Introduction
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| Consequences | Enemies |
Anya petitions the demon D’Hoffryn for the return of her power center. “For a thousand years I wielded the powers of the Wish. I brought ruin to the heads of unfaithful men. I brought forth destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lower beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe. And now I’m stuck at Sunnydale High. Mortal. A child. And I’m flunking math!”
D’Hoffryn isn’t interested. Anya’s own carelessness caused her to lose her power. She will live out the rest of her life as a mortal. She isn’t to bother him again.
“I’m getting my power center back,” swears Anya, “And if you won’t help me, then, by the pestilent gods, I will find someone who will!”
Willow is lying on the lawn in front of Sunnydale High looking at a pencil which is spinning lazily in the air in front of her. “It’s all about emotional control.” She glances at Buffy, who’s doing situps on the grass beside her. “How come the sudden calisthenics? Aren’t you sort of naturally buff, Buff?” She giggles at her alliteration. “Buff, Buff.”
Buffy explains that Watcher’s Council has sent a shrink to put her and Faith through a bunch of psychological and physical testing, and she wants to do better than Faith. Buffy is a little embarrassed by that. “So very shallow.”
Willow doesn’t agree. “Competition is natural and healthy. Plus, you’ll definitely ace her on the psych tests. Just don’t mark the box that says, ‘I sometimes like to kill people.’”
“I know Faith’s not going to be on the cover of Sanity Fair,” says Buffy, “but, she had it rough. Different circumstances, that could be me.”
Willow doesn’t buy that. “No way. Some people just don’t have that in them.”
Buffy apologises for bringing up Faith. She knows that Willow is still touchy on that subject.
Willow tries telling Buffy that she’s okay. Talking about Faith doesn’t bother her.
Buffy calls Willow’s attention back to her pencil which is now spinning wildly. The pencil takes off, and embeds itself in a nearby tree.
“Emotional control?” asks Buffy.
“I’m working on it,” says Willow.
Principal Snyder has Willow in his office along with Percy West. He tells them that Willow represents the pinnacle of academic achievement at Sunnydale high, while Percy has a devastating fast break, and is 50% from behind the three point line. Snyder thinks it’s a marriage made in heaven.
“You want us to breed?” asks Willow.
“I want you to tutor him,” says Snyder. “Percy is flunking history. Nothing seems to be able to motivate him.”
“Hey, I’m challenged.” says Percy.
“You’re lazy, self-involved and spoiled,” says Snyder. “That’s quite the challenge.” The important thing is that unless Percy’s grades come up, one of their star basketball players is going to be benched. Snyder doesn’t want another incident like last year’s debacle with the swim team.
Willow doesn’t really want to tutor Percy. She already has a lot of work to do. Snyder doesn’t care. “Rosenberg, it’s time to give something back to the community. I know you want to help your school out here. Ask me how I know.”
“How do you—”
“I just know.” says Snyder.
Willow enters the library with Buffy. She’s upset about the way Snyder just assumed she had the time to tutor Percy.
Giles comes out of his office. “Willow, get on the computer. I want you to take another pass at accessing the mayor’s files.”
“Okay.” Willow drops her books on the table, and heads for the computer.
Faith comes in, followed by a very out of breath Wesley. He has been running Faith through an obstacle course. Giles asks Wesley if he’s feeling up to taking Buffy out, or if he should do it. Wesley declines the offer. He just needs a few minutes to catch his breath, and a defibrillator.
Buffy leaves to change into her exercise clothes with Wesley following her.
Faith notices Willow working on the computer, and asks what she is up to. Willow tells her she is trying to break into the Mayor’s personal computer files.
“Can you do that?” asks Faith.
“Well, he’s got some tricky barriers set up,” says Willow, “Eventually I’ll get through.”
Faith reports what Willow is doing to Mayor Wilkins while he shows her the spacious new apartment he’s giving her. No Slayer of his is going to live in any fleabag motel. “That place has a very unsavoury reputation. There are immoral liaisons going on there.”
“Yeah, plus all the screwing,” says Faith.
The Mayor tells Faith that she’s to keep her old place in case she needs to meet with her friends there, but from now on this is her home.
Faith loves her new apartment. Her tour has taken her into the bedroom. She hops up onto the bed, and starts jumping on it.
“Oh, hey, hey, hey! Shoes! Shoes!” says the Mayor.
Faith bounces down off the bed and grabs the lapels of the Mayor’s jacket. She pulls him in close. “Thanks, Sugar Daddy!”
