Fred and Wes are struggling to their feet when Mal's head falls to the ground, landing right-side up. The sheer shock of this turn of events stops them cold for a few seconds. Twenty feet behind them, Gunn, still lying on that rock, could swear he sees a headless guy. He cannot see Angel, so he can't be sure about his fate. Lorne lies thirty feet to Gunn's left. Unlike the three of them, Lorne saw Angel land the improbable punch. He rubs his eyes and looks again, just to make sure it really happened. Lying on top of her car on the other side of the road, Cordy watches Mal's body teeter. It slowly rocks back and forth five times before a light breeze tips it over for good. Once Mal's back hits the ground, his skin and flesh turns to dust, falls off his bones and is blown up into the air by a light, swirling northerly breeze. The dust floats above the ridge and towards the reservoir.
"Did I do that?," Angel asks himself as he lies on the ground. Wes and Fred limp towards him. Gunn and Lorne stagger. Cordelia does a bit of both. Being closest, Wes and Fred get to Angel first, followed by Cordy. Because his neck is too sore to allow his head to turn, Angel can't see them until they are standing right over him, looking down with the greatest concern.
"Angel. Angel? Can you hear us?," Cordy asks. Angel's ears are ringing too loudly for his to understand her, and he never had a reason to learn how to lip read. But he can see them, though his vision is rather cloudy.
"Angel, how are you?," Fred asks.
"Can you move anything?," Cordy queries.
"You won," Wesley reports, unsure if Angel is cognizant of that fact. "You killed Mal."
"Connor. Where's Connor? Where's my son?," Angel asks in a voice barely above a whisper. Cordy and Fred see Connor lying on the rock. They can't tell if he's alive from this distance, so they rush over to check. Cordy because she's always cared about him. Fred because she thinks he's shown enough bravery to make her forgive him for three months of lying to Gunn and herself about dunking Angel underwater. Gunn and Wes put their hands under Angel's shoulders and try to help him up slowly.
"Ow!! No. Moving isn't a very good idea," he tells them after they lift his shoulder blades a foot off the ground. They place him back down.
Connor saw Mal's head fall off, and he saw him turn to dust, so he's more informed about matters than Angel. He's still leaning against the rock when Cordy and Fred rush up. Connor manages a small half-smile.
"That was cool, huh?"
"Connor. It's me, Cordelia. Can you hear me? Can you move anything?"
"I'm okay," Connor stubbornly insists. He leans forward and gets on his hands and knees. But before he can stand up, Connor begins vomiting more blood. Fred's a little sickened and a lot worried.
"What do we do?," she asks Cordy. "What do you do for this sort of thing?" She didn't know. Cordy had never seen this sort of thing either.
Meanwhile, Lorne senses that Angel is having trouble hearing. He leans down to speak into Angel's left ear. "Connor's okay. Okay, he's not quite okay. But he made it. Like you. Except, he's still breathing. Which, I suppose, was implied when I said he made it. Little guy's quite the trooper."
"Let me see him," Angel whispers in Lorne's left ear. "I need to see him."
"Which creates a slight conflict. See, to see Connor, you have to sit up. Which would require moving. He's right in front of you. A little distance away, but straight in front. So, in order to see him - "
Angel groans as he lifts his head up because his neck is so sore. "Oh. There he is," Angel says with a smile. "Throwing up blood." Angel's smile quickly disappears. "I have to help him. Connor. Connor, I'm coming. Just hang in there." Angel grimaces as Gunn and Wes help him to his feet. His back is killing him. Angel realizes he only has one good leg to stand on. And standing up made him even more lightheaded, so he has very little balance. Gunn and Wes struggle to hold him up. But Angel realizes he felt much better on the ground. "Okay. Not gonna happen. Down please." They begin to let him down. "Hold it. Stop! What are all those bones?"
"That's Mal," Gunn answers. "Oh, that's what's left of him after he made the mistake of messing with you."
"Oh." Angel responds. He falls back down. "Wait. His bones. His bones survived. You have to crush them. You have to break them. Just to be sure he never rises." Wesley wasn't familiar with the Master's epilogue, and Angel didn't have enough energy to explain. The three of them think it's the brain damage talking. But they can't see the harm in trying. Besides, they'd enjoy getting out a little frustration. They hobble around until they find some stones that should do the job. Then they kneel down and prepare to wail away.
