Act 3

Buffy, Xander, Jono, and Genevive are in a village, talking with the chief. Or more accurately, Jono is talking with the chief, who then translates to Xander and Buffy in English, and occasionally clarifies something to Genevive in French.

"The chief says that a road building crew stopped here about three weeks ago," says Jono. "The crew hired a couple of young men from the village, but no women. Apparently they tried, but no one would go, and the chief would not make them go."

Jono stops as the chief speaks again.

"Three days ago, six soldiers went through here as well. They said that the crew was due at a logging camp and never made it. The soldiers were sent to follow the logger's road to find the builders. They were guessing that they'd run into some militia group, maybe some Hutu refugees from Rwanda."

"But as far as he knows, no girls," Buffy says.

"Right," says Jono.

"Was Willow sure about this location, Buffy?" Xander asks.

"Well, you spoke to her telepathically," Buffy says. "How sure did she sound to you?"

"Pretty sure," Xander says.

"Then we go on," Buffy says.

Jono looks at Xander.

"I was afraid of that," Xander says. "And don't bother trying to change her mind, Jono."

"I wouldn't think of it, my friend."

Giles walks into a very large bedroom. Edna is standing by a dresser in a robe and nightgown. Giles stops, takes off his glasses and polishes them. He is very clearly nervous.

"Y…you sent for me, Grandmother," Giles says.

"I did," Edna says. "I need to talk to you about Dawn."

"Why not…talk to Dawn about Dawn?" Giles asks.

"Because I'd rather talk to you about this," Edna says. "Rupert, have you heard of the Scrolls of Aberjian?"

"Yes, they are supposed to contain apocalyptic prophecies," Giles says. "But the Scrolls are supposed to be lost."

"Actually, I believe there's a copy in the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart," Edna says. "They were in the possession of Angel, who, as I am sure you know, now runs Wolfram and Hart's office in Los Angeles."

"I am aware of that," Giles replies. "I'm surprised he didn't tell us that he had the scrolls, however, if only to ask me to help translate. And I wonder what his interest in those particular scrolls would have been."

"He already had Roger's boy for translation," Edna says. "He was always better with languages than you. And according to the scrolls, the 'vampire with a soul' is supposed to be a major player in the Apocalypse. In what way, I am not sure, but Wolfram and Hart has been very interested in Angel since his arrival in Los Angeles."

Edna pauses.

"Forgive me, Rupert, but this old woman needs to sit down."

Edna sits down on her bed. Giles pulls a chair to the side of the bed and sits facing her. Edna then resumes speaking.

"Much more importantly to you and yours, the Scrolls also mention that the forces of light will be led by a Female Trinity. I've only read about the Scrolls, you understand, not the Scrolls themselves. But I do know that the members of the Female Trinity are the Warrior, the Goddess, and the Adept. The Warrior, I would guess, would be the original slayer, who is now getting a measure of her real power back."

"She's not just some ancient warrior, Grandmother, she's Buffy Summers," Giles says angrily. "A thoroughly American young woman, not some ancient warrior demi-goddess!"

"Don't let a father's love for the girl lie to you, Rupert!" Edna scolds. "I remind you that Buffy wouldn't even exist if the soul within her, the soul of the original slayer, had not chosen Buffy Summers as her next incarnation."

Giles' expression is miserable and angry. He closes his eyes.

"And I assume that you believe that Dawn is the Adept?" he asks bitterly.

"I think it most likely that she is."

"So that leaves us the Goddess to find," Giles says.

"Does it?" asks Edna. "Rupert, the last witch to wield the full extent of both dark and light magicks went by the name of Hecate."

"Hecate?" Giles says. "But Hecate is a goddess."

"She is now,"Edna says. "But approximately three thousand years ago, she was the very human daughter of a Mycenian farmer."

"Y…you think Willow is the Goddess in the prophecy!" Giles says.

"Yes, Rupert, I do. I believe that you have had a hand in shaping all three of the primary weapons of the Apocalypse."

"Weapons," Giles says. "You just referred to three young women, women I love like daughters, as 'weapons'."

"It took a royal bitch to run the old Council, Rupert," Edna says. "A Council that has always looked at young girls and women as weapons. That bitch has never gone away."

"No, I don't suppose she has," Giles says. He turns, walks out, and slams the door. Edna Giles does not flinch, but her eyes moisten, and a tear falls silently down her right cheek.

"You really do well as a father, grandson," she whispers.

Jono gives the jeep gas as Buffy and Genevive lift the rear end of the jeep into the air and push it forward. Xander is seated next to Jono.

"Gotta love traveling with super chicks," Xander says.

"I heard that, Xander!" says Buffy. She takes off her sunglasses to wipe mud off of them, carefully turning so that the other three can not see her eyes. "How many times is it that Genevive and I have had to get us out of a mudhole?"

