Buffy and Giles stare are Xander's contraption. It is six feet long, resting on two three foot-high metal poles. "What is it, again?," Buffy asks Andrew.
"A weapon."
"What kind?"
"It appears to be a mechanical catapult," Giles guesses. "There's the engine up front, which would drive the loading mechanism, and this lever in back must be the trigger. Has he tested this contraption?"
"Sorry," Andrew answers. "He was afraid the neighbors might mind."
"Don't have to worry about those now," Buffy comments as they stand amidst the vast empty landscape. She sees Xander coming from the south and east. He's driving an enormous dump truck. Stopping a hundred feet away, he climbs out. Buffy rushes over to him.
"I like your thinking," Buffy begins. "If the Bringers try and stop us, you can just run them over with this monster."
"Actually, my plan was to fill the ditch the gravel in back."
"Also a good idea. Where did you get this on such short notice?"
"A bunch of guys I've worked with are waiting to help clear the wreckage. They let me borrow it. Even filled it up. I said I was repairing craters in the roads so their jobs would be easier." They walk over to Giles and Andrew.
"What precisely is this thing supposed to shoot?," Giles asks.
"And when did you find the time to build it?," Buffy wonders.
"Last week."
"So this is what you were doing in the garage," Buffy notes.
"My way of still being useful."
"I helped, too," Andrew points out.
"Andrew was my extra pair of hands," Xander jokes darkly while looking over his device. "It's a pretty simple toy. Lawn mower engine pulls a fan belt down a metal frame. Biggest problem was figuring out how to aim the damn thing. Still haven't completely solved that problem."
"A gas powered demon-killing machine," Buffy observes. "What gave you that cool idea?"
"When you told us about the horde of uber-vamps coming our way. I thought that if they're going to attack in bunches, we better be able to kill 'em in bunches."
"A stake-shooter."
"That was the original. Then I noticed the sixty-plus Bringer knives we have." He opens a plastic bucket.
"Offing the buggers with their own knives and forks," Giles responds with a smile.
"This thing can shoot a lot of stuff – stakes, knives, darts, small rocks. Or so I hope. First we have to see if it really works." Buffy and Giles move back. Andrew pulls the cord, starting up the small engine in front. Xander reaches out his right hand and pulls a lever up. This engages the thick rubber "bow" to the drive train, pulling it back. When it's pulled back all the way, the lever automatically disengages. Andrew puts the thin end of the dagger handle into the slot, so it's upright. Xander pushes the trigger in back upwards, releasing the bolt. The knife zips through the air, going two feet above and one foot to the right of the tree stump fifty yards away that Xander was aiming for. It continues for another hundred yards before slicing into the soil and disappearing. Andrew helps Xander lift the back supporting pole and move it so that the weapon aims a little more to the left. With all the weight in front, it's not hard to lift the back end. The front support is solid metal. The rear support is a hollow square-shaped shaft Xander cannibalized from an adjustable gym bench. Andrew pulls out the pin, lifts the arm up a slot, and slides the pin back in. An imprecise method of aiming, but better than nothing. The second shot hits the stump. Two more quick shots tear off sizeable chunks of wood. Xander turns off the motor.
"No kinks to work out," Xander notes. "I got lucky."
"Hello flying fatalities," Buffy says with approval. "All we need to do now is get the enemy in the open and keep them from rushing you."
"Filling in the ditch should take care of the former," Giles predicts. "And from he looks of it, the weapon's firepower will handle the latter."
"No and yes," Buffy responds. "What if they hide behind the dirt pile? What if they stay inside? And do we even know if what we're looking for is even there yet? I'm not going to fight my way in there, at the cost of who knows how many lives, and discover that it was all for nothing."
"Those Bringers weren't guarding nothing," Giles argues. "And if we don't move quickly, we will lose our best chance of ending this."
"Are you certain we can trust this oversized rodent?," Wesley asks Angel.
"I'm certain I can't."
"Then why not take us along as backup?," Gunn wonders.