"Anyone got the theme from 2001' lying around?," Lorne jokes. They slowly raise their arms and bring the stones crashing down. But it doesn't work quite as well as it did for Arthur C. Clarke's monkey men. The leg bones just lie there. The ribs roll around, but don't break. They try a few more swings. Nothing. They can't break any of the bones, only scatter them. They look at each other.
"I think we're all a little fatigued because of the fight," Wes suggests.
"Yeah. We're worn out," Gunn concurs.
"Maybe later," Lorne adds.
"Or, with somethin' bigger and better to swing," Gunn proposes. He stands up and limps over to Cordy's car to find any leftover weapons.
After wretching, Connor insists on continuing to crawl over to Mal's skeleton. But his swollen left knee is too sore. After twenty feet, his eyes tearing up in pain, Connor rolls over and lies down again.
"Can we get some help?," Cordy pleads. Wes and Lorne come over and the four of them carry Connor to Angel, lying him down just to Angel's left. He smiles when he sees his son, and reaches his left hand out to touch Connor's right hand.
"We did it," he tells his son. "Told you we would."
"What do you mean we?," Connor asks back.
"I knocked his head off."
"No. I cut it off." Connor looks at the ground in front of him, then points. "With that rock. The small flat one."
"Really?," Angel responds to the news. "How'd you do that?"
"I threw it." He looks up at Cordy. "Get me that rock." She puts it in his left hand, and Connor clutches his souvenir.
"I guess we really did kill it together," Angel tells Connor.
"No we didn't," Connor replies. "He was dead when you hit him."
"He hit me after I hit him. How could he hit me if he was dead?"
"God, you champions can be so petty sometimes," Cordy interjects. "You did it together. You needed each other. Can we leave it at that?"
"I already have," Angel responds.
"You're right, Cordy," Connor concedes. "I needed him to distract Mal."
"Well I think I did a little more than distract him," Angel objects before starting to cough. Meanwhile, Gunn takes a couple whacks at the bones with the blade side of an ax. Then with the blunt side. Nothing. He walks over to Angel.
"They won't break."
"What won't break?"
"The bones. Mal's bones."
"Wish I could say the same for mine," Angel jokes. He tries to sit up.
"We need to get Connor to a hospital," Fred pleads.
"No hospitals," Angel insists. "He stays with me." Angel inherently fears letting Connor be to far away from him, especially when Connor's helpless. Also, Wolfram & Hart could find out where Connor is and kidnap him. Or worse. He knows they've always wanted to dissect Connor. No way Angel will run that risk.
"I don't think you understand how bad he's hurt. There could be internal bleeding," Fred argues.
"He'll heel. We'll take care of him. My son stays with me. They wouldn't know what to do with him anyway."
"Don't mean to rain on the parade, but how do we get home?," Lorne asks. "Our cars look to be sort of totaled."
"I think they'll still work," Fred guesses.
"Mine won't," Lorne answers. "Not without a sheet metal cutter." His roof is crushed into the cabin, so no one can get in until it's cut off.
"My car," Angel adds. "We need to go back for my car." He coughs some more, which he finds very strange. Why does he cough when he doesn't even need to breath?
"First we need to get you into mine," Cordy proposes.
"Connor first," Angel replies. "And don't forget the bones."
Fred's a little confused. "I don't see how we can, since they're inside his body. Least I hope they all are."
"He means Mal's," Lorne tells Fred. She and Cordy hadn't really noticed the skeleton.
"Yikes," Fred responds upon seeing them. "I didn't know that could happen." Gunn hacks the roof off Lorne's car with his ax, and Lorne gets in, along Wes and Gunn. Wesley sits across the back seat because of his shot-through foot, which he's tied his t-shirt around to try to stop the bleeding. The bones go in Lorne's trunk. Connor's placed on Cordy's back seat, with Angel lying on the floor behind that. Cordy drives with Fred riding shotgun and feeling a little nervous on account of there being no door next to her. They retrace their steps. When they get to Wesley's bike, he gets out and rides that while Fred limps over to Lorne's car. Gunn drives Angel's car home, with Angel lying on the back seat. Nobody says anything on the ride home. They're too weary and hurt and just plain blown away by everything that's happened.
