7.12

Episode 7.12

"Anonymity"

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

March 10th, 2002

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Buffy joined the police force and was assigned Detective Grant as her training officer. Shot of her stumbling across Grant kneeling next to a dead woman�s body. Voiceover of Buffy accusing Grant of hiding something from her, as we see a shot of Buffy finding a notebook under one of his couch cushions, which she hides in her jacket and leaves with. Buffy met a pawn shop owner named Fence who seems to know more than the every day guy should. Cloaked men broke into the Magic Box to steal back a box containing an item that Buffy had retrieved from the docks, and slew Anya when she interrupted them. Willow used a spell to save the unborn baby by transferring it to her own womb.

* * *

We open with Buffy running around upstairs, tucking her uniform top in, looking for her shoes. She calls out to Dawn, asking if she�s seen them, but gets no answer. Going into Dawn�s room, she finds the teenager on the bed talking on the phone. Dawn hasn�t seen her shoes, and Buffy tells her it�s too late to be on the phone; she has to go to bed. Dawn rolls her eyes and Buffy sighs, walking out to resume the search. Cut to Buffy walking into the Magic Box to check in before work. Willow is at the table doing homework, and Buffy asks how the magic business is going. Willow looks up, stressed, and says she has no idea how Anya managed all of this, and she feels woefully inadequate as a replacement. Buffy says she�s doing fine, but Willow confesses that she feels like she stole Anya�s life. She�s got her unborn child, and her shop, now, because no one else can really do it, and she still doesn�t know how she feels about it all. Buffy�s silent, and then asks how Xander�s doing, referencing how uncomfortable he�s been acting around her since Anya died. She notes that Willow�s the only one he doesn�t seem to have closed himself off from, and Willow absently puts a hand on her belly as she replies that it�s because the child she�s carrying is his last connection to Anya. She goes on to say that he seems to have moved out of the suicidal �die world, die� stage, but he�s got a long way to go.

Willow asks how Buffy�s work is going, and Buffy replies that being a cop and the slayer isn�t exactly getting any easier. It�s getting harder and harder to hide the truth from Grant, who she still feels is hiding something from her. Cut to Buffy and Grant in the patrol car, and indeed the silence between them is pretty thick. Luckily, they get a call about a disturbance over on Maple street, and Grant puts on the siren as they head over.

Cut to Buffy walking along an alley, scouting the area. The patrol car is parked off in the distance, and we surmise that she and Grant have split up to search for the cause of the disturbance. Out of nowhere, a vamp jumps her and she slays it before even realizing what she�s doing. She tosses off a one-liner about how nice it would be if the vamps would give her a break on nights she has to work, and then hears a sound like glass breaking. Thinking it�s more vamps, she follows the sound quickly around to the front of a building. With a start, she realizes it�s Fence�s Pawn shop. Hesitating briefly, she goes in, on the alert. Inside, she tensely searches for an intruder, but is surprised by Fence instead, and he doesn�t know what sound she�s talking about having heard. Buffy frowns, sure she heard the breaking glass, but she can�t see any. Turning to leave, she jumps when she catches sight of someone standing in the corner. Upon closer inspection, however, she realizes it�s her own reflection, in an old, ornate mirror. She asks Fence if this is new; she doesn�t remember seeing it there before. Fence kind of smiles to himself and says on the contrary, it�s very old. Buffy gazes into the mirror, seemingly enthralled, and asks what it is. Fence responds that it�s just a mirror. But legend has it that it was enchanted once with a spell that would give whoever looked into it their heart�s desire. Buffy steps closer, unable to look away, as the mirror starts to look like it�s shimmering. The shimmer spreads out, and then reaches out from the mirror, wrapping around Buffy and pulling her inside.

Opening Credits.

Buffy lies in her bed, tossing and turning. There�s a stream of images intercut, and we realize she�s dreaming. We see a pool of blood, vampires walking in a cemetery, a cross, some fangs. Then Buffy jerks awake as her alarm goes off. The angle cuts to include her bed in the bedroom, which is filled with boxes. From downstairs a voice calls out for Buffy to hurry; she doesn�t want to be late for her first day of school, does she? Buffy�s look of confusion fades into a scowl. �No�we wouldn�t want that,� she says.

