GILES: Are you in the mood for a good torturing?

WES: Always. [they walk over and each of them grabs one of the Bringer's arms.]

GILES: Do you have all the proper tools of the trade?

WES: I have enough. [he drags the Bringer over to the kitchen sink, and turns on the garbage disposal. he tries the force the Bringer's right hand down into the drain. the Bringer struggles mightily.] Giles, can you please help me restrain him?

[Giles grabs the Bringer and Wesley forces his right hand down the drain. He holds the hand just above the blades of the garbage disposal for a few seconds. The Bringer's arm trembles. Then Wesley turns off the disposal. When it goes quiet, Wesley shoves the Bringer's hand to the bottom.]

WES: Giles, put a finger under the power switch. [Giles does this. He realizes what Wesley is doing.] On my command, with a flick of his finger, your hand is no more. Nod once if you understand. That's good. The nice man with his finger on the switch is going to ask you a few questions. If he doesn't think you're telling him all you know, bye-bye right hand. If your remain obstinate, bye-bye left hand. Nod once again if you understand. I thought you would. You cooperate, this won't take long, and everyone will leave happy. Rupert, fire when ready. [Giles is a bit uncomfortable about having the power to maim with the flick of his index finger. But he takes advantage of the opportunity.]

GILES: Who is your boss and how would the Beast fight him?

BRINGER: He's in another dimension. You can't get there. The Beast, he comes and goes in any dimension whenever he pleases. And he's incorporeal. You can't fight him.

GILES: Then how can the Beast fight him?

BRINGER: He's energy. Formless energy. The Beast sucks it up. It becomes a part of him. If that happens, nothing can stop him.

GILES: Then why hasn't he done it already?

BRINGER: Just because he absorbs the energy doesn't mean he can kill it. It becomes a part of him. It retains its own will. The Beast would have to share his body, his brain, with another. He's the go-it-alone type, or haven't you noticed that?

GILES: What is the First Evil planning next?

BRINGER: You can't kill me.

GILES: I bloody well can.

BRINGER: Kill me, and you die. And Wesley with you.

GILES: Pretty big talk for a man in imminent danger of losing half his digits.

BRINGER: I'm unarmed. I can't harm you. If you kill me, there will be retribution. Have either of you heard of the Order of Taraka? We have a deal with them. Anyone takes out one of our men in cold blood, the Order comes down on them hard. And I'm talking the good ones. No maggot-men. None of the third-class hitmen they fop off on their lesser clients. You'll be dead before you know you're in danger.

GILES: But if you have the Order of Taraka in your pocket, why not use them to kill your enemies in the first place?

BRINGER: They don't like to be abused like that. Otherwise every two-bit demon would ring them up when they couldn't kill their nemesis. What they like are honor killings. Enforcing the code. You kill me, you break that code, they enforce it.

GILES: That mean I could pulverize your hand and they wouldn't touch me.

BRINGER: I could always die of shock.

WES: He could be making all of this up.

GILES: Or perhaps he's not. I'm willing to take that chance. Are you? I saw what you did to my friends, my colleagues. To the other Potential Slayers. After all that, do you honestly believe I am above exacting a little payback?

BRINGERS: How do you think an organization such as ours works?

GILES: I ask the questions. You answer them.

BRINGERS: We never see the whole battle plan. We know what they need to fulfill each mission. Nothing more.

WES: So that if one cell is broken it can't rat out the others.

BRINGER: I notice he's the smart one.

[Giles gets mad, flips the switch. Wes had a fraction of a second to anticipate this, and pulled his hand up just in time. The Bringer got frightened until he realized he was in the clear. Giles flipped the disposal off. Wes put the Bringer's hand back in position. Giles realized there was an upside to this. The Bringer now knew Giles was willing to mutilate him. It gave Giles credibility.]

GILES: You're pleading ignorance, then?

BRINGER: I'm pleading limited knowledge. I was hear to kill Wesley. You know that.

WES: Even though I'm not a Watcher?

BRINGER: Maybe I was wrong when I called you the smart one. You're a trained Watcher. You're just not a member of the Council. Well guess what? The Council don't exist no more. Everyone's a free agent. Way we see it, you're as much a Watcher as Torquemada over here.

GILES: Keep talking and a there's a chance you'll keep all your fingers.

