Introduction
Season:
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh
Other Bodies | Episodes | Dramatis Personae
Ramblings | Links | Fanfic
| Hell’s Bells | Entropy |
Buffy walks down a suburban street with sheaf of papers in her hand. She stops in front of a house and checks its address against her list of recently rented properties. This is the place. She walks toward the house.
Jonathan snoozes in front of a monitor showing Buffy walking toward the house. The barrel of a gun points at his ear and Warren lets loose with a blast of water from his super-soaker. Jonathan starts awake and Andrew laughs as he tries to get the water out of his ear. Jonathan isn’t amused.
Neither is Warren. This isn’t the first time Jonathan has fallen asleep while he was supposed to be on watch. “It serves you right for taking zees on the lookout again.”
“What do you expect?” asks Jonathan. “I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since… I mean, I’m going Jack Torrance in here, you know? Stuck in this basement for weeks. I mean, we rented the whole house. Can’t we at least sleep upstairs?”
“We’re on the lam,” says Andrew. “We have to lay low…underground.”
“That’s figurative, doofus,” says Jonathan. “Did you even read Legion of Doom?”
Warren has had enough and orders Jonathan to get back to the monitors. “The last thing that we need is to be surprised by—”
Andrew looks at one of the monitors and sees Buffy looking in a window. “Holy Jeez Louise!”
“The frickin’ Slayer,” says Warren. “Andrew…deploy your little friend.”
Andrew gets out a didjeridoo and starts to play it.
Buffy moves into the alley behind the house. A demon with white, waxy skin and bulgy red eyes jumps down from the garage roof behind her.
Buffy spins around and sees the demon. “Oh. Hi. You didn’t, by chance, happen to just eat a couple nerds, did you?”
The demon doesn’t answer. It attacks and throws Buffy onto the hood of a car. She spins on the hood and gives the demon a kick to its head.
Buffy springs to her feet and runs up onto the car’s roof. The demon lunges at her, but Buffy jumps over its arms and gives it another kick in the head. She rolls down off the car and grabs a garbage can. She bashes the demon on the head with it and kicks it toward the car.
The demon’s head smashes through the side window of the car. It extends a spine—about six inches long—from the knuckle of its fist as Buffy drags it out of the car. It elbows her away, grabs her, and jabs the spine into Buffy’s arm. She screams.
Buffy screams as two orderlies pin her in the corner of a hospital room. One of them is jabbing a needle into her arm as she struggles. “We’re going to have to strap her down!” he tells his partner. There are restraints on the bed in the room.
Buffy starts to pass out as the drug takes effect.
Buffy wakes up leaning against the car in the alley. She’s alone. There’s no sign of the demon. She rubs her arm and walks away.
Willow waits in a corridor at UC Sunnydale for Tara to come by, rehearsing her lines for asking Tara if she wants to go on a date. She sees Tara approaching from down the hall and starts toward her, but before she gets there she sees Tara meet with another girl. They are clearly very pleased to see each other, and greet one another with kisses on each other’s cheeks.
Willow spins around and goes the other way.
Tara and her friend part and Tara continues on her way. She sees Willow walking away down the hall.
Buffy zones out as she drops a basket of fries into the frier at the Doublemeat Palace.
“Buffy!” the manager Lorraine calls out to her. “Buffy!”
Buffy turns toward her.
Buffy turns in a hospital corridor. “Come on,” a nurse tells her. “It’s time for your drugs.”
“What?” asks Buffy.
Lorraine looks at Buffy. “I said: ‘if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were on drugs.’”
“Okay. Good.” Buffy turns back toward the frier. Lorraine shakes her head and turns back to serving a customer at the counter.
Buffy lifts a basket of burnt fries out of the frier.
Buffy comes downstairs in her house and is surprised to find Willow in the dining room, working on her iBook. Willow says that she’s looking to see if Xander sent her any email. No one has heard from him or Anya for a couple of days. Buffy hopes that’s because Anya found him and they are trying to work things out.
Buffy is still surprised Willow’s at home. “I thought you were going to go see Tara.”
