be with me in this,” says Buffy.
“Shoulder to shoulder,” says Angel. “I’m yours.”
Buffy thinks about what Angel has just said for a moment. “No.”
“No, what?” asks Angel.
“No. You’re not gonna be in this fight.” Buffy starts toward the stairs.
Angel moves to block her. “Why the hell not?”
“’Cause I can’t risk you,” says Buffy.
“You need me in this,” says Angel
“No, I need you gone.”
“Why?” Buffy doesn’t have an answer for that one right away. Angel stands looking at her.
“If I lose, if this thing gets past Sunnydale, then it’s days— maybe hours— before the rest of the world goes,” says Buffy. “I need a second front, and I need you to run it.”
“Okay…that’s one reason,” says Angel. “What’s the other?”
“There is no other.” Buffy goes around Angel, and leaves up the stairs.
Angel follows Buffy out of the temple. “Is it Spike?” She stops and slowly turns to face him. “You’re not telling me something. And his scent, I remember it pretty well.”
Buffy shakes her head. “Vampires. Did anybody ever tell you the whole smelling people thing’s a little gross?”
“Is he your boyfriend?” asks Angel.
“Is that your business?” Buffy turns and goes out the gate into the cemetery.
“You in love with him?” asks Angel. Buffy pauses in the gate. “Okay, maybe I’m outta line, but this is kind of a curve ball for me. I mean, we are talking about Spike here.”
Buffy starts walking again. “It’s different. He’s different.” She turns back to Angel. “He has a soul now.”
“Oh. Well,” says Angel quietly.
“What?” asks Buffy.
“That’s great,” says Angel. “Everyone’s got a soul now.” he mumbles.
“He’ll make a difference,” says Buffy.
“You know, I started it.” mumbles Angel. “The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing.”
“Oh, my god. Are you twelve?” asks Buffy.
“I’m getting the brush off for Captain Peroxide,” says Angel. “It doesn’t necessarily bring out the champion in me.”
“You’re not getting the brush off. Are you just gonna come here and go all Dawson on me every time I have a boyfriend?”
“Aha!” Angel points at her. “Boyfriend!”
“He’s not.” Buffy pauses. “But…he is in my heart.”
“That’ll end well.” Angel goes and leans against a low crypt. He places the file on top of it.
“What was the highlight of our relationship?” asks Buffy. “When you broke up with me or when I killed you? I’m well aware of my stellar history with guys…” She leans against the crypt beside him. “And, no, I don’t see fat grandchildren in the offing with Spike, but I don’t think that really matters right now.” She lets out a bit of a laugh. “You know, in the midst of all this insanity, a couple things are actually starting to make sense. And the guy thing—” She sighs. “I always feared there was something wrong with me, you know, because I couldn’t make it work. But maybe I’m not supposed to.”
“Because you’re the Slayer?” asks Angel.
“Because—” Buffy turns to him. “Okay, I’m cookie dough. I’m not done baking. I’m not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I’m gonna turn out to be. I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I’m ready. I’m cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat m—” She cuts off that line of thought. “Or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then…that’s fine. That’ll be then. When I’m done.”
“Any thoughts on who might enjoy— Do I have to go with the cookie analogy?” asks Angel.
“I’m not really thinking that far ahead,” says Buffy. “That’s kind of the point.”
Angel takes the amulet out of his pocket, and drops it into Buffy’s hand. “I’ll go start working on the second front. Make sure I don’t have to use it.” He starts to walk away.
Buffy steps toward him. “Angel.” He stops and looks back at her. “I do…sometimes think that far ahead.”
“Sometimes is something.”
“Be a long time coming,” says Buffy. “Years, if ever.”
Angel slowly backs away into the darkness. “I ain’t getting any older.”
Buffy enters the front foyer of her house with the file under her arm, and the scythe in her hand. She’s surprised to see Dawn standing at the foot of the stairs, glaring at her. Dawn kicks her on the shin.
“Ow!” says Buffy.
“Dumbass,” says Dawn.
Buffy looks into the dining room. Xander is sitting in a chair, with Anya rubbing his head. He raises his hands. “Don’t look at me. This is a Summers’ thing. It’s all very violent.”
Buffy looks back at her sister. “If you get killed, I’m telling.” She moves away into the dining room. Willow and Giles are sitting by the table too.
“Did you find out anything about the scythe?” asks Willow.
Buffy holds it up. “It slices, dices, and makes julienne preacher.”
“Caleb?” asks Giles.
“I cut him in half,” says Buffy.
“All right!” says Willow.
“He had that coming,” says Anya.
“Hey, party in my eye socket and everyone’s invited!” says Xander. Everyone looks a little grossed out. He shakes his head while Anya goes back to rubbing it. “Sometimes I shouldn’t say words.”
Spike is working out on the punching bag in the basement when Buffy comes down the stairs. He stops hitting the bag. “So… Where’s tall, dark and forehead?”
“Let me guess,” says Buffy. “You can smell him.”