BRINGER: I see that twinkle in your eye. Don't deny it. You like this. Having absolute power over another life. That's how it starts. That's how we all started. It's a slippery slope. Before you know it, you're one of us. Wesley appears to be well on his way down that slope. What kind of decent man keeps a cage for humans in his closet? And I know I ain't the first person you put in there.

GILES: I'm not in a patient mood. Get on with it.

BRINGER: Ah yes. My grand confession. What do I know? We're going to try to kill Faith.

GILES: I knew that. What's taken you guys so long?

BRINGER: She's in women's prison you dolt. Like a bunch of armed men, looking the way we look, can enter that sort of place unnoticed. How we're gonna do it, I don't know for sure. I swear! Something about a demon assuming female form going in as one of the prisoners. Nothing you can stop.

GILES: You've been absolutely no help. Now say goodbye to mister pinky.

BRINGER: Wait wait wait! I ain't done yet. First a disclaimer. You must have seen your share of evil plans unhatched over the years. In the end they're always simpler than you had imagined, aren't they? Kind of a letdown.

GILES: That's only natural. The human mind imagines an almost infinite number of possible permutations, only one of which can come to pass. There's bound to be some disappointment.

BRINGER: And furthermore, you know that we're about evil, not power. This Beast guy, he's nothing but brute force. We're so much more than that. Evil doesn't triumph if we just conjure up some giant fire-breathing monster to burn down that white shack you call a headquarters. That's too easy. And it's no fun. If evil's about anything, it's about fun. Otherwise, why bother?

WES: Is this going somewhere? I have a business to run.

BRINGER: Hey be quiet. You're not the one with your finger on the meat-grinder switch. If we throw some super-demon at you guys, you'll just close ranks. It will unite the group. Always does. The goal all along has been to prevent a concentration of your resources. Divide and conquer. And when I say conquer, I don't mean destroy. I mean occupy. Make you one of us. That's the fun part. We try to turn all of you. If we get half of you to roll, we win easy. We get a quarter, you're still done for. Even if we only get one or two, it still means ya gotta fight each other while you're fighting us. And by the way, we don't like the term Trojan Horse. We prefer Fifth Column.

GILES: I do too. But none of the young people have any idea what it means.

WES: So that's it? We're are own worst enemy? That's you grand strategy?

BRINGER: You ARE your own worst enemy. All of you. You'd have to have amnesia not to know that by now.

GILES: I don't think we'll get anything good from him. And can you imagine the mess if I pureed his hand?

WES: The blood would splatter all over the kitchen. I'd be picking bones out of my drain for weeks. [Besides, neither of them have the desire to kill a man, even a sworn enemy, in cold blood.]

GILES: So now what?

BRINGER: Simple. You let me go.

GILES: So you can try to kill us?

BRINGER: Remember what I said to you about honor? You release me, I can't touch you. Otherwise the Order comes after me. And not just me. All the Bringers. Like I said, we live by a code. [Wes pulls his hand out of the disposal.]

GILES: I must admit, you're much more normal than I expected.

BRINGER: Just cause we're evil doesn't mean we're freaks.

WES: Then why the ritual scaring to the face?

BRINGER: It's a bonding experience for the new members. Also, it ensures they never desert. Can't go back into society with a mug like this. Can I have my daggers back?

GILES: So you can kill us?

BRINGER: Remember a little thing called honor? Fine. If you don't trust me, get that gun. If I try anything you can blow me away.

WES: Give him his weapons.

GILES: But? -

WES: [picking up the .50 caliber rifle] Just give him the knives. [Giles does this.]

BRINGER: Thanks guys. It's been a pleasure. And cause you were so nice, I'll tell the other Bringers than when they kill you, they should do it quick, and shouldn't dismember or mutilate your corpses. Like I said - honor.

GILES: Shouldn't honor require them to kill you for getting captured and talking to the enemy?

BRINGER: It's not like I told you anything you couldn't have figured out on your own. Granted, I failed to kill my target. But I know now that Wesley ain't no Watcher no more. I suspect he never really was. You just don't have it in you. The patience. The people skills. The pedagogic instinct. You learn a lot about what it takes to be a Watcher while you're stalking and killing them. And Quentin Travers, your beloved leader, couldn't rise above cliches in his moment of crisis. I detonated the bomb five minutes early cause I couldn't stand to hear any more of his purple prose. So long. [slips out the door, down the stairs, and out the back exit before Giles and Wesley can stop him.]