"The Harvest"

Based on the Episode Written by Joss Whedon

The following story is copyright © 2021 by Mark Moore.


The next day, after they had eaten lunch, Buffy and Tara went to the library to meet with Giles, who they had already informed of the most recent events on the night before. Tara found last year's yearbook and scanned the photos until she found the boy that had been taken: Jesse McNally. Buffy and Tara were hoping Giles had devised a plan of action. What they got instead was a history lesson. Buffy paid only partial attention to it, devoting the rest of her attention to examining the wooden stakes and bottles of holy water that Giles had given her.

Giles spun the globe dramatically and then stopped it. He made his way down to where Buffy and Tara were sitting at a table. "This world is older than either of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their...their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for - for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures-"

"And vampires."

Giles looked at Buffy and nodded.

"So vampires are demons?" Tara asked Giles.

"The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding, killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind, waiting for the animals to die out - and the Old Ones to return."

Buffy thought about that in silence, an unease coming over her. "Does that mean...humanity is futile? That our lives amount to nothing? Because the entire human race will just get wiped out someday?"

Giles paused in thought, trying to find words to assure the girl. "No, Buffy, no. For as long as there have been vampires, there's been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. The Slayer hunts vampires. Buffy is a Slayer. Don't tell anyone, either of you."

"We won't." Buffy paused in thought. "Well, there was that girl that I rescued last night, but...who'd believe her, y'know?"

Giles sighed and looked squarely at Tara. "Well, I think that's all the vampire information you need."

"Except for one thing: how do you kill them?" Tara asked him.

Buffy gave her a sharp look. "You don't. I do."

"I can help. Jesse might need-"

"Jesse is my responsibility. I let him get taken."

"You're being too hard on yourself. If you hadn't shown up, they would have taken the girl, too."

Buffy thought about that and felt a bit of comfort. She looked at Giles. "This big guy, Luke. He talked about an offering to the Master. Now, I don't know what or who, but if they weren't just feeding, then Jesse may still be alive. I'm gonna find him."

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Tara asked.

Giles gave her a look. "And they'd believe us, of course."

"Well, we don't have to say vampires. We could just say there's a bad man."

Buffy looked at her. "They couldn't handle it even if they did show up. They'd only come with guns."

"You have no idea where they took Jesse?" Giles asked her.

"I looked around, but soon's they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just - voom!"

"They can fly?" Tara asked her.

"Well, I was going for drive."

"Oh." Tara thought for a moment. "I don't remember hearing a car."

"Let's take an enormous intuitive leap, shall we, and say they went underground."

Buffy looked at Giles and then thought about what he'd said. "Yeah. Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays. But I didn't see any access around there."

Tara looked at her. "Well, there's an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town."

"If we had a diagnostic of the tunnel system, it might indicate a - a meeting place. It would, uh...I suppose we could go to the Building Commission."

Buffy was getting impatient. "We so don't have time."

"Uh, guys?" Tara asked. "There may be another way."

Buffy and Giles looked at her.

"May I use the computer?" Tara asked Giles.

"Of course."

Tara walked over to the computer and sat down. Buffy and Giles walked over and watched as she connected to the Internet and then brought up the city plans on the computer monitor.

Buffy nodded. "There it is."

"That runs under the graveyard." Tara looked closely. "I don't see any access."

"So...all the city plans are just, uh, open to the public?" Giles asked her.

"Um, well, i-in a way. I sort of stumbled onto them when I accidentally decrypted the city council's security system."

Buffy smiled in amusement. "Someone's been naughty." She quickly grew impatient, though. "There's nothing here! This is useless!"

Giles looked at her. "I think you're being a bit hard on yourself."

"You're the one that told me that I wasn't prepared enough. Understatement!" Buffy sighed. "I thought I was on top of everything, and then that monster, Luke, came out of nowhere..." She paused as she thought back to the fight in the mausoleum.

"What?" Tara asked her.

"He didn't come out of nowhere. He came from behind me. I was facing the entrance, he came from behind me, and he didn't follow me out. The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum! The girl must have doubled back with Jesse after I got out! God! I am so mentally challenged!"

"So what's the plan?" Tara asked her. "We go and rescue Jesse, right?"

"There's no 'we', okay? I'm the Slayer, and you're not."

