7.10

Episode 7.10

"Life"

written by: A. Jean Clayton a.k.a. silver

January 17th, 2002

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Willow and Tara successfully performed a transference spell in the magic shop. One of the cloaked men in the warehouse voicovers that it�s time to start the ritual as Anya wakes up to the magic shop�s security beeper going off. She leaves alone in the night. Angel comes to warn Buffy of a vision Cordelia had regarding a strange symbol. He voiceovers that it can be used for either great good, or great evil, as we see shots of the symbol on the front of the book the cloaked men had been carrying, on the pendant the Captain destroyed, and on the floor of the warehouse. Buffy went to the station to find the pendant, but instead found the empty box in the evidence locker. Buffy, Spike and Angel spied on the warehouse full of cloaked guys, and Buffy recognized some cops inside. Anya interrupts the three cloaked men stealing the box Buffy recovered from the docks, and she is stabbed after Willow comes in trying to help and gets knocked out. Anya, dying, told Willow she needed her help. Willow performed the transference spell on Anya�s unborn baby. Buffy voiceovers that they�re going to need backup as she, Angel, Spike, Dawn and Xander walk into the Magic Box.

* * *

The episode begins with the final scene from �Death�: Outside the Magic Box, Buffy and Angel arrive just as Dawn does. Buffy says Dawn shouldn�t be out this late, but Dawn, a little rebellious, says she can help with whatever it is. Buffy�s arguing gets interrupted when Spike arrives with Xander. Buffy asks where Anya is, and Xander says he found a note when Spike woke him up, saying that the shop beeper had gone off, and she�d gone down to meet the cops. He jokes that they all know how Anya is when it comes to her money, and then notices Angel and asks what deadboy�s doing back in town. Buffy says there�s some big bad evil thing going down, as usual, and Angel came to warn them. Turning toward the shop, Buffy opens the door and everyone files in� �only to stop in shock when they see Willow, sobbing, kneeling over Anya, lying dead and bloody on the floor.

Opening Credits.

There�s dead silence. Everyone is momentarily stunned, unable to cope, and finally Xander moves forward numbly, shock and fear and desperate hope on his face. He kneels beside Anya and touches her shoulder, seeing the blood all over her. �Ambulance,� he half-whispers. �I�ve�.we�ve gotta call an ambulance.� Obviously barely hanging on, he fumbles for the phone and clutches it desperately when Willow tries to take it away from him. She says she already called, but he can�t think beyond the pain and doesn�t hear her. Dawn starts crying, and Buffy � with tears in her own eyes � turns her away and holds her. Willow keeps trying to take the phone away from Xander and comfort him somehow, but he finally breaks and starts screaming at her. Buffy moves forward as he pushes at Willow and holds Anya�s body to him, sobbing, and calling her name over and over. When Buffy reaches for him he fights her, but he quickly wears himself out in his grief and he finally just lets her hold him as he sobs. Buffy is pained, and everyone�s all shocked and horrified and emotional. Suddenly they hear sirens in the distance, getting closer. Spike looks regretful, but says that they�ve gotta leave now, before the authorities show up and detain them with questions. Buffy lashes out at him, not wanting to leave Xander right now when he needs them, but Spike reminds her that the cloaked guys came there for a reason. They got the box, and now they�ve gone off to do the ritual with whatever�s inside. Buffy realizes the truth of it, and there�s a moment where she�s clearly trying to figure out what to do. She ultimately tells Dawn to take Xander back to the Summers place and wait for them. Angel starts to insinuate that Dawn can�t handle a grief-stricken Xander on her own, but Spike points out that they might still need Willow�s help when it comes to the symbol.

Willow, grabbing the book with the symbol on it that she brought with her from her place, says that she should stay and wait for the cops, because they know that someone called in the 911 call. Angel points out that any cops coming might not be good guys. Dawn�s kind of surprised and worried about handling Xander on her own, but Buffy cuts her off, saying she�s always badgering them to help, well this is how she can help. Moving quickly, Buffy helps Dawn move Xander outside, and they split up. Dawn leads a numb Xander away, while Buffy looks over her shoulder worriedly. Willow uses Angel�s cell phone to call Tara and asks her to go to the Summers place, and Buffy looks a little relieved. As they run off, the sirens grow louder and then come to a stop.

