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Surprise

Prologue

Buffy wakes from a troubled sleep and takes a sip of water from the glass on her bedside table. She gets out of bed, leaves her room and walks down the hallway toward her mother’s room.

Drusilla appears behind Buffy and silently follows her down the hall. She has a small trickle of blood coming off her lip.

Buffy opens her mother’s door and walks through into the Bronze. She threads her way through the couples on the dance floor toward the table Willow is sitting at.

Willow has a large cup of coffee, and there’s a monkey wearing a little hat and jacket sitting on the table. “Le hippo a piqué ton pantalons.”¹ she tells the monkey. Willow looks up and sees Buffy. She smiles and waves to her. Buffy looks at them curiously, but turns away without saying anything.

Buffy continues through the Bronze. She finds her mother holding a large cup and saucer. “Do you really think you’re ready Buffy?”

“What?” asks Buffy.

Joyce drops the saucer. It smashes on the floor and Joyce turns and walks away from her.

Buffy walks over to the bar, but she senses something behind her. She turns and sees Angel standing there. She smiles and they walk toward each other. As they approach one another Drusilla appears behind Angel and plunges a stake into his back.

Buffy and Angel reach out to each other. “My soul!” says Angel as he turns to dust. He’s gone before their finger tips meet. His ring falls to the floor.

Drusilla smiles. “Happy birthday Buffy!”

Buffy wakes up.

Act I

Buffy stops at Angel’s apartment on her way to school next morning to check on him. She tells him about Drusilla killing him in her dream.

Angel tries to reassure her. “Still, not every dream you have comes true. I mean, what else did you dream last night? Can you remember?”

“I dreamt…” Buffy looks down, feeling embarrassed. “I dreamt that Giles and I opened an office supply warehouse in Vegas.”

“See my point?” asks Angel.

Buffy does, but she is still worried. They never found Drusilla’s body after the fire. Angel isn’t worried. So what if Drusilla is still alive? They’ll deal with her. Buffy is still worried, but Angel silences her objections with a kiss.

Buffy breaks it off. She has to go to school. It takes a couple of tries for her to actually get to the door. Angel wants to know what Buffy wants for her birthday. She tells him to surprise her. They kiss some more.

“This is nice,” says Buffy. “I like seeing you first thing in the morning.”

“It’s bedtime for me,” says Angel.

“Well, then I like seeing you at bedtime,” says Buffy, “Um, ah, You know what I mean.”

“I think so.”

“I like seeing you,” says Buffy. “The part at the end of the night where we say good-bye. It’s getting harder.”

“Yeah. It is,” says Angel.

Buffy meets with Willow outside the school. She tells her about her visit to Angel in the morning. Her feelings for Angel are getting a little overwhelming. Buffy asks Willow what she should do.

“What do you want to do?” asks Willow.

Buffy and Willow find themselves seats on one of the benches. “I don’t know,” says Buffy. “I mean, ‘want’ isn’t always the right thing to do. To act on want can be wrong.”

“True,” says Willow.

“But to not act on want… What if I never feel this way again?”

“Carpe diem,” says Willow. “You told me that once.”

“‘Fish of the day?’” asks Buffy.

“Not carp!” says Willow, “Carpe. It means ‘seize the day.’”

“Right,” says Buffy. “I think we’re going to. Seize it. Once you get to a certain point, then seizing is sort of inevitable.”

“Wow!” says Willow.

“Yeah,” agrees Buffy.

“Wow!” says Willow again.

The bell rings, and they get off the bench and start moving toward the school. Willow is still saying “Wow!”

Buffy spots Oz sitting on a picnic table nearby, practicing with his guitar. She asks Willow if he has any “Wow potential.”

Willow thinks Oz is nice, she really likes his hands, but she isn’t sure. Oz is a senior.

“You think he’s too old ’cause he’s a senior?” asks Buffy. “Please. My boyfriend had a bicentennial.”

Willow concedes the point, but she still isn’t sure.

“You can’t spend the rest of your life waiting for Xander to wake up and smell the hottie,” says Buffy. “Make a move. Do the talking thing.”

“What if the talking thing becomes the awkward-silence thing?” asks Willow.

