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The SETI Slayers | Fanfic
| The Harvest |
It’s night at Sunnydale High. The school is dark and deserted. Two young people—a boy and a blonde girl—break in through a classroom window. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asks.
The boy starts to climb in through the window. “It’s a great idea, now come on.”
He leads her into the hallway. He wants to go up onto the roof of the gym.
The girl looks around nervously. “I don’t want to go up there. We’re just going to get in trouble.”
The guy wants trouble. He tries to kiss her, but she suddenly pulls away with a gasp. She thinks she hears something. He has a look around. He doesn’t see anything, they are totally alone in the school. “It’s nothing.”
“Maybe it’s something.”
The guy wiggles his fingers and leans toward her. “Or maybe it’s some thing!”
She pushes him away. “That’s not funny.”
The boy has another look around. They’re alone.
“Are you sure?” She looks around for herself.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Okay.” She spins back to him. Her face has transformed into that of a hideous fanged creature. Her teeth sink into his neck.
Buffy Summers sleeps in her bed. Half unpacked boxes surround her. Her sleep is troubled. A series of images flash through her dreams: a pool of blood, cemeteries, handing a cross to someone, vampires, demons, an ancient book entitled Vampyr and a silver cross necklace.
Buffy is awakened by her mother Joyce calling her. It is time for her to get up for her first day at her new school.
Joyce drops Buffy off in front of Sunnydale High. She is sure that Buffy will make lots of new friends right away. All she has to do is think positively. Buffy heads away from the car.
“And Honey?” asks Joyce. Buffy looks back to see what her mother wants. “Try not to get kicked out.”
Buffy smiles sheepishly. “I promise.”
Buffy leaves her mother and heads up the stairs to the school. Xander Harris is passing by on his skateboard, weaving through the crowd of students arriving for the day. He spots Buffy going up the stairs. He is so distracted by her that he runs into the stairway railing, and falls at the feet of his friend Willow Rosenberg.
“Willow! You’re so very much the person that I wanted to see!” Xander climbs back to his feet. “I kind of had a problem with the math.”
“Which part?” asks Willow.
“The math. Can you help me out tonight, please, be my study buddy?”
Willow agrees to meet with him after school for a study session. “Do you have Theories in Trig? You should check it out.”
“Check it out?” asks Xander.
“From the library,” says Willow. “Where the books live.”
They head into the school, where they run into their friend Jesse. Xander asks him what’s up.
“New girl!” says Jesse.
Xander confirms that he’s seen her. “Pretty much a hottie! So tell! What’s the sitch, what do you know about her?”
“New girl!” says Jesse.
“Well, you’re certainly a font of nothing!” says Xander.
Buffy meets with Principal Flutie in his office. He looks over her transcript from her previous school, Hemery High in Los Angeles. “Welcome to Sunnydale!” He rips it up into four pieces. “A clean slate, Buffy, that’s what you get here. What’s past is past. We’re not interested in what it says on a piece of paper, even if it says…” He looks at one of the pieces. “Well…” He starts taping the pieces back together.
“Mr. Flutie,” says Buffy, “I know my transcripts are a little…colourful.”
“Hey, We’re not caring about that,” says Flutie. “Do you think, uh, ‘colourful’ is the word? Not, uh, ‘dismal?’”
“It wasn’t that bad!” says Buffy.
“You burned down the gym!”
“I did, I really did,” confesses Buffy. “But, you’re not seeing the big picture here, I mean, that gym was full of vampi— asbestos.”
“Buffy, don’t worry. Any other school they might say ‘watch your step,’ or ‘we’ll be watching you.’ But, that’s just not the way here. We want to service your needs, and help you to respect our needs. And if your needs and our needs don’t mesh…” Mr. Flutie shrugs, as he puts the taped together copy of her transcripts back into her folder.
Buffy collides with another student as she leaves the principal’s office, and the contents of her purse get spilled on the floor. She gets down on her knees and starts picking things up.
Xander is passing by, and quickly gets down on the floor with her. “Can I have you?” Buffy gives him a confused look. “Duh… Can I help you?”