Cut to Buffy in the car, being dropped off at Sunnydale High by Joyce. Joyce says she�s sure Buffy will make friends right away. Buffy goes inside and meets with the principal, Mr. Flutie. He tells her that she should consider Sunnydale High a fresh start, and Buffy looks heartened by this. Leaving the office, a student runs into her in passing and Buffy drops her bag, spilling items all over the floor. A boy with shaggy hair and a chain hanging from his pocket turns back to help her pick her stuff up. When Buffy looks up at him she looks almost like she recognizes him for a moment, but when he smiles absently and takes off, she shrugs it off as imagination.

In class, the teacher lectures, and Buffy is lost for a moment when she doesn�t have the book the teacher is referencing. A girl suddenly leans over, sharing her book, and Buffy is startled a moment before thanking her, and reading along.

After class, the girl introduces herself as Cordelia, and gives her a coolness test. Buffy passes with flying colors, but she has a bemused expression on her face by the end of it. They stop suddenly, as Cordelia snaps at a girl with long red hair at a water fountain, calling her Willow. The girl straightens, and when Buffy sees her the bemused expression on her face deepens. Cordelia gets a drink, and Buffy thoughtfully looks after the girl as she leaves. Continuing on to their next class, Cordelia makes plans to meet Buffy at the Bronze that night, then drops Buffy off at the library, where she can get her own text books.

Buffy thanks her, and goes in. She calls out, but it appears to be deserted. Suddenly there�s a tap on her shoulder, and she whirls around to come face to face with the librarian. She gasps, but recovers quickly and asks for some textbooks. The librarian moves to get them for her, but doesn�t say much. In fact, he pretty much goes about his task, ignoring her. Buffy squints, looking at him closely, but stops, looking embarrassed, when he glances up at her scrutiny. Taking her books, she thanks him and leaves. Outside, she holds her new books and looks really confused. �Okay, what the hell is going on?�

Out in the quad, Buffy is walking to gym class when she sees the girl, Willow, from earlier. Once again getting a sense of d�j� vu, she angles over toward her. Willow looks up, startled, when Buffy asks if they�ve met before. She stutters out that they haven�t, but Buffy looks unconvinced. She sits down and tells her she just gets this feeling that she knows her, somehow. Willow just looks quizzical. A moment later the boy who helped her pick up her belongings earlier comes up with another guy. Buffy recognizes him and thanks him, and then does a double-take. Her staring is so obvious that Willow asks if she thinks she knows Xander too. �Xander?� Buffy repeats. Jesse thinks that�s pretty cool and wants to know if she thinks she knows him, too, but Buffy shakes her head no. Just then Cordelia comes up and informs them that gym has been cancelled, due to the �extreme dead guy in the locker�. Buffy looks thoughtful, and then excuses herself.

Cut to outside the gym, where Buffy tries to enter to view the body, but finds that the door is locked. She jiggles the handle, but it won�t budge and she steps back. �What am I doing, anyway?� she mutters. Not giving up, she circles the gym until she finds another door that�s not locked, and goes in to find the dead body. Pulling back the sheet, she sees two puncture wounds on his neck. Cut to the library. Buffy comes in and tells Giles about the body, and the marks on his neck. She looks confused with herself for even getting involved, but then goes on to ask if that isn�t how vampires are fabled to kill people? Giles looks startled, but wary. �Why are you telling me this?� he asks cautiously. Buffy stops abruptly, looking confused again. �I�m not sure. It just seemed like�the right thing to do.� She leaves, and Giles goes over to the checkout counter, picking up a paper there. He mutters to himself that he knew it, the vampires are rising up. He walks out, and from up in the stacks Xander treads out, stunned at what he heard. �What?� he asks the empty room.

Cut to the outside of the school, as the camera descends beneath the surface. Down, down, into the ground, until we lower into a room beneath the surface. There are candles everywhere, and there�s a pool of blood in the floor. A vampire kneels before it, chanting �The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake, and the world will bleed. Amen! �

Commercials.

