Title: The Devil You Don't--Episode 01: Freshmen
Author: LearnedHand (learnedhan@excite.com)
Summary: I'm writing an alternate Season 4 for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My title for the season is The Devil You Don't. This is the first episode, called Freshmen. I have the entire season roughly outlined, but at this rate I'll be dead before I finish actually writing it. I'm planning on structuring each episode like an actual one (Teaser, Acts 1-4), although I'm not writing in script form.
Spoilers: Everything through Graduation Day, Part II. Certain events of canon Season 4 will also happen during the course of this series.
Rating: PG-13, for violence, language and implied sexual content. Certain parts may reach the R level later on in the series, when and if the sexual content becomes less implied.
'Ships: Assume all 'ships are as they were as of the end of S3. They are subject to change during the course of this series, of course.
Disclaimer: All the characters and settings contained herein are owned by their respective authors/production companies. As I am not getting any monetary benefit from their use, I thought it would be okay to borrow them. One or two of the characters are creations of mine, and those I retain the rights to.
Archiving: I'll probably say yes, but I'd like to be asked first.
Feedback: Feedback, as Tenhawk says, is the coin of the realm.
Author's Note: I know I just said I wasn't going to be writing this in script form, but I decided to do my Prologue in script form, because it is a replacement to a scene from Choices in S3. The idea being that, in my little variation of the BtVS universe, everything that happened before S4 comes from the actual scripts, except this little change, so I should keep this change in script form. Don't look at me like that; it makes sense in my head...
Author's Note 2: None of this has been beta'd, so I'd appreciate any feedback that gently points out typographical or other errors.
PROLOGUEEnd of Season 3 episode Choices, outside on the lawn of Sunnydale High School:
Daylight on campus. Buffy is crouched, leaning back against a tree. Willow walks up.
Willow: Deep thoughts?
Buffy: Deep and meaningful.
Willow: As in?
Buffy: As in, I'm never getting out of here. I kept thinking if I stopped the Mayor or ... but I was kidding myself. I mean, there is always going to be something. I'm a Sunnydale girl, no other choice.
Willow: Must be tough. I mean, here I am, I can do anything I want. I can go to any college in the country, four or five in Europe if I want.
Buffy: Please tell me you're going somewhere with this?
Willow: No. (hands Buffy a letter) I'm not going anywhere.
Buffy: Crestwood College?
Willow: I will be matriculating with Class of 2003.
Buffy: Are you serious?
Willow: Say, isn't that in the same town as your school?
Buffy hugs her and they tumble onto the ground.
Buffy: I can't believe it! Are you serious? Ah, wait, what am I saying? You can't.
Willow: What do you mean, I can't?
Buffy: I won't let you.
Willow: Of the two people here, which is the boss of me?
Buffy: There are better schools.
Willow: Crestwood's not bad. A-And I can design my own curriculum.
Buffy: Okay, well, there are safer schools. There are safer prisons. I can't let you stay because of me.
Willow: Actually, this isn't about you. Although I'm fond, don't get me wrong, of you. The other night, you know, being captured and all, facing off with Faith. Things just, kind of, got clear. I mean, you've been fighting evil here for three years, and I've helped some, and now we're supposed to decide what we want to do with our lives. And I just realized that that's what I want to do. Fight evil, help people. I mean, I-I think it's worth doing. And I don't think you do it because you have to. It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in.
Buffy: I kind of love you.
Willow: And, besides, I have a shot at being a bad ass Wiccan, and what better place to learn?
Buffy: I feel the need for more sugar than the human body can handle.
Willow: Mochas?
Buffy: Yes, please. It's weird. You look at something and you think you know exactly what you're seeing, and then you find out it's something else entirely.
Willow: Neat, huh?
Buffy: Sometimes it is.