Buffy smiles and thanks him, and they gather up her stuff and put it back in her purse. Buffy introduces herself.
“Xander.” He winces at his lameness. “Is, is me. Hi.” They finish picking up her stuff. “Well, uh, maybe I’ll see you around…maybe at school…since we…both…go there.”
“Great!” Buffy’s a little charmed by Xander’s awkwardness. They back to their feet. “It was nice to meet you.” She heads off down the hall.
“We both go to school.” Xander mutters to himself. “Very suave. Very not pathetic.” He notices that Buffy missed something. “Oh, hey!” He picks it up. “Hey! You forgot your…” He notices what he has in his hand. “…stake?” Buffy doesn’t hear him.
Buffy sits through a history class on the Black Death. The teacher asks the students to look in their textbooks to see a map of the spread of the disease. Buffy looks around, she doesn’t have a textbook. The girl at the next desk shares hers. When class ends she introduces herself to Buffy. She’s Cordelia Chase.
Cordelia shows Buffy to the school library where she can pick up the books she needs for her classes. On the way Cordy administers a coolness test to see if Buffy is qualified to hang out with her and her friends. “You’re from L.A., so you can skip the written, but let’s see. Vamp nail polish?”
Buffy’s a little disturbed that that’s that first question. “Um, over?”
“So over,” says Cordelia. “James Spader?”
“He needs to call me!” says Buffy.
“Frappaccinos?”
“Trendy, but tasty.”
“John Tesh?”
“The Devil,” says Buffy.
“That was pretty much a gimme, but… you passed!”
“Oh, goody!” says Buffy.
They encounter Willow at the drinking fountain in the hallway. “Willow! Nice dress!” says Cordelia. “Good to know you’ve seen the softer side of Sears.” Buffy gives Cordelia a look.
Willow is wearing a very unfashionable brown plaid jumper over a white blouse and leotards. “Uh, oh, well, my mom picked it out.”
“No wonder you’re such a guy magnet,” says Cordy. “Are you done?”
Willow looks back and forth between the water fountain, and Cordelia, and goes.
“You want to fit in here, the first rule is: know your losers.” Cordy glances at the departing Willow. “Once you can identify them all by sight they’re a lot easier to avoid.” She gets herself a drink. Buffy looks toward the retreating Willow as she pauses in the doorway at the end of the hall, and looks back at Buffy and Cordelia.
Cordy invites Buffy to join her and her friends at the Bronze that night. “It’s the only club worth going to around here. They let anybody in, but it’s still the scene. It’s in the bad part of town.”
“Where’s that?” asks Buffy.
“About a half a block from the good part of town.” Cordelia laughs. “We don’t have a whole lot of town here.”
They’ve reached the library, so Cordy parts. She will see Buffy again in gym, where she expects Buffy to tell Cordy everything there is to know about her. Buffy does not look forward to that.
Buffy pushes open the double library doors, and walks inside. “Hello! Is anybody here?” She looks around.
The Sunnydale High library has two levels. The entrance leads into an open area with a checkout counter to Buffy’s right, and a caged off section to her left. In the center there is an octagonal area with a reading table, surrounded by chairs. Stairs on the left and right sides lead up about three feet to the mezzanine level containing bookshelves. There is a doorway at the back of the mezzanine leading into the library stacks.
The place seems to be deserted.
Buffy sees a newspaper on the checkout counter. An article about some missing teenagers is circled in red. She starts to read it. Someone taps her on the shoulder.
“Ooo!” Buffy spins around. She sees a man, about forty years old, in a tweed suit, and glasses. “Anybody’s here!”
“Can I help you?” The man asks with a cultured British accent.
“I was looking for some, well, books,” says Buffy. “I’m new.”
“Miss Summers?”
“Good call! Guess I’m the only new kid, huh?”
“I’m Mr. Giles.” He hesitates for a moment. “The librarian. I was told you were coming.” He moves behind the checkout counter, and bends down under it.