Mayor Wilkins gently pushes her away. “Now, Faith, I don’t find that sort of thing amusing. I’m a family man. Now, let’s kill your little friend.”
Faith is a little disturbed by his proposition, and the Mayor quickly explains that he doesn’t expect her to do it. It’s too early in their relationship for that, plus he thinks a vampire attack will look less suspicious. In the meantime he wants to show Faith her new Playstation.
Faith immediately forgets about her concerns for Willow.
Willow meets with Oz in the school hallway. She wonders where he’s been, she didn’t see him at all yesterday. Oz tells her that his band had a gig out of town. They didn’t get back until late. Willow wonders why he didn’t tell her, she might have wanted to go with them. Oz figured she wouldn’t want to miss any school.
“You think I’m boring,” says Willow.
“I’d call that a radical interpretation of the text,” says Oz. “We’re playing tonight at the Bronze.”
“I can’t,” says Willow. “I have too much homework.”
Willow catches up with Percy in the quad. She suggests that they get together at lunch to go over the outline for his history report on Roosevelt.
Percy’s too busy. He has to hang with his friends. Besides, he thought she was supposed to do it for him. “What, you got something better to do? Just type it up and put my name on it. Oh, and don’t type too good. Dead giveaway.” He leaves.
Willow sits down on a bench and pulls a banana out of her backpack. She doesn’t care that is isn’t lunch time yet. She’s going to eat it now. Buffy and Xander show up before she gets it peeled. Xander wants to know if she remembered to tape Biography for him last Friday. She did.
“See, I told you,” says Buffy. “Old Reliable.”
“Oh, thanks,” says Willow sarcastically.
“What?” Buffy’s somewhat surprised by Willow’s reaction.
“‘Old Reliable?’ Yeah, great,” says Willow. “There’s a sexy nickname.”
Buffy tries explaining that she didn’t mean anything by it, but Willow doesn’t buy it.
“She just means, you know, the geyser,” says Xander. “You’re like a geyser of fun that goes off at regular intervals.”
“That’s Old Faithful,” says Willow.
“Isn’t that the dog that, that the guy had to shoot?” asks Xander.
“That’s Old Yeller,” says Willow. She’s getting more upset.
“Xander, I beg you not to help me,” says Buffy. “Will, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I think it’s good to be reliable.”
“Well, maybe I don’t want to be reliable all the time,” says Willow. “Maybe I’m not just some doormat person. Homework Gal.”
Willow starts to leave in a huff. She turns back. “Maybe I’ll change my look! Or cut class. You don’t know. And I’m eating this banana. Lunch time be damned!” She storms off.
Buffy chases after her. “Will, wait. I’m really sorry—”
“Buff, I’m storming off. It doesn’t really work if you come with me.”
Willow is stopped by Anya inside the school. Willow doesn’t recognise her.
“I’m sort of new here,” says Anya “Um, I know Cordelia?”
Willow is not impressed. “Oh, fun.”
“Yeah. Um, listen,” says Anya, “I have this little project I’m working on, and I heard you were the person to ask if—”
“Yeah, that’s me,” says Willow, resigned. “Reliable-Dog-Geyser-Person. What do you need?”
“Oh, it’s nothing big,” says Anya. “Just a little spell I’m working on.”
Willow’s attitude changes instantly. “A spell? Oh. I like the black arts.”
“I just need a secondary to create a temporal fold,” says Anya. “I heard you were a pretty powerful wicca, so…”
“You heard right, mister!” says Willow. “I’m always ready to work some dark mojo. So, tell me, is it dangerous?”
“Oh, no,” says Anya quickly.
Willow is a little disappointed. “Well, could we pretend it is?”
Anya and Willow set up for their spell in an empty classroom. Anya explains that she’s trying to recover her grandmother’s stolen necklace by creating a temporal fold and reaching back into time to before it was stolen. They create the fold, and then Anya will pour the sacred sand on a representation of the necklace drawn on a plate, to bring it forth from the time and place it was lost.
They begin their spell, each holding one of their hands over the image of the necklace, and grasping the jar of sand in the other. When the fold is created, Willow is assaulted by a series of images from the world created by Cordelia’s Wish. Giles and Anyanka; her and Xander as vampires; Buffy staking Xander; her fighting with Buffy; the Master.
Willow begins to struggle against Anya, and the sand spills over her hand, instead of on the image of the necklace. Oz rushes forward to push the vampire Willow against the broken piece of wood, but she vanishes into thin air.