“Saw her,” says Willow bitterly. “Saw her completely.”
“Ouch,” says Buffy. “Just got a scratch from all that brittle.”
Willow tells Buffy about the other girl. She knows that what she saw didn’t really mean anything, but she didn’t want to stick around long enough to learn anything conclusive. “Might have magicked my fist through a wall or something.”
Buffy is sympathetic and supportive. She tells Willow that they were probably just friends. “Once you fall for Willow, you stay fallen.”
“Thanks, Buffy,” says Willow, but she doesn’t look like she believes her.
The doorbell rings, and Xander steps in the door. Buffy and Willow rush into the foyer to hug him and tell him they missed him. They wish they’d known where he’d gone. Xander tells them that he’d tried calling, but just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Hey, you don’t need to explain to us.” says Buffy. She and Willow go back into the dining room and sit at the table.
Xander follows them in. “Right. Is she here?”
“Oh…no,” says Willow. “You want to find her?”
Xander tells them that he needs to talk with Anya, but she’d packed up a suitcase with some of her stuff. “There’s a ‘closed’ sign on the Magic Box, which, like, chills me to the bone.”
Willow tells Xander that Anya left a couple of days ago and didn’t really say anything about where she was going, between the sobbing.
“She was a little— She was kind of broken,” says Buffy.
“I don’t know how stuff got so mixed-up,” says Xander. “I blew it.”
Buffy admits that Xander picked a very bad time to break up with Anya.
“No, it wasn’t about breaking up,” says Xander. “I love her, and, god, I miss her so much.”
“So you left her at the altar,” says Willow, “but you still want to—”
“You still want to date?” asks Buffy.
“I guess,” says Xander. “I know that I’m a better person with her in my life. But things got so complicated with the wedding and with my family and with her…demons, and what if it all goes to hell and forever? But then I left…and ever since, I’ve had this painful hole inside…and I’m the idiot that dug it out.” He shakes his head. “I screwed up real bad.”
“Hey,” says Buffy, “we all screw up.”
Spike walks back to his crypt with a bag of groceries under his arm. He puts a cigarette in his mouth and sees Buffy. She’s walking away, and hasn’t seen him. “You looking for me?”
Buffy keeps walking. “Really not.”
“Oh. Right then. Off you go.” Spike lights up his cigarette. “Did you cry?”
Buffy stops. “What?”
“The wedding,” says Spike. “Two hearts joined for eternity. Great pelting showers of rice and so forth.”
Buffy finally turns around. “You didn’t hear.” She walks back toward him.
“What?” asks Spike. “Families get out of hand…tear the place apart?”
Buffy admits that that happened, but that wasn’t the big event. She and Spike sit down on benches in front of the Alpert crypt while she tells him that the wedding didn’t happen. Anya took it really hard, but Xander hopes he can patch things up. Buffy isn’t sure that’s possible. “He hurt her a lot.”
Spike gives Buffy a pointed look. “Yeah, well, some people can’t see a good thing when they’ve got it.”
“Spike!” calls out Willow. She and Xander are approaching through the cemetery, and Xander isn’t happy to see Spike.
Buffy jumps to her feet. “Hey, guys. I, uh, I found Spike and was, uh, trying to figure out what kind of dangerous contraband he had.”
Spike figures that he’ll just make things easier on everyone, and go. He picks up his groceries.
“Yeah, maybe you should do that, Spike,” says Xander. “Just run along.”
Spike gets into Xander’s face. “You know, I guess you know all about that, don’t you? The king of the big exit. Heard it brought the house down.”
Xander really doesn’t want to be hearing this from Spike. Willow tries to get between them to forestall any violence. Xander doesn’t want to be forestalled and he thinks it’s pretty dumb of Spike to try and pick a fight when he can’t fight back.
Buffy collapses back onto the bench and clutches at her head. “Guys!”
Spike and Xander ignore Buffy. Spike is getting mad enough at Xander that he’s thinking hitting him would be worth the pain. He tosses his bag of groceries aside, and gets Xander’s fist in his face. Spike falls back onto his groceries.
Buffy’s head drops down into her lap. “Guys, don’t.”