Buffy walks along the sidewalks alone at night. She thinks she hears footsteps behind her, so she ducks into an alley. Walking down it, looking behind her, she runs right into someone. She looks up, and gasps. It�s a tall guy with unkept hair and clothes. He�s dirty, but still obviously handsome. Buffy doesn�t seem to notice any of that, though, as she�s wrapped up in the strongest sense of d�j� vu she�s felt all day. The guy starts to go around her, biting out that she shouldn�t be walking into alleys alone in the dark � especially not in this town, but she blurts out that she knows him, and he stops. He says that she doesn�t, and as he really looks at her for the first time, he goes on to say that he�d remember. Buffy blushes, but then asks him why this town is worse than any other? He kind of laughs to himself, and says �Believe me, you don�t want to know.� Buffy says no, she thinks she * needs * to. Meeting her eyes, he tells her that this is the mouth of hell, and she should leave, now. �Why,� she asks, �what�s going to happen?�

�The Harvest,� he says, and walks away. Buffy stares after him. Cut to the Bronze, where Buffy goes in and passes by Jesse leaning over one of the hanging chairs, as he asks a girl if he�s seen her before. The chair turns around to reveal a blonde in a catholic school girl outfit. She says no, but she�s got family here. Buffy finds Willow sitting at the bar. Willow notes her pensive mood, and asks her what�s up? Buffy confides that she�s been having the weirdest sense of d�j� vu all day. Like she recognizes certain people, and things, but on the other hand she feels like there�s something she�s supposed to be doing here. She gets another feeling, and tells Willow she should stay in the Bronze, and not leave with anyone. Willow kind of gets babbly, and says she wouldn�t leave with anyone. Buffy makes her promise, and then she frowns when she catches sight of Giles over by the door. She excuses herself and gets up to follow him as he leaves.

Cut to the lair we saw earlier. The vampires are continuing to chant, and soon something begins to rise out of the pool of blood. It�s another vampire. The strong-looking vamp before him rises to his feet and greets him. �Master.�

Outside the Bronze, Buffy finds Giles questioning Xander as to where Jesse would have gone. Xander remarks that they�d better go find him before the vampires get to him, and both Buffy and Giles look stunned. Giles asks how he knows about vampires, too, but then brushes off his own question, saying they�ve got to find him, or there�ll be another dead body by morning.

Commercials.

Interior, a crypt in the cemetery. Jesse stumbles in, bleeding from the neck. He falls down, and the blonde girl from the Bronze comes in after him, trailing another guy dressed in a brown suit with the sleeves pulled up. Jesse looks shocked and confused, and off balance. Darla advances upon him, but just then Giles, Xander and Buffy barge into the crypt. Darla spins around and asks Giles who the hell he is. �Funny,� he says, �Don�t you know? Everyone else seems to know what�s going on around here.� The other vamp charges him, but Giles whips out a stake and dusts him.

Darla backs up, a bit shocked, and tries to evade Giles by going through Buffy. Buffy braces herself but Darla easily tosses her aside and runs out. Xander helps her up as Giles sees to Jesse. Buffy stands up, holding her shoulder. She looks taken aback, and says she somehow thought she�d be able to put up more of a fight than that. Ascertaining that Jesse is for the most part okay, Giles remarks that vampires are stronger than the average human, and she�s lucky she�s not dead. Buffy looks a little disturbed at being regulated �average human� status, but says nothing. The next morning in the library, Willow joins Buffy, Xander, Jesse and Giles at the center table. Xander is still bowled over that vampires really exist, and Giles explains how there was darkness on earth for untold millenia, and how demons walked. He tells them that the last of their kind to leave this dimension fed off a human, and mixed its blood with his. This is how the race of vampires started. Jesse asks how he knows all of this, and Giles tells him how there�s a girl, a champion of humans, who�s meant to fight vampires. When one dies, the next one is called. We close up on Buffy�s face as he speaks, and she looks as if she�s on the verge of realizing something, but she�s not quite there. Giles goes on to say that he was meant to train the next chosen one, and that�s why he came to Sunnydale, but the council must have erred, because the next one called was actually in Jamaica.

Buffy snarks that they must err on a lot of things, because apparently they missed all the signs of this Harvest, or whatever. This draws Giles� interest, and when he asks her about it she tells him about meeting the guy in the alley the night before; how he said this town was on the mouth of hell, and the Harvest was coming. Excited, Giles goes into his office and grabs a book. Willow looks awed, and asks how Buffy knew that Willow should stay inside the night before? Xander jumps on the bandwagon, and asks how she knew to come to Giles with the information about the dead body the day before? Buffy admits that she doesn�t know, but admits that she feels as if there�s some kind of connection between them. Like they�re all supposed to be together, right here, right now. Suddenly Giles comes back into the room, still looking down into an open book. �Oh dear,� he says.