Willow gets to her feet. “That was… What was that?”
Anya doesn’t hear her. She’s looking for her necklace. “It’s not here!” She pounds on the floor. “It’s not here!”
“Okay, that’s a little blacker than I like my arts,” says Willow.
“Oh, don’t be such a wimp,” says Anya.
“That, that wasn’t just some temporal fold,” says Willow. “That was some weird Hell place. I don’t think you’re telling me everything.”
“I swear, I am just trying to find my necklace,” says Anya.
“Well, did you try looking inside the sofa in Hell?” asks Willow.
Anya wants to try again, but Willow has had enough of this. She gathers her stuff and goes. She has someone else’s homework she has to do.
Anya is infuriated. “Nothing!” She smashes the plate on the floor.
The vampire Willow sits up on the floor of the abandoned factory, she looks around. Everyone has vanished. “This is weird!”
The vampire Willow walks down Sunnydale’s main street in her black leather outfit. She doesn’t like what she sees. The streets are full of happy people and children playing. She hears a scream and hopefully turns to look for its source, but it’s just a group of teenagers horsing around.
A little old lady approaches Willow. She seems to want to ask her something. Willow snarls at her, and the lady backs off.
Vampire Willow goes to the Bronze, where K’s Choice is playing tonight. She continues to be disappointed by what she finds. She bumps into Percy.
“Hey!” Percy sees who bumped into him. “Rosenberg? What are you doing, trick-or-treating? You’re supposed to be at home doing my history report. I flunk that class, you’re in big trouble with Snyder. Till we graduate, I own your ass.”
“Bored now.” Willow hits Percy in the chest and knocks him flying. He lands on one of the pool tables, and rolls to the floor.
Willow slowly walks around the table. “I’m having a terrible night.” She reaches down and grabs Percy by the throat and lifts him back to his feet. “Want to make it better?”
Percy tries to hit Willow, but she easily blocks his punch. He tries to pull her hand away from his throat, but it’s no use. His hands go to Willow’s throat, trying to strangle her, before she finishes strangling him. She just ignores them.
Xander comes into the Bronze and notices the commotion. He looks to see what everyone is looking at, and sees Percy and Willow together, with Percy’s hands around Willow’s throat. He rushes forward to rescue Willow from her attacker, and pulls Percy away from her. “Back off!” he warns Percy. “You stay the hell away from her!”
Percy is in no mood to argue. “Okay! Sure!” He scrambles away.
Willow is thrilled to see Xander, and he’s somewhat surprised by her appearance, dressed in her skin tight leather. “Will, changing the look not an idle threat with you.”
“You’re alive!” Willow grabs Xander and hugs him. She runs her hands across his back, and downward.
“Uh, Will, this is verging on naughty touching here,” says Xander. “Don’t want to fall back on bad habits.” He suddenly jumps. “Hands! Hands in new places!”
Willow steps back, looks at Xander, and comes to a terrible realization. “You’re alive!”
“You mentioned that before, Will. Are you okay?”
“No! Everything’s different.”
Buffy comes into the Bronze, and sees Xander. She comes across to him. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your—” She gets a good look at who Xander is talking to. “Holy god, you’re Willow.”
Willow recognises Buffy too. “You!”
“You know what?” says Buffy. “I like the look. It’s, um…it’s extreme, but it, it looks good, you know, it’s a leather thing, and, uh… I said extreme already, right?” she asks Xander.
“I don’t like you,” says Willow.
Buffy tries apologising for what she said earlier, but Willow isn’t interested. “Leaving now.” She turns and starts to walk away from them.
“Will, gotta say, not lovin’ the new you,” says Xander.
Buffy follows, after her. “Will, wait—” She grabs Willow by the arm and pulls her around.
Willow morphs into her vampire face. “Get off me!” she snarls.
Buffy and Xander are too stunned to do anything as Willow walks out of the Bronze.
Vampire Willow walks through the alley behind the Bronze.
A couple of vampires step out of the shadows behind her. “Willow Rosenberg?” asks their leader.
Willow stops, but doesn’t turn around. A smile creeps across her face. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“Then we won’t talk,” says the vampire.
The vampires attack, and Willow kicks their butts. After a brief skirmish she pins the leader to the ground. She grabs its arm and twists it. It snaps.
She grabs one of its fingers in her hand. “You made me cranky.”
“There’s been a mistake here,” says the vampire. “We were sent after a human.”
“Really?” asks Willow. “Who do you work for?”