In the warehouse, the three cloaked men enter with the box stolen from the Magic Box. They place it on the floor in front of the lead figure, and kneel before him. He pulls his hood back slightly, and we can see it�s the Commissioner. �Excellent,� he says in satisfaction. The chanting of the circle around them gets faster as the time for the ritual draws near.

Commercials.

Interior, front door of the Summers house. Dawn opens the door and gently pulls Xander inside. He comes without protest, and still looks shell shocked. Indeed he just stands there, and Dawn turns around uncertainly after hanging her jacket up. He just looks devastated, and she bites her lip, not knowing what to do to help him. Finally she leads him over to the couch and sits him down, which � again � he does without protest. It�s like he�s not even there.

Buffy, Angel and Willow trail behind Spike as he leads them back toward the warehouse. Willow has just finished telling them about what must have happened at the Magic Box before she got there. Angel apologizes, saying he regrets what happened. He blames himself, saying that if he�d arrived sooner they might�ve been able to prevent Anya�s death. Buffy cuts him off and says it�s her fault. She�d been the one who brought the box to the shop and left it there for them to try and retrieve. If they hadn�t come looking for the box, Anya would never have gotten in the way at all. Willow tells her not to blame herself, and indeed feels guilty herself for not being able to save Anya. They all feel horrible because they can�t even begin to imagine what Xander is going through, and they can�t even be there to help him right now. Buffy says the only thing she can do now is to avenge Anya, and Angel asks her what she�s going to do. She says she�s going to �kill them all�. Willow reminds her that they�re humans, but Buffy�s gone into �I don�t care� mode, and says the people responsible for Anya�s death are the same ones who are using the symbol. She doesn�t care who they are now; they�re evil. She�ll have no problem fighting or killing them.

Dawn jumps up from the couch and answers the door � it�s Tara. Tara looks grieved, and shoots a glance at Xander. �How is he?� she whispers when she sees the state he�s in. Dawn starts to whisper back, but after another glance at Xander she pulls Tara into the kitchen and tells her he hasn�t said a word since they left the Magic Box, and Buffy told her to take care of him, but she doesn�t know what to do to help him. Tara tries to reassure her, and kinda takes charge, and they go back out into the living room... ... ... ...only to find the weapons chest open, and the living room empty. The front door is open; Xander is gone.

Commercials.

Outside the warehouse, Spike, Buffy, Angel and Willow convene by the door, in the shadows. Spike levers the door open, and they peer in at the circle of robed figures. They listen in for a bit as Buffy lays out the plan: full frontal assault. She starts to tell Willow her part, but Willow suddenly seems reluctant to face physical injury. When Buffy asks her what�s going on Willow tries to indicate that they should talk about it later, but when Buffy persists she finally tells her about the transference spell, and how she�s now carrying Xander and Anya�s child. Buffy�s stunned at the news. Willow hastily reassures her that she can assist them with magic, and Spike interrupts and says he thinks he has a better idea anyway. He nods toward the door, and Buffy looks in to see three people from the circle break off and head toward the door to check the perimeter of the warehouse before beginning the ritual.

Cut to inside, where Buffy, Spike and Angel � faces hooded like the others - creep in wearing the cloaks they �appropriated� from the lookouts. They join the group as everyone forms back into the circle. We see shots of their faces, one by one, as they each take note of the box lying on the floor in the middle of the circle. Spike clearly debates just jumping up and grabbing the box and running out with it, but Buffy shakes her head slightly, indicating that they should remain undercover and find out what it is the cloaked ones are trying to invoke with their ritual. Angel watches their interplay silently.

Up toward the ceiling, Willow quietly sneaks in through a window, stepping down onto a catwalk. She�s still got her book, and after looking around tensely for a moment, she follows the catwalk silently until she�s above the circle on the floor below her. She opens her book. Back down on the floor, the three cloaked figures who retrieved the box from the Magic Box take up positions equidistant from each other in the circle, facing inward; chanting. In the center, the leader stands before the box, joining the chant. As they reach the peak, the one standing closest to the door suddenly stops chanting and gurgles as a sword pierces his neck from behind, and come out through his throat. Everyone stops and looks at him as his eyes go wide, and the sword is withdrawn. He falls to the floor, dead, and Xander stands in his place, sword in hand, having just killed the man.