“Great!” says Buffy. “So, um, I’m going to need Perspectives on 20th Century…”
“I know what you’re after!” Mr. Giles drops a large, ancient leather bound volume on the counter in front of her with a smile. It’s the Vampyr book from Buffy’s dream.
Buffy steps back from the counter. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
“Are you sure?” asks Mr. Giles.
Buffy is still backing up. “I’m way sure.”
“My mistake.” Mr. Giles bends down behind the counter to put the book back. He straightens up again. “So, what is it you said…” Buffy is already on her way out the door.
Aura and Aphrodisia are exchanging gossip about the new girl in the girls’ locker room. Aphrodisia has heard that she’s kind of weird, and what kind of name is “Buffy” anyway? Aura has heard that Buffy got kicked out of her old school because she was getting in fights and stuff.
Aura opens her locker and the body of the boy who was killed by the vampire in the school last night falls out onto her. She screams.
Willow sits on a low wall at the edge of the school courtyard, and pulls the brown bag containing her lunch out of her backpack.
Buffy comes up to her. “Uh, Hi! Willow, right?”
Willow looks up at her. “Why? I mean, hi! Uh, did you want me to move?”
“Why don’t we start with ‘Hi, I’m Buffy,’ and then let’s segue directly into me asking you for a favour.” Buffy sits down on the wall next to her. “It doesn’t involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while.”
“But aren’t you hanging out with Cordelia?” asks Willow.
“I can’t do both?”
“Not legally.”
“Look, I really want to get by here.” Buffy reaches into her oversized purse and pulls out her own brown lunch bag. “New school, and, Cordelia’s been really nice—to me anyway—but, um, I kind of have this burning desire not to flunk all my classes, and I heard a rumour that you were the person to talk to if I wanted to get caught up.”
Willow is pleased to help. She suggests that Buffy meet her in the library during sixth period, if Buffy has it free.
Buffy doesn’t want to go back to the library. She suggests that they meet someplace else. “That place just kind of gives me the wiggins.”
“Oh, it has that effect on most kids,” says Willow. “I love it, though, it’s a great collection, and the new librarian is really cool.”
“He’s new?”
“Yeah, he just started,” says Willow. “He was a curator at some British museum, or The British Museum, I’m not sure. But he knows everything, and he brought all these historical volumes and biographies and am I the single dullest person alive?”
“Not at all,” says Buffy.
They are joined by Xander and Jesse. Willow introduces them to Buffy.
“Oh, me and Buffy go way back,” says Xander. “Old friends, very close. Then there’s that period of estrangement where I think we were both growing as people, but now here we are, like old times, I’m quite moved.”
“Is it me,” asks Jesse, “or are you turning into a bibbling idiot?”
“No, it’s, uh, it’s not you,” says Xander.
Buffy says that it’s nice to meet them, but she doesn’t sound too sure about it. Jesse tells her that they just want to welcome her and make her feel at home.
Xander reaches into his bag, and pulls out her stake. “And to return this.” He holds the stake out toward her. Jesse gives it a suspicious look. “The only thing I can think is that you’re building a really little fence.”
Buffy snatches the stake out of Xander’s hand, and tells him it’s for self defense. “Everyone has them in L.A. Pepper spray is just so passé.”
Xander and Jesse want to hear everything there is to know about Buffy Summers. She isn’t really too anxious to tell them.
Buffy’s rescued by the appearance of Cordelia. “Are these guys bothering you?”
Jesse springs to his feet. “Hey, Cordelia!”
Cordelia just ignores Jesse. She does not approve of Buffy’s companions. “I don’t mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won’t be meeting Coach Foster—the woman with the chest hair—because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker.”
Everyone is shocked by the news. Willow asks what Cordy is talking about.
“Some guy was stuffed in Aura’s locker!” says Cordy.
“Dead?” asks Buffy.
“Totally dead,” says Cordy. “Way dead.”
“It’s not just a little dead then?” asks Xander.
Cordelia glares at him. “Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?”
“Y’know, if you need a shoulder to cry on, or just to nibble on…” says Jesse. Cordy scoffs at him.
“How did he die?” asks Buffy.