“You won’t know until you try.” Buffy walks off and leaves Willow on her own.

Willow walks over to where Oz is practicing. “Hey!”

Oz stops playing and says “Hey” back. Willow asks if his band has a gig tonight, but he tells her they’re just going to be practicing. “Our band’s kind of moving towards this new sound where, we suck. So, practice.”

Willow thinks they sound pretty good. “I bet you have a lot of groupies.”

“It happens,” says Oz, “I’m living groupie-free nowadays. I’m clean.”

“Oh,” says Willow, and the conversation lapses into an awkward silence. Oz picks it up again by telling Willow that he’s going to ask her out tomorrow night, but he’s feeling a little nervous about it.

“Oh. Well, if it helps at all, I’m going to say ‘yes.’” says Willow.

“Yeah, it helps,” says Oz. “It creates a comfort zone. Do you want to go out with me tomorrow night?”

Willow slaps her forehead. “Oh! I can’t!”

“I like that you’re unpredictable.”

Willow explains that tomorrow is Buffy’s birthday, and they are throwing her a surprise party. Oz tells her that’s okay, but Willow has another idea: “You could come, if you want to.”

Oz doesn’t want to crash, but Willow says it’ll be fine. “You could be…my date.”

“All right. I’m in,” says Oz, and smiles at her. Willow smiles back. They make a couple of happy expressions at each other, and then Willow turns and walks away, with a big grin on her face.

“I said ‘date’,” Willow tells herself.

Xander talks to Cordelia at her locker about Buffy’s party. Cordelia is bringing the chips and dip. He asks if maybe they should go to the party together as a couple, admit that they are dating.

“Groping in a broom closet isn’t dating,” says Cordy. “You don’t call it a ‘date’ until the guy spends money.”

“Fine,” says Xander. “I’ll spend, then we’ll grope. Whatever. I just think it’s some kind of whacked that we feel we have to hide it from all our friends.”

“Well, of course you want to tell everybody,” says Cordelia. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. I, on the other hand, have everything to be ashamed of.”

“You know what?” asks Xander. “Enough said. Forget it. It must’ve been my multiple-personality guy talking. I call him Idiot Jed, glutton for punishment.”

Xander leaves Cordelia at her locker and walks toward the student lounge, where he runs into Giles. Giles asks if everything is all set for the party. Xander tells him it is.

Giles looks up and sees Buffy coming down the stairs with Miss Calendar. “Now remember,” he says. “Discretion is the better part of valour.”

“You could’ve just said, ‘shhh’!” says Xander. “God, are all you Brits such drama queens?”

Giles notices that Buffy is looking a little tired, and asks if anything is wrong as the four of them take seats at one of the tables. Buffy tells them about her dream with Drusilla killing Angel.

“You feel it was more of a portent?” asks Giles.

“See, I don’t know,” says Buffy. “I don’t want to start a big freakout over nothing.”

“Still, best to be on the alert,” says Giles. “If Drusilla is alive, it could be a fairly cataclysmic state of affairs.”

“Again, so many words!” says Xander. “Couldn’t you just say, ‘we’d be in trouble’?”

“Go to class, Xander,” says Giles.

Xander gets up from the table. “Gone. Notice the economy of phrasing,” he tells Giles. “‘Gone.’ Simple. Direct.”

Buffy thinks she should be off to class as well. She gets up to go too. Giles tells her not to worry unduly.

“I know,” says Buffy. “I should keep my Slayer cool, but, it’s Angel, which automatically equals maxi-wig.”

Dalton delivers a package to the vampire’s lair in the abandoned factory. It’s a wooden box. Spike tells him to put it on the table with the other gifts. Drusilla pushes him in a wheelchair out into the room. His face is still scarred from the burns he received in the fire.

Preparations are nearly complete for Dru’s party. Spike isn’t sure that Sunnydale is the right place for it though. Nothing ever goes right for them here.

Drusilla isn’t concerned. Her parties are always perfect. She has good games for everyone. She walks over to the table where some vampires are arranging some roses on the backs of the chairs. “These flowers…are wrong. They’re all…wrong!” Dru starts to moan. “I can’t abide them!” She screams and starts to rip the flowers off one of the chairs.

