In the
temple, all is silent. Everyone stands in the almost pitch black
temple just staring at the pile of ash where Avachius used to be. No
one knows what to say. Is there anything to say? Buffy, Faith and the
girls can still feel the power's presence even though they can't see
it anymore.
Buffy asks expectantly, "Willow?"
Willow's
eyes are closed and she's breathing hard. She relaxes some and says,
"It's okay. We're good. It's over."
Everyone can feel the
stability of the Earth. It's safe again. Avachius's ash is suddenly
caught up in what looks like a tornado. It sucks up towards the
ceiling and disappears.
After another moment, Sam, with a
self-satisfied grin says, "So. Chinese?"
In China Wok, the
gang sits around a large table, drinking and eating.
"Here's to
saving the world!" says Chloe as the gang toasts to their victory.
Everyone is essentially jovial but there's uneasiness because of
Trista being missing.
"So, what should we do?" asks Sam after
a moment, "Should we, like, form a search party?"
"Not
yet," begins Buffy, "She might be fine. If she's okay, then
she'll come back to hotel."
"And if she's not?" says Spike
in a harsher tone than intended.
"She's a Slayer. She'll be
okay," says Faith as she chews through her tempura chicken.
"Hey,
did you guys see the part where I stabbed him?"
"Yes,
Andrew," they all say in unison.
"Well, I do have to say we
did do a bloody good job," says Giles.
"Here, here!" says
Sam as he takes a swig of his root beer.
Still in
the back room, Trista's sprawled out on the ground, her eyes glossy
and lifeless. Suddenly, she gasps for air as she springs to life. She
starts coughing, and she looks around frantically trying to remember
where she is.
"Spike," she remembers, "I have to get to
Spike."
She rises and goes towards the door before something
stops her. She turns around to see a previously unnoticed young girl
of about sixteen gagged and bound in the far corner, whimpering. She
cautiously walks over to her, and when she gets about three feet from
her, she gets on her knees and crawls. She brushes hair out of the
crying girl's face like a child that just found a stray puppy.
"Are
you scared?" asks Trista.
The girl nods and Trista nods
understandingly. Trista pulls the gag down around the girl's neck.
The girl gasps, "Thank you."
Up until now, she has seemed
like the same old Trista, warm and heroic. But something dies in her.
Her eyes go cold and she asks the girl nonchalantly, "Sweetie, are
you a screamer?"
Startled, the girl asks, "What?"
Trista
just smiles at her and then morphs into vamp face. She digs her teeth
into the girl's neck. The girl goes rigid and gasps and whimpers in
pain, but this only makes Trista tighten her grasp. There is a
sickening crack as Trista's grip crushes the girl's arm. The girl
screams in pain. Trista lets go of the girl, satisfied. She looks
down at the girl and smiles. She brushes hair out of her face again
and says, "There, there, sweetie. I know how hard it is to be a
teenager and feel like you're all alone. But it'll pass. Or you'll
die. Whichever."
Trista licks her fingers and rises to find the
man of forty that she met last night, we'll call him Damian. Damian
is very intrigued by Trista. He can see, as any could, the amazing,
grotesque beauty that Trista now possesses. She's almost hypnotic.
"You're awake."
"I am," says Trista stiffly.
"You
found your breakfast. That's good. Come with me. I want you to meet
my men."
Trista and Damian move out to the alley behind the
bookstore and into a demon bar via the back door. He takes her by the
hand and leads her up to the second floor. They go down a tight and
dimly lit hallway to the VIP room. Everyone here is dead or undead.
They play pool and poker, feed, shoot up; it's a vampire junkie's
dream. Damian introduces Trista to them. They all generally greet her
and then go about their business.
Damian leads Trista to a sofa
and sits, pulling her close to him. He whispers in her ear
affectionately as he runs his hand up her thigh, "You know, after
what I've done for you, you owe me the farm. Metaphorically speaking,
of course."
Trista thrusts her palm, into his chest, sending
him flying. She stands and without taking her eyes of Damian, punches
through the wall closest to her, and pulls out a wooden stud. She
easily breaks it in half, making a piece have a jagged edge, and
says, "Well, you know, there's that saying," she continues as she
walks towards him with her makeshift stake and bats the vamps that
try to attack her away like flies, "The one says that eventually,
the student must kill the teacher," she flings the makeshift stake
at him and it hits home. He dusts and Trista says to the ash, "I
wonder if that was supposed to be metaphorical too," she turns to
everyone in the room and says, "You all work for me now.
Objections? Complaints?"
Everyone stands absolutely still, not
wanting to upset the new boss. Trista smiles sweetly and says,
"Good."
