Act 1
Buffy is sitting on an examination table in the Academy infirmary.
"How much longer is this going to be?" Buffy asks.
"Just a minute, Signorina Summers," says Dr. Gianni, a small and thin woman in her mid fifties with iron grey hair. She speaks English with a light accent that barely suggests Italian. "I want to show Dr. McGrath your ocular reflex."
"Uhm, that's the thing with the eyes, right?" Buffy asks.
"Yes."
Dr. Lyssa McGrath walks in. Tall and striking, with long brown hair, she's in her mid forties and has bright green eyes. Walking in with her is her younger daughter Caitlyn, age 11. Caitlyn smiles shyly at Buffy. Buffy smiles back, despite the obvious impatience she was displaying moments earlier.
"Dr. McGrath," Dr. Gianni says. "So good to see you."
"She wants to show you my ocular reflexes," Buffy says.
"I thought I asked you to bring Karyn or one of the other teenaged slayers," Dr. Gianni says. "They are closer to Signorina Summers' age."
"Karyn is saying goodbye to Dawn," Lyssa says. "And between Caitlyn and myself, you should be able to still make your point."
"Hey!" Buffy says. "I should be saying goodbye to Dawn. 'bye guys!"
"Signorina Summers, wait!" Dr. Gianni says. "You told me yourself that you wanted to understand as much as possible about your change in condition. And didn't I just watch you spend 15 minutes saying goodbye to your sister?"
Buffy sits back down with a pout.
"But why should I have to wait for the vet to examine me?" Buffy says.
"Because I want her to validate what I am seeing," Dr. Gianni says. "And in this case, medicine is medicine, and physiology is physiology."
"And bored is bored," Buffy says. "Hurry it up, Docs."
"All right," says Dr. Gianni to Lyssa. "Shine the light in my eyes."
Lyssa obeys.
"OK, good reflexes," Lyssa says.
"Keep in mind that I am a woman in my fifties," Dr. Gianni says. "I wish you could better see your own eyes in direct comparison to me. Try your daughter."
Lyssa shines the light in Caitlyn's eyes.
Lyssa looks startled.
"That was much faster."
"Yes," Dr. Gianni says. "I believe that is an expression of slayer reflexes."
"Well, this makes adaptive sense," Lyssa says. "Slayers need to be able to see in the dark, and adjust to changes in light, very well and very quickly."
"Of course you are correct, Dr. McGrath," Dr. Gianni says. "Now, shine the light into Signorina Summers' eyes."
Lyssa shines the light in Buffy's bright yellow and red eyes.
"That….that's impossible," Lyssa says.
"What?" Buffy says. "What's impossible? I don't like impossible."
Lyssa looks at Buffy and continues to shine the light, on and off, into her eyes.
"It's instantaneous," Lyssa says. "I'm not even seeing the cornea move. It's like watching two photographs being instantaneously shuffled."
"Can you please stop waving that light in my eyes?" Buffy says.
"Oh, sorry," Lyssa says. "Buffy, you say you are stronger now?"
"Yeah, I figure since the Tokyo slayers died I'm twice as strong as I was during the Battle of the Hellmouth," Buffy says. "And just after Willow's spell I was a lot stronger than I was before. My strength was increased when all the slayers were activated."
"Yes," Lyssa says. "You slayers who were closest to the epicenter of Willow's spell are all stronger than the rest of us. You all also move faster and heal faster than the rest of us. Not that any of us are the little sisters of the poor."
"Yeah, so?"
"So look at what's happening to you," Lyssa says. "It's like you are becoming the ultimate slayer."
"But I don't want to be the ultimate slayer, Lyssa!" Buffy yells. "That's like being the only slayer again! I was just getting used to the idea that I wasn't the only one anymore, that I wasn't alone any longer."
"We are all ultimately alone, Signorina…" Dr. Gianni begins to say before Buffy interrupts her.
"Spare me the damn philosophy, Doc!"
"Buffy!" Lyssa says. "You're scaring Caitlyn."
Buffy turns to Caitlyn, who looks back at her somberly.
"I…I'm sorry, Caitlyn," Buffy says quietly. "I'm sorry to you too, Dr. Gianni. Really. I'm just…scared. This is like Los Angeles all over again. Like when I first became the slayer."
"Buffy," Lyssa says. "We're all going to try to help you. Hopefully Dawn and Giles will be able to find out something from Mrs. Giles, who by the way I can't believe is still alive. Did you know about that?"
"Yeah, I knew," Buffy says. "Giles tried to call her during the thing with Glory, when we were desperate to find out what she was. Mrs. Giles wouldn't even talk to him. She's completely disowned him. We ended up having to go to Quentin Travers and the old Council instead."
