Giles hangs up the telephone and slowly walks back to the kitchen table. He looks a little spaced-out.
ANYA: Giles? Giles, is something wrong?
GILES: The sun hasn't shone in Los Angeles for weeks. How did we miss this?
XANDER: It's been really cloudy? That's unusual is these parts, but it's no reason to —
GILES: Total darkness.
XANDER: No sunlight. For weeks? How DID we miss that!?
ANYA: How can that happen?
GILES: And it rained fire.
ANYA: Is it vengeance? God's vengeance? He has been out of the game for a while. Maybe He got bored sitting on the sidelines.
Giles sits down. Pours some more Scotch for himself. Pours some for Anya. Xander gets a beer.
XANDER: I don't mean to sound crazy, but aren't those the sorts of things that should happen to us? That is, if they were to happen at all. This is the Hellmouth. WE get the weird stuff.
Willow and Kennedy come into the kitchen through the back door.
WILLOW: No dice. But I'll get him tomorrow.
KENNEDY: I'm gonna go see how the other Potentials are taking this.
Willow sits down at the table.
WILLOW: Okay. I know it's shocking. But why still with the deer-in-the-headlights pose?
GILES: Cordelia is a demon.
Xander gulps. Puts down his beer.
XANDER: Well of course she is. I dated her!
ANYA: You're a retroactive demon magnet.
WILLOW: Even when you don't date demons, they become demons. That's frightening. And to think I almost —
GILES: She became a demon. Then she ascended to a Paradise Dimension and became an omniscient divinity.
ANDREW: She lived as a God? She got to live as a God! You mean that can really happen? Were there harps and dancing?
WILLOW: How can that happen?
ANYA: It's not hard. Just very, very rare. Why would anyone choose to make Cordelia a Higher Being? Out of all the mortals — have the Gods gone crazy?
XANDER: I think by now we know the answer to that question is a big huge Oh Yeah!
GILES: And then she's sent back. And she becomes evil.
XANDER: Once again, why should that surprise anyone? She dated me!
ANYA: I thought she was evil to begin with.
WILLOW: You too?
ANDREW: You mean she's a super-villain?
GILES: In a manner of speaking. She raised a demon of unimaginable destructive power. She caused it to rain fire. She blotted out the sun. She stripped Angel of his soul.
WILLOW: Hold on. Wait a minute. How could she have that much power? And how could she pull it off? This is Cordelia we're talking about! Are you saying she's leading an apocalypse?
ANYA: Sounds like someone's jealous.
WILLOW: She couldn't. No one could do those things on their own. Okay, raining fire's possible. It just takes access to a lot of trans-dimensional energy. I know how to do it. I just chose to burn the whole Earth rather than just one small part.
GILES: Dear Lord, you are jealous.
WILLOW: No I'm not! Just confused. Utterly and completely.
ANYA: So Cordy's a demon witch?
WILLOW: She can't be a witch. She's not bright enough. And anyway, I would have felt her presence. Why didn't I notice any of this?
GILES: I've been asking myself the same question.
XANDER: We have been busy fighting an apocalypse of our own.
WILLOW: It can't be her. Something must be working through her. Using her. What do her friends think of this?
GILES: They think what you're thinking. She fooled everyone. No one suspected a thing until it was too late.
ANDREW: Blotting out the sun? Isn't that a little passe? Mr. Burns did that like seven years ago.
XANDER: So whatever's controlling her is a Simpson's fan?
WILLOW: How do you block the sun?
ANYA: It's actually easier than you would think. In theory, at least. You just have to kill the right immortal demons.
GILES: She killed the 5 members of the Ra-Tet. Or, more likely, the invincible demon she brought forth did the job for her.
ANDREW: She killed Manny!
GILES: I'm sorry. Who?
ANDREW: Manny! The Fifth member. She killed him?
ANYA: You mean Man-Jet?
ANDREW: That's what you call him if you're not his friend. This is so sad.
GiLES: Andrew. Are you trying to tell me you met one of the members of the Ra-Tet?
ANDREW: Jonathan and I hung out with him when we were in Mexico. Manny was so cool. He became our role model.
WILLOW: No offense, but why would some super-powerful Guardian Being hang out with you?
ANYA: Isn't Man-Jet the loser of the group? You know, like the old guy in N Sync? Or Tito?
GILES: The former Yugoslavian strongman?
ANYA: The former Jackson 5 member.
GILES: Of course. Anyway, each member represents an ideal.
ANYA: And Man-Jet could have been the ideal loser.