Trista looks around and sees a girl vamp sitting in
the corner, playing poker. She's pretty in a slutty Queen of the
Damned kind of way.
"You," Trista says, "Come with me."
Down the hall and two doors from the party room is a bedroom.
It's clearly nicer than any other room here but it's still ratty. The
wallpaper is pealing, it's dusty and there are holes in the sheets.
Trista stands going through an armoire full of women's clothes. She
addresses the girl vamp, Clarissa, behind her, "You do know that
this place is not even suitable for rats."
Clarissa, being
slightly intimidated, nods only slightly and says, "Yeah. Damian
liked to keep a low profile."
"Well that's crap. We're gonna
have to find some better digs," she throws a shirt and says, "Ah!
Who do I have to freaking kill to get some decent clothes!"
"Sorry." Trista shrugs, "No worries." She pulls out a
white wife beater and a black plaid skirt. She smiles and says, "This
works." She changes into it and grabs a leather coat. She goes to
leave, calling behind her, "I'll be back."
Willow's
ready to do the locator spell. She looks up at Buffy, who nods at
her. Willow nods back and begins. The map of New York begins to
swell. Willow looks at it and says, "That's not supposed to
happen." The map then bursts into flames; the flames are swept up
and compressed into energy. The energy attacks Willow. It goes into
her ears, her eye sockets, her mouth, her nose. She screams as she is
thrown backwards.
"Willow!" yells Buffy as she and Giles rush
to her.
"It's, it's, oh goddess, a counter spell."
"What
does that mean?" asks Sam.
"It means someone doesn't want her
to be found," says Giles gravely.
"What do we do!" says
Chloe. She's really worried and is starting to fidgit. She pulls out
a cigarette but can barley hold it steady enough to light it. Spike
grabs her lighter and lights it for her.
"Thanks."
Faith
motions Chloe to throw her cigarettes to her and says, "Hey."
Chloe tosses them to her and she lights one. She tosses them to Spike
but he's already lit on of his own. He tosses them back to Chloe.
Buffy crinkles her nose, but then, very seriously, "We look. We
find her."
Sam rises, "I second that."
After taking a
long drag Chloe says as she exhales, "Yeah. Yeah. Let's go."
Buffy turns to Giles, "Giles?"
"Well, I suppose what
would be best is to check the magic shops, book stores—"
"Bars,"
adds Chloe.
"Why would she be in a bar?" asks Spike
incredulously.
Chloe shrugs. It was just a thought.
"Better
not rule it out, though. Okay, get into teams. Will, you're with me
and Giles. Faith go with Chloe and Andrew and Sam, make sure you get
these girls on a bus back home."
"What? But I want to help,"
says Hannah.
"Girls, you are on a schedule. You have to be home
in order to pack for your flight to London," says Giles.
The
girls nod compliantly. Buffy continues, "We'll meet up at that
Chinese restaurant." Everyone nods and begins to move out. Spike,
not having anything assigned says, "Buffy…"
She turns,
realizing her mistake and says, without making eye contact, "Just
stay here. Incase she comes back."
Willow and Buffy
check a back alley of a magic shop while Giles talks to the shop
keeper. Willow says as Buffy checks a small puddle of blood on the
ground, "I talked to Xander."
"Not human," she mumbles to
herself before she looks up at Willow, "Yeah? How's he doing?"
"Good. He, uh, decided to take the trip. To London. In the
spring."
"Wow. The whole gang'll be together again."
Willow smiles, slightly nostalgic, and says, "Yeah."
Giles
walks out, buttoning up his coat and says, "Nothing."
Spike has been smoking like a chimney, there are butts of
cigarettes all over the room. He glances at the phone, but then, in a
fit of misplace anger, picks it up and, with a snarl, throws the
phone against the wall, causing it to shatter.
"That's hotel
property. There'll probably be a bill you'll have to skip out of for
it," says Trista as she walks in, doing an award winning
impersonation of her alive self. She smiles warmly at him.
"Trista!
Where the hell have you been!"
Trista shrugs. She walks deeper
into the room and half grabs the pack of cigarettes but catches
herself before Spike notices.
"The Scoobies are out looking for
you. Why didn't you show?"
"Why do you care?"
Spike is
confused by her tone. "We were worried."
"Not my problem."
"Care to enlighten me on what the hell your problem is?"
"Nothing! I just, I couldn't handle it, alright! I freaked out
so I went shopping, bought myself a new outfit and took a walk,"
she says in a controlled yet annoyed voice.
"You could've
called me."