Tara was hurt. "I can take care of myself, and I can help you."

"Tara, this is deeply dangerous."

"Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters. But I do want to help. I need to."

Giles looked at her. "Well, then help me. I've been researching this Harvest affair. It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, Hell on Earth, quite charmless. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. It may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine."

Tara and Buffy stared at him.

He looked back at them. "That was a bit, um, British, wasn't it?"

Buffy smiled. "Welcome to the New World."

Giles looked at Tara. "I want you to go on the 'Net."

"Oh, sure, I can do that." Tara began to type.

"Then I'm outta here. If Jesse's alive, I'll bring him back." Buffy started to leave.

"Do I have to tell you to be careful?" Giles asked her.

Buffy turned back, gave Giles a look, and left.


Outside, Buffy made strides for a side gate.

"And where do we think we're going?" Mr. Flutie asked her.

"We?" Buffy turned to face him. "I...Me..."

"We're not leaving school grounds, are we?"

"No! No, I'm...just admiring the fence. You know, this is quality fence work."

"Because if we were leaving school grounds on our second day at a new school, after getting kicked out of our old school for delinquent behavior..." He paused. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Mr. Giles."

"What?"

"He asked me to get a book for him. Uh, from the store, 'cause I'm a big reader. Did it mention that in my transcripts?"

"Mr. Giles?"

"Ask him."

Mr. Flutie swung the gate closed. "Well, maybe that's how they do things in Britain; they've got that royal family and all kinds of problems." He locked the gate. "But, here at Sunnydale, nobody leaves campus while school's in session. Are we clear?"

"We're clear."

"That's the Buffy Summers I want in my school. Sensible girl with her feet on the ground!" He turned and left.

Buffy watched him go. When he'd gone a ways, she crouched and tried leaping the fence. She had no idea if she could do it or not, and she was surprised when she was successful.


Back in the library, Giles looked at Tara. "Thank you for your assistance. You should get to class."

Tara stood up, pensive.

"Buffy will be okay. Whatever's down there, I think she can handle it."

"I hope so."

Giles sighed. "If you must go, go!"

Tara took off running.


Buffy came into the mausoleum slowly, looking and listening. She scanned around. Satisfied that no one was there, she walked down the steps to the floor. She heard a rat behind her and twisted to look toward the sound. She continued and found the tunnel access. It was locked with a chain. She lifted the lock. She then heard a man sigh behind her.

"I don't suppose you've got a key on you?" Buffy asked him.

"They really don't like me dropping in."

Buffy turned to face the man from last night. "Why not?"

"They really don't like me."

"How could that possibly be?" Buffy asked sarcastically.

"I knew you'd figure out this entryway sooner or later. Actually, I thought it was gonna be a little sooner."

"Sorry you had to wait." Buffy sighed. "Okay, look, if you're gonna be popping up with this cryptic wise man act on a regular basis, can you at least tell me your name?"

"Angel."

"Angel. It's a pretty name." Buffy turned to the tunnel entrance.

"Don't...go down there."

Buffy turned back to face him. "Deal with my going."

"You shouldn't be putting yourself at risk. Tonight is the Harvest. Unless you can prevent it, the Master walks."

"Well, if this Harvest thing is such a suckfest, why don't you stop it?"

"'Cause I'm afraid."

Buffy looked at him for a moment and then spun around quickly, kicking open the doors to the tunnel. She turned back to him.

"They'll be expecting you."

"Someone that I let get taken is down there. I'm trying to fix my mistake. Do you understand?"

Angel lowered his eyes as a look of sadness filled them.

"That wasn't supposed to be a stumper."

They looked at each other a moment longer.

"When you hit the tunnels, head east towards the school. That's where you're likely to find them."

"You gonna wish me luck?"

Angel said nothing. They looked at each other for another moment, then Buffy turned and headed into the tunnels.


Inside the tunnels, Buffy came down a flight of stairs. She looked around. She heard rats. One crawled across her shoes. She slowly started down the tunnels. There were lights at intervals.

"Did you see anything?"

Buffy exhaled in fright. "Tara, what are you doing here?!"

"I followed you."

"Well, you-"

"I couldn't just stay behind and do nothing. I'd just worry, and...I need to help you."

Buffy stared at Tara for a moment, considering it, then nodded her head for her to follow. They started down the tunnel and soon reached the top of some stairs.