Nina hadn't planned on fighting Buffy tonight. But Mal had given her an idea when he talked about ambush tactics. So she hides in Buffy's backyard, watching and waiting. After dinner and washing the dishes, Andrew takes the garbage bags out the back door and carries them to the garbage cans. Too insignificant. He won't do. Then Anya steps out with a smaller garbage bag. "Andrew. You forgot this one," she calls out. Nina thinks Anya is important enough. So Nina swoops in out of nowhere and grabs her off the back porch, which is not protected by the sanctuary spell. Andrew never hears her. He walks back, sees the bag, thinks he dropped it, takes it over to the trash cans, then heads back in. Nina carries Anya away at astonishing speed to a crypt in the cemetery, where she shackles Anya's arms to the back wall. At first, Anya was terrified. But now she's mostly annoyed.
"What do you think you're doing?," she asks Nina.
"What does it look like?"
"Like you've taken me hostage. Either to hold me for ransom or lure Buffy out to try and save me. But you blew it. Buffy is not going to rescue me. She doesn't care about me. She's not my friend. She's a friend of my ex-fiance. So there's no connection between us. Why didn't you just kidnap Dawn? That's what anyone else would do."
"She wasn't available. You were. And even if Buffy doesn't care about you, a man who's very close to her does."
"You know about us?" Her relationship with Xander should have been entirely irrelevant to the First Evil.
"My boyfriend told me. Gotta say, if I didn't already have the greatest boyfriend in the whole universe, I'd be a little jealous. You're a lucky woman, landing a man like that."
"I used to feel that way. You like him? Wait. That makes sense. You're hot and you're evil."
"He's easily the sexiest man in the bunch. Much sexier than that vampire."
"You really think so? You should tell him that. Xander would love hearing he's hotter from Spike. Even from someone as morally revolting as yourself."
"Xander?," a confused Nina asks.
"Of course, Xander. Who else is there?"
"Who else is there! Who else is there? What about the Watcher!?"
"Giles. You think I'm - whoa, are you misinformed. Why would you ever think the two of us were together?"
An angry Nina punches a hole through a foot-thick stone wall a few inches from Anya's left ear. "You don't think he's handsome? Worldly? Debonair?"
"I suppose he is all of those things. But he's also Giles. And he's old."
"He's a lot younger than the vampire. And he talks like he's a lot smarter."
"True. But Spike doesn't age. So, on the surface, he looks younger."
"If youth's what you value most, why don't you married a child?"
"I still can't get over the fact that you have the hots for Giles," Anya says with a laugh. "That is so hilarious."
"No. I only have the hots for my absolutely perfect boyfriend. I just can't understand why, given the choices you have, you wouldn't choose Giles. Unless guys aren't your thing." Nina smiles and reaches out her right hand, caressing Anya's left cheek and neck before running her fingers through Anya's hair. Anya gets a little nervous.
"Oh boy. Now you're getting me confused with someone else yet again."
"You're so soft. And smooth." Nina reaches her hand under Anya's shirt and touches her stomach. "And scared. I can feel your heart racing."
"Really? Because my heart's about six inches up. Not that I want you to put your hands there. Or, anywhere on me." Nina's done with her touching. She looks into Anya's eyes, and for an instant Nina's blue eyes glow even brighter than normal. "You wouldn't be trying to hypnotize me, control my mind so I'd do things with you I don't want to do? Because that would be wrong. Not as wrong as ripping my heart out. Is that the choice? Lesbian sex or painful death? Because, obviously I wouldn't choose death. But I wouldn't enjoy it. And that would probably make it a lot less fun for you."
Nina laughs. "You think I want to have you?"
"Well yes. Why wouldn't you?"
"Please."
"Oh, why not! I'm not good enough for you? You kidnap me so we can be alone. You tie me up and fondle me. And you expect me to believe you're not interested?"
"You're a toy," Nina responds before licking the right side of Anya's face. "Fun to drag around and play with. But you can't make love to a toy." Nina backs two steps away from Anya.
"You don't lick toys either. Though, I suppose you could. And you can have sex with toys. If they're life-size and anatomically correct. Not that I have. But, my point still holds that yours is a faulty and unconvincingly analogy. It's obvious you want me."
"So who is the Watcher planning to have sex with?"
"There's a plan? And if there is, how would you know about it? Shouldn't you be spending your time trying to figure out how to kill all of us, instead of picking up useless gossip?"
"My boyfriend told me the Watcher thought he was going to have sex very soon. He also told me that Faith's had some in the last month, while Buffy hasn't gotten any for over a year."
Anya assumes "boyfriend" is Nina's slightly creepy way of referring to the First. "Why is the First bothering to learn about our sex lives? This is causing me to seriously question your side's competence."