“I don’t know,” says Cordy.
“Well, were there any marks?”
Cordelia is a little disturbed by Buffy’s curiosity. “Morbid much! I didn’t ask!”
Buffy gathers up her things, and tells the others that she has to be going. She hurries away.
Cordelia watches Buffy go. “What’s her deal?”
Buffy heads for the locker room to check things out for herself. She tries the door, and finds it’s locked. She looks around to make sure no one is watching, and then she pulls on the doorknob. The door breaks open. Buffy has one last look around to make sure she wasn’t seen, and goes inside.
She finds the body is still there, covered by a blanket. She lifts the blanket and sees the bite mark on the boy’s neck. “Oh, great!”
Buffy storms into the library to confront Mr. Giles. “Okay, what’s the sitch?”
Mr. Giles comes out from behind some shelves on the mezzanine and asks what she’s talking about.
Buffy comes up the stairs to meet him. “You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker? ’Cause, it’s the weirdest thing. He’s got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood’s been drained. Isn’t that bizarre? Aren’t you just going, ‘ooo?’”
“I was afraid of this,” says Mr. Giles.
“Well, I wasn’t! It’s my first day! I was afraid that I was going to be behind in all my classes, that I wouldn’t make any friends, that I would have last month’s hair. I didn’t think there’d be vampires on campus. And I don’t care!”
“Then why are you here?”
“To tell you that…I don’t care, which…I don’t, and…have now told you, so…bye.” Buffy turns to go.
Mr. Giles stops Buffy. He asks her if the boy will rise again, and she tells him he won’t. He’s just dead.
“Can you be sure?” asks Mr. Giles.
“To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood,” says Buffy. “And then you have to suck their blood. It’s like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they’re just going to kill you. Why am I still talking to you?” She turns away from Mr. Giles, and goes back down the stairs to the main level of the library. She heads for the door.
Mr. Giles leans over the railing. “You really have no idea what’s going on, do you? You think it’s coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning!”
Buffy stops and looks back at him. “Oh, why can’t you people just leave me alone?”
“Because you are the Slayer.” Mr. Giles comes down the stairs. “Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world. A Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires…”
Buffy joins in. “…with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil blah, blah, blah…I’ve heard it, okay?”
“I really don’t understand this attitude,” says Mr. Giles. “You, you’ve accepted your duty, you, you’ve slain vampires before…”
“Yeah, and I’ve both been there and done that, and I’m moving on.”
Mr. Giles can’t accept that. He has been digging into Sunnydale’s history, and there has been a lot of weird stuff going on there. He believes it to be a mystical convergence. He goes into his office behind the checkout counter. Buffy leans against the reading table while she waits for him.
Mr. Giles comes out carrying a stack of books. He puts them on the table beside Buffy. All sorts of creatures gravitate to Sunnydale. Not just vampires. He starts handing Buffy books, as he names each new creature. “Zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi, everything you’ve ever dreaded was under your bed, but told yourself couldn’t be by the light of day. They’re all real!”
“What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series?” asks Buffy.
Mr. Giles is a little chagrinned. “Ah, w—yes.”
“Did you get the free phone?”
“Um, the calendar.”
“Cool! But, okay.” Buffy hands the books back to him. “First of all, I’m a Vampire Slayer. And secondly, I’m retired. Hey, I know! Why don’t you kill ’em?”
“I’m a Watcher,” says Mr. Giles “I haven’t the skill.”
“Oh, come on, stake through the heart, a little sunlight…it’s like falling off a log.”
“A Slayer slays. A Watcher—”
“Watches?” asks Buffy.
“Yes,” says Mr. Giles. “No! He trains her, he, prepares her—”
“Prepares me for what?” asks Buffy. “For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me.”
Mr. Giles and Buffy just stare at each other for a while. Mr. Giles doesn’t know what to say. Buffy turns and leaves the library. Mr. Giles swears under his breath, and chases after her.
Xander comes out of the stacks, carrying a copy of Theories in Trigonometry. “What?”