ANDREW: Manny wasn't a loser. He just had a Zen coolness about him. He was enlightened. Above our petty concerns. You wouldn't understand. I can't believe she killed him.
ANYA: You killed your best friend, and you can't believe someone else could kill a complete stranger?
GILES: And she slept with Angel's child.
WILLOW: Cordelia and Connor?
XANDER: Well of course she did! After all, — No, that doesn't make any sense. Since when did she go for younger guys?
ANYA: See what I mean, Xander. Me and Connor, not incestuous.
GILES: But still extremely disturbing. [downs some Scotch]
ANYA: Cordelia and Connor, that's incestuous. Am I right?
GILES: All too right. She became something of a mother to him when he was an infant.
WILLOW: You mean before he got taken to wherever he was taken to?
GILES: Quor Toth. That's where he went.
ANYA: Are you sure. Quor Toth? Good God!
WILLOW: You've been?
ANYA: No. You think I'm crazy! That's the demon dimension that demons are afraid of. You remember the Mayor? The Ascension? Quor Toth is full of pure demons just like that.
GILES: I've heard similar horror stories. You'll recall that Glory ruled over a particularly nasty demon dimension. Quor Toth is reputed to be even worse.
WILLOW: Oh. Poor Connor.
XANDER: He grew up in a hell dimension? So that thing Buffy died to prevent. The thing that could happen if the Hellmouth ever opened. That was just normal life for him?
GILES: This would explain why he found Sunnydale so underwhelming.
WILLOW: Poor kid. To be a child in such an awful, horrible place. He must have suffered so much. I wish I could hug him and comfort him. Except I know he would try to feel me up. This must be how it started with Cordelia.
ANYA: I still don't understand. There a no portals to Quor Toth from this dimension. For a very important reason.
GILES: There was an incorporeal time-shifting demon. I believe Wesley told me his name was Sah-Jahn.
ANYA: Hold on. I know that guy. He used to hit on me. Vengeance really turned him on. But he was such a loser. "Do you know I invented the International Date Line?" What kind of a pick-up line is that? Or my favorite: "I've seen your future, and I'm in it." Not if I have anything to say about it, pal.
GILES: There was a prophecy that Connor would kill Sah-Jahn.
ANYA: Would this be one of the crackpot prophecies you dismissed? And how can anyone kill an incorporeal demon?
GILES: First, I was right to dismiss the prophecies, because Sah-Jahn altered all of them. Second, he wasn't always incorporeal.
ANYA: I know. He was a badass tough guy back when he had a body. That's why they took it away. And Connor's not even close to strong enough to kill him if he got his body back.
GILES: After Angelus slaughtered Holtz's family, Sah-Jahn appeared before him and offered him a deal. He transported Holtz two centuries into the future.
ANDREW: This story's getting good. A lot better than anything that's happened in Sunnydale. No offense.
GILES: Sah-Jahn wanted Holtz to kill Angelus and Darla before Connor could be born. When Holtz learned Darla was pregnant and Angel had a soul, he changed plans.
ANDREW: Angel destroyed his family. He wanted to pay him back. This is so great!
GILES: He formed a gang of demon hunters and devoted himself to kidnapping Connor. He planned to raise him as his own child in Utah. He managed to take Connor. But then Sah Jahn showed up. He opened a dimensional tear to Quor Toth, and said that if the baby wasn't handed over to him, he would suck the entire world into that hell dimension. With Connor in his arms, Holtz leaped into Quor Toth. Sah-Jahn believed this was good enough, and left.
XANDER: This Holtz guy is unbelievable. He saved the world!
WILLOW: He stole another man's child.
XANDER: A demon's child. But that was the only way. And what kind of a father would Angel have made anyway?
GILES: From what I hear, a very loving and devoted one.
XANDER: You don't get it. That wasn't gonna happen. The demon set it up so that they had to kill the kid to save the world. Holtz saved both. It's just like what Buffy did for Dawn.
GILES: How can you possible believe that! Holtz was no hero. He wasn't even good. From what I've heard, he was borderline psychotic and hell-bent on vengeance.
XANDER: And he raised a kid in Hell. All by himself. A human being. No special powers. Taking care of a baby. Defending it from demons we can't imagine. Okay, Connor's a little odd in the head. But considering what we now know, it's a miracle he turned out as normal as he is.
Giles starts laughing.
GILES: Holtz was very persuasive, especially towards the weak-minded. He created a sort of cult, where desperate people pledged their lives to him and followed him blindly, doing anything he told them to.
