ACT THREE
EXT. BURNED OUT BUILDING – NIGHT
It's raining, just short of heavy.
Set against an abandoned gas station alongside a deserted stretch of road on the outskirts of Sunnydale, the "F" of the storefront sign – "Fill N' Fly" – hangs awkwardly at an angle, looking as if it will fall at any minute. The store itself – former store, to be exact, for it's now charred just this side of Cajun fried – is just as ready to drop. The windows are boarded with sheets of plywood, but scorching can be seen across the front of the building. One side of the roof has collapsed inwards, the shingles surrounding this carnage have curled from their past duel with flame and heat.
A strategically placed warning sign – DANGER – KEEP OUT – lies in the dust next to the gravel driveway, cordoned off by a CHAIN strung across the entrance, attached to two METAL POSTS anchored in CEMENT BLOCKS. This is a wide, all encompassing shot, and is interrupted only by the REV OF A CAR ENGINE.
SWING AROUND to see the aforementioned deserted stretch of road – no longer deserted. While the road carries on into the night until it disappears into the darkness (cliché, cliché, again), what can be seen are the HEADLIGHTS OF A CAR. They SWERVE across one lane to the next in an erratic fashion until the driver regains control and holds down a reasonably straight line – before gunning it up to the driveway, turning on a dime, and skidding to a stop – SNAPPING THE CHAIN and toppling one of the posts.
ANGLE on the car. A beat-up late 80s model. Two door. Maroon. Canvas top – maybe a Monte Carlo.
BUFFY
(O.S.)
Everybody out of the car!
She's pretty cheerful.
ON THE CAR, still, as the driver's side door SWINGS OPEN with her words. Only, instead of Buffy or Dawn exiting, a man – lets call him Fred – exits. Well, not so much exits as falls out the door sideways and slumps to the ground in a heap. Fred is very obviously DEAD. One foot remains stuck in the car while the rest of him rests in the gravel, creating a soon-to-be popular meeting place for maggots and flies.
ARC AROUND the back of the car – making a half-circle – and here we arrive just as the passenger side door swings open. A TERRIFIED DAWN exits the car, then the seat is KICKED forward with a SNAP that breaks its lock and makes room for BUFFY to exit in a smooth motion after Dawn.
BUFFY
You know, niblet, it's
about time this gal learned
to drive. I mean, it's not
like Sunnydale has an unlimited
supply of chauffeurs.
The word "niblet" comes out of Vampire Buffy like sacrilege. After the chauffeur comment, she considers Fred on the opposite side of the car. We see her actually tilt her neck to get a look at him.
BUFFY
What am I saying.
It does!
Self-satisfied Vampire Buffy. Silence. Then:
DAWN
You killed him.
Dawn's starting to see more of the big picture. Vampire's aren't romance and tortured souls and immortal love – they're mostly dirt and blood and death.
BUFFY
Well duh. Fun wasn't it?
Snapping his neck as
he took the turn – classic, nay?
I bet he thought he'd
make it home. See his
wife, tell her some frightening
story about the psycho
hitch-hiker he picked up, get an
admonishing finger waved at him,
then have some crazy make-up-
What?
DAWN
You… killed him.
Shuttle Reality, we have touch-down.
BUFFY
Repeato girl.
Least I didn't drain him.
But that would spoil dinner.
DAWN
That makes it much better.
Really.
Not really.
BUFFY
Punishing these fools is a lot
More fun than protecting them
all the time. Now.
(considers her sister)
Come on. Inside.
You'll catch your death
out here.
Buffy pulls her by the arm towards the charred remains of the building. We track them for a few steps, till just past the car, then PAN to the other side of the car and PULL BACK, where our final shot of the scene is once again poor old FRED – one leg still stuck in the car, the rest of him spilt outside like a doll tossed aside by a bored child.
INT. DORM ROOM – NIGHT
Open on the witches. Worried witches. WILLOW looks distraught – not all tears as before, but seriously worried. TARA, the less expressive partner, is nonetheless running a close second.