Buffy then looks up at Lyssa, a horrified and apologetic look on her face.
"I'm sorry I said his name like that," Buffy says. "I keep forgetting he was your watcher."
"It's all right, Buffy," Lyssa says. "I realize that I experienced a very different Quentin Travers from the one everyone else knew."
Buffy nods.
"Time for a subject change," Buffy says. "I feel an urgent need to return to work. Has Robin arrived from Tokyo yet?"
"He has," Lyssa says.
"Good! You, me, and him. My office. 20 minutes."
"Very good," Lyssa says.
Buffy stands up and walks to the infirmary door, then yanks off the door knob.
"Damn," Buffy says. "Remember what it was like when you first became slayers?"
"Yeah," Caitlyn says quietly. "The world is too soft."
"Yeah," says Buffy. "The world is too soft."
Twenty minutes later, Buffy sits on her desk and looks at Robin Wood and Lyssa McGrath, who are seated in chairs in front of her. Buffy is now wearing very dark sunglasses.
"OK, Robin," Buffy says. "What's your report?"
"Well," Robin says. "We lost nine slayers, and four more were wounded pretty badly. On the plus side, the girls estimate they took out fourteen riders."
"It's my understanding about Khan's Horde that it's the mounts that are the most important targets," Buffy says. "How many of them did we get?"
"I'm afraid only two," Robin says.
Buffy shakes her head.
"We've got to do better."
"Robin," says Lyssa. "Any idea what's motivating these attacks? The Horde has been content for the last five hundred years to stay in Mongolia or Siberia. What brought them to Tokyo, and how did they get into one of the world's most crowded metropolitan areas with their mounts?"
"I don't know," Robin says. "But, one of the girls who killed a mount noticed this symbol on the bridle before it was dusted."
Robin pulls out a piece of paper with a black circle drawn on it, a circle with thorns.
Buffy leans forward excitedly.
"That's the same symbol that was tattooed on the hand of Rothgar's brother. What was his name…?"
"Wulfgar," says Lyssa.
"Yeah," Buffy says. "Two of the most deadly but isolated tribes of vampires emerge to attack two of our academies. This circle thingie is the only thing we've got connecting them. We need to get this information to Dawn and Giles as soon as they reach England. Maybe they or Mrs. Giles can make something of it."
Giles is driving an Astin Martin through the Nottingham countryside.
"Where did you get this car, Giles?" Dawn says. "Still in midlife crises mode?"
"That's not funny," Giles said. "I'll have you know that Xander bought it for me. He's quite taken with the whole James Bond thing, you know."
"Sounds like our Xander," says Dawn. "So, are you going to tell me the story behind your grandmother? How old is she anyway?"
"One hundred and two," Giles says. "And the last I heard, she doesn't look a day over seventy. She still rides her horses, and walks the grounds to her estate."
"Is it big?"
"Yes, quite big."
"So what's the deal between you two?" Dawn asks. "Did your grandmother disown you because you were so rebellious against the old Council?"
"Quite the opposite," Giles says. "She disowned both my father and me for joining the Council."
"What?" Dawn says. "Wasn't she a watcher herself?"
"Much more than that," Giles says. "At the time my father became a watcher, and still when I was first…employed by the Council in a very different capacity from watcher, she was the Head of the Council."
"You mean she was in charge?" Dawn asks, incredulously. "Why didn't she just refuse to let you and your Dad in if she didn't want you joining?"
"Because my father and I both passed the Council's tests. Even Edna Giles couldn't gainsay that."
"I thought when you were young you didn't want to be in the Council," Dawn says.
"No, that's not right," Giles says. "I rebelled against the idea of being a watcher. I wanted to be a warlock for the Council, and started as, well, as an old friend of mine used to call it, a 'policy implementation specialist'."
"Wetworks?" Dawn asks. "Black ops?"
"Dear lord," Giles says. "This perceptive Jane of All Trades thing with you is really becoming tiresome. Yes, 'black ops' would also be an appropriate term."
The drive continues in silence. Eventually, the Astin Martin takes a side road, at the end of the side road is a gate and beyond it, an enormous estate. Giles pulls up to the intercom by the gate and pushes the button.
"May I help you," says a male voice, aged and authoritative.
"Dawn Summers and Rupert Giles to see Edna Giles," Giles says.
The gate opens.
"Drive to the end of the driveway and park in the front of the house," the voice says. "Stay in the car until the gentlemen I send to greet you wave you out of the car."
Giles drives through the gate. Dawn looks around.
"Security cameras hidden around the grounds, looks like sophisticated sound monitoring equipment, and my witch senses are screaming about several magickal traps," Dawn says. "You're grandmother is very security conscious."