“Let’s try something different with the flowers then,” says Spike calmly to the vampires who were arranging them.

Drusilla calms down a bit, and walks around the table. She doesn’t want to wait until her party to open all of her gifts. She wants to open one now.

Spike rolls his chair toward Drusilla. “Just a peek, love. They’re for the party.”

Drusilla opens one of the boxes, and looks inside. She is overjoyed by what she sees.

“Do you like it, baby?” asks Spike.

“It reeks of death.” Drusilla turns away from the box and kneels in front of Spike. She runs her hands along his legs. “This will be the best party ever.”

“Why is that?” asks Spike.

“Because…” Dru gets up and looks in the box again. “…it will be the last.” She slams the lid closed.

Act II

Joyce starts to clean up the dishes from her and Buffy’s breakfast. She asks Buffy if she’s ready for a mall trip for her birthday on Saturday.

“Space on a Mom-sponsored shopping opportunity? Not likely,” says Buffy.

“Hmm,” says Joyce. “So, does, um, seventeen feel any different than sixteen?”

“It’s funny you should ask that,” says Buffy. “You know, I woke up feeling more responsible, mature and levelheaded.”

“Really?” asks Joyce. “It’s uncanny.”

Buffy looks hopefully at her mother. “I now possess the qualities one looks for in a…licensed driver.”

“Buffy…”

“You said we could talk about it again when I was seventeen.”

“Do you really think you’re ready, Buffy?” asks Joyce. The plate she’s holding slips out of her hands, and shatters on the floor.

A tall, dark, older man wearing a battered fedora, and somewhat old fashioned clothes walks into Jenny’s computer science classroom. Her back is to the door, she doesn’t notice his entrance. He walks up behind her. “Jenny Calendar.”

Jenny gasps and spins around. Then she stops. She recognises this man. He’s her Uncle Enyos.

Enyos asks how Jenny’s been. She hasn’t been writing as much lately. He feels that she has been ignoring her responsibilities to her people. “The elder woman has been reading signs. Something is different.”

“Nothing has changed!” says Jenny. “The curse still holds.”

“The elder woman is never wrong,” says Enyos. “She says his pain is lessening. She can feel it.”

Jenny becomes uncertain. “There is…a girl.”

Enyos is disgusted. “What? How could you let this happen?”

“I promise you,” says Jenny. “Angel still suffers. And he makes amends for his evil. He even saved my life!”

“So you just forget that he destroyed the most beloved daughter of your tribe?” asks Enyos. “That he killed every man, woman and child that touched her life? Vengeance demands that his pain be eternal as ours is! If this, this girl gives him one minute of happiness, it is one minute too much!”

“I’m sorry,” says Jenny, “I thought—”

“You thought what? You thought you are Jenny Calendar now? You are still Janna, of the Kalderash people! A Gypsy.”

“I know Uncle. I know.”

“Then prove it,” says Enyos. “Your time for watching is past. The girl and him, it ends now! Do what you must to take her from him!”

“I will see to it,” says Jenny.

Buffy tells Giles about how her mother broke the plate exactly the way she did in her dream.

Willow and Xander arrive in the library, ready to give Buffy her birthday greetings, but Buffy has lost the birthday mood.

Giles still doesn’t seem to be very worried about Drusilla. “Even if she is alive, we can still protect Angel. Dreams aren’t prophecies, Buffy. You dreamt that the Master had risen, but you stopped it from happening.”

“You ground his bones to make your bread,” says Xander.

“That’s true,” says Buffy, “Except for the bread part. Okay, so, fine. We’re one step ahead, but I want to stay that way.”

“Absolutely,” says Giles. He wants to do some more research on Drusilla, see if he can learn any more about her. They can meet back in the library at seven to map out a strategy. He moves toward his office. Buffy wants to know what she should do until then.

“Go to classes,” says Giles, “Do your homework, have supper…”

“Right. Be that Buffy.” She gets up from the library table and heads off to class.

Xander and Willow watch Buffy go, and then start cancelling their party plans. Willow bought little hats and everything. She starts to leave to tell Cordelia.