"Who's the lucky woman who's got the Watcher's heart?"
"Why should I tell you?" Nina puts her hand to Anya's chest as if she's about to rip out her heart. "Oh, this is just silly! You expect me to believe you're going to kill me for that little tidbit? You people are really beginning to disappoint me." Nina pulls her hand away.
"You're right. I'm bluffing. You're not important enough for me to kill."
"Well that's a very transparent attempt at reverse psychology."
"Reverse what? I can only kill those who pose a threat to my mission. You don't."
"There's no need to get catty. You made an incorrect assumption and kidnapped the wrong person. I know that's embarrassing, but we all make mistakes. Now, if you want, you can unchain me, let me go home and lure out Dawn, and then you can do this thing right. She's used to this, so she shouldn't scream or cry too much. I think you'll be very pleased with her performance as a hostage."
"They'll come for you."
"Have you been listening to a word I've said?"
"Buffy cares about her honor. I took you from her house. If she doesn't try to retrieve you, that dishonors her."
"Why didn't you also take Andrew? He was outside."
"I thought you were more important. And I still do. You're quite smart."
"Gee. Thanks," Anya responds with a smile. "It's nice of you to notice."
"Which is another reason you would be perfect for that Watcher."
"Will you get off this whole Giles jones?
"Suit yourself," Nina flippantly responds as she turns her back on Anya and walks out the crypt door.
"Hold on! You're just going to leave me here?"
"I can't exactly let you go."
"It's a graveyard. There could be hungry vampires lurking around. Untie me. Give me a stake. Let me fend for myself. I promise I'll stay put."
"I would never let anything attack you," Nina says before walking off. Anya sighs angrily and rattles her shackles.
"What is her problem? Is flakiness a part of her job description?"
About ten minutes after the kidnapping, Xander realizes something is wrong. "Buffy. Anya's gone."
"Yeah. So?"
"She didn't take any of the cars."
"Again with the yeah, so?"
"So, she's obviously been kidnapped."
"Why would anyone kidnap Anya?"
"I don't know. Maybe we could find whatever took her and ask. Right before you kill them, of course."
"You think it was Nina? Why? Sure, Nina's not the brightest Titan in the universe. Except, well, she is. Since she's the only one. But even Nina should know better than that."
"You said Nina told you she hated demons. That she loved killing them. Anya used to be a demon. Maybe that's enough to set Nina off."
"Then why wouldn't she just kill Anya? Kidnapping her seems a bit excessive."
"Buffy, I'm serious."
"I know. But where do we look? Where would Nina take her? Does she even have a base?" Xander runs down to the basement and grabs Spike.
"Spike, I need your help." Spike pushes him away.
"Hey. No touching."
"Do you know Anya's scent?"
"Does this have something to do with you still be sussed about me shagging her?"
"Grow up, Spike. Anya's been kidnapped. Can you track her scent?"
"Who the bloody hell would kidnap Anya?"
"I'm not sure. But someone has. Probably Nina. Don't ask me why. But can you find her?"
"I suppose I could try. But what if Nina's just trying to draw us into a trap?"
"And what if you don't fall for the trick? What do you think she'd do then?"
"Maybe rip Anya's heart out. Okay, I see your point."
Giles was out on a date, so Buffy had to decide on her own. She went along on the principle that she can't willingly let her enemy attack people. She has a job, a mission, after all. Going against Nina would be a serious risk. But if she declined, Xander would never forgive her. Faith also tags along. She's not one to miss a fight, especially now that Buffy and her are completely healed from their encounter with Nina on Monday. Plus, Willow was eager to head out. Not because she cared about Anya. But because she had spent the past three days preparing for payback. In Willow's mind, Nina had humiliated her. And she can't let that stand for long.
Giles and Estella sit at a small table in a cabaret in Santa Barbara, twenty miles south of Sunnydale. Giles drinks Scotch on the rocks, while Stella drinks a vodka martini. He wears a blue button-down shirt light and brown tweed jacket, while she wears a dark blue dress and has her hair pulled back.
"Something wrong, Rupert,?" Stella asks.
"No. Not at all," Giles haltingly answers. "Dinner was good. And the music is excellent."
"I meant something at work."
"I assure you that the demons who committed last night's attacks are gone."
"The Potentials haven't been at school all week. I take it that means you're in crisis mode. Life is getting tougher."