Mr. Giles catches up with Buffy in the school corridor, and stops her. He pushes her over to the edge of the hall, and tries to not to attract too much attention while they talk. He tells her that the supernatural occurrences have been getting more frequent lately. “There’s a reason why you’re here, and a reason why it’s now!”
“Because now is the time my mom moved here.” Buffy starts to walk away down the hall.
Mr. Giles follows her. “Something’s coming, something, something…” He darts up beside her and puts his hand against the wall to block her. “Something is going to happen here. Soon!”
“Gee, can you vague that up for me?”
“The signs, as far as I can tell, point to a crucial mystical upheaval, very soon. Days. Possibly less.”
“Oh come on,” says Buffy. “This is Sunnydale. How bad an evil can there be here?”
Beneath the school, in the buried ruins of a church, the vampires gather.
The strongest of them, Luke, kneels before a pool of blood. “The Sleeper will wake. The Sleeper will wake. The Sleeper will wake, and the world will bleed!” He looks up. “Amen!”
Buffy holds a black vinyl dress up in front of herself in front of her mirror in her room. “Hi! I’m an enormous slut!” She tries another dress, cotton, with a floral pattern. “Would you like to buy a copy of The Watchtower?” She puts the dress aside, and sighs. “I used to be so good at this.”
Joyce comes into Buffy’s room, and asks if she’s going out. Buffy says she’s going to a club.
“Will there be boys there?”
“No, Mom. It’s a nun club,” says Buffy.
“Well, just be careful.” Joyce sits down on Buffy’s bed. She’s found a spot for her gallery. Everything is looking up. “Oh, and that school is a very nurturing environment, which is just what you need.”
“Well, actually—”
“Oh, not too nurturing. I know, you’re sixteen, I’ve read all about the dangers of over-nurturing.” She watches Buffy lay out a couple of outfits on her bed. “It’s hard. New town and everything… It is for me, too. I’m trying to make it work.” She takes Buffy’s hand in hers. “I’m going to make it work.”
“I know,” says Buffy.
“Oh, you’re a good girl, Buffy.” Joyce pats Buffy on the head. “You just fell in with the wrong crowd. But that is all behind us now.”
“It is.” Buffy pulls her hand out of her mother’s. “From now on I am only going to hang out with the living.” Joyce shoots a look at her. “I mean lively. People.”
Buffy walks down the street alone. She notices that someone is following her. She ducks into an alley.
The man follows her into the alley. Buffy has disappeared. He looks around but he doesn’t see her.
Buffy is doing a handstand on a bar which spans the alley ten feet above him. When he passes beneath her, Buffy swings down and hits him on the back with both feet. He falls to the ground.
Buffy drops down and puts her foot on his chest. “Why are you following me?”
The man makes no move to fight back. He just lies there and looks up at her. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”
Buffy backs off a bit, but she doesn’t drop her guard. The man gets to his feet. He’s about six feet tall, mid-twenties, handsome, with dark hair, wearing a black silk jacket. He looks down at her five foot three frame. He’s surprised by how small she is. He rubs his neck. “You’re pretty spry though.”
“What do you want?” asks Buffy.
“The same thing you do.”
Buffy drops her guard, and shrugs at him. “Okay. What do I want?”
“To kill them. To kill them all.”
“Sorry, that’s incorrect. But you do get this lovely watch and a year’s supply of Turtle Wax. What I want is to be left alone!” Buffy brushes past him, and walks back toward the entrance to the alley.
“Do you really think that’s an option anymore?” he asks. “You’re standing at the mouth of Hell, and it’s about to open.”
Buffy stops and turns around.
The man pulls a small box out of his pocket and tosses it to her. “Don’t turn your back on this. You’ve got to be ready.”
“What for?” asks Buffy.
“For the Harvest.”
“Who are you?”
“Let’s just say…I’m a friend.” He walks past her toward the street.
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want a friend,” says Buffy.
He turns toward her, but keeps walking backwards. “I didn’t say I was yours.” He vanishes into the darkness.
Buffy opens the box. It contains a necklace, with a silver cross on it. It’s the necklace from her dream.