Back in the library, Giles was reading from a volume: "'For they will gather and be gathered. From the Vessel pours life.' P-Pours life..." He turned the page back to a picture of Satan feeding power to a man. "'On the night of the crescent moon, the first past the solstice, it will come...' Of course. That's tonight!"


In the computer lab. Cordelia was struggling with her assignment. "No! It's supposed to find the syntax and match it. Or wait..."

"Are we going to the Bronze tonight?" Harmony, Cordelia's friend, asked her.

"No, we're going to the other cool place in Sunnydale."

Harmony was confused.

Cordelia looked at her. "Of course, we're going to the Bronze. Friday night? No cover? But you should have been there last night, 'cause I ran into Buffy, and can she be any weirder? She attacked me! Do you believe it?"

Harmony sighed. "I think we did this part wrong."

"Why do we have to devise these programs? Isn't that what nerds are for?" Cordelia asked.

Harmony shrugged. Cordelia found Harmony, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, attractive and cool but utterly useless. She almost wished Tara was here.

Cordelia stared at her screen. "Okay, and then pattern run, right? Or go to end? That's it!"

"Maybe!" Harmony added.

Cordelia looked at her. "So, anyway, I come outta the bathroom, and she comes running at me. Screaming! With a stick! 'I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you!' I swear!"

"Who?" Harmony asked.

"Buffy!"

"The new girl?" Harmony asked. "What's her deal?"

"Well, she's crazed. She's a psycho loony!"

Harmony thought for a moment. "She's not a psycho. You don't even know her."

Cordelia was surprised. "Excuse me?"

"She saved my life last night."

"For real?" Cordelia asked.

Harmony nodded. "Her and Tara."

Cordelia was shocked. "Okay, I need details."

Harmony paused in consideration. "I went off with a guy that turned out to be a creep. He took me to the cemetery. Buffy...handled him, and Tara and I helped some guy out of there, but I don't know what happened to him."

Cordelia sat in stunned silence, not knowing how to process that. Finally, she frowned. "You went to the Bronze without me?!"


Down in the tunnels, Buffy and Tara were still searching.

"They're close."

"How can you tell?" Tara asked.

"No more rats."

Tara spotted Jesse on the ground. "Jesse!"

"Oh, no!" Buffy exclaimed.

Jesse quickly got to his feet.

"Jesse, are you okay?" Tara asked him.

"I am not okay - on an epic scale."

Buffy noticed the shackles around Jesse's ankle.

"We gotta get outta here!" Jesse exclaimed.

"It's cool, Buffy's a superhero."

"Hold on." Buffy broke the shackles.

"Do you think anyone heard that?" Tara asked.

They saw shadows moving on the walls and started to run down the tunnel.

"They knew you were gonna come. They said that I...I was the bait."

Tara rolled her eyes. "Oh, great, now you tell us."

They rounded a corner and were met by vampires.

"Oops!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Jesse exclaimed.

"Do you know another way out?" Buffy asked him.

"I dunno. Maybe. C'mon!"

They ran. At another intersection, they saw eyes to their right.

"Wait, wait. They brought me through here. There. There should be a way up. I hope!"

Jesse led them to a chamber.

"I don't think this is the way out!" Buffy yelled.

"We can't fight our way back through those things. What do we do?" Tara asked.

"I got an idea." Jesse bared his fangs. "You can die!"

Tara stared at him in shock and sadness. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? I feel good! I feel strong! I'm connected to everything!"

Buffy began struggling with the door, trying to close it.

"I know what the Master wants. I'll serve his purpose. That means you die. And I feed."

Buffy looked back at them in anguish. "Tara, take my cross!"

She couldn't reach it, but Buffy's words gave Tara an idea. She held her crescent moon pendant up to Jesse's face. Jesse stepped back and growled.

Buffy shrugged. "Or that'll work, too, apparently."

Jesse knocked Tara's arm to the side, making her hit the wall. He jumped to the other side of the room, facing Tara. Buffy grabbed him from behind and threw him out of the chamber and into the advancing vampires, knocking them all down. She went back to trying to close the door.

"Help me!" Buffy yelled to Tara.

Tara jumped up to help, and together they got it to move. They closed it on a vampire's arm. The vampire pulled its arm back out of the door, and Buffy slammed it shut and closed the latch. The vampires began pounding on the door.