“Yeah, that and I also used my enhanced vampire eyeballs to watch you kissing him,” says Spike.
“It was…a hello,” says Buffy.
“Most people don’t use their tongues to say hello. Or I guess they do, but—”
“There were no tongues,” says Buffy. “Besides, he’s gone.”
“Oh, just popped by for a quickie, then?”
“Good, good. I haven’t had quite enough jealous vampire crap for one night,” says Buffy.
“He wears lifts, you know,” says Spike.
Buffy notices that Spike has taped a cartoon drawing of Angel—with fangs and funny hair that sticks straight up—to the punching bag. She shakes her head. “You know, one of these days I’m just gonna put you two in a room and let you wrestle it out.”
Spike goes to look for a cigarette. “No problem at this end.” He discovers his pack is empty, crumples it in his hand, and throws it away.
Buffy starts thinking about the possibility. “There could be oil of some kind involved.”
“Where’s the trinket?” asks Spike.
“The who-ket?” asks Buffy.
“The pretty necklace your sweetie-bear gave you,” says Spike. “The one with all the power.” Buffy looks down, she’s holding it in her hand. “I believe it’s mine now.”
“How do you figure?” asks Buffy.
“Someone with a soul, but more than human?” asks Spike. “Angel meant to wear it, that means I’m the qualified party.” He holds out his hand toward her.
“It’s volatile,” says Buffy. “We don’t know—”
“You’ll be needing someone strong to bear it, then,” says Spike. “You planning on giving it to Andrew?”
Buffy pauses for a second. “Angel said the amulet was meant to be worn by a champion.”
Spike looks at her for a moment, and then looks away. Buffy steps toward him, and holds out the amulet. She places it into his hand. They stand looking at each other.
“Been called a lot of things in my time,” says Spike.
Buffy looks down. “Faith still has my room.” She glances up at Spike.
“Well, you’re not staying here!” Spike holds up the amulet. “You can’t buy me off with shiny beads and sweet talk. You got Angel breath. I’m not gonna just let you whack me back and forth like a rubber ball. I’ve got my pride, you know.”
Buffy turns away, and starts toward the stairs. “I understand.”
Spike rushes to get around and block her. “Clearly you don’t, ’cause the whole ‘having my pride’ thing was just a smoke screen.”
“Oh, thank god.” Buffy laughs.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you’d have gone up those stairs,” says Spike. Buffy reaches out and puts her hand on his cheek.
Buffy and Spike lie snuggled together on his cot, with Spike spooned around her back. They’re both fully clothed, and Spike has his arm around her waist. Buffy is awake, and runs her hand along his arm. Spike rolls away from her.
Buffy sits up on the cot and gets up. She wanders around the basement and stops, looking out at the moon through the window.
Caleb steps up behind her. “Pretty, ain’t it?”
Buffy barely glances back at him. “You’re not him.”
“No, you killed him right and proper. Terrible loss.” The First places its hand against its chest. “This man was my good right arm. ‘Course, it don’t pain me too much. Don’t need an arm. Got an army.”
Buffy turns to look at it. “An army of vampires,” she says dismissively. “However will I fight—”
“Every day our numbers swell,” says the First. “But then you do have an army of your own. Some thirty-odd pimply-faced girls, don’t know the pointy end of a stake.” It puts its hand to its mouth in mock concern. “Maybe I should call this off.”
“Have you ever considered a cool name?” asks Buffy. “I mean, since you’re incorporeal and basically powerless. How about ‘the Taunter?’ Strikes fear in—”
“I will overrun this earth,” says the First. “And when my army outnumbers the humans on this earth, the scales will tip and I will be made flesh.”
“Talk on,” says Buffy. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Then why aren’t you asleep in your dead lover’s arms?” The First looks back at the sleeping Spike. “’Cause he can’t help you. Nor Faith, nor your friends, certainly not your wannaslay brigade. None of those girlies will ever know real power unless you’re dead.” It leans down toward her. “You know the drill.” The First changes form, morphing into Buffy. “Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to—” It stops. “There’s that word again. What you are. How you’ll die. Alone.” It continues to look at Buffy. “Where’s your snappy comeback?”
“You’re right,” says Buffy.
“Hmm,” says the First. “Not your best.”
Spike starts to thrash on his cot. “I’m drowning in footwear!” Buffy glances toward him, and when she looks back, the First is gone. Spike sits up. “Weird dream.” He looks around and sees Buffy on the other side of the basement. “Buffy? Is something wrong?”
Buffy shakes her head. “No. Yeah. I just realized something. Something that…really never occurred to me before.” She looks at Spike. “We’re gonna win.”
Buffy has the core group gathered in her bedroom the next morning. Dawn, Willow and Xander are sitting on her bed, and Giles is in her chair. Anya and Faith are standing.
Buffy looks at them all, holding the scythe in her hands. “What do you think?”
Xander looks up at her. “That depends. Are you in any way…kidding?”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” asks Buffy.
“It’s pretty radical, B,” says Faith. She seems to be fully recovered from her injuries.