"Seven," says Jono. "And since there has been no contact with the road building crew, we have no way of knowing how far this road still goes."

Putting her sunglasses back on, Buffy looks to Xander as she returns to the jeep. "How far are we from the location Willow marked for the new slayer?"

"Not far," Xander says. "Maybe 4, 5 miles."

"Huit (eight) kilometers," Jono says to Genevive.

The jeep goes down the road, twice seeming to get stuck but Jono maneuvers it out. Then, they come upon another jeep. Jono pulls alongside it.

"That's the DRC military logo on the side," Jono says.

"So that must be the soldiers' jeep," Xander says.

Jono stops the jeep and turns off the engine.

"This is not a good sign," Jono says. "These soldiers must have come by here three days ago. They wouldn't willingly abandon a jeep for that long."

Xander jumps out and puts his hand on the hood.

"Yeah," he says. "It's cold."

Xander turns to Buffy.

"So what do we do now, fearless leader?" Xander asks.

"I think we keep going," Buffy says. "Hopefully we will be coming up on our missing slayer soon."

"I don't agree with that course of action," Jono says. "The abandoned jeep indicates that something bad happened to the soldiers."

Genevive says something in French to Jono. Jono says something back.

"What did she say?" Buffy asks.

"She said that she is a slayer, and that it is her job to help the soldiers and the road builders if they are in trouble."

Buffy nods. "Smart girl. We keep going."

Jono nods and puts the jeep into gear again. Xander hops in next to Buffy. Buffy moves aside and takes his arm to pull him in.

The scene shifts to the jeep reaching the end of the road. There is an abandoned bulldozer, and some axes lying on the ground. As Jono slows the jeep, Buffy jumps out and lands easily at a jog. Genevive follows behind her. They are both looking around. Jono stops the jeep and shuts the engine off.

"I really have a bad feeling about this," Jono says to Xander.

"Yep," Xander had. "I feel like I'm back in a Sunnydale alley."

The clearing is silent. There are some animal sounds in the distance. Bird calls, and some low rumbling.

"What's that?" Buffy asks.

"Forest elephant," Jono says.

There is a slight rustling. Buffy and Genevive turn towards the rustling.

"Uh guys?" Xander says, pointing to the forest at the end of the road. "I don't think we're alone."

Indeed, emerging from the forest are six large, adult male chimpanzees. They move silently, their hair erect.

"Look at the size of those guys!" whispers Xander.

"Lion Killers," Jono says.

"Lion Killers?" Xander says. "These guys kill lions?"

"Not literally," Jono says. "They are simply much larger than other chimpanzees in the region. But even for big apes, this is all wrong. They shouldn't be so bold. The people here would have been hunting them for meat. They should be avoiding humans."

The males approach silently, hair erect. The lead male starts swiftly and silently towards Jono, who reaches into the jeep for his gun. Genevive steps between them, the male veers towards her, raising his hand as if to strike her, and she shoves him away. He tumbles about ten feet and, clearly startled at her strength, gets up screaming. The other males start to scream as well and make threatening lunges, but they do not attack.

"Uhm, Xander?" says Buffy. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm thinking they want to tear off our heads and sh…"

"No," says Buffy. "This looks like a diversion."

Suddenly, there is a rustling sound from behind them. Buffy turns around quickly, then something very fast runs out and grabs her and pulls her into the trees. The trees rustle with the sounds of a struggle.

"Buffy?" yells Xander. "Buffy??"

"Ow!" yells Buffy. "Quit biting meeee!"

Suddenly, a small black figure is thrown from the trees and slams loudly into the side of the abandoned bulldozer. The figure rebounds off of the bulldozer, leaving a substantial dent. There is the screaming of other chimpanzees from the trees all around them. The six males continue to scream and look nervously at the figure quickly getting up from the ground. It's a small, female chimpanzee, who is clearly enraged. She starts to approach Xander, Genevieve, and Jono, slowly but steadily. The males follow her.

"It's an adolescent female," Jono says. "Probably about 9 or 10 years old."

"Yeah," Xander says. "She doesn't seem to be very scared of us, just mad. By any chance, how old is 9 to 10 in human years for a chimp?"

"Maybe 13 or 14," Jono says.

"I was afraid of that," Xander says.

Buffy steps out from the brush. Her clothes are torn and she has scratches. Her glasses are missing, and her yellow and red eyes are out for all to see.

"Buffy, your eyes…" Xander says.

"Really not important right now…" Buffy says, running to the other three. The young female chimp stops, but does not back up at all.

"What's happening here?" Jono asks.

Xander nods towards the young female chimp.

"I think we've found our girl," he says.

Giles is carefully walking along the Tharnachian Demon Bushes. The branches rustle, and seem to wave at him, even towards him.