"We need to get out of here!" Buffy exclaimed.

She and Tara desperately looked around.

Tara spotted a grate in the ceiling. "Up there!"

Buffy leaped on top of a barrel and began to pry the grate open. The vampires started to bend in a corner of the door. They twisted it and pushed it in further.

Buffy got the grate open. "Go!"

She helped Tara crawl up into a ventilation duct. Tara got through the grate. Buffy followed her quickly, a vampire right behind her. Tara and Buffy crawled like mad. Tara found a ladder up to a manhole and started climbing the rungs. Buffy followed.

Tara pushed open the manhole cover and climbed out into daylight in the middle of a power substation. She turned to help Buffy out. The vampire grabbed Buffy's ankle and tried to pull her back down.

"Tara, pull!" Buffy begged.

Tara pulled on her, and the vampire's hand was exposed to the sunlight and burned. The vampire let go. Tara tumbled backward to the ground, and Buffy landed on top of her. They stared at each other for a moment.

Buffy cleared her throat and gave Tara a smile. "Thank you. I'm glad you came."

Tara smiled back at her. "Me, too."


By the time that Buffy and Tara got back to school, the last class of the day was over. They went into the library, where Giles was still doing his research.

"Buffy? Tara?" Giles asked.

Buffy nodded. "Yeah."

"Did you find Jesse?" Giles asked.

Tara sighed. "Yeah."

Giles stared at them for a moment. "Was he dead?"

"Worse." Buffy sat down at the end of the table. "We were too late. And they were waiting for us."

Giles sighed. "At least you two are okay."

Tara sat to Buffy's left at the table and looked at the book that Giles was reading. "Did you find anything of interest?"

"Perhaps. I searched through the old newspapers around the time of the big earthquake back in 1937. For several months before, there were a rash of murders."

"Great!" Tara caught herself. "I - I mean, well, not great in a good way." She paused awkwardly. "Go on."

"Well, they were the kind that I was looking for." Giles showed them the newspapers. "Throats, blood. It's all coming together. I rather wish it weren't."

"So, Giles!" Buffy suddenly exclaimed. "Got anything that can make this day any worse?"

Giles went over to the whiteboard and put down his pen. "How about the end of the world?"

"Knew I could count on you."

"This is what we know. Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed."

Buffy raised her hand. "He came 'cause this town's a mystical whosit."

"Yes. The Spanish who first settled here called it 'Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hopes to open it."

Buffy nodded. "Bring the demons back."

Tara went pale. "End of the world."

"Fortunately, he didn't succeed. There was an earthquake that swallowed half the town, including him. You see, opening dimensional portals is a tricky business. Odds are he got himself stuck, rather like a, uh, cork in a bottle."

Tara made the connection. "And this Harvest thing is to get him out."

"It comes once in a century - on this night. The Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free and open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol." Giles picked up a marker, uncapped it, and drew a three-pointed star on the whiteboard.

Buffy thought about it. "So...I dust anyone sporting that symbol, and no Harvest."

"Simply put, yes."

"Any idea where this little get-together is being held?" Buffy asked.

"There - There are a number of possibilities."

Tara had a sudden realization. "They're goin' to the Bronze."

"Are you sure?" Buffy asked her.

"Come on. All those tasty young morsels all over the place? That's where they're gonna be, trust me."

Giles grabbed his coat and started out of the library. Buffy and Tara began to follow.

Giles put on his coat. "Then we should get there. The sun will be down before long."

"I gotta make a stop. Won't take long."

Giles looked at Buffy in surprise. "What for?"

"Garlic. You didn't give me any."


Buffy got a clove of garlic from her refrigerator, and then she went up to her room. She went to her closet and pulled out a heavy black jacket.

Her mother walked into the room. "Buffy?"

Buffy was startled and looked at her. "Mom!"

"You're going out?"

"I have to." Buffy put on her jacket.

"I didn't hear you come in last night."

"I was really quiet."

"It's happening again, isn't it? I got a call from your new principal. Says you missed some classes today?"

"I was running an errand."

"We haven't finished unpacking, and I'm getting calls from the principal."

"Mom, I promise, it is not gonna be like before. But I have to go."

"No."

"Mom?!"

"The tapes all say I should get used to saying it. No."