Giles gets up out of the chair. “It’s a lot more than that. Buffy, what you said, it—it flies in the face of everything we’ve ever— every generation has ever done in the fight against evil.” He starts to smile. “I think it’s bloody brilliant.”
“You mean that?” asks Buffy.
“If you want my opinion,” says Giles.
“I really do,” says Buffy.
“Whoa, hey,” says Willow. “Not to poop on the party here, but I’m the guy that’s gonna have to pull this thing off.”
“It is beaucoup d’mojo,” says Faith.
“This goes beyond anything I’ve ever done,” says Willow. “It’s a total loss of control, and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way.”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could do it,” says Buffy.
“I—I’m not sure that I’m stable enough,” says Willow.
“You can do this, Willow,” says Giles. “We’ll get the coven on the line, and we’ll find out how they can help.”
“Oh!” Dawn suddenly looks enlightened. “‘Pierced tongue.’”
“Dawn needs to do a research thing,” says Buffy quickly.
“Yes, you do,” says Giles.
“It’s cool.” Dawn gets up off the bed and heads out the door. “Watcher junior to the library.”
Giles follows her out of the room. “I’ll go dig up my sources. Quite literally, actually. One or two of the people I have to speak to are dead.”
Anya follows after Giles. “Come on,” she tells Xander, “let’s go assemble the cannon fodder.”
“That’s not what we’re calling them, Sweetie,” says Xander.
“Not to their faces.” Anya goes out the door, and turns toward the stairs. “What, am I insensitive?”
Buffy and Willow stand looking at each other for a moment. Buffy holds out the scythe, and gives it to her.
Buffy has everyone gathered in her living room. Her friends, the Potentials, Andrew, and Robin Wood. She slowly walks around the little bit of clear space left in the center of the room as she talks. “I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there’s evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn’t been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn’t been either.” Kennedy and Rona look a little chagrinned. “But this isn’t about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army is ready, now. Tomorrow morning I’m opening the seal. I’m going down into the Hellmouth, and I’m finishing this once and for all.”
Buffy looks around at everyone. “Right now you’re asking yourself, ‘what makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?’ It’s true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here’s the part where you make a choice.”
Faith and Robin Wood move stuff around in the basement of the school. “It’s one hell of a risky idea,” says Wood.
They each grab a side of a heavy wooden box, and place it on top of the other things they’ve been moving around. “Buffy’s wacky that way,” says Faith.
“Yeah,” says Wood. “There’s one more vent right by the stairs. We block that, they got no sewer access, should drive them straight up into the school proper.”
Faith starts toward the stairs. “That’s assuming they get past us.”
“Which, no offense, I am,” says Wood.
Faith clears some loose items off the tops of a couple of filing cabinets. “Come on, you gotta have a little faith.”
Wood moves a pile of books off the cabinets. “I think I’ve had my share, thanks.”
“Well, I trundled right into that one, didn’t I?” Faith pushes one of the cabinets toward the vent. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was blowing you off the other day. I was just trying to, you know, blow you off.”
Wood helps push it into place. “Yeah, you know what, I figured that one out all by myself.”
“It’s nothing personal.” Faith goes back for the second cabinet. “It’s just after I get bouncy with a guy, there’s not that much more I need to know about him.”
“That’s bleak.”
Faith shrugs. “Way of the world.”
“That’s good to know ’cause for a second there I thought it was more defensive, isolationist Slayer crap.”
Faith laughs. “And he comes out swinging.”
“Faith, there’s a whole world out there that you don’t even know about, and a lot of the men in it are pretty decent guys,” says Wood. “They’d surprise you.”
“Guy looks at me, let’s just say his priorities shift,” says Faith.
“Why, because you’re so hot?”
“It’s what it is, yo.”
“Oh, please,” says Wood. “I am so much prettier than you are.” Faith’s jaw drops open in shock, and she puts her hand to her breast. “Oh, and, uh, for the record, our little encounter didn’t exactly change my world.”
“You’re tripping!” says Faith. “That was rock ’em, sock ’em!”
“No, no, no, no. It was—it was— It was nice enough, you know, and you’re— you’re very, um…” Wood gives her a couple of thumbs up. “Mm, enthused, and I think with a little more experience—”
“Dude, I got mad skills!” says Faith.
“Yeah, of course,” says Wood. “Let’s finish up.” He grabs hold of the cabinet.
“No, hell with that.” Faith starts to undo her belt. “We’re going again, baby. You’re gonna learn a little respect here, pal.”
“Faith—” Wood laughs. “Make me a deal, all right? We live through this, you give me the chance to surprise you.”
“What would be the surprise?” asks Faith.
“You do know the meaning of the word, right?” asks Wood.
“Fine.” Faith redoes her belt. “Deal.”
“Good enough,” says Wood. They start to push the filing cabinet over against the vent.
“No way you’re prettier than me,” says Faith.
“A little bit, yeah,” says Wood.
Willow sits on her bed, going over her notes. “I really wish she hadn’t said that about me.”