"It would look suspicious."
"Everything about that weasel was suspicious," Cordy comments.
"Especially that part about bringing only me," Fred adds.
"No it wasn't. You're the hostage," Angel explains, causing Fred to gasp. Wes and Gunn are shocked at his seeming nonchalance about her safety. "He's going to offer me something valuable, for a price. He's afraid I'll take it without paying. If all of us show up, he'll have the exact same fear. It will look like we plan to overpower them."
"And what keeps them from roughing up Fred?," Cordy asks.
"Me. He knows that if anything happens to her, he's dead."
"I'm the counterweight on the balance of terror. Jus' what my folks always wanted for me," Fred jokes with trepidation. The phone rings. She answers. "Angel Investigations. How may I – oh. Hi Kelly. It's for you," Fred says to Wesley. Her face noticeably tensed up when Kelly told her who she was.
"Hello Kelly. How are things where you are?"
"Changing at about seventy miles an hour."
"You're on the road."
"Heading in your direction. Wanna hook up?" Wesley takes a few quick breaths while preparing his response.
"When did you have in mind?"
"Forty five minutes from now. Your place. My boat leaves San Diego at midnight. Which, taking into account the rush-hour traffic, should give us about four hours. You interested?"
"Well, I . . . um . . . of course - "
"Wes, honey, I know it's really short notice and, let's face it, not exactly the most romantic pitch in history. If you have life-saving, demon-killing work scheduled, I understand completely."
"I can be at my place in fifteen minutes."
"Too bad I can't," Kelly responds. She smiles and hangs up.
"Seeing as we have no, pressing matters or, unsolved cases, I'm going to head out for a few hours," Wesley stammers as he gets his coat on. "If anyone needs me, if there's a pressing emergency of some sort, you can leave a message on my machine. Best of luck with your meeting, Angel." Wesley grabs the tape out of the VCR and leaves the room. Everyone's quiet for a few seconds.
"Did someone just give Wesley a booty call?," Cordy asks in disbelief.
"Sounded like it to me," Gunn responds.
"She's certainly got him under her thumb," Fred says with a mix of revulsion and jealousy. "Ahm gonna go home for a couple hours. Take care of a few things. How 'bout I meet you in front of the building at nine?"
"Sure," Angel responds. Fred leaves. "Why did Wes take that tape?"
"I think it's the one with our news story on it," Gunn guesses. "Probably wants to show her."
"Let's hope he doesn't want to add anything to it," Cordy worries, causing all three of them to shudder.
Giles makes a crude drawing on an easel of a sphere supported by a tripod. "For the stone to be activated, there must be something on top of it: an obelisk, or needle, according to the sources. Once it's been topped, the stone can't be destroyed. In fact, merely touching it is supposed to cause instantaneous death to humans and demons alike. Which means, among other things, that there would be no need to protect the finished device. Right now, it is heavily protected, indicating that it is unfinished and vulnerable. If one of us can make it inside the Arena and break off even a flake from the stone, it will lose all of its power, and the First's chances of achieving total victory will be ruined."
Amanda raises her hand. "What about partial victory?," she asks nervously. "Even if the world doesn't end, could Nina still kill all of us?"
"She won't become any less powerful," Giles responds evasively. "But remember, she exists to serve the First. If the First Evil can't achieve its primary objective, it may remove Nina and send her to another dimension. Damaging the sphere can only benefit us. The difficult part, of course, will be getting inside. That said, I yield the floor to Buffy." The Potentials looks at Faith, confused about why she's not in charge.
Thirty minutes later, everyone's at the Hellmouth. "Don't get why we can't wait for sundown," Spike complains.
"Because, in order to coordinate our action, we have to be able to see each other," Giles explains condescendingly.
"It's not even dusk."
"But it is raining." A light drizzle falls onto them. Spike looks up at the momentarily cloudy sky.
"If it clears - " Spike warns.
"Grab Nina and try to immolate her along with yourself," Giles responds. Buffy and Faith help Xander and Andrew set up his catapult two hundred feet in front of the trench.
