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| Go Fish | Becoming, Part II |
There are moments in your life that make you, that set the course of who you’re going to be. Sometimes they’re little, subtle moments. Sometimes, they’re not. I’ll show you what I mean. 1
Galway, 1753 2
Angel and a friend are tossed out of a pub by its owner. They’re drunk, and have run out of money. “Come on. We’ll sneak in and take some of me father’s silver.” Angel tells his friend. “He’ll never miss it. He eats with his hands, the pig.”
Angel’s friend is beyond caring. He passes out and collapses at Angel’s feet.
“Or. Why don’t you rest right here.”
Angel looks around and spots a pretty lady standing at an alley entrance. She glances back at him and then walks into the alley. He follows her. He wonders what a lady like her is doing in an alley like this.
The lady turns toward Angel, and smiles. “Maybe she’s lonely,” says Darla.
Angel is fascinated by this woman. She doesn’t belong where she is, but he’s too drunk to realize how completely out of place she is. He starts to sweet talk her, trying to pick her up. She seems to be amenable to the idea. She promises to show him the world.
“Sounds exciting,” says Angel.
“It is,” says Darla. “And frightening.”
“I’m not afraid,” says Angel. “Show me. Show me your world.”
“Close your eyes,” says Darla. Angel does.
Darla’s face transforms, revealing her inner demon, and she sinks her fangs into her neck. After nearly draining Angel dry she releases him and draws one of her nails across her breast, drawing blood. Darla pulls Angel’s mouth to her breast, and he starts to suck her blood.
Sunnydale, 1998
Angel watches from the bushes while Buffy fights a couple of vampires in one of Sunnydale’s cemeteries.
Buffy quickly dispatches the first, but she doesn’t want to kill the second one. “I want you to get a message to Angel for me. Tell him I’m done waiting. I’m taking the fight to him. You got that? Need me to write it down for you?”
The vampire doesn’t seem to be interested in being a messenger, and it attacks her. Buffy stakes it. “All right, I’ll tell him myself.”
Buffy goes to help Xander to his feet. He has been accompanying Buffy on her patrol, and got knocked out of the fight early. He asks Buffy if she is really ready to face Angel. Buffy just wants it over. Xander understands that.
They have get going. Buffy wants to get some studying for finals in tonight.
“Oh, yeah, finals!” Xander had forgotten about those. “Why didn’t you let me die?”
“Look on the bright side,” says Buffy. “It’ll all be over soon.”
“Yes, my love. It will,” says Angel quietly from his hiding place.
Giles arrives at the laboratory of Douglas Perren in the Sunnydale Museum. Perren has a strange object that has been unearthed, and he wants an expert opinion on it. His inquires at the Washington Institute have led him to Rupert Giles, who has an international reputation as an expert in arcane artifacts.
Giles is fascinated by the artefact that Perren has dug up. It is a large stone obelisk, about eight feet tall, and four feet on a side with writing in an unknown language carved on it. Giles examines it closely, and notices that it has a crack in it. He asks if they have tried to open it.
Doug Perren hadn’t noticed the crack before. He wonders what could be inside. Giles asks that he not try to open it until he has an opportunity to try to translate the inscriptions.
“You don’t want to be surprised?” asks Perren.
“As a rule, no,” says Giles.
“All right,” says Doug. “You’re the expert. But I’m pretty damn curious, though.”
“Yes,” says Giles. “Yes, so am I.”
Buffy has lunch with her friends in the school cafeteria. Xander gives Cordy, Willow and Oz a report on what happened the night before, dramatised using fish stick puppets, and toothpick stakes. “Tell Angel I’m going to kill him! No, wait. I’m going to kill you!” The Buffy fish stick stabs its toothpick repeatedly into the vampire fish stick. “Die! Die! Die!”
The vampire fish stick falls to the plate, with an anguished cry of “Mother!”
“Scene!” says Xander.
“That’s exactly how it happened,” says Buffy.
“I thought it was riveting,” says Oz. Willow is sitting in his lap. “I was a little unclear about some of the themes.”
“The theme is Angel’s too much of a coward to take me on face to face,” says Buffy.
“And the other theme was ‘Buy American,’” says Xander, “but it, uh, got kind of buried.”
Willow wonders if Buffy is really ready for a showdown with Angel.
Buffy is getting tired of people asking her that question. She just wants it over. This is one test that she might actually pass.