Kennedy is lying behind her. “What, the thing Buffy said? I think it’s true.”
“Ehheh,” says Willow.
Kennedy rubs her back. “I’ll be with you. To keep you grounded.”
“Yeah, well, you might have to keep me stab-ded, if I go to the bad place,” says Willow.
Kennedy sits up beside Willow. “You’re saying I might have to kill you.”
“I am.”
Kennedy scoffs. “Bite me.”
“I will,” says Willow. “I mean, I do…mean it. The darkest place I’ve ever been, this is what lies beyond that. This is too important for me to—”
“Buffy believes in you.”
Willow smiles. “You know, Buffy: sweet girl, not that bright.”
“Hey, I’m the first one to call her out when she’s not making sense,” says Kennedy. “In fact, this may have escaped your keen notice, but I’m kind of a brat. I’ve always sort of gotten my way. So you’re gonna make it through this, no matter how dark it gets. Because now…you’re my way.”
Willow smiles at Kennedy, and kisses her. After a bit she turns her attention back to her papers. “I better go over this again.” Kennedy cuddles up against her back.
Giles looks at the drawings spread out on the dining room table. “I’m—I’m—I’m all turned around.” He points to one of the pages. “You’re here?”
“By the pillar, yeah.” Xander waves his hand over the floor plan. “I’m protecting this area.”
“That puts me over by the door,” says Giles. “Demons around the perimeter— Right! I open the door.”
Andrew consults his notes. He’s wearing a cape with a red hood. “You go through the door and are confronted by Trogdor the Burninator.”
“Oh, bugger it. Fight.” Giles rolls a ten sided die.
“Adios to five hit points,” says Andrew. “Trogdor has badly wounded you.”
“Well, wait a minute.” Giles puts on his glasses, and consults his own notes. “What about my…bag of illusions?”
Andrew scoffs. “Illusions against a Burninator? Silly, silly British man.”
Amanda places a token onto the table. “I invoke a time flux on Trogdor.”
Andrew turns toward her, and pushes the cape back off his shoulders. “Step down, girlfriend, you can’t just—”
“Ninth level sorcerer, and I carry the emerald chalice.” She nods as she makes a note on the pages in front of her. “Trogdor is frozen in time. Deal with it.”
“Smackdown on Red Riding Hood,” says Xander. “This could get ugly.”
“Could it possibly get uglier?” Giles takes a sip from the wine glass in front of him. “I used to be a highly respected Watcher, and now I’m a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.” He rubs his face. “I just wish I could sleep.”
“What kind of person could sleep on a night like this?” asks Amanda. She looks across the table, at the person beside Xander.
Anya is face down on the table, fast asleep. Xander reaches out and rubs her head affectionately. “Only the crazy ones.”
Anya snores.
Buffy leans against the post beside the steps on her front porch. The city is quiet. All she can hear are the crickets.
Spike sits on his cot in the basement, looking at the talisman in his hand. He hears someone on the stairs and looks up. He sees Buffy standing at the foot of the stairs. He stands up.
Wood leads everyone into the school. “Welcome to Sunnydale High. There’s no running in the halls, no yelling, no gum chewing. Apart from that, there’s only one rule.” He stops at a corridor intersection and turns to face them. “If they move, kill them.”
Buffy steps up beside him. “Okay, Potentials, in the basement.” She points down one of the halls. “Follow Faith and Spike.”
Faith waves for the girls to follow and she and Spike lead most of the Potentials away down the hall. “If you have to go to the bathroom, it’s to your left,” says Xander as they pass. “If you don’t have to go to the bathroom, picture what you’re about to face. Better to go now.”
Wood points down the hall the Potentials went down. “Willow, my office is straight through there.”
“It’s right over the seal,” says Buffy.
“I’ll start getting you set up.” Kennedy takes Willow’s bag of supplies.
“Thanks,” says Willow as Kennedy leaves.
“Okay, civilians,” says Wood. “The vampires get upstairs, we have three areas they could get through to another building and then down into the sewers. Down the hall in the atrium…” He points the way all the Potentials went. “…the north hall here…” He points down the side hall. “…and the primary target…” He point behind him. “…through the lounge straight to the science building. Now odds are, most of them will head there.”
“Teams of two then,” says Giles. “I suggest you and I take the lounge.”
“I concur.” Wood starts toward the lounge.
“Xander, I want you with Dawn,” says Buffy.
“I concur,” says Xander.
Dawn moves over beside Xander. “We’ll check out the atrium.”
“So that leaves me and the Dungeon Master in the north hall,” says Anya.
“We will defend it with our very lives,” says Andrew.
“Yes,” says Anya, “we will defend it with his very life.”
“And don’t be afraid to use him as a human shield,” says Xander.
“Good, yes.” Anya smiles and nods. “Thanks.”