"This is really, really important."

"I know. If you don't go out, it'll be the end of the world. Everything is life or death when you're a teenage girl."

"Look, I don't have time to talk about this-"

"Buffy, you've got all the time in the world; you're not going anywhere. Now, if you wanna stay up here and sulk, I won't hold it against you. But if you wanna come down, I'll make us some dinner."

Buffy's mind raced as she considered her options. She thought of telling her mother everything quickly, but she couldn't prove it at the moment, and her mother would likely take it as a sign of lunacy. She felt confident that she could successfully knock her mother out cold. She could also just forcefully brush past her. However, assuming she managed to save the world tonight, she would have to live with the consequences of her actions, and her life would be more difficult as a result. She balled her hands into fists, pressed her fingernails into her palms, and kept her mouth shut.

Joyce left the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

Buffy couldn't believe what just happened. She leaned against the closet door, took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Fuck it."

She went over to her door to make sure her mother wasn't nearby. Then she walked over and climbed out the window onto the roof. She crawled to the edge, carefully stood up, took a deep breath, and jumped down. She had never done this before and wasn't sure of her success, but she managed to land on her feet and seemingly not break any bones, though it still hurt. She silently thanked her karate lessons and then headed to the Bronze.


Inside the Bronze, on the upper level, Cordelia and her friends found a table.

"Senior boys are the only way to go. Guys from our grade, forget about it; they're children, y'know?" Cordelia asked.

They all sat down.

"Like Jesse. Did you see him last night, following me around like a little puppy dog?"

They all giggled.

"You just wanna put him to sleep. But senior boys, hmm, they have mystery. They have..." Cordelia paused in consideration. "What's the word I'm searching for? Cars! I just am not the type to settle. Y'know? It's like when I go shopping. I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it's expensive, but because it costs more."

One of her friends was confused. "You know, I-"

"Hello, Miss Motormouth, can I get a sentence finished?" Cordelia interrupted. "Oh, I love this song! Come on!"

Cordelia and her gang stood up, made their way down to the dance floor, and started to move to the sound of the song that was playing on the speakers.

Once the song was over, Cordelia stopped dancing. She started to leave, but Jesse was standing in front of her, fingers on his lips.

"Uh, what do you want?" Cordelia asked him.

Another song started. Jesse lowered his hand, took hers, and led her back onto the dance floor.

"Hey! Hello! Caveman brain! What are you doing?" Cordelia protested.

"Shut up!" Jesse began to dance with her.

Cordelia relented. "Well, just one dance."

Suddenly, the power shut off. The people started complaining and wondering what happened.

Luke got up on the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen! There is no cause for alarm. Actually, there is cause for alarm. It just won't do any good." He bared his fangs and laughed.

There were screams from the crowd.

Cordelia was confused. "I thought there wasn't any band tonight." She looked at Jesse next to her.

Jesse smiled at her and bared his fangs. Cordelia inhaled in fright.

"This is a glorious night!" Luke declared. "It is also the last one any of you shall ever see. Bring me the first."

A vampire brought the doorman to Luke.

"What do you guys want, man, huh?" the doorman asked. "You want money? Man, what's wrong with your teeth?"

Luke grabbed him by the throat. He wrapped his other arm around the doorman's head. "Watch me, people. Fear is like an elixir. It's almost like blood."

Luke bit the doorman and fed on him. The doorman screamed.

Luke dropped the doorman's body. "Next!"


Outside, Buffy, Tara, and Giles arrived running.

Buffy tried the door. "It's locked!"

"We're too late!" Giles exclaimed.

"I didn't know I was gonna get grounded!" Buffy explained.

"Can you break it down?" Tara asked her.

Buffy tried a roundhouse kick on the door. "Ow! Fuck! Nope! Um..." She paused in thought for a moment. "You guys try the back entrance, and I'll find my own way."

"Right." Giles headed off. "Come on."

"Uh, wait! Guys! Here!" Buffy took out a stake and a bottle of holy water and handed them to Tara. "You get the exit cleared and the people out. That's all! Don't go Wild Bunch on me."

Giles nodded. "Uh, see you inside, then."

Giles and Tara ran around to the back.

Tara tried the door. "Shit! It's locked, too!"


Inside, Luke had finished with the latest male that he'd drained and dropped his body. Cordelia watched in horror. Darla took hold of Cordelia to take her to Luke.