"She has every reason to be," Giles says. "She made a lot of enemies both in and out of the Council."
"I noticed that you said my name first," Dawn says.
"It decreases our chances of hearing an automatic 'turn around and leave now' when my name is mentioned last," Giles says.
The Astin Martin arrives at the front of a huge mansion. Four men in suits, two with automatic rifles, are standing on the pathway to the house. One of the men with a rifle steps in front of the car and raises his left hand, the rifle cradled in his right on the ready. Giles stops the car and brings up his hands. In his right hand are the keys. Dawn, watching Giles, slowly brings her hands into view as well.
Another man, one of the men without a rifle, walks up. It's Collins, the former leader of the old Council's Black Ops Squad. He motions for Giles to open the door. Giles opens the door and slowly gets out.
"You know the drill, old man," Collins says.
"Of course I do, Collins," Giles says. "I bloody well trained you on the drill."
"Hands on the roof," Collins says to Giles. "Miss Summers, please remain in the car until I have finished searching Mr. Giles."
Giles follows Collins directions. Collins pats him down.
"All right, Miss Summers," Collins says when he finishes. "You may follow the path to the house. A man named Henderson will admit you."
"What, you're not going to search me?" Dawn asks. "I'm the slayer here."
"No, Miss Summers," Collins says. "You may proceed to the house. Ripper and I will stay here to discuss old times."
"Go ahead, Dawn," Giles says.
"No," Dawn says. "Tell Mrs. Giles that Giles and I are a package deal. Admit one of us, admit both of us."
"Dawn, no," says Giles.
"Trust me, Giles."
Collins speaks quietly into the mic on his collar. "Did you hear that?"
Collins waits, then jerks his head towards the door. "Both of you."
As Dawn walks off, Collins whispers to one of the other guards. "She's every bit as cheeky as the other Summers girl."
"Didn't the 'other Summers girl' once beat the crap out of you?" the other guard asks. Collins scowls and walks away.
Giles and Dawn walk up the path, which is lined by bright green bushes.
"Not very smart, lining the path with bushes," Giles says. "It provides cover."
"The bushes are traps," Dawn says. "They have thorns and they're aggressive."
"Tharnachian Demon Bushes?" Giles asks.
"Yep," Dawn says. "Your grandmother really is concerned about security."
"That was a very foolish risk you took," Giles says to Dawn.
"No it wasn't," Dawn said. "I was sure that your grandmother wants to meet me."
"Really?" Giles says. "How, pray tell, can you be so certain when you've never met her?"
"You gave me all the information concerning your grandmother that I needed,"
Dawn says.
"I've hardly told you anything about my grandmother," Giles says.
"You once told me that your grandmother would be 'quite cross' about me beating her entrance examination score," Dawn says. "If that is true, she won't be able to resist meeting me."
Giles and Dawn approach the massive front doors of the mansion, and the doors open to reveal an older, white haired man.
"Mr. Henderson?" Dawn asks.
"Yes, Miss Summers," Henderson says as he turns around, pointedly ignoring Giles. "Follow me."
"Boy, they really don't like you much around here," Dawn whispers to Giles.
Buffy is standing alone in the Rome Academy's cavernous gymnasium. She is doing a slow motion kata. She is wearing loose grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt, and she is also wearing very dark sunglasses. In the midst of the kata, Buffy stops and looks to the door a full four seconds before the double doors to the outside hall open, and a very tall young woman pokes her head into the room.
"Miss Summers," she says. "You have a phone call from Willow."
Buffy nods and puts a towel on her shoulders. "Thanks, Svetlana. I'll take the call in my office."
Next we see Buffy walking into her office, and very gingerly picking up the phone.
"Hey, Will."
Scene switches to Willow in Rio. She's leaning over a glass table in front of a large picture window overlooking a beach and bright blue ocean. Willow's dressed in a black one piece swimsuit covered by a brightly colored wrap.
"Hey, Buffy, how're you doing?"
Buffy puts her feet on her desk but still holds the phone carefully.
"OK, I guess," Buffy says. "Still adjusting to having experienced other people's deaths, and to being a lot stronger. I could probably give Glory a bloody nose without a Troll hammer now."
"Svetlana said that Dawn went to England to talk with Giles' grandmother," Willow says, waving to Kennedy briefly as she and two other slayers walk by in bikini tops and towels wrapped around their waists. Kennedy blows Willow a kiss and motions towards the beach, mouthing hurry up. Willow nods. "Kennedy sends her love."