Willow doesn’t want to hear Buffy talk like that. “You’re going to pass everything. I will get you through this semester if I have to sweat blood.”
“Do you think you’re likely to?” asks Xander. “’Cause I’d like to be elsewhere.”
“It was only metaphor blood,” says Willow.
“I think you’d sweat cute blood,” says Oz.
Willow smiles at Oz, and tells Buffy to meet her in sixth period for a chemistry study session.
Cordelia thinks that Willow is really getting into the teaching thing. First the computer class, and now tutoring Buffy. “I think it’s great to do that before you go out and fail in the real world. That way you’re not falling back on something. You’re falling…well, forward.”
“And almost sixty-five percent of that was actual compliment,” says Xander. “Is that a personal best?”
“Gee, Xander, what are you going to teach when you fail in life?” asks Cordy. “Advanced loser-being?”
Xander affects a very fake French accent. “I will teach zee language of love!” He starts to tickle Cordelia. She laughs, and tries to push him away.
Snyder comes into the cafeteria, and sees them. He orders them to stop. “And you!” he says to Willow. “Are we having a chair shortage?”
“I didn’t read anything about— Oh.” Willow slides off Oz’s lap and into a chair. “I get it.”
“These public displays of affection are not acceptable in my school,” says Snyder. “This isn’t an orgy, people. It’s a classroom.”
“Yeah! Where they teach lunch,” says Buffy.
Snyder glares at Buffy. “Just give me a reason to kick you out, Summers. Just give me a reason.” He walks off to find some other students to torment.
“How about because you’re a tiny, impotent Nazi with a bug up his butt the size of an emu?” asks Cordelia.
“Sums it up,” says Buffy.
Willow asks Buffy if she wants to come by her house tonight for another study session. Buffy says she might after patrol.
“Again?” asks Willow. “Do you really expect Angel to turn up tonight?”
“No, I don’t expect him to,” says Buffy. “But that’s usually when he does.”
London, 1860 3
Drusilla walks into a confessional in a church. In the other half of the booth Angel has just finished killing the priest. She begins her confession.
At first Angel is bored. He doesn’t want to listen to the confessions of this silly girl, but as she talks he starts to become more interested.
Drusilla tells him that she has been having visions of the future. She sees things before they happen. Her mother has told her that her visions are an affront to the Lord. Only He is supposed to see things before they happen. Her visions scare her. She doesn’t want to know the future. She doesn’t want to be evil.
Angel has changed his mind about this girl. She is very interesting indeed. She can be useful to him. “Oh, hush, child. The Lord has a plan for all creatures. Even a devil child like you.”
Drusilla is shocked. “A devil?”
“Yes!” says Angel. “You’re a spawn of Satan. All the Hail Marys in the world aren’t going to help. The Lord will use you and smite you down. He’s like that.”
Drusilla is frightened. “What can I do?”
“Fulfill his plan, child,” says Angel. “Be evil. Just give in.”
“No!” sobs Drusilla. “I want to be good. I want to be pure.”
“We all do, at first,” says Angel. “The world doesn’t work that way.”
“Father, I beg you. Please, please, help me.”
Angel relents, letting Dru have a thread of hope. “Very well. Ten Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition. Does that sound good?”
“Yes. Yes Father, thank you,” says Drusilla.
“The pleasure was mine.” Angel puts his hand against the lattice separating them, and looks at her. “And my child, God is watching you.”
Sunnydale, 1998
Drusilla returns to their garden from her evening hunt. Spike is sitting in his wheelchair reading the morning paper. He asks her if she had a nice walk.
“I met an old man,” says Dru. “Didn’t like him. He got stuck in my teeth. But then the Moon started…whispering to me. All sorts of dreadful things.”
Angel comes into the garden. “Well, what did it say?”
“Oh. Look who’s awake!” says Spike.
Angel smacks Spike on the back of his head. He continues on toward Drusilla and asks if she’s had another vision, if something’s coming.
“Oh, yeah,” says Drusilla. ”Something terrible. Psst, psst, psst, psst, psst, psst.”
“Where?” asks Angel.
“At the museum,” says Drusilla. “A tomb…with a surprise inside.”
“You can see all that in your head?” asks Angel.
“No, you ninny. She read it in the morning paper.” Spike hands his newspaper to Angel.
The lead story in the Sunnydale Press tells of the mysterious stone obelisk which was unearthed at a local construction site. Angel seems to know what it is.
“That’s what’s been whispering to me,” says Drusilla. “Shh.”