“I just want to say how proud I am to die for this very special cause with you guys.” Andrew pulls a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, and starts to read from it. “There’s some, um— There’s people I’d like to thank, both good and evil. Um, a shout out to my brother Tucker, who gave me the inspiration to summon demons and also—”
Anya grabs him by the shoulder. “Nobody cares, you little monkey.” She pushes him away down the hall.
“I’m gonna check out our field of engagement.” Dawn turns away and starts down the hall to the atrium. She has a bag with a couple of swords in it slung over her shoulder.
Buffy start to follow her. “Dawn…”
“No.” Dawn turns around and looks at her sister. “Anything you say is gonna sound like good-bye.” They stand and look at each other for a moment, and then Dawn turns away and goes back down the hall.
Buffy watches Dawn walk quickly away, and then slowly turns back to the corridor junction. There’s just the four of them left. Her, Xander, Willow and Giles. The original team. They stand looking at each other.
“So, what do you guys want to do tomorrow?” asks Buffy.
“Nothing strenuous,” says Willow.
“Well, mini-golf is always the first thing that comes to mind,” says Xander.
“I think we can do better than that,” says Giles.
“I was thinking about shopping,” says Buffy. “As per usual.”
“Oh! There’s an Agnes B. in the new mall!” says Willow.
“I could use a few items,” says Xander.
“Well, no, aren’t we gonna discuss this?” asks Giles. “We’re saving the world to go to the mall?”
“I’m having a wicked shoe craving,” says Buffy.
“Aren’t you on the patch?” asks Xander.
“Those never work,” says Willow.
“Here I am, invisible to the eye, not getting any vote,” says Giles.
The others all turn away from him and start walking down the hall together.
“See, I need a new look,” says Xander. “It’s this whole eye patch thing.”
“Oh! You could go with full black secret agent look,” says Buffy.
“Or the puffy shirt, pirate slash poet feel,” says Willow. “Sensitive yet manly…”
Giles turns toward the lounge. “The earth is definitely doomed.”
Buffy, Willow and Xander walk silently down the hall together. No one says anything as Willow breaks away to enter the Principal’s office. Buffy and Xander continue together. He takes her hand in his briefly before he backs away into the side hall toward the atrium. Buffy goes on alone.
Buffy finds Faith and the Potentials all gathered around the Seal of Danthalzar. Faith hands her the Tawarick knife. “You first, B.”
Buffy cuts her palm with the knife, and hands it to Faith. The knife gets passed around the circle. Each of the girls uses it to cut their palm. They hold their hands out over the seal, dripping their blood onto it.
The seal starts to glow. The arms of the pentagram fold up into a pyramid that sinks down into the ground, and the side sections fold down. Buffy steps down into the Hellmouth. Faith and the others follow her.
Willow sits with her legs crossed on the floor in Principal Wood’s office. The scythe is in front of her, and there’s an arc of candles around her. “They should be in place. Okay, magic time.” She looks at Kennedy squatting in front of her. “You ready to, heh heh, kill me?”
Kennedy fidgets a bit. “Starting to be.”
“Good. Fun. Great.” Willow places her hands on the scythe. “Brace yourself.”
“Come on, Red.” whispers Kennedy. “Make it happen.”
Buffy leads everyone down a spiral stone stairway that lets out onto a ledge. Spike is with them. He feels the amulet he’s wearing around his neck. “Not to be a buzzkill, Love, but my fabulous accessory isn’t exactly tingling with power.”
Buffy looks around, not really paying any attention to Spike. “I’m not worried.”
“I’m getting zero juice here,” says Spike, “and I look like Elizabeth Taylor.”
“Cheer up, Liz,” says Faith. “Willow’s big spell doesn’t work, it won’t matter what you wear.”
They all spread out along the ledge. Buffy moves toward the precipice. “I’m not worried.” She looks out into a huge cavern, full of thousands of Turok-Hans. Spike takes a look over the edge, and backs away. “I’m not worried,” says Buffy. She sounds terrified.
“Really?” asks Rona. “’Cause I’m flashing back to Xander’s whole bathroom speech.”
“Buffy!” says Amanda.
“I’m not worried,” says Buffy. “As long as Willow can work her spell before they…” As one the Turok-Hans all look up toward the ledge. “…see us.”
A thousand Turok-Hans let out a snarl. They start to rush toward the ledge.
Buffy watches the wave of Turok-Hans coming across the cavern floor toward her. They start to swarm up the cavern wall toward the ledge. “Willow…”
Willow places her hands on the scythe, quietly speaking the words of her spell under her breath. She feels the power flowing through her. “Oh…My…Goddess…” The scythe starts to glow white.
Flashback, Buffy’s living room, the day before:
“So here’s the part where you make a choice,” says Buffy. “What if you could have that power…now?” She looks around at all the Potentials. “In every generation, one Slayer is born…because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men.” She points to Willow. “This woman is more powerful than all of them combined.”
Willow whimpers. She really doesn’t want that power.
“So I say we change the rule,” says Buffy. “I say my power…”
“…should be our power.”
Kennedy feels the power of the Slayer flowing into her.
“Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe…”
The Potentials with Buffy in the cavern feel their growing power.
