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Date Posted: 23:55:55 12/04/02 Wed
Author: silver
Author Host/IP: ip-216-23-105-27.one.net / 216.23.105.27
Subject: 22.2
In reply to: silver 's message, "22" on 23:54:56 12/04/02 Wed

Below, it’s a more serious Buffy that enters the third and final room. The second trial has obviously taken its toll on her; she looks tired and worried. “Note to self,” she mutters as she enters a dimly lit room that looks like a cave, “when this is all over, go back to school.” As she advances, the door behind her fades away and is replaced by more rock wall. She is now in a cave. Suddenly before her is the First. Xander is at her feet, shivering and delirious. Buffy goes very still, saying this isn’t real. She still has to face the third trial. The First smiles wickedly and says this is the third trial. She’s so glad Buffy passed the first two, she’s been waiting for her. It can end here, she says, if Buffy will sacrifice herself. “Or,” the First gives her the option, “You can do what everyone’s been telling you is the right thing, and kill your friend. So what’ll it be? His life…or yours?” Buffy takes a deep breath, taking in Xander’s quaking form. Pity crosses her face, and she looks up at the First with a sadness lingering in her eyes that turns to steely resolve. “This isn’t real,” she repeats firmly. She says the First just wants her to * think* it is. Thinking this, no matter what she chose would be a losing option, and she’s too smart for that.

It’s the right answer, and Jeeves arrives to congratulate her. He asks that she choose her prize, and she demands the binding spell. He holds out his hand, and with a flick of the wrist he’s suddenly holding a parchment, rolled up in a scroll. He begins to hold it out to her, but hesitates. Buffy reaches for it, but he pulls it back slightly, asking if she’s sure she wants it. Buffy is, and impatiently tells him to hand over the scroll, or she’ll hand over his ass, after it’s thoroughly kicked. Jeeves says he’s only asking because if there was ever a slayer who had the makings to defeat the First Evil, it might be Buffy. She asks why, and he says she’s different from the others. Has she never wondered why every foe she’s faced has ultimately been vanquished? Why she’s been brought back from the dead, twice? Has she never wondered how it was that she helped to change the destinies of two vampires? Or if there might be something even bigger and more important in store for her? Buffy is overwhelmed by what he’s suggesting, but is in too much of a hurry. She holds out her hand again for the scroll.

Cut to Fence in his pawnshop. He’s still behind the counter, and we can finally see that he’s doing some sort of spell involving a pendant similar to the one originally destroyed by Captain Penderghast. The symbol that graces the pendant is also drawn on the wall in front of him, and there’s a bowl of mysterious liquids simmering on the counter. Suddenly his door crashes in, though, and he looks up in fearful anger. The fear melts away after a moment, and annoyance grips him. “What the hell do you want?” he says.

Back at Willy’s, the entire establishment has been turned into an indoor forest. Woodland creatures pick their way around Dawn and Willy, while a couple elk nibble on the bark from some trees that used to be support beams. Willow’s labor is progressing as quickly as the changes in the bar, and Dawn asks Willy for a towel. Thinking mostly about avoiding looking at the pregnant witch, Willy hands her his bar rag. Dawn snaps at him to get something clean and he scurries off.

Back in the realm of the trials, Buffy has opened the scroll and is now reading the spell to herself. Jeeves looks on, until a displacement next to him gets his attention. It widens into a hole, swirls a little, and then coalesces into the form of the First Evil. Buffy looks sharply at Jeeves, wondering if this is another part of the trials, but the butler looks just as surprised to see the First as Buffy is. He says she shouldn’t have been able to gain access to this realm, but the First says she’s breaking out all over, as of tonight. She wanted to extend her invitation to Buffy personally, she says, and tells her to meet her. “You know where,” she smiles. Jeeves sniffs, clearly offended at the First’s presence. The First threatens him, saying he’s not as safe as he thinks he is, here. To prove it, she interrupts the butler’s high-handed diatribe by punching him in the stomach. Through the stomach, rather. Her fist erupts from his back, glistening darkly with sticky red blood. Ropes of it drop from her hand and splatter to the floor. Buffy watches in shock as Jeeves’ eyes go wide and he falls forward, dropping to the ground, dead. The First shakes off the excess blood and turns to Buffy. “Don’t keep me waiting,” she commands, and then vanishes.