TARA
It's starting to rain.
She's looking at the SMASHED WINDOW. They've tied the blinds down, but they still flap, and it's still open – no time for a replacement pane of glass now.
The fretting period is interrupted by ANYA, who enters the room with an armful of vending machine SANDWICHES and SODA CANS.
ANYA
I come bearing foodstuffs.
Crisis always makes people hungry.
And we must be well fed, to deal
with catastrophe.
Tara hesitantly takes a sandwich, not really in any state of mind to eat, not wishing to insult Anya.
TARA
Umm… thanks.
WILLOW
Could you drop words
like "crisis" and
"catastrophe" from
the vocab? Please?
ANYA
Well that's what this is,
isn't it? I've been
around long enough to
know crisis when I see
it. And I'm seeing it.
Willow opens her mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. Thinks better of it. Look, a Willow-fish. Guppy-like mouth-motions aside, however, Anya's got a point, and this isn't the time to school her in the ways of the mortal world.
WILLOW
Should we be panicking yet?
Even mildly? They should
have been back
hours ago.
ANYA
Panicking isn't such a great
term either…
TARA
They only left an hour ago,
sweetie. And you
know we couldn't
go with them.
WILLOW
Feels longer.
And why can't we go after
Buffy? Explain that to me
again.
TARA
Because this spell is our
best chance to find her.
She's the Slayer. We can't
hope to track her, Will – she's
way too stealthy and super-powery
for that to fly.
ANYA
And we'll be doing the spell
when?
TARA
As soon as the
hogwart is a precise
102 degrees.
DING. In the background, a MICROWAVE OVEN CHIMES.
INT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT
The same warehouse in which Drusilla presented Spike with his "gift". Open from above – well above, a shot down from the rafters. The broken, man (or woman) sized CRATE still lies on the floor. We see XANDER and SPIKE enter the scene from directly above them. Both are watching everything and anything, glancing from side to side, but really, there isn't much space for anyone – or anything – to hide.
P.O.V. from behind Spike and Xander, who stand alongside one another. In the space between them, we see the broken crate. Nothing else. The warehouse is empty, as far as contents are concerned.
This might also be the part of the script to insert a trendy "schmuck bait" reference, but is there really any need?
SPIKE
(hollers)
Dru!
Show yourself.
XANDER
(hollering as well)
Come out, come out,
where ever you are
(softer)
so I can drive a stake
straight through your heart.
SPIKE
Yeh. Good call, mate.
That'll draw her out.
XANDER
I was quiet!
SPIKE
Are you daft?
She's got supernatural
hearing.
XANDER
Ahh…
SPIKE
Gets better with age.
Not that it matters.
She's gone.
XANDER
I can see that by the
lack of her being here.
(pause)
So where'd she go?
SPIKE
Your guess is as good
as mine. Dru's not
what you'd call
predictable…
VAMPIRE
(O.S.)
I should say not.
REVERSE ANGLE. Behind Xander and Spike wait THREE VAMPS.
INT. BURNED OUT BUILDING – NIGHT
Much like the warehouse, the inside of the building (Fill N' Fly, was it?) is vacuous, devoid of anything that might make it a place of life, of living. Shelves stocked with convenience store type goods – potato chips, candy bars, cartons of cigarettes – aren't toppled over and covered in dust, they're simply gone. A TABLE – old, dirty chestnut with cigarette burns – an array of mismatched CHAIRS (array, in this case, being four), and a moldy SOFA of questionable comfort and mold factor are now the only objects in the building.
SQUATTERS have refurbished the place. To the best of their ability. They're long-since gone however.
In the shadows to the back of the room stands DRUSILLA. She's perfectly still – a mannequin, with the pale skin to match.
REVERSE ANGLE on the door, which is thrown open, and in comes BUFFY, pushing DAWN in front of her.
Dawn stumbles, doesn't fall, but lets out a grunt. This draws Drusilla out of the dark.