“I’m not telling you a thing,” says the vampire.
Willow snaps its finger. “Who do you work for?”
“Wilkins. The Mayor,” says the vampire.
Willow snaps a second finger. “Who do you work for?”
“You,” says the vampire.
Willow releases the vampire and tells it to go collect its friends. She doesn’t like this world. She plans to make a few changes. Starting with the Bronze.
Buffy and Xander enter the library. Giles is surprised to see them, he thought Buffy was going out tonight. Then he sees the expressions on their faces and realizes that something terrible has happened.
Buffy, Xander and Giles sit on the library steps, feeling miserable. “She was truly the finest of all of us,” says Giles.
Xander clutches a cross in his hands. “Way better than me.”
“Much, much better,” says Giles.
Buffy figures that it’s all her fault. Willow never would have been so careless to get herself attacked if Buffy hadn’t called her “reliable.”
Willow comes into the library. “What’s going on?” She sees the expressions on her friend’s faces. “Jeez, who died?” They continue to just stare at her with looks of terrible sadness in their eyes. “Oh god! Who died?”
Xander leaps to his feet, brandishing his cross. “Back! Get back, demon!”
Willow doesn’t have the expected reaction. She just looks a little puzzled. Xander looks at his cross, gives it a shake, and shoves it back in her face. Willow raises her eyebrows at him. Buffy and Giles slowly get to their feet.
“Willow, you’re alive?” asks Buffy.
“Aren’t I usually?” asks Willow.
Buffy rushes forward and hugs her friend. Xander puts his arms around both of them.
“I love you guys, too,” says Willow as Buffy and Xander continue to hug her tightly. “Okay, oxygen becoming an issue.”
Buffy and Xander release Willow and take a step back. Willow looks at Giles. “Giles, what’s going on with these—” She’s interrupted by Giles rushing forward to give her a hug too.
“It’s really nice that you guys missed me,” says Willow after he releases her. “Say, you all didn’t happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?”
“Will, we saw you at the Bronze,” says Xander. “A vampire.”
“I’m not a vampire!” says Willow indignantly.
“You are.” says Buffy. “I mean, you, you were. Giles, planning on jumping in with an explanation any time soon?”
“Well, uh, something, something, um, very strange is happening,” says Giles.
Xander nods toward Giles. “Can you believe the Watcher’s Council let this guy go?”
A dejected Anya is in the Bronze. She takes a seat at the bar. “Gimme a beer,” she tells the bartender.
“I.D,” says the bartender. Anya glares at him. “I.D,” he repeats.
“I’m eleven hundred and twenty years old! Just gimme a frickin’ beer!”
The bartender is unimpressed. “I.D.”
Anya sighs. “Gimme a Coke.”
Oz and Devon are setting up the Dingo’s equipment on the stage. Devon thinks that they should get a roadie to do this stuff. Other bands have roadies. Oz points out that other bands can also play more than three chords. “Your professional bands can play up to six, sometimes seven completely different chords.”
“That’s just like…fruity jazz bands,” says Devon.
They’re interrupted by Angel. He’s looking for Buffy. Oz tells him that he hasn’t seen her, but he is expecting her to show up.
Several vampires come into the Bronze. They fan out and block all the exits. The leader of the group—Alphonse, the fellow that Vampire Willow had the conversation with earlier in the evening—addresses the crowd. “Everybody! Shut up!” Things instantly quiet down. “Alright. Nobody cause any trouble, or try to leave, and nobody gets hurt.”
“Why don’t I believe him?” Angel asks Oz quietly.
“Well, he lacks credibility,” says Oz. He asks Angel if he can get out. Angel can through the skylight, but he thinks he should stay there. Oz doesn’t like the odds. Ten to one against Angel. They need help.
Vampire Willow steps into view. Anya instantly recognises her for who she is.
Oz thinks he recognises her too. “Get Buffy. Do it now,” he orders Angel.
Angel quietly goes back stage and starts to climb the ropes up to the ceiling.
Devon steps up behind Oz. “Dude! Check out your girlfriend!”
Vampire Willow slowly walks around the dance floor, looking at the people. She goes up to a girl, sitting alone at a table, and asks her her name. It’s Sandy.
Willow takes Sandy by the hand and leads her out onto the dance floor. “You don’t have to be afraid, just to please me. If you’re all good boys and girls, we’ll make you young and strong forever and ever.” She turns Sandy around and stands behind her. “We’ll have fun.” She gives Sandy’s neck a lick. “If you’re not…” Willow changes into her vampire face and bites Sandy’s neck.