Topside, Grant is still cautiously watching from behind the fence when Buffy climbs out of the empty pool. Without a backwards glance, the slayer takes off at a full run for the woods. Grant calls after her, but she doesn’t hear him. He lopes to where she climbed out of the pool and picks up a piece of paper she dropped. Glancing down at it, he shoves it in his pocket before running after her.

Commercials.

It’s 1803. Isabella guardedly enters the cavern. From the shadows, the First’s voice tauntingly welcomes her. Over on the floor, not quite conscious, is Isabella’s Watcher. She starts to run to him, but the floor between them crumbles away and the slayer teeters on the edge of the precipice. She regains her balance and pulls back just in time to keep from falling in. She swears that she’s going to kill the First, even if she has to die trying. The First suddenly appears, no longer in the shadows, asking even if she has to kill her Watcher? Isabella boldly says the First isn’t going to get the chance to use him; he won’t become her receptacle. She’s prepared to fight. Just then, however, she spies Marguese, who has snuck in after her. She yells for him to get out, but he wants to help her. He foolishly attacks the First Evil and is thrown back. Isabella rushes forward, bringing the battle to the First to distract it from Marguese. It’s a hasty and badly thought-out maneuver, because it’s just the advantage the First needed. All it needs is a way to kill her before Isabella can bind it. Isabella quickly starts losing, though she shouts over her shoulder for Marguese to get the watcher out. Marguese is stricken at the thought that his rash attack put Isabella in a poor position. He runs to the Watcher, who is coming to. Isabella continues to fight bravely, but she is outmatched by the First Evil that ever was. Before Marguese can get the Watcher out, Isabella finally stumbles, losing to the First. She’s down, but not defeated. As her last resort, she pulls out the parchment upon which is written the spell she needs to stop the First for as long as she can. She recites the spell, and as a purple haze surrounds her and the First, binding them together, the First screams in rage. Obviously against its will, it dissolves into the gelatinous mass and absorbs into the slayer. It seems to be fighting her from within as she stands, but the slayer has strength enough for this, and after a final, meaningful glance at her Watcher and Marguese, flings herself into the pit.

Back in 2003: Buffy runs through the woods, remembering bits and pieces in flashes of her dreams. She can hear what sounds like a tribal beat, but she’s not sure if it’s really there or if it’s in her head. She also hears one word, repeated over and over, but this time she can recognize it. “First, First, First,” it says. With a quick end to the beat, Buffy arrives at the mouth of the cavern in suddenly dead silence. The cave is glowing red from within. Hesitantly, on guard, Buffy enters. In a déjà vu scene, the First’s vice welcomes Buffy from out of the shadows. Buffy is scornful of the First’s parlor tricks. But then she sees Xander, over on the floor against the wall, and her concern for him makes her rush forward without thinking. Suddenly the ground opens up between them, though, and she is barely able to haul herself away from the edge without falling in. Like Isabella, Buffy realizes that the First is trying a last ditch effort to kill her before the mortal combat that will come during the ritual. Instead of rushing right into the fight like her predecessor did, though, Buffy instead figures it all out: how the First is afraid of the slayer because of the legend. She knows that Buffy is the only thing that can beat her, so she’s trying every cowardly way she can think of to kill her before the main event. She remembers all the attempts on her life from this season, and accuses the First of being behind all of it. The First flushes unpleasantly at being called a coward, but admits that she tried repeatedly to have the slayer killed. Rather than being ashamed of it, she seems to regain her bravado and tells Buffy that she’s nothing special. She’s no legend. She’ll die just like every slayer before her. Buffy remembers the words of the butler after she triumphed at her trials, and has an epiphany. “I am the one,” she says finally, quietly, truly believing it now, “who will beat you.” They start to fight. The moves are blindingly fast; it’s hard to keep up with who’s punching who. What moves are being blocked and which ones are getting through. As they apply brains and pure strength against each other, Xander regains consciousness and looks up through bleary eyes to see the fighting. From his perspective, he sees Buffy and Anya fighting, then Buffy and the form of Jenny Calendar. Then Anya again. Finally, though, he seems to shake off his fog and come back to some semblance of himself. He starts to push himself to his hands and knees, saying Buffy’s name in a question.