Buffy looks around her living room, with the scythe in her hands. “…to change our destiny. From now on…”
“…every girl in the world who might be a Slayer…”
A twelve year old girl steps nervously up to the plate on a baseball diamond.
“Will be a Slayer.”
A girl in a school feels the power entering her. She staggers and leans against her locker.
“Every girl who could have the power…”
A girl in India is overcome by the feelings entering her, and falls to the floor.
“…will have the power…”
A girl in Japan stands up from her dinner table and steps back, feeling dizzy.
“…can stand up, will stand up.”
A man in a trailer tries to slap a girl. She blocks his blow, full of new strength. She stands and faces him.
“Slayers…” Buffy looks around at all the Potentials in her house.
“Every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?”
The girl on the baseball diamond looks down. She looks up at the pitcher, her eyes full of confidence. She smiles.
Vi smiles at the horde of Turok-Hans rushing toward them. “These guys are dust.”
The first wave of Turok-Hans hurtle over the lip of the ledge, and are met by twenty Slayers. Buffy punches and kicks at the ubervamps around her. Vi hits one with a flying kick that knocks it back off the ledge. Rona uses the cast on her arm as a club against the Turok-Han attacking her. Amanda has a three foot wooden pole, sharpened to a stake at both ends. She drives it into the stomach of a Turok-Han. She misses the heart, but that doesn’t matter. She lifts it off the ground and throws it off the ledge. Vi slits the throat of another Turok-Han with her knife.
“Willow?” Kennedy looks up and sees that Willow is bathed in the white glow from the scythe. Her hair has gone completely white, and she looks like she’s in ecstasy.
The glow vanishes, and Willow’s hair returns to its normal shade of red. She catches herself from falling on her face.
“You…are a goddess!” says Kennedy.
Willow looks up at Kennedy and smiles. “And you’re a Slayer.” She holds out the scythe. “Get this to Buffy.”
Kennedy takes the scythe and runs from the office. Willow falls panting onto her side. “That was nifty!”
The Slayers battle the Turok-Hans on the ledge. Kennedy drops down through the seal, and looks around. “Buffy! Catch!” She flings the scythe toward her. Buffy reaches out her hand without even looking and catches it. She spins around, staking one Turok-Han with the handle, and beheading another with the blade.
Kennedy punches a Turok-Han away from her, and kicks a second. “I could get used to this.” She picks up a third and throws it head first into a stalactite.
The battle rages on. More Turok-Hans swarm up onto the ledge as quickly as the Slayers can kill them. Buffy swings the scythe taking them out two and three at a time.
Some of the Turok-Hans get past the Slayers, and run up the stairs through the seal.
Andrew hears something approaching. “I think they’re coming.” He holds up his sword.
Anya is in front of him, holding her sword with its point down toward the floor. “Oh, god. I’m terrified. I didn’t think. I mean, I— I just figured you’d be terrified, and I would be sarcastic about it.”
“Picture happy things,” says Andrew. “A lake, candy canes…bunnies.”
“Bunnies!” Anya’s eyes fill with rage. “Floppy, hoppy…” She raises her sword. “…Bunnies.”
Half a dozen Turok-Hans run into the lounge, and are met by Giles and Wood. Giles swings his sword and takes off the head of one of them, while Wood attacks another.
A few of Turok-Hans have entered the north hall. Anya swings her sword skillfully, and takes off one of their heads. She spins and decapitates another.
“I have swimmer’s ear!” cries Andrew as another Turok-Han pushes him against the wall. It doesn’t pause to kill him though. With Andrew out of the way, it runs off.
Anya braces herself to meet more Turok-Hans. She doesn’t see the Bringers coming up behind her.
Spike punches one of the Turok-Hans away from him. He feels a wave of pain wash through him. “Buffy!” He grabs at the talisman on his chest, and it burns him. “Uhh! Whatever this thing does, I think it’s—” He cries out as a fresh wave of pain passes over him.
Buffy is too busy to notice Spike’s problem. She sees one of the Slayers go down under the Turok-Hans’ onslaught. “Keep the line together!” she shouts to the Slayers. “Drive them to the edge! We can’t let them—”
A Turok-Han behind Buffy runs its sword into her back and out her front, and pulls it free again. Buffy looks down and sees the blood from the wound soaking her blouse, and running down her pants. She staggers forward a couple of steps, and falls on her face.
Faith sees that Buffy is down. “Buffy!” She rushes to her.
Buffy looks up at Faith. “Hold the line.” She grunts in pain as she passes the scythe to her.
Faith looks at Buffy for a moment, before she spins away, using the scythe to dust the Turok-Han closing in from behind her. She keeps swinging it, taking out more of the Turok-Hans all around her.
A Turok-Han attacks Xander in the atrium. Dawn stands back, waiting for the right moment. She sees it and rushes forward. She grabs a rope and pulls the tarp they had coving the atrium skylight away and three Turok-Hans are caught in full sunlight. They vanish in flames.