Buffy sags in the corner of her hospital room, clutching at her head. “Buffy, can you hear me?” asks a voice.
Buffy looks up and sees a doctor sitting on a chair in front of her. “What is this?”
“Do you know where you are, Buffy?” asks the doctor.
“Sunnydale.”
“No. None of that’s real. None of it. You’re in a mental institution. You’ve been with us now for six years. Do you remember?”
Buffy looks around the bare room and sees the bed, with the restraints.
Spike rolls over his bag of groceries. Willow and Xander have forgotten about him and rush to Buffy’s side. They ask her what happened, and if she’s okay. Buffy looks up and sees…
…the doctor reaching out to touch her shoulder. Buffy flinches away, and starts banging her head against the wall.
The doctor pulls away. “It’s okay, Buffy. Buffy, it’s okay!” Buffy looks up at him. “Look. Look who’s here.” The doctor turns and looks toward the door to the room.
Buffy follows his gaze and sees her mother.
“Buffy?” Joyce kneels in front of her daughter. “Welcome home, Sweetie.”
Buffy’s father, Hank Summers, is standing behind his wife, and bends down toward his daughter.
Buffy looks up at her mother’s face. “Mom?”
“Oh, baby, you’re really here!” says Joyce.
Buffy looks at her father. “Dad?”
The doctor is amazed by Buffy’s lucidity. He tells her parents to keep talking. “Maybe the sound of your voice will ground her.”
Hank leans closer. “Sweetheart…we’ve missed you very much. Honey, can you hear me?”
Buffy whimpers, and bangs her head against the wall.
“Oh, Buffy, stay with us,” says Joyce. “Please.”
Willow and Xander help Buffy back to her feet, Spike steps toward them. He thinks they should take her to his crypt. Xander waves him off and tells him to just go away. “She’s our friend. We’ll take care of her.”
Buffy tries to shake off Willow and Xander’s grip on her arms and tells them she’s okay, but they don’t let go. They lead her away toward her home.
“Put a little ice on the back of her neck!” Spike turns toward his crypt and picks up his bag of groceries. “She likes that.”
Willow brings Buffy a glass of ice water, and sits with Xander and Dawn on the sofa in their living room. Buffy is sitting in the armchair. She tells them about the hallucinations she’s been having for the past couple of days, ever since she was poked by the waxy skinned demon.
“And when you say poke—” says Xander.
“In the arm,” says Buffy. “It stung me or something, and…then it was like—” Buffy blinks. “No. It wasn’t ‘like.’ I was in an institution. There were, um, doctors and…nurses and other patients. They—they told me that I was sick, I guess…crazy…and that, um, Sunnydale and all of this, it— None of it was real.”
“Oh, come on. That’s ridiculous,” says Xander. “What? You think this isn’t real just because of all the vampires and demons and ex-vengeance demons and the sister that used to be a big ball of universe-destroying energy?”
Buffy knows how it all sounds, but it felt so real too. She looks at Dawn. “Mom was there.”
Dawn clutches at Xander’s arm. “She was?”
“Dad, too. They were together…like they used to be…before Sunnydale.”
Willow jumps to her feet. She thinks it’s time to start with the researching. She tells Xander to hit the demon bars, see if there’s anything new in town. “Dawnie, you can help me research. We’ll hop on-line, check all the…”
“…possibility for a full recovery,” the doctor tells Hank and Joyce Summers, “but we have to proceed cautiously. If we’re not careful…” They are sitting in his office, with Buffy huddled in a chair beside them, barely aware of her surroundings.
Joyce hopes that this new breakthrough might lead to Buffy recovering fully, but the doctor is much less optimistic. He gets up from his chair and moves around in front of his desk to be closer to them. “Mrs. Summers…you have to understand the severity of what’s happened to your daughter. For the last six years, she’s been in an undifferentiated type of schizophrenia.”
Hank and Joyce are aware of that. It isn’t what they are asking about.
“Buffy’s delusions are multi-layered,” says the doctor. “She believes she’s some type of hero.”
“The Slayer,” says Joyce.