Buffy enters the Bronze. It is full of kids, and there’s a live band performing on stage. She looks around and she sees a guy who seems to be waving to her. She starts to wave back before she notices that he’s really waving to a guy who’s standing behind her. She tries to cover by pretending she just raised her hand to adjust her hair.
Buffy sees Willow sitting at the counter. She joins her, and orders herself a drink. Willow is waiting for Xander. Buffy asks if they’re dating.
“No, we’re just friends,” says Willow. “We used to go out, but we broke up.”
“How come?” asks Buffy.
“He stole my Barbie,” says Willow. Buffy gives her a confused look. “Oh, we were five.” Willow tells Buffy that she hasn’t dated a lot since then. “When I’m with a boy I like, it’s hard for me to say anything cool, or witty, or at all. I can usually make a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away. I think boys are more interested in a girl who can talk.”
“You really haven’t been dating lately,” says Buffy. She doesn’t have that problem with guys. She tells Willow her philosophy. “Life is short. Not original, I’ll grant you, but it’s true. You know? Why waste time being all shy and worrying about some guy, and if he’s going to laugh at you. Seize the moment, ’cause tomorrow you might be dead.”
Buffy looks around and spots Mr. Giles on the balcony overlooking the Bronze’s main dance floor. “Um, I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” says Willow. “You don’t have to come back.”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” repeats Buffy. She goes to look for the stairs up to the balcony.
Willow looks around the club. “Seize the moment.”
Buffy joins Mr. Giles on the balcony. She is a little surprised to find him hanging out with the students.
“Oh, right, this is me having fun.” Mr. Giles points to the singer on stage. “Watching Clown Hair prance about is hardly my idea of a party. I’d much rather be at home with a cup of Bovril and a good book. This is a perfect breeding ground for vampire activity. It’s dark, it’s crowded. Besides, I knew you were likely to show up, and I have to make you understand—”
“That the Harvest is coming,” says Buffy “I know, your friend told me.”
Mr. Giles is confused. He has no idea what, or who, Buffy is talking about. He wants to know if the man told her anything else.
“Something about the mouth of Hell. I really didn’t like him!” Buffy turns away, and looks out over the railing at the dancers below.
Mr. Giles leans against the rail beside Buffy. “Look at them, throwing themselves about, completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them.”
“Lucky them,” says Buffy.
“Or perhaps you’re right,” says Mr. Giles. “Perhaps there is no trouble coming. The signs could be wrong. It’s not as though you’ve been having the nightmares.”
Buffy doesn’t say anything. After a second Mr. Giles looks at her.
Cordelia is holding court with a group of her friends near the dance floor. Jesse calls out to her.
“Oh, yay, it’s my stalker.” Cordy makes a gagging expression at her friends.
Jesse weaves through the crowd, and when he reaches her, asks if she wants to dance.
“With you?” asks Cordy.
“Well, uh, yeah,” says Jesse.
“Well, uh, no!” says Cordy. “C’mon, guys.” She gathers up her posse, and leads them away.
“Fine!” says Jesse, “Plenty of other fish in the sea. Oh, yeah, I’m on the prowl. Witness me prowling!” He starts looking around for another girl.
Mr. Giles asks Buffy if she can sense the presence of any vampires. As the Slayer she should be able to, even through the din that surrounds them in the Bronze. “Reach out with your mind. You have to hone your senses, focus until the energy washes over you, until you, you feel every particle of—”
Buffy points to a boy who’s talking to a girl on the floor below. “There’s one!”
“Where?”
Buffy points again. “Right there, talking to that girl.”
“You don’t know…”
“Oh, please!” says Buffy. “Look at his jacket. He’s got the sleeves rolled up. And the shirt? Deal with that outfit for a moment.”
“It’s dated?”
“It’s carbon dated,” says Buffy. “Trust me, only someone living underground for ten years would think that was still the look.
“But you didn’t…hone,” says Mr. Giles.
The girl the vampire is talking to turns and they both recognise her. It’s Willow. She has picked the wrong guy to seize the moment with.