“No, you won’t,” says Giles. “We’re having a party tonight.”

Xander looks at Giles curiously. “Looks like Mr. Caution Man, but the sound he makes is funny.” Willow nods in agreement.

“Buffy’s surprise party will go ahead as we planned,” says Giles. “Except I won’t be wearing the little hat.”

“But Buffy and Angel—” objects Willow.

“May well be in danger.” Giles leans against the frame of his office door and sips from a mug of tea. “As they have been before, and, I imagine, will be again. One thing I’ve learned in my tenure here on the Hellmouth is that there is no good time to relax. And Buffy’s turning seventeen just this once, and she deserves a party.”

“You’re a great man of our time,” says Xander.

“And anyway,” says Willow, “Angel’s coming. So she’ll be able to protect him and have cake.”

“Precisely,” says Giles.

Buffy arrives at the school that evening looking for Giles. She’s intercepted in the hallway by Miss Calendar. She tells Buffy that Giles wants to meet her someplace else. She offers to give Buffy a lift.

Jenny drives Buffy in her old VW Beetle. Buffy notices that they are getting close to the Bronze, and asks if that’s where they’re going to be meeting Giles. Jenny says she doesn’t know. She just has an address.

Buffy notices something strange, and tells Jenny to stop. Some men are loading something onto a truck at a loading dock. Something about it bothers Buffy.

Jenny stops her car. “No, Buffy, maybe you shouldn’t.”

“Sorry. Sacred duty, yada yada yada.” Buffy gets out of the car.

“What is this?” Jenny asks herself as she waits.

Buffy walks up to the truck. It has an open bed at the back enclosed in a wooden frame. She gets a better look at one of the ‘men’ carrying a box toward the truck.

Buffy shakes her head. “Every time I see you, you’re stealing something,” she tells Dalton. “You really should speak with someone about this klepto issue.”

The truck engine starts and Buffy turns around. The vampire in the driver’s seat opens his door and kicks at her. Buffy grabs the vampire and pulls it out. She kicks it away from her. She backs up against the bed of the truck. A third vampire reaches down and grabs Buffy by her jacket. It lifts her up into the truck bed with it. The driver jumps up into the truck and attacks her too.

Buffy’s friends are getting impatient while waiting to surprise her inside the Bronze. “Shhh!” says Willow from her hiding place behind the pool table. “I think I hear her coming.”

Buffy breaks a piece of the truck bed’s frame off and uses it as a stake on one of the vampires. The other vampire grabs her, picks her up, and tosses her out of the truck, against the wall of the Bronze.

Buffy’s friends hear the sounds of the fight coming from outside. They start to look a little worried.

Suddenly Buffy and the vampire come crashing through a painted over window onto the Bronze’s stage. Buffy gives the vampire a kick, grabs a drum stick off the drum set, and stakes the vampire with it. It explodes into dust.

Willow looks at Oz to see how he’s going to react to this.

Cordelia jumps out of her hiding spot. “Surprise!” Everyone turns to look at her.

“That pretty much sums it up,” says Oz.

Buffy starts to tell them what happened, and then looks around and notices the party preparations. “What’s going on?”

Giles tells her it’s a surprise party, and blows on a noise maker.

“You guys did all this for me?” she asks. “That is so sweet.”

Angel asks Buffy if she’s okay, and she tells him she’s fine.

“Are you okay?” Willow asks Oz, who is looking a little confused.

“Yeah,” says Oz. “Hey, did everybody see that guy just turn to dust?”

“Uh, well, uh…sort of,” says Willow.

“Yep,” says Xander. “Vampires are real. A lot of them live in Sunnydale. Willow will fill you in.”

“I know it’s hard to accept at first,” says Willow.

“Actually,” says Oz, “it explains a lot.”

Jenny comes in. She’s carrying the box that Dalton had been carrying. Dalton left it behind when he ran away. She places it on a table.

“What is it?” asks Buffy.

“I have no idea,” says Giles. “Can, can it be opened?”

“Yeah. This looks like a release right here.” Buffy releases the latch on the box’s lid and opens it.

The box contains an arm, enclosed in chain mail, and wearing a heavy gauntlet. Buffy looks around to see if the others are as surprised by the box’s contents as she is. The arm reaches out and grabs her by the throat.