“The Slayer, right, but that’s only one level. She’s also created an intricate latticework to support her primary delusion.” The doctor looks toward Buffy. “In her mind, she’s the central figure in a fantastic world beyond imagination. She’s surrounded herself with friends, most with their own superpowers, who are as real to her as you or me… More so, unfortunately. Together they face grand overblown conflicts against an assortment of monsters both imaginary and rooted in actual myth. Every time we think we’re getting through to her, more fanciful enemies magically appear, and she’s—”
Buffy starts to mumble. “…enemies…Warren and Jonathan— They did this to me.” She tries to get out of the chair.
Joyce is pleased by this sign of awareness from Buffy, but the doctor tries to calm Buffy down. “Buffy, it’s all right. They can’t hurt you here. You’re with your family.”
“Dawn?” asks Buffy.
Hank looks at the doctor. “That’s the sister, right?”
“A magical Key,” says the doctor. “Buffy inserted Dawn into her delusion, actually rewriting the entire history of it to accommodate a need for a familial bond.” He turns his attention back to Buffy and addresses her directly. “Buffy, but that created inconsistencies, didn’t it? Your sister, your friends, all of those people you created in Sunnydale, they aren’t as comforting as they once were, are they? They’re coming apart.”
Joyce leans toward her daughter. “Buffy, listen to what the doctor’s saying. It’s important.”
“Buffy, you used to create these grand villains to battle against, and now what is it?” asks the doctor. “Just ordinary students you went to high school with. No gods or monsters. Just three pathetic little men, who like playing with toys.”
Warren and Andrew come down the stairs into their basement, carrying a bunch of boxes. Jonathan wants to know where they’ve been. Warren tells him that they’ve been out picking up some stuff, and checking on Buffy. “Andrew’s demon pet has done some number on the Slayer. Got her tripping like a…Ken Russell film festival.”
Jonathan wants to know what sort of stuff they were picking up. Warren refuses to tell him. “It’s just stuff, big man, all right? You’ll be in the know just as soon as you stop being all Freakazoid.” He brings up some schematics on his TiBook. “Ah, now, there’s the vault.”
Andrew looks at the schematics over Warren’s shoulder. “I still say we’re going to need eight other guys to pull this off.”
“I never should have let you see that movie,” says Warren. He notices Jonathan is starting toward the stairs. “Uh, where you going?”
“Out,” says Jonathan. “Getting stuff I need.”
Warren really doesn’t think that’s a good idea. He intercepts Jonathan at the base of the stairs, puts his arm around Jonathan’s shoulder and pulls him away from the stairs. “It’s just not safe out there…alone. You saw how close the Slayer got. Look, we’re—we’re a team. Something happens to you, it happens to all of us. Right? Look, I know— I know you’re antsy. We all are, but you see, things— they’re about to pick up… big—big time. Just got to be careful right now, all right? Stick together. Okay?”
Warren goes back to his computer. Andrew eyes Jonathan suspiciously.
Buffy sits on the sofa, staring at a photograph from when she was five, sitting on her mother’s lap on a swing, with her father behind them. She has other photos lying around her.
Willow comes in and shows Buffy a page she’s printed off, showing a Glarghk Guhl Kashma’nik demon, and asks if this is the one that attacked her. Buffy glances at the picture and nods.
“It’s going to be okay,” says Willow. “Its pokey stinger carries an antidote to its own poison.”
Buffy doesn’t really pay much attention to Willow. She’s gone back to staring at the photo. She tells Willow that she’s feeling lost. Willow thinks it’s just because of the poison the demon injected into her, but Buffy thinks it’s more than that. Even before the demon, she has been feeling so detached.
“We’ve all been kind of slumming,” says Willow.
“Every day I try to snap out of it, figure out why I’m like that.”
“Buffy, look at me,” says Willow. “You are not in an institution. You have never been in an institution.”
Buffy looks up at Willow. “Yes, I have.”
Willow is surprised, and Buffy tells her that back when she saw her first vampires, she got so scared that she told her parents about it. They both freaked, and sent her to a clinic for observation. Buffy stopped talking about the vampires, and after a couple of weeks they let her out again. Her parents never talked about it again, they just seemed to forget about it. “What if I’m still there? What if I never left that clinic?”