Buffy rushes down to the dance floor, but she loses Willow and the vampire in the crowd. She last sees them heading toward the back entrance. She heads toward the back door, and breaks the leg off a chair to create a makeshift stake for herself. She can’t find them.
Someone comes through a door behind her. Buffy whirls around, seizes her by the neck, and raises her stake.
Buffy freezes. “Cordelia!” Cordelia has just come out of the washroom. Buffy lowers her stake, and releases her.
“God! What is your childhood trauma?” asks Cordelia. Several of Cordelia’s friends stare at Buffy.
“Have you guys seen Willow?” asks Buffy. “Did she come by here?”
“Why? Do you need to attack her with the stick?” asks Cordy. Buffy leaves. Cordy pulls her cell phone out of her purse. “Excuse me, I have to call everyone I have ever met, right now.”
Buffy finds Mr. Giles by the Bronze’s dance floor. He’s pleased with the quick work she made of the vampire—he wants to return to the library to see if he can learn anything about the Harvest—until Buffy tells him that she didn’t find the vampire. Then he wants to know if she needs his help to kill it.
“I’ll take care of it!” says Buffy. “Don’t worry. One vampire I can handle.”
Buffy passes Jesse on her way out of the Bronze. He’s talking to a pretty blonde girl. “So, um, what did you say your name was?”
The vampire who killed the boy in the locker smiles at him. “Darla.”
Jesse is surprised he hasn’t seen Darla around before. She tells him she’s from out of town, but has family in the area.
“Have I met them?” asks Jesse.
“You probably will.”
The pool of blood has started to boil in the underground church. An ancient and powerful vampire rises from it. The blood doesn’t wet it. The Master is bald, and his skin is pale. His face is even less human than the other vampires, his features are becoming bat like. He steps out of the pool, and holds his hand out to Luke, who is kneeling beside it.
Luke kisses the Master’s hand, and rises to his feet. The Master staggers forward a couple of steps, and holds out his hand. The air trembles as his hand presses against an invisible barrier. He is weak and hungry from his long sleep. Luke tells him that the rest of his servants have been sent to get some food for him.
“Luke…” The Master looks back at him. “Bring me something…young.”
Willow and the vampire Thomas approach one of Sunnydale’s cemeteries. Willow is surprised she hasn’t seen him around school before this. She thinks they are on their way to get some ice cream.
Thomas tells Willow that he knows a shortcut. He takes hold of her hand and leads her into the cemetery.
Buffy runs into Xander outside the Bronze. She asks if he’s seen Willow and the boy she left with. Xander is surprised to learn that Willow left with a guy.
“I need to find her,” says Buffy. “Where would he take her?”
“Why?” asks Xander. “Oh, hey, I hope he’s not a vampire, because then you might have to slay him.”
Buffy is incredulous. “Was there a school bulletin? Was it in the newspaper?” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Is there anyone in this town who doesn’t know I’m the Slayer?”
Xander starts to explain how he overheard her and Mr. Giles in the library but Buffy really doesn’t have time for this. She has to find Willow.
“You’re serious!” says Xander.
“We don’t find her and there’s going to be one more dead body in the morning!” says Buffy.
Willow is getting nervous. She is pretty sure this isn’t the way to the ice cream place. They reach a mausoleum, and Thomas invites her to come inside. Willow doesn’t want to go in, and turns away.
Thomas grabs Willow. He pulls the hair away from her neck, and looks at it. “What are you afraid of?” His mouth moves toward her neck. The vampire’s grip tightens on Willow, and it pushes her into the crypt.
Willow is not amused. She and the vampire circle each other inside the crypt. “I think I’m going to go,” says Willow.
“Is that what you think,” says the vampire. It steps toward her.
Willow tries to make it out the door, but her path is blocked by Darla. Darla looks at Thomas. “Is this the best you could do?”
“She’s fresh,” says Thomas.
“Hardly enough to share.”
“Why didn’t you bring your own?”
“I did,” says Darla.
