New Ally

Episode 13

Buffy's House:

            Buffy and Willow were seated in the family room. They were alone and talking about different things. They didn't know where anyone else was and they didn't care.

            "Did you stop the seal?" Willow asked.

            "Yeah, I did," Buffy replied.

            "With Andrew?" she questioned.

            "Yes," Buffy answered, "I was able to convince him that I had to kill him to stop the seal and it got him to cry. His tears landed on the seal and stopped it."

            "That's good news," Willow said.

            "Will, there's something weird about the principal," Buffy blurted out.

            "What are you talking about?" Willow questioned.

            "The principal, my boss, Robin Wood," Buffy went on.

            "What about him?"

            "I'm not sure. He just seems a little suspicious, like he's up to something big. But I don't know anything."

            "Well, why don't you look into it?"

            "I would if I knew how and what to do?"

            "Why don't I look him up on my laptop and see if there's anything about him?"

            "Sounds good, Will. I better get to work. I'll see you later today."

            With that, Buffy stood up and went to the front door. She walked out, leaving Willow sitting there on the couch. Willow stood up and went to the dining room, where her laptop was.

            "Willow, what are you doing?" Kennedy called from the kitchen.

            "I'm looking someone up for Buffy," she replied.

            "Who?"

            "The principal of the high school."

            "Need some help?"

            "Not really, but I could use some company."

            Kennedy walked into the dining room and took a seat next to Willow. Willow smiled and typed in the principal's name and hit search. The two held hands under the table as the computer searched for information on Robin Wood. The two were becoming really close.

            Willow clicked the first link and it opened instantly. She read the information on him.

            "What's it say?" Kennedy asked.         

            "Well, it just tells about him as his previous jobs. But there's nothing weird about him here. Maybe he's just an ordinary guy."

            "I guess so."

Sunnydale High:

            Buffy needed information on Principal Wood. It was eating away at her, so she decided to sneak into his office to see if there was anything interesting on him there. She began looking in drawers and searching through file cabinets. There was nothing at all.

            Then she noticed a huge whiteboard near the front. She gets a little curious and walks over to it.

            "What are you doing?" a male voice questioned.

            Buffy spun around, startled. She turned to see her boss, Robin Wood, standing in the doorway.

            "I was looking for staples," she lied.

            "There's none in here," he replied.

            "Just though I'd check," she went on, "I forgot where the supply room was. That's why I came in here."

            "That's okay."

            "Well, I better get back to work."

            "Buffy?"

            "Yes?"

            "Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?"

            "Excuse me?"

            "I take that as a no."

            "No, no. That's not what I meant. I'm just a little surprised. I'd be happy to go to dinner with you."

            "Alright, well I'll meet you out front of the school at seven."

            "Sounds good. I'll see you then. Bye."

            As soon as she was out of the office, Wood pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. In it was a dagger, with blood all over. He began wiping the blood off. As he finished up, he opened a secret panel behind the whiteboard. In it were twenty other swords and daggers. He placed it in the last spot and closed the panel.

Buffy's House:

            "So he asked you out to dinner?" Willow questioned.

            "Yeah, isn't that weird? I mean, he's a principal. He's a young, hot principal, with earrings, but he's a principal," Buffy said, "Why do you think he asked me out? I mean, he could be interested, right?"

            "Yeah, sure. You're a frisky vixen."

            "Or, it could be work-related. Maybe I'm getting promoted for doing such a good job."

            "Oh, right, that—that makes sense too."

            "Or, maybe he knows that I suspect he's up to something, and he's taking me out to kill me."

            "Well, you'll have to dress for the ambiguity. Buff, if he's really interested, are you interested back?"

            "I don't know. He's good-looking, and he's—he's solid, he's smart, he's normal. So, not the wicked energy, which is nice 'cause I don't want to only be attracted to wicked energy. Or what if he is wicked, in which case, is that why I'm attracted to him?"

            "I'm gonna wait for that sentence to come around again before I jump on."

            "You know what? Yeah, I mean I think I like him. And he'd be good for me."

            "Right, help you move on."

            "Why does everybody in this house think I'm still in love with Spike?"

            "No, I-I meant move on from this imposed super-self-reliance. Let somebody get close."

            Suddenly, the door burst open and Xander came running into the house. He looked really excited.

            "Guys, guess what happened!" he exclaimed.

            "Buffy got a date!" Willow interrupted.

            "No, I did. Fine, way to steal my thunder," he said.

            "Sorry. If it makes you feel better, it's Principal Wood, and I think he's aligned with the First," Buffy put in.

            "Also, like ten years older than you, right?" Xander questioned.

            "That is like 100 years younger than your type!" Willow exclaimed.

