Giles' apartment, night

Giles's hands are trembling as he drops herbs into the golden goblet again. He has the book with Anyanka's summoning ritual open in front of him, his free hand holding the page open, finger pointing to the appropriate passage.

GILES (his tone angry): "Anyanka, I beseech thee, in the name of all women scorned..."

(He adds more herbs to the fire, his voice becoming desperate)

"Come before me, dammit! Tell me what went wrong!"

Factory, night

His escape prevented, Oz is slammed against a wall by the vampire accosting him. He staggers, half falling. The vampire moves in for the kill…but is then tackled to the floor.

It is Larry, come charging back into the fray when he realised Oz was no longer behind him. Oz snatches up a piece of wood from the floor and holds it out to Larry, who takes it and stakes the vampire. The boys don't even stop to see it dust, sprinting for the exit once more.

A couple of battered looking humans unfold from their hiding place behind a stack of crates and follow them.

Alley outside the factory, night

Larry and Oz exit the building at speed, and then lean against the wall, breathing hard and scanning the alleyway around them. This has been a difficult night. And it isn't over yet.

LARRY: "C'mon. We can't stay here."

Oz nods, and they straighten up, preparing to make tracks at speed.

VOICE (OS): "Hey, wait up."

Alarmed, the boys turn to see another boy coming out of the same exit they just used. This is ANDREW. He's a year or so younger than them, and is dirty, bruised and scared.

Larry and Oz frown slightly, not recognising him, and wary of potential traps.

ANDREW (panicked): "Don't leave me here. Us here. They're going to kill us!"

Behind him we now see another boy, shorter than Andrew but equally battered and scared looking. JONATHAN. Larry groans.

LARRY (belligerent): "Man, of all the things I did not need tonight…"

JONATHAN (anxious): "I-I-I…w-we were gonna die in there…"

ANDREW: "I saw you find this door, so I kinda thought…and then they…and I didn't think we'd –"

OZ (phlegmatic): "Least they're alive."

His attention shifts. Behind the two boys comes a girl, taller than them both, but just as scared. It is…

OZ: "Harmony."

Larry's look of disgust intensifies.

LARRY: "Oh, you gotta be kidding me."

HARMONY (indignant and borderline hysterical): "Don't be like that! I just almost got killed and stuff. You have to help me!"

OZ: "No, we all have to get out of here, right now before they follow us."

LARRY: "We're going."

Glancing around to make sure the coast is clear and that no one else – like, oh, say a vampire or five – has followed them out, he strides away down the alley. Oz pauses to look at the other three for a second, and then follows.

Andrew, Jonathan and Harmony exchange frightened glances, and then scamper after them.

Random street in Sunnydale, night

Although Larry went ahead, it is Oz who has taken the lead. They are both very much on the alert, scanning the street around them, peering into the shadows, glancing over their shoulders, absolutely aware that the danger might not be over. Jonathan is trying to imitate their watchfulness, while Harmony scurries alongside Larry, clutching at his sleeve. He tries to shake her off, increasing his speed.

Close on Andrew, eyes wide, staring all around as he trots to keep up with the pace Oz and Larry are setting. If this is a nightmare he's trapped in, he's…strangely exhilarated by it.

ANDREW: "I never usually come out in the night. It's dark, and there are always vampires and stuff. Is it safe for us to be out here like this?"

OZ: "It's Sunnydale. It's night."

(Shakes his head)

"It's not safe."

HARMONY: "It's safer out here than it was in that filthy vampire-infested factory."

She's still sticking as close to Larry as he'll let her. He's big and strong, her best bet for protection in the event of another attack.

JONATHAN (glancing around warily): "You don't think any of them followed us, do you?"

LARRY (tired and angry): "Why are any of you following us? Go home!"

HARMONY: "Yeah, as if! I figure we're much safer sticking together as a group. That way, when the vampires attack, I'll have time to escape while you guys fight them off."

Larry grits his teeth in exasperation.

OZ: "Nice to know you're thinking of us."

JONATHAN (all big scared eyes and solemn expression): "T-that was him, wasn't it? The master vampire no one ever sees, the one they all work for?"

Oz nods. His expression is grim.

LARRY (sarcastic): "Yeah. You got to see the Master. Make you feel all special?"