Act III

Buffy grabs at the arm, trying to pull it off her neck, but its grip is too strong for her. Angel grabs it too and together they manage to pull it away from her. Angel pushes the arm back into the box while Buffy grasps for breath. Angel and Giles slam the lid shut.

“Well, clearly the Hellmouth’s answer to: ‘what do you get the Slayer who has everything?’” says Xander.

“What was that?” asks Willow.

“It looked like an arm,” says Oz.

“It can’t be,” says Angel. “She wouldn’t.”

“What?” asks Xander. “A vamp’s version of ‘snakes in a can,’ or do you care to share?”

“It’s a legend,” says Angel, “Way before my time. Of a demon brought forth to rid the Earth of the plague of humanity. Separate the righteous from the wicked, and to burn the righteous down. They called him the Judge.”

“The Judge?” asks Giles, “This is he?”

“Not all of him,” says Angel.

Buffy raises her hand. “Um, still needing back story here.”

Giles tells Buffy that the Judge was an unkillable demon. An army was sent against him, and most of them died. Eventually they managed to hack the Judge into pieces, but even that didn’t kill him. The pieces were scattered to the ends of the earth. It looks like Drusilla is planning to reassemble him.

They have to get this piece out of town, away from Drusilla’s grasp. Jenny quickly points out that it should be Angel who takes it. He’s the only one who can protect it. Buffy can’t leave Sunnydale for the length of time that it will take to get the arm someplace safe. Angel says he’ll have to catch a cargo ship leaving from the harbour. Buffy suggests that he take one of the newfangled flying machines, but Angel tells her that there is no sure way to protect himself from the daylight if he travels by plane. He doesn’t like it, but there is no other way.

“When?” asks Buffy.

“Tonight,” says Angel. “As soon as possible.”

“But it’s my birthday,” says Buffy. Angel doesn’t say anything.

“I’ll drive you to the docks,” says Jenny.

Drusilla is not pleased with Dalton. He lost her present. She can’t have her party without it.

Dalton tries to make excuses. “The Slayer. She came out of nowhere. I didn’t even see her. She—”

Dru isn’t interested in excuses, she takes Dalton’s glasses off his face, drops them on the floor and crushes them under her foot. She raises two fingers before his eyes. “Make a wish. I’m going to blow out the candles.”

“You might give him a chance to find your lost treasure,” says Spike. “He is a wanker, but he’s the only one we’ve got with half a brain. If he fails, you can eat his eyes out of the sockets for all I care.”

“I’ll get it. Please,” says Dalton. “I swear!”

Drusilla’s hand darts toward Dalton’s eyes, but she stops just short of gouging them out. She bends down and picks up his broken glasses. “Okay.” She puts them back on his face, and pats Dalton on the head. “Hurry back then.” She goes and sits in Spike’s lap as Dalton leaves.

Buffy and Angel walk out onto one of the docks in the harbour where a cargo ship is moored. Angel is holding Buffy’s hand and carrying the box with the Judge’s arm in it over his shoulder. He puts the box down to say goodbye to her. He promises to come back.

“When?” asks Buffy. “Six months, a year? You don’t know how long it’s going to take or if we’ll even…”

“Hey,” says Angel. “If we’ll even what?”

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, someone pretty much always wants us dead.”

“Don’t say that. We’ll be fine.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We can’t know, Buffy. Nobody can. That’s just the deal.” Angel reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small object. It’s her birthday present. He was going to give it to her earlier, but things got a little hectic. It’s a Claddagh Ring. Buffy thinks it’s beautiful.

“My people—before I was changed—they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty, and the heart…well, you know. Wear it with the heart pointing towards you. It means you belong to somebody. Like this.” Angel shows her his own ring on his right hand.

Buffy kisses the ring on his finger, and Angel slides Buffy’s ring onto her hand.

“I don’t want to do this,” sobs Buffy.

“Me either.”

“So don’t go,” says Buffy.