“Oh, yeah,” says Angel. “Don’t worry, though. Soon it’ll stop. Soon it’ll scream.”
Willow coaches Buffy in chemistry in her computer science class. Buffy is getting frustrated, it doesn’t make any sense.
“Well, sure it does. See…” Willow takes Buffy’s paper from her and looks at it. “Oh, no, this doesn’t make any sense.”
Buffy picks up a pencil and fiddles with it in her fingers. “It’s senseless.”
“It is, but at least you know that, so you’re learning,” says Willow.
Buffy thinks it’s pointless. When is she ever going to need to know any of this stuff in the real world anyway?
Willow has been examining Buffy’s paper, and found her problem.
“I’m a moron?” asks Buffy.
“Will you stop that?” says Willow. “You’re not stupid! You’ve just had a lot on your mind. You can learn this real easily, but if you’re just going to give up, then don’t waste my time.”
Buffy capitulates, and Willow starts to explain covalent bonds to her. Buffy’s pencil rolls off of the desk, and down between it and the filing cabinet. She tells Willow to wait while reaches down and picks it up, without noticing the yellow floppy disk which is down there too.
Buffy straightens up. “Okay, I’m learn girl!” Willow begins her explanation again.
“Deja-vu!” says Buffy, making Willow stop. “I have this perfect memory of the pencil, and…” Buffy deliberately rolls the pencil off the desk again. This time when she bends down to pick it up, she finds the disk. “Oh, hey. You dropped this.” She hands the disk to Willow.
“It’s not mine,” says Willow. “It might be something of Miss Calendar’s.” She slides the disk into the floppy disk drive of her Powerbook.
“This feels kind of morbid,” says Buffy.
Willow waits for the disk to open. “I’ve gone through most of her files already.”
“Does that make it less morbid or you really morbid?” asks Buffy.
“I had to,” says Willow. “To teach her class.”
Buffy tells Willow to relax. She was just making a joke. Buffy watches as Willow’s computer brings up the text of the spell Jenny was working on when Angel killed her. “Does that say ‘restoration?’”
Willow hasn’t really been paying attention to the screen of her computer. “It’s one of her spells, I think,” she says, looking at Buffy. “Miss Calendar wasn’t a practicing witch, but she did dabble—”
Buffy hasn’t taken her eyes off the screen. “Willow…”
Willow looks at it too, and starts reading. “Oh, boy,” she says. “Oh, boy. Oh, boy.”
Rumanian Woods, 1898
Angel runs through the woods while the gypsies prepare the body of a young girl for burial. An old woman sits in a tent, performing a spell with an Orb of Thesulah.
Angel reaches the gypsy camp as the spell completes, and the Orb glows brightly, and vanishes. Angel’s eyes flash, and he suddenly becomes dazed and confused. He has no idea where he is, or what’s happening to him.
There is a gypsy man there. “It hurts, yes? Good. It will hurt more.”
“Where am I?” asks Angel.
“You don’t remember,” says the gypsy. “Everything you’ve done for a hundred years. In a moment, you will. The face of everyone you killed. Our daughter’s face. They will haunt you, and you will know what true suffering is.”
Angel is still confused. “Killed? I, I don’t…” but the memories start flooding back of all the people he has tortured and killed for over a century. “No…No…No…No…” He begins to sob.
Sunnydale, 1998
Buffy and Willow show Giles a printout of the curse. Miss Calendar had finished translating it before Angel killed her. Xander realizes that was why Angel killed Jenny, so she couldn’t tell anyone what she had done.
“This is good, right?” asks Cordelia. “I mean, we can curse him again.”
Giles isn’t so sure. This is pretty potent magic, which may be beyond their abilities to perform.
Willow wants to give it a try. She has been going through Jenny’s files, and magical references. She thinks she can work it. Buffy is more cautious. She doesn’t want Willow putting herself in danger.
“And I don’t want danger,” says Willow. “Big ‘no’ to danger, but I may be the best person to do this.”
Xander waves his hand in the air. “Hi! For those of you who have just tuned in, everyone here is a crazy person. So this spell might restore Angel’s humanity? Well, here’s an interesting angle. Who cares?”
“I care,” says Buffy.
“Is that right?” asks Xander.
“Let’s not lose our perspective here, Xander,” says Giles.
“I’m Perspective Guy,” says Xander. “Angel’s a killer.” Xander doesn’t want to see Angel cursed again. He wants Angel dead.