BUFFY
Mommy.
It's a tainted, dark version of her gut-wrenching query in "The Body".
INT. DORM ROOM – NIGHT
The spell has begun. ANYA watches silently in the background – silently, aside from her munching on one of the sandwiches she brought earlier. We take in the seen from her P.O.V.
Between WILLOW and TARA, who sit facing one another on the floor, is a bowl – very witch-like, mystical print – and several candles. SMOKE rises from the bowl, but doesn't dissipate – it SWIRLS around them, making LOOPS and TWISTS about their heads.
We don't actually get to see much of the spell.
WILLOW/TARA
Show us the way.
CUT TO: INT. BURNED OUT BUILDING – NIGHT
BUFFY now stands behind DAWN. Rests her chin on her sister's shoulder. Grasps her hand by the wrist, draws it up to her face – Dawn's face, that is. Guiding the girl's hand, caresses the cheek. Buffy then darts her head to the other side of Dawn, rests it on that shoulder.
BUFFY
(dreamy)
Flesh. Blood.
Ours.
DRUSILLA
Family.
Goldilocks and her
sister. Together you
could slay those naughty
bears.
DAWN
(a tear flows down her cheek)
Buffy… are you even
in there? This can't
be you.
DRUSILLA
She's in there, it's
in there, they dance,
in the dark of the
chasm.
DAWN
What are you doing?
It's a question in general. Dru answers first.
DRUSILLA
Pushing forward.
Your sister is
giving you a gift.
DAWN
I don't want it.
DRUSILLA
Shh. Poor girl.
You'll come to love it as
much as it loves you.
DAWN
You're insane.
DRUSILLA
Keeps me whole.
(to Buffy)
Do you feel love?
Do you know it?
BUFFY
I. Feel. Something.
She caresses her sister's face again, this time with her own hand. The other is around Dawn's hip.
BUFFY
We'll be family still...
And nothing will hurt you,
nothing can hurt you.
I feel...
DRUSILLA
She'll feel everything.
Soon. You'll experience
everything together.
(re: Dawn)
Love is her Gift.
In this instant we are reminded of the First Slayer/Guide in "Intervention", her claim that "Death is your Gift". And we actually hear it. It comes as Dru utters her very next line, to Buffy this time.
DRUSILLA
FIRST SLAYER
(V.O.)
(V.O.)
Love is your Gift.
Death is your Gift.
They're in tandum, nearly the same tone, voices just able to be distinguished from one another, and only the first words – Love/Death – overlap and seem to dual with each other.
CLOSE ON BUFFY – Her eyes flicker a moment. Open/Close, open/close.
INT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT
Back with SPIKE and XANDER and the undead trio.
LEAD VAMPIRE
The pretty dark haired girl
said there'd be a feast here
tonight…
SECOND VAMPIRE
Yeah, and we were like,
"what, in some musty
warehouse? Riiight…"
LEAD VAMPIRE
Cept, somehow I just
knew… she was telling
the truth. Something about
her. And here you are.
SPIKE
Right. Here we are.
Vamps two and three put on their happy faces. A.K.A. MORPH INTO VAMP FACES.
SPIKE
Something the pretty
dark haired girl forgot
to mention.
Spike does the same – vamps up.
SPIKE
I'm not all that appetizing.
With a YELL, Spike now charges the three of them. BOWLS ONE OVER with a hard shove – LEAD VAMPIRE, then SWINGS HIS FIST SIDEWAYS AND HITS VAMPIRE #3. Number three's head SNAPS BACK, his NOSE IS BLOODIED. But Vampire #2 grabs Spike's arms from behind, and the lead vampire is back on his feet.
ON XANDER. Pulls out a stake. Pretty deadly looking for the "normal guy".
XANDER
When in Rome...
make like the locals.
And with a yell of his own, Xander CHARGES INTO THE FRAY.
BLACK OUT
The last thing we hear as we BLACK OUT is the sigh of a vampire dusting.
END OF ACT THREE