"Yeah, I bet," Buffy says. Buffy seems to be having a little trouble keeping her balance as she leans back on the chair and holds onto the phone. "She's probably just trying to get you off the phone and on the beach again. She get you to wear that thong bikini yet?"
"Shut up, Buffy!" Willow says jokingly even as her face turns bright red. "Oh! Oh! The reason I called! I've detected another slayer in Africa."
"Ah, the time honored tactic of changing the subject to official business," Buffy says. "Brilliant strategy. Have you reached Xander yet?"
"Yeah, I had to do telepathy," Willow says. "Xander's been so busy building group homes for orphans that he's difficult to reach through conventional means. He's going to take a look, but he says it doesn't make sense. He says no one lives where I'm sensing the slayer. It's a really remote area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He and his pilot friend Jono are going, and he's calling up a Johannesburg Academy slayer who's originally from the DRC to ride shotgun. But, I really think maybe he could use help from a close friend. If you're up to it, that is."
"I'm up to it," Buffy says. "So you thought of me after Dawn?"
"Hey," Willow says. "I'm sorry! I thought with everything that happened you might not be up to traveling."
"That's OK, Willow," Buffy says. "I'm just pushing your buttons."
"You minx!!" Willow says.
"I thought you only called Kennedy a minx," Buffy says.
"That's right! You're not a minx! You're worse than a minx! You're a…a…meaniehead!"
"Meaniehead?"
"Yeah!" Willow says. "Top that one sister!"
"I can't top that, Willow," Buffy says, her face breaking into an evil grin. "Just tell Kennedy I want a picture when she gets you into a thong bikini. I promise not to show it to Xander."
"Kennedy knows better than to send sexy pictures to a double meaniehead like you!" Willow says. "She knows that there are strict conditions for getting Willow smootchies!"
"It's in the relationship contract huh?" Buffy asks.
"Yep!" says Willow. "Paragraph six, section two."
There is a brief pause.
"Are you really OK, Buffy?"
"Getting there, Will."
Buffy sits quietly and thoughtfully for a second, then leans forward and puts her feet on the floor. The evil smile returns.
"Maybe I'll show the picture to Giles instead."
"You minx!"
Henderson shows Dawn and Giles into an extremely large living room. A huge picture window looks out over a huge and very green landscape. The huge room contains a comfortable looking mixture of antique and modern furniture. The colors in the room are light, off whites, light tans and light blues. The room looks inviting and comfortable.
Standing in the middle of the room is a tall woman with white hair, who looks to be in her very healthy early seventies, rather than a hundred and two. Edna Giles is wearing riding pants and boots, and walks towards Dawn and Giles with the athletic grace of a retired dancer. Dawn is clearly impressed.
Edna Giles extends her hand. "Miss Summers, it is a pleasure."
Dawn takes Edna's hand. "Glad to meet you."
"Tea?" Edna asks.
"Sure," Dawn says.
"And how about you, Rupert?"
Giles is clearly startled that his grandmother addressed him.
"Ahem! Y..yes, that would be lovely," Giles says.
"Henderson, would you get us all some tea please?" Edna then gestures with her right arm for both Dawn and Giles to sit. They sit together on a large couch. Edna sits in a red, straight backed chair opposite them.
"How may I help you, Miss Summers?" Edna asks.
"Well, there are some matters relating to my sister, and myself," Dawn says. "Do you know about the recent spell?"
"You mean the activation of all the potentials?" Edna replies. "How can I not? Manchester United brings some East Indian girl, Par…Parmi…something, onto the team, and then she kicks a football through the net. A week later, she vanishes. Then there are those two or three girls who played that odious game the Americans call football. Plus, there were those numerous record setting performances by new female athletes, who then vanished before they could compete with their Olympic teams. It was in all the newspapers and on all the televisions."
Edna looks at Giles, then back at Dawn.
"I presume you and your friends had something to do with the rather sudden public appearances, then the equally sudden disappearances, of these superhuman young women?"
"Yes," Dawn says. "Willow Rosenberg, a friend of ours, used the Scythe to…"
Edna puts her hand on Dawn's knee and interrupts gently.
"I actually know what happened, dear," Edna says. "Sometimes, I tend to engage in rhetorical flourishes. It's a common form of amusement for very old women who like to believe they are clever."
As Henderson walks back into the living room and serves tea, Edna looks at her grandson.
"Rupert," Edna says. "I am rather glad you came by. It is difficult….difficult for me to admit to my failures…"
"And you think I am one of your failures," Giles says rather bitterly as he takes a tea from Henderson.
"At first, yes," Edna says. "But now, as I watch you rebuild the Council into something much better than the entity I tried to run, I confess to being quite proud of you. Actually, I've been proud of you ever since you chose your slayer over the Council."