JONATHAN (absolutely serious): "N-no, not really. Mostly, it just made me feel scared."

ANDREW (awed): "Wow. We faced the Master, and we survived. That's so cool!"

Larry lets out a sigh of frustration. He's really, really pissed off about everything that's happened tonight, but mostly about having these three dorks tagging along.

LARRY (to Oz): "Where exactly are we going, anyway?"

OZ: "Giles needs to know what went down here tonight."

Giles' apartment, night

Giles sits in silence, staring at the mess scattered all around him – books strewn across every surface, spell-casting paraphernalia spread over the table and fallen onto the floor. Despair is written all across his face. That better world he so wanted to believe in has not materialised, and all hope for a better future is gone.

GILES (muttering to himself): "'Destroying the power center should reverse all wishes', my arse."

(Shouts angrily at one book in particular)

"Nothing was reversed, nothing at all! How is this a better world?"

The doorbell rings. Giles starts, glances toward the door, but makes no move to answer it, slouching back into his chair.

The doorbell rings again. And again. Giles continues to ignore it.

The bell rings again, and this time keeps on ringing. Giles stares at the door for a moment, then sighs, and stands up.

Outside Giles' apartment, night

Larry is standing – or leaning, rather – with his forehead resting against the door, thumb pressed on the doorbell to produce a continuous ring. Oz is at his side, fidgeting nervously. At last Giles opens the door, causing Larry to stumble slightly as his headrest disappears from under him.

GILES (weary): "All right, I'm here. What's wrong?"

LARRY: "Trouble of the major league variety."

Giles sighs, and opens the door a little wider to allow the boys in.

He then double takes as three more teenagers unexpectedly appear from out of shot, and frowns in bemusement as they also enter, without so much as a by-your-leave – Andrew excited, Jonathan subdued, and Harmony…well, Harmony being Harmony.

Inside Giles' apartment, night

Everyone troops in. Larry and Oz are quite familiar with the place. They've been here before, probably many times, but are surprised to find it in such a mess. Andrew and Jonathan gaze around, wide-eyed and a little intimidated. Harmony looks bored, and starts nosing about.

Closing the front door, Giles follows them into the lounge, eyeing the three interlopers with deep suspicion.

GILES: "Uh, excuse me? I'm sorry, what exactly is the meaning of this invasion? At this hour?"

ANDREW (eagerly, thrusting out a hand, which Giles rather bemusedly shakes): "I'm Andrew. Wells. And this is…"

(Looks at Jonathan, frowns)

"Who are you again?"

JONATHAN (trying hard to shrink into the background): "Jonathan."

ANDREW: "We're kind of, like, like refugees, seeking sanctuary from the, uh –"

GILES (ignoring him and cutting in before he can go on): "Harmony's acquaintance, of course, I've already had the displeasure of making."

Harmony grins, absolutely not getting the insult, and carries on nosing around, examining the contents of Giles' lounge.

GILES (cont.): "But a round of introductions isn't quite what I was looking for."

(To Oz and Larry)

"I thought I told you boys to go home and get some rest."

OZ: "Tried. Didn't get very far."

LARRY: "Vamps pulled a great big cattle round-up on us. Ended up caged like animals, just waiting for the slaughter."

Giles takes a statuette off Harmony and replaces it on the mantel. Harmony pouts.

GILES: "Good Lord. How many?"

OZ: "Maybe three dozen."

ANDREW: "But we escaped! There was, like, this huge epic battle, a bit like the start of Jedi when Luke rescues Han, and, everyone, from Jabba the Hutt. Except for the –"

GILES (cutting across his babble again): "Three dozen? A battle? And…and how many escaped?"

Larry and Oz exchange a grim look, and glance toward Andrew, Jonathan and Harmony – the only survivors they know of. Giles understands, doesn't press the point. He takes his glasses off and pinches the bridge of his nose, weary.

GILES: "T-the Slayer. Buffy. She was here, she went after the Master…"

LARRY: "Blonde chick with a scar?"

(He gestures to his lip to indicate the location of the scar.)

Giles is nervous now, beginning to realise what's coming. He nods, a look of dread creeping across his face.

GILES: "Y-yes…It appears my many calls had some impact at last, and s-she arrived here spoiling for a fight…W-what happened? Is she…?"