"Life," he says with a sigh. "You see, that's the problem. I've lost four girls in the past week. I'm here for one reason – to protect them. Clearly, I'm failing."
"I wouldn't go that far. Without you, they'd all be dead, right?"
"Yes, but that's in the past. Bringing them here, taking them to live with Buffy, that was only the first step."
"I'm not sure if this helps, but I know what it's like to lose people. I lost my younger brother when I was sixteen. My best friend in high school when I was seventeen. People in this town die all the time. And that's among people who don't have enormously powerful enemies gunning for them 24-7. This may sound cruel and callous, but I learned a long time ago that you can't save everyone. The best you can do is keep things from falling apart."
"You can't save them all? That's your solace?"
"Not solace. Reality. I'm here to make sure this town keeps existing. You're here to make sure this world keeps existing."
"This is a war. And in a war, there are casualties. What matters is saving the world. I've said that to myself, and to Buffy, countless times. I'm finding that harder and harder to believe as the casualties mount. And I'm beginning to think it's more of an excuse than a mission statement."
"Except that you begin feeling like a failure before you've actually failed."
"Yes, but I have to feel guilty before the fact. Because, if I do fail, there won't be any time left to blame myself."
"And then you'd feel guilty for not having felt guilty. Or, is it something else? Are you trying to remind yourself that it will feel worse if more people die? You sublimate the grief, you minimize the stakes. Instead, the more dire things become, the more dedicated you are."
"I think you really have helped me work through my guilt. Thank you, Stella."
"So I was right?"
"No. But by deconstructing it into incoherence, you've made me want to stop thinking about the entire subject."
"Glad I could do you some good," she jokes. The piano player and singer starts performing Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "This Time The Dream's On Me." "Rupert, would you like to dance?"
"I suppose that was implied by my agreeing to A night of dinner and dancing.'" Stella stands up and takes his right hand.
"Get up and stop responding to everything with a complete sentence." Giles stands up and walks with her out to the dance floor.
"If you insist," Giles replies.
"That's better." Giles is beginning the understand the Potentials' urge to snuggle with their boyfriends when things get tough.
Back in Sunnydale, Spike finds that following Anya's trail leads them to a familiar locale. "And I thought she hated vampires," he jokes.
"The cemetery," Buffy says as they cross the street and approach its gate. "So much for originality." Nina hides behind the stone column on the right side of the gate. As Buffy leads the way through, Nina comes out of nowhere, grabs Buffy and throws her head-first into the column she was just hiding behind.
"That depends," Nina says to them. Spike turns to his right and tries a right hook. Nina grabs him and throws Spike head-first into the opposite stone column. Then she kicks Willow in the chest with her left foot, sending Willow fifteen feet back and into the road. Faith lands a right hook kick to Nina's face. Nina lands a straight right kick to Faith's chin and a left roundhouse kick to her nose, knocking Faith ten feet back and to the pavement. Nina then turns around and grabs Spike's neck with her left hand and Buffy's neck with her right. After smashing both their skulls together, she tosses the two of them twenty feet over her shoulder, then turns around to face her enemies as they struggle to her feet. "Do you get your heads slammed into this gate a lot?" The whole ambush took about eight seconds. "Because, by the fact that I took you down so easily, I'm guessing the answer is no. Never done before: isn't that the definition of originality?" Nina looks quite different from the other times they've seen her. Mal had convinced her to try going upscale. She wears black Manolo pumps, black Prada pants and a matching black sleeveless shirt. Mal thought black would go well with her new red hair.
"Nice hair," Willow comments. "I guess imitation is your idea of flattery."
"I guess at least one person here needs an eye exam," Nina retorts. "Your hair is orange. My hair is red. That's the color of the blood that will soon start flowing out of your body. I've never seen anyone, human or demon, bleed your hair color."
"I'm not sure if you understand how this works," Buffy condescends. "You can't keep all four of us out here."
"We'll see about that."
"One of us gets by and finds Anya, then the rest of us are gone. Not that much fun from your angle. Or, we all choose to stay, and start doing to you what we did to your brother." She hopes the sibling references will get under Nina's skin.
"You still don't get it. I was built to win. My brother was built to die. Like you."
"Yeah. The rules say the two of us should have died years ago," Buffy responds. "We have a habit of breaking the rules."
"So does your witch. That's why I'm here. You three are definitely rebels."
"And what about me?," Spike asks, a little hurt. "Did you forget?"