“Buffy… Buffy, you’re not!” says Willow. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but it’s the past. You’ve got to trust me. We’re going to get you that antidote. Xander’s hunting the demon right now.”
“Alone?” asks Buffy. “Willow, he can’t! It’s too strong.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” says Willow. “We got help.”
Xander and Spike move through the woods together. Xander is armed with a flashlight and the tranquilizer gun.
Spike is somewhat amused by the news of what’s happening to Buffy. He thinks it’s typical of her self-centeredness that she thinks none of them are real. “On the other hand, it might explain some things— This all being in that twisted brain of hers. Yeah. Thinks up some chip in my head. Make me soft, fall in love with her, then turn me into her soddin’ sex slave.”
“What?” asks Xander.
Spike quickly covers up, saying it’s just idle alternate reality speculation. “You know, in a different reality, you might not have left your bride at the altar. You might have gone through with it like a man.”
Xander really wishes that Spike would keep Anya out of this, but they’re interrupted by the demon. It jumps out of some bushes and growls at them.
“Oh, balls!” says Spike. “You didn’t say he was a Glarghk Guhl Kashma’nik.”
“’Cause I can’t say Glarba—” The demon attacks and knocks Xander off his feet. Spike kicks and punches it back.
Xander rises to his knees and fires a dart into the demon’s chest. It doesn’t seem to have much effect. The demon attacks Spike and knocks him to the ground. Xander attacks the demon, using his flashlight as a club. The demon sends him flying.
Spike resumes his attack on the demon. Xander grabs the tranquilizer gun again, rolls over onto his back and fires a second dart into the demon’s chest. Spike kicks it in the head. The demon staggers back and falls to its knees. Spike gets behind it, grabs its neck, and twists. The demon falls to the ground.
Xander picks himself up off the ground and limps over beside Spike, who’s standing over the demon. Xander points at it. “I altered his reality.” Spike doesn’t react. “Get it? I—” Spike still just looks at the demon. “Never mind.”
Dawn brings Buffy a mug of tea in her room. Buffy thanks her, but she just keeps staring off into space. Dawn sits the mug down on Buffy’s bedside table and sits on the bed with her. Buffy says she’s okay.
Dawn doesn’t believe her. “The thousand-yard stare really helps sell that.” She reaches out her hand and feels Buffy’s forehead and cheek. “You’re burning up.”
Buffy looks at Dawn. “I should be taller than you.”
Dawn smiles. “Maybe you’re not done growing.”
Buffy says things are coming apart. They have to try harder to make things better. “Your grades…stealing…” Dawn looks away. “Willow’s been doing your chores, hasn’t she?”
“What?” asks Dawn. “No, it’s—it’s the fever. It’s cooking your brain.”
Buffy grabs Dawn’s arm. “We have to deal with these things, Dawn. We—”
“You don’t have a sister Buffy,” says Joyce. She’s sitting on Buffy’s hospital bed. Hank Summers is sitting in a chair, watching them.
“Dawn?” asks Buffy.
“No, Honey,” says Joyce. “Say it. It’ll help you believe it.”
“I…don’t…have a sister,” says Buffy. Joyce nods encouragingly at her. “I know…I didn’t grow up with her. These monks, they-they made her.”
Joyce looks back at her husband.
“It’s your mind,” says Hank, “just playing tricks on you.”
“You’re our little girl, Buffy, our one and only. We have missed you so much.” Joyce reaches out and strokes Buffy’s hair. “Mom and Dad just want to take you home and take care of you.”
Buffy reaches her hand out toward her mother’s face.
Buffy reaches her hand out toward her sister’s face. She suddenly flinches back away from Dawn, and closes her eyes.
Tears fill Dawn’s eyes. “I’m not even there, am I?”
“What?” asks Buffy.
“You said it a second ago. You don’t have a sister.” Dawn stands up. “It’s your ideal reality, and I’m not even a part of it.”