“Curing Angel seems to have been Jenny’s last wish,” says Giles.
“Yeah? Well, Jenny’s dead,” says Xander. The discussion degenerates into a shouting match between Giles and Xander after that, until Buffy breaks it up.
“What do you want to do?” Willow asks Buffy.
“I don’t know,” says Buffy. “What happened to Angel wasn’t his fault.”
“Yeah, but what happened to Miss Calendar is,” says Xander. Buffy and Willow both glare at him. Xander looks back at Buffy. “You can paint this any way you want, but the way I see it is that you want to forget all about Miss Calendar’s murder so you can get your boyfriend back.”
Doug Perren is working late in his lab. He hears whispering. It seems to be coming from the obelisk. He gets up and goes over to it to investigate. Drusilla grabs him from behind and bites into his neck. While she feeds Angel and some of his henchvamps come in carrying ropes.
Angel looks at the obelisk. “I’ll have one of these to go.” He turns to Drusilla. “Dru, save me some.”
Buffy talks to Willow on the phone while she packs up her bag of weapons for the evening’s patrol. She plans to make a quick sweep around town, and then drop by Willow’s for some more studying. They are both still annoyed with Xander’s behaviour earlier in the library. While loading up on stakes from her drawer, Buffy finds the Claddagh ring Angel gave her the night he lost his soul. She picks it up and looks at it.
Buffy hears a noise in the bushes while checking out the park. She moves in to investigate. Kendra suddenly jumps out in front of her, and nearly gets Buffy’s fist in her face.
“You know, polite people call before they jump out of the bushes and attack you,” says Buffy.
“Just wanted to test your reflexes,” says Kendra.
“How about testing my face-punching?” asks Buffy. “’Cause I think you’ll find it’s improved.”
Kendra tells Buffy she saw her leaving her house, and couldn’t help herself.
Buffy is glad to see Kendra, but she wonders what she is doing there. Kendra starts to tell her, but Buffy stops her. “No, wait, let me guess. Your Watcher informed you,” She starts imitating Kendra’s accent, “Dat a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale.”
“Dat’s about it,” says Kendra.
“Great,” says Buffy. “So, you have any idea what this dark power is?”
Angel has moved the obelisk to his living room. Spike is not impressed. “It’s a big rock! I can’t wait to tell my friends. They don’t have a rock this big!”
“Spike, boy, you never did learn your history,” says Angel.
“Let’s have a lesson, then.”
“Acathla the demon came forth to swallow the world,” says Angel. “He was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon’s heart before he could draw a breath to perform the act. Acathla turned to stone—as demons sometimes do—and was buried where neither man nor demon would want to look. Unless of course they’re putting up low-rent housing. Boys…” He waves to a couple of his henchvamps.
The henchvamps take a couple of crowbars, and pry open the obelisk revealing the stone Acathla within. The knight’s sword still piercing its heart.
“Let me guess,” says Spike, “Someone pulls out the sword…”
“Someone worthy,” says Angel.
“The demon wakes up,” continues Spike, “and wackiness ensues.”
“He will swallow the world,” says Drusilla.
“And every creature living on this planet will go to Hell,” says Angel. He turns and smiles at the others. “My friends, we’re about to make history…end.”
Giles enters the library from his office. He has just been on the phone to the museum, and learned of Doug Perren’s death, and the theft of the obelisk.
“And you’re sure this was the tomb of Alfalfa?” asks Buffy.
“Acathla,” says Giles. “And yes, the information provided by Kendra’s Watcher seems conclusive.”
Willow comes out from behind the counter. “Okay, somebody explain the whole ‘he will suck the world into Hell’ thing, because that’s the part I’m not loving.”
Giles explains that if Acathla is awakened he will create a vortex and suck every living being on earth into a demon dimension where it will suffer eternal torment.
“So that would be the literal kind of ‘sucked into Hell.’” says Buffy. “Neat.” She tells Willow that she should try to perform the curse. It may be the only way they have to stop Angel. Kendra isn’t so sure. She tends to side with Xander on this issue: Angel should die.
“Oh, I’ll fight him,” says Buffy. “I’ll kill him if I have to. But if I don’t get there in time, or if I lose, then Willow might be our only hope.”
“I don’t want to be our only hope!” says Willow. “I crumble under pressure! Let’s have another hope.”
“We have.” Kendra draws a sword out of her bag. “Blessed by the knight who first slew the demon. If all else fails, this might stop it. I think.”