OZ (very blunt): "Dead."

Giles slumps onto an armchair, shattered.

OZ (more gently): Took out a couple vamps en route, though."

LARRY (with satisfaction): "Xander? Willow? Dust. Along with a goodly number of the Master's other chief lieutenants, I might add, and thanks in no small way to Oz and me. We killed as many as this Slayer of yours, and got out alive."

GILES (murmuring, almost on autopilot): "Yes. I-I suppose that's something to be grateful for, yes, but the Slayer…"

He can't go on. Long before the necklace of Anyanka gave him an alternative to aim for, all his hopes had been pinned on the Slayer. He really believed that if the Slayer came, things would change. She would save them all. But now it seems his eventual success in bringing her here was for nothing. She has gone charging in unprepared and planless, and failed.

OZ (apologetic): "There's more."

GILES (bitter): "Yes. Yes, of course there is. There's always more."

OZ (worried): "Giles?"

HARMONY (bored of waiting): "Tell him about the machine."

That actually sparks some interest in Giles.

GILES: "Machine?"

OZ: "Ever wondered what to get the vampire who has everything?"

GILES (impatient): "Not really, no."

ANDREW (butting in, eager to contribute): "It was a blood-sucking machine. They put this girl in it, and sucked the blood right out of her! And then it poured the blood back out like a cocktail, only without the little umbrella. Or the spirits, or –"

Harmony gives a choked sob.

HARMONY: "Holly. It was Holly…"

All four guys become uncomfortable and start to fidget awkwardly, unsure what to do with a sobbing Harmony. Andrew and Jonathan have little experience of females, period, and the others have been too focused on war and survival for too long for such niceties. This isn't the time or the place. Plus, it's Harmony.

When male shoulders to cry on prove in short supply, she glares at them, annoyed, not a tear in sight.

HARMONY: "Well, she was my friend, and now she's dead, and I nearly was, too."

GILES (patting her shoulder): "There, there."

(Turns back to Larry and Oz)

"Tell me more about this machine."

Still in Giles' apartment, later that night

The camera pans around the room, picking out each of the occupants.

Harmony has fallen asleep on the couch and is snoring contentedly, apparently untroubled by her fright and upset of earlier.

Giles, Larry and Oz are lounging around the table, tired and despondent, talking in quiet voices. Worried. Depressed. This has been such a bad night, in a long line of bad nights, stretching back for almost two years now. Far too long.

Close on Andrew and Jonathan, sitting together in a corner keeping out of the way. Jonathan keeps looking over to the table where the core three are talking, trying to listen in on a bit of their conversation, still subdued, and very thoughtful. Andrew, meanwhile, is more interested in gazing around at the contents of Giles' apartment, intrigued. Giles has a lot of cool stuff for a librarian. He looks across to the window. It is still very dark outside.

ANDREW: "So. D'you think they'll let us stay?"

JONATHAN (distracted, not looking at him): "What?"

ANDREW: "For the rest of the night? Y'know – until it gets light, and…y'know, safe again. The librarian seems kinda tense."

JONATHAN (still more interested in the other conversation): "I think he'd have made us leave by now if he was going to."

He keeps looking over to the table, trying to hear the conversation, wanting to know what's going on. He's always buried his head in the sand up till now, ostrich-style…

Camera follows Jonathan's gaze back across to the table where Team White Hat is de-briefing, and focuses on them.

LARRY: "So this patron saint of the vengeful thing was a total bust, then?"

GILES (bitter once more): "So it would appear. Th-th-this volume,"

(He taps a book)

"Suggested that destroying Anyanka's power center would reverse all wishes. The only effect, however, was to banish the demon herself, and –"

LARRY (getting wound up): "And now you don't even have the power center any more, so you can't try anything else with it."

GILES: "No."

His tone is harsh, bitter. He'd so badly wanted to believe that the nightmare that is their world could have been changed, somehow, anyhow, into something better. That the horror could have been ended.

OZ (trying to be positive): "But we're no worse off, right?"

GILES (flat, defeated): "The Slayer is dead."

OZ: "But there'll be another one. That's how you said it works. One dies, the next one gets called."