Pandemonium breaks loose. All of the cloaked figures jump to their feet; some of them rush Xander, others go for the box. The leader silently steps out of the fray and fades back as Buffy, Spike and Angel throw off their cloaks and start fighting. Xander takes out two of the men furiously before he�s overcome, but he goes down fighting. Edging toward the door, the leader looks up and sees Willow on the catwalk, preparing to do a binding spell. He grabs one of the figures rushing by him to join the fight and yells for him to get her; stop her. The man veers off toward a ladder attached to the wall, and the leader backs through the door and out of the warehouse, getting away.

Buffy, Angel and Spike continue to fight down on the floor. We pan up to the catwalk as Willow starts to speak her spell, but she�s suddenly tackled by the cloaked man who climbed up the ladder. Willow drops the book and falls backward against the railing. The man uses her momentum to lift her and hurl her over, but she grabs at the railing and screams.

Commercials.

Down on the floor, Buffy looks up at the sound of Willow�s scream and sees her hanging onto the catwalk railing. �Angel!� she shouts. Angel looks up, and she jerks her head up toward the catwalk. He looks up and sees Willow in trouble. Nodding once, he takes off for the ladder against the wall. Buffy spin kicks around, dropping another cloaked figure, working her way toward Xander. In the background, Spike trades blows with another, who doesn�t last very long. He sees one of the men pick up the box and run off with it, and he quickly follows.

Up on the catwalk, the man in the cloak kicks at Willow�s fingers until Angel practically vaults up onto the platform and approaches menacingly. The guy starts to back away. Down on the floor, Buffy knocks another guy out and quickly intercepts another before he knifes her in the back. She kicks the dagger out of his hand and punches him out, too. She works her way to Xander, and elbows another guy in the face just before he would�ve run Xander through with his own sword. He falls to the ground.

Back up on the catwalk, Angel pummels the cloaked guy and tosses him over the railing. He then grabs Willow�s hand and helps her back up. On the floor, Buffy narrowly avoids being flattened by the dropping cloaked guy, and punches out another guy in between her and Xander. All obstacles removed, Buffy is momentarily shocked into immobility when she finds Xander literally beating a guy to death. She grabs hold of him and hauls him off of the bleeding man. He struggles with her, but he�s no match as she drags him outside.

Outside, Xander finally struggles away from Buffy and falls to the ground just as Dawn and Tara come running up. Buffy yells at them for letting him go out like this. She�s obviously still hurting for Xander, and feeling guilty, and also disturbed at the way he just killed people inside the warehouse. Dawn yells back at her as Angel and Willow jump down from some boxes below the window into the warehouse. Everyone starts shouting, and Xander just gets up without a word and starts to head back into the warehouse. Buffy tackles him again, and he fights with her. In an emotional scene he yells at her to let him go; he wants to go kill them all for what they�ve done. Buffy continues to hold him back, saying that he�ll get himself killed if he goes back in there. Xander wails that he doesn�t have anything left to live for, and finally Willow shouts for everyone to just stop it. Xander drops to the ground again, and Willow kneels beside him and tells him about doing the transference spell. Hearing that she�s carrying his and Anya�s child seems to break through his numbness. There�s a shot of Tara�s face too, as she hears about it for the first time. She looks understandably confused and shocked. Just then Spike comes running up with the box. He suggests that they all get the hell out of there before any reinforcements come, and they take off.

Back at the Summers place, Buffy helps Xander to the couch as Spike puts the box down on the table in the dining room and then leaves to go make sure no one followed them back. Angel keeps a lookout while Willow starts looking through some spellbooks on the other end of the table. Tara also starts looking, although she�s obviously still stunned at the news of Willow�s pregnancy.

Angel moves away from the window and tells Buffy someone�s coming. It�s her partner. Buffy has Angel take Xander out of the room, and she lets Grant in. He wants to know what the hell is going on; he heard what happened at the Magic Box. Buffy doesn�t tell him anything, and he gets angry and frustrated, and says she looks suspicious when she won�t tell him the truth. Buffy snaps back that she�s not the only one keeping secrets, and reminds him of the dead cop he found on the path that he never told her he knew. He has nothing to say to that, and finally says it doesn�t have anything to do with her; he can�t tell her anything. Buffy says this doesn�t have anything to do with him either. He wants her to tell him so he can help her with whatever�s going on, but she says she can�t trust him and asks him to leave. He does, after warning her that he�s not the only one who�s going to be looking into this. On that ominous note, Spike returns and reports that they weren�t followed. Willow looks at Buffy and says they should destroy whatever�s in the box. While it was at the magic shop they�d not ever been able to find anything about what the device was, or what it did, but obviously it was intended for evil. Buffy agrees and opens the box... ... ... ...only to find that it�s empty.