Cut to the Master�s Lair. Darla tells him and the other vampire, Luke about the humans that dusted her companion, and took away the Master�s offering. She�s mostly concerned with Giles, but the Master is intrigued by the girl who tried to stop Darla, and wonders if she might be a slayer. Darla condescendingly says she couldn�t have been, she was too weak. �Well,� the Master says, matching her tone, �kill her next time, then. No one must be permitted to interfere tonight.�

Commercials.

Operating pretty much solely on this sixth sense she�s been having, Buffy goes to the crypt that Darla brought Jesse to the night before. She walks around a bit, and then senses a presence behind her. She turns around and finds the guy she met in the alley standing there. He tells her she shouldn�t go down there, because the Harvest is tonight. She says she knows, and then says that if he�s going to be showing up doing this cryptic guy routine, maybe she should at least know his name. He says it�s Angel, and Buffy doesn�t look surprised. Angel looks startled, however, when Buffy steps closer to him, and confesses that he doesn�t know what�s going on here. Buffy says she doesn�t either, but she feels she knows him. Like it�s right there, so close she could touch it. She gets even closer, but Angel backs away suddenly, saying maybe it�s best that she doesn�t. Confused at his own attraction to her, and by her, he retreats. Buffy watches him go, and says �Maybe it is.�

Later that day, Buffy is at home about to eat dinner with Joyce. They�re talking as they take turns getting stuff out of the kitchen. Joyce asks if Buffy thinks she�ll fit in here, and Buffy wryly responds that she feels like she�s been here for years already. She sets the table for three without even thinking about it, and then frowns down at the third plate on the table as she tries to figure out why she just did that. Joyce comes in, sees the third setting, and says she knows the divorce has been hard on Buffy, but they�ve got to move on. She picks the dish up and heads back into the kitchen, and Buffy starts to call after her �No, that�s for Daw�.� she trails off, still bemused. Her mom comes back in with the food, and as she places it on the table Buffy really looks at her. Joyce finally looks up and asks her what�s wrong. Buffy says nothing, but she�s clearly emotional, though even she�s not sure why. She tells Joyce that she just wanted her to know that she loves her, and Joyce says she already knew that. They hug.

Down in the lair, the Master anoints Luke with blood, and instructs his vessel to go the surface and take the lives and souls that will free him from his subterrainian prison.

Back at school, the whole gang meets up to go stop the Harvest. Giles sounds that he doesn�t like the idea of them going along to help him, but Buffy says he can�t do it alone. He realizes that truth, and reminds them that they�re looking for the vamp that�s got the mark of the vessel on his forehead. If they can kill him, the Master will have failed. They head out.

At the Bronze, Darla, Luke, and a whole bunch of other vamps come out of the shadows and attack the doorman. Everyone files inside.

Commercials.

Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow and Jesse arrive at the Bronze to find all of the doors locked. Buffy kind of takes charge and instructs the others to go around back, while she tries to find her own way in. They split up. Inside, Luke feeds off of the doorman / bouncer, and we see cuts to the Master as he tests the limits of his prison. �Almost free!� he shouts, as Luke continues to feed off of Bronze patrons. Darla grabs Cordelia, and drags her up onto the stage. Cut to Buffy breaking in through a window up on the second level. She climbs through carefully, and walks to the catwalk, holding a stake. A vampire in the shadows sees her and growls, stepping forward to apprehend her. Buffy sees him at the last minute and holds her stake up. The vampire can�t stop his forward momentum fast enough, and impales himself on it, dusting.

Down on the stage, Luke looks up at the commotion. Buffy comes to the railing, affecting a false bravado. She tells him to let Cordelia go, and he says she should make him. Buffy, without thinking, vaults over the railing and then lands with an ungainly * thud * on the pool table below. She gets to her feet, kinda woozy, wondering what in the hell she was thinking.