"Hey." Dawn approaches Giles from the other direction. She has obviously already been out for a walk. "You OK, Giles?"

"No," says Giles. "I'd say I'm rather not."

"Yeah," Dawn says. "As you can see, I can't exactly sleep either."

"I've had another conversation with Grandmother," Giles says.

"A family conversation, right?" Dawn says. "Catching up on…on? Oh no, more revelations?"

"Yes," Giles says. "Have you heard of the Scrolls of Aberjian?"

"I think so," Dawn says. "Apocalyptic prophecies. Don't really know much else about them, except there is something about an ensouled vampire…hey, maybe Angel knows something."

"I do wish you'd stop that," Giles says.

"Stop what?"

"Knowing as much or more about everything than I do. I used to be the one who explained everything. It's quite the blow to my pride, really."

Dawn chuckles. "I'm sorry. What are the Scrolls of Aberjian?"

"It's too late for you to play ignorant now I…wait a minute," Giles says.

"What?"

"Do you notice anything?"

Dawn looks around. "No, I don't see anything."

"Yes," Giles says. "Including the armed guards."

"You're right," says Dawn. "They were watching me as I walked out, but there's no sign of them now."

Giles starts to jog. "We need to get back to my Grandmother. Now!"

Behind them, unnoticed in the bushes, branches pull down a bloodied human arm. There is a repetitive sucking and crunching sound. From the bushes, a shiny ID tag tumbles out onto the footpath, landing face up. The name on the tag is Nathan Collins.

"I think you're right, Xander," Buffy says, looking at the little female chimp, who stands watching them fearlessly. "I think she is a slayer."

"A slayer?" Jono says. "But that's insane. She's an animal."

"So are we when it comes down to it," Buffy says. "And I remember from Biology Class that chimps have almost 99 percent the same DNA we do, or something like that."

"Uhm, Buffy?" Xander says. "Now that we know, what do we do about it?"

"Well, we can't very well take her to one of the academies," Buffy says.

"Yeah," Xander says. "I'm afraid that she'll ignore the whole 'no flinging poo at the other slayers' rule. So what do we do now?"

The female chimp is now staring at Buffy's face.

"Uh oh," Xander says. "Chimp slayer has noticed your eyes, Buffy. And no offense, but they look kinda demony."

The female chimp starts walking slowly towards Buffy. Genevive starts to move to intercept her.

"Jono, tell Genevive to stay back," Buffy says. "This chimp may be as strong as I am."

"Oh good," whispers Xander. "Ape strength enhanced by slayer strength. Scary combination."

The female chimp stops in front of Buffy, then gives a brief scream, followed by a whimper. She holds her right hand out towards Buffy.

"Uh oh," says Xander. "Now chimp slayer is starting to act a little crazy."

"No," Buffy says. "I don't think so."

"She's remembering," Genevive says. "Like I did when I first became a slayer, and again when I saw you."

Buffy is in the Hellmouth wielding the scythe. She stakes one Turok-Han with the point, then beheads another behind her with the blade.

"I think you're right," Buffy says to Genevive.

"Uhm, Buffy?" Xander says. "Genevive just talked to you in French, and you responded in French."

"Huh," Buffy says. "How about that? And to think I almost flunked French in high school."

"You got a B," Xander says reproachfully. "Hardly almost flunking. I, on the other hand, got a C in English. A C minus, I might add."

Buffy doesn't respond to Xander. Instead, she reaches out to the female chimp. They touch hands, and look into each other's eyes.

Buffy gasps.

The scene is by a temperate forest. The Primitive is screaming and crying, and in her arms is a man, a man with a heavy brow ridge and projecting face. She and the man are similar, obviously of the same species. The man has a spear in his chest.

Two tears run down Buffy's face. She stands up.

"It's over," she says, her voice hoarse. "We're done. Time to go."

"Over?" Xander says. "It can't be over. Something caused the disappearance of the road crew and the soldiers. Maybe chimp vampires or something. We need to…"

"It wasn't chimp vampires," Buffy says. "It was her."

"Well then, we can't leave her…" Xander says.

"We can and we will," Buffy says.

"We are the monsters," Genevive whispers in French.

"She's right," Jono says in English, looking at Xander. "To her, we are the monsters. In her eyes we are not any different from what vampires are to us. We hunt them and kill them and eat them. We steal their children. We are literally wiping them out."

"But we have souls," Xander says. "And some of us try to help…"

"I don't think we have the time and the ability to make those distinctions to her," Buffy says.

"So we let her kill people?" Xander says, his voice raised.

"No, but we can't kill her just for being a slayer either," Buffy says. "In her own way, she's doing her job: Protecting her people from the things that threaten them.

"But, what we can do is warn people to stay away. Maybe my funky looking eyes can come in useful. They may help my credibility when I tell them that the forest here has a powerful, supernatural, guardian.