XANDER: Are you calling me weak-minded?
GILES: No. Absolutely not. I'm just presenting an indisputable fact.
XANDER: This guy travelled across the centuries to give Angel what he deserved. But then, instead of doing to Angel's child what Angel did to his kids, he raises that child so that Angel can be with him one day. That's not vengeance. That's forgiveness. It's love. He's like the father I always wish I could have had.
ANYA: Sounds like Giles. With attitude. Was he also ruggedly handsome?
GILES: I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask Wesley. Holtz had Wesley's throat cut. Part of his "campaign of love."
XANDER: I'm sure Wesley did something to deserve it.
GILES: It was vengeance pure and simple. He raised Connor to hate Angel, so that one day he could kill his father. He knew that Angel had a soul, and that Angel was good. Therefore, he knew that Angel could suffer. Holtz was a man so completely overcome by vengeance that he could not tell the difference between right and wrong.
ANDREW: Wow! I've never met someone whose life was so mythical. I thought he was Anakin. The power. The rage. Growing up in a bad place. But this part is more like Luke at the end of "Empire."
XANDER: What happened? Why didn't he kill Angel?
GILES: Because he wanted to punish his father. Holtz had himself killed by two puncture wounds to his neck. Connor assumed it was Angelus. He went after his father — who loved him more than anything — ambushed him, trapped him in a metal box, and sent that box to the bottom of the ocean. Angelus was trapped for more than 100 days before being rescued.
XANDER: Does Connor still have the box? I mean, we could always try it on Spike. Keep him out of the way until the First is vanquished. Just to be on the safe side.
WILLOW: How long do you ground a kid for something like that?
GILES: Angel, being Angel, forgave his son. Then the calamities began. Angel agreed to have his soul taken away by a shaman so that he could better fight the indestructible demon, which they called the Beast.
ANYA: Their big bads have even lamer names than our big bads.
GILES: The Beast seemed to take special joy in hurting Connor. The last time they fought, Connor landed face-first on the pavement after being thrown from a window 80 feet up. With the sun gone, innumerable vampires descended on Los Angeles. More than he — or anyone — could fight alone.
WILLOW: Then he really did come here for a vacation.
GILES: That would appear to be the case. I'd imagine he was also trying to escape his father. Angel is stronger than Connor, and Angelus would take great pleasure in tormenting his child.
ANDREW: But instead his father's memory follows him. And then his father follows him. He can never escape his parent's shadow.
Buffy enters the kitchen.
BUFFY: Where's Dawn!?
WILLOW: What do you mean?
BUFFY: She's not in her room.
XANDER: Oh no. That can't be good.
GILES: Buffy, there's a few things I need to tell you about Connor and Angel.
BUFFY: Too late for talking.
Buffy runs out the back door.
GILES: Did I mention that Faith's on the loose?
XANDER: Just when things couldn't get any worse.
GILES: She's been paroled. Faith is in Los Angeles. Working with Wesley. She's reformed.
WILLOW: She must be really reformed. Cause Faith didn't like working with Wesley even before she was evil.
GILES: Wesley may have changed. He certainly sounds different. Faith's arrival means that when Connor goes back to Los Angeles, he won't have to fight alone. He'll have a Slayer helping him.
XANDER: You want to send him back. I'm all for that. But in case you haven't noticed, he doesn't like Slayers.
ANYA: He doesn't like Buffy.
WILLOW: We'll just tell him Faith is the exact opposite of Buffy.
XANDER: And then he'll probably sleep with her. Connor seems to have a thing for the women I've been involved with.
CONNOR: Wanna go to the Bronze? That's what I wanted us to do.
DAWN: I'd like that.
CONNOR: We never got to do anything after the vampire hunting. You always had to run home.
DAWN: I always wanted to spend time with you without vampires getting in the way.
CONNOR: You know what I like about being with you? You make me feel human. You treat me like a person. People always look at me funny, like there's something wrong with me. Like they're scared of me. You're the first one to look past what I am. To care about who I am.
DAWN: I know the feeling. The funny looks. The fear. It's nice when that stuff doesn't matter. It's nice not feeling alone.
They enter the Bronze. Sarah Slean is on stage. Dawn's not sure where she goes from here.
DAWN: Wanna, uh, dance?
CONNOR: I don't. I mean, I haven't.
"Duncan" starts playing. Dawn glances at the stage, mouths the words "Thank you."
DAWN: I think you can do this one.
Connor glances around, then smirks. He's caught on.
CONNOR: Doesn't look so bad.