Oz rushes down from the stage to try and help Sandy, but one of the vampires grabs him.
Willow finishes feeding, and drops Sandy to the floor. “Questions? Comments?”
“Willow. You don’t want to do this,” says Oz.
“I don’t?” asks Willow. “But I’m so good at it.”
“Who did this to you?” asks Oz.
Willow recognises Oz, he’s one of the White Hats. “How come you’re talking to me like we’re friends?”
“’Cause he thinks you’re someone else.” Anya steps up behind Willow. “He thinks you’re the Willow that belongs in this reality.”
“Another me?” asks Willow.
“You know this isn’t your world, right?” asks Anya. “I mean, you know you don’t belong here.”
“No. This is a dumb world,” says Willow. “In my world there are people in chains, and we can ride them like ponies.”
“You want to get back there,” says Anya.
“Yeah.”
“So do I.”
Willow has been filled in on her vampire self. She is a little freaked out to learn that there is a vampire wandering around that looks like her.
Xander and Buffy tell her it doesn’t just look like her. “It was exactly you, Will,” says Buffy. “Every detail. Except for your not being a dominatrix. As far as we know.”
Willow grins. “Oh, right. Me and Oz play ‘Mistress of Pain’ every night.”
Giles, Xander and Buffy get strange expressions on their faces.
“Did anyone else just go to a scary visual place?” asks Xander.
“Oh, yeah,” says Buffy.
Giles raises his hand a bit.
Angel rushes into the library. He sees Buffy, Xander and Giles sitting on the library table, but he doesn’t notice Willow, who’s leaning against the doorframe to Giles’ office. “Buffy, I just… Something’s happened that…” He can’t find the words to say what happened, so he just blurts it out. “Willow’s dead.”
They all give Angel understanding nods. Willow straightens up from leaning against the doorframe. Angel notices the movement and glances over at her. “Hey, Willow.” He looks back at Buffy and Xander. “Wait a second.” He looks back at Willow, and she gives him a little smile and a wave.
“We’re right there with you, buddy,” says Xander.
Buffy tells Angel that they’ve seen the other Willow too. Angel tells them that she’s back at the Bronze, with a bunch of vampire backup. The group quickly decides that figuring out where the second Willow came from can wait, and head out of the library.
Buffy asks Giles if they should call Faith, but he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to put her back into combat around civilians yet.
Willow wants to know what they plan to do about her other self. Buffy doesn’t know. They just have to stop her. Willow understands that part. She gets an idea. She tells the others to go, she’ll catch up with them, and returns to the library.
Willow reaches over the book checkout counter for something. She can’t reach it.
Vampire Willow grabs her from behind, and clamps her hand over Willow’s mouth to keep her from screaming. “Alone at last.”
Vampire Willow checks her other self out. She doesn’t seem to like what she sees. “Well, look at me.” She looks at Willow’s pink sweater. “I’m all fuzzy.”
“What do I want with you?” asks Willow. She realizes she phrased that wrong. “Uh—”
“Your little school friend Anya said that you’re the one that brought me here,” says the vampire. “She said that you could get me back to my world.”
“Oh!” says Willow, “Oh! Oops!”
“But I don’t know” The vampire gives Willow another look. “I kind of like the idea of the two of us. We could be quite a team, if you came around to my way of thinking.” She turns Willow around and caresses her shoulder.
“Would that mean we have to snuggle?” asks Willow.
Vampire Willow brushes the hair away from Willow’s neck. “What do you say?” She gives Willow’s neck a lick. “Want to be bad?”
“This just can’t get more disturbing,” says Willow, but then it does. She hears the vampire snarl behind her.
Willow jumps away. “Ack! Ew! No more! You’re really starting to freak me out!” She tries to dodge around the vampire but it blocks her path. Willow spots Xander’s cross sitting on the library counter, grabs it and waves it in the vampire’s face. The vampire snarls and knocks it aside. It grabs Willow and tosses her over the counter.
Vampire Willow starts to walk around the counter. “You don’t want to play, I guess I can’t force you.”
Willow reaches up under the counter for what she came back into the library for in the first place. She grabs the tranquilizer gun.
The vampire comes around the counter. “Oh, wait. I can.” She’s surprised when Willow shoots her. “Bitch!” She collapses to the floor.
Xander and Angel drag the vampire Willow into the library cage, and lock her in. Giles looks at her lying on the floor. “Extraordinary!”