            "Yay, someone who doesn't remember the Industrial Revolution." Buffy replied, sarcastically.

            "I think they're gonna end up making out. 'Oh, Principal Wood," she'll gasp, 'I love your lack of wicked energy.'," Willow joked.

            "Watch it, or I'm gonna make you talk about your new girlfriend who you hold hands with under the dinner table and think we don't notice," Buffy retaliated.

            "How 'bout yours, Xander. Is she evil?" Willow questioned.

            "Well, she's interested in me, so there's a good chance, but I'm hoping for the best," he replied.

            Just then, Giles walked in the front door. Chao-Ahn followed behind him. He was carrying a bag of some sort and she was holding a small cup of ice cream.

            "Dear lord, I hate that mall. The shop assistants are rude. And everything in the Food Court is sticky," Giles said.

            Buffy stood up and walked out of the room. She was still angry with Giles for what he had said before. Willow got up and followed her. Giles knew Buffy was still angry.

            "That's gotta be rough. Getting just like pulled out of your home, being told you're a potential slayer, not being able to bring anything," Xander replied.

            "Yes, and the language barrier is formidable. I was concerned that my Mandarin is a little thin, but as it turns out, she speaks Cantonese, which is thinner. But we muddled through, and, as I suspected, ice cream is a universal language," Giles went on.

            "Like many from Asia, I am lactose intolerant. I'm very uncomfortable," Chao-Ahn said, in Chinese.

            "What'd she say?" Xander questioned.

            "She's grateful to be in the land of plenty," Giles answered.

Buffy's House, Later that Day:

            Buffy had left for her date and Xander had left for his. Willow, Giles, Anya, and Spike stayed with the potentials. They obviously didn't have anything planned. Willow was sitting at her laptop, still looking for stuff on Principal Wood. Kennedy was sitting next to her.

            Just then, Anya came running down the stairs, Giles following. Giles was holding pieces of paper in his hands.

            "What are those?" Willow questioned.

            Anya replied, "Giles made them for Chao-Ahn, and now she's locked herself in the bathroom. There are other girls upstairs waiting, and now they're starting to complain."

            "Those are flashcards," Giles put in, "I made them to facilitate her training. Chao-Ahn never had a watcher. The language problem…"

            "You showed her these?" Willow questioned, surprised after she got a look at the cards.

            They were crude drawings of vampires, demons, a girl slaying a vampire, and lots and lots of blood. There was even one of a Turok Han. Anyone would have been frightened.

            "I wanted her to understand the seriousness of her situation," Giles replied.

            "Holy crap!" Kennedy exclaimed, getting a look at the flashcards.

            "Perhaps I'll rethink the approach," Giles said.

            He left the room and Anya followed. Willow guessed that they were going to try and get Chao-Ahn out of the bathroom. Meanwhile, Spike was sitting in the basement, smoking a cigarette. He was finally happy that all had settled down for the night. The thing he wasn't happy with was that Buffy had gone out with some guy she didn't really know.

            Suddenly, he grasped his head and yelled in pain. He began struggling and making a lot of noise. The pain in his head began getting worse and his yelling grew louder. Seconds later, Willow and Kennedy were downstairs.

            "What's going on?" Willow asked.

            Spike's pain stopped and he regained his senses.

            "The chip," he muttered, "It burns!"

            "Willow, how can we help him?" Kennedy asked.

            "I don't know," she replied, "Maybe they will just go away soon."

            Spike sat there, exhausted. It was obvious that the pain he had witnessed was intense.

            "Does Advil work on vampires?" Willow asked him.

            "I don't know," he muttered, "Just give me something to stop the pain."

            Kennedy disappeared upstairs and returned a few moments later, Advil in hand. She gave the bottle to Spike. He opened it and popped several pills into his mouth. Obviously more than was supposed to be taken.

            "We can't do anything until Buffy gets back," Willow whispered to Kennedy.

            "We should at least keep our eye on him, in case the headaches happen again." Kennedy whispered back.

Downtown Sunnydale:

            Buffy and Robin were walking through a dark alley on their way to dinner. They were making cute small talk about different things in their lives. Buffy kept her important things secret from him.

            Just as they were rounding a corner, five vampires jumped out at them. Three jumped at Buffy, knocking her to the ground. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a stake. She quickly shoved it into one of the vamps.

            "You set me up, you son of a…" Buffy was surprised at what she saw was happening.

            Robin Wood was single handedly fighting the remaining two vampires. He kicked one vampire into the brick wall and quickly staked it. Realizing that he hadn't set her up and that he was okay, Buffy turned back to face her two opponents.