"You sure you don't want it closer?," Buffy asks. "Cause once the fight's started, we can't help you move it."
"Any closer, and I restrict my field of fire," Xander argues. "You ready?"
"When am I not?," Buffy assures him. She picks up her phone. "Yeah. Good. Wait for the signal." She hangs up. "Willow says they're all set on the other side."
"That's my cue," Xander says as he walks over to the dump truck. He starts it up, looping to within forty feet of the trench, then backs up towards it. On the other side, Willow, Anya, Dawn and the six Potentials can hear the beeping of the vehicle. No Bringers are visible. Four bronze doors block all the entrances, denying everyone a look inside. The fortified stronghold, with its half-completed walls and soaring iron framework, looks eerily empty. Someone seeing the structure for the first time could not tell whether it was abandoned and decaying or under construction. Xander stops near the edge of the ditch. Buffy and Faith climb onto the back end and release the back door. They get back onto the ground and stay on either side of the truck to protect Xander from a counterattack. The front end of the trailer slowly lifts up and the gravel tumbles down into the ditch. Once it's emptied, Xander drives ten yards forward and Faith and Buffy pull out the twenty five foot-long, six foot-wide bridge Xander and Giles slapped together out of two-by-fours and plywood. It's not meant to support any weight; only to rest of the gravel and provide solid footing. Xander drops the trailer back to its normal position and parks the truck behind his catapult. Spike, who had been guarding the catapult, moves up to join Buffy and Faith. Andrew starts up the weapon's engine. Xander cocks it, and Andrew loads it. For the moment, he lacks targets. As they feared, the Bringers crouch behind the five foot-high rampart. Two hundred of them form a single-file circle around the building. The only way to get them to show their faces would be to attempt a crossing. But that would lead to hand-to-hand combat, denying Xander a clear shot.
To deal with this problem, Buffy decided to lay down the bridge so that it slanted upward and connected to the top of the parapet. The Bringers leap on top of the rampart and try to grab the bridge. Buffy and Faith yank it two or three feet back and, along with Spike, hit the ground. Xander fires, hitting a Bringer's ankle and cutting off its left foot. "Higher," Xander tells Andrew, who helps him change the angle of fire. "No!"
"You said higher!," Andrew complains.
"Back end goes lower, front end goes higher." Andrew feels stupid for forgetting this in the "heat of battle," and puts it down a notch. The next shot nails a Bringer in the chest. "Looks like we're in business," Xander proudly declares. Andrew loads, Xander fires. Another direct hit. Then another. The daggers drift in the wind, sometimes as much as ten feet to the left or right, and one or two feet up or down. But the Bringers are so concentrated in order to prevent the breakthrough that it doesn't matter. As Xander hoped, the two of them get into a rhythm of one shot every three seconds. Buffy and Faith place the bridge straight across the sixteen foot-wide section of filled ditch so it ends at the foot of the rampart. Spike runs across, crouching slightly so the daggers sail above his head. When more Bringers climb to the top of the rampart to fend off this assault, Xander picks them off. Buffy and Faith rush across. The three of them take out their weapons and crouch down on the near side of the barrier, using the Bringers' fortification against them. More and more Bringers rush towards the area under attack. A Reaper guards each of the four doors from the inside, preventing the Bringers from seeking shelter.