Giles is intrigued, and takes the sword from Kendra to examine it. He asks Willow how much time she thinks she needs to prepare to do the curse.
Willow figures she’ll need about a day to put together the stuff she needs, plus an Orb of Thesulah, whatever that is.
“Spirit vault for rituals of the undead,” says Giles. He gives the sword back to Kendra and heads toward his office. “I’ve got one. I’ve been using it as a…paperweight.”
While Giles is collecting the Orb, Willow apologises to Buffy about not being able to help her study for tomorrow’s final.
“Ah, I’ll wing it,” says Buffy. “Of course, if we go to Hell by then, I won’t have to take ’em. Or maybe I’ll be taking them forever.”
Giles comes back out of his office and hands his Orb to Willow. He figures that they have some time. Angel has a ritual of his own to perform before he can awaken Acathla.
They may have less time than they thought. Angel is ready to do his ritual now. Drusilla comes to fetch Spike so he can attend. Spike was up pacing around in his room, but he hurries and sits back in his wheelchair when he hears her coming.
A couple of vampires drag a teenaged boy before the demon Acathla, and Angel begins his ritual. “I will drink,” intones Angel. “The blood will wash in me, over me, and I will be cleansed. I will be worthy to free Acathla. Bear witness, as I ascend, as I become.”
Angel transforms into his vampire face and bites the boy on the neck, drinking from him. He wipes his hand across the boy’s bloody neck, and drops his lifeless body onto the floor. He walks toward the sword sticking out of Acathla’s chest. “Everything that I am, everything that I have done, has led me here.”
Manhattan, 1996
Angel chases after a rat in an alley. He is dressed in rags, and barely able to stand. The rat escapes from him.
A strange man approaches him. “God, are you disgusting. This is really an unforgettable smell. This is the stench of death you’re giving off here. And the look says Crazy Homeless Guy. It’s not good.”
“Get away from me,” says Angel.
“What are you going to do, bite me?” The man gasps in mock fear, and jumps back. “Horrors! A vampire!” Angel looks at him, surprised. “Ah, but you wouldn’t bite me on account of your poor, tortured soul. It’s so sad, a vampire with a soul. So poignant.”
“Who are you?” asks Angel.
“Let’s take a walk.” The man leads Angel out into the street. He has to pull Angel back to keep him from walking in front of a car. Angel doesn’t care.
“What are you eating?” asks the man. “Like, a rat once a month? Look, you’re skin and bones here! Butcher shops are throwing away more blood in a day than you could stand. Good blood. You lived in the world a little bit, you’d know that.”
Angel wants to know who this guy is, but the man asks Angel who he is instead. Angel thinks he already knows.
“Not yet,” says the man, “but I’m looking to find out. ’Cause you could go either way here.”
“I don’t understand you,” says Angel.
“Nobody understands me. That’s my curse.” The man stops at a hot dog stand to get himself something to eat. He tells Angel his name is Whistler, or at least that’s the name he’s using these days. Angel looks at him. He knows Whistler isn’t human, but he isn’t a vampire either. Whistler tells Angel that technically, he’s a demon. Not all demons are dedicated to the destruction of all life.
Angel wants to know what Whistler means when he said he could go either way.
“I mean that you can become an even more useless rodent than you already are, or you can become someone. A person. Someone to be counted.”
“I just want to be left alone,” says Angel.
“Well, yeah, you’ve been left alone for, what, ninety years already,” says Whistler, “And what a package you are. The Stink Guy!”
“What do you want from me?” asks Angel.
“I want you to see something,” says Whistler.
Los Angeles, 1996
Angel and Whistler arrive outside Hemery High School in a car with the windows painted over to keep out the sunlight. Angel parks the car in the shade of a tree. He carefully lowers his window and looks out. He sees a fifteen year old Buffy Summers walking down the steps of her school talking with her friends. She sends her friends away while she stays to wait for her boyfriend Tyler.
Buffy sits down on the steps and waits, sucking on a lollipop. She’s approached by a portly middle aged man. He tells her he has been looking for her. “There isn’t much time. You must come with me. Your Destiny awaits.”
Buffy is confused. “I don’t have a destiny. I’m destiny-free, really.”
“Yes, you have,” insists the man. “You are the Chosen One. You alone can stop them.”
“Who?” asks Buffy.
“The vampires,” says the man.