           She tripped the second vampire and shoved her stake into its heart. Just as the third vampire was sneaking up on her, she spun around and jabbed the stake into its heart. It exploded to dust.

            Robin walked over to her and she brushed the dust off. She turned to face him.

            "How the hell did you do that?" she questioned, shocked.

            "Do what?" he asked, "Oh you mean that. That was nothing. Come on, I'll tell you once we get to the restaurant."

Sunnydale High Basement:

            Xander was in a bit of trouble with his date, actually more than a bit of trouble. He had gone for coffee and they had talked. But somehow he had ended up hanging from the same wheel-like structure that Spike had been on months before. He was hanging above the seal that brought the Ubervamp out.

            "This can't just happen," he said, "It can't just keep happening that demon women find me attractive. There's gotta be a reason!"

            "You just seem like a nice guy," Lissa, his date replied, "I wanted to get to know you."

            "And kill me?" Xander questioned.

            "Sure," she answered, "Do the ropes hurt?"

            "Yes."

            "Good."

At the Restaurant:

            "This place is nice," Buffy said, "How the hell did you do that?"

            "I've had practice," Wood replied, "Never took on two at once before, but I have taken out a vamp here or there before and some demons."

            "So you're a freelance?"

            "Hmm…freelance—I guess that's a good way to put it."

            "Right. Okay, um, so I'm guessing that you don't work in an office 15 feet above the hell mouth because you enjoy educational administration?"

            "Well, I actually do enjoy the work, but yeah. Yeah, you're right. I maneuvered myself into that school, that office— just like I maneuvered you there. The hell mouth draws the bad things in close, and now we're headed for something big, Buffy. Really big, and I need to be here when it happens. I want to help."

            "So, y-you didn't hire me for my counseling skills?"

            "...They're valuable too."

            "How? How do you know about slayers?"

            "Right. Okay. See, when I was a little boy, my mother was one. The one, actually—the slayer."

            "Your mother— Wow, I didn't know that any slayers had children."

            "Well, I don't know of any others. She was killed when I was four. I still remember her, but it's a little... fuzzy? You know?"

            "Um, something got her... a demon—?"

            "A vampire. Oh man, I went through this whole 'avenging son' phase in my twenties, but I never found him. So, now I just dust as many of them as I can find. I figure, eventually I'll get him. That's probably why we got jumped outside. I'm not very popular with the bumpy-fore headed crowd, and I bet you aren't either."

            "No. Not most of them. Um, so, do you have any slayer powers? I'm sorry, I—I'm just so floored. I-I have no idea what to ask."

            "No, I don't have powers. No super-strength or mythic responsibilities. I'm just a guy with a few skills 'cause her watcher took me in and raised me."

Buffy's House:

            Willow was sitting on the couch, when her cell-phone wrung. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. She had received a text-message from Xander.

            "Who's it from?" Kennedy asked.

            "It's from Xander," she replied.

            "What does he need?" Giles questioned.

            "Well, I'm not really sure. It either means, 'help me my date is a demon and trying to kill me' or 'I got lucky so don't call me for a while,'" Willow replied.

             "What!" Anya exclaimed.

            "Well considering that it's Xander, I'd say he's in trouble," Giles put in.

            "I think you're right," Willow agreed.

            Meanwhile Spike, who had been sitting there quietly recuperating from his severe headache, stood up and went for the door.

            "Where are you going?" Willow questioned, "You are in no condition to go out with those headaches."

            "Someone has to get Buffy," he said, "And I'm the person to do it."

            "I don't think so," Giles said.

            "Alright, Red, you are coming with me," he said and tossed her coat to her.

            "Let's go!" he exclaimed and walked out the door.

            "Go with him," Giles informed, "He may collapse from those headaches and be attacked."

            Willow slid on her coat and dashed out the door after Spike.

The Restaurant:

            "Oh my god!" Buffy exclaimed, "That is the best thing I've ever had in my mouth!"

            Wood had fed her a delicious sample of his dinner. Apparently, she really enjoyed it. Then Wood takes a piece of pear and dips it into his brandy. He flirtatiously feeds it to Buffy on his fork.

            Buffy glanced up and stared right at Spike and Willow, standing next to the table. She is surprised. They both have serious looks on their faces.

            "Is there a problem?" Wood questioned.

            "Spike, Willow, what are you doing here?" Buffy asked.

            "It's Xander," Willow answered.

Sunnydale High Basement:

            The wheel-like structure that Xander was tied to was now directly over the seal. He was terrified that he was most likely going to die.

            "You know, something bad will happen if you open that," Xander said, trying to persuade her to let him go.

            "The seal opens and vicious feral vampire comes out!" Lissa exclaimed, gleefully.