“It’s horrible!” says Willow. “That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil, and skanky. And I think I’m kind of gay,” she says quietly to Buffy.
Buffy tries to reassure her friend. “Willow, just remember, a vampire’s personality has nothing to do with the person it was.”
“Well, actually…” Angel notices the warning look Buffy is giving him. “…that’s a good point.”
Even with this vampire locked up they still have a lot of vampires in the Bronze to deal with. They aren’t likely to wait too long for Willow to return before they start eating without her. Xander wants to know what the plan is. Do they just charge in? Giles doesn’t have a better plan.
Buffy looks at the vampire lying on the floor in the cage, and raises her hand. “Uh, I have a really bad idea.”
Angel climbs down from the Bronze’s roof, and reports that the vampires are still waiting for Willow’s return. “They must really be afraid of you,” he tells Willow.
“Who wouldn’t be?” asks Willow. She has changed into her vampire self’s leather outfit. She doesn’t look too comfortable.
“You okay in that?” asks Buffy.
Willow wriggles inside her outfit. “It’s a little binding. I guess vampires really don’t have to breathe.” She glances down at her chest and notices her cleavage. “Gosh, look at those.” Xander looks.
Giles gives Willow a bit of last minute instruction. She’s to try to defuse the situation as best she can, and see if she can get some of the vampires inside to come outside.
“First sign of trouble, you give us a signal,” says Buffy. “We come in hard and fast.”
“What is the signal?” asks Xander.
“Me, screaming,” says Willow.
Angel sends Xander and Giles around to watch the back door, while Buffy has a final word with Willow. “Now, you’re sure you’re up for this?”
“Don’t worry,” says Willow. “I won’t do anything that could be interpreted as brave.” She goes up to the front door of the Bronze and knocks.
The vampire guarding the front door lets Willow in. Alphonse wants to know if she found the girl. Willow tells him that she did.
“Where is she?” asks Anya.
“I killed her,” says Willow. She notices the disbelieving look Anya is giving her. “And sucked her blood, as we vampires do.” Willow tells the vampire who was guarding the door to take a look around outside. She thought she heard something.
Angel grabs the vampire when it comes out of the Bronze, and Buffy stakes it before it can call out any sort of warning.
Anya is incensed. How could she have killed Willow. She was their ticket back to her world.
“I don’t like that you dare question me.” Willow walks past Anya. Oz is watching her closely. He suspects that something is up. “Maybe I’ll have my minions take you out back and kill you horribly.” Willow has maneuvered herself into a position where Anya and the vampires are all behind her. She gives Oz a quick smile and a wave, which is hidden from the vampires by her body. Oz barely reacts—just raising an eyebrow—but he knows this is his Willow now.
“Vampires. Always thinking with your teeth.” mutters Anya under her breath.
Willow tells them why she had to kill the other Willow. “She bothered me. She’s so weak and accommodating. She’s always letting people walk all over her, and then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just couldn’t let her live.” She sends another vampire to check on the guy she sent out earlier. He’s been gone for a while. Anya starts to look a little suspicious.
“Well, Boss, since that plan is out, why don’t we get with the killing?” asks Alphonse.
Vampire Willow wakes up in the book cage. She looks down at the fuzzy pink sweater she’s wearing. “Ah, this is like a nightmare!”
Cordelia comes into the library, dressed to the nines. She’s looking for Wesley.
“Hey you!” calls out Willow.
“‘Hey me?’” asks Cordelia. “‘Hey me’ what? I have a name, you know.”
The vampire has to think for a bit to remember it. “Uh, Cordelia?”
“What did you do? Lock yourself in the book cage?” asks Cordelia.
“Yeah,” says the vampire. “Let me out, ’cause I’m so helpless.”
Cordelia goes behind the counter to get Giles’ spare key. She finds it quickly and starts back toward the cage to let Willow out. She puts the key in the lock, and stops. She looks at Willow closely. “Wait. It occurs to me that we’ve never really had the opportunity to talk. You know, woman to woman, with you locked up.” Willow tells her she doesn’t want to talk, she’s hungry, but Cordy ignores her. “What could we talk about? Oh! Hey! How about the ethics of boyfriend stealing?”
Willow tells the other vampires in the Bronze that she’s bored with killing. She walks around the room. She tries running her fingers through the hair of a girl sitting at a table, but they get stuck. The girl is too frightened to show any reaction. “It would be like shooting fish in a barrel,” says Willow. “Where’s the fun?”