Buffy considers this for a few seconds, a variety of puzzled expressions playing over her face. “Huh?”
Angel watches from behind a headstone in a cemetery as Buffy fights her first vampire. It tosses her to the ground and jumps on top of her.
Buffy throws the vampire off, and scrambles to recover her stake. She stands with it her hand and looks around, uncertain about what to do next. The vampire rushes her, and she automatically flips it to the ground.
Buffy hesitates for a moment before she plunges her stake into the vampire’s stomach. Nothing happens. “Ooh! Not the heart!” She pulls the stake out and tries again. This time the vampire bursts into dust. Buffy sits back, her eyes wide with shock.
Buffy’s first Watcher walks up behind her. “You see? You see your power?”
Buffy arrives home. Her mother is angry that she stayed out so late without calling, but Buffy tells her she was with Tyler, and they lost track of the time. Joyce walks out of the room, while Buffy goes into the bathroom. Angel watches through the window. He can hear Joyce and Hank Summers arguing about Buffy.
Buffy can hear them too, as she stands and looks at herself in the bathroom mirror.
Angel joins Whistler in the sewers. “She’s going to have it tough, that Slayer. She’s just a kid. The world’s full of big, bad things.”
“I want to help her,” says Angel. “I want—I want to become someone.”
“God, jeez, look at you,” says Whistler. “She must be prettier than the last Slayer. This isn’t going to be easy. The more you live in this world, the more you see how apart from it you really are. And this is dangerous work. Right now, you couldn’t go three rounds with a fruit fly!”
“I want to learn from you.” Angel gives Whistler a look. Whistler is wearing a porkpie hat, and has on a lime green shirt under his leather jacket. “But I don’t want to dress like you.”
They start to leave. “Again, you’re annoying me,” says Whistler. “You’re lucky we need you on our side.”
Sunnydale, 1998
“I have strayed, I have been lost, but Acathla redeems me.” Angel grasps the hilt of the sword in Acathla’s chest. “With this act, we will be free.” He pulls on the sword and is bathed in a brilliant white light.
The light vanishes, and Angel falls away from Acathla, the sword still embedded in Acathla’s chest.
“Someone wasn’t worthy.” sings Spike as Angel gets back to his feet.
Drusilla is very disappointed. Angel is furious. He knows he must have missed something in the ritual. Spike is trying hard not to laugh.
“What are we going to do?” asks Drusilla.
“What we always do in a time of trouble,” says Angel. “Turn to an old friend. We’ll have our Armageddon. I swear!”
Buffy is taking her English exam. She senses something, and looks around. All she sees are other students.
A figure covered in heavy robes walks through the halls of Sunnydale High. It walks into the classroom where Buffy is writing her exam. Buffy looks up as the figure lifts its hood so she can see its face. It’s a female vampire. “Tonight. Sundown. At the graveyard.” It begins to smoulder. “You will come to him. You will come to him or more will die!” It begins to burn when the sunlight coming in the window touches it. The students in the seats surrounding Buffy jump to their feet and back away from it.
“Tonight!” shouts the vampire. “His hour is at hand!” It vanishes in flames as most of the students in the class scream. Buffy remains silent, and seated at her desk.
Buffy meets with her friends in the library. She has to go the graveyard. She can’t let anyone else die.
Kendra wants to come too, but Buffy wants her to stay with the others, to protect them, just in case.
Willow is almost ready to begin the curse. Giles tells Buffy that all she has to do is hold Angel off. If the curse works, she’ll know.
Buffy starts to leave the library. Kendra stops her. She holds out a stake, made from a gnarled piece of wood. “Here, in case the curse does not succeed, this is my lucky stake. I have killed many vampires with it. I call it Mr. Pointy.”
“You named your stake?” asks Buffy. “Remind me to get you a stuffed animal.” She takes the stake from Kendra. “Thanks.”
Buffy meets Angel in the graveyard. He wasn’t sure she would come.
“After your immolation-o-gram?” asks Buffy. “Come on, I had to show. Shouldn’t you be out destroying the world right now, pulling the sword out of Al Franken or whatever his name is?”
Angel has plenty of time for that. He wanted to talk with Buffy first. She is the one thing in this world he will miss after Acathla sucks it into hell.
Buffy doubts that. She wants to know when Angel plans to start fighting.
“I didn’t come here to fight,” says Angel. Buffy raises her eyebrows. “Gosh, I was hoping we could get back together. What do you think? Do we have a shot?” Buffy just looks at him. “All right. We’ll fight.” Angel attacks her.