"This one's mine!" Jesse told Darla.

"They're all for the Master."

"Until he's freed, the priority is on the males. They have more vitality."

Cordelia looked at Darla and frantically nodded in agreement. "Yes, listen to your friend!"

Darla pulled on Cordelia.

Jesse let go of her. "I don't get one?"

Buffy broke an upper window and crawled into the building.

"I feel the Master's strength growing!" Luke exclaimed.

Buffy saw Luke on the stage.

"I feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer! I need another!"

Buffy came to a realization. "The Vessel."

The vampire on the upper level saw Buffy and growled. She looked over at him.

"Tonight is his ascension. Tonight will be history at its end!" Luke declared. "Yours is a glorious sacrifice! Degradation most holy. What? No volunteers?!"

Darla brought him Cordelia. "Here's a pretty one."

Cordelia screamed when she saw Luke up close. He caressed her face. He was about to bite her when Buffy kicked the vampire down from above them. Luke watched him land with a thud.

Buffy approached the railing. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?"

"You!" Luke exclaimed.

"You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?" Buffy asked him.

"I hoped you'd come."

"Be right down!" Buffy stepped away from the railing and executed a roundoff to get down. She landed on a pool table.

A vampire attacked from her right. Buffy did a front walkover off the table, grabbing a pool cue on the way. When she landed, she thrust it into her attacker. Cordelia stared at her in shock.

"Okay, Vessel boy." Buffy removed her jacket. "You want blood?"

"I want yours!" Luke released Cordelia. "Only yours!"

Buffy shrugged. "Works for me."

She ran and cartwheeled up onto the stage - and immediately launched into a full spinning hook kick. Luke staggered into a pile of chairs. Buffy assumed a fighting position. Luke got up and growled. He came at her and swung, but she ducked the punch and came up behind him. He tried a backhand punch, but she blocked him, held onto his arm, and gave him three roundhouse kicks to his stomach before he shook loose. She took out a stake and lunged at him. He blocked the lunge, knocking the stake from her grip. He lifted her up and threw her into a pile of boxes.

Giles and Tara finally managed to bust open the back door.

"Hurry!" Giles exclaimed, running inside.

Tara ran in to see what was going on. She saw Buffy was down and froze in shock. Then Buffy got up.

Tara breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention to the crowd. "C'mon! Let's go!"

Giles guided the people to the back door. "Hurry up! Come on! Through this door! Come on! This way!"

Buffy spun around and landed a backhand punch on Luke's face, knocking him into another pile of stuff. He was dazed. Buffy turned to see a vampire grab Tara. Buffy grabbed a cymbal from a drum set and threw it at the vampire like a Frisbee. Tara saw it coming and ducked. The cymbal decapitated the vampire. Buffy flinched and felt a bit sick. Luke grabbed her from behind.

"I always wanted to kill a Slayer!" Luke exclaimed.

Giles and Tara were still guiding people out.

"One at a time! Quickly! Quickly!" Giles crossed to the other side of the room in front of some stairs. "We're going to have to open the front as well!"

Darla leaped onto him from behind, knocking him to the floor.

"Master! Taste of this...and be free!" Luke roared and moved in to bite Buffy.

She sensed his proximity and snapped her head back to land a headbutt on his face, knocking him off her and back to the wall. She turned to him, winded. "How'd it taste?"

Giles and Darla were struggling on the floor.

Tara approached them while opening her jar of holy water. "Get off him!"

Darla was distracted and looked up. Tara splashed her with the holy water. It burned her face and steamed. She got up and ran from the club, screaming.

Tara noticed Cordelia was on the floor with Jesse above her. She struggled, and he grabbed her arms.

"Hold still! You're not making this easy!" Luke told her.

Tara came up behind him, her stake in her left hand. "Hey, asshole."

Jesse turned around and stood up. Tara pointed her stake at Jesse's chest and gulped.

Jesse looked at Tara and laughed. "What the fuck are you gonna do? Stake me? Put me out of my misery? You don't have the guts."

Tara was angered by that comment and thrust the stake into his heart. Jesse groaned and fell to the floor. Tara breathed heavily, trying to compose herself, and then she looked at Cordelia, who was staring up at her in shock.