            "And why's that a good idea?" he questioned.

            "I know the end is coming," she began, "It's time to choose sides and get help."

            She walked over and grabbed a large decorative dagger off a barrel. She turned and faced Xander, her eyes glowing yellow like a cats. She stabbed him in the side and he cried out as his blood began dipping onto the seal.

            "Couldn't have done it without you, Xander!" she exclaimed, "Thanks for the great date!"

Downtown Sunnydale:

            The four of them were seated in Wood's car, a Dodge Durango. Buffy was riding shotgun and Willow and Spike were in the back. There was complete silence.

            "Are you sure Xander is at the high school?" Buffy questioned, breaking the silence.

            "Yeah," Willow replied, "I did a locator spell."

            "Not surprising," Wood interrupted, "The school is the center of everything."

            There was complete silence again. Wood sped up so they could get to Xander before anything happened to him.

            "So how do you know the two of them, Buffy?" Wood asked.

            "We work together in the struggle against evil," she blurted out.

            "Hmm…cool," Wood replied, not sure if to believe her.

Sunnydale High Basement:

            "You don't really have to do this," Xander said, trying to get her to stop the madness.

            "Oh, I think I do," Lissa replied.

            "Xander!" Buffy shouted as she burst through the door.

           She ran at Lissa, attacking her. Lissa side-stepped Buffy, causing her to be thrown off-balance. Spike tried to attack, but she knocked him to the ground, choking him. Wood rushed over to untie Xander from the structure above the seal.

            Spike's features begin to change as he vamped out. He was very pissed at this demon.

            "A vampire…" Wood said to himself and begins cutting the ropes.

            He was too late; Xander's blood had dripped onto the seal. The triangles on the seal began to fold upwards, causing light to shine from within. A long claw reached up and grabbed Wood's leg. Wood quickly cut the ropes off Xander's left leg and helped him get away from the seal. Then, he kicked the hand away.

            The seal began to close, since there was no longer a flow of blood. The triangles on the seal slammed down, one of them cutting off the long claw of a Turok Han. Meanwhile, Spike was knocked down once again by Lissa. Buffy regained her senses and charged at the demon once again, this time hitting her target.

            Buffy attempted to grab the dagger from the demon's hand. She and Lissa fight for control of it, Lissa gaining the upper hand. Buffy is tossed away and Lissa turned to face an angry Spike. She swung the dagger, but Spike ducked. He punched her, but was then thrown aside once again.

            While Lissa stood straight up after dispatching Spike, Buffy took it as a great opportunity to attack. She gave the demon a roundhouse kick, causing her to stumble. Buffy reached out and tore the dagger from the demon's hand. She swung the dagger and it connected with Lissa's head. The body and head fell to the ground and melted away into the dirt floor.

            "Hey Xand!" Buffy exclaimed, smiling, "I'm here."

            "How's your date going?" Xander questioned in a weak voice.

            Neither of them noticed the evil looks that Spike and Wood were giving each other. Buffy put Xander's right arm over her shoulder and Spike put Xander left arm over his shoulder and they helped him out of the basement. Principal Wood followed behind, giving Spike a cold look. They met Willow in the car and then sped away.

Buffy's House:

            "Where the hell are they?" Anya questioned, "I bet that slut ate Xander up."

            The Scooby Gang were all seated in the family room, waiting for the return of Buffy, Willow, Spike, and Xander. Just then, Chao-Ahn walked down the stairs and into the family room.

            "Why is everyone up?" she questioned in Chinese, "Are the flashcard monsters attacking?"
            "She can't sleep," Giles incorrectly translated, "Here, have this glass of milk. It'll help you sleep."

            He handed her the glass of milk and she gave him a pissed off look.

            "You're trying to kill me!" Chao-Ahn exclaimed and stomped off back upstairs.

            "She's shy," Giles told the others.

            "Did you ever think that maybe she doesn't like milk?" Andrew questioned.

            Everyone ignored him. The door opened slowly and in walked Willow. Spike and Buffy were right behind her, holding up Xander on their shoulders. Xander's shirt was open, revealing his bandaged side.

            "What happened?" Kennedy asked.

            "That's it!" Xander exclaimed, "I'm turning gay!"

            "Huh?" Buffy questioned.

            "Come on Will, gay me up," he said.

            "Uh…he's had a rough night," Willow said.

            "Do you all realize what is going on?" Giles questioned.

            They all stare at him, confused.

            "You are all too concerned with your social lives," he went on, "There is no time for fun and games. We are about to face a primal evil."

            Everyone looked ashamed except for Buffy, who was still angry with him.

            Holding up the flashcards, he spoke again, "These girls are going to die. And we may also. It's time to get serious."