Willow begins the curse. She sits cross legged on the library table, and casts some stones. She nods toward Giles, who is holding an ancient volume in his hands. “Quod perditum est, invenietur,” he reads.
Cordelia waves a burning stick of incense in the air. Xander watches from the library mezzanine, and Kendra stands by the doors.
Willow starts to read from the papers in her hand. “Not dead nor not of the living. Spirits of the interregnum I call.”
Buffy fights with Angel. He punches her, grabs her, and throws her to the ground.
Buffy looks up at Angel. “Come on, Willow,” she says to herself.
“Let him know the pain of humanity, Gods,” says Willow. “Reach your wizened hands to me. Give me the sword—”
A vampire snarls, and attacks Xander from behind. Willow looks around at him as two more vampires come through the library doors and attack Kendra. Another vampire jumps down from the mezzanine at Giles.
Giles yells at Willow and Cordy to run.
Willow and Cordelia run up onto the mezzanine, but they don’t go any farther. They don’t want to abandon their friends. Willow ducks behind one of the bookcases. A vampire jumps up onto the mezzanine, and pushes it over on top of her.
Xander and Giles each fight a vampire, while Kendra battles another. The vampire Xander’s fighting breaks Xander’s arm, but Xander manages to smash its head against the railing, momentarily stunning it.
The vampire who knocked the bookcase on top of Willow has turned its attention to Cordelia. Using his one good hand Xander throws the vampire he’s disabled at the vamp threatening Cordy, knocking it to the floor. He tells Cordy to run, and this time she listens to him.
The vampire who was fighting with Giles knocks him out, while Kendra stakes the vampire she’s fighting. She loses her stake in the process though. She looks around and sees the vampire leaning over Giles. She rushes over, pulls it away from him, and throws it through the window into his office. Another vampire tackles her.
Buffy and Angel are still fighting. Angel has figured out that Buffy really isn’t trying to kill him. “Maybe I’ll just go home, destroy the world.”
Buffy pulls Kendra’s stake out of her coat pocket. “Well, I think Mr. Pointy’ll have something to say about that. Come on. Let’s finish this. You and me.”
Angel laughs. “You never learn, do you? This wasn’t about you. This was never about you.”
Buffy realizes that this whole fight was just a diversion to get her away from the others. She turns and starts to run back to the library.
“And you fall for it every single time!” Angel calls after Buffy as she runs away from him.
Xander gets knocked out by the vampire he’s fighting. The odds are now three on one against Kendra. They are about to get worse. Drusilla enters the library. She claps her hands and calls off the other vampires. She wants Kendra for herself.
Drusilla and Kendra begin to fight. Kendra is no match for Drusilla. Dru grabs her by the throat and pushes her up against the library counter.
Drusilla waves her fingers in front of Kendra’s face. “Look at me dearie! Be in my eyes. Be in me.” Dru keeps waving her fingers, hypnotising Kendra.
Dru releases Kendra’s throat, and begins to sway slowly in front of her. Kendra makes no move except to sway along with her. Dru reaches back her hand and slashes her nails across Kendra’s throat. Kendra drops to the floor bleeding to death from the slash in her throat.
“Night, night.” Dru blows Kendra a kiss. She turns to her vampires. “Let’s get what we came for dears!”
The vampires pick up Giles and drag him out of the library.
Buffy runs into the school, and down the corridor toward the library.
Bottom line is, even if you see ’em coming, you’re not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does.
Buffy runs into the library and stops. She sees Kendra’s body lying on the floor, and goes and kneels by her. She takes Kendra’s hand in hers, and reaches out with her other hand and strokes her face.
So what are we? Helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are going to come. You can’t help that. It’s what you do afterwards that counts. That’s when you find out who you are.
Behind Buffy a police officer raises his gun, and aims it at her back. “Freeze!”
Buffy looks around at him.
You’ll see what I mean.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A vampire | The cemetery | Staked by Buffy |
| A vampire | The cemetery | Staked by Buffy |
| Doug Perren | A Sunnydale Museum | Killed by Drusilla |
| A sacrifice | Angel’s mansion | Killed by Angel |
| The vampire immolation-o-gram | A Sunnydale High class room | Exposed itself to sunlight |
| A vampire | The Sunnydale High library | Staked by Kendra |
| Kendra | The Sunnydale High library | Throat slashed by Drusilla |