"You, I always forget." Buffy charges Nina and throws a right roundhouse kick. At the same time, Spike jumps over the ten foot-high stone wall. Nina blocks the kick and sweeps out Buffy's left leg, knocking her down. Nina leaps over the wall. A few seconds later, Spike flies over the wall and back into the street, where he lands quite painfully. Nina leaps out soon after. "Just because I forget about you doesn't mean I ignore you." Nina looks at Buffy. "Is he really the best you can do?" Spike rushes in and lands a left cross and a right uppercut to Nina's face. She leaps in the air and lands a right roundhouse kick that sends Spike spinning through the air before he falls to the ground. "Maybe he is. From what I here, that other vampire couldn't do much better against me. Then again, who can?" Buffy wasn't paying attention to Nina's blabbing, so she misses the Angel reference. "Maybe you can. My boyfriend says you're the strongest. He thinks you're the one who holds everything together. Let's see you prove him right." Buffy approaches. Nina retreats to the gate. Spike comes in on Buffy's left and Faith on Buffy's right. Nina doesn't see Willow. In fact, she's not even looking for her.
Willow stands behind Nina, waiting as she backs up. When Nina's within range, Willow sticks the fingers on her right hand into Nina's skull. She wants to perform the same spell she did on Glory shortly before Buffy killed her. Nina certainly looks surprised. Buffy is hopeful. After three seconds, Willow removes her hand and a shaft of white light shoots out from Nina's skull. Nina grabs Willow's neck with right left hand, lifts her feet off the ground and turns to her right to look at Willow as she chokes her.
"Did you just finger me?," NIna asks with a smirk. "Maybe I'll return the favor." She puts her left hand to Willow's head, squeezing down lightly on Willow's skull with her fingers as she runs them through Willow's hair. "Would you like that?" She pulls her left hand down. "Or, would you like it better if I fingered you somewhere else? I know I would." Willow can't speak, and so is limited in the defensive magics she can use. Nina points her left hand in Buffy's direction. "Make one move, and I snap her neck." She loosens her grip, but still keeps Willow dangling in the air. "Relax, orange. I ain't gonna kill you." She tosses Willow to the other side of the street. "You're too much fun to play with."
¬I should have known that trying to hurt your brain wouldn't do any good,"
Buffy jokes. "You hardly ever use it."
"Is that why I keep kicking you ass?," Nina shoots back.
"No, that's because your brother was there to tire us out. Before we bashed open his head like a ripe melon."
"And because I was holding back," Willow adds. Her eyes dilate and started glowing a dark red.
"Wow!," Nina exclaims. "My boyfriend's eyes are the same color. That is so cool!" Willow holds out her right palm, out of which emerges a fireball. When it hits Nina, her body goes up in flames. Buffy's plan is to use Willow to soften Nina up before the rest of them attack. It appears to be working. Nina opens her mouth and starts sucking air – and flame – into her body. Six seconds after being lit up, the flames are gone. And Nina doesn't appear hurt. Even her clothes emerged undamaged. Nina blows a long stream of smoke out of her nostrils. "I like," she says with a smile. "First you finger me. Then you make me all hot. Can you detect a pattern?"
Buffy, Faith and Spike attack simultaneously. When Nina squeezes her fists, they turn fiery. She hits Buffy in the mouth with a right jab, and Faith in the jaw with a left uppercut. Nina turns to her right to face Spike. He puts his left hand around her right fist when she tries to punch him, causing him pain but extinguishing the flame. Nina knocks his feet up off the ground with a left uppercut to the stomach. She holds her fist against his shirt long enough to set it ablaze. Then walks back to Buffy and Faith. Two seconds after punching Spike, the fire disappears. She's expended all the energy Willow put into her. Spike rolls along the ground for a while, trying to put the fire out. "Thanks baby," Nina says as she looks at Willow and winks her right eye. Willow's starting to understand the nature of Nina's powers. She tries to figure out how to hurt somebody who can apparently absorb unlimited amounts of energy.