"And if that doesn't work, I'll pick up one of their trucks and threaten to drop it on their heads."

"I agree that leaving is the best course," says Jono.

"Then we need to leave now," Buffy says. "While she is still feeling a measure of slayer solidarity."

The four humans back away as the chimps watch. Some of the males start to display towards them, but stop when the young female turns and glares at them. Then she turns and watches as the four continue to back away, until Buffy turns around and starts to walk, and the other three do the same. The four humans get back into the jeep, and Jono starts it and pulls away. As the sound of the jeep's engine recedes, the chimps start to silently melt back into the rainforest. However, the young female continues to watch the jeep's departure until she is alone among the remains of the logging camp. Then she turns and walks silently into the forest. All is now quiet. Then, slowly, the sounds of the forest come back.

"Dawn!" whispers Giles. "Look! By the front door!"

"I see it," Dawn whispers back. "Stay here, I'll check it out."

"I am quite capable of…" Giles starts to say, but Dawn is already gone. Giles rolls his eyes. "Bloody Hell! Slayers."

Dawn is crouching over the body of a guard.

"Is he…?" Giles whispers.

"Yeah. His neck's been broken. Body's still warm."

"Dawn," Giles says. "Go ahead and get to my grandmother. Don't wait for me, but be very careful. I'd be very cross if something happened to you."

Dawn smiles, and opens the front door and moves in silently. Giles picks up the dead man's gun, quickly and expertly checking the clip. Then, he stands back up and moves soundlessly through the opened doorway. There are two more dead bodyguards lying in the foyer. Dawn is nowhere to be seen.

Then, from upstairs, there is the sound of a gunshot.

"Giles!" Dawn yells. "I need your help. Now!"

There is the sound of another gunshot as Giles takes the stairs two at a time.

"GILES!!" screams Dawn. "HURRY!!"

Giles enters into his grandmother's bedroom. Dawn is struggling with Collins, and in spite of her own slayer strength, he seems to be holding his own, trying to push the gun in his right hand down towards Dawn's face. Giles moves to help her.

"Not me, Giles!" yells Dawn. "I'll deal with this. You need to check on your grandmother."

Giles' grandmother is lying on her bed. Her left shoulder and upper chest are covered with bright red blood.

"Grandmother!" exclaims Giles as he runs to her side.

"I'll be all right!" Edna Giles says. "Or, at my age, I'll die from shock. Either way, I'm not important. Your slayer is. Go help her. Now!!!"

Giles turns in time to see Dawn bring Collin's gun hand down onto her raised left knee. The gun falls to the floor and skitters away. Collins hits Dawn with his left fist, knocking her to her knees. But Dawn comes up suddenly and quickly with the flat of her hand under his chin. He flies into the air and smashes into the mirror above a massive dresser. As Collins falls into a sitting position, Dawn ducks out of the way.

"Giles!" she yells. "Shoot him, and keep shooting him until you run out of bullets."

Giles complies. Sparks fly out of Collins' body. Collins then falls forward and flops onto the floor with a metallic sound. He rolls to a stop, his eyes open. Sparks continue to sputter out of his chest.

"Good lord!" Giles exclaims. "Is he a robot?"

"Looks like it," Dawn says.

Giles turns to his grandmother. She is breathing shallowly.

"Grandmother!" he yells, rushing back to her side to stem the bleeding.

"Stop fussing over me and listen," Edna says, her voice soft. "That…that cyborg. Damn him!! I didn't believe him capable of actually doing this!"

"Shhhh," Giles says. "Save your strength."

"I've been saving my strength for 102 years," Edna says. "This is too important. Quentin Travers, he had the old Council duplicated…"

"Duplicated? With robots?" Dawn says. "But how?"

"Duplicated? With robots? But how?"

Dawn's image on a view screen is fuzzy and partially covered in static. There is also the slight buzz of white noise. Warren Mears, or at least it appears to be Warren Mears, sits and watches Dawn, Giles, and Edna's flickering images on the screen, obviously a Collins eye view of the scene. As our view pans back, we see that there is an open panel on "Warren's" arm, and a wire connecting the arm to the computer.

"Warren" turns to a figure standing behind him. The figure at least looks like Quentin Travers.

"How is our Collins duplicate doing?" asks Quentin in his trademark gruff voice.

"He's toast," says "Warren". "The brat and the old man took him out, but not before he got the really old woman. She's done for."

"Excellent," says Quentin. "I imagine she told them just enough to keep them busy, but we can't have Giles, much less the Adept, knowing too much, now can we?"

Quentin turns around and starts to walk away, adjusting the collar of his suit coat as he does so. "Keep me posted. I have a meeting to attend."

As Quentin walks away, our view pans back to reveal a huge, underground room with hundreds of computer consoles, each with a literally plugged in attendant.

FADE TO BLACK