Angel shakes his head and kisses her. “Buffy, I—”

A pair of vampires attack. While Buffy and Angel are busy fighting them, Dalton rushes in and grabs the box. Buffy is too busy with her vampire to do anything about it, so she calls out for Angel. He takes off after Dalton and tackles him. Buffy’s vampire tosses her off the dock into the water.

The vampire Angel let go to run after Dalton grabs the box itself, and takes off with it. Angel lets Dalton go and jumps into the water to get Buffy.

Giles is waiting in the library with Willow and Xander. He’s getting a little worried. Buffy and Jenny should have been back by now.

Buffy arrives wearing fresh clothes and tells them they got ambushed and lost the box. Giles asks what happened to Jenny.

“She took Angel to get clothing,” says Buffy. “I had some here.”

“And we needed clothes because…?” asks Xander.

“We got wet.”

Buffy asks Giles how things have been going with the Judge research. Giles doesn’t like what he has learned. The Judge’s touch can literally burn the humanity out of someone. Creatures of evil can survive the process, but no human ever has.

“What’s the problem?” asks Xander. “We send Cordy to fight this guy, and we go for pizza!”

Buffy asks if there’s any way to stop the Judge, without an army. Giles points to one of his books. “‘No weapon forged can kill him.’” he reads. Their best hope is to prevent him from being reassembled.

“We need to find his weak spots, and we need to figure out where they’d be keeping him,” says Buffy.

Giles thinks that could take some time.

“Better do a round robin,” says Willow. “Xander, you go first.” Xander heads for the phone.

“Round robin?” asks Giles.

“It’s when everybody calls everybody else’s mom and tells them they’re staying at everyone’s house,” explains Willow.

“Thus freeing us up for world saveage,” says Buffy.

“And all-night keggers!” says Willow. She notices the looks Giles and Buffy give her. “What, only Xander gets to make dumb jokes?”

It’s after two in the morning, and they aren’t making any progress. Angel and Jenny have rejoined them in the library. Xander is starting to get frustrated.

Willow is still in a good mood. “I can’t get over how cool Oz was about all this,” she tells Xander.

“Gee, I’m over it,” says Xander.

“You’re just jealous ’cause you didn’t have a date for the party,” says Willow.

“No, I sure didn’t,” says Xander.

Giles calls out to Angel in the stacks to see if he’s had any luck, but then he notices that Buffy has fallen asleep in his office. He signals for Angel to keep quiet, and they move across the library so they won’t disturb her. Buffy can use the rest.

“Yeah. She hasn’t been sleeping well,” says Angel. “Tossing and turning.” Everyone looks at him. “She told me. Because of her dreams.”

Buffy is dreaming again. She walks through the factory wearing a white evening gown. She can see the preparations for the vampire’s party all around her. The backs of all the chairs around the table are covered with rose stems, with the flowers removed. She sees Jenny Calendar walk by, but then she’s gone.

Buffy walks over to a collection of wooden boxes on the floor. She starts to bend down to examine them.

“Now, Now!” says Drusilla from the catwalk where she’s holding Angel. “Hands off my presents.” She places a knife to Angel’s throat.

“No!” shouts Buffy.

“Angel!” shouts Buffy as she wakes up.

Drusilla claps her hands and orders more music. While vampires gather around the bowl of blood punch Drusilla dances to Rasputina’s Transylvanian Concubine.

Spike rolls in with the box containing the final piece of the Judge: his head. Drusilla takes it from him and hands it off to a couple of other vampires who place it on top of the stack of already assembled boxes.

There is a bright flash of light from inside the assembled boxes. The front opens up, and the Judge steps forth: a big blue demon dressed in chain mail armour.

“He’s perfect, my darling,” Drusilla tells Spike. “Just what I wanted.”

Act IV

The Judge staggers toward Drusilla. He points toward her. “You!”

Spike rolls forward and asks what’s up with him.

“You two stink of humanity,” says the Judge. “You share affection, and jealousy.”

“Yeah. What of it?” Spike taps the Judge on his breastplate. “Do I have to remind you that we’re the ones who brought you here?”

“Would you like a party favour?” Drusilla gestures toward the assembled vampires.

The Judge looks around and points to Dalton. Dalton looks around, hoping that the Judge is pointing to someone behind him. “This one is full of feeling,” says the Judge. “He reads. Bring him to me.”