"Why? Because you're such a caring prince? You
would've been too busy mooning over Buffy to care about me. You
probably stared at her the whole way. Imagining all the nasty things
you could do to her while she's sleeping."
Spike snaps. He
backhands her, hard. She touches her bleeding lip and laughs. He
punches her again, sending her against the wall. He walks up to her
and grabs a handful of her hair and pulls it to the side harshly,
causing her head to tilt to the side. She has an inquisitive look in
her eyes as she makes eye contact with him.
Without warning, he
pulls her towards him and kisses her very deeply. He lets go of her
hair and wraps his hands around her waist, pulling her closer. Her
coat opens as her left leg lifts and wraps around his waist. She
grabs the back of his neck with her left hand and tangles the fingers
of her right hand in his hair on the back of his head. She helps him
remove his coat. It drops to the floor.
On the bed, Spike, now
naked, takes off Trista's skirt. They kiss with a frenzied passion.
Trista flips him over, now on top. She digs three of her nails into
his chest. He groans with pain, which causes Trista to smile. Without
breaking eye contact, she licks the blood off of his chest. She lifts
herself up and begins to ride him.
Faith, Chloe and
Andrew enter a dark magic shop. The gothic shopkeeper seems to
recognize them when they walk in. They approach her. Faith is about
to speak when Andrew bursts out with, "Listen, missy! We want
answers and we want them now!"
Faith pushes him and says to
Chloe, "Keep the chimp occupied, would you?" Chloe takes Andrew
to the back. Faith turns to the shopkeeper and says, "We're looking
for a girl. She's small, blonde, maybe five foot three, kinda hot,
good frame, works out."
"Nope. Haven't seen her."
"Liar,"
says a man leaning against the wall.
Faith turns to him warily
and says, "Got something to say?"
"I'm guessing you're
looking for Trista."
Chloe and Andrew walk quietly towards
them. Chloe says hopefully, "You know where she is?"
"She's
dead."
"Oh my god," says Chloe as her eyes well up with
tears. She turns away and Andrew puts a comforting arm around her.
Faith eyes him stonily and says, "She walkin' around?"
"Bouncy as a cheerleader."
Chloe's confused and says,
"But-- what?
"Where did she go?" asks Faith in a harsh
tone.
The man smiles at her and shrugs. She lunges at him and
slams him up against the wall, cracking the plaster. "Where. Did.
She. Go!"
"To see some guy!"
"Spike," says Faith,
alarmed.
Faith lets go of the man and rushes out. Chloe and
Andrew rush out behind her.
"What's going on?" asks Chloe.
"She'll kill him. She'll kill him and then kill whoever comes
in the room."
"She's gonna kill Spike!" asks Andrew,
starting to freak out.
Spike is standing alone in
the room. His shirt is on but unbuttoned. He buckles his belt and
looks up as Faith and Chloe and Andrew burst into the room.
"Die,
hell bitch!" screams Andrew.
"Spike!" yells Faith but
then sees that he's alone. She relaxes.
"Was, was Trista here?"
asks Chloe, very shaky.
"Yeah," says Spike contemptuously as
he starts to button his shirt.
"And you guys…?"
Spike
sets his jaw and says, "What do you think?"
"Oh, god!"
says Andrew, disgusted but recovers with a nonchalant, "Oh?"
"Spike--" begins Faith.
"She was dead. She was a
vampire. Now that I'm thinking about it, it's not that weird but, you
know," says Andrew.
Spike tenses, grabs his coat and storms out
of the room, nearly taking the door off the hinges. Chloe calls after
him, "It's your fault! You couldn't have known!"
"No,"
begins Faith, "He's a vamp. He knew."
Spike,
walking down the street, growls and screams angrily and starts
kicking the crap out of a public mailbox. He demolishes it and is
about to turn on a random person when Faith grabs him and pulls him
into an alley. Spike falls and breaks down, his anger and violence
gone. He just sits there. Faith kneels down in front of him and says,
"Why'd you do it?"
Spike looks up at her and after a long
moment, he says, "I didn't want her to be dead."
"So you
tried to screw her back to life? I bet you're pretty good in the sack
but damn--"
"No. That's not it. I just thought, I don't know
what I was thinking."
"You wanted to cancel out an impossible
move with another. Maybe it'd all go away."
Spike looks her in
the eye and says sincerely, "Yeah."
"Do you love her?"
"No."
"Are you ready to kill her?"
Trista walks
down the crowded street, grinning wickedly and extremely proud of
herself. She's beautiful, powerful, and about to be out of control.
This makes her smile. The game is about to begin and she can't wait.
"No."