“We call that the greenhouse effect,” says Xander. “Very dangerous.” He cries out as another Turok-Han jumps on him. Dawn rushes forward, her sword swinging at its neck.
Andrew tries to get his sword up as a Bringer rushes at him. A second Bringer closes in on him with its knife drawn. Anya stabs it in the back.
There’s another Bringer behind her. It swings its knife. It slashes through Anya, diagonally down her body from her shoulder, nearly slicing her in half.
A Bringer slashes its knife into Wood’s gut. Giles stabs it from behind, and catches Wood as he nearly falls.
A Turok-Han grabs Faith from behind. She sees that Rona is clear in front of her. “Rona!” She throws the scythe as more Turok-Hans pile onto her.
Rona catches the scythe with her left hand, and slices it through the throat of a Turok-Han that rushes her.
Buffy looks up from the ground. The Slayers are being overwhelmed by the Turok-Hans. She sees one go down with a Turok-Han sinking its fangs into her throat. Amanda falls dead in front of her, her face covered with blood.
The First appears in front of Buffy, looking like Buffy, complete with blood flowing down from her wound. “Oh no! Ow! Mommy, this mortal wound is all…itchy.” The First crouches down in front of Buffy. “You pulled a nice trick. You came pretty close to smacking me down. What more do you want?”
I want you…” Buffy starts to push herself up off the ground. “…to get out of my face!” The First vanishes as Buffy stands.
Rona stakes the Turok-Han in front of her and sees that Buffy is back on her feet. She throws the scythe to her. Buffy catches it, and spins, knocking five Turok-Hans off the ledge.
Faith throws the Turok-Hans piled on her off, and springs back to her feet.
Chao-Ahn swings an axe, chopping every Turok-Han near her to pieces. Vi rips her knife through one Turok-Han, and spins. She slashes through the gut of a second and stabs it in the back. Kennedy has a sword she’s taken from a Turok-Han, and slashes at the Turok-Hans around her. The tide starts to turn again.
Spike staggers back under the seal. “Oh, bollocks!” Blue fire suddenly erupts from him. The flame shoots up through the seal, through the floor of Principal Wood’s office, narrowly missing Willow, and through the ceiling. Sunlight starts to shine down onto Spike. The talisman starts to glow. “Uhh! Buffy!”
“Spike!” Buffy turns toward him.
Beams of concentrated sunlight erupt from the talisman, sweeping over the ledge. Wherever they touch a Turok-Han, it bursts into flames, and they vanish in an instant. The beams of light continue to sweep through the cavern, destroying Turok-Hans by the hundreds. The cavern is rocked by an earthquake. Bits of the ceiling start to fall in. Buffy runs toward Spike.
“Everybody out, now!” calls Faith.
Spike stands in the sunlight, not being consumed by it. “I can feel it, Buffy.”
“What?”
“My soul,” says Spike. “It’s really there. Kind of stings.”
“What…” Buffy looks around. She sees the Slayers making their way past them, and up through the seal.
The Slayers run out through the school corridors. Vi helps Rona as the school is rocked by another earthquake.
Andrew pushes the body of the Bringer that had impaled itself on his sword away. He doesn’t understand why he’s still alive. “Why?” he asks. A Slayer grabs his arm and pulls him to his feet.
Giles helps Wood out of the school. Wood sees a school bus parked nearby. “The bus. Get them on the bus.” He starts to run toward it.
Giles starts waving the people coming out of the school toward the bus. “Everybody, this way!”
Kennedy supports Willow as they move out of the school. Xander and Dawn are with them.
Xander stops by the entrance to the north corridor. “Anya! Anya!” He can’t see her body behind a pile of rubble, and the body of a Bringer. Dawn comes back, and pulls him away toward the exit.
Spike stands, with the beam of sunlight shining out of the talisman on his chest. “Go on, then,” he tells Buffy.
“No,” says Buffy. “No, you’ve done enough. You could still—”
“No, you’ve beat them back,” says Spike. “It’s for me to do the cleanup.”
Buffy looks back into the cavern. Bits of the school can be seen falling into it from above.
Faith stops on the stairs. “Buffy, come on!” They’re the only ones left.
“Gotta move, lamb.” Spike looks out into the collapsing cavern. Daylight can be seen shining down from above now. “I think it’s fair to say school’s out for bloody summer.”
“Spike!”
“I mean it! I gotta do this.” Spike holds up his hand toward her.
Buffy takes his hand in hers, entwining their fingers. Flames lick around both their hands, but neither of them seem to feel it.
“I love you,” says Buffy. Her eyes well with tears.
Spike smiles at her. “No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it.” They’re rocked by another earthquake. Buffy lets go of his hand. “Now go!” Buffy runs up the stairs. “I wanna see how it ends.”
A cloud of dust erupts from the front of the school. Faith comes running out of it, and runs toward the bus. Wood closes the door as soon as she’s aboard, and starts to pull away. They can’t wait any longer.
Dawn is at the back of the bus, looking out the rear window. “Buffy…”
Falling debris blocks Buffy’s escape from the school. The only route open to her is up the stairs.