“Dawn, I— I didn’t mean—”
Dawn turns away. “I have to go finish my chores.” She walks quickly from the room.
Spike and Xander struggle with the demon in the Summers basement. They’ve got it wrapped in chains, but it’s fully awake again, and quite an armful. Willow is with them, and pulling on some rubber gloves.
The demon knocks Xander off his feet and breaks away from Spike to attack him. Spike pulls the demon off Xander and pushes it up against a post. He wraps more chains around the demon and the post to secure it. Xander gets back to his feet and the demon kicks him in the shin. Xander falls back to the floor.
Xander gets back to his feet more slowly this time. Willow tells them to hold the demon’s arm. Xander grabs it and holds it still.
Willow jabs a barbecue fork into the demon’s arm, which makes its spine extend from its knuckle. Willow grabs the spine in her gloved hand and snaps it off. She quickly drops it into a jar, limiting her contact with it—even through the rubber glove—as much as she can.
Willow gives Xander a list of supplies she’ll need from the Magic Box—for medicinal purposes only, no magic—and tells him to meet her at the campus lab. She starts up the stairs, with Xander limping along behind her. Spike wraps more chains around the demon and says that he’ll stay to keep an eye on it.
Xander looks back down at Spike. “Make sure that’s all you’re ogling.”
“Xander!” Willow grabs the collar of his jacket and drags him away.
Willow says good morning to Buffy, and brings her a mug of yummy antidote goodness. Buffy seems startled to see her and asks what happened. Willow tells her that brewing it up took a little longer than expected. Her first couple of batches exploded, but she thinks she’s got it now. “When it’s cool, drink it all down, and everything should go back to normal.”
Buffy holds the mug in her hands. “You never stop coming through. Thank you, Willow.”
Spike appears in the doorway to Buffy’s room and asks how she is. Willow tells him to make sure Buffy drinks all of the antidote, and leaves to tell Dawn that everything’s going to be okay.
Spike asks Buffy if she’s all right.
Buffy closes her eyes and shakes her head. “You need to leave me alone. You’re not part of my life.”
“Fine, then.” Spike turns to go, but he turns around again and steps toward Buffy. “You know, but I hope you don’t think this ant—” He steps into a ray of morning sunlight coming in Buffy’s window and quickly flinches back from it. “I hope you don’t think this antidote’s going to rid you of that nasty martyrdom. See, I figured it out, love. You can’t help yourself.”
Buffy looks up at Spike.
“You’re not drawn to the dark like I thought,” says Spike. “You’re addicted to the misery. It’s why you won’t tell your pals about us. Might actually have to be happy if you did. They’d either understand and help you, god forbid, or drive you out where you can finally be at peace in the dark…with me.”
Buffy closes her eyes, and looks away.
“Either way, you’d be better off for it, but you’re too twisted for that. Let yourself live already, and stop with the bloody hero trip for a sec! We’d all be the better for it. You either tell your friends about us, or I will.” Spike turns and walks out of Buffy’s room.
Buffy takes a deep breath, and looks down at the mug in her hands. She starts to raise it to her mouth, but she stops. She looks over toward the trash can beside her bed. She pours the mug out into it.
Buffy sits on her hospital bed, with the doctor and her parents looking on. “I don’t want to go back there.” She looks up at her mother and father. “I want to be healthy again.”
Hank and Joyce look hopefully toward the doctor.
Buffy looks at him too. “What do I have to do?”
“Mom, please, help me,” says Buffy. “I—I want to go home…with you and Dad.”
Joyce tells Buffy she understands that, but Buffy can’t come home until she gets better.
The doctor doesn’t think it’s going to be easy. Buffy is going to have to start ridding her mind of the things that she clings to in her fantasies. “For your delusion, they’re safe holds, but for your mind they’re traps. We have to break those down.”
Buffy looks at him. “Slaying?”
“Yes, but I’m talking about those things you want there,” says the doctor. “What keeps you going back?”
“My friends,” says Buffy.
“That’s right,” says the doctor. “Last summer, when you had a momentary awakening, it was them that pulled you back in.”