She puts her arms around his shoulders. He puts his arms around her waist. They inch closer and closer. Connor forgets about all the calamities that occurred earlier in the evening. He puts Angelus and Buffy and Spike out of his mind. For the first time, he feels like what his parents were and who they knew didn't matter. Dawn wasn't in the mood to question her bizarrely good fortune. She didn't think much at all about the Angel connection. No point letting her sister's past actions ruin her fun. She notices a bruise to the outside of Connor's right eye.
DAWN: Connor? Do you like it better when you do the fighting before we go out? You know, instead of during?
CONNOR: This is more fun than fighting.
DAWN: It's nice spending time with you when I don't have to fear for my life.
Dawn worries the joke might have come out wrong.
CONNOR: Thanks Dawn. For making it all go away.
He kisses her. Kit's sitting in back near the stairs. Carlos sits down at her table.
CARLOS: You see Eddie (Edgar) and Lacey? When did that happen?
KIT: Friday. Old news. Want something new? Look over there. Check out Dawn.
CARLOS: Well. That's a surprise. Who's she sucking face with? That's Connor, right?
KIT: Yeah.
CARLOS: When did she tell you?
KIT: She didn't. She hasn't. Said she was staying in tonight.
CARLOS: Seems like everyone's hooking up but us. Excuse me. I think I see Denise.
Carlos takes off.
CARLOS: Denise! Hey. You made it. Haven't seen you since your double victory yesterday.
DENISE: You did pretty well yourself.
CARLOS: Well, fourth is my best finish ever in a meet, but it's not exactly something I'd go around bragging about. Especially to someone who could beat me running backwards.
DENISE: Yeah, well, we all know you're not on the team to run. You're just there cause I need someone funny to play cards with in between heats.
CARLOS: You're with Clarence tonight?
DENISE: We were just talking.
CLARENCE: Yeah. I get the hint. Don't do anything I would do.
Clarence walks over to the bar to get something to drink. Kit's standing near the edge of the dance floor, looking around. Clarence comes over.
CLARENCE: What's up Kit?
KIT: Hey Clarence.
CLARENCE: Looks like it's Charlie's lucky day.
KIT: So Denise won't be issuing a restraining order? Way to go Carlos.
CLARENCE: Catch ya later, Kit.
Clarence goes over to talk to some other people. A young man named Elijah cautiously approaches Kit. He's about her height, thin, with floppy blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He's wearing black Converse sneakers, black jeans and a black Tool t-shirt.
ELIJAH: Hi. [Kit turns around. Elijah smiles shyly.] I'm Elijah. Caitlin's friend. Nice show.
KIT: Yeah. She's pretty good.
ELIJAH: I saw you with Caitlin at the Cat Power show, right?
KIT: No. I didn't go to that one.
ELIJAH: Oh. Sorry. You moved here last year, I think?
KIT: From Pasadena.
ELIJAH: Have you noticed that there's a certain unexplainable oddness in this town?
KIT: I've seen a thing or two that's made me wonder.
ELIJAH: I've lived here most of my life, but I've only started to notice stuff recently. You don't pick it up when you're younger. Guess the weirdness is demographically specific. But I just was bringing this up cause on my way in here tonight I noticed what appeared to be two corpses on the ground. No police. No sirens. No yellow tape. No people standing around looking shocked. Everyone acted as if nothing was wrong. Like everything was normal.
KIT: Look on the bright side. Imagine how much scarier it would be if the corpses started moving and talking.
ELIJAH: Cute. Always nice to be sane enough to joke about these things. It's not the death that bothers me. Death is natural. It's the nobody noticing that's unnatural. I'm scared of people who don't notice the obvious. Like, earlier tonight, I saw this dealer working the room. No fear of being caught. Took some people outside, came back in, took more people outside. And he did this like four or five times. You figure the police — who are like a half-mile away — would pick up on someone operating in the open like this was Amsterdam or something.
KIT: You sure he was a drug dealer?
ELIJAH: The only kinds of people who can get away with wearing that much leather are rock stars, pimps and drug dealers. Didn't have enough jewelry to be a pimp. And no rock star would have his "Remember the 80s" hair. Looked like he was going for the Andrew Dice Clay look.
Angelus would kill Elijah slowly and painfully if he heard him say that.
KIT: You spy on people like this all the time?
ELIJAH: I was bored, looking around, waiting for the show to start. This guy was hard to miss. [pauses, tries to think of a new topic] Good show. She's a good performer.
KIT: Yeah.