Tara offered her right hand to Cordelia. "Are you okay?"

Cordelia nodded and took hold of Tara's hand. "Yeah. Thank you."

Tara gave her a weak smile and helped Cordelia to her feet.

Buffy grabbed a microphone stand and held it like a javelin.

Luke smiled. "You forget: metal can't hurt me."

"There's something you forgot about, too. Sunrise!" Buffy threw the stand at the window behind Luke.

He ducked, and it broke the window behind him. A bright light poured in through it. Buffy spied the stake that she dropped on the stage and picked it up. Luke got up and shielded his face with his hands, expecting to be burned. He stopped when he realized it was only a bright lamp.

Buffy lunged at him from behind and jammed the stake into his back. "It's in about nine hours, moron!"

Luke began to stagger off the stage and then just fell off. Buffy stared at Luke's corpse. Two vampires approached Tara and Cordelia. Buffy lifted her gaze to meet theirs. The vampires panicked and ran away.

Buffy hopped down to the floor. Tara, Cordelia, and Giles met her.

Giles looked at Buffy. "I take it it's over."

"Did we win?" Tara asked.

Buffy shrugged. "Well, we averted the apocalypse. I give us points for that."

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" Cordelia demanded. "Were those really-"

"Vampires." Buffy sighed. "It's a long story, but the short version is I'm the Slayer, chosen to fight the forces of evil."

"Chosen by who?" Cordelia asked her.

Buffy opened her mouth to reply but then realized she didn't have an answer. She looked to Giles, who simply shrugged.

Buffy looked at Cordelia. "Cordy, this is a very serious - and potentially very messy and complicated - situation. Don't blab."

"Are you nuts? Do you think I would tell people that I spent the whole evening with you?" Cordelia asked her. "Besides, it was all so creepy. That Luke guy? And all the screaming? I don't even want to think about it. So your secret's safe with me."

Buffy smiled. "Thank you."

Cordelia smiled back at her.

"What about everyone else?" Tara asked. "There must be been dozens of witnesses."

Buffy, Giles, and Tara thought about it in silence for a moment.

Buffy finally shrugged. "Well, come what may, I suppose."

Cordelia grinned. "You forget: most people are fucking idiots with malleable marshmallow fluff for minds, and I'm the motherfucking Queen Bee. I'll run interference for you."

Buffy guessed that was the best that they could hope for. She looked around at the carnage, and a feeling of melancholia overtook her. "One thing's for sure: nothing's ever gonna be the same."


Buffy wondered how she was going to climb back up to her bedroom. Luckily for her, the back door had been left unlocked, and her mother never suspected she'd been out.

Buffy spent the weekend worrying, but no one called or came by to question her, so she slowly started to calm down.

On Monday morning, at Sunnydale High, everything seemed normal, which surprised her. Buffy walked along and overheard Cordelia.

"Well, I heard it was rival gangs. You know, fighting for turf? I mean...I don't even remember that much, but I'm telling you: it was a freak show!"

"Oh, I wish I'd been there!" one of her female friends exclaimed.

"You should have been there. It was so creepy." As Cordelia walked past Buffy with her friend, she quickly gave Buffy a thumbs-up.

Buffy smiled at her and mouthed "Thank you", and then she met Tara. "What, exactly, were you expecting?"

"I don't know. Something. I mean...the dead rose. We should at least have an assembly."

Buffy smiled. "Well, we can thank the motherfucking Queen Bee for making our lives a little easier."

They ran into Giles, and the three continued to walk.

"I managed to wipe the tapes from the Bronze's security cameras." Giles pushed up his glasses. "As to the live witnesses, people have a tendency to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't."

Tara remembered killing Jesse and shuddered. "Well, I'll never forget it. None of it."

"Good!" Giles exclaimed. "Next time, you'll be prepared."

"Next time?" Tara asked him.

"We've prevented the Master from freeing himself and opening the Mouth of Hell. That's not to say he's going to stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning."

"More vampires?" Tara asked.

They stopped walking.

"Not just vampires. The next threat we face may be something quite different."

Buffy forced a smile. "I can hardly wait!"

"We're at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction."

Buffy grinned. "Well, I gotta look on the bright side." She put an arm around Tara. "I've made a great friend!"

Tara smiled and put an arm around Buffy. "Awww, ditto, sweetie."