Buffy is actually holding her own against the First until Grant stumbles into the cavern, disrupting her stride. She stumbles when she sees him, and the First presses her advantage. Seeing his partner in trouble, Grant levels the gun he’s had drawn from the moment he entered the cave and fires at the First several times. The First jerks briefly from each hit, reflexively letting Buffy go. It doesn’t hurt her, however, and she turns to advance menacingly on Grant. He stands his ground and empties his clip into the First, but it does no good. When she reaches him she backhands him viciously, and he goes flying across the room to land next to Xander. Before she can go after him again, though, Buffy pulls her around from behind and delivers a powerful roundhouse. The First recoils, almost goes down. Buffy kicks and punches in a flurry of violence, and the First can’t seem to get far enough away to avoid the onslaught. In desperation, the First suddenly shivers, and the movement spreads like a ripple over her until she morphs into the quivering, gelatinous mass, which dives into Xander. A new, evil gleam in his eye, Xander laughs maniacally at the two humans and bounds off through a tunnel at the back of the cavern. Buffy starts after him, ordering Grant to go back. He says no way. He doesn’t take orders from a rookie, and besides…she’s his partner. He’s in this with her ‘till the end. On that note, they head off after Xander together.

Cut to the rest of the gang at the P.D., getting manhandled out of the cars by the large group of malevolent officers. Cordelia bitterly complains that she’s never liked evil cops, and these guys are no exception. Can they fight back, now? Giles looks around, noting that they’re no longer going to give away Buffy or Grant’s positions, and if they don’t fight back they’ll surely end up dead, so…yes. On his last word he headbutts the officer nearest him, sparking a wave of violence as the rest of the Scooby Gang starts fighting back. Their moves are limited, as they’re all bound by handcuffs behind their backs, but Angel does manage to bite a couple cops before he’s subdued. Giles is nearly shot, but Tara quickly shuts her eyes and chants under her breath, and the bullet slows to a stop before him before dropping harmlessly to the ground. The move earns her a shove to the ground, and the rest of the gang crowds in around her as they are once again surrounded by the cops. The Commissioner watches from the fringe of the crowd with satisfaction…until he is pulled backward. Surprise registers briefly on his face before he is tugged offscreen by a black-clad arm. Suddenly we hear sucking sounds, and the shot cuts to…Spike! He’s holding the Commissioner immobile, draining him of blood. Finished, he throws the Commissioner’s corpse to the ground and snarls at the remaining policemen before charging.

Cut to Willy’s. The pregnant witch’s powers have wreaked complete havoc on the bar by now: it’s a virtual forest with animals creating new trails and building nests and drinking from the stream that now runs through the center of the bar. Willow pushes at Dawn’s urging, gripping Willy’s arm tightly. Suddenly Dawn looks excited. “I can see the head!” she shouts.

Cut back to Buffy and Grant, pursuing the First Evil through the tunnels. Grant’s gun is drawn, and they’re watching each other’s back as they delve deeper into the darkness. Suddenly it starts to lighten a little, again, and they come out into a larger space. Buffy grimly recognizes their surroundings: the old, burned-out high school. Specifically, in the old, burned-out library, over top the Hellmouth. She’s dismayed. Grant has no idea what’s wrong, and Buffy tells him that things just got even worse. Across the room, on the other side of the rubble covering the Hellmouth, the First Evil is prepared to begin the ritual. Drawn on the rubble is the symbol from the pendant, and Buffy remembers that the symbol itself isn’t good or evil, but it strengthens power. Buffy vaults over the rubble between them and tries to speak to Xander. The First is thoroughly in control, however, and beats her down when she foolishly gets too close. She is cruel to Buffy without killing her, and tears come to the slayer’s eyes as she realizes that some of the things the First is saying might actually be Xander. She visibly chooses to believe that it’s another tactic of the First’s to defeat her, and tries to get past it. She gains her footing once again and berates the First, saying that this “sucking the world into hell” idea is so passé, it’s been tried several times before. Xander / The First corrects her, saying “Oh no…this time I’m bringing hell to me.” Pausing the ritual for a moment, the First confronts Buffy again. “You think the evil in this world is bad?” she says, “You haven’t seen anything yet.” She resumes, and Buff rushes in to attack, not wanting to hurt Xander, but unwilling and unable to just stand by and watch this happen, either. She still has hope of somehow getting Xander out before he can become the First’s receptacle.