Once Xander began picking off the enemy, Giles called Willow. After receiving the signal, Willow walked to within fifty feet of the ditch and went to work, bellowing out spells. A small cyclone picks up the dirt in the rampart in front of her, swirling it in the air. Red flashes appeared in the sky above her. Several bright blue bolts of fake lightning shoot at the building. These are all weak by showy spells designed to get their attention. Then, Willow gets within thirty feet of the ditch and uses her power to blow the Bringers left and right, opening up a gap in front of the doorway. Some of the Bringers fell to the ground. Others flew into the brick walls of the lower dome. Demons on the periphery rush towards the door to close the breach, keeping beneath the rampart for protection against Willow. Amidst the confusion and the flying dust in their faces, which prevents the Bringers from sensing people one hundred feet away, the Potentials get going. After the earthquake and tidal wave, there were plenty of bikes left in destroyed garages around town. On Sunday, the girls each took a mountain bike for themselves so they could move easier around the disaster area. With Willow's razz-matazz shielding their movement, they travel counter-clockwise to the other side, where they join Giles behind and to the left of Xander's weapon. As the dust clears, Willow conjures a glammer of a bridge across the trench. Anya and Dawn brandish their weapons and join Willow in a charge towards this mirage. Just before they stop at the edge and give away the trick, Willow sends out a puff of thick, white smoke over the trench.
The diversion ensured that half the Bringers rushed to defend against Willow (and the Potentials), leaving "only" a hundred for Buffy and Xander to deal with. Inside, six Joiners help Nina put together her Slayer-killing toy. Two of them plant each of the three metal legs of the tripod into the ground. Nina picks up the giant stone and puts it into place three feet above the physical Hellmouth. It doesn't look to her like the parts will fit. But when she lets go, the three legs fuse with the stone. "Kickass. Now where's the last piece? You don't have it! Well tell them to hurry! I don't care how deep in the depths of Hell it is. We're under attack, and the Death Star isn't finished! Oh, what am I saying. You freaks don't watch movies." They disappear into the Hellmouth. She looks up at the half-built roof. "Please let her not have planes," Nina hopes. She liked movies about world-saving heroes and tried to learn from the mistakes of their villains. They had taught her that this is the perfect moment for a major setback. Especially after the minor setback of losing the stake to Faith. That's how these plot arcs always worked. Alas, Andrew has no idea that the Big Bad looks at events through the same pop culture prism that he does. This is a good thing for Nina. If Buffy and Faith ever learned that she thought like Andrew, Nina would lose a lot of her terrifying aura of invincibility.
After twenty hits, the Bringers decide not to make themselves sitting ducks to this infernal contraption. Buffy, Spike and Faith leap atop the abandoned parapet. When the Bringers attack, they hop back down, exposing the demons to more flying steel. They do this again, but the Bringers don't bite. So they run down towards the unguarded door thirty five feet away. Some enemies stand in front of the door. Others get behind them. Spike brandishes his sword and opposes those in front. While they hang back near the door, Faith and Buffy cut a path through the enemies behind them. Faith uses her stake, which kills the Bringers almost the moment it touches them, causing others to back away from her. Buffy chops up those who attack her with a Reaper's sword and dagger. Spike backs up as the ones in front charge, beheading two of them with his sword. They stop atop the rampart, swinging at the demons below them. Meanwhile, Xander has re-aimed the catapult twenty feet to Faith's right. He picks off Bringers as they rush to reinforce the defenses and attack the Slayers. Several get on the other side of the ditch to prevent the enemy from retreating. Andrew quickly adjusts the aim and Xander mows four of them down. The remaining Bringers on that side hide behind the ditch. Xander shifts the catapult to shoot at the Bringers on Buffy's left. This prevents any Bringers from getting behind her, and ensures that they can't climb up to fight on level ground unless they're too close to Buffy or Faith for Xander to risk an errant shot. The Bringers bunch together and charge straight up the rampart. Buffy, Spike and Faith jump down to the other side. Xander gets in a few pot shots. By now, he has killed about half the Bringers on that side, but used up almost all of the knives.
Giles knows it's time for backup. He leads the Potentials towards the bridge. Ariella quickly fires off the ten shots in the magazine of Warren's/Willow's/Andrew's/Izora's gun, taking out an equivalent number of Bringers. Kennedy, Fadila, Rona and Giles fire off their crossbows, and the seven of them run across the bridge and back the Slayers up as they spearhead a charge up the rampart and down to the door. Amanda tosses two daggers to their right while Madari hurls two hatchets to their left. The Bringer defenses are broken once-and-for-all. But when Spike is six feet from the door, it opens, and out step three Reapers. "Balls. Forgot all about you wankers." Spike, Faith and Buffy engage the Reapers in single combat while the Bringers attack the Potentials from their flanks. The Reaper at the back door had passed along Nina's command to get to the other side. Being inside, she hadn't seen the bridge, and thus couldn't tell them that part wasn't real. So thirty of them remain behind to guard that entrance.