Commercials.

Everyone�s dismayed to find the box empty. Angel says they were too late to prevent Cordelia�s vision, and Buffy wants to know what else she saw. Angel says it mostly involved the symbol, but there was also a device worn over the wrist, and a portal of some kind. Buffy confirms that the device was the same one that had been in the box; she and Grant had seen a demon put it on while at the docks, but she wasn�t sure what it did. Willow again says that they couldn�t ever find anything on it in any of their research. Willow thinks that the �portal� part of the vision might mean that the cloaked men are conjuring something. Buffy asks Willow about the symbol, and Willow goes back into the �can be used for either good or evil, but it�s very powerful� spiel. She thinks the cloaked men need it to augment their conjuring; in order to bring whatever they�re trying to bring into this world, they need more power than most mortal men possess. Spike says they�re pretty much buggered, then, because the cloaked men have got the device, and the scoobies have no idea where they�ve gone with it.

Cut to what looks like a basement. The cloaked men who got away from the warehouse battle reconvene. We can see locked storage cages for old evidence and stuff, and we surmise that this is the basement of the police station. Several of the men are freaking out over the disrupted ceremony, and how Buffy and the others took some of them out. The Commissioner reappears out of the shadows and says that nothing has changed. They knew the Slayer would try to stop them, but she cannot win. They have the device; they can do the ritual right there. They reassemble into a circle.

Back at the house, Angel�s worried that the cloaked men / cops will all know who Buffy is now, after she fought them at the warehouse. Spike says they almost have to have known already; that�s why there have been so many attempts on Buffy�s life lately, what with the army of hypnotized vampires and the body switching, etc. He says they probably decided to just keep her close so they could keep an eye on her until one of their plots to kill her worked out.

Everyone looks up as Xander walks silently into the room from the living room where Dawn and Tara had been trying to take care of him. Quietly, he asks if he heard right� � �that all of this has been happening because someone�s trying to kill Buffy? Nobody answers, and he turns to Buffy and Spike and says just as quietly that they�re the ones who brought the box back to the Magic Shop. Buffy looks horribly pained, and starts to try to find a way to apologize to Xander, but he just turns and prepares to leave. Buffy says she doesn�t think Xander should go; it�s not safe, and she�s worried about him in his state. �It�s safer out there than it is in here, with you.� Xander replies, and he walks out.

Commercials.

Buffy and Angel stand in the driveway outside her house later and Angel expresses regret that things went down the way they did. That he was unable to help her stop the cloaked men from conjuring whatever it was they�d brought into this world. Buffy tells him it�s not his fault, but confesses that she feels as if she�s to blame for Anya�s death, and she doesn�t know how Xander will ever forgive her. Or even if she should be forgiven. Angel says she couldn�t have known, but she refuses to absolve herself of guilt. She goes on, worrying that Xander will never really recover from this. Angel says only time will tell, and all they can do now is be there for him. He turns as if to go, but then hesitates and turns back, looking like he�s trying to make up his mind about something. Finally he tells her there�s something he�s been wanting to tell her for awhile, but it never seemed like the right time, and it�s still not, but he knows now that he wants her to know. Buffy tells him that he�s babbling, and he half-smiles and agrees, and then he tells her about the Shanshu Prophecy. Buffy�s floored, and asks why he never told her before. Angel says that he didn�t want her to like, sit around waiting for him to be human some day, because it might not even happen anytime within Buffy�s lifetime. Buffy quietly asks why he�s telling her now, then, and he says that he�s finally learned she was right. People have the right to make their own choices, and he didn�t want anything but the truth between them anymore. They share a meaningful look, and then Angel gets in his car and leaves.

Cut to the interior of a doorway. We hear a key in the lock, and the door opens to reveal Xander; it�s his place. He stands framed in the doorway as the door swings open, looking in at the dark, empty apartment, and makes no attempt to enter.

Cut to the basement of the police station. The circle of cloaked men chants, and the Commissioner holds up one of his wrists, upon which is the device from the box. He shouts something in an unearthly language, and a wind springs up and whips around the room. A shining blue light appears in mid air. Inside the blinding light, a pair of white, demonic-looking eyes looks out. The camera cuts back to the Commissioner�s face, and he smiles wickedly. �Master,� he welcomes it.

End Credits.

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