Cut to in front of the Police Department. Spike has joined the Scooby Gang in the fight against the corrupt cops. Tara uses her magic to release all of the handcuffs, and it’s once again a fair fight. Confronted with a witch and two vampires, some of the cops turn to run.

Back in the old library, the First is beating Buffy savagely. Grant runs toward them as Buffy tries to scoot away from the evil inhabiting the body of one of her best friends. Her retreat puts her on top of the rubble atop the Hellmouth, and suddenly the First can’t seem to come forward anymore…almost as if there’s a forcefield protecting the slayer there. Cut to Fence in his shop, sweating profusely and chanting over the pendant. It’s his spell that’s protecting Buffy. Using the quick reprieve to her advantage, Buffy surprises the First by rebounding out of the safe area and knocking her to the ground. She delivers a number of hard punches before she is thrown off, landing across the room. She sits up just in time to watch in horror as Grant rushes forward to hit the First, earning a blast of power that devastates him. Her partner cries out and falls to the floor, wounded critically. Buffy is shocked to see a gaping wound in his gut, and he holds his hands there as if to contain his insides. Despairing, Buffy is nevertheless spurned by furious rage, and she attacks the First again. At first they are evenly matched, due to Buffy’s fury, but the First has had eons of practice and quickly begins to win. Buffy eventually falls beneath fists and boots, becoming slippery with her own blood. At the final, climactic moment, the First grabs up a large rock from the pile of rubble sealing the Hellmouth. The movement dislodges the other stones, and the tenuous seal crumbles and falls into the pit, leaving the Hellmouth gaping open. In a rage, the First holds the rock high above her head, glaring in furious triumph down at Buffy through Xander’s eyes. Buffy can do nothing but stare helplessly up at her friend, waiting for the swift, violent end.

The tableau remains frozen for a moment, and then a moment longer. Xander’s arms tremble, as the First continues to hold the rock above his head. There appears to be a battle going on in Xander’s body between the First, and Xander himself. The First tries to bring the rock smashing down on Buffy’s head, but Xander resists, finally hurling the rock far into one end of the room. He pants, breathing heavily. Suddenly he starts shaking, the seizure sending him to the ground. The First pools out of him, coalescing into the familiar form of Jenny Calendar. Xander falls to the ground without her support. His body bears the physical bruises of his fight with Buffy, but the First is weakened. So is Buffy, and the two stare at each other evaluatingly over the open pit of the Hellmouth. The First eventually gives an angry smile, reminding Buffy that while she may have saved Xander, the First can only be killed in human form. So while Buffy may have won this round, the First can come back and finish the job in a hundred years. Two hundred. Long after Buffy is gone.

Over on the floor, half buried beneath some stones, Grant is still bleeding heavily from the gaping hole in his midsection. He’s half dead, and the knowledge that his wound is mortal is heavy on his face. He shifts slightly, gasping from the pain but forcing himself upright so that he can meet Buffy’s eyes. One of his arms is broken, so he reaches across himself with the other hand to pull the parchment out of his pocket. Buffy’s eyes widen when she sees the scroll, and she shouts “No!” to Grant before picking herself up and running toward him. Grant starts reading the spell, reciting it quickly before Buffy can get to him. The First shrieks at the sound of the first word and scrabbles to get away, but in a dramatic moment Grant says the last line of the spell and the First is sucked toward him. She claws and rakes at the ground beneath her as the power of the spell drags her toward the mortally wounded detective, but she cannot slow its pull. When she reaches Grant, her form melts into him the same way it did into Xander, except this time it isn’t of her own volition. Grant draws a deep breath, energized a bit by the power now within him. He stands up now. He’s not fully in control of himself, but the First doesn’t have him completely either, because it’s weakened. Grant / The First Evil looks at Buffy, a myriad of expressions on his face including sadness and regret. He steps toward the Hellmouth as the ritual is finished, and he becomes the First’s receptacle. Buffy shouts Grant’s name, but he purposely steps over the edge of the Hellmouth, and plummets down, taking the First with him. There’s a not—quite human scream as the First falls to its death, and a moment later a bright, shimmering force shoots up out of the Hellmouth. Buffy jumps back as the scorching flames reach for her, diving for cover next to Xander. She quails under the force of the energy streaming up through the pit, covering her head.