“There not really your friends, Buffy,” says Joyce. “They’re just…tricks keeping you from getting healthy.”
“You have to do whatever it takes to convince yourself of that, Buffy,” says the doctor. “Whatever it takes.”
Willow steps out of the dining room, and is startled when she nearly runs into Buffy at the base of the stairs. She asks her how she’s feeling. “Did the antidote work?”
Buffy tells Willow that she’s still kind of dazed, but she’s feeling better.
Willow is glad to hear that, and they still have the demon chained up down in the basement if Buffy needs another dose. She suggests that she fix Buffy something to eat. “Something big with energy, help you clear your noggin. Come on.” She takes Buffy back toward the kitchen.
Xander knocks on the front door, and opens it. He calls out hello, and doesn’t get any answer. “Friends? Romans? … Anyone?” He walks back toward the kitchen and sees Buffy by the sink, cleaning a frying pan. “Hey! Hey, there, sane girl. So did Willow get that antidote to you all right?”
Buffy looks up at him. “Yeah. I’m better now.”
Xander thinks that’s great. He asks Buffy if she feels up to helping him kill and take out the demon. He really doesn’t want to have to go to Spike for help with that. “I mean, talk about losing touch. Hate to say it, but I almost…feel sorry for the guy. Almost. The things that poor guy was saying— I mean, I get it, you know. Been a part of the Buffy obsess—”
Buffy smacks Xander in the face with the frying pan.
Buffy drags Xander none too gently down the stairs into the basement. He’s barely conscious. He sees Willow lying on the floor with her wrists and ankles tied, and a piece of duct tape across her mouth before he passes out completely.
Buffy stands over them, and looks toward the demon, still chained to the post.
Buffy locks the basement door and moves toward the base of the stairs. She calls out for Dawn. She doesn’t get any answer and goes upstairs. She pushes open the door to Dawn’s room.
Dawn is packing some stuff into a bag. She isn’t pleased that Buffy came into her room without knocking, and tells her that she’s going over to Janice’s “Where they actually like having me around.”
Buffy tells Dawn that she can’t go. “You’re going downstairs with the others. It’s the only way I can get healthy.”
Dawn asks Buffy what she’s talking about, and really looks at her for the first time since Buffy entered her room. She thinks Buffy’s looking sick. Buffy steps toward her.
Dawn backs up. “What are you doing? What’s wrong with you?”
Buffy keeps moving toward Dawn.
“Stay away from me!” says Dawn.
Buffy reaches out to grab Dawn, but she evades Buffy’s grasp. Dawn runs from her room, into the hallway. “Willow, help!” She locks herself in the bathroom.
Dawn leans against the door and tries to talk to Buffy. “Buffy, please. Talk to me. You’re hallucinating.”
“I know,” says Buffy. “You’re just a trap for my mind.”
“Buffy, please, listen to me. That asylum and those people, they’re not real!”
Buffy kicks the bathroom door open. Dawn isn’t there. Buffy sees the open connecting door to Willow’s room and steps back into the hallway.
Dawn is just coming out the door from Willow’s room and freezes when she sees that Buffy’s seen her. “Buffy, look at me. I’m right here. You’re my sister. I need you…and love you. Somewhere inside you must know that’s real.”
Buffy slowly walks down the hall toward Dawn. “Sure it is. ’Cause what’s more real? A sick girl in an institution…”
Dawn backs away from her. “Don’t. Please. Listen to me.”
“…or some kind of supergirl, chosen to fight demons and save the world.” Buffy smiles. “That’s ridiculous.”
Dawn slams the door to Willow’s room shut.
Buffy kicks the door open again. “A girl who sleeps with the vampire she hates? Yeah, that makes sense.”
Dawn tries to run around to the connecting door to the bathroom, but Buffy rolls across the bed and blocks her. She grabs Dawn and wrestles her to the floor.
Dawn is still pleading with Buffy when she drags her down into the basement. Buffy has tied her wrists and ankles too, and pushes her to the floor. She puts a piece of duct tape over her mouth. Xander is still unconscious with his wrists tied around one of the basement posts.
Buffy looks toward the demon.