A dazed and weak Jesse staggers into the mausoleum. He has a bloody neck. He thinks it’s a hickey. He nearly collapses into Willow’s arms.
Darla smiles and shrugs at Thomas. “I got hungry on the way.”
Willow tries to leave again, taking Jesse with her.
Darla stops her again. “Oh no, you’re not going anywhere.” Willow tries to pull away. “You’re not going anywhere until we’ve fed!” Darla’s face transforms.
Willow screams.
“Well, this is nice,” says Buffy. Darla spins around and sees her and Xander by the crypt entrance. Buffy steps inside. “It’s a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows…call it home!” She runs her finger over the sarcophagus in the center of the crypt, checking for dust.
“Who the hell are you?” asks Darla.
Buffy circles around the crypt, drawing the vampires away from Willow and Jesse. She is pleased to learn that there is actually someone in this town who doesn’t know who she is.
Xander thinks that it’s time for them to bail, but Thomas doesn’t think so. He and Darla are maneuvering to get on opposite sides of Buffy so she can’t watch them both at the same time.
Buffy keeps her attention on Darla. “Now, we can do this the hard way, or…well, actually there’s just the hard way.”
“That’s fine with me!” says Darla.
“Are you sure?” asks Buffy. “Now, this in not going to be pretty. We’re talking violence, strong language, adult content…”
Thomas rushes Buffy from behind, but she was expecting that. She pulls her stake out of her jacket, and jabs backwards under her arm, without even looking. She catches Thomas squarely in the chest. He falls back onto the floor, and explodes into a cloud of dust. Everyone else is shocked by what happened. “See what happens when you roughhouse?” asks Buffy.
“He was young and stupid!” says Darla.
Buffy tells Willow and Xander to take Jesse and go. They run.
Darla attacks Buffy, but she is no match for the Slayer. Buffy soon has her pinned to the ground, ready for staking. “You know, I just wanted to start over. Be like everybody else. Have some friends, y’know, maybe a dog. But, no, you had to come here, you couldn’t go suck on some other town.”
“Who are you?” asks Darla.
“Don’t you know?” asks Buffy.
Luke grabs Buffy by the neck from behind and lifts her off the ground with one hand. “I don’t care!” He tosses her across the tomb.
Luke is very upset with Darla. She was supposed to be collecting an offering for the Master, not dallying with this child. Darla tries to make excuses. She tells Luke that they had someone, until Buffy came. She’s strong, and she killed Thomas. Luke sends Darla off to collect the Master’s escaping meal while he stays to deal with this little girl.
Buffy picks herself up, and attacks Luke. She tries punching and kicking him, but he blocks her blows easily. They hardly affect him at all.
“You’re strong.” Luke hits Buffy with a backhanded punch, knocking her across the crypt. “I’m stronger!”
Willow, Xander and Jesse try to flee from the cemetery. They find their escape blocked by several more vampires, and Darla is behind them.
Buffy circles around the stone sarcophagus in the center of the crypt, keeping out of Luke’s reach. He suddenly pushes its lid across the crypt toward her. Buffy jumps over it, and vaults across the open coffin. She catches Luke in the chest with both feet, and knocks him to the floor. She grabs her stake and plunges it toward his chest.
Luke catches Buffy’s arm with one hand. He grabs the end of her stake with his other and breaks it. “You think you can stop me? Stop us? You have no idea what you’re dealing with.” He tosses Buffy away from him. “And like a plague of boils, the race of man covered the Earth. But on the third day of the newest light would come the Harvest. And the blood of men will flow as wine. When the Master will walk among them once more! The Earth will belong to the old ones. And Hell itself will come to town.”
Luke picks Buffy up and throws her into the coffin. She lands on top of the skeleton of its previous occupant.
Buffy lies still for a few seconds. There’s no sign of Luke. She starts to sit up to have a look around. Luke suddenly leaps into the coffin on top of her. “Amen!” He pushes her back, and bares his fangs.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| The extreme dead guy in Aura’s locker | Sunnydale High | Killed by Darla |
| The vampire Thomas | Crypt in cemetery | Staked by Buffy |