"What??" Giles exclaims. "But then why did you still refuse to talk to me?"
"At first, when you went to work for the Council, and especially in the vile capacity you initially chose, I was very ashamed of you," Edna says. "But then, when you helped your slayer against the Council's absurd test, and that odious Quentin Travers fired you, I became ashamed of myself. I thought I could reform the Council, but I later realized that the institution needed to be blown up and started again. And now, ironically, that is what is happening, and you are creating the kind of Council I wish I had been in charge of."
Edna Giles takes a dainty sip of tea.
"My dear young man, when I tell you about the old Council…what it really was, how it began, I fear that you will want to disown me."
Giles just stares at Edna. Dawn, seated next to him, reaches down and helps to steady his tea cup.
"Easy, Giles," Dawn says. "Don't spill the tea on your grandmother's nice carpet."
"Oh…oh of course," Giles says, taking his tea and rather hastily putting it on the little table in front of him. The tea cup clatters but does not spill.
"Mrs. Giles," Dawn says. "Buffy, my sister, has been experiencing the deaths of the other slayers. It leaves her very upset, almost hysterical, and when she appears to recover emotionally, she is noticeably stronger and faster than she was before. This isn't happening to any of the other slayers, even Faith, who like Buffy was active before Willow cast her spell."
"Yes, well, that is not really surprising," Edna says. "It simply confirms my suspicions about your sister."
"And what are those suspicions?" asks Giles.
Edna takes a deep breath.
"Tell me, what do you know about the first slayer?" Edna says.
"Well, she was created when three men, who we have been calling 'the Shadow Men', chained a girl to a rock and forced power, created from the 'heart of a demon', into her," Giles says.
"And how did you find this out?" Edna asks.
"Buffy went through a portal and met the Shadow Men, and they told her," Dawn says.
"Unfortunately Dawn, the Shadow Men are accomplished liars," Edna says.
"Are?" Dawn echoes.
"Yes, I'll be getting back to that. But first, it is important to know that what you just told me is the story behind the origin of the second slayer. The so-called 'heart of a demon' actually belonged to the first slayer, the one many of us call 'the Primitive'. The Shadow Men murdered her, stole her heart, and took as much of her power as they could."
"W…wait," Giles says. "You are telling us that the Shadow Men did not create the slayer at all?"
"Yes, that is correct," Edna says. "The first slayer was immortal, the daughter of a Higher Being and someone from an earlier species of humanity. She lived for millennia, perhaps even hundreds of millennia, before the Shadow Men murdered her and took her power."
"Why would they do that?" Dawn asks.
"The usual reasons, actually," Edna says. "The Shadow Men were evil, Dawn. The original slayer, the true slayer, was their ancient enemy. They thought to take her power, and to put it into a vessel that would be easier for them to control. And in large measure, when they put the power into a captive young girl, they succeeded. But not entirely."
"What do you mean, 'not entirely'?" Dawn asks.
"What is the prophecy, the first prophecy every watcher and every slayer learns?" Edna asks.
" 'Into each generation a slayer is born, one girl in all the world born with the strength and skill'…" Giles begins.
"That's good, Rupert," Edna says, cutting him off. "Did you hear the key phrasing there?"
"I'm afraid not," Dawn says.
"I'm afraid I'm rather at a loss as well," Giles says.
" 'Into each generation a slayer is born'…" Edna says. "Not 'when one slayer dies, another takes her place'. The original slayer was part Higher Being. Her physical body could be killed, and much of her power could be taken. But, her spirit was beyond the power of the Shadow Men to contain. So, the spirit went out and searched for a girl child who otherwise would be stillborn. The spirit would choose that child for her next incarnation. That child would grow up to be the next 'chosen one'."
"Wait a minute," Giles says. "You're saying that the slayer prophecy refers to a single entity who is repeatedly reincarnated?"
"Yes I am," Edna says. "The spirit of the original slayer simply worked herself into a rotation with the other slayers, the ones called by the Shadow Men and their descendents in the original Council. Unfortunately, even the true chosen ones tended to die very young, so the spirit of the original slayer was literally reincarnated every generation."
"So you are saying that Buffy is the latest incarnation of the original slayer?" Dawn says.
"Yes," Edna says. "That's why Buffy's own powers increase with every slayer death. When your friend Willow used the scythe to activate all of the potentials, what she actually did was call all of the stolen power of the original slayer back onto this plane of existence, back from wherever the Shadow Men had hidden it. When one of the other slayers dies that stolen power, instead of going back to wherever the Shadow Men had kept it, now returns home.
"And that home, dear heart, is your sister."
End Act 1