The doctor leans toward Buffy and tells her that everything’s okay. “Don’t stress yourself.”
Joyce is beside him. “Honey, take your time.”
“Make it as easy on yourself as possible,” says the doctor. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Xander is starting to wake up. He sees Buffy step toward the demon that’s still chained to the other post and asks her what she’s doing. He sees Buffy start to release the demon’s chains. “Oh, my god.”
The chains fall away from the demon. Buffy stands back and watches as it moves toward Xander.
Buffy backs away from the demon as it moves toward Xander. He pulls himself to his feet. “Buffy, help me!” He kicks the demon away. “I need my hands!”
Buffy backs up against the basement wall under the stairs.
Tara opens the front door. “Hello? Anybody home?”
Xander kicks at the demon. It grabs him and pulls, breaking the ropes that are tying his wrists to the post. It throws him across the basement.
Joyce sits beside Buffy on her bed. Hank and the doctor have disappeared. “Buffy?”
Buffy jumps out off the bed and cringes in the corner of the room.
Joyce moves toward her. “It’s going to be okay, Sweetheart. Whatever it is, it’s not real, remember? Just keep concentrating. I’m right here, Sweetie.”
Xander calls for Buffy to help him. She just slumps down against the wall under the stairs.
Tara opens the basement door and looks down. She sees Willow and Dawn, lying tied up on the floor and casts a quick spell. “Eximete!” It releases them from their bonds. She casts a second spell that throws a shelf full of paint cans at the demon. She starts down the stairs.
Buffy reaches through the stairs and grabs Tara’s foot. She trips and falls, landing in a heap at the base of the stairs.
“No!” cries Willow. “Tara!” She runs to her.
Buffy cringes in the corner of her hospital room. “I don’t know.”
Joyce is by her side. “Buffy, look at me.”
Buffy stays huddled in the corner. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Joyce kneels beside her. “I believe in you. You’re a survivor. You can do this.”
Dawn screams as the demon attacks her. Xander grabs it and pulls it away from her. The demon throws him away. Willow grabs a baseball bat and attacks the demon. She gets in a couple of good wacks before it knocks her flying.
“Willow!” cries Buffy. She starts to hit her head against the wall.
“Buffy? Buffy! Buffy, fight it.” Joyce puts her hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “You’re too good to give in. You can beat this thing. Be strong, baby, okay? I know you’re afraid. I know the world feels like a hard place sometimes, but you’ve got people who love you. Your dad and I, we have all the faith in the world in you. We’ll always be with you. You’ve got a world of strength in your heart. I know you do. You just have to find it again. Believe in yourself.” She reaches out and gently strokes Buffy’s hair.
Buffy looks up at her mother. “You’re right.” She smiles at her. “Thank you.”
Joyce starts to smile back at her daughter.
“Good-bye,” says Buffy
The colour drains from Joyce’s face as she realizes the decision Buffy has made. “Buffy!”
Buffy stands up, and steps out from under the stairs. She kicks the demon against the wall. She grabs it by the throat, picks it up, and throws it across the basement, against the washer and drier.
The demon picks itself up off the floor. Buffy punches her fist into its chest. She pulls her demon slime covered hand out, as it falls dead to the floor.
Buffy slowly turns toward Willow, Xander and Tara as they pick themselves up off the floor. She can’t bring herself to look at Dawn. “I’m so sorry.”
Xander tells Buffy that they’re all okay. Everyone’s okay. Buffy steps toward them and wavers a bit on her feet. Willow tells her to sit down before she falls over.
“No…” says Buffy. “I can’t…not until I have the antidote.”
“Okay. We’ll make more,” says Willow. “We’ll take care of it. Everything’s going to be okay.”
The doctor shines a light into Buffy’s eyes. She is still huddled in the corner of her hospital room. He turns and looks back at Joyce and Hank Summers. “I’m sorry. There’s no reaction at all. I’m afraid we lost her.”
Joyce starts to cry. Hank holds her in his arms. 1
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Glarghk Guhl Kashma’nik demon | Buffy’s basement | Fist through its chest by Buffy |