The waves of onrushing Bringers make easy targets for Xander and Andrew. In fact, Andrew's sure he saw two and even three demons brought down by a single shot. But they soon run out of Bringer knives and resort to stakes. As Xander had feared, the wooden stakes are too light to stand up to air resistance from this distance, and drop into the ditch or the front of the rampart. The two that hit Bringers don't even wound them because they're just fluttering through the air by then. On the front lines, the Reapers play defense, trying to lure the Slayers forward and away from the Potentials. They retain contact with the girls, but are immobilized by the Bringer charges, and thus no closer to getting inside. Ariella loads the last four bullets they had in the house and blows a quartet of Bringers' heads off. On the other side, Giles, Kennedy, Fadila and Rona reload and fire their crossbows at point-blank range. Standing next to Ariella atop the parapet, Amanda swings a flail down on the heads of the onrushing demons. Buffy, Faith and Spike chop, stab and kick away as they retreat towards the rampart, which Giles has the Potentials stand on top of to create a strong defensive position while Buffy attacks. But his super heroes are tiring. And to make matters worse, the fourth Reaper emerges. Now that they have numerical superiority, the Reapers attack the Slayers and vampire while the Bringers content themselves with tormenting Giles and the Potentials.
Though she has sent in all her forces, Nina senses that the enemy hasn't lost anyone. That's very distressing. If they all break in at once, Nina isn't sure she cant prevent one of them from taking a swing at her magic ball. She looks up and feels the drizzle spitting down on her face. Then she hears noises outside the back door, even though she had ordered all of them to go round front. Nina opens the back door. Once outside, she senses the glammer. The phalanx of Bringers turns to look down at her from the parapet. "It's not real! It's a special effect!! Now go!!!" She slams the door shut. The thirty Bringers run counter-clockwise. Dawn rushes in the same direction.
"Dawny wait!," Willow yells out.
"I think we've done all we can over here," Anya tells her as she follows Dawn. Willow looks at the deserted guard post, turns off her glammer and heads round. As Buffy, Faith and Spike drive the Reapers back, they pursue, knowing that killing them is the only way they'll get inside. If they hang back with the Potentials, they'll exhaust themselves on Bringers and never achieve the objective. This allows the Bringers to get between the Slayers and the Potentials. As if this weren't worrisome enough, a few clever Bringers get on the bridge, surrounding Giles and the girls. Not wanting to watch helplessly, Xander and Andrew rush towards the bridge. But they aren't sure how much help they can give. From his perilous perch, Giles can see the onrushing Bringers bearing down on their left flank. Then Xander hears the whirring of an engine behind him.
"I thought I told you to turn it off," he says to Andrew as they run away from four attacking Bringers who came across the bridge.
"I did! Did you see something?"
"Yeah. They're right behind us!" He turns and sees that the Bringers, having driven the attackers fifty feet away, are resuming their attack on the Potentials. Xander and Andrew give chase.
"Not them. Over there!," Andrew yells as he points to their left. Xander turns and looks. They both stop. It's a man on a Harley. He steps off. The man has long brown hair and wears a sleeveless green tunic and brown leather pants.
"What is that?," Xander asks about the stranger forty feet in front of them. He takes out a broadsword and charges towards the ditch.
"Aragorn!!," Andrew exclaims.