ELIJAH: People compare her to Sarah MacLachlan. Since there both Canadians and sound kinda similar. I don't think she's that bland.
KIT: You don't like Sarah MacLachlan?
ELIJAH: I like women with an edge.
KIT: Really. Is that why you're talking to me?
ELIJAH: You mean I'm that obvious?
KIT: You'd be more obvious if you asked me to dance.
The song ends. Connor and Dawn stop kissing.
DAWN: Wow. That was a good, a very good, dance.
CONNOR: Yeah. It sure was. You're a really good, dancer. You okay?
DAWN: My legs are just a little wobbly. [she smiles. Connor smiles back.] We should find a place to sit down. And talk.
CONNOR: It would be nice to get off my feet.
SPIKE: The birds looked nice. They yours?
ANGELUS: Would I trust them if they weren't?
SPIKE: The Asian girl. She looked Thai to me.
ANGELUS: That's where Tina's parents are from.
SPIKE: I think the redhead was flirting with me.
ANGELUS: Enough inane small talk. What do you want?
SPIKE: To see you out of town. Not stupid enough to let you kill any more townies.
ANGELUS: Don't worry, boy scout. I've had my fill.
SPIKE: With you, it's always play before work. Cuz the work always turns out so badly. Have to get your fun in before your enemies find you out.
Angelus is walking back to his car.
ANGELUS: I had no idea you missed me this much.
SPIKE: What are you going to do when you return home? Kill. Feed. The usual. Doesn't that bore you?
ANGELUS: Back to the beginning. You started playing this record a long ago.
SPIKE: Your glory days are behind you. You have no one to share spoils with. What keeps you going? Can't be novelty.
ANGELUS: Same thing that's always kept me going.
SPIKE: Your victims.
ANGELUS: Angel called them his friends. Plus, and you'll like this part — there's a Slayer in LA.
SPIKE: You mean the anti-Buffy?
ANGELUS: That's what makes her wonderful. Plus the fact that Angel changed her life, made a good woman out of her. Means she can't ever bring herself to kill me.
SPIKE: You never perform without a safety net. And yet you have so many regrets.
ANGELUS: You're talking about yourself.
SPIKE: If you had to live your life over again, would you do everything the same way?
ANGELUS: Up until that gypsy woman.
SPIKE: That's the rub. Angelus or Angel, you always have your regrets.
ANGELUS: And you don't?
SPIKE: No. I'd do everything the same. That's how it is when you get to be your own man. No one to credit but yourself. No one to blame but yourself. You'll never know that feeling. Because your choices are never your own. But you do have one thing over Angel. Unlike him, you know you don't have soul.
ANGELUS: Well, dummy, that's because he knows he has one.
SPIKE: Angel doesn't have a soul. He has a conscience. Right over wrong. Good over evil. That's not what a soul's about. You could program a robot to tell the difference. That's what you are. A robot. And every now and then, someone switches you from good to evil, or from evil to good. To get a soul, you need to have free will first. And you'll never have that. All you are, all you'll ever be, is a sad bloke who does what someone else tells him to do. And the saddest thing is you don't mind.
ANGELUS: You chose to be Buffy's helper, her Xander-with-fangs? You used to do whatever it took to get what you wanted. I know this isn't what you wanted. Why do you accept it?
SPIKE: Because of something you're not too familiar with: progress. See how Buffy felt about me a year ago. Or two years ago. Or three years ago. Or six months ago. Things have improved exponentially. At this rate, six months from now, well, you won't walk so proud or talk so loud. Nice wheels, by the way. Don't remember red being your color.
ANGELUS: You still can't see it. Or you can, but you're too afraid to admit it. Your life fell apart because you couldn't kill Buffy. She took everything away from you. Then she turned you into what she wanted you to be. The only way you can win, the only way you'll ever be free, is if you kill her. That's what you came to Sunnydale to do. She is your curse. Only way to break the curse is to break her. Deep down, you know I'm right. Happy groveling.
Angelus gets in his car and zooms off, leaving Spike standing in his dust. Spike laughs. Angelus hadn't noticed that Cordy put her Queen C license plates on the car. Angelus felt it was a good night. He had 11 kills right under Buffy's nose, including 5 sires. And he knew those chickens would soon come home to roost. Then of course there was Connor — Angelus's unwitting accomplice. He knew Connor would be a thorn in Buffy's side.
Buffy ran to Connor's house. No one was home. She ran to the Bronze. She enters, looking around for Dawn. Then she sees a truly awful sight. Dawn and Connor are sitting on a couch, making out. Buffy is ready to kill him.