LARRY (angry with the world): "That won't help us, will it? They can call as many Slayers as they like – they never send them here where we need them!"

GILES: "Larry is right."

(He sighs, very heavily)

"In fact, you're both right. There is no reason to suppose that the next Slayer will be posted here any more than this last girl was. We've coped without a Slayer before, so we shall just have to continue to do so."

Oz nods, looking determined.

But Giles sighs again, still so horribly depressed.

GILES: "And yet…I can't help feeling that it might perhaps be better if we simply cut our losses before it's too late for all of us."

LARRY: "You mean run away? Leave town?"

Oz is shaking his head firmly.

OZ: "Can't. Family's here, what's left of it. And, you know, other folk."

LARRY: "Yeah. We do good work. Who else is gonna keep the vamps down and protect all those suckers out there?"

GILES: "You could die doing that good work. We all could. So many already have…we were barely managing to hold back the tide as it was, and now…"

(Bitter again)

"What good does it do, in the end?"

LARRY (very simply): "Might save a few first. You taught us that."

Depressed as he is, Giles can't help but smile. Proud. Reminded that for all the loss and devastation around him, he has achieved something. He's trained these boys to survive: to protect themselves, each other, and anyone else they can, even if only for one more day of life. Maybe it's enough. Maybe each 'one more day' is enough to live and fight for.

LARRY: "Seriously, where else could we go, what would we do, after this?"

OZ: "This is our world. Might as well accept that and get on with it."

GILES (resigned, accepting his fate, their fate): "Yes. Yes, you're right again."

(His tone becomes brisk: back to business, no more wallowing)

"Now, I suppose we should prepare for what's to come."

LARRY: "Oh, now that sounds like something to look forward to."

GILES (assuming lecture-mode): "The Master has suffered a serious set-back, and at great cost. His position has been severely weakened with the loss of his most valued supporters, and he's likely to be extremely angry about that. I've no doubt he'll need some time to re-group. But once the, ah, dust is settled, reprisals are almost certain. We must be prepared for that."

He looks at the two boys very seriously: tired and worried.

GILES: "And yet, our own position is far weaker still, our numbers dwindling more with each passing month."

Oz looks down at the table, and Larry's jaw tightens. They lost a good friend and teammate just yesterday. Nancy. The latest in a long, long line of loss.

Behind them, Jonathan nervously approaches the table.

GILES (cont.): "And recruitment is far easier for the vampires than it is for us. All we have is the three of us –"

JONATHAN (hesitant): "Four of us. I-I mean you. Uh, us."

Giles, Larry and Oz turn to look at him in surprise.

Jonathan looks petrified, but determined. He doesn't want to be pushed away or talked out of this. Ostrich days are over.

JONATHAN (sincere, big eyes): "I've seen too many people die. I can't just ignore it. Not now, not after everything. I-I know I'm not really good for much, but…I-if there's anything I can do to help you, I want to try. I-if, I mean, if you want me…"

His voice tails off. Not many people have ever wanted him, or taken him seriously, in his entire life. But this is something he wants to do, badly enough to face up to the prospect of rejection.

Team White Hat look unsure, especially when Andrew bounces over to stand next to Jonathan, all eagerness and excitement beside the other boy's anxiety.

ANDREW (keen not to be left out): "And me! I want in, too."

HARMONY (off screen): "Are you all completely crazy?"

They all turn to see that Harmony has woken up and is staring at them incredulously.

HARMONY: "I don't know about you jerks, but I came here because I thought it would be safe, not to join an army."

JONATHAN (anxious): "I kinda think joining this army might be the only way to be safe."

GILES: "I wouldn't be so sure about that, if I were you. You might want to think long and hard before signing up for this."

Larry scowls, annoyed that Giles is even considering letting these two join their team, no matter how short-staffed they are.

OZ: "Also, this really isn't an army."

LARRY: "Yeah. An actual army has, like…uniforms. Real weapons. And, you know, whole platoons of soldiers."

He looks wistful. Longing. What they wouldn't give for a whole platoon of soldiers, or even half a platoon, given what they are up against, given the tremendous odds they've already battled against, for so long, in such small numbers. And also, just maybe, fantasising a little about a platoon of men in uniform…

JONATHAN: "What do you call yourselves then?"

OZ (shrugging): "Us."