Groo leaps over the sixteen foot-wide ditch in a single bound and runs up onto the rampart, crashing into the column of Bringers. This knocks ten of them off the high ground. He proceeds to hack apart ten more. Groo rushes down the fifteen foot-long ramp down to the fifteen foot-wide flat walkway around the building. He heads in the direction of the Reapers. Buffy struggles to hold off two of them. She sees a sword flash past her from the left. With his first swing, Groo beheads one Reaper. With his second, he slices the other one in half, from his skull through his abdomen. Focusing on Buffy, they never saw him coming. "Ang – . . . " Buffy begins as she glances to her left. Who else could it be? Good question, she thinks to herself when she sees the comically anachronistic warrior by her side.
"Buffy?," Groo asks before turning round to take on the Bringers between the Slayers and the Potentials. Buffy instinctively joins in, fighting on Groo's right. The Reaper fighting Faith lands a left roundhouse kick to her face. When he tries a right roundhouse, she sticks her stake in his right calf. He falls dead.
"Damn, I'm good," Faith jokes, blown away by the lethality of her weapon. To her left, Spike goes at it with the last Reaper. He's cut the demon in the stomach by hasn't been able to put him away. Faith stakes him in the chest, causing the Reaper to keel over.
"I was about to finish him off," Spike maintains after getting bailed out. The girls are utterly mystified by the burly stranger. Giles wonders if he's hallucinating. Attacked on both sides, the Bringers retreat to the wings. Groo and Buffy turn to face the door, which Faith and Spike have been unable to open. Buffy tries and fails. The three of them are simply too exhausted. Groo steps up, kicks it open with his left boot, and leads them in.
"Okay, who ordered the Conan?," Faith asks.
"He's on our side, right?," Spike wonders as they enter. Nina stands in front of the stone, her back to the intruders. She turns around. The sight of Groo is clearly a pleasant surprise for her.
"What are you doing here? You know this isn't your fight." Groo turns tail and runs away.
"So much our new hero," Spike scoffs. Before Groo can make it out the door to protect everyone else, they enter, led by Giles. Willow magically shuts all the doors so the Bringers can't come in. Buffy turns round and is glad to see everyone safe, though she worries about having the Potentials in an enclosed space with Nina. Spike runs at their arch-enemy, with Buffy following on his left and Faith on his right. Nina stands fifteen feet in front of the stone. Her hair is blood red. She wears a shiny green plastic jumpsuit with a black belt around her waist. Spike throws a right hook, which Nina dodges by moving her head to the right, causing her to see Buffy racing past her towards the weapon. Leaving Spike for the moment, Nina leaps at Buffy and hits her with a flying left hook kick, knocking her into the fissure in the earth that extends fifteen feet to either side of the suspended sphere. Buffy grabs onto the edge with both hands to keep from falling into the abyss. Nina dashes left and hits Faith in the face with a lunging right hook. Faith had gotten to within three feet of the stone. She has a hammer in her left hand and her stake in her right. She, too, falls into the chasm. Rona, quickly followed by Madari, Fadila and Ariella, rush to help Faith, only to be stopped by Groo, sword-in-hand. The look up at the stranger, very confused. Giles couldn't stop them because he was busy stopping Kennedy and Amanda, who ran to help Buffy a few seconds earlier. Giles looks to his left and sees the mystery warrior helping him out. He assumes Groo was following his own lead. But Groo had his own reasons for keeping them away from the Titan.
After handling Faith, Nina turns right and butts heads with the charging vampire. Spike grunts as he lands a left kick to her chin that knocks Nina back so her heels are two inches from the center of the chasm. He swings his sword for her left knee, causing her to lift the leg. Spike spins round and swings for her right leg. Nina leaps off that leg, does a back flip and lands on top of the sphere, putting her shins at the level of Spike's face. The Hellmouth creates a four foot gap between them. Spike swings his blade for the front end of the stone. She kicks the weapon away with her right foot. This causes her left foot to slip halfway down the stone. But before tumbling to oblivion, she pushes off and comes at Spike, knocking him back with a right hook kick and down with a left roundhouse kick before her feet hit the floor. By now, Buffy's climbed out and run behind Nina towards the sphere. She swings the hammer in her right hand, but Nina grabs her right wrist when the hammer head is nine inches from the stone. She hits Buffy's face with two left jabs. With Buffy tries to answer with a left hook, Nina blocks it and throws Buffy over her head. She gets up and immediately goes back on the attack.