“With all due respect, Boss,” says Alphonse. “The fun, would be the eating.”
“Maybe we should let everyone go, and give them a thirty second head start,” suggests Willow.
Anya has finally figured it out. “Wait a minute.”
“No! I like my plan,” says Willow.
“Oh, nice try,” says Anya.
Willow knows that Anya is on to her. “Okay, let’s get to the killing.” She points to Anya. “Why don’t we start with her?”
“Why don’t we start with you?” asks Anya. “If she’s a vampire, then I’m the creature from the Black Lagoon.”
Cordelia has gotten herself a cup of coffee, and taken a seat while she has her talk with Willow. The vampire in the cage is looking very bored.
“And, okay, it isn’t even like I was that attracted to Xander. It was more just that we kept being put in these life or death situations, and that’s always all sexy and stuff.” Cordelia gets up out of her chair. “I mean, I more or less knew he was a loser. But that doesn’t make it okay for you to come around and…” Cordelia notices the direction of Willow’s gaze. “What? Do I have something on my neck?”
“Not yet,” says the vampire.
Cordelia feels her neck. “Am I getting a zit?”
“Cordelia, I’m very sorry,” says the vampire. “I realize I was wrong. I’ll never steal your boyfriend again.”
“Like you could!” says Cordelia. “I should just leave you in there, but I’m a great humanitarian, and you will just have to think of a way to pay me back sometime.” She gets the keys, and unlocks the cage, letting Willow out.
“Okay,” says Willow. She vamps out. “How about dinner?”
Cordelia screams and runs from the library, with Vampire Willow chasing her.
Cordelia runs into a classroom. She backs down an aisle, pushing desks into the vampire’s way as she passes them. “I didn’t mean all that stuff I said before! I want you to have Xander! My blessings on you both!”
Willow pushes the desks out of her way. “I’m so over him. I need fresh blood.”
Cordelia screams and runs out the back door of the classroom.
Wesley is approaching the library when he hears Cordelia screaming. He’s startled into dropping his briefcase.
The vampire corners Cordelia in a washroom. It starts to close in on her.
Wesley appears, holding a cross. He places himself between Cordelia and the vampire. “Back! Creature of the night! Leave this place!” The cross trembles in his grasp.
The vampire is unimpressed. “Don’t want to.”
Wesley reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle of holy water. He holds it aloft in one hand, threatening to throw it at her, while keeping the cross in the other.
This is enough for the vampire. “Whatever.” She turns and leaves.
Wesley slowly starts to relax, until Cordelia comes up behind him and rests her hand on his shoulder. Wesley screams and spins around with the cross and holy water at the ready.
“I’m sorry,” says Cordelia. Wesley tries to cover up, but it isn’t really necessary. “You saved my life. Thank you!” Cordelia flings her arms around him.
When the hug finally ends Wesley looks toward the door. “Was that…?”
“Willow,” says Cordelia sadly. “They got Willow.” She gets over her sadness quickly. “So, are you doing anything tonight?”
“I’m just so tired of being around human beings and all their baggage,” says Anya. “I don’t care if I ever get my powers back. I think he should eat you.”
Willow has been slowly backing toward Oz, moving close to some support. She tries to salvage the situation, and points at Anya. “This girl has a history of mental problems dating back to early childhood. I’m a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!”
Alphonse is disgusted with himself. “A human. I should have smelled it right away.”
“A human?” asks Willow. “Oh, yeah? Could a human do this?” She screams at the top of her lungs.
Alphonse and Anya are unimpressed. Yeah, humans can do that. They are distracted by the noise of Buffy and Angel breaking in through the front door. They wade into the vampires remaining while the people in the Bronze start to scatter. Buffy arms herself with a pool cue.
Anya finds herself facing Willow alone. Willow is happy about that. She makes a fist and punches Anya in the face. She hurts her hand doing it, but she feels good about it.
Oz pulls Willow up onto the stage. Devon is trying to escape by climbing the same ropes that Angel used to get out, but he can’t do it, and falls back onto the stage. Oz leads Willow back stage, but they’re stopped when they run into the Vampire Willow. She grabs Oz and tosses him at Devon.
“No more snuggles?” asks Willow. Her vampire self snarls, and hits her with a backhanded punch. Willow falls to the stage floor.
One of the vampires tries to escape out the back door. It’s met by Xander and Giles. Xander throws it to the floor, and Giles stakes it.
The vampire Willow gets on top of Willow and starts to strangle her.