The sunlight shining on Spike starts to consume him. He laughs. He vanishes in flames as the cavern collapses around him.
The bus races through the streets of Sunnydale. The less injured people on board move up and down the aisle, helping the wounded.
Rona’s head lolls to the side, barely conscious. Vi grabs her face and lifts it up. “Look at me! This is nothing! Stay awake! This is nothing!”
Andrew sits dazed in a seat, splattered with blood. “Why didn’t I die?”
Dawn is still at the back of the bus, looking for any sign of Buffy. She looks up.
Buffy races across rooftops. She leaps from one building onto the next just as the building behind her collapses. She keeps going, leaping from building to building as they fall away behind her.
Buffy leaps off the roof of the last building, flying through the air. She lands on the roof of the bus and scrambles to hold on. She turns around, and crawls to the back. She holds on, looking back at the ground collapsing behind them.
The bus accelerates, barely keeping ahead of the collapsing ground. The city of Sunnydale falls into the widening crater behind it. The bus leaves the city behind, moving out onto a desert road.
Faith is with Wood. She looks back. “Ease off. We’re clear.”
Wood applies the brakes, and the bus swerves to a stop.
Buffy jumps down off the roof of the bus. She looks back toward the crater where Sunnydale had been for a moment, and then turns, looking down the stretch of empty desert road leading away from it. Dawn gets the back door of the bus open, and jumps down. She and Buffy hug each other.
Giles climbs out after Dawn. He looks back at the crater. “”I don’t understand. Who did this?”
Buffy lets go of Dawn and turns toward the crater. “Spike.” She slowly walks toward the edge. Dawn follows her. The “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign is standing right at the brink. It teeters, and falls into the crater.
Those who are able are all getting off the bus. Xander goes up to Andrew. “So, did you see?”
“I—I was scared,” says Andrew. “I’m sorry.” He tries to turn away.
Xander grabs him. “Did you see what happened? I mean, was she…”
Andrew looks up at him. “She was incredible. She died saving my life.”
Xander struggles to hold himself together. “That’s my girl.” He reaches out and puts his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “Always doing the stupid thing.”
Andrew nods agreement.
Faith checks the gash in Wood’s stomach. “It’s not bad. You just sit here.” She starts to get up. “I’ll get someone to—”
“Hey…” says Wood. “Did we— did we make it?”
Faith crouches down beside him again. “We made it. We won.” She watches as Wood goes still. He stops breathing. The life goes out of his eyes. Faith slowly reaches out her hand to close them.
Wood coughs, and smiles at her. “Ahh. Surprise.” Faith smiles back. Vi comes up to them with some bandages.
Buffy stands with Dawn, looking back at the crater. Giles steps a little closer to the edge, and tries to peer down into it. Willow’s still not very steady on her feet, Xander is helping keep her upright. Faith joins them. “Looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business.”
“There is another one in Cleveland,” says Giles. He looks back and sees the way people are glaring at him. “Not to spoil the moment.” He crouches down and picks up a small rock. He tosses it into the crater, and listens for it to hit bottom.
“We saved the world,” says Xander.
Willow comes up beside Buffy and Dawn. “We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere.”
“We’ll have to find them,” says Dawn.
“We will,” says Willow.
Giles turns and comes back away from the edge. “Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale, so there’s no hope of going there tomorrow.”
“We destroyed the mall?” asks Dawn. “I fought on the wrong side.”
“All those shops gone,” says Xander. “The Gap, Starbucks, Toys ‘R’ Us. Who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world about them?”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” says Giles.
“Can I push him in?” asks Faith.
Willow raises her hand. “You’ve got my vote.”
“I just want to sleep, yo, for like a week!” says Faith.
“I guess we all could,” says Dawn, “if we wanted to.”
“Yeah. the First is scrunched, so… What do you think we should do, Buffy?” asks Willow.
Buffy doesn’t say anything. She keeps looking back at the crater, her face lined with grief for their losses.
“Yeah, you’re not the one and only chosen anymore,” says Faith. “Just gotta live like a person. How’s that feel?”
“Yeah, Buffy,” asks Dawn. “What are we gonna do now?”
The lines leave Buffy’s face. She starts to smile.
Who or What | Where | How |
---|---|---|
Caleb | A pagan temple | Cut in half by Buffy. (He’s really dead this time.) |
Anya | The north corridor of the school | Sliced in half by a Bringer |
A Slayer | In the Hellmouth | Bitten by a Turok-han |
Amanda | In the Hellmouth | Killed by a Turok-Han |
Half a dozen other Slayers | In the Hellmouth | Killed by Turok-Hans |
Spike2 | In the Hellmouth | Consumed by sunlight |
Half a dozen Bringers | The school | Killed by Anya, Giles, Wood and Andrew. |
A couple of thousand Turok-Hans | The school, and the Hellmouth | Killed by Slayers, Anya, Giles, Dawn, or Spike’s amulet |