After standing up, Spike noticed a hand sticking out from the crevasse fifteen feet in front of him. He runs over and sees Faith. When Nina knocked her down, Faith let go of the hammer in her left hand and grabbed the edge with both hands. But they started to slip, and she let her right hand go since that was holding onto the stake. She stuck the front of it into her pants pocket and grabbed the edge again, only to have her left hand slip off. Just as Spike gets there, her right hand loses its grip and she goes into freefall. But only for about two feet. Spike kneels down, grabs her right hand with his right and her right forearm with his left hand, and pulls her back up. Meanwhile, Nina blocks Buffy's right roundhouse kick, left cross and right hook before landing a right uppercut, left cross and right roundhouse kick that puts Buffy on her back by the time Spike and Faith are to their feet. Rather than attack Nina while moving along the edge of the precipice, they rejoin Buffy for a triple assault. Nina hangs back. She looks down to her right and smiles. "Tick-tock," she taunts. Andrew tosses over the sledgehammer he had carried into the building. Buffy picks it up off the ground. Spike charges, hoping to grab Nina. Faith is to his left, hoping to stab Nina with the one weapon that can hurt her. Buffy advances to Spike's right, hoping to get a good whack at the stone while the other two are keeping the enemy busy for a few seconds.
But as they take their first steps, six Joiners, climbing shoulder-to-shoulder with an eight foot needle tied to their backs, reach the top of the chasm. They lean over the edge, letting the object fall on the ground, the pointy end three feet to the right of Nina's right foot. She picks it up and swings it from right-to-left, taking out the legs of Faith, Spike and Buffy just when they were within striking distance. Nina continues spinning, letting the needle go as she lifts its point upward. It slowly spins and sails a few feet before landing atop the sphere, immediately fusing with the stone. A white light emanates from the sphere and travels up and down the four metal prongs. "Damn," Giles says in disgust, knowing they have lost. Buffy hurls the sledgehammer at the stone, which glows and turns the weapon to dust on impact. Nina pulls out the sickle she had on the back of her belt and walks towards the Potentials, who are huddled with everyone else forty five feet away.
"They tell me this blade goes through a girl's flesh like butter," Nina boasts with a gleeful smile. Buffy, Faith and Spike rush back to protect everyone. Nina leaps over their heads, does a flip and lands in front of the door, behind everyone. Groo brandishes his three foot-long sword, protecting the group until the Slayers can run around to help. "You know better," she says to Groo. He swings. She cuts off the top foot of the sword with her sickle, then jumps in the air, flying over everyone and landing on the other side. Groo looks with dismay at his pruned weapon. Giles is disturbed. The sickle's bronze. How could it cut through steel? Spike is the only one standing between Nina and the girls, but she doesn't make a move, standing casually ten feet in front of him. "You think I could take off your head with one swing?," Nina asks Spike as she suddenly lunges towards him and swings the weapon left-to-right, getting the blade within six inches of his throat. "Sike." Buffy and Faith come back around, feeling like idiots after Nina made them run back-and-forth for nothing. Nina takes a step back and puts her hands on her hips. "You got ten seconds to get out of my house before I start punishing for trespassing." Buffy hates getting pushed around by an enemy. She's usually the one who makes these sorts of threats. "Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . " Groo opens the door, prepared for the dozens of Bringers outside. But there's no one. Giles hustles the Potentials out, except for Kennedy, who resists giving into the ultimatum. "Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Four . . . " Anya, Xander and Andrew leave. Willow leaves with Kennedy. "Three . . . Two . . . " Giles heads out, followed by Spike and Faith. Buffy grabs Dawn, who was busy getting her first look at Nina. "Hey ladies!," Nina yells, causing Buffy and Dawn to turn around when they're at the door. "Any more outsiders come here to attack me, I'll rip their hearts out."