Cut to outside. All over town the demons are screaming and dying and getting sucked out of the dimension simultaneously. Every evil creature is suffering. Cut to in front of the police department. Angel falls to his knees, gasping and clutching at his heart. Back inside, as the power subsides, a faint rumbling begins beneath them. Buffy’s head pops up, and she looks around. The rumbling grows stronger, shaking rocks loose and rattling the foundation of the library. Jumping up quickly, Buffy grabs Xander’s nearly unconscious form and yanks him from the rubble, pulling him out of the wrecked room.

She hauls him out of the school and across the street, turning once she gets there to watch as the decimated school caves in on itself in a thunder of noise and a rain of dust, becoming a giant stone and steel stopper as the Hellmouth swallows itself for good.

Commercials.

Later, at the hospital, Willow holds the baby. It’s a boy, and Buffy tearfully suggests the name “Makale.” Dawn is proud of herself for delivering the baby on her own. Willy, playing nursemaid, objects. He thinks he helped a lot. Not only did he supply fresh linens, his bar got turned into a game preserve. Tara, Wesley and Cordelia are there, too, and Buffy leaves them all there fussing over the baby. She goes into the hallway, walking a short distance before entering another room. Xander is lying there in his bed, having regained consciousness. Buffy comes to stand beside him, asking how he feels. Xander says not so great…he doesn’t remember much, but he thinks he hurt Buffy. He’s hesitant when he looks at her, but Buffy is reassured to see just Xander behind his eyes again. Haltingly, he says he’s not sure he wants to remember. Buffy understands. It’s an awkward moment, but both seem to want to try and mend things between them. Buffy says she hurt him too, and she’s sorry…sorry for everything. He says he is, too. They’ve obviously got a lot of work to do to repair their friendship, but Buffy wants him to know that when it came down to it, he saved her. She’s alive because of him, because he fought back against the First and wouldn’t let it kill her. He seems to take some comfort from that. Then the camera pans back and leaves the room as Buffy tells him about his son. Xander looks amazed, glad, saddened, and proud all at once.

Out in the hallway again later, Buffy runs into Spike. The vampire looks bemused, standing there in the pristine white hospital in his black duster. Buffy asks him what happened when he went away, and he shrugs. His body language proclaims nothing happened, but his eyes seem lighter. He looks as if a weight has been removed from his shoulders. He finally says that being away didn’t matter. He was still troubled by a consciousness, he still helped people. He’s ruined. Even though he’s complaining about feeling the need to do the right thing, he doesn’t seem all that troubled b it, and Buffy smiles, remembering Jeeves’ comment about having changed the destiny of two vampires. Speaking of… She asks Spike if he’s seen Angel, and as he walks out with her he nods, pulling out a cigarette. He says he saw him up on the hill. Buffy thanks him and starts away, turning around after a few steps. “Spike?” she says with a hesitant smile, “I’m glad you’re back.” Spike smiles in response, and nods to her. “Not for long, not right now,” he says, indicating the horizon. “It’s nearly sunrise.” Buffy looks startled, glancing at the horizon and then heading off briskly. Spike watches her go, lighting his cigarette.

At the top of the hill, Angel stands near the edge looking out over the town. In the distance, the sky is brightening as the sun creeps up behind the clouds. Buffy strides up to Angel, grabbing his arm. “Hello?” she says, “Sunrise much? You need to get inside.” Angel doesn’t budge, but looks down at her. He asks her if she remembers the last time they were up here together. She does, and looks uncomfortable about it. She remembers that he came here to kill himself that time, and she clearly looks worried that he’s thinking about it again. He doesn’t seem to notice her concern and goes on. He says it was the First who had driven him here. It had convinced him that all he was good for was killing, and he didn’t want to be that anymore. He wanted to be a better person, but he never thought he could be. It was Buffy who’d changed his mind and given him hope, given him the reason to hold on all this time. Buffy is touched, but still worried about the approaching daylight and tugs on his arm again. Angel still doesn’t move, but pulls Buffy closer to him. He takes one of her hands in both of his and presses it to his chest, right above his heart. Buffy doesn’t understand at first, but then feels the steady beat there, feels the warmth radiating from him, and her face lights up with amazed, delighted understanding. Angel returns her broad smile with a grin of his own, and their eyes meet with an old heat. They take the final step between them, bringing them together as daylight lands on them and Angel doesn’t burn. As the sunlight warms them, they kiss.

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