A vampire rushes her from the side, and she squeals, ducking under the pool table. She pops up on the other side, and more out of luck than skill she grabs the pool cue and stakes the vamp. Luke releases Cordelia and comes forward, and Buffy goes to meet him. At the back door, the rest of the gang finally manages to break in. The vamps inside are distracted by Buffy and Luke, and don�t notice as Giles and Xander start herding people out. Back on stage, two more vamps have captured Buffy and brought her up to meet Luke. She struggles futilely, but she can�t break free. Jesse sees the struggle from the back door, and rushes forward to help. He bounds up the stairs and stakes one of the vamps holding her. The other one lets go to deal with Jesse, as Luke advances upon Buffy. She ducks away from him, throwing parts of the drumset on stage in his way, and he trips. At the other end of the stage, the other vampire lackey approaches Jesse and grabs him. Down at the back door, Giles leaves the people-herding to Xander and Willow, and runs for the stairs to the stage.

Jesse screams, and the lackey sinks his teeth into his neck, killing him. Luke finally catches Buffy, and is about to bite her when Giles stakes him from behind, and Luke falls to the floor, dusting. Giles and Buffy look up at the remaining vamp, and he turns tail and runs. The other vamps clear out too, as Willow and Xander rush forward to their fallen friend.

The next morning, Buffy is with Giles in the library, he tells her he�s researched the symptoms she mentioned to him, and he thinks he�s found an artifact that might have something to do with her feelings of d�j� vu. It�s called Marsden�s Mirror. He goes on to tell her that it turns up here and there throughout history, supposedly enchanted to grant the owner their heart�s desire. According to the legends, however, it generally is used more for evil purposes than good. Buffy starts at mention of the mirror, and then wonders how it would have been used in her case, saying this isn�t what she wanted. She remonstrates that she should have known to try and protect Jesse, she didn�t have the same reaction of d�j� vu to him. Giles says she couldn�t have known that he would die, and Buffy replies that she thinks she should have. She feels like she�s been here before, done all this before, and she should have forseen it. He asks what she means, and she looks up at him. �Like you. I know you. I can�t explain it, but I feel this�closeness to you. Like you�re important to me. And it�s right on the tip of my brain, but I just can�t make it come into focus. Something having to do with my W�Watch? You have something to do with my timex?� Giles looks a bit surprised, and says �Watcher?� Buffy looks excited, saying that�s it. How did he know? He tells her that �Watcher� is the title of the one assigned to train the slayer he told her about. Buffy suddenly looks shocked. �What did you say?� Giles repeats himself, and Buffy says �slayer?� Suddenly she pants heavily, doubling over as she remembers everything. Suddenly she knows who she is, and how she got there. She tells Giles so, and says it wasn�t supposed to happen like this.

�Maybe it�s better this way?� he says idly. Buffy asks him what he means, and he says she knows things. She knows who dies, and when�what obstacles they would have to face. They could save people. Buffy blinks, awestruck at the possibilities. �I could save my mom�and Anya.� Then she snaps out of it and says it can�t go that way�she doesn�t have her slayer powers in this world. That�s what the mirror must have picked up on, that she wished she could just be normal. A moment later she realizes that�s why Angel appeared to her as he had�in this timeline he�d never seen her chosen, hadn�t fallen in love with her, and came to Sunnydale only because he was drawn to the Hellmouth, not to try and redeem himself. Buffy realizes that in this timeline, all of the people that Angel would have helped will die. And all of the people she would have been able to help because she was the slayer, might also die. �I can�t stay here,� she says to Giles. �I need to be what I am. I need to be the slayer.� Giles smiles.

There�s a shimmer, and suddenly Buffy finds herself standing back before the mirror, in Fence�s pawn shop again. The mirror before her is now black, and it gives no reflection. She turns quickly to Fence, and he�s still standing at the counter, smiling the same smile Giles had been only a moment before. Buffy looks back at the mirror, slightly confused. �Was it real?� she asks.

Fence says what matters is that it was real to her. Buffy asks what that means, and he replies that she got what she wanted. Anonymity. She was normal. She could have looked at the evil in the world around her and kept her head down, going on with her life. Instead, even without her slayer heritage and powers, she still made the choice to fight. �What do you think that says about you?� he asks her.

�That I�m a glutton for punishment?� she responds wryly. Fence goes on. �No. That it�s not just the slayer part of you that fights for good. You are more than you think you are."

Buffy smiles to herself a little, and turns to leave.

End Credits.

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