Buffy is fighting with Alphonse and another vampire. They make her drop the pool cue. While Buffy tosses one vampire aside Alphonse picks up the cue and attacks Buffy with it. Meanwhile Angel is fighting a couple more vamps over by the pool tables.
Buffy takes the pool cue away from Alphonse, and tosses him onto the glass counter of the Bronze’s coffee bar. She looks toward the stage and sees Willow being choked by Willow. She stakes Alphonse with the pool cue, and starts toward the stage. She breaks her pool cue over the head of another vamp as she passes it, making a more conveniently sized stake.
Buffy jumps up onto the stage, and raises her stake to stab the vampire Willow in the back.
Willow sees her. “Buffy, No!” she calls out as Buffy’s stake begins its plunge.
Buffy stops with the stake about an inch from the vampire’s back.1 She grabs the vampire and pulls it off Willow.
All of the other vampires in the Bronze have been either staked, or fled. Vampire Willow looks around and finds herself surrounded by Buffy, Angel, Xander, Giles and Oz.
Willow gets to her feet, rubbing her neck. “Nice reflexes,” she tells Buffy.
Buffy shrugs it off. “Well, I work out.”
“This world’s no fun,” says the vampire Willow.
“You noticed that, too?” asks Willow.
Everyone has moved back to the factory where the vampire Willow first appeared. Anya and Giles prepare to recreate the temporal fold to send the vampire back where she belongs. She and Willow have traded clothes again.
Xander sidles up beside the vampire. Angel is standing guard over her. “So, um, in your reality, I’m like this bad-ass vampire, huh?” asks Xander. “People afraid of me?” Vampire Willow just rolls her eyes. “Oh, yeah. I’m bad.”
Buffy isn’t so sure that releasing this vampire back into the wild is such a good idea, but Willow can’t bring herself to kill her. “I mean, I know she’s not me. We have a big nothing in common, but still—”
Buffy understands. “There but for the grace of getting bit.”
“We send her back to her world, and she stands a chance,” says Willow. “It’s the way it should be anyway.”
Giles and Anya have completed their preparations. Willow goes over to have some last words with herself.
“Don’t you try any tricks now, dear.” Giles warns Anya.
“I don’t need tricks,” says Anya. “When I get my powers back, you will all grovel before me.”
“Pffft!” say both Willows together, and roll their eyes at her.
Giles instructs the two Willows to take their places in the circle.
“Good luck.” Willow tells herself. “Try not to kill people.”
The vampire just stares at Willow impassively. Willow gives her a hug. At first the vampire doesn’t respond, but then she starts to grin.
Willow jumps away. “Hands! Hands!”
Vampire Willow just smiles. The two Willows go to join Anya and Giles.
Vampire Willow materializes back in her own world, with the chaos of the battle going on around her. She looks around, happy. It’s good to be home. Oz grabs her and pushes her back onto the broken off piece of wood. “Aw f—” she says as she turns to dust.
Buffy and Willow sit together on a low retaining wall beside the school. Buffy asks Willow if she wants to go out tonight.
“Strangely, I feel like staying at home,” says Willow, “and doing my homework…and flossing…and dying a virgin.”
“You know, you can O.D. on virtue,” says Buffy.
“Between me and my evil self, I’ve got double guilt coupons,” says Willow. “I see now where the path of vice leads. I mean, she messed up everything she touched. I don’t ever want to be like that.”
Percy comes up to them. Willow starts to apologise for not having his paper done, but Percy doesn’t let her get started. “Okay, so I did the outline for the paper on Roosevelt.” He hands Willow a folder. “It turns out there were two President Roosevelts, so I didn’t know exactly which one to do, so I did both.” He hands her a second folder. “Um, and I know they’re kind of short, but I can flesh them out. Oh, and here’s the bibliography.” He hands her a third folder. “Um, and I can retype that if you want. You just let me know what I did wrong, and I’ll get on it.”
Percy starts to go, but he comes back, and puts an apple on top of the stack of folders he had handed to Willow. Willow is too stunned to make any comment.
“You want to go out tonight?” Buffy asks her again.
“Nine sound good?” asks Willow.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Sandy | The Bronze | Killed by Vampire Willow2 |
| Vampire 1 | Outside the Bronze | Staked by Buffy and Angel |
| Vampire 2 | Outside the Bronze | Staked by Buffy and Angel |
| Vampire 3 | The Bronze | Staked by Giles and Xander |
| The vampire Alphonse | The Bronze | Staked by Buffy |