The other vampires are quick to comply, and push Dalton to the front. Spike is puzzled though. “What’s with the bringing? I thought you could just zap people!”

The Judge tells Spike that his full strength has not yet been restored. Until then he needs contact. He reaches out and places his hand on Dalton’s chest. Dalton is consumed in a flash of fire.

Drusilla is ecstatic. “Do it again!” She stamps her feet on the floor. “Do it again!”

Buffy comes out of Giles’ office. She knows where Spike and Drusilla are. She’s heading for the factory.

“That’s very good,” says Giles. “However, you do need a plan. I know you’re concerned, Buffy, but you can’t just go off half-cocked.”

“I have a plan,” says Buffy. “Angel and I go to the factory and do recon, figure out how far they’ve gotten assembling the Judge. You guys check any places the boxes could be coming into town. Shipping yards, airports, anything. We need to stop them from getting all the boxes in one place.”

“Yes. Well, um, actually, that’s quite a good plan,” says Giles.

Buffy and Angel walk along one of the catwalks overlooking Dru’s party. It is just as it was in her dream. They spot the Judge walking among the vampires, and then Spike rolls into view in his wheelchair, along with Drusilla.

The Judge senses their presence and looks up.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” says Angel, but their escape has already been blocked by more vampires.

Half a dozen vampires drag Buffy and Angel down to face the Judge. Spike and Dru are really pleased to see them.

“It’s delicious,” Drusilla tells Angel. “I only dreamed you’d come.”

“Leave her alone!” demands Angel. He struggles against the vampires holding him.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” says Spike. “Now say ‘pretty please.’”

“The girl,” says the Judge.

“Chilling, isn’t it?” says Dru. “She’s so full of good intentions.”

Angel pushes himself between Buffy and the Judge. “Take me! Take me instead of her!”

“Uh, you’re not clear on the concept, pal,” says Spike. “There is no instead. Just first and second.”

“And if you go first, you don’t get to watch the Slayer die,” says Drusilla.

The Judge closes in on Buffy and reaches out his hand toward her. Buffy kicks him back under the cluster of TV sets Spike has dangling from the roof. Angel breaks free from the vampires holding him and releases the chain holding them up. The TVs come crashing down on the Judge.

Buffy breaks free from the vampires holding her and she and Angel jump down through the hole in the floor the vampires have made to give them access to the city’s sewer system. Drusilla sends her vampires chasing after them.

Buffy and Angel evade their pursuers, and emerge from the sewers through a manhole in the park. It’s pouring rain. They run for the nearest safe shelter.

Buffy and Angel arrive at his apartment. Buffy is soaking wet, and shivering. Angel gets out some of his dry clothes for her, and tells her to get changed.

Buffy moves to Angel’s bed and sits on it. Then she looks at him.

“I’m sorry.” Angel turns his back.

Buffy starts to remove her sweater. She gasps in pain. Angel asks what’s wrong and she tells him she has a cut or something on her back. Angel wants to take a look at it. Buffy holds her wet sweater in front of herself and tells him okay.

Angel moves around behind Buffy and pulls aside the strap of her camisole to check out the cut. It’s already starting to heal. Buffy leans back against him, and he puts his arms around her.

“You almost went away today,” says Buffy.

“We both did.”

Buffy is on the verge of crying. “Angel, I feel like I lost you. You’re right, though. We can’t be sure of anything.”

“Shhh. I…”

Buffy turns to face him. “You what?”

“I love you,” says Angel. “I try not to, but I can’t stop.”

“Me too,” says Buffy. “I can’t either.”

They start to kiss. After a moment Angel breaks off. “Buffy, maybe we shouldn’t—”

Buffy stops him. “Don’t. Just kiss me.” She pushes Angel back onto the bed.

Angel starts awake from sleeping in Buffy’s arms. He’s in pain. He dresses quickly and runs out into the rain. He falls to his knees in the alley, still in pain. “Buffy!” he screams. “Buffy!”

Buffy continues to sleep, undisturbed in his bed.

To Be Continued

Death Toll

Notes

1. Translation: The hippo stole your pants.