Buffy and Faith, their faces blackened where Nina hit them, attack yet again. The plan is to hold Nina in place while Spike escapes and finds Anya. But another vampire has gotten there first. He opens the door and looks in at the woman chained to the wall. For a vampire, that's like gift-wrapping. He smiles and growls. Anya gets worried. "This, for your information, is a trap," Anya tells him. "I'm bait. You come in and eat me. Then the Slayer swoops in and stakes you. So, we both lose. You understand?" The vampire steps forward and tries to enter. But he's barred. He looks confused. He tries again, and slams his face into an invisible barrier. "Okay, I lied," an equally stunned Anya remarks. "You don't kill me, and you still die. So run along now." He pushes his hands forward, and they strike the barrier. He growls, shakes his head and walks away. Anya stops sweating, and her breathing and heart rate slow down. This must be what Nina meant when she said she wasn't going to let any vampires hurt Anya.
Faith lands a straight right kick to Nina's chin, and Buffy adds a left hook kick to her right eye. She backs up and puts up her hands to defend herself as Spike makes a run for it. Nina blocks Faith's right hook and downs her with one of her own. Buffy lands a right jab to her nose, but Nina knocks her down with a left hook. Nina looks at Willow, who's twenty feet in front of her. "Come on, witchy woman. Hit me with your best shot." Willow doesn't do that, but she does throw a glob of sticky white gunk onto Nina's hands, gluing her palms together. The harder she pulled, the tighter it would get. Which is why Willow thought it could turn Nina's powers against her. Buffy lands a left hook, and Faith connects with a right hook. Nina does a back flip to buy time. She ducks under Buffy's punch, leaps above Faith's kick and does a split on the way down, hitting Faith with her left foot and Buffy with her right while she's still in the air. Once she lands, Nina knocks Buffy back with a left roundhouse kick, does a forward flip over Faith's head, spins and downs her with a right hook kick when Faith turns around. Buffy charges in as Nina struggles to pull her hands apart. She discovers that this does not help. But she puts Buffy on the ground anyway with a back flip kick to the face.
"Nice thinking," Nina concedes as she walks towards Willow. Willow holds up two glowing aqua spheres about the size of bocce balls. Nina laughs. "I hope I'm not the only one who sees the irony. No. I guess I am. Do you even have a sense of humor?"
"About evil?," Willow asks herself as the balls float above her head and start spinning. "Sorry," she tells Nina with a shrug. When Nina is ten feet away, the balls fly at her eye sockets. They deform her face and nearly push her eyeballs into her cerebral cortex, but quickly bounce away. And when they do, Nina's face returns to normal, though she does look hurt. Willow figures she can keep this up as long as Nina's hands aren't free to grab the projectiles.
Spike follows Anya's scent to the crypt. He opens the door and tries to rush in. Anya looks disappointed to see him. "No! Spike, you can't enter. She made it like a house. Vampires have to be invited in."
"Then invite me the bloody hell in!"
"I'm guessing Nina has to do that."
"Well at least give it a try."
"Fine." Anya sighs. "Yes Spike, you may enter. But don't take that sexually." Spike groans and tries to cross the threshold, but is stymied. "See! What did I tell you? No go and get someone who can help me."
As Willow's eyes darken, she brings her weapons next into Nina's knee caps. They dent her knees for a second, before then they pop back. Willow brings her spheres fifteen feet to Nina's left and right before smashing them into Nina's ears. As Willow does this, Nina uses all her strength to squeeze her palms together. The resulting pressure heats and denatures the glue, causing it to lose its stickiness. Nina smiles and rips her hands apart as the balls hit her ears. The powerful blows cause her to wince. The magic glue falls to the ground in little flakes.
"Do unto others," Nina tells Willow as she reaches her arms out wide. Buffy grabs her left wrist from behind, and Faith grabs her right wrist. Nina brings her hands together, easily breaking out of the Slayers' grips. She boxes Willow's ears, causing her to tumble to the ground with a nasty concussion. Buffy nails Nina with a left jab, right hook and straight right kick. Nina backs up. "Hey calm down. You're friend's lucky I didn't squeeze, make her eyeballs pop out. And you know why I didn't?"
"Because you're really all talk?," Buffy asks back.
"Because she can't hurt me. To me, she's as good as powerless." Willow hears this as she struggles to her feet. Blood's started to trickle out of her ears. Nina really couldn't have picked a more serious insult. Buffy looks back at her best friend with concern.
"It's okay Willow. We'll get what we came for." But right then, Spike comes running back.
"It's no bloody use. She has it rigged. Vampires can't enter unless Nina invites them in."
"Took you long enough," Nina says as she pulls Spike towards her and head-butts him in the nose. "How about someone else tries. Not you, honey," Nina says as she points